#but he ultimately chose duty over her

[elfyourmother]

All the Holy See exalted him Thordan VII, Refulgent Hoplon of the Fury. But before he was the Fury's, he was mine--my Marcellain. And I loved him more than aught under all heaven and earth save one--the babe with his eyes. But I do not Halone, no; twas cruel Man who took them both from me, not Her.

[spacerockfloater]

The way people switched on Tamlin the moment Rhys was introduced is diabolical.

“Tamlin never really loved Feyre, it was all a trick from the start”: It is stated that Tamlin was disgusted by the idea of forcing someone to fall in love with him and considered it slavery, but ended up being so in love with her that he ultimately lets her go and choses her freedom and safety over that of his own people. Rhys confirms that Tamlin loved Feyre too much. And he loved her truly. Not because he had to. Tamlin treated Feyre with dignity when she was engaged to him. He introduced her as his lady, to be respected and cherished by all. And she really was loved by his people, too. Rhysand uses her as his lap dog to scare Hewn City and parades her as his whore.

“Tamlin never did anything for Feyre, he just used her”: He improved her and her family’s life in every aspect and offered her everything he had.

“Tamlin had sex with someone else in Calanmai”: Out of duty and responsibility because he didn’t want to force Feyre, who still wasn’t sure about her feelings, into it. All of the High Lords perform the Calanmai. Lucien says so. How convenient that this is never brought up with Rhysand. He surely does perform it as well. All the theories in here, “Lucien doesn’t know what he’s talking about/ This is a SC ritual only/ He probably just passes the duty on to someone else” are just a way for people to villainise Tam and glorify Rhys again. All of them inaccurate. The Calanmai is canonically performed by every High Lord. There’s no evidence that proves otherwise. As the son of one High Lord and the ambassador of another, Lucien would know. He is 500 years old. It’s just more convenient for SJM to never bring this up again because it raises the question of “Who was Rhysand fucking all these years?” and it makes her favourite character look bad. And once he is engaged to her, Tamlin flat out refuses to do it. Let’s be real for a second.

“Tamlin didn’t help Feyre under the mountain”: He literally could not. He was bound by a curse. He was forced to be Amarantha’s consort and a consort cannot oppose you. His powers were bound. Alis warns Feyre that Tamlin will not be able to help her. Stop acting as if he didn’t want to help her. He decapitated Amarantha the moment he got his autonomy back. Claiming that there’s no proof that Tamlin was under the influence of a spell when he literally didn’t break the curse and Amarantha’s magic didn’t allow him to use his powers is crazy. And even if he tried, he could never provide actual help. We see this when he begs Amarantha for Feyre’s life. Him showing he cares about her would only make Amarantha more jealous and vicious towards Feyre.

“Tamlin made out with Feyre instead of helping her”: He couldn’t help her run away. No one could do that. She would never make it, Amarantha would find her. In fact, Tamlin specifically could not help her in any way. He could only assure her he still wants and loves her. And she wanted that just as much. Rhys abused her physically, mentally, verbally, drugged her and much worse. And he enjoyed all of it. If he didn’t want to raise suspicions, he wouldn’t have placed a bet in her favour. Rhys is a sadist, SJM just decided to mellow him down in the next book so that we’d all like him over Tamlin.

“Tamlin ignored Feyre’s wishes and only wanted her to be his bride, he didn’t let her be High Lady”: Both Tamlin and Feyre were bad communicators going though trauma and Tam had a whole court to care for. Tamlin was unaware of how Feyre felt because she barely spoke up once. Rhys knew because he literally lived inside her head and had all the time in the world to focus his attention on her since his court suffered zero consequences during Amarantha’s reign. And Tamlin simply told her the truth: there’s no such thing as High Lady. Even her current title is given to her by Rhys, the magic of Prythian has not actually chosen her to be High Lady. The title and its power are decorative. And she said she didn’t want that anyway.

“Tamlin locks Feyre up and uses his magic to harm her”: He locks her in his humongous palace to keep her safe, after she just came back from the dead and his worst enemy is kidnapping her every month, while he runs off to protect his borders. Rhysand locks Feyre in a fucking bubble. Tamlin loses control of his magic. He doesn’t want to harm her. That’s not abuse. Abuse is intentional. Feyre and Rhysand lock Lucien and Nesta up. They lock the people of the Hewn City up in a cave. Feyre loses control of her magic and harms Lucien’s mother. Double standards I guess.

“Tamlin is a bad and conservative ruler”: Tamlin is such a beloved ruler that his sentries literally begged to die for him. Feyre had to fuck with their minds to finally turn them against him. They were his friends. He was so progressive that the lords fled his court once he became their ruler because he wouldn’t put up with their bullshit like his father did. He loved all of his people. He is against slavery. The Tithe was just tax collection. Rhysand practically rules over just one city, while ignoring Hewn City and Illyria. He treats 2/3 of his realm like shit and everyone except the residents of Velaris hates him. He collects tax, too, but we conveniently never see this. He ranks the members of his inner circle (my 1st, my 2nd etc.) and reminds them every moment that they are his slaves first and anything else second, while Tamlin treats them equally and even gives Lucien an official title by naming him Ambassador.

“Tamlin conspired with Hybern”: He was a double agent and his short lived alliance, two weeks all in all, not only didn’t harm a single soul, but ultimately saved all of Prythian as he was the only one who brought valuable information to that meeting. He dragged Beron to battle. Rhysand’s alliance with Amarantha harmed thousands and only helped save one city, Velaris.

“Tamlin is responsible for turning Nesta and Elain into Fae”: No, that was Ianthe, who got the info from Feyre. Tamlin was fooled by her, just as Feyre obviously was, or she wouldn’t have trusted her. Tamlin was disgusted by that act.

“Tamlin is less powerful than Rhysand”: Rhysand himself says that a battle between them would turn mountains to dust. Tamlin killed Rhysand’s dad, the previous High Lord of the Night Court, in one blow. He is just as powerful as Rhysand. SJM again just wants us to believe otherwise. And he is smarter, too. He was the only one not to trust Amarantha. And he was a good spy for Prythian against Hybern.

All of these takes are cold as fuck. SJM was testing the waters with ACOTAR and she made sure the main love interest, Tamlin, was insanely likeable, so that the book could be a satisfactory standalone story in case she couldn’t land a trilogy deal. She didn’t know it would be such a big hit. But once she realised she could turn this into a franchise, she had to figure out a new story to tell. She may claim otherwise, but there’s just too many plothotes to convince me. And in order to make her new main love interest seem like the best choice, she had to character assassinate the old one. There was no other way. ACOTAR Rhys was too much of an evil monster to be loved by the majority of the audience. But Tamlin was introduced to us as such a heroic and passionate man that is literally impossible to turn him into someone despised by all. Feyre’s relationship with Rhysand reads too much like cheating on Tamlin. That’s why anyone with basic analytical skills is able to realise the flaws of the narration.

[forleavingscenes]

Police response to the Charleston church shooting and Dylann Roof's arrest

After leaving Mother Emanuel AME church at 9:07 p.m. on June 17, 2015, Dylann was surprised to see that no police had shown up to the church, as he later claimed that his plan was to shoot himself when the cops showed up and ultimately chose not to kill himself before he was caught because he “decided that it’s just a bad idea”. Evidence taken from his GPS shows that he traveled for 20 miles along I-26 to Branch AME Church in Summerville, which also holds a bible study every Wednesday night. Dylann did not stop at the church and said in his interrogation that the reason he didn’t go to another church is because he was “worn out”

For several hours, the only description given of Dylann was “younger white male, approximately 5’9”, slender build”, as well as two photos of him entering the church, his ID photo, and two photos taken from facebook. This vague description was what led Austin Rich, a photographer from Charleston who happened to be wearing a similar outfit to Dylann's, to be arrested under the impression that he was the shooter.

From Austin Rich's Facebook: “Tonight as many of you may already know I was detained as a suspect for the shooting that took place on downtown Charleston. I want to assure everyone that I am safe and innocent. I was interviewing strangers at the scene when I was mistaken as the shooter because of my grey t shirt, black pants and tan shoes. I was told to get on the ground with my hands up. I laid on my stomach, gently placing my camera on the ground. The officers rushed over to handcuff me. I told them to please be easy with my camera and gear as they picked me up off the ground. I understand that the officers were simply doing their job and they did it well. I was compliant and escorted across the street, to the Marriott Courtyard Hotel and then questioned. I gave them the details of where I was and who I was with. They asked several questions, checked my phone records and told me I was clear to go. I am thankful for the professionalism of the officers on duty.”

At 10:30 p.m., someone claiming to be the killer called a local TV station to claim that he placed a bomb near the church, which would detonate at 11 p.m. However, when the area was checked, no explosives were found, and investigators were cleared to go back inside by 11:30. 

The next morning at 5:50 a.m., Dylann went to a Shell gas station in Charlotte, North Carolina. He used the ATM by the door and went inside to buy a bottle of water and a bag of Doritos. The employees didn’t recognize him and thought of him as just being a “polite, quiet guy”.

A few hours later, a woman named Debbie Dills spotted Dylann’s car while she was on her way to work. She then called her boss, who then called the police, to confirm that it was Dylann. Police quickly caught up to Dylann and pulled him over at a traffic stop in Shelby, North Carolina (Dylann later said that he was on his way to Nashville, Tennessee). He rolled down his window, told the police that the gun was in the backseat, and let the police frisk and handcuff him without resisting. He was finally arrested at 10:44 a.m., 13 hours and 37 minutes after he left the church. He was then brought to the police station, where he would be brought a meal from Burger King after he said he had only eaten the bag of chips he bought that morning (Note: many people claim that Dylann was brought to BK before he was brought to the police station, which is not true. Bringing food to suspects is a very common interrogation technique, often to build rapport.) Shelby police Chief Jeff Ledford said “He was very quiet, very calm. He didn’t talk. He sat down here very quietly. He was not problematic.”

