#but also feels like she'll lose him if he learns like a third of her life/her truth

[zorkaya-moved]

" you are always on about helping me," for someone whose voice usually comes in a subtle, warming tone, it has taken the turn for something more heated today as their debate, nay, argument had come to blossom as a result of long nights and dreadful projects. in the aftermath of the disagreement, kaveh will find himself in a pit of embarrassment and guilt for having stood his ground, but he couldn't accept it. he wouldn't accept it.

" to say that it's pride is only a portion of it, but i have never had to rely on anyone in my life --- i couldn't. there was simply no room for me to rely on anyone, let alone ask for it and --- that's why i can't stand by and simply allow you to help me, when you clearly do not wish me to help you in return. are we not equals ? do we not share a mutual form for respect, do you think less of me because you see yourself in a position to protect me and support me ? because i won't have you in such a position, zarina. "

it's not anger , per say , simply frustration. he is frustrated with how she puts up a mighty act of a stable, strong woman, for while she is ( archons know she is, she is so strong, and kaveh looks up to her in so many ways / had he been one for prayer, her feet would be the ones he'd find himself bowing to in seek of grace ) she remains as human as him at the end of the day. the pain and hurt he felt certainly were no strangers to her. does she not think he feels the way her face tends to drop the second he turns, or notice how her thoughts wander in the corner of his eyes when he find himself occupied by the desk ?

" let me look after you the way you look after me. let me take care of you the way you take care of me --- for it seems too long ago since anyone did the same for you. " crumbling in his stance ( is my love not enough for you ? ), the heated tone has come to falter in favor for a softer and honest one, as hands seek out to her cheeks, pleading to hold her tenderly in his grasp. " you are my life , zarina. how do you expect me to allow you to be my foundation when you refuse to accept it from me in return?"

@avaere

Their argument breaks out and nothing feels real for the first second. They’ve never argued like this before, it’s never come to this. It’s unusual for the architect to look at her like this and speak to her like this. It confuses her, it makes her wonder, and it makes her question exactly what brought this out. And the more words leave Kaveh’s mouth, the more confused and puzzled she becomes. It doesn’t make sense. It simply doesn’t make sense to her. Is he… not happy? Is he upset that she offers her support? Is he upset that she wants to keep him safe? It doesn’t seem logical nor does it seem like something he should be so frustrated over. The questions circle in her head and Zarina tries to search for an answer, but instead she’s met with a wall. She slams into it mentally as Kaveh keeps talking. 

—That's why I can't stand by and simply allow you to help me, when you clearly do not wish me to help you in return. Are we not equals?—

“We are…” Sokolova whispers to his question, still finding herself at a loss for words simply because she cannot fathom the reasoning for his upsetness, frustration, and fiery anger. It makes no sense for him to be hurt in her mind. 

 —Do we not share a mutual form for respect, do you think less of me because you see yourself in a position to protect me and support me?—

What are you talking about? Zarina asks internally, eyes empty and hollow at those words. Suddenly, his words echo in her head and she can’t find the will in herself to really suppress them. To her, everything he says right now simply doesn’t fit in her understanding. Is she not supposed to help him? Is this not proof of her love? Is this not enough for him to understand how much he means to her? Is this now what love is supposed to be about? 

Finally, Zarina isn’t weak to keep those she loves unprotected. She gained everything she needed to keep these important people safe. She has power, she has influence, she has money, she has it all. She has information on each and every important person in almost all of Teyvat. She has customers and clients who are of noble birth and who would beg for her to take a look at their cases. She has it all to ensure those she loves have a comfortable life. 

Because she, a woman who lacks any humanity behind her void gaze, can only feel human while being with them. They keep her a person. They keep her away from the numbness, void and hollowness. They keep her away from losing the joys and colors. They are her colors. Kaveh is her Sun and the person she wants to keep happy the most. 

But… 

—Because I won't have you in such a position, Zarina.—

…I’m strong enough to be in that position, am I not? Why don’t you just let me do it?  

She isn't weak. She isn’t weak anymore to have others fuss over her. She doesn’t have anyone to worry over her and try to keep her from harm’s way. Now she can take care of herself, she can protect others like she always wanted. There won’t be laughs of men cruelly kicking her and calling her a little princess, there won’t be Victor hurt while trying to protect her, there won’t be Aleksey who they fret over as her parents are gone, and there won’t be any other people they’d be indebted to who can use them for their own ridiculous schemes. 

No, she’s climbing to the top and it means she won’t have anyone look at her or her family the wrong way. She can tear apart anyone who dares to mistreat her or her family. She has everything to keep herself occupied, interested, away from the deafening silence and frigidness. 

Ah, but that’s not it. That’s not what Kaveh says and that’s where the dissonance happens. Her past clashes against her present.  

Why do you look at me like Victor did? I’m stronger now. I can protect you. I won’t be hurt anymore. There’s no need to worry, no need to try and protect me, I’m fine. I’m…

—Let me take care of you the way you take care of me --- for it seems too long ago since anyone did the same for you.—

His tone crumbles and she can see him reaching out. After all, she had no second to input any of her words into this conversation. His stream of words hit her a bit harder than she’d ever expected. It makes her confused, all too confused and lost.  

This means that she hasn't been successful or what does it mean? It makes her think of Victor who’s been trying to take care of her when she was rescued. It makes her think of how when she came to Sumeru, she was looked down on by Scholars and those who were against Snezhnaya. Now they love or hate her, seeking her out despite pride and prejudice because they know she’s stronger. Isn’t it fun to see those people crawl to her? 

It makes her think of her selfishness, her indulgence, her sick satisfaction with reaching the top and watching people who underestimated her crumble before her feet. But then it all dissipates, she’s grown bored and sought out more. Like a ravenous beast in the body of a beauty. All hedonistic indulgences fade with time aside from sex and planning. The long-standing plans hold her interest for a little while longer until she’s left disappointed or satisfied for a medium period of time. It all fades, but not the warmth she feels when she’s with those she loves. Not with Victor, Aleksey, Kaveh… Not with them. Not with him. 

Oh, but Kaveh reaching out to her both emotionally and physically almost makes her feel fear. Almost, if not for her control over the internal state. It’s a titanium hold, but when his hands touch her cheeks, Sokolova feels something inside start to crack. The whispers in her mind say over and over again how he’d find her revolting, tyrannical, and cruel. He doesn’t know how little care for the world and its riches she has. 

She’s always lived selfishly, so giving to her loved ones feels like what she can do. After acquiring everything because her selfish self wanted to see how far she’d be able to reach, this development seems to be… baffling. 

His touch and his last words bring her out of that stupor. Still, confused and puzzled over these confessions within the argument, she feels at a loss. Emotions aren’t her strongest forte. Nay, genuine emotions aren’t her strongest forte. Zarina knows how to use them, manipulate them, and twirls them for her own benefit, but right now? It’s not about manipulation and malice. It’s not about shadows and darkness. It’s not about survival. It’s about… love, trust, and communication. 

Everything she wanted to protect since childhood yet never surrounded herself with until return home or when Kaveh was by her side. 

“What do you mean you don’t help me with anything?” She suddenly asks, her voice coming out genuinely puzzled but her eyes… Her eyes are bleak and cloudy, no, they’re hollow and empty when she begins. His hands against her cheeks feel so hot, her own body feels so cold. Is it because of her vision or is it because she remembered everything from that past? She doesn’t understand him, or does he not get the amount of things he does for her without knowing? “You always do. You’re the only one here who does.”

No one in Sumeru matters. No one in several regions matters aside from Snezhnaya where her brothers stay. Kaveh doesn’t know. He doesn’t know the ‘survival of the fittest’ rule she lives by, rules by, orders by. 

Zarina brings her left hand up, touching his hand but she doesn’t yet grasp it. Her fingertips grave over the fabric covering his wrist. She worries that if she grasps it, she’ll break it. Zarina recalls her first hunt in the snowy plains of Snezhnaya. She doesn’t want to break him.

“You make the nightmares go away. You make me feel safer than I’ve ever felt since…” The agonizing pain, the loud screams, the laughter of those who had control. “...since I was hurt,” Sokolova looks away for a moment, her words feel like they’re spilling out as if in desperation to get him to hear, to understand, to give him enough to have an idea but not dive into details (not yet). “You indulge me, you give me your time. There’s no silence, no hollowness, no void. You make me feel…”

Clarity returns to her golden eyes. The silverette takes a second to breathe, finally letting her fingers wrap around his wrist (tenderly, carefully). Her shoulders drop, her expression is one of light exhaustion and still flickers of bewilderment. 

“You make me feel human.”

It must be so strange to hear, isn’t it? To feel human. Isn’t she almost the most beloved in all Sumeru for her scholarly achievements, for her charismatic nature, for her connections and for her being the strongest candidate for the Amurta Sage? And yet, Zarina knows better than anyone that those achievements are not done for the sake of gratitude or betterment of the world. It’s selfish, it’s ambitious, it’s all out of boredom and pettiness. 

“You never ask for anything. I have power, I have money, I have connections, I have it all, but you never ask for anything,” she starts off. “You are my equal, if you were not…” She lets out a soft chuckle, but it’s sharp and cold. “...I wouldn’t fall for you, love you, treasure you, want to give you as much as I can. If you were not my equal, you’d be lost in the sea of faces I meet.” 

Golden eyes return to look at him, but she doesn’t smile nor show any emotion. If anything, she’s stone cold, but not guarded. She doesn’t hide, but there’s no bright light in her gaze and in her behavior.

“Do you… really think that I’ve reached all of what I have today through honored and honest work, Kaveh?” She gives his hand a gentle squeeze, but her golden eyes are growing colder the more she thinks about what she’s done… and how she feels no guilt or remorse or regret over everything. The people’s screams, the Abyssals’ pleas for mercy, the blood, the merciless ends, the survival. “Do you really think that I don’t see you as my equal? If I didn’t care about you or saw you as my equal, you would’ve never even gotten a glimpse of who I am. Like everyone else in Teyvat.”

A hard hitting sentence, isn’t it? Especially said with that razor-sharp gaze and a voice that got deeper as if she growled it out. But instead of showing the same cold-hearted ferocity, she presses her lips together and looks away from him as if ashamed. It’s not that she’s ashamed of who she is, but she is unsure of how much more she can say. 

“I… don’t know how to let others care for me,” she admits. “I don’t know how to stop protecting who I care about. And I don’t think… You’ll look at me the same if you learned the things I have to do to survive…” But also because when you’re not here, the boredom and silence come back in full force and I return to those frigid days. “What if the person you love is only kind to you, Kaveh? Will you hate me for it?” 

There’s a glimpse of cracks, of a weight no one ever expects someone to carry. But she doesn’t mind that. If it means she’s indulged and her family is protected, it means nothing. Is she really human when she does not feel any remorse for all the things she’s done? Perhaps, the only remorse and sadness comes when it comes to Kaveh. What if he fell in love with a phantom? What if her sharper and crueler sides will scare him away? There’s no fixing that. It’s simply who she is. 

“I don’t understand you.” Her lips are pressed together in frustration. “I don’t understand what you mean by taking care of me more than you already do. I don’t understand what you want from me right now. All these riches, all these connections, all of what I have… They are nothing compared to what you’ve given me. You taught me that I can love, I can experience love, I can feel it.” She brings her other hand up to touch his, but then pries his hands away from her face to hold them instead. “And yes, it doesn’t make the world better and it doesn’t make colors seem brighter, but it settles me down. It makes me… think that a normal life isn’t out of the question for me.”