In the hours after Dylann’s arrest, vigils were held for the shooting. Vigils held at Allen Temple AME Church, West End Community Center, and Morris Brown AME Church all had false bomb threats anonymously called in and had to be evacuated.

At 7:28 p.m., Dylann was booked into Al Cannon Detention Center.

[princessmotif]

it's really interesting to me how you can tell the level of respect azula has for mai, ty lee, and zuko through how she directs them within the confines of the fire nation's expectations of them all.

azula is someone who really values and upholds the fire nation's expectations of conformity, especially in regards to court. she herself plays her part as she's expected to. she plays by the rules her father sets for her, parrots his beliefs, renames omashu "new ozai" for her father, tasks herself with finding the avatar (zuko's fool's errand) and conquering ba sing se (iroh's greatest military failure), and is consequently ultimately hurt and betrayed when her father punishes her despite this by refusing to let her come with him during sozin's comet and giving her a meaningless title to mollify her. to her, playing by the rules that are set out for them within the fire nation, whether spoken or not, is essential, and to not play by them results in punishment. this mindset was already instilled in her before zuko's agni kai, but it was no doubt fully solidified by witnessing her brother pay for his inability to play the role he was assigned as a dutiful son and strong heir.

as a result of this, zuko is the most obvious liability of the fire nation kids in azula's eyes. he has already failed to abide by the rules once and is likely to do so again if she doesn't stop him from doing so. make no mistake, azula does not want zuko to stumble again. she manipulates him into coming home despite his wavering resolve by reminding him of what he could have and what he's always wanted (their father's respect, his honor and birthright restored, the return of a feeling of normalcy/familiarity) because she loves her brother and wants him to play the role he's supposed to successfully. if she didn't love him, she could easily have taken him home as a prisoner like her father wanted her to initially or killed him. i won't even entertain the notion that she brought him home specifically to take the heat if the avatar wasn't really dead; that is a deeply stupid thing for her to do which would result in her judgment and honor being called into serious question as she's the one who vouched that zuko killed the avatar which would be a failure in her role as the dutiful daughter and honorable princess.

so azula appeals to zuko's weaknesses to get him home because she loves him. but she still doesn't respect him because of his prior failings, so she tries to keep him on the straight and narrow within the confines of their roles in the fire nation. she confronts him about visiting their disgraced uncle in prison, tells him his actions could be misconstrued (although she knows exactly how zuko means them; she wants to remind him to play his part or suffer the consequences once more). she shuts him up in war council meetings by speaking over him so that he won't say something that would result in their father punishing him once more. she attempts to prompt him into letting her know if they should be worried about the avatar still, although he doesn't confide in her since he doesn't trust her and instead takes matters into his own hands by hiring combustion man. azula does not threaten to harm zuko herself if he fails in his role; she instead manipulates him with her knowledge of his personality and reminds him of the harm that their father will cause him if he fails.

ty lee is another problem azula thinks she needs to solve. once more, she loves ty lee, but ty lee has shown azula that she is not a reliable person to play her role as she's meant to. azula believes ty lee's failure to be even worse than zuko's, though. zuko said the wrong thing in a war council meeting because he didn't understand the rules; ty lee understood the rules, and she chose to run away anyway. this is not just ty lee being oblivious, but her choosing to intentionally disobey the rules.

so when azula comes to collect ty lee to resume playing her role, azula is initially friendly, perhaps giving ty lee the benefit of the doubt that she might have wised up, but the moment ty lee demonstrates that she is still refusing to play by the rules azula is convinced they all have to play by, azula turns to manipulations and threats of harm to pull ty lee back into line. like with zuko, azula loves ty lee but does not respect her. she knows that ty lee will not play the role society says she must unless azula coerces her into doing so. unlike with zuko, ty lee does not require multiple corrections from azula. the threat of harm once is enough for ty lee to return to her duties. noticeably, ty lee also manipulates azula a lot when she does so, showcasing her awareness of the roles they're all playing and her ability to play with the best of them.

but mai is different from zuko and ty lee. azula both loves and respects mai. yes, azula has to go out of her way to collect mai as well, but mai has moved to omashu with her parents. she never stopped playing her role. azula does not believe mai would ever stop. she respects mai's intelligence in a way she doesn't with zuko and ty lee because mai respects the rules of the game. so azula not only never utilizes threats or manipulation with mai, but she treats mai as almost an equal and allows mai to treat her as an equal. she asks mai to come along with her, and mai agrees. she promotes mai to a position of power above that of her parents, and mai obliges. she says that the trade of bumi for tom-tom is unfair, and mai calls it off. but it's not only when mai plays by the rules of the game that azula respects her and does not threaten or manipulate her to keep her in line. even when mai blatantly disobeys azula's orders, azula allows it. even when mai screams at her during the beach, azula allows it. mai knows that azula will allow it, too. she openly scoffs at the idea of azula lightningbending at her. why? because azula respects mai and her judgment. she sees mai as an equal because mai plays the game as well as azula does, including her moments of rebellion (this is undoubtedly what azula disobeying ozai by bringing zuko home under false pretenses and directly lying to him is, albeit a much higher stake rebellion than mai's refusal to search the sewers).

notably, while azula declares her intent to kill zuko after he commits treason and tells ozai that she lied to him, even when mai and ty lee take the ultimate step out of line with their roles, she doesn't allow them to be executed. i say "allow" here because she's not the fire lord, so it wouldn't be her personal decree to have them executed but rather her father's. they committed high treason. they not only aided and abetted in a prison break and the escape of some of the fire nation's most wanted but physically attacked a member of the royal family and the crown princess at that. this is a crime that's punishable by death, and yet mai and ty lee stay in their cells in boiling rock, seemingly unharmed given mai's unscathed appearance at the end of sozin's comet. ozai would have no reason to not simply execute them, but azula would since she loves them. it's entirely possible, she was on some level holding onto hope that she could coach them back into line again somehow.

but why does she hope to rehabilitate or at least preserve her friends while aiming to kill zuko? it's pretty simple: when zuko failed to play his part he did so in a way that meant azula was punished for having failed in her role as the dutiful daughter and honorable princess because she chose to play a different role that she gained nothing from playing: the role of zuko's sister. so in azula's eyes, zuko went out of his way to not only lapse in his role as the dutiful son and strong heir but to purposefully fail to play the role of her brother in a way he knew would cause her harm. do mai and ty lee also fail to play the roles of her friends while instead revealing their loyalty to someone else entirely when they betray her? yes, but them doing so does not result in ozai's wrath.

[mytheoristavenue]

MHA Jester!Hanta Sero x Princess!Reader - Joke's on Me

Summary: Your jester, Sero, can't watch you continue on with your arranged marriage knowing he was your first love.

Warnings: Hard angst, faking a death, mentions of alcohol/intoxication, mentions of sex acts, tiny bit of fluff toward the end, jealousy, not proofread, toxic relationship

Obsidian eyes darted across the room, trailing your every move as you spun around the dance floor with your new fiance. Sero sat crumpled in the corner of the ballroom, a scowl on his face when he watched your nose scrunch with amusement. There you were, laughing at another man's jokes, in another man's arms as if you weren't in his hours before.

The pair of you always knew it'd come to this. It was your duty to marry a noble and birth an heir- it was inevitable. He simply chose to pretend the day would never come, he was too content with the way things were to acknowledge the reality that was just over the horizon.

His breath caught in his throat, back stiffening as he watched your soon-to-be husband, spin you around before dipping you, laying a kiss on your painted lips. The same painted lips that he'd stolen the first kiss off of long ago. Sero couldn't handle this anymore, the jealousy, the way you'd galavant around with this man, then lay down with him at night. He hated being your secret.

Finally, he dragged himself off the floor and dusted himself off, storming out of the ballroom, which did not go unnoticed by you. He'd prepared for this, the time was now, and he couldn't wait any longer. Seeing him walk off, you politely dismissed yourself from your fiance, following far behind.

Breaking through the door to his chambers, Sero made a beeline for his armoire, throwing the doors open, knowing exactly what he was looking for and where to find it. He hauled a decently sized suitcase out of the armoire and yanked a set of traveling robes off the shelf, throwing his jester's hood off his head. As he stripped, he tossed his motley on the cobblestone floor, ensuring to step on it as he slipped into something less attention-grabbing.

Meanwhile, you were wandering the castle's corridors, quietly calling out to him with gentle concern lacing your tone. Not finding him anywhere in the wing of the ballroom, you decided to check his chambers next, though you'd arrive much too late. "Hanta?" You asked, knocking as you pushed the heavy wooden door open. "Are you-" You paused, eyes falling to a pile of cloth on the ground, tangerine and black in color, scuffed with dirty bootprints. "Hanta!" you repeated, this time in a gasp as you took off down the hallway, heels clacking against the stone.

Sero halted in a cold sweat, hearing his first name echo through the castle walls. Only one person called him by his first name, and coincidentally, it was the one person he was trying to get away from- you. Ultimately, he decided to ignore it, sprinting down the stairs to the ground level of the building. He just had to get to the stables, then he'd have a way of escape. You couldn't catch up to him then.

Realizing your heels were slowing you down and what was at stake, you stopped, kicking out of your shoes and bunching up your gown into fistfuls before taking off again, running as fast as your sore feet would allow. "Hanta, wait, please!" You begged, now deep enough into the corridors to know only he could hear you. "Please, just talk to me!"

Your pleas struck him, sending a shiver down his spine, and for a moment, he did wait, his hands cradling a worn-out saddle. He quickly came to his senses, however, and resumed strapping it to his horse. "Hanta?" Your voice echoed again, this time errily closer. It unnerved him that you were blindly looking in the wrong direction. He had to leave- now.

With shaking hands, he hopped up, mounting the painted horse, taking the reigns, and leading her out of the stall. He was so close to freedom that he could nearly taste it. "H-Hanta, don't go!" Sero paled, hearing your voice so clearly now, knowing he was already within your line of site. His eyes darted between you over his shoulder and the open stable doorway. With a flick of the reigns and a kick to the horse's ribs, he bolted towards the exit.

In a panic, you sprinted in the direction he was heading, throwing yourself on the ground in front of the horse's path, forcing him to halt. "Your highness!" He shouted, frustrated as he yanked on the reigns, his desire for your safety outweighing his desire to be free of you.

"P-Please don't go!" You begged, tears streaming down your face as you stayed crumpled on the hay-covered floor, arm raised defensively in preparation to be trampled.

"My lady, stand aside," He said sternly, eyeing you from above.

"I won't!" You argued back, just as fiercely. "Not until you explain yourself!"

"I'm leaving, that is all the explanation you are entitled to." Truthfully, he would have loved to tell you why he was leaving. Maybe if he did, you'd finally understand the depths of his love for you and admit that you were his, but he knew that was a simple pipe dream.

"You are under the employ of this family and you will answer me!" You commanded, standing at last, covered in dirt, cheeks flushed with frustration.

"Banish me if you must," He sassed, with narrowed eyes, looking down his nose at you, fighting off the urge to tell you how beautiful you looked being disheveled in the moonlight. "I'll soon choose a life on the run than this torture."

"Torture?" You retorted, balling your fists. "Need I remind you how luxurious of a life you lead here? Servants don't tend to have private quarters, personal horses, and all the amenities of a royal, like you have!"

"I am no servant," He sneered, ready to hop down from his horse and throw you out of the way himself, onto a soft bed of hay of course, but nevertheless, you were testing his patience.

"And you are no noble either." You seethed back.

"An astute observation, princess," Sero said with a fake grin. "For if I were a nobleman, 'we'd already be wed', I believe those were your words, weren't they?"

"Bite your tongue, I'm warning you-"

"No," he finally snapped, totally fed up with you. Throwing his leg over, he slid down from the saddle and approached you with a furiousness that frightened you. "Just this once, I won't bite my tongue." He said roughly, grabbing you by the arm, his nails leaving imprints on your skin. "I am a man driven absolutely mad with an obsession for something I was not born with the right to claim. And despite this, the object of that obsession lets me claim her night after night. Have you any idea how that tears at me?"

"Hanta, unhand me!" You gasp, struggling against a tightening grasp.

"I will not!" He bellowed, leaning in, face inches from yours. "I have loved you since the day we met and if there is only one thing I know in my heart of hearts, it is that you love me too." You could do nothing but stay still in his grip, watching the clouds rolling in his stormy eyes.

"I-I will admit, you were my first love..." You confess nervously, but truthfully.

"And you are my only love," He interjected, his grasp loosening ever so slightly as his brows knitted upwards. "Princess, you are everything to me; the sun and moon, and every star in between. The thought of seeing you off with some spoiled boy whom you hardly know sickens me. I can't bear the thought of losing you."

"You wouldn't be losing anything, Hanta," You clarified softly, peeking up at him through your lashes. "I intend to bring you with me..."

Something about the way the words rolled off your tongue with such genuine ignorance of how selfish you sounded struck his final nerve. "I will never be your concubinus!" He suddenly shouted, tearing his grip away from you, balling his fists to his chest, afraid he may accidentally strike you. "You expect me to move into your husband's castle just to crawl into your bed while he is away?! And what then, will I do with my time while he is present? Can you answer me that, your majesty?"

His rejection of your proposal and the venom in his voice, made you shrink away, putting further distance between the two of you. "I-I... I hadn't thought about-"

"I'm just a joke to you, aren't I?" He suddenly asked, voice cracking as his anger finally broke into heartbreak. "I'm not your love, I'm simply a toy. My devotion to you and your happiness is a mere game. Every moment we shared, every poetic word, every sacred rendevous was just..."

"Hanta, you're wrong-" You tried, reaching out to him to wipe the tears from his cheek, but he smacked your hand away.

"My purpose in your life was always amusement." He croaked, voice strained with emotion as his obsidian eyes met yours, brimming with tears. "Along the way, I must have forgotten that and convinced myself that I truly mattered to you. That's my own fault, the joke is on me."

"That isn't true at all!" You finally manage to speak, shaking your head and stepping to him, cupping his cheeks in your hands. No longer did you have the compacity to be afraid of him as he stood in front of you, frozen and numb. "Hanta, the only bit that you've gotten correct is that I do love you and I have since I laid eyes on you! If I had any choice in this, you would be my husband, not anyone else!"

Although Sero had longed to hear these sentiments from you for years, they had little effect on him now as his eyes simply shifted downwards, searching for sincerity in yours. "I will never love another, (Y/N)..." He finally confessed, using your given name with no sort of honorific or title. He wasn't speaking to a royal or someone of authority, he was just speaking to you. "And I know that no matter what you profess to me now, you cannot keep that same promise, not if you're married to someone else." With trembling hands, he mirrored you, cradling your face like he had thousands of times before, knowing that this would be the last. "Appreciation will develop and turn into care and then love; it is inevitable."

"In your heart of hearts, do you love me?" He asked, face sober as his shaky thumb dragged across the bag under your right eye.

"I do, Hanta..." You answered, wanting nothing for than to prove your feelings for him.

"Then I beg of you, set me free, my love." He proposed with the saddest smile. "Never again will I love and I will roam the land a lonely vagabond, but please, subject me to this torture of the heart no longer..." He watched as your face contorted with sorrow and your head shook dismissively in his hands. For a moment, his heart sank, realizing that your selfishness would once again stand in his way.

"I-I could never! My heart would ache for your return!" You sobbed, wanting nothing more than to have him hold you securely to his chest, but he kept you staring at him, unmoved by your tears. "H-How will I prove my love for you if you are gone?"

"You will prove your love for me by sacrificing ownership of me," Sero explained calmly, all of his anger had long since bled dry. "Never should you wonder if my heart belongs to you- it does. My thoughts will never be out from under your rule. But please, darling, set my body free."

Deep down, you knew he was right. You had been cruel to him and this one thing was the very least you could do to rectify your treatment of him. "B-But how will I explain your absence?"

"Tell the court I have perished." He answered a bit too quickly; he had rehearsed this part. "Tell them I had indulged too much in the drink and fell into the pond during a moonlit stroll. Nobody will bother to drag the depths to find me. Let the court believe I died as I lived- a fool." Despite the morbid instructions leaving his lips, he smiled down at you peacefully.

"where will you go? What will you do?" You worried, clinging to him.

"As far away as this horse will take me, and then I shall find another one to carry me further. Never again do I intend to settle." He replied, eyes shifting towards the road which seemed never-ending in the darkness.

"Do you have the necessary supplies?" You peered up at him concerned, almost as if you were buying him time to change his mind.

"My personal effects, some bread and cheese, a bottle of ale, and a lantern." Sero nodded, kneeling down, letting his lips brush against yours. "Am I free to go, your grace?"

Reluctantly, you nodded, weeping at the butterflies that fluttered in your stomach when his lips pressed firmly to yours. "Be safe, my love, please write."

"I'll try." He offered, with a content smile. "If only to put her majesty at ease." Slowly, he began to peel himself away from you, completely ignoring your attempts to keep him close. Mounting his horse, he reached back out to you, caressing your flushed face, noticing how you still looked absolutely breathtaking even through your distraught expression. You pressed a hand to his, anchoring it against your cheek, how caring how many tears his pores collected. "My one and only love, thank you," he soothed with a tearful smile. "All is forgiven."

With that, he took his touch away, carrying your tears with him as he took the reigns and led his horse out of the stable. Now on the path, he looked back at you one final time. "Adue, my sweet, I love you. " He called, not waiting for you to return his sentiments. You watched, crumbling to the ground again as he rode off, disappearing into the treeline, never to be seen again.

"I love you too, forever and always, my king."

[greenqueenhightower]

I agree so much with your analysis of the of the moon tea scene but it also hit me that in this episode we see the Blackwood Lord bring up that he tried to win Rhaenyra’s hand. It’s a reminder that Rhaenyra had the choice and the privilege to choose her spouse, of course she lost that privilege but she did get to choose her children’s fathers. Alicent didn’t and her husband didn’t love hers.

Not that I think Alicent wants to be a mother again at this point in her life. She is a grandmother now (and Jaehaera has become her responsibility as well) and she is practically still raising her adult children and desperately wants her sons them to become self sufficient and less in need of guidance. But I think the pregnancy has again reminded her of a life she was never allowed to have because her life was already chosen for her by her father and Viserys at 14.

She doesn’t really want the child that would come from it but this is first child that wasn’t forced on her. She was a willing participant this time and this child was made out of big, emotions that are new to Alicent like love, lust, freedom, recklessness, indulgence and selfishness. In an another life that she was as never allowed, the child would’ve been born to a man who would be a great father- he has been a better father to her children than their own father.

Ultimately though, she is finally in control of her womb and drinks the tea. Which like choosing a partner this time and consenting to sex, enjoying it, being in control- this is another freedom she never had before. However, I think there is also a side of it that is still duty and sacrifice too though. Alicent is always going to do what she has to do with a stiff upper lip. She’s not Rhaenyra and knows how it would be detrimental to Aegon’s reign and Aegon’s cause for war. It would be the ultimate hypocrisy and an embarrassment to herself and her family. So she does her duty and she makes the only sound choice to be made.

I’m reminded of the line she’s going to say this season about how she always did what was expected of her and how she tried to live by the Seven’s examples and it all still amounts to nothing.