 Then, Zarina laughs. But it’s hollow and bitter and feels like shattering. 

“To accept your help, I must give up control… of everything I am. And if I do,” she lets out a soft exhale. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to pick myself up if you reject me.” 

Finally, she smiles but that smile is soft and careful. Not sharp, not hollow, not cold. It’s more familiar to him. It’s more genuine, it’s as genuine as she can muster when her mind remembers everything she does behind his back to remain on top. She cannot simply end everything she rules over, it’s already too late. Too many people want her head, too many people rely on her, too many people have their eyes on her, too many people wait for her word like their only prayer.

“You are my lifeline, Kaveh. You already give me so much, I want to…” She gives his hands a squeeze, gaining up courage to say the next words. He’s more important to her than everything she’s acquired. She’s lived her life selfishly already. “But alright. I don’t yet understand, and that’s why… Can you teach me… how to let you care for me in a way you meant?” Without this iron control over everything. As she holds his hands in her own, she bends down to press her forehead against his knuckles. A beast offering its leash to another, she hopes he won’t turn away the more she opens up. “But please, I’m begging you, give me time to tell you everything. My life belongs to you, you are my heart. I still don’t understand, I probably will struggle, but be my guide here. So please,” she straightens up and gives him another small smile. She’s trying. It’s obvious. She’s trying against everything she’s been taught by life, by experience, by struggle and torturous existence. But for him? She’s trying. It’s tense, but she’s trying. “Be a patient teacher with me. I’ve never… been protected… and I haven’t been cared for since my childhood.”

[sea-owl]

Idea, so an au where Penelope loses her memories while on a Lady Whistledown run and when she comes to she honestly believes that she is only Lady Whistledown. She has no memories of her life as Penelope Featherington, maybe associating that she was more of her true self as Lady Whistledown or she was happier when running her empire.

Now, a few years later, her empire is bigger than ever. Penelope, or Penny, as she has come to call herself now, can learn any secret, and if you pay enough, she'll tell you. There are some boundaries she won't cross, like if she feels if a person doesn't deserve the consequences that would happen should the secret get out, then she won't tell their secrets. She has managed to build connections not only all over England but also Scotland, Ireland, and many other countries across the continent.

Her latest assignment is actually more of a personal favor. Her dear friend Phillip has been corresponding with a young woman named Eloise Bridgerton for the last year, and he is debating to have her come visit to see if they suit for marriage.

After Penny teased him about lewd correspondences she offered to check up on this Miss Bridgerton when she traveled back to London.

"Consider it my early wedding present to you ," Penny teased. "You and the children's happiness will be all the payment I need."

Off to London she went. The Bridgertons weren't a family Penny actively searched secrets for. There wasn't a reason to. Of course, she came across stuff accidentally. Like when she learned one of the wives is an earl's illegitimate daughter, but that more came about when she was digging into the same earl's widow. Or the time she learned the Viscount's secret fear of bees. Mostly things she learned were small things like that.

Now how to approach? Well according to some of her sources the third son has just returned from traveling and is in need of a new valet. Perfect. It is not the first time she has became a servant nor the first time dressed as a man to learn the secrets she needs.

This new servant that was hired to be Colin's personal attendant though, is giving him flashbacks. He could swear that had this new servant been a woman he be a dead ringer for what Penelope would look like now. Colin also suspects his new servant also is hiding something, what he isn't quite sure.

Penny is also getting flashbacks, and she's not sure she likes them. Who is this girl that looks so much like her? And why is she getting all these memories the longer she spends time around the Bridgertons? This isn't safe. It is best to learn what she can and leave. Penny doesn't like the looks Colin Bridgerton is giving her, nor does she not like the way her heart speeds up at the sight of him.

The race is on to see who can discover who's secrets first.

[laugtherhyena]

Bunch of random little things about Akira i moved onto a second post because the loredrop got too big

-Her songs are a form of venting of sorts, putting her emotions and feelings into lyrics so a good handful are about the tragedy or her struggles growing up or even "simpler" topics like love and uncertainty about the future. (On a somewhat related note, i imagine her stuff sounding kinda like Willow smith, Beach bunny and No doubt songs)

-She's had 3 guitars so far; the first was a birthday gif from Teruya when she was like 13 that she used to the point of it becoming unusable and now it's hanging on the wall of her bedroom, she forgot the second one at a party and couldn't remember where the place was (Hence why she always keeps her guitar on her afterwards) and the third one is custom made.

-She keeps a notepad and pen in her pocket to write lyric/song ideas she has on the spot because otherwise she'll just end up forgetting it. Her notes there are incredibly messy and scribble to the point only Akira herself can make something coherent out of them.

-Her easy-going enough to go basically anywhere as long as it sound like it could be fun, this helped her careers quite a bit since there's been several times she was recognized at some party or event or similar thing and in some cases even asked to perform for the crowd.

-Akira's pretty fit which makes her stronger than the avarage Dra gal. As you can probably guess, that just comes naturally when one of your parents a workout freak. Ayame's always made sure Akira keeps her exercises in check.

-She worked at the Kisaragi foundation as Rei's assistant for a bit when she was around 16-17 before her music career really took off.

-Similarly to Kizuna, Akira is also very physical affectionate, tho in her case that comes in the form of hugging people and invading their personal space.

-Other than her moms, the other Class 79 survivor she's the closest with is Teruya! She used to call him uncle as kid and he's helped set up a handful of her concerts.

-She's pretty close with Minako too, for obvious reasons you know that's her grandmother, and since Minako is working on improving herself by the time she's adopted she's been a nicer grandmother than she was a mother to Kizuna. (which gives her a whole mess of conflicted feelings, but at the end of the day she's glad her daughter has a good relationship with her grandma)

-She's never met her grandfather tho, the guy sorta just vanished when Minako managed to finally divorce him Akira things is for the best they've never met because she's only heard bad things about Toshiro. She's also never met her grandparents on Ayame's side but that's because they died in the tragedy, Ayame did tell her about them quite a bit and they have some a photo of them around the apartment.

-When it comes to her biological parents, Akira really doesn't have any interest in learning about what kind of person they were because she has a pretty weird relationship with them (or their memory i suppose). She was far to young when they died to remember anything about them and and so really can't feel much for them + she can't know if the Sakamotos would have been supportive of her being trans as her adoptive family is so that adds a whole another mess of feelings to the mix.

-She's always been going by Akira, she likes the name and didn't feel like choosing a new one when starting her transition. Still on the topic of names, the reason she has both of her mom's surnames is because she insisted in doing so out of how important both Ayame and Kizuna are for her.

-Aside from her memory getting worse, Akira's second biggest fear is virtual realities/simulations because she was told by her mothers about how Mikado tried to lock all of them inside his virtual reality when the foundation got into the sim. Needless to say the idea of losing both of her parents in a flash like this was really scary for a kid, and even as an adult Akira is scared of being stuck inside a machine with no way out.

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

Consider a hypothetical Twilight: The Musical. What slice of plot would you adapt as the best fit? Who sings the villain song? Who sings the "I want" song? What's the award-bait song about?

(Bonus points for referencing other musicals to explain this one. Minus points for giving that Denali jerk Sleezy-ar a singing role.)

Caveat

Is it good or is it a cash grab?

The thing about adapting to a musical is it's hard and I have yet to see it done well for something that is a series and not a single film or novel (note I haven't seen any of the Japanese anime musicals but I'm very dubious on how something that when adapted for screen takes 40 hours or what have you can suddenly become a two and a half hour show).

The thing is, even for novels and films, there's usually significant cutting involved to adapt the source material for the musical stage. There's just not enough time to show everything and you have to get creative.

What I'm getting at is what you say, you cannot fit the whole series into one show. There's too much character development that you can't really cut down without it not making sense anymore. If you do only a slice, you then miss out either on resolution of the story or else things needed to make this make sense.

If it's a cash grab, also, they have to hit as many points in the book as possible so the fans will be happy and come in. This means what the musical essentially becomes is just a montage of Edward/Bella moments and skipping through the rest of the plot so that we somehow do manage to get all four books into one show.

Alright, We're Being Serious

In my opinion? The best thing to do would be to do Twilight but make some serious modifications so we can make it seem like the characters go somewhere.

Personally, I'd do an introspective tragic show about Bella's choice on whether to become a vampire or not, what that will mean, and what she'd be giving up.

The plot remains essentially the same, due to strange internal family reasons of her mother remarrying and Bella feeling like a third wheel, she moves to Forks this town she hates. She quickly notices that something's not right with Edward Cullen and when he saves her from a van realizes he's superhuman. Things begin escalating when Bella learns that he's a vampire and he saves her again, giving her a chance to confront her. Edward is in love with her but warns her that being a vampire is a miserable existence and not one he'll ever bestow on her. She meets the Cullens, the James thing happens, and the difference is that I'd end us in the hospital and change the scene a little bit.

Edward has prevented Bella from becoming a vampire, Bella again tells him this means she's mortal and will leave him, he agrees to that and asks her again to consider what she's asking for. Bella then has a moment of introspection where she asks if this is really what she wants, if Edward wants her at all if he keeps wanting her to die, if she can live without her family and her ordinary human life, and whether she's willing to lose everything on the chance that she'll be happy upon being a Cullen.

The show ends with Bella telling her mother that she'll be staying in Forks, cementing her decision to pursue Edward no matter the consequences.

The Structure

Since you said bonus points for other musicals, I imagine the thing to be a lot like Yentl. Bella's the only one who gets to sing and it's her internal thoughts and explanations.

She explains why she's moving to Forks and her home life in the opening number, on her lack of optimism about it, but sense of filial duty in doing so. She sings about noticing Edward's supernaturalness and why the fuck doesn't anyone notice and is she a freak?

The "I Want" number is her singing about how she wants Edward and is in love with him (but really what she wants is to be special herself, someone loved by him, someone like the Cullens).

There's no villain song because while Edward isn't exactly a 'good' character in this (being enigmatic, inhuman, and generally terrifying), he's a temptation and not a villain, and James is not really enough of a character but more a "this is what you might become on taking this path".

And again, the show is about Bella and Bella's choices, the others don't get to have musical numbers as it would distract from the isolation of Bella's thoughts.

The award-bait song is a very Rose's Turn from Gypsy style number where the climactic song is at the end of the show, in which Bella's had this whole time to learn something, and now must make realizations about herself/make a decision of whether she stays in Forks or returns to her mother and goes to Florida.

[dipolardruid]

Hi, love your content <3

you know how Betra’s biological child died along with her former husband? Well, what would happen if the child was alive this entire time, and many years later Betra finds out?

Hi, I'm glad you enjoy it makes my day! I may have gone a little overboard in this, I actually had to erase many things to shorten it if not it would have been way too long.

TW: Slight Angst maybe more can really say, Mention of love bombing.

Is in complete shock and denial, how could her child be alive and her not know about it, The authorities would have let her known.

There is no way, it's a mistake, she will refuse to believe it. She saw as they were buried, If anything she should have been the first to be notified. So she will deny and fight it until it is impossible to keep denying it as she sees her child right infront of her proof and all.