It’s not lost on me that in this episode she aborts the last child to ever take root in her womb. Then she uses the first child to ever grow in her womb as a conduit for all of her anger and negative emotions. She tells him that he has no idea of all the sacrifices she made in her life for him but like herself, he never chose any of this. Otto chose her life and in turn she chose Aegon’s.

So she blows up on Aegon, then he impulsively goes off to war on a dragon to prove himself worthy to her and worthy of his name and title. He’s then gravely injured by the hands of her other son and is on the brink of death. So it’s like once again the life of duty, sacrifice and rationality amounts to nothing. She did not successfully put her son on the iron throne and even after sacrificing so much of herself to protect him, he might still die.

Hi anon 💚

That is an interesting observation! Alicent never had any authority over her body, and she claimed this authority by choosing to sleep with Criston and also consciously choosing to abort his child. Perhaps she thought that had the circumstances been different, she might have wanted to have this child which wasn't conceived as a result of rape. Alicent understands that aborting the child proves to be yet another duty to herself and another sacrifice for the rest of her children.

It is interesting that Alicent can finally be in control of her own narrative, but at the same time, she is still confined within her roles and expectations. Her choice to drink the moon tea is self-liberating from one hand but restrictive from the other, because she knows she has no other option. She has tried hard to grasp and taste freedom, and yet she is still not entirely free. Because even if she wanted to keep the child, that would be denied. So again, she tries hard to gain some agency and control over her body but, ultimately, this is limited to what social conventions and expectations demand of her.

This is why I liked the framing in the last shot of the moon tea scene as the camera zooms out and shows Alicent already suffering her abortion pains, defined by the pillars and the furniture in her room that becomes her prison. No matter how hard she tries to escape, no matter what she does, she is still bound. It is so tragic to think about.

Your points about how she uses Aegon as a conduit for all her anger for what she had to go through minutes before but also what she went through her whole life make total sense. Aegon has become the representation of all her troubles and the manifestation of her trauma. She lashes out at him because she could never lash out at Otto or Viserys, and in her mind, Aegon becomes synonymous with the person "who started it all."

So Aegon takes the blame for being the reason she is still there, in the castle, confined by others' expectations, forced to dote on duty and sacrifice, forced to give birth to more children. He takes the blame for all of his father's and grandfather's sins, and in his face, she sees her pain but also her strength, perseverance, and self-claimed power, since he is the reason she has become the person she is. She would never change him for the world, because that would deny and negate all she ever lived for. The possibility that he might die and with him, part of her own sense of self-worth, must be harrowing for Alicent.

I can't wait to see more of them next episode. The dynamic they have is one of the best, if not the best, in the entire show.

[longing-for-rain]

People claim that Katara chose Aang, and in a way, she did. But she did it out of a sense of duty. Aang is CONSTANTLY saying that he “needs” Katara, and places the world on her shoulders. It’s unfair that such a responsibility is placed on a 14 year old girl. Aang “needs” Katara to do his job for him; Zuko needs Katara because he wants an equal who he can love

I can definitely see that. Technically though, characters don’t really “choose” anything—their actions are entirely dictated by writers. The balcony scene right after the Final Agni Kai was honestly jarring.

But looking at what became of Katara and Aang’s relationship, I definitely see the idea of duty. Katara is a kind and compassionate person. She felt protective over Aang from day one and promised to be family to him, which is beautiful. But I think that sense of duty kept going and going—to the point where a relationship felt like another part of that duty. She knew how badly he wanted it and ultimately I think she’s selfless enough to put that above her own feelings. Probably same thing when Tenzin was born and Aang took him off on trips alone. Katara would have felt bad about saying anything.

I really do read it as a tragedy.

[dragnsofthread]

I feel anguish for both Alicent and Aegon.

Alicent confirmation biased herself into believing that Viserys changed his mind at the last minute. She allowed this reasoning to propel her to put Aegon on the throne, despite her discontent with how the council planned to proceed regardless. She put in Aegon's head that his father changed his mind and Aegon takes everything his mother says at face value. He has spent his entire life wanting to be Rhaenyra; to be loved by Viserys as he loved Rhaenyra, to be loved by Alicent as she loves Rhaenyra, even to be loved by the realm as they love her ("Aegon, the Realm's Delight"). For Alicent, who he has craved approval from all his life, to tell him that his father, who always put Rhaenyra first, changed his mind at the last minute? And for Alicent to be so persistent in what she's saying? His mother might be a lot of things, but she isn't deceitful. Aegon sees that she believes her story to be true and he chooses to believes it with her.

He becomes king, and tries to be a decent one despite his general ignorance of the way things work and his natural inclination to not take anything seriously. He still has quite a childish nature until the events of Blood and Cheese, and then his immaturity turns from lackadaisical to rage-fueled.

He then starts to make decisions as king that are questionable, and Alicent still reviles her son to a certain extent but she persists because she has convinced herself that this was Viserys' wish. She knows her son is ignorant and unconniving, and strives for him to see the forest through the trees, but he begins to shirk her advice and turn rather to Cole and his desire to fight.

Then, in episode 4, after her meeting with Rhaenyra, Alicent sees her mistake for what it is. She has put a crown on her son's head and sent her faction off to war over a lie. No matter how much she tried to convince herself that her marriage to Viserys and having his children meant something, that it wasn't all for nought, episode 4 is her beginning to come to terms with the absurdity of her life. What was it all for? At this point, as Cole marches to Rook's Rest, all she can do is tell her son to stay put. Don't do anything stupid.

And unfortunately, to prove himself to his mother and to not be seen as weak, Aegon does not heed her advice but rather makes one of his more idiotic decisions.

He flies to battle, gets burned by his own brother, loses his dragon and his body is shattered and burned to bits.

Then Aemond becomes his regent and shit hits the fan. Aemond has no idea what he's doing and is motivated purely by his own rage and legacy. When he becomes forceful with Helaena in episode 8, Alicent knows it's time to go. She then offers Rhaenyra terms of peace - on the condition that she will hand over Aegon's head.

Aegon never wanted the throne, he only took it because Alicent convinced him it was his duty. He was way in over his head. He lost his son for no reason at all, then he lost his dragon and most of the functions of his body. And now when everything comes down to the last, his mother chooses Rhaenyra.

That's not to say Alicent only chose Rhaenyra. I think Helaena is the first thing on Alicent's mind, on Alicent's conscience, and Helaena is absolutely Alicent's ultimate motivation in this. Alicent sees everything Helaena has been put through, first at her own hand by marrying Helaena to Aegon, and then everything she has endured since becoming a wife, mother and queen. She wants Helaena and Jaehaera to be free of the confines she herself was put in. Those seconds of her making her choice ... she is choosing one child over another. Blood & Cheese 2.0. She cannot save both. She must lose Aegon, give him up, or lose everything.

Basically this is all setup for season 3, which will be INTERESTING, because Alicent's going to get home and Aegon will be gone and you know she will feel a sense of relief in that fact. It will look to Rhaenyra like Alicent has let Aegon escape, so all the intimacy from that last R&A scene will now be charged with lots of suspicion and anger.

My theory, Alicent will absolutely give herself and her life up to Rhaenyra if it means she will spare Helaena and Jaehaera.

[fenricken]

You Keep Slipping From My Grasp 1/7

Ao3

Ship: Spirit Halloween

next

Summary:

Danny has been getting the hang of this whole “Ancient of Doors”, “Apprentice to Clockwork”, “Dad to the Chaos Gremlin Dani” thing, and he’s really starting to find his flow! Sure, he sometimes misses the life that could’ve been, but overall everything has been great! Sure doesn’t need anything throwing a tangle in things.

Bruce is suffering. He doesn’t know who he is, where he is, or what the hell is going on. All he’s running on is instinct and strange forces propelling him towards some end he’s not entirely certain of.

Basically, Danny tries to help Batman over the course of events covered in Batman:Return of Bruce Wayne

Chapter One:

“Clockwork? Are you here? I got your message.” Danny floated up the tower, peeking behind cogs and pendulums, hoping to find a glimpse of his teacher’s signature purple cloak.

It had been a long time since certain… events had led Danny to become a far more permanent resident of the Infinite Realms. Of course, he wasn’t alone, as much of Amity had also followed him here to carve out a new life all together, his friends and family included.

Danny had since reached maturity and been recognized as Ancient of Doors for his actions. When faced with his evil future self, he strove to find another path where he didn’t become that future self. When Dani was revealed to be with the enemy, he chose to love her still, rather than hate her as many would. When he was faced with a reality where he was famous, and accepted by his parents, he chose to undo all of that for the peace and safety of his friends and family. While he now knew his parent’s acceptance would always come, he still had to make the choice then to put his trust in them and reveal himself so his friends could be saved when the GIW came to destroy Amity Park. And so, for his commitment to forging new paths, always finding another choice, and braving the unknown he was named Ancient of Doors. 

Sam had also found her own mentor in Undergrowth, working hard as his apprentice to aid him in his duties as Ancient of Wild Growth. Tucker and Technus had quickly formed a rivalry, both competing to see who would reign supreme as the Infinite Realm’s ultimate tech master. Jazz had found her purpose in the Department of Lost Souls, as an advisor to those who weren’t certain about their afterlife, and what they wanted to do with it. After Jack and Maddie’s change of heart with regards to ghosts, it was not long before they found new purpose in investigating and researching the many mysteries of the Infinite Realms and beyond.

While he and his friends had reached their own maturity, Dani had remained a child. Something about “It’s easier to cause chaos this way” and “No one ever suspects the baby”. Danny’s fondness for his clone only grew until he saw her less as a cousin and more as a daughter. Ultimately, it was only a surprise for Danny and Dani when the ghost-bond snapped in place, formally cementing her as his daughter, to both of their suffering.

Currently, she was out in one of the universes, chasing after some hybrid spider-pig, Danny thinks. Unless she got distracted and went to hang out with Klarion again, in an effort to “maximize joint chaos”. Tucker and Sam were both busy with their respective duties, Jazz was at work, and last he checked Mom and Dad were elbows deep in a mech suit they were hoping to get working off an Infinite Realms Corn-based fuel Sam had created. Danny had been feeling quite bored before he got the summons from Clockwork, and had jumped on it right away, hence his surprise at not being able to find his Mentor anywhere.

Danny had finally reached the top of the tower. He could see a table set up with a small tea service, but still no Clockwork. Figuring there’s nothing else to do, Danny pours himself a cup of tea, and settles in to wait.

—

Who is he? What is this place? His hand rests against a cool, smooth surface that appears so at odds with the rest of his surroundings-rocky ground, a red sky, and the water lapping against the cliff-side. There is nothing, and no one else that he sees, except – a cave. He stumbles in, visions of symbols surfacing in his brain- two “W”s, an “S”, a bat. He carves these into the rock-face desperate to have a visual trigger that would help him remember anything, but nothing comes.

A rock clatters against the floor of the cave, followed by someone’s voice. He approaches, steadily, entering into the light. Four men stand before him, weapons raised. They say something else, but he can’t understand.

“Where am I? What is this place?”

They do not answer him, but pull back their weapons. They introduce themselves, and speak some more. Names, he realizes- Man, Boy, Giant, Surly, Joker. This last one gives him pause, tickles something in his brain that upsets him, but soon his eyes lay on the structure from before, and he stumbles back to it, certain it must contain some clue.

The men he walks past continue to converse amongst themselves, but he has only one destination in mind. He digs through, looking for anything, but comes up only with a large swath of fabric. That same “S”, that calls to him but gives no answers.

The men set up camp, cooking as they go. They invite him to join, and he does, his hunger for food now outweighing his hunger for knowledge.

—

“Danny, I’m glad you came as soon as you could.” 

Danny’s teacup clatters as he jolts in surprise. He turns to face Clockwork, “I hope you don’t mind that I helped myself. What did you need my help with?”

Clockwork’s face turns a bit grim. “There is… something twisted in the time stream in one of the Justice League universes. While I can tell it is meant to happen, I am still uncertain about what is actually happening, and fear that I am unable to see with any certainty the outcome. I need you to venture to when this is to investigate on my behalf.”

Danny nods, his concern growing. “Of course. Is there anything in particular I should be prepared for?”

Danny swears he sees the corner of Clockwork’s mouth twitch up into his signature sly grin, before his face is quickly schooled and he says “No, just observe for now. Your destination is through here.”

Danny watches as the cog begins to glow before he ventures forward.

Immediately he is met with the sight of violence. It seems one group of cavemen has taken to attacking another during their dinner. Danny watches, cautious against intervening, trying to figure out who he is meant to watch for. He sees one man, dressed in black bottoms, escape the field of battle with a young boy and hide in the bushes. The battle quickly turns against the four who had been eating dinner, and Danny looks at the leader of those attacking, surprised that the leader’s face is familiar to him…though he can’t quite place who.

The man from before rejoins the fray, quickly beating many off before ultimately being subdued himself. The leader of the attacking cavemen crows in victory, before the army collects the man they’ve now taken prisoner and any other spoils, and returns to their home base.

Danny follows, trying hard not to focus on the bloodshed beneath. He may have lived a long time, but the kind of person willing to commit such violence is not someone he goes out of his way to find. He watches as the chief holds the man they took captive above his head.

“Conquering Chief Savage brings gifts from the forbidden land!”

“Shit,” Danny thinks, “I can’t believe I’m witnessing Vandal Savage’s villain origin story. Or is he already a villain at this point?”

Danny continues watching as they tie up the captive, who they’ve been calling ‘Man-God’ underneath a giant bat pelt. He takes a closer look, before reeling back in shock.

“I thought his pants were weird, but those are pretty 21st century” he thinks, before glancing around at hearing a shuffle. He sees a shadow lurking beyond the camp, crouched down. Danny approaches, recognizing the boy that had been rescued from the fight. He wears what looks like a yellow utility belt, and has painted a bat-shaped mask over his eyes.

“Wait… bats, a yellow utility belt…” Danny glances again to the Man-God strapped to the ground. 

“What is Batman doing here..?” Danny pauses, thinking. He should only be here as an observer, but it has never felt right to just stand on the sidelines when he can make the choice to do something to help. Maybe he doesn’t have to do too much. He floats over to where the Boy is crouched, clearly wanting to help but paralyzed with fear and indecision.

“Go to him. Help him as he has helped you. There has been enough bloodshed this day, will you wait around to see more?” Danny whispers to him, watching the boy’s eyes harden as he comes to a decision.

The boy is quick to act now that he’s made a decision. He approaches Batman, and frees him from his bonds. Danny watches as they collect themselves. Batman dons his utility pelt, and the bat pelt that had been hung over him. By the time they’ve finished their preparations, the sun has risen and the men who captured Batman are rising.

“Should I cause a distraction?” Danny wonders, but before he can do anything, Batman and the boy spring into action, taking out fighter after fighter, until Batman is left facing Vandal Savage.

They charge towards each other, but Danny’s attention is caught by a shadow that begins to pass over the battlefield. He looks up, noting an eclipse is starting. He can feel the energy changing, knows that something is going to happen when the sun has been completely blotted out.

But Clockwork has instructed him only to observe, so observe he will. He turns back to the battlefield, noting that Batman and the boy have managed to push back Vandal Savage, but are still being chased off by the remaining caveman. They drop over a waterfall, but when Danny follows, he only sees the boy surface.

The sky is dark now, as the sun has been completely covered, and there is energy concentrated underneath the water. Danny focuses, in the way Clockwork has taught him, to figure out what lies beneath and where Batman has gone.

“A strong amount of time-manipulation energy…No Batman, not in this time anymore.” Danny looks around to see the boy has realized Batman will not follow, and has left to find shelter. 

“Did he make another jump through time? But how? I didn’t see that he had anything on him capable of such a jump?” Danny thinks. He’s considering if he can piggy back off the residual energy to jump to when Batman is, but a portal opens behind him and Clockwork steps out.

“Danny, I think it would be best if we return now.” he says, gesturing for Danny to follow.

—

Back at his mentor’s lair, Danny explains the situation to Clockwork. Clockwork inclined his head in thought, only speaking after some time, “I can’t say for certain whether or not Batman was meant to be in that time period. However, there is something suspicious about the way he’s been traveling through time. Did you notice anything off with the time manipulation energy, Danny?” 

“I can’t say for certain,” Danny starts, “Though I did notice there was a build-up to the event, in line with an eclipse. Then again, I’m not familiar enough with the way dimensional energy manipulation feels in the universes with the Justice League to say for certain.”

Clockwork hums, before turning to rifle through a cupboard that popped up behind him. He pulled out a glowing orange orb. “Here, it’s a record of the time-manipulation energy gathered from one of the Flash’s misadventures. Can you compare and feel any difference?”

Danny closes his eyes before focusing again. “I can feel there are some significant similarities, but it feels like both have an added component that is different from each other? I don’t know if that makes any sense.”

“The energy reading from the sphere I handed you will likely contain energy both from the time-manipulation and the Speedforce the Flashes use to travel between time. If we assume the time-manipulation energy is the constant in both samples, then…”

“There’s some other energy added into the mix that is propelling Batman forward through time?” Danny finishes.

“That is likely the case. Until we know what it is, it would be best to exercise caution. We don’t know how it interacts with the time-manipulation energy, so we can’t predict how it might affect you Daniel.” Clockwork pauses in thought once more, “I’ll spend some time figuring out where Batman made his next jump. In the meantime, take a rest and prepare yourself.”

“I’m not totally familiar with the universes containing the Justice League. I’ll spend some time researching for now… and maybe I’ll ask Dani what she knows when she returns.”

Clockwork smiles slightly, before nodding. “A fine course of action, it might be best to gather all the information we can before proceeding.”

A/N:

At the time of plotting this, I haven’t read A Glitch in Time. I know that there are some time periods in common that Danny and Bruce travel to, so I want to address that at this moment I’m not planning to reference A Glitch in Time.

As for actual writing, I feel a bit stuck on how much of Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne to actually reference, as I’m aware that most people in the dp x dc fandom are more familiar with Danny Phantom, and from other references I’ve seen to Batman’s travels through time it might not be a story many are familiar with. That being said, I don’t want to just directly repeat details from the comics. I guess if you feel I didn’t provide enough background from the comic series to understand what’s going on, or that I should maybe try referencing less, please let me know so I can make corrections.

On that note, I do recommend reading Batman:The Return of Bruce Wayne if you get the chance. There are so many interesting layers it adds to the mythos and history of Batman and the Wayne family, and it’s really a great read. It helps that you don’t really need too much knowledge of what comes before– except maybe that Batman had crafted a god-killing bullet he shot Darkseid with, before Darkseid retaliated and “killed” Batman. Even this is alluded to in the story in enough detail that you can understand what’s going on, though.

[subliminalbo]

Hypnovember Day 12: Return To Office

Shelby knew that she was selling out taking a job at Futurum, but her guilt only lasted as long as it took to receive the first paycheck. Her punk rock English professor spirit may have been broken, but principles were not going to pay her bills.

Her first contract only lasted through the summer. Shelby returned to work at Carpenter State when fall semester resumed, with the door left open to return in a contingent capacity at Futurum if she ever wanted to make some extra money. And then the pandemic changed everything. When Shelby returned to Futurum the following summer, her role was 100% work from home. She had expected to do more grant writing, but her new supervisor saw potential for Shelby on a new top secret project that they were calling Athena.