She'll go blank before everything will go black she is so so angry, she missed out on so much, milestones, graduations, dating life, heartbreaks.

she will do everything in her power to figure out who screwed up so badly to the point of completely failing to have her know, Intentionial or not.

In that time she will immediately start spending more time with her bio-kid, trying to catch up on everything she's missed she'll be so happy.

Even your father will be a little shocked since her appearance will have a lot more color to her complexion but he understands he would also feel the same way if he were in her position.

What he will worry about is you though, if you had indifference or dislike for her and showed to not be bothered by what's happening he will feel a little better maybe even glad since he already knows what's the outcome with her already pulling away even from him.

Now if you had a really good relationship with her now he will really begin to worry, He'll feel extremely guilty since he pushed her onto you only for you to end up being hurt, He hates how you seem to be left out of many things now, how she will even begin to cancel outings even start to pull away from you. Leaving you to be completely heartbroken.

Your father of course understands and will comfort you while also giving Betra time but after the third month he'll start bringing it up subtly.

If it doesn't work he will confront her about the treatment, It would help in the short term but even through out that she'll seem very distant from you almost as if her mind was somewhere else, in the end you'd be left feeling hollow at this.

If it gets so bad that now it has started to affect your daily life he'll leave Betra without a second thought even if she tries to fix things between you and your father he saw how easily she tossed you aside.

While he understands believe him he really does when it comes to Betra's situation he also has you to look after and protect emotionally and physically.

So he'd give her more time to spend with her bio-kid. Any parent would after learning their child is actually alive but even then he would have also liked if she also involved you a little more and treated you the same way she used to.

Not begin ignoring and neglecting you in the process, He'd feel so bad and guilty at what is happening that if Betra doesn't at least give you some of her time he will carry out the divorce.

He'd go No contact with her and decide whatever you do he'll go along with it even if it involves bringing your mom into the equation as a way to make up for what happened.

If you don't blame him even reassure him that you don't fault him for what happened that it's just something that happened he might feel a little better but that's about it he'll still blame himself believing that if he had followed his instincts about her he could avoided you the pain of losing a mother twice.

So if you didn't have a relationship or even a good one with Betra high chance you will hear very little to nothing at all from her.

On the other hand if you do have a good relationship with Betra once the daze and fog seems to have settled she'll start thinking again the first thing to be shoved into her mind being you.

Betra will start doing damage control, If the divorce proceedings hadn't been finalized she'll start fighting it and start to act as she did before or even be more overbearing when attempting to ignite the relationship again.

Whether it succeeds or fails she'll also go straight to you and begin love bombing, If you accept her gifts she'll feel hopeful that she could fix the damage she's done to your relationship.

On the other hand if you reject her gifts, words and affection she'll feel like she really did screw up, If you through out this made contact with your mother and began seeing eachother regularly Betra would try to find dates that collide with the days you have set or cause a inconvenience to prevent you from seeing your mother.

If your father figures out what Betra's doing he'll immediately shut it down which she will stop albeit reluctantly.

From here she'll involve her bio-kid and attempt to bring at least a friendship between you both and start inviting you both to go out and be around eachother.

If you end being accepting of this and continue she'll keep it up and make sure to keep the relationship going, having gift giving be at a all time high as a way to apologize however if you remain distant and treat her a little more coldly than before she will latch onto you.

She'll sink her claws into you in a last ditch effort to bring back how it used to be and expect apologies to be a daily thing and promises of this to never happen again.

Afterall you and your father were there when she was still in the lowest point of her life that had you both not entered when you did she honestly doesn't think she'd be standing where she is right now.

So in the end you will be in control of whether your relationship will be made or break completely just be prepared for drastic measures to be made if you decide to break the relationship between you and her.

Request are open!

[bardock1991]

You can't save everyone, but you have to at least try

That line was something that Ruby already learn twice: she to save Penny in the torment and she try to save Pyrrha back at Beacon but she was late and both died.

Ruby don't need Penny to die again to learn it, because she already know it.

If penny would return it will help Ruby get over her grief, not just because it's Penny but also because it made what seems to be impossible possible, which is what RWBY defiantly need to learn, they need to know that no matter how their goal to stop Salem seems impossible it is possible.

What you said doesn't make sense to me, you pretty much saying that Ruby should learn what she already know and instead of growing she should do the opposite.

Ruby whole character is about her view of the world being different then what other see it when you take that away from her you take what make her special.

Also look in creation and you see that penny didn't turn into a human. When the robot body look at her he saw only aura and about her bleeding, grimms also bleed and they defiantly not human

Don't get the wrong idea I'm not trying to fight your opinion and you can say what you believe I'm just saying my opinion and if you don't agree with it it's fine

Not exactly. I'm saying that Penny coming back again would be a mistake because if she did, then Ruby wouldn't learn anything. Ruby knows the world is imperfect, but she believes that as long as she tries, then there's hope. But now after Penny's death & by extension, now learning that Salem has 2 relics now, that hope is now gone, to the point where she tells the others to "stop pretend like they know what they're doing."

By bringing Penny back, it wouldn't help Ruby in anyway. You can't have her lose someone important, have her realize how bad things are going for her in this war, thus making her lose hope & think that things would probably be better off without her, make her bottle up all of her insecurities... Only for Penny to come back & act like that's the solution to Ruby's problem at the moment... It's not!

This is the problem with these "Penny coming back" theories I've been seeing lately. They treat Penny as the only solution to Ruby's problem, when the reality is that the actual solution is for Ruby to let her emotions go, come to terms with what happened with Summer & Penny happened, let herself properly grieve & most important of all, LET HER FRIENDS HELP HER. As long as Ruby keeps putting all of these burdens on herself, she'll never move on & i don't see how or why Penny coming back would fix that. It'd make it look like her death had no consequences, thus making Ruby's current situation not have much consequence.

The reason why Penny bringing back the first time worked was because she was a ROBOT. There was ACTUALLY a way to bring her back without feeling like an asspull back then, but that's not the case here. She died as a HUMAN in this context, there's nothing they can do about it & Ruby has to accept that & come to terms with it in a healthy way, which she hasn't since she still hasn't confronted those feelings yet. Heck, she hasn't even fully confronted her grief over her Mom, which is the SOURCE of all of Ruby's personal problems right now.

& Another thing, i never... EVER see this argument brought up with say, Pyrrha, who also died. I NEVER see people talk about how Pyrrha coming back would help Jaune & make him regain hope the way I'm seeing people say about Penny coming back would give Ruby hope again. I NEVER see those takes around, so why does Penny get special treatment here? By this logic, bringing back Pyrrha would ALSO solve all of Jaune's problems despite how bad that would actually be writing wise.

So overall, i think Penny coming back for a third time would be a mistake. Cause not only would it make her death in V8 basically inconsequential, but it'd also teach Ruby the WRONG lesson here. Instead of coming to terms with reality, but then learning to accept those around her to HELP her against her personal struggles instead of doing it all by herself (IE: Accepting what lost is lost, but still appreciating what you still HAVE), she'd learn that such lessons are pointless cause people will come back sooner or later, thus having no REASON to open up to people, which is BAD WRITING! & While i don't agree with what I'm about to say, @asm5129 put it best when he said "Ruby bringing Penny back would be disrespectful, cause she's essentially taking away Penny's only real choice she's ever had". Again, i don't AGREE with this take since Penny's "choice" was actually an ULTIMATUM, but i wanted to bring it up since i can definitely see it being the case if this WERE to happen.

So as much as i love Nuts N'Dolts with all of my heart... Penny coming back from the dead AGAIN would only harm the show given the context behind her second death, as much as it pains me to say thay

[astorythatwritesitself]

Hell why not I’ll roll again: shrios sorry brainrot + Only Poppies Grow Where I Last Saw You

Contemplating this as Halcyon plays, clearly this is supposed to be the angst mines, right?

... anyway this immediately puts me in the mind of my like - one of my little monkey's paw 'Thane Lives' scenarios for post ME3 - man's alive and well, but Adrian's.

Officially. MIA.

Realistically, presumed dead by virtually everyone except like a third of current/former Normandy crew, and Thane is... well, both channeling his grief and doing what he can to confirm things one way or another; he's on Earth, aiding the search for bodies, and perhaps, survivors. The blast from the Catalyst has severely fucked most tech, so it's a long, tricky job. Heartbreaking - but occasionally, almost miraculous, it can be like seeing the dead come back to life.

And yet he does not - cannot - believe the reports from a seaside camp, that they found Commander Shepard washed in with the tide.

That's what the dogtags say, anyway; and while lab tests against prior samples are a bust due to records getting scrambled, they do have both elder Shepards present to test DNA against, and it is a match. And - look, a full on clone couldn't fool Thane, he knows it's her.

Which, great! Cause that makes one of them!

Yeah, while there's a little bit of patchy recall - she recognizes her parents and Joker fairly ok & feels some empty recognition towards her crewmates- it's very quickly apparent that Adrian's lost most of her memory prior to like, her very early 20s. So, you know, very fun times for everyone involved, particularly the guy who's already been half mourning and trying not to totally lose himself in what memories were there - now she's there, but sees him as little more than a stranger. 🙃

And beyond that - the general consensus is, well, try to fix that, right? But there's a few members of the crew (Joker, Ashley & Tali, probably) who are hesitant - and Thane is trying to figure out how to articulate that forcing Adrian to remember would be straight up cruel, and yes it's painful but gods be damned, he loves her and knows what it's like to keep reliving the worst day of your life, if Shepard can finally have some peace, then let her.

Shepard, meanwhile, is like. Mostly focused on physically recovering and re-learning how to walk after having about half her body rebuilt again, and doesn't have any helpful answers regarding the mental part of her recovery. On the one hand: clearly she is Someone Important, these people hanging around seem to Mean Something, and even if she can't remember why... there's that hollow little ache every time she sees them, like taking a step without realizing you're going over an edge (to badly quote lemony snicket lol).

On the other: the bits she's picked up of Shepard's life sound like way more of a burden than she wants to bear. So, she politely yet firmly asks everyone to fuck the hell off for a little while and let her breathe for a few.

It could just end there...

but I'm a sucker lol. The setup lets Thane still be around as Adrian’s recovering, and as she has some time to just. Fucking rest for once without a bajillion nightmares, she decides... yeah, if things return naturally, fine, she'll take it. But if Shepard’s life was half as fucked up as it feels, just learning them as facts without the experience recall, she'd rather let that go.

That doesn't mean she's necessarily letting the people go, though; it becomes a sorta slice of life/recovery fic, Adrian slowly re-learning about the people in her life and how those relationships might or might not change -

But also a strange, sweet little journey with Thane. He remembers plenty of course, and tries to keep his distance at first because yeah he's alright at looking calm but internally his emotions are a wreck... but it's almost like the first time, quick talks that stretch a little longer, not-at-all subtle looks (Adrian may not recall much, but her tastes haven't changed & she's still weak for dark eyes and a cool coat lol); support when some things do start coming back - Akuze does return, a few scattered pieces through the first battle of the Citadel, some elements of Virmire - but relatively muted, compared to how they affected her before.

She never does remember their first courtship, but she likes spending time with Thane after all, especially once she's cleared to start getting some time outside - he's sweet, good to talk to, and she did very much appreciate that he seemed willing from the start to accept if she didn’t want to focus on recovering things. Idk man just increasing Soft moments, and yes it hurts Thane, knowing the Shepard who awoke him is essentially dead... but he's coming at it this time with a different perspective too, no longer expecting to die any time between now and next Tuesday, y’know? It's not like he's quite exactly the same man Shepard left on the Citadel.