This time her contract flew by, even though she continued teaching at Carpenter State for a brief portion of the contract before it ended. Once again, Shelby's supervisors at Futurum were impressed with her work and left the door open for future projects.

It did seem odd to Shelby in the days following her exit interview that she could recall so little of the work she did for Futurum, but ultimately she chose not to raise a concern to anybody. If she needed to remember, she would have. It must have not been essential to her duties.

The next summer when Shelby applied for a new contract, she received a phone call from the hiring manager informing her that that year's assignment would be in-office only. Work from home had grown on Shelby, and though it bummed her out to turn down Futurum, she decided that she'd rather find a role as a grant writer someplace that would let her work remotely.

And then the sound cut through the line. It was a long, shearing sound, sort of like a knife dragging down a chalkboard. A sound that Shelby had heard many times before, every day when she would log onto her laptop for work. A sound which she could not remember.

Her mind was empty. The hiring manager asked her to repeat her sequence.

"Echo. Data breach. Whale. Dictaphone. Groundbreaking. Clockwork. Omega," Shelby intoned before she confirmed her name and number and accepted the job offer.

When Shelby arrived at Futurum for her first day, she found that the culture in the office had been completely transformed. The long rows of cubicles were still there, but the constant friendly chatter among coworkers over their walls was completely gone. Every individual employee was totally locked in to their tasks. The floors were silent save for the clatter of keys being stroked at a rate that must have been higher than a hundred words per minute. The most bizarre change of all was that nobody had a name anymore. They all answered to numbers.

Shelby didn't question any of it by the time she reached the floor. She'd already been buzzed, repeated her sequence, and fallen under the control that Futurum had established during her second assignment working on the project that was actually called The Conditioning Initiative. Shelby, or No. 14 as she was referred to by her employers, was led to the office of No. 1, who rose from his seat to greet her.

"We are pleased to have you back," No. 1 said. "As you can see, The Conditioning Initiative has been a massive success to employee metrics and your work last summer in developing the program was invaluable to its success."

No. 14 smiled, proud to hear that she was, in some small way, responsible for the conditioning of everyone out on the floor.

"Thank you, No. 1," No. 14 said. "An efficient workplace is a happy work place."

"That is the consensus from Futurum shareholders," No. 1 replied.

After some very brief small talk, No. 1 led No. 14 down the hall toward Classified Research where she would be doing most of work during this assignment. He explained her new role as they walked.

"Now that we've completed the rollout of The Conditioning Initiative to the floor, our focus is shifting to reliability and efficiency. With the first phase of the initiative we found success in simple light displays, subliminals, and sound triggers. However, our researchers believe that stimulation is the most promising avenue for advancement."

No. 1 scanned his clearance card and pushed through the two wide double doors that marked the entrance to Classified Research. No. 14 followed, marveling at what she found in the next rooms. No. 1 led her down a long, bright room lined with chairs similar to the ones you might find at the dentist. Each chair had a nude human subject strapped into it, their feet in stirrups. The subjects were a mix of male and female. Each one had odd, mechanical devices fastened over their vaginas or penises which No. 14 would later learn from her own experience were pleasure units designed to deliver automatic sexual stimulation. Bulky, noise cancelling headphones covered their ears and visors strapped to their heads covered their eyes.

The sound of dozens of moans bouncing off the walls replaced the keystrokes she'd heard outside.

No. 14 drooled at the thought of what the subjects were seeing, hearing, feeling. She almost squealed when No. 1 led her to an empty chair at the end of the row and indicated that it was her turn to disrobe.

"Of course, Controller," No. 14 said, stripping down before her boss.

"The Pleasure Method takes longer, but we've found its effects are far more profound. We actually discovered the method from an incident on campus, but the technology is better in our hands."

"Of course, Controller," No. 14 repeated, climbing into the chair to be fitted with her own pleasure unit.

[gffa]

Was Obi Wan happy being a Jedi, or did he wish he persuade a relationship with Satine? Sometimes I see in those "nothing went wrong" AU's, Obi Wan leaves the Jedi to be with Satine, is that accurate to how he actually felt? Did he wish he left to be with her? Or was he okay with the way things were?

There's no smoking gun of an answer on this kind of question, because we have so little information on it and character interpretations are often so, so subjective. What we do know is: - Obi-Wan had plenty of chances to leave the Jedi Order if he wanted, he had the chance with Satine, he had the chance every year of his life after that, etc. - Obi-Wan says he would have left to be with her, if she had asked. This literally all we know of the conversation that's held when there's a possibility she might die and she wanted him to be romantic, we don't see that moment of decision itself, only the tense conversation onboard the Coronet. - In The Phantom Menace, he says he'll leave to train Anakin. In Obi-Wan & Anakin, he says if Anakin truly decides to leave, he'll leave with him to continue his training. - In Padawan, Obi-Wan very much wants the life of a Jedi, he has a chance to live a more free life with a bunch of other kids, but he loves the Jedi, he feels the call to the Force and the galaxy and the Jedi, he wants this path. - Obi-Wan encourages Anakin to stay with the Jedi when he's having issues with Rush Clovis and Padme. Ultimately, there's no evidence that Obi-Wan is unsatisfied with being a Jedi and plenty of evidence that he believes in the Jedi path and he lives by the Jedi beliefs and ways, and finds satisfaction in that. Does he regret that he couldn't also live a life with Satine? I tend to think so, yes, but that he always knew he could leave and he's only tempted into doing so when it's for someone else, not because he doesn't want to be a Jedi. In both cases with Anakin, he much prefers to remain a Jedi, just that he's willing to leave, if he must. Or in Obi-Wan Kenobi, he spends years trying to deny that he's still a Jedi, that those ways are done and over, the Jedi are gone. But ultimately we see that his heart doesn't really believe that, he wants to be a Jedi, because as soon as he is one again, as soon as he re-embraces the Jedi ways and his duty as a Jedi, he's so much more settled and happy. For me, even if everything went well during the Clone Wars, if the Sith were defeated, if the Separatists stopped invading, if Satine lived, I don't think Obi-Wan would have left the Jedi Order. Almost no Jedi left after becoming a Knight, it was almost always in the Padawan stages, because a huge part of becoming a Knight was understanding yourself and what you wanted, that you really, truly wanted this life, that you were dedicated to this life. Obi-Wan would have gone through the self-reflection to understand, regardless of whether he left to be with Satine or not, did he want to remain a Jedi, he had to genuinely make a choice. You can't half-ass being a Jedi, it doesn't work. Obi-Wan had to commit. And we see that he chose being a Jedi. He wanted to be a Jedi, just by dint of how the worldbuilding works, in my opinion. Even if everything went perfectly, he was an adult now, not a young Padawan still figuring himself out. He knew who he was, he was Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi.

[imaginedreamwrite]

For the photo dump idk why but #8 feels like Higher love Ari or really any of the Bucky's

“Bucky! Seriously?” You wave the phone in your hand and roll your eyes, watching the super soldier’s eyes narrow and his jaw clench.

Hey so like in case there was any confusion

You’re fucking mine

“I don’t trust them.” His response is astute and possessive in its intent however its delightful enough to make your thighs quake. “And this is the first time you’re meeting them.”

The conversation comes to an end as the doors open and the party officially starts with Tony Stark entering the room with his arms raised deserving the ultimate victory prize for giving Bucky a penthouse suite.

“Barnes, welcome to your new home.” He greeted Bucky with a quick fired grin, and then looked at you. “Whose this?”

“My wife-”

“-girlfriend.” You scolded Bucky and threw him a look, feigning anger despite wanting to find his scowl adorable. “We’ve been on like 12 dates-”

“My wife, Stark.” Bucky’s tone grew persistent, his hand reaching for your waist as a means to pull him closer to you, or to pull you closer to him.

“What’s the story? How’d you meet?” Tony’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly, a dull and almost incomprehensible whir coming from his purple tinted glasses.

“You’re not serious? Bucky you can’t be serious-”

“I met my future wife while she was on a first date with my best friend,” Bucky’s grin was illusive yet warm, his artificial arm whirring as his fingers curled around your hand, “Steven Grant Rogers is the reason why we met.”

“You’re not saying that during our wedding-“

“Do you admit we’re gonna get married doll?” His teasing tongue found yours in a heated goodnight kiss, teasing and taunting you with the promise of a long night if this wasn’t your parting.

“Goodnight, Bucky.”

“I’ve gotta get you a house first, and then a ring. I promise I will, darling. And then you’re mine.”

“Steve.” “Through Steve.”

“A house tour and a home-warming party.” Tony glazed over your dual answer and stepped aside, allowing the two of you to partake in the first glance at this penthouse suite Tony gave Bucky.

“A house-“

“-and then a ring.” Bucky whispered into your hair, kissing your temple softly. “I’m doing it all, sweetheart.”

“-she’s a teacher, Tony. She teaches elementary-“ Your attention shifted to the conversation you could hear between Steve and Tony, the prior conveying the same tight lipped story you chose to go with, when giving the answer of how you and Bucky met.

“-there’s more to it, Rogers. Quit holding out on me, pal.” Tony pressed, urging Steve to tell the duty details, and before you could have listened to the results of Tony’s nattering, a hand grasped yours and yanked you aside.

“Natasha,” Bucky’s eyes followed you, his voice taking a slightly deeper bite as he warned his friend and fellow avenger not to drag you too far.

“God, you’re beautiful. And your little girl…” Natasha bounced your little 18 month old baby on her hip, pleased by her grabbing hands reaching for her hair. “Auntie Natasha, you’ll call me auntie Nat, and we-”

“Natasha.” Bucky stepped close, his eye hovering on you and then your baby, protectively focused on both of you.

Focusing on his instant family. Even before the 12 or so dates in, Bucky was already endeared and enthralled by you and your child.