So it's different - but maybe a bit of a gift, getting to fall in love all over again and dream of a future together from the very start.

[remyfire]

🎲 Margaret/Trapper

(You get a gentle peck!! Ahh, this is my first foray into writing early-seasons Margaret, I think, and that was quite a minefield to be wading into, but I hope she reads okay. Thank you so much for the meme!!)

If Margaret has learned anything over the past year, it's that war will force you to become reliant on people that you never would've given the time of day in your usual life. There are moments where Frank makes that swim into dizzying clarity—she can say with one-hundred-and-ten percent confidence that if a married man kept her waiting in the wings for so long back in the States, she'd bid him a frustrated goodbye and turn her attention to the other dozen fellows trying to catch her eye. But given that the other men in this unit are below her rank, are unforgivable womanizers with the backbone of an earthworm, or have an intense disdain for the very country that sustains them, who else would she find any kind of succor with?

Sure, she'd leave Frank in her dust back home, but she'd just as happily slap Pierce across the face or break McIntyre's toes with her heel. There's very little that's redeemable about them.

Yet the closeness of proximity also forces remarkable emotions to rise in her that she would never otherwise entertain.

She has plenty of time to muse on this after the most recent shelling around the 4077th. They're fortunate in so many ways that even with the damage done in post-op from flying debris—shattered bulbs, a hole in the wall, and one bedframe broken when it was enthusiastically thrown down to provide some measure of cover—they're still able to reorient the patients on their mattresses and make sure that none of their stitches were torn out.

It's only when the door opens and Pierce is stumbling in with an almost limp McIntyre, arm thrown over his shoulder, that Margaret feels her heart skip a beat. It loses a subsequent one when she sees the blood dripping down McIntyre's cheek.

"What happened?" She flies straight into crisis mode, marching over to a nearby empty bed and making sure the mattress is properly placed and secure.

"Falling beam," Pierce spits in that authoritative way he has when he's one hundred percent focused on his duties. She hears it so rarely, even in the operating room. Experiencing it now makes her vision sharpen on the dripping wound as Pierce settles McIntyre to sit up against the wall. "He threw himself to cover Radar."

"My God," Margaret murmurs as a powerful, surging emotion floods her. She's so unfamiliar with experiencing it to this magnitude that it takes her a moment to identify it as monumental concern.

McIntyre grins up at them both. "Kid gets his brain broken, we lose the whole fuckin' war." His words slur slightly. As he turns his focus on Pierce more intentionally, his eyebrows spring up. "Hey, gorgeous."

"Concussed," Margaret diagnoses.

"Yeah, or something." Pierce shoots McIntyre a look she doesn't recognize before he gets to work. It doesn't take long, only a few moments of sponging and disinfecting and care, for Pierce to determine that he won't need stitches, but he'll have a nasty bruise and needs to keep the wound covered.

By the time they have McIntyre settled, there's more that they both need to care to—Pierce to check on others who took glancing blows or cuts, Margaret who has an entire post-op to keep an eye on—and they're able to leave him there.

But she'd be lying if she said she didn't keep glancing over her shoulder as the hours passed.

Men like McIntyre aren't worth her time, her energy, her attention. Yet he has it in spades. She can't help it. There's something about him that draws in all her nurses like moths to a flame, and...and she's noticed. She knows he's noticed. She knows because she's...told him too much. More than she ever planned to.

He summons extremes within her. She'll walk past two of her nurses comforting a third who is crying and know that he's used up yet another woman like a razor blade that's gone dull. But she'll also see how tenderly he'll wrap an arm around Lieutenant Bayliss and touch a handkerchief to her cheek in a way that Frank has never done for her. Part of that is perhaps that Margaret won't permit the vulnerability of weeping, but...but she can't deny the near ache that floods her, to see a man take a woman so gently in his arms and make the darkness go away for even just a little while.

It'll often make her wonder what it must be like to be Mrs. McIntyre when there's not a war on. Is he just another man who swears he has permission to mess around with whoever he needs to so he can get home? Is he as devoted to his wife as he is in these compassionate moments with his favorite nurses of choice?

What is it like to have a man be so...gentle?

When she catches herself lingering on these thoughts in the third hour, Margaret actually scoffs at herself aloud. These are useless time-wasting contemplations that have nothing to do with the act of medicine.

What does have to do with nursing and her solemn, patriotic duty is swinging back to check on his injury and if he has a bit more awareness.

As Margaret drops into the chair by McIntyre's bedside, he looks up at her and beams. "Hey, you're back quick."

"What?" She blinks.

"You were just here, right? With Hawk. Where's Hawk, anyway?"

Margaret breathes a sharp sigh through her nose. She buries her concern in the facts. These brief periods of memory loss are often standard, of course, and not a sign that there's something dangerously wrong. "I haven't spoken to you for several hours, McIntyre," she informs him as she continues checking his vitals for her own peace of mind.

His eyes twinkle up at her. "Musta been just running through my head, then."

I will not be susceptible to your charms, she repeats internally as a mantra.

But when she moves to check his pupils, his voice goes incredibly soft. "Y'know you look kinda like an angel with that lamp up there?"

I. Will Not. Be Susceptible. "What on earth do you mean?"

"With the light on. Makes you look like you've got a halo. S'nice. When you're being all sweet like this, it really suits you, y'know? Makes you look even prettier than normal, and that's fuckin' hard to beat."

God. She despises him. He plays women like a fiddle, even when his faculties are so powerfully affected by an injury. "What do you want, McIntyre?"

"Nothin', honest. Just enjoying the view."

She sees how it's so easy for her nurses to play into his hands. She wouldn't be surprised if he's been spinning these exact lines to every single one of them who might've swung by his bedside to make sure he'll survive the night, be on his feet soon so he won't miss their perverted dates to the supply shed.

But she feels her pulse flutter all the same. And if her fingers linger when she nudges his curls back to check his swelling, she doesn't feel a need to comment on it. "I hear those lines every day. From you, even. Perhaps you've already forgotten them all, but you'll remember soon enough."

"Louise'd like you, y'know."

All at once, it's as though Margaret was dropped naked into a frigid lake. She rolls her eyes, covers the lingering sting by checking his bandage to see if it needs changing. "You married men. You're all the same. Obsessed with keeping your wife close and your mistress closer. What kind of fantasy world do you live in that you think a woman—a real woman, with a brilliant mind and a passionate heart—would settle for living in one of your...your little apartments on the far side of town where you can invite her around for garden parties and barbecues and take advantage of her in the facilities while your wife is feeding your daughters?"

But all at once, her rushing train of thought comes to a sudden stop as McIntyre brushes the back of his fingers down her cheek, a more tender action than she's received in quite some time. Margaret turns her head to look into his eyes, suspicious, but the dopey smile on his face catches her before his words do. "No, I mean, she'd like you. Like I like you."

It turns out that at the bottom of the icy lake is somehow a blasting, deep volcano, one that bursts all at once. She stops breathing. Moment by moment, she processes his words. Understands what he's implying. Has absolutely no idea how to respond without...

When Margaret glances askance, those fingers could belong to anybody. McIntyre. Her Lorraine who isn't hers anymore.

As her cheeks blister, she clears her throat. "I see that concussion's far worse than we thought," she eventually murmurs. When she leans down to finally lift the bandage away and check his wound, there's tiny touches on the back of her neck, and just the littlest bit of pressure.

Turns out that's all he needs to come up an inch and kiss her.

It's there and gone, and then he's collapsing back down with a huffed breath like it took all his effort to pull that off, but as Margaret flies to her feet, he's grinning even wider. "Promise me if we make it out of here alive, you'll look us up, okay?" he's asking.

"I cannot believe you!" Margaret blurts. She touches her mouth, brings her fingers away, somehow finds herself staring at them as though there'll be evidence of his actions right there on her skin. "Wh-What is the matter with you?"

If it's possible, McIntyre's gaze goes softer, those pretty hazel eyes that haunt her when she's alone in her tent and nursing irritation at Frank for finding yet another reason to make her feel small. "Sorry," he whispers. "You're even prettier when you're fired up like this. Can't help it."

"Major?" It's Lieutenant Kellye behind her, her voice soft and searching. "I could change his bandage, if you want to go check on bed four?"

It's a gentle out, the kind that her nurses so rarely give her. She can't imagine what the entire post-op tent can read on her face, in her voice, for one of her own subordinates to have enough compassion for the hated ice queen to offer her an escape.

"I'll check on him right away," Margaret eventually replies. She throws her shoulders back and starts walking as commandingly as she can.

And if her lips are still tingling, well, that's something she'll deal with later—or bury at the bottom of that lake when she shoves down a boulder, something that can plug up the volcano before it can irreparably harm her.

[thelreads]

When twilight says "there wouldn't be any point to that", I think he means "there wouldn't be any point to look into how anya did well." Which I would argue is a silly thing for him to say: after all, she did literally twice as well in classical language as any other subject, and without the spelling mistakes she would have done better. You'd think Twilight would be all over that, saying "ok Anya what about classical language sticks with you and how can we apply that learning style to your other grades?" Instead, he brushes it off.

HOWEVER, while it is a silly thing to say--and honestly out of character for Twilight the spy--it is not out of character for Twiloid the dad. Twilight, for all his overprepared-ness, does not look into Anya's past beyond the surface bits from a third party. Like, yes, he has the documents about her being passed around families in chapter 1. But beyond those documents he never asks her about her past. He didn't know she still remembered her mom until she cried during the interview; he doesn't know how she was treated at the orphanage (he just assumes that she would make friends since she grew up around other kids). Heck, when she messes around in his psychiatrist office in chapter 29, he immediately assumes she's been horrifically traumatized...but he doesn't do any follow up. This latest chapter is just the next example of Loid seeing something about Anya's past ("how did she get so good at classical language"), making an assumption ("well it doesn't matter"), and not following up ("I'm making Anya's favorite for dinner tonight"). And this time, he doesn't even have the excuse of "the mission" for this: Nightfall would never have missed a chance to improve Anya's grades like that--Twilight really is losing his touch.

This isn't to say I'm bashing Loid btw. I think he's thinking along the lines of "I don't want to make Anya's life harder by dredging up the past (after all repression works for me just fine)". I think the fact that he's not doing his usual over-preparedness and isnt following up with Anya is a sign that he cares about her a lot. He doesn't want to talk about the time before they were together, especially if that could make Anya feel bad. It's the same with Yor; he only bugged her for one day and felt such immense guilt over it. I don't think he would survive asking Anya about her dead mom and seeing her cry.

But I'm pretty sure that Endo is building up "Twilight not asking Anya about her past" to eventually bite him in the ass.

Oh I see, and now that I think about it this way I can agree with that. Ever since the first chapter when he had that epiphany about not liking to see a kid crying twilight has created an unspoken bond with Anya, because like her, he also had a rough childhood and he doesn't want to look back, so he can assume she also doesn't want to do the same.

The time he punched the table and pretty much gave up on his mission was another display of that. Now that we know of his mother, seeing Anya crying for hers woke up a burning rage inside of him that only reinforced that idea. He doesn't want her to have to deal with her past, at least not while she's too young to process it correctly.