“Relax, Barnes.” Natasha prodded his shoulder with her finger and gently nudged him away. “Go relax, I promise to take good care of your girlfriend-“

“Wife.” Bucky corrected her, and stole a searing kiss from you before he kissed your baby’s forehead, giving Nat one last lingering warning.

“12 dates,” Natasha quirked her lips and smirked, “he was in love on date one.”

[antianakin]

@theneutralmime

I mean, the answer is that you're supposed to feel sympathy towards both of them I think. Sort-of. Arguably, you're SUPPOSED to feel more sympathy for Anakin than the Tuskens since, by the time of this film coming out, there WASN'T a lot out there that explored the Tuskens as a people and certainly nothing that was positive about them. I think the intention is to recognize that this was a horrible thing that Anakin did, and that killing "the women and children" was definitely crossing a line, but that Anakin's reaction was very sympathetic and understandable after what had happened to his mother. I usually liken this scene to Anakin killing an entire pack of wolves down to the last puppy because one of them attacked his mother or something. Not that that's how we SHOULD view the Tuskens, obviously, but that I think that's how LUCAS sort-of viewed the Tuskens and the emotions of this scene.

There is nothing about what Anakin does that is "normal" and I think that that's something that's made very clear in the film. Anakin is getting the Imperial March music, he's clearly falling into his own darkness here, this is a first major step towards becoming Darth Vader. Padme claims that to be angry is to be human, and she's not wrong, but being angry to the point of massacring an entire village down to the last child is uhhh... perhaps NOT so human. Or it's human, but it's still fucking horrific and not something that should be condoned the way she's doing in this scene. She prioritizes comforting Anakin over anything else, despite the fact that he's showing zero remorse FOR THE TUSKENS (he shows remorse for having acted unlike a Jedi, yes, but no actual remorse over the Tuskens being dead, it's a very important difference that a lot of his fans choose not to recognize).

The appropriate Jedi reaction would've been, yes, to simply remove the body without being noticed and just leaving the Tuskens alone at that point. The Jedi do not have the ability to fix the strained relationship between the Tuskens and the settlers and even if they did, this would not be the appropriate time or place to attempt to do so. ALL that can be done in this situation is to retrieve Shmi's body so that the people who love her can get some closure over what happened.

And arguably, a true Jedi WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN ON TATOOINE IN THE FIRST PLACE. Remember, Anakin has been assigned to be a bodyguard for Padme to keep her from being assassinated after multiple attempts on her life recently. He chose to ABANDON that duty in order to go to Tatooine to try to save his mother instead. Padme seems to be understanding about this and chooses to go with him, but that doesn't negate that Anakin was fully planning to just abandon her entirely for his own selfish agenda. If he wanted to go to Tatooine to save his mother, this is something he could've and SHOULD'VE discussed with Obi-Wan and the Council much earlier and they could've let him go handle that while someone else got assigned to Padme to protect her. But once he took on the responsibility of protecting Padme, it was no longer appropriate to just go off to Tatooine to try to save Shmi. He shouldn't have been there when going there clearly meant leaving Padme unprotected. He abandoned his duty, something no real Jedi would ever actually have done in his position. Had Anakin been honest about his dreams and desires earlier, he might've gotten there before Shmi was too far gone which could've kept him from choosing to massacre the Tuskens simply because getting Shmi to medical attention would've been the first priority. If he'd been honest about it, then Obi-Wan probably would've been sent with him which might've helped him manage his emotions over it all more properly.

Anyway, I think the intention here is for you to recognize that this was a pretty horrifically violent thing for Anakin to have done but that ultimately Anakin is the most sympathetic party. HOWEVER, from a more modern perspective, this is an incredibly racist intention that is absolutely based on old movies depicted Native American and Arab people in incredibly racist ways. Lucas has openly admitted to using old Westerns as inspiration for this sequence in particular. It's intended to be VIOLENT, but I don't think he recognized it as RACIST, not really. When Anakin calls the Tuskens "animals" it's perhaps meant to be a little shocking, but not actually intended for us to realize Anakin is a bigoted racist asshat. Given that we've never seen anything positive about the Tuskens before this, they only seem to use animal-like sounds to speak, they're shown to be very violent and territorial themselves, and are scared off by Obi-Wan sounding like a bigger animal in ANH, it's not hard to agree with Anakin's assessment that they're not far off from animals. And given the fact that they're clearly designed to look like Bedouin Arabs, this is... really really uncomfortable these days.

Which is why we've seen more and more Star Wars media trying to undo some of that and represent the Tuskens better. A legends comic set just after AOTC introduces a Jedi who was a human that was raised among the Tuskens and considers himself one of them and pushes against Anakin's bigotry towards them. The Mandalorian has Din capable of reasoning with the Tuskens and communicating with them via sign language, he even mentions that he spent some time with them some years ago when he was injured and they took care of him. We see Din convincing a group of Tuskens to fight alongside some settlers in order to achieve a common goal. In The Book of Boba Fett, the Tuskens save him and he spends some time being taken care of them and being fully inducted into their culture himself. We see a lot more of Tusken culture in terms of their traditions, their dances, their dress. We are allowed to see them being silly and kind and determined to learn new things. There's also a short story in one of the anthology books that I think looks at the Tuskens more and represents them very positively, but I haven't read it myself.

So with all of that in mind, it is now VERY difficult to look at what Anakin did to the Tuskens and not feel sympathetic towards the Tuskens equally as much as Anakin. Yes, what happened to his mother was horrific and he's entirely within his rights to be upset about that. But massacring the entire tribe down to the last child is by an EQUALLY horrific thing to do. Keep in mind, no matter how powerful Anakin is, he is still one person and he claims to have murdered the entire tribe. In order to do that, he'd have had to HUNT DOWN some of the ones who probably tried to run. And while he doesn't mention them, this seems to be a fairly normal tribe which means it wouldn't just have "women and children" but it would also have had elderly and infirm who could no longer fight, too, even if they were "men." Anakin would've murdered them, too. Anakin doesn't just condemn these people for what happened to Shmi, he condemns them for BEING TUSKENS based on what he says to Padme. They were Tusken, so they deserved to die. It's as simple and awful as that.

None of this is to say that what happened to Shmi was okay or anything, but Anakin's actions are equally contemptible. Anakin's actions aren't just borne from anger and pain, but also from racism he presumably ALREADY HAD prior to Shmi's death. And while the origin of those feelings is perhaps understandable given the environment he grew up in, that doesn't make it OKAY.

So sure, feel sympathetic towards Anakin, you're SUPPOSED to feel sympathetic towards Anakin, but, especially these days, you're supposed to feel sympathetic towards the Tuskens, too. What happened to Shmi was horrible and unfair and what happened to the rest of this village was also horrible and unfair. Neither side was necessarily "in the right" here, and when we condemn Anakin for the Tusken massacre, it doesn't mean we don't recognize that what happened to Shmi was terrible and inhumane or that Anakin's feelings about it weren't valid. It just means that his reaction to murder all of them is based at least in part in racism against the entire species and that's something that needs to be recognized as the horrific thing that it is. You can feel bad for Anakin's loss here and condemn what happened to Shmi and ALSO condemn what happened to the Tuskens as a result at the same time.

[incorrectskyrimquotes]

Northern Dawn - Prologue

The waters of time flowed through the cosmos, branching off into a thousand different directions, with a thousand different possibilities. Mighty rivers carved through their set paths, unable to escape their ancient way. The tiniest of streams could waive, but it would be inconsequential. Though, content.

Draped in golden wings, watching the flow of time, was the Great Chief of the Divines. It has always been, it will always be, his sacred duty. He must look after time, after these rivers. It was his fate, carved for him long before he could agree to it. He had been so blessed to have had a fate chosen by the gods. 

One in particular was of interest to him. The waters of this time, of this family, were stained with the Dragon blood. It glowed in ribbons suspended in the water, dancing like the great auroras that arched through the sky over the land She would have to protect. 

The glowing, golden blood was rather selective in who it chose to bless. Like the dragons themselves, it favored the firstborn more often. And it seemed only one or two in each branching generation would bear the curse, carry the blessing. The world had no need of it, of people with it. Until soon. Until now. 

A delicate hand, made of ethereal light, crossed over the newest stream. The water and blood and light smeared into Aetherius. This child will be the last member of their family. The Goddess of Families and Fertility has chosen not to bless her so. Chosen to make sure that she had to be the last one.

“Mara.” He spoke, or what mortals would perceive as speaking. The Divine ways, the way they see the world, the words that leave them, can and is only truly known and understood by them. Still, his tone was even, if it contained a bit of sigh. Mara already knew how he felt. 

“She must be the last of her kind.” Though Mara’s voice was typically kind and gentle, it was firm. She would not and did not undo her action. She was correct, after all. 

The Nine gathered around the stream. They watched as the water and blood and light bore into a new soul, blessing Nirn with new life. The newborn baby cried, as they all do. Akatosh smiled, he couldn’t help it. Her parents named her, so proud of what they had created. It was bittersweet, they were doomed to leave her life, all too soon. Before she could even get to know them, before they could get to know her. 

Arkay was saddened by this, feeling the same sympathy for the girl and her parents as he always did. But it was the way it had to be. He watched as her parents became sick, as he called to them, leading them away. 

“Her name is her own to make.” Zenithar seemed to understand what the others were thinking and feeling. He glanced downstream, just a bit, to the moment everything will change. 

Akatosh could not look away. The girl was sent to an orphanage, but ultimately ran away. She was more fortunate than most, to have had the opportunity to learn to read, write, and learn basic spells. The teenager, now a young woman, drifted. She went from city to city, place to place, forest to forest, just trying to get by. 