His human side is winning against his spy side, he refuses to take and measure that would cause Anya some kind of sadness, all because he wants her to have a happy childhood. Probing her past to learn more about her hidden skills would definitely cause her some degree of pain, and he'd rather die than do that to his kid.

Not that she would tell him that she was a lab rat anyway, she still is too on-guard about this topic, but one day she'll tell it to her out of her own volition. In the meantime we can continue to speculate about the details, before one of the scientist from project Apple find her that is.

[womanexile]

I'm going to play devil's advocate (and go delulu) for a moment here: I think Taylor's going to be single for a while now. Why? You're On Your Own, Kid. I've always read tracks 5's as the point of the album. Some examples (im trying to keep it brief and I apologize for spelling mistakes and auto-corrects, it's 1 AM where I'm at):

All Too Well from Red, an album about how complicated emotions can be, has arguably her most "emotional rollercoaster" of a song as track 5.

Dear John from Speak Now, an album loosely based on the concept of "things she should have told people, but never did." has a song directly addressed to Mayer as track 5.

tolerate it from evermore, which I always read as an album about moving on from the past, has a song that discusses a failing relationship (which is heavily implied to have been a marriage or just really long) which, at the end, Taylor is implied to be leaving due to how unfulfilling it is, even if it was once great *coughs in Joe Alwyn* as track 5.

my tears ricochet from folklore, which I always read as an album about directly addressing the hurt the past caused, but not healing from it, has a song that discusses the pain of losing a partner, but explicitly not moving on, as the man still wears the jewels, missing her, while also tossing out blame *cough in Hiddleston/Harris affair and Harry Styles (my favorite duo (Hiddle)/trio (Calcium being an intrusion to all that is good))* and Taylor still speaks to him, while screaming at the sky, and feels she can go anywhere, just not home (which I see as symbolism for love in all TS songs) as the track 5.

Delicate from reputation, which discusses forbidden romance, has the most obvious example of portraying the theme, while also subtly hinting at the relationship being over already in the bridge and her only reminiscing and hoping to be remembered *cough in rep is about Hiddleston delusion*, as the track 5 (yes, I'm the Hiddleswift truther from earlier, hello).

These are the most obvious ones, to me at least.

You're On Your Own, Kid is a funny song in all possible readings of Midnights. I take the album as the third part of the reminiscence trilogy, as I've dubbed it. folklore is about addressing the past, evermore about moving on from it, and Midnights about learning from it. I take each song as her comparing a past situation to her circumstances with Alwyn (YOYOK past situation is obvious so I won't talk about that).

She starts with summer went away, I've always taken summer as symbolic of Hiddleston, but her yearning for love remained, and she tried to play it off as if it's cool, even if it wasn't, because if she did, that relationship would blow up in both their faces, with people already thinking it was PR and Kanye being a clown.

Alternatively, it could be refrencing the end of the honeymoon phase with Alwyn.

She then waits patiently, wanting to be noticed by a friend she likes (Alwyn), whom she potentially chased just because she misses the summer. The anyway is to me, a timeskip, of sorts. He's distant now, smoking with his boys, likely without telling Taylor about it, given that she heard it in his voice (disappearing at random for reasons she's not sure about; I swear I saw paparazzi pics of him kissing Laird in 2022, but I can't provide links, I just know I freaked out) and she touches her phone like it's his face, maybe because they don't talk much anymore and there's distance. In regard to the town line, it might be about how she's grown more closed off since Alwyn. She didn't chose this, she wants to be more open, but she'd stay like this for him. Forever, if need be.

She thought she waited years to meet him, that he's the one, only to learn he never cared and there were better options. All this time she was on her own, and didn't even realize.

She then decides she'll run away because she knows he doesn't love her. The Daisy May part is interesting because that's a nice, obedient woman. Joe Alwyn? Controlling? I wouldn't be shocked.

Now, she takes a taxi to take her there. When else has she used the word taxi? Come Back...Be Here and New Year's Day, ladies and gentlemen, certified Haylor songs. She also mentions dreams not being rare, which Wildest Dreams, ladies and gentlemen, certified Haylor song. It also repeats the better bodies part, meaning Harry was, in her eyes, the better option at that point. I think, Harry and Taylor were communicating throughout COVID after the first Grammy meeting and Harry knew Taylor was having doubts about Joe, que Boyfriends and Matlida, and he may have helped her mourn the relationship before it was over. During their midnight talking chats, he finally told her he still thinks of her, and she acknowledges it here, saying he wasn't alone in that.

She then proclaims how much she's given for a perfect kiss, but it solved nothing, because Joe wasn't perfect and how her friends (also the world and the fans) won't know what to say when she tells them. How the jokes weren't funny (the ones about her being everything and him being just Ken), which she's probably from his perspective, but sarcastically, because it was true, and how she took all the money with her, because he has very little in comparison. Her gown is bloody now, because she just destroyed her chances of ever marrying Joe, whom she wanted that with. But this was a step forward and she shouldn't be afraid. And he can't take away her future experiences. He can talk shit all he wants, it won't change that this is good for her.

So she'll make some frienship braclets and just exist for a little. And she can do that. She's on her own. She has been for a very long time.

- Faithfully, a delulu Alwyn not-enjoyer

I think you’re right about TS & HS communicating right before Covid. I have a theory on this. Both their albums had just come out Lover & Fine Line ( on TS birthday). And there are several things I put together from articles & interviews. I might make a post about it. Covid hits & TS goes off & right folklore & evermore ( with lots of Haylor songs) and HS writes HH (which to me every song is about TS). Satellite he says “I can see you’re lonely down there” so yea Harry knew there were problems with them.

And I never thought about Delicate being about TH. Makes a lot more sense than joe. That timeline is all kind of whack. It doesn’t make sense to me. She meets joe April 29th & is just blown away by him & so into him then a week later she’s being all flirty with TH at the Met & completely ignores joe & gets with TH?

I think she’s probably gonna be single at least till the end of tour maybe. She’s super busy at the moment.

[burritosbymoonlight]

adrinette in season four

i love adrinette. beyond the hilarious scenes that stem from marinette's nervous ramblings and adrien's oblivion, the two also offer a sincere and sweet dynamic. they're always looking out for the other's well-being, even if the other doesn't know it (the scarf, the lost miraculous book, confronting lila, etc). however, as much as the two care for each other, neither will admit it.

this is adrinette's flaw.

burdened by her insecurities, marinette refuses to tell adrien the truth about her feelings for him. she's terrified of his rejection, so she settles and hides her feelings from him, which ends up hurting as she helps him navigate his feelings toward kagami. it doesn't stop there, though. because of her poor attempts to keep him at a distance, he has misinterpreted her intentions several times in the past. from adrien's perspective, he's not so sure marinette even likes him as a friend, let alone as a romantic love interest. her inability and refusal to tell him results in several awkward or painful situations for the two of them.

meanwhile, adrien does the exact opposite. sure, he always makes sure to tell marinette that he likes and values their friendship, both when and regardless of if she needs reassurance. he sprinkles thoughtful compliments into their conversations whenever appropriate. he gushes about her to plagg and his friends all the time—even to his father on more than one occasion. it's cute and endearing and oh so frustrating because his issue is that he does not seem to accept the extent of his feelings for marinette to himself. whether those feelings are romantic or not right now is not the point. we know that he will eventually fall in love with marinette, and he even hints at already having feelings for her in chat blanc ("i've always felt like you were more than a friend").

instead, adrien's problems are a direct result of his paradoxical behavior. unlike marinette, his strategy in avoiding his feelings for her is to get closer to her. if he can succeed in his constant attempts to deepen their friendship, he will prove to himself just how much of a friend she is to him—and nothing more. right? after all, she is just a friend. he says it so often. to so many people. with so much... hesitation.

if she is just a friend, why does he feel the need to prove it to himself?

while it may seem that he simply does want to get closer to her, there is one thing that separates marinette from his other friends and nearly every other civilian in paris: she reminds him of ladybug. he says so himself, and it reveals that he sees a potential in her to share with him the same dynamic he shares with her alter ego. the reason this is so important is that ladybug is not only the love of his life, but his best friend, too. if ladybug has rejected him so many times, how could he bear to withstand marinette's rejection as well if he did admit his feelings? he already worries that marinette doesn't like him at all.

okay, but why does he handle ladybug's rejection so well?

the masks.

as chat noir, he is unwavering in his freedom and confidence. ladybug doesn't know his identity beneath the mask, and it gives him just enough anonymity to handle her dismissal. not only that, but he has nothing to lose with her. she loves having him as a partner, and he knows he means the world to her, even if she hides it under snarky comments and feigned indifference.

with marinette, he's baring his civilian self to her, and he has no escape toward another mask. he must be perfect because as adrien, he's vulnerable. one mistake and he might just crack. if he admits that she means more to him than he allows himself to believe, then he has to also accept that she's seen a side of him that both torments him and doesn't fully represent him. not that chat noir fully represents adrien, (he's the total combination of chat noir and adrien), but at least he feels more comfortable as a superhero.

and so he dated kagami for a while. marinette wasn't his third choice. she's likely his subconscious second to ladybug, but since she reminds him so much of ladybug who has rejected him before, he doesn't bother with trying to understand his feelings for her because he thinks he already knows how she will react. it won't matter because she'll decline him in the same exact way ladybug did. so he goes after kagami. and of course, that doesn't work out because she's not ladybug/marinette.

so what does he do? he forces himself to view marinette as just a friend. again, in a strange paradox, he hides his feelings by deepening their friendship. of course, it's an artificial depth that he calculates and measures and crafts, but he doesn't know that because he won't admit it. she's so much of a friend that she can't be anything else. hm.

so what now? their friendship is flawed. both are holding back, and neither wants to admit the extent of their feelings.

in an ironic twist, ladybug's new role as guardian of the miraculous is what will bring them closer to one another.

forced to give up on love because of her responsibilities, she will finally lose the nervousness that has interfered with their relationship for so long. she'll start treating him like an actual friend and in the process, she'll open herself up to him in a way that was impossible before. she can be vulnerable now because there is nothing for her to lose.

meanwhile, adrien will face something he didn't foresee: marinette actually growing closer to him. before this, he was comfortable disguising their friendship as deeper than it actually was to protect himself, but now, it's real, so now, he can't hide his feelings anymore. in knowing her, he will also unravel himself to her more.

as we've already seen in the trailers for the upcoming episodes, it seems marinette is able to manage her feelings around him much better than she has in the past. in addition to hinting at what i've already predicted above, it also shows that it allows for adrien and marinette to work together. and given lila's impending role, they must work together to be everyday heroes in their civilian lives.

just like ladybug and chat noir do against shadowmoth.

of course, until the reveal, it is impossible for the two of them to understand the weight of their dynamic and the extent of their love for each other. they are already partners, best friends, and the love of each other's lives. in time, their fates will twist into a single string. for now, adrinette will learn to develop a relationship that is not a replica of ladynoir, but a complement to it.

meanwhile i hope ladybug is unraveling with chat noir in the same way because oh god i'm such a ladynoir stan

[greyvvardenfell]

Resdayna Indarys

Character’s name: Countess Resdayna Indarys Redoran of House Ravenwatch

Age: 73 (reads as early 30s)

Physical description: Roughly 5'8"; curvy with wide hips and a soft belly; thick, muscular arms and legs; has snakebites and and a labret piercing

MBTI/Enneagram Personality Type: MBTI: ESTP (The Entrepreneur), Enneagram: Type 8 (The Challenger)

Internal Life

What is their greatest fear? Losing her family again. Her parents and older brother were sacrificed to Molag Bal when she was, and she was never able to find their souls in Coldharbour. When she found the Ravenwatch, she quickly fell in with them and felt like she belonged somewhere again. She lost Verandis twice and couldn't bear to lose him a third time, especially after their son Neredyn is born. She doesn't worry about much, but there's a part of her that hates whenever anyone leaves, just in case they never come back.

Inner motivation: Self-fulfillment. She wants to feel like what she does matters and makes a difference in the lives of others, but also that she gets credit for it.

Kryptonite: Verandis. It helps that he's such a powerful mage, because she's less worried about people being able to harm him, but if an enemy somehow managed to subdue him, she'd be putty in their hands just to keep him safe.

What is their misbelief about the world? That immortality is inherently isolating. She was already selfish and became more so when she turned. As long as her people are doing well, it's too much effort to care about everyone else. Even the Ravenwatch's mission means much less to her than the Ravenwatch itself. She goes along with it because it makes them happy, not because she believes that a handful of thoughtful vampires can actually protect all the mortals.

Lesson they need to learn: She can't control everything, no matter how hard she tries. Bad things will happen simply because bad things happen sometimes.

What is the best thing in their life? Family. Verandis and Neredyn especially, but Fennorian, Gwendis, and Adusa mean a lot to her as well, as both friends and relatives.

What is the worst thing in their life? The looming fear that Molag Bal still has a claim to both her and Verandis's souls. She doesn't plan on dying, but if she does, not knowing where she'll end up scares her. And after Verandis's brush with the Void, she doesn't know if he's tethered to Grayhaven or if Namira will claim him, or if he'll end up back in Coldharbour again. She's done everything she can to protect herself, but she still doesn't know for sure.

What do they most often look down on people for? Naivete.

What makes his/her/their heart feel alive? Verandis, laughing with the Ravenwatch, frying an enemy to a crisp with her pyromancy, running through the mountains of Rivenspire, the thrill of the hunt and pulling down a fleeing foe like a sabre cat, post-coital relaxation

What makes them feel loved, and who was the last person to make them feel that way? She likes to be Known, whether it takes the form of Verandis worshiping her body in the bedroom, Fennorian leaving a book he thinks she'll like on her desk, Neredyn bringing her a flower, or the Daggerfall Covenant awarding her for her many successful missions.

Top three things they value most in life? Her family, her freedom, her body

External Life

Is there an object they can’t bear to part with and why? She still has, and uses, Verandis's staff from the first time they met in Rivenspire, the one Gwendis gave her after Verandis took the Lightless Remnant to Coldharbour. It makes him happy to see her wield it, and she defeated Molag Bal with it, so it means a lot to her.

Describe a typical outfit for them from top to bottom: She has her own version of the Ravenwatch uniform: skintight grey-green and dark brown leathers, vulnerable parts protected by dull grey chainmail, covering her from throat to feet to fingertips. When she isn't out on a mission, she wears plain black leather leggings and a soft black shirt, also covering most of her skin. Aside from her piercings, she doesn't accessorize much.

What names or nicknames have they been called throughout their life? The only nickname she really uses is Res. Her brother Romelyn called her that, and Darien, and occasionally Gwendis does, but very few others use it anymore. She's a countess, after all.

What is their method of manipulation? Brute force and intimidation. If a vampire calls a fireball to their hand and starts stalking towards you, you'll probably do whatever they ask, right?

Describe their daily routine: Wake up, track down Verandis for a morning kiss, check on Neredyn, have a flask of blood while looking over any Ravenwatch correspondence that came in while she was asleep, go for a run, play with/teach Neredyn, "retire" with Verandis for an afternoon cuddle/fuck/potential nap, train with other Ravenwatch members, meet with any visiting dignitaries or scholars over dinner, put Neredyn to bed, relax with Verandis (and/or Gwendis, Fennorian, and Adusa) until bedtime

Their go-to cure for a bad day? Sex, babeyyy. Or killing something. Or both uwu

Goals

How are they dissatisfied with their life? Resdayna is very happy with where she is. 10/10. Which makes the rest of these uhhhh unnecessary?

What would bring them true happiness or contentment?

What definitive step could they take to turn their dream into a reality?

How has their fear kept them from taking this action already?

How do they feel they can accomplish their goal while still steering clear of the thing they are afraid of?

[yyxgin]

A SONG REQUEST

"with you, feel like summer."

~ where you always listen to the same radio station and he lives in the apartment complex opposite of yours. perhaps you play your radio a little too loud on sundays.

pairing: jungkook x fem!reader

genre: romance (fluff and a hint of angst I guess)

words: 2.3k

warnings: reader's a little sad in one part of the story,, also I don’t actually know that pancake song but I googled the lyrics and they’re nice lmao

„Hello! You're listening to Honey FM, this is Min Yoongi, your usual host! What is your song request, young man?“ you hear the smooth, honey voice calling from the radio.

You are currently sitting in your kitchen, eating your delicious lunch you've made yourself from the last bits stored in your fridge, hapilly watching people walk the street under your open window. The street is narrow, because the other apartement complex stands right in front of your window, but there's still plenty of people there as it's a short cut for people rushing to work.

„Hello! I'd like to request a song for this one girl who's always playing her radio super loud every sunday at this time. I'm pretty sure she's listening right now and eating her scrambled eggs.“ you hear other voice say. Perhaps you could say it sounded even more pleasent than the radio host's, but you swear to be faithful to the one and only Min Yoongi.

You look back to your plate of scrabled eggs and laugh. How ironic, it sounds just like you. Maybe that girl is your soulmate and you were destined to meet some day.

„Is there something you'd like to say to this girl?“ asks Yoongi, voice curious.

„Yeah, um.. No offence, but could you maybe turn it down a little? I live right opposite of you and it's slowly getting on my nerves.“ you hear and laugh out loud.

„Also, could you maybe look out your window to see me instead of laughing?“ his voice changes into irritated, but playful at the same time.

Out of curiosity, you look out your window as if the guy was talking to you to see a young man standing in the window opposide of yours with a phone pressed to his ear. You see him smirk and wave at you, making your heart jump.

„What song would you like me to play?“ asks Yoongi again as your eyes never leave the boy in the window.

„Could you maybe play Blueprint by Stray Kids? She seems to enjoy their music a lot.“ he giggles and your mind takes you back to all the times you've danced in your kitchen to their songs, singing your heart out. You suddenly feel red in your cheeks.

„Coming right at you! Did you hear him girl? Tone it down a little! But only after listening to this song requested only and only for you.“ Yoongi's voice slowly trails off as the first tones of the song start playing, making you feel excited in your bones.

The boy only stares at you for a second before he slowly turns around with a huge smile and dissapeaes further into his own apartment.

„Hello! You're listening to Honey FM, this is Min Yoongi, your usual host! What is your song request?“

It's sunday and you're sitting in your kitchen eating lunch with your windows open and your radio on full volume again. You feel good, happy, even. The weather got warmer and it finally feels like summer.

„Hi! I'd like to request a song for the girl blasting her radio again, because it seems she didn't learn her lesson from last week!“ you hear a familiar voice call out, making you snap your head and look out your window.

„Poor girl! Well, could you blame her? At least she's having fun. What song are we playing for her?“

„I think she hates metal music, so I'm requesting Enter Sandman by Metallica, hope she turns it down this time.“ he laughs and you see him smile in the window. His plan is evil, but he sure does not look evil at all. His smile could light up the world and you swear you feel your lips turn upwards to mirror his.

„Here you go then! Girl in the window, don't dissapoint the poor boy again!“ you hear Yoongi say and you face palm as you see the boy put a winning fist up in the air.

But to tease him even more, you don't turn down the music. You stand up and dance along instead, your whole performance being watched by a smiling boy with sparkling eyes in the window opposite of yours.

„Hello! You're listening to Honey FM, this is Min Yoongi, your usual host! May I ask your song request?“

„Hey! It's me again, I'm calling for the third time in a row now. I'd like to request a song for the girl in the window, like always. It seems that this is our only way of communication because I'm not going to act like Taylor Swift in that one music video, if you know what I mean, but I'd like to tell her that her pancakes are burning.“ a familiar voice says and you panic.

You've been so immersed in the music, you haven't noticed that in a few moments, your whole kitchen could be on fire because you've forgotten about your pancake.

You swiftly take a spatchula and flip the pancake, face palming yourself in the process and giggling a little at the black color of the pancake. You surely aren't going to eat this one.

„Girl! Be more careful while cooking, I know our music occupies your mind a lot, but make sure this poor boy doesn't have to call fire-fighters instead. Anyways, what song are we playing for the nifty girl?“ Yoongi's voice is full of enthusiasm and joy, it seems like he enjoys the ever occuring calls he gets from the boy every sunday.

„Let's play her Banana pancakes by Jack Johnson, so she doesn'g forget about hers again,“ he snickers and you feel your cheeks burning a little again.

The song starts after a while and you can't help but smile the whole time as you're making your pancakes, making sure not to burn any more of them, not knowingly being watched by the boy matching your food choice in the window opposite of yours.

You're pacing in your kitchen, changing your clothes every few minutes. The radio is loudly playing, but you're hardly paying any attention to it with the fragile mental stabillity you're in right now.

„Hello! You're listening to Honey FM, this is Min Yoongi, your usual host! What is your song request today?“

„Hi! It's me again. I'd like to say something to the girl in the window. Umm.. I don't know where you're going, but you look beautiful so please stop worrying and changing every few minutes.“ he softly laughs and makes you stop in your tracks.

You slowly look out of the window and see him there, in gray sweatpants and a black over-sized t-shirt. He's holding a coffe cup in one hand and his phone in the other, but his gaze is focused only on you.

„You hear him, girl? Stop worrying. But what if she's going on a date, though?“ asks Yoongi and you feel your cheeks burning as if you were caught.

„I hope she has fun, then!“ he says and you see him smile, but it doesn't really reach his eyes as it always does.

„What song are you requesting for her?“

„I don't know, man. What makes you beautiful by One direction? It kinda fits the mood right now.“ he cracks up and his eyes crincle at the corners along with his nose, making him look like an adorable bunny.

„One direction it is. Have fun, girl!“ you hear Yoongi say and even if you were supposed to leave right now, you don't. You stay in your kitchen and listen to the song the sweet boy requested for you, because there's just something about him that makes you want to stay.

After the song ends, you leave. You don't see the boy silently watching your steps through the window.

„Hello! You're listening to Honey FM, this is Min Yoongi, your usual host! What song may I play for you?“

You quietly listen to the radio and watch people with blurry eyes. It's raining and everyone's running home with umbrellas over their heads. You slowly move your gaze at the glass of wine you're holding in your hands and finish it.

„Hey Yoongi, it's me again. I'd like to request for the girl in the window, because she seems a little sad today. I don't know what happened, but I want to cheer her up a little.“

„I'm so sorry to hear that. What song are we playing for her?“

„It's Promise by Park Jimin. This song means a lot to me and I hope she'll feel a little better after hearing it.“ he mumbles.

„Cheer up, girl from the window!“ says Yoongi before the music starts.