He would have wanted a better life for her. For her parents. For her parents’ parents. For their entire bloodline. He knew as well as anyone that her suffering would shape and guide her, even if she would not always understand that. 

“I wish she had told me.” The god whispered, not for the first time feeling his humanity conflict with his divinity. 

Akatosh felt Mara soften, but he couldn’t care. She was usually unpleasant. “She didn’t know.” She spoke gently. 

He restrained himself. He wanted to curl his claws in frustration, but the waters of time were bound to them. And his lack of divine control over his mortal emotions would cause needless mortal suffering. “It would have changed things.” Even the gods can lie. 

Julianos, the fountain of advice that he is, spoke to Akatosh. “Go talk to him. He wants to see you.” 

“She was mourning.” Stendarr spoke, distracted more by the living woman than the dead one. He was unhappy with many of the choices she was going to make, but still understanding. Still merciful. 

Kynerath was neither understanding nor merciful. “She acted recklessly.” 

“She acted blasphemously.” Nor was Mara. 

Akatosh had to change the subject, lest his heart broke all over again. He watched as the woman came to a split in the river of her life. All possibilities sprawled out before her, a million directions she could take her life. Yet, further down, all streams lead into the ocean of her destiny. Mortal sympathy panged his divine heart. She could not escape it. 

“We’re too shallow.” He said, trying to follow her possible lives. “This is not what we’re looking for.” He looked downstream, following the blinding light of her blood, of her destiny. But he was looking for the long, dark shadow it cast. 

“The light blinds even us.” Talos felt that he, of all gods, was the only one who could ever understand what the woman would go through. Akatosh would have heartily disagreed, if either of them had voiced their opinions. 

But he didn’t want to start that fight again. Instead, he said. “You are unhappy.” 

“She wants to fight my empire.” Talos looked up at him, still acting much more human than the rest of them. 

Akatosh understood that very well. Understood why Talos was upset. Although the light blinded him too, he still tried to peer closer. He finally saw what he was looking for. The dark shadow, casting its wings over the land. The light rising up to meet it. The two locked in battle, with uncertainty beyond that. The lights and streams of space and time fading and drying. None of the gods could see beyond that. Whatever would happen after that could only reveal itself if she could fulfill her destiny. 

“She will have to fight.” Talos frowned. “All her life. No rest. No way to gather her strength. There is no being strong for war when all is war.” 

“Are you not the god of war?” Dibella didn’t care nearly as much as her fellow gods. Instead, she was painting some lavenders, breathing violet life into the flowers. 

“I am the god of warriors.” Talos sounded offended by what she said. Akatosh wished he still had eyes to roll. “She is blessed under those stars, my stars.”

“Guide her.” Arkay was also disinterested, still counting deaths, looking through lives. He glanced at her, wondering of her death. It would either be to the world eater, or after she defeated him. It was unknown, even to him. He looked back to the spirits. 

“No.” Akatosh spoke before Talos could, not that he expected him to have agreed. “We cannot intervene. Her destiny was written long ago, in the scrolls.” 

Julianos peered even closer. “She will be lonely.” He whispered. “A terrible thing for a mortal to be.” 

Akatosh looked upstream as it flowed through Aetherius. He smiled. “No.” He whispered. “Look.” Each of the gods who cared peered closer, into the auroran light shining from the water, into the tiny lives of the mortals. 

To see a body being pulled from the harsh, dangerous waters of a dark river. An exhausted man spotted her, the blood from the wound on her head having caught his eye. He ran over to her, grabbing her, trying to understand where she even came from. “General Tullius, sir!” He called. “There’s another body!” 

“Leave it.” General Tullius didn’t look up from what he was doing. He tied the fabric around the other man’s head as tight as he could, making sure the knot was unbreakable. “We don’t have any more room on the cart for dead bodies.” He was distracted, focused on the man in front of him. He had to make sure he couldn’t use his Voice, or they could all suffer. 

The first man frowned, laying the unconscious woman on the dry bank. He hoped the locals would at least give her a proper burial. To him, those who died without names were the saddest. He moved to leave her, but then he noticed the movement. Her chest was rising and falling. She was breathing. She was alive. “By the N-! Eight.” He cried out, catching himself, just in case. “Tull- uh- General! General Tullius, sir!” 

“What is it now, Hadvar?” Tullius sighed. 

“She’s alive!” Hadvar picked the woman up, carrying her in his arms. He brought her over to Tullius, who was still more focused on his captive. He lifted her just a bit, trying to show that she’s alive. 

Tullius yanked Ulfric to his feet, but gestured in the vague direction of the last cart. “Put her in this one. We can figure it out in Helgen.” 

Hadvar placed the woman on the inside, close to the driver. He was worried she’d fall out, still having not woken up. He was sure to keep his eyes on her, and not on the man sitting across from her. Hadvar couldn’t look at him. As Tullius’ bound and gagged prisoner was unceremoniously thrown in the same cart. 

What none of them saw, truly saw, was the Great Dragon of Time, looking down upon them. He looked at the woman, feeling a sorrowful joy for her. She would suffer, there was no question in it, she would suffer. But it’s what she was chosen for. It’s her fate. She built for it, able to survive. Able to thrive. Still, he wished a better life for her. He wished the miracle of ordinary days for her. 

“Know this.” He spoke gently to her. She would never hear him. She wouldn’t even think it to be a dream. His words would only be a fleeting feeling to her, at best. “You are loved. You are loved by your ancestors. You are loved by your family. You will always be loved. There are people you haven’t met yet who will love you, whom you will love.”

Her face shifted. She could hear him, after all. But only within the deepest parts of her draconic soul. The part that could understand draconic words in a draconic way. “Use this love.” He whispered to her, he wished he could hug her. “It is stronger than any sword, more powerful than any spell, louder than any shout.” 

“You are the last Dragonborn. Your soul is that of a dragon, but your heart is that of a mortal. Wield your light, your love, and you will prevail.” 

[dedahblog]

Ichigo and Rukia in Memories in The Rain are two frustrating idiots

You just can't take them seriously.

For the first time, since his mother's death, Ichigo forgot about the upcoming anniversarry of his ultimate trauma.

You can pretty much guess by that simple fact how meeting Rukia brought joy to his life and "changed his world"

When she asked him why he became sad, he answered "nothing " and he could had stopped there. However, this is drama queen Ichigo we're talking about.

He had to add loudly "I see ... it's soon " keeping the suspense for Rukia (and us). He made her aware that something was indeed wrong.

Basically, "I'm acting as If I'm shutting myself off from you but not really I want you to know that something is really bothering me"

....

let's move on

Then later, Ichigo could have stopped at just informing Rukia what it was the anniversary of his mother's death but he had to add that she was killed dramatically under the moonlight.

Ichigo basically gave Rukia the greenlight to talk about his personal life. But when she pushed her luck and wanted to know more, he denied everything.

...

Local tsundere teen sending mixed signals to 200 year old emotionally constipated clueless as hell ghost.

Wonder what will happen

She was so worried that she eavesdropped on Tatsuki and Orihim's little chat at class. A behaviour that was totally unusual coming from her.

She couldn't hold back her worry when Ichigo told her he was taking his shinigami job off. She even revealed she had been stalking watching him all day long.

However, when Ichigo asked her, why she followed him to the cemetery, she said she was only there for her shinigami duties ...

Of course it is, why would anyone think of any other reason ...

Then Rukia came out as insensitive telling him maybe a hollow killed her.

Ichigo was pissed off mostly (I think) out of frustration that people were finding excuses instead of blaming him.

Their conversations ended shortly on a tense conclusion : Ichigo saw the girl he wanted to save the day the mother died, fell on his knees baring his heart to Rukia admitting his sin

When you think about it, there is no reason for Ichigo not to avoid talking to Rukia after so much tension, yet...

He slightly smiled greeting her and genuinely asked her if she wanted to continue where they left off

This proves something extremely important which is how lonely Ichigo was and how much he was yearning for someone to support him mentally

and he chose that person to be Rukia....

....

...

The person he met one month ago !!!

over any one of his friends, classmates family members. ??

(what's wrong with him ?!!)

And his prediction were correct

Rukia who knows about loneliness more than anyone. She tried to try to help Ichigo the best she could.

However, she could only offer him what she herself yearned for the most : not be alone

They both longed for someone they can trust and who won't give up on them.

Ichigo didn't feel surprised by her thoughtful words. It was like he was expecting her to say what he needed the most despite her previous bluntness

When Rukia promised she will be there for him as long as it takes, all Ichigo said was "yeah"...

Kubo being Kubo knows what he's doing, knows how those loser are being soft for each other and will die before admitting it

He basically self inserted himself/ the readers in Kon's place " stop acting so cool. I can't keep up with you guys!"

Remember when kubo was enjoying himself creating this manga and slandering Rukia and Ichigo ? Good times good times

I guess panels speak for themselves.

Rukia was begging Ichigo to stay alive, screaming at him to stop fighting, being so happy he survived and used all what remained of her power to heal him.

Yet when he thanked her for healing him, she acted as if it was nothing...

Last round,

it turns out Ichigo is the honest one between the two

Ichigo told Rukia he had to go and eventually had an emotional conversation with his father where he confessed his frustrations

Yet he isn't even bothered that Rukia was listening (without his consent )to his private talk.

That's because he wants her to be there

When Rukia offered to be there for him, he really embraced that offer. He wants her to know about every messed up part of him because he knows she would never give up on him.

...

..

Also I guess he doesn't mind Rukia being a shameless stalker

( that was the second time you're stalking him the same day Rukia wth !! At least be more subtle or feel a bit ashamed)

[self-indulgent-paw-patrol]

What are your favorite Chase moments from the show so far?

Just like with Zuma's post, it's in no specific order, I just really loved all these moments

That first Mission PAW episode when the Princess chose specifically