The sound of rain blends a little with the words of the song, but you don't dare to look at him through the window as your sobs only pick on their intensity. You clench the empty glass of wine in your hands and helplessly try to catch air.

But when you finally stop after a while and look out the window, you see his face in the dark apartment, still watching you. You snicker at the realisation that this poor boy cares more about you than the guy you went on a date with last week ever did.

„Hello! You're listening to Honey FM, this is Min Yoongi, your usual host! What can I play for you?“

„Hey! It's me again!“

„Hey! Is the girl from the window feeling any better?“ asks Yoongi and you feel your lips quietly turn into a smile.

„I hope she is! Anyways, I'm requesting a song for her today because I just felt like it, you know. I have nothing on my mind right now that I want to say to her, just that I'll enjoy the song with her.“ he says and you look out the window to see him already standing there.

„What song is it than?“

„It's Fancy by TWICE. I hope you dance with me, window girl!“

The song starts playing and you see him slowly start moving into the rythm as he begins to dance. His dance moves are really silly and you can't help but mirror them as you giggle at him.

The tones of the music are so carefree and you feel like you never want to stop dancing. With him.

„Hello! You're listening to Honey FM, this is Min Yoongi, your usual host! What is your song request today?“

„Hey! It's me again. It's the last time I'm going to call, I promise.“ your breath hitches upon hearing these words.

„And why is that?“ even Yoongi sounds a little sad to lose his stable caller.

„Well, you see… I kinda have a crush on the girl from the window and I can't stop thinking about her recently, so I'm shooting my shot today. I know you're listening, so, if you wanna, we can meet in front of your apartment complex. And maybe go for a lunch. If you want…“ he trails off and your heart picks up on speed.

„This is so sweet of you! I'm glad I can be the help to pass the message. What song are we playing as the last one from your journey?“

„It's Our Summer by Tomorrow x Together, because when I see her, it truly feels like summer every time.“ he softly laughs.

„Okay! So, the girl from the window, we know you're listening! You have an only chance to meet your admirer, so after the song ends, don't waste any time in running out of your apartment complex and meet him!“ says Yoongi and the song softly starts playing.

„I'm glad I could witness this romance bloom, kids.“ you hear him fake-crying as his voice dissapears entirely and the song plays on full volume.

Any other time, you wouldn't leave without listening to the song the boy requested for you, but today, you have no time to waste.

You take your keys and run out of the apartment complex only in your flip-flops, not even bothering to turn off the radio. You see him standing there right after you open the glass door.

His smile only grows wider as you cut the short distance and run into him, finding your place right in his arms.

You feel his hands gently squeezing your waist as he puts his head on your shoulder, breathing in your scent.

You hear his muffled voice as the soft tones of the song coming from your window make you feel truly special.

„I'm Jungkook, by the way.“

„Hello! You're listening to Honey FM, this is Min Yoongi, your usual host! What song can I play for you?“

„Hey! My name is is Jungkook and I'd like to request a song for my wonderful girlfriend, because it's our anniversery today.“ you hear the voice of your boyfriend coming from the radio as you watch him in the window waving at you with a huge grin on your face.

„That's wonderful! How did you two guys meet?“ asks Yoongi with curiosity.

„Well, actually, I requested a song for her over here every sunday for a month a year ago.“ explains Jungkook and you can't help but laugh out loud at how ridicilous it sounds.

„Oh my God! Is this for the girl in the window?“ gasps your favorite radio host as the realisation hits him.

„Yes! Do you remember us?“

„Of course! What song can I play for you two?“

„It's the same song as the last time I called, because it was the song I heard while something new and wonderful was only at the beginning. So, I'd like to hear Our Summer by TXT again.“

„Sure! Any other words you'd like to say to your girlfriend?“

„Yeah… Y/N, I love you! And don't forget to be out in 5 minutes so we can leave for our lunch." he giggles as the song starts and you can no longer deny it, the boy from the window truly cares for you the most.

[crazy-loca-blog]

Casey Valentine: About Her Present

A/N: Did the inspiration suddenly hit me after I had no idea what to do about this because I had never thought about it before? It did. Set somewhere between the end of Book 3 and right after it just because otherwise I wouldn't have had things to say about Casey's future. Part of the @openheartfanfics "Meet My MC" event.

Meet My MC || About Her Past

If Casey had to describe her three-year residency at Edenbrook, she'd say it's been intense, life-changing and unexpected. Time went by so fast and so many things happened in so little time, that quite often she still thinks all of this is just a dream.

Sometimes she still doesn't believe that she survived a betrayal, a trial, and an assasination attempt. She could even write a book about it, but keeping some of these stories to herself and the people around her seems wiser.

She passed her boards with flying colors and now she's ready to face a new challenge: becoming the new head of the Diagnostics Team. Ethan offered her the job after he was offered the Chief of Medicine position by Naveen, and even though at first she didn't know what to answer, she knew that Ethan would have never offered her the position if he considered her incapable of excelling at it.

And you can tell she already has a lot of plans for the team, even though none of them implies filling the spot that she'll leave. The work dynamic with Harper and Tobias is amazing, and they all think they don't need another member at the moment.

She's also glad that her salary will allow her to get rid of her med school debt sooner than she expected, even though she knows what she'll do with part of her first payment: she'll get Esme a ticket to visit her parents in El Salvador. This is something she's been thinking about since she knew her story. She knows how it feels growing up without parents, so if she can make a difference on the life of her intern, she will.

The only condition for her to accept her new position as head of the team was to be able to set some time apart to work in the free clinic. This is one of the most rewardings experiences for her and it reminds her why she decided to become a doctor in the first place, so she doesn't want to lose that.

When Casey first arrived in Boston, it was all about the medicine. She wanted to learn from the best. Little did she know that the same guy she admired as a doctor would become the love of her life.

Everything began as a mentor and mentee relationship, but after a few months it became something else. And it's been that way for the last three years.

Their relationship has been... interesting, to say the least. They both had different reasons to fight their feelings for each other (Ethan's morals on one side, and Casey's previous heartbreaks on the other side), but apparently when two people are meant to be, things are just inevitable. And they seem to be inevitable.

After the longest time and many highs and lows, they made things official a few weeks ago. And they're over the moon about this. Casey doesn't remember being this happy before.

However, she wants to do things right this time. She has always felt her previous relationships failed because she made too many impulsive and bad decisions, and she really wants things to work this time... mostly because she has recently discovered admitted to herself that this is the first time that she is completely and utterly in love.

Yeah, she thought she had been in love before... but after meeting Ethan and understanding her feelings towards him, she just knew she had been so wrong in the past! She never felt like this about anyone before.

Do people talk about them? All the time. Does she care? Not at all. She felt uncomfortable about rumors at first, but Casey knows that people have been talking about them for the last three years, and she doesn't care anymore. She's just too busy trying to be happy to care about what people say about them.

However, to avoid any potential conflicts at work, they both have decided to keep their relationship as private as possible. And so far it's working.

If Casey learned something about friendship during her residency, is that you never know when someone may betray you. Luckily, she has few friends, but they're the best.

Luckily, they all happen to be brilliant in their areas of expertise, so they all are geting great job offers to stay in Boston. And none of them is planning to leave.

This is awesome for several reasons, but mainly because they don't need to find a new place to live or a new roomie, which is a relief for everyone, and because they won't need to schedule annual reunions to catch up on their lives... they can keep having their daily or weekly ones.

She is also lucky to keep working with people she admires a lot: Tobias and Harper. She still can't consider them her friends, but they're certainly on their way to become more than colleagues.

Outside Edenbrook, Casey also keeps in touch with her med school besties: Tracy and Lauren. They both are doing their residencies at Mayo Clinic, so the chances they visit each other any time soon are very low. However, Facetime helps them to keep in touch at least once a week... and Tracy is getting married very soon in New York, so Casey is counting the days to see her girls after all this time (maybe she should tell them that now she might be taking a plus one with her?).

Even though the original plan was that Oliver would be going to Boston with Casey, things changed after grandma Marie passed away and Oliver decided to stay back home.

The twins had never been apart, so this has been a whole new experience for them. Not only it has helped them to become their own person, but now their relationship is stronger than ever.

They keep in touch on a daily basis. They don't talk on the phone often, but they are constantly messaging each other during the day.

Oliver also visits her every two or three months. And Casey's heart feels so full of love when his brother has the chance to share with her extended family, just because they all get along really well. In fact, they've already set a tradition: every time that Oliver is in town, they make plans to spend a day at Martha's Vineyard.

Casey goes back to Virginia every summer; however, the end of her her residency might mean that this is the last time in a while that she'll be able to spend more than two weeks at home. But that's okay... as long as she has a few days to recharge her energy by being in touch with nature and with her roots, she'll survive.

Of course, she's dying to take her friends there. Ethan has already visited and he won't admit it yet, but he's become a fan of that place. He completely gets why Casey loves it so much.

The idea of returning home after the end of her residency was tempting, Casey actually considered it at some point, but she'd be lying to herself if she says her heart is not in Boston.

Going from Virginia to Massachussets was a 180 degree change in Casey's life. She traded the mountains, the lakes and the river for skyscrapers, Seaport and Boston Common. Of course, this also meant making some life adjustments and discovering new hobbies.

She finally managed to balance work and life (something that had been impossible at med school). And even though Donahue's is the place to go after the long shifts, brunch on weekends with the gang are definitely her favorites.

Bryce, Rafael, and Ethan introduced her to the gym life at Edenbrook. At first, she only trained with the guys, but now she goes a lot by herself too, especially when she feels too stressed or when she needs to disconnect from the world. However, when it comes to release anger, boxing with Jackie is most definitely the option at the top of her list.

Sienna has taught her the art of vision boards to achieve her goals, but she's far from mastering it. in fact, any person who sees her vision boards would think they were made by a 5 year old kid. At least she tries (and she may even have reached a goal or two).

She also volunteers with Rafael once a week at his community center, even though she still can't learn how to dance samba. Sometimes, they also recruit interns, residents and attendings to perform some routine health checks to whoever wants them. These events are a hit... handsy Henrietta can't deal with so many hot doctors at the same time!

Life has taught her a lot since she arrived in Boston. Third-year resident Casey is a completely different person than the girl who assisted a thoracotomy on her first day at Edenbrook.

Luckily she hasn't stopped being her best self; however, after the incident, she felt that life was giving her a second chance. And she's been making the most of it since then.

She has everything to be happy: a dream job, the best brother in the world, a group of friends that became her extended family, and a "new" boyfriend who has been with her through thick and thin during the last three years.

She still deals with some PTSD, but a good therapy and understanding that this is perfectly normal while trying to learn to deal with it helps a lot.

Now she's ready to make a real difference in health care, the one that she dreamed about making in her intern year.

Tags: @adiehardfan @izzyourresidentlawyer

[erenenthusiast]

In that 2016 interview, Isayama spoke of Eren and Mikasa's eventual separation being ideological: 'If I were to draw the separation of Eren and Mikasa... Mikasa would have to endure the strain of being stuck between Eren and Armin. Even though she can sympathise with Armin, who considers things from a "globalism" perspective, it's possible that she can't just let the more self-focused Eren go'. This ideological separation begins the moment Eren defects from the SC. It's from this point onwards that EMA's paths truly begin to diverge, and Mikasa in particular is presented with a choice that she's never had to face before.

The choice she makes will most likely conclude Mikasa's character arc once and for all, and it's a choice that's been building since before the time-skip, represented by her interactions with two characters in particular:

1. Mikasa and Floch

At the award ceremony in Chapter 90, Floch points out something interesting about Mikasa in what is otherwise an easily overlooked moment in the manga. Although multiple people were present on the rooftop during Serumbowl, he is the only one to explicitly draw attention to the fact that Mikasa let go. She resigned herself to losing Armin because Hanji convinced her that Erwin was more important to humanity and Mikasa's grief at losing him was something that would pass.Floch sees this as maturity, but the realisation that she was willing to let Armin go for the sake of humanity is something that Mikasa is shocked by. It makes her falter, and let go of Eren.

Mikasa has always defined herself as Armin and Eren's protector; she's presented in the story as such, and she styles herself as such. She's the one who keeps Eren and Armin safe. But Floch's words make her realise that, on the rooftop, she was able to step away from that role - because her world has expanded beyond Armin and Eren. It has expanded to include Hanji and Levi and the other Scouts - and humanity.

Mikasa is capable of making choices that hurt her deeply for the sake of a greater cause.

2. Louise and Mikasa

Louise meets Mikasa on three occasions. The first time, Louise tells Mikasa she likes her because Mikasa saved her, and gave her something to strive for: 'You can't save anyone without power. It's okay for us to fight against unjust violence. That's what I learned' (109). In the same way Eren 'gave' Mikasa a motto to live by, Mikasa gave one to Louise.

The second time, Louise tells Mikasa that she's happy to be by her side again, fighting for the same goal. Mikasa is ambivalent towards her. And she leaves her scarf behind, choosing to go and fight the titans without it.

In between the second and third meetings, Mikasa talks to Armin. When Mikasa asks what should be done about Eren, Armin replies (due to bottling up stress and frustration) that there's nothing to be done and he doesnt know. After Armin leaves, Mikasa notices that the scarf is missing, and goes to retrieve it.

The third and last time they meet, Louise is dying. She tells Mikasa that Eren wanted her to throw the scarf away, but she thought that she could take it to be close to Mikasa. Though she appears to sympathise with Louise's plight, Mikasa demands the scarf back from her. She walks away from Louise even as Louise tells her that she had no regrets, because she chased after Mikasa, devoting her heart.

Each meeting between Louise and Mikasa mirrors, in an abbreviated way, the different stages Eren and Mikasa's relationship has gone through. 1: Louise's initial love and gratitude, and her taking Mikasa as an inspiration; 2: their fighting side by side as equals; and, finally, 3: their literal separation as Mikasa chooses to walk away.

Mikasa never seeks to stop Louise from talking about her feelings; instead, she listens. She might not reciprocate, but she does understand. She walks away, but she takes the scarf with her. Despite what Armin said, and what Louise told her about Eren and the scarf, Mikasa chooses to keep a hold of it in the way she keeps a hold of the hope that Eren can still be brought back.

Mikasa is capable of holding on to the person she loves even when he's gone too far.

Mikasa Chooses... Mikasa

Despite the apparently binary choice, Mikasa doesn't have to choose to side with Eren (allow the Rumbling to go ahead) or with the opt: kill Eren to stop him. She said it herself: there's a third option. Her way. Eren's wandered so far down his path that he's lost sight of Mikasa and of Armin; of what connects him to the world. Mikasa chooses, not to support him or to believe that he's a lost cause, but to remind him that walking away from his humanity doesn't mean that he can't turn around and walk back.

Kruger said 'Anyone can become a god or a devil. All it takes is for someone to claim it for it to be true' (88). But if there's someone to challenge that belief, then the possibility remains of breaking the facade and setting the story straight - thereby freeing that person from the role they've either taken on out of necessity, or been assigned. It's something we've already seen happen. All it takes is for one person to question it, and the goddess falls apart to reveal an empty, unloved young girl, or the devil's mask cracks open to show the boy still grieving for the world he's lost.

Ymir knows that Historia's faking it; Mikasa knows that Eren is kind. Each of them challenges the story that their loved one is telling in order to keep going: Historia to survive, Eren to achieve his dream.

It took Mikasa years to truly overcome the cruelty she had seen as a child. Despite everything, she did, in the end, go back to being that 'ordinary girl'. She came to acknowledge that cruelty exists, as does death - but life must nevertheless be lived, people loved, experiences had, and faith kept. Seeing the beauty in a world that is inherently cruel is, and always has been, Mikasa's greatest strength. It's something she is capable of offering Eren, who no longer seems to believe in that duality, or in his own humanity. She can show him what he showed her; that the world isn't black or white, cruel or beautiful, dark or light. It's both. And it's possible to live with that.

Conclusion

Mikasa is fighting to prevent a massacre and stop eren. She's the person best suited to do that not only because she's his family, but because Eren's despair and anger at the world is what she might have ended up with herself. If any character could have become as bitter about the world as him, it was Mikasa. But he stopped that from happening because his kindness showed her that the world, as bad as it was, had good in it.

Little by little, Eren's abandoned that view of the world himself. He no longer sees both its beauty and its cruelty, but has confined himself to seeing - and acting on - only one. When they fought Annie in Stohess, Mikasa had to remind Eren that the world was cruel, because Eren had lost sight of that truth. Now, Eren's lost sight of another, equally valid truth; that the world, as cruel as it is, is also beautiful. That he, as inhuman as he thinks he is, is also kind.

If Mikasa manages to 'bring Eren back', she'll have come full circle. She started off as a little girl who was seeking something, anything, to hold on to. She needed a saviour, and she got one in the form of Eren. In this scenario, she'll end as a saviour herself, someone who is now able to pass on the light that she once received. Her fear of the world and of losing her loved ones subsided; she managed to find the warmth she needed to carry on.

( analyst: u/lemmesay1stupidthing on reddit. I edited tho but it's by them)

[crazy-loca-blog]

Meet My MC: Dr. Casey Valentine

A/N: The original base template belongs to @jamespotterthefirst. I added some extra items to it.

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Casey's Bio

Book: Open Heart

Full Name: Casey Marie Valentine

Face Claim: Emilia Clarke

Nicknames: Ethan used to call her "Rookie" during her intern year, but then it evolved to just Casey and now she doesn't actually have a nickname.

Birthday: December 4

Sexual orientation: She considers herself straight, but she believes in sexual fluidity

Love Interest(s):  Ethan Ramsey (husband)

Kids: None (yet)

Hair: Brown, usually long hair. Sometimes she'll take risks and you may see her hair shorter and/or lighter, but she is a proud brunette.

Eyes: Green

Height: 5'7"

Hometown: Abingdon, Virginia

Education: Internal medicine / Duke University

Occupation: Head of the Diagnostics Team at Edenbrook Hospital

Family: Maggie and Tom Valentine (parents, dead), Marie Smith (grandmother, dead), Oliver Valentine (twin brother, alive)

Personal motto: "If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain"

Background: Casey and her brother Oliver were born and raised in a small town. They lived a happy and very normal childhood, until Maggie and Tom, their parents, died in a car accident when the twins were 7 years old. After the accident, the Valentine's siblings were raised by their grandma Marie, who passed away about a month before Casey began her residency at Edenbrook.

Personality traits: She is a very private person, but she's also passionate about her patients and about the things and the people that matter to her. She is a team player (especially when it comes to work, she loves recognizing her peers work, from doctors to nurses, paramedics and even security) and she is a fighter. She also considers herself a nerd and she's proud of it.

On the relationship with her brother: Both Oliver and Casey have always felt it's them against the world. They're not only siblings and the only family they both have left, but they're also best friends. They've always faced life together and they fully support each other on everything they do, so even though being apart while Casey was doing her residency in Boston was not an ideal situation, they both knew it was necessary for her to develop her full potential as a doctor. Oliver couldn't be more proud of his sister.

On her love life: Her experience when it comes to relationships is not the best. No matter how she acts regarding the relationship, she always ended up being hurt. By the time she was accepted at Edenbrook, she had been single for two years and she had completely given up on love. When she met Ethan, one of the things that surprised her the most was how they shared the same vision on marriage and kids (of course, she has her own troubled past), and when she began developing feelings for him (she fought her feelings for Ethan just as much as he did!), she began to wonder if she had actually been in love before meeting him.

On her parents accident: Casey's parents were on their way to pick Casey and Oliver from grandma Marie's house when some driver (who was apparently drunk) crashed their car after running a red light. The responsible managed to escape, and there were no witnesses, so there was no one to call the 911 until a few minutes later. This meant that the EMT and first responders arrived when it was already too late to save them. The fact that they died because they didn't receive medical care on time kind of stuck with little Casey, who promised herself that she would become a doctor to do anything to prevent people from dying for not receiving the care they needed when they needed it.

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12 Random Facts on Casey

Casey and Oliver don’t have nicknames because grandma Marie HATED them. She always said they had names for a reason, and that they had to respect their parents’ wishes.

Casey was always a good student because she genuinely loved learning new things and her sense of curiosity demanded her to keep learning. The good grades were just an added bonus.

She wasn't popular in high school, but she wasn't at the bottom of the popularity list either. She was a low profile student, but she loved participating in different extracurricular activities, so that led her to meet a lot of people.

Bryce has never understood why he loses every time that he challenges Casey to a basketball match. What he doesn’t know is that Casey actually played basketball since she was a kid and until she graduated from high school.

She isn't a big fan of parties. She likes attending one once in a while, but she is definitely happier when staying at home or at a bar or a restaurant with a group of friends sharing some good conversation. She also hates getting drunk because it makes her feel she's not in control of herself, so she most definitely stops after the second or the third drink (as soon as she begins to feel tipsy).

She knows how to drive, but she hates it, so she avoids it like the plague. She'll always prefer using the subway.

She has always felt she had to grow up too fast after her parents' accident, so even though she was always surrounded by love, she feels she never lived her childhood to the fullest after her parents died.

When she was 16, she had one of her ovaries removed due to cysts. In order to protect her only ovary left, she has to permanently be on the pill. This also means that the chances for her to get pregnant are pretty much a Russian roulette. She must plan her pregnancies and she may have no issues getting pregnant, but there is also a real chance that she may have fertility issues or an ectopic pregnancy. So Casey pretty much forced herself to forget about the idea of becoming a mom.

When talking about her love life, Oliver and Casey have always had this discussion on whether she had two, “two and a half” or three relationships before meeting Ethan. She did have two serious relationships, but the third one... debatable.

She claims she didn't google Ethan during her university years because she didn't care about him, but only about his book. Then, when she was admitted to Edenbroook, she refused to google him to see his picture, claiming that "she wanted the knowledge to do all the talking".

Grandma Marie was the person who gave Casey her copy of Ethan Ramsey's book. Casey used to borrow the book from the library for her own investigations for the advanced biology class in her senior year in high school, but she always complained that she couldn't make notes in the book. So grandma Marie decided to give her the book as a Christmas present to give her one final push to convince her to go to medical school. A few days before Marie died, Casey gave her the news that she had been accepted at Edenbrook to work with Ethan.

She decided not to change her last name after marrying Ethan. It was important for her to keep it because it’s one of the few things she has left of her parents, so it has some great sentimental value. When she told Ethan about it, he just said “I’d hate for you to change your last name just for some stupid, old-fashioned and sexist tradition, especially when you’ve made yourself a name on medicine with your maiden name”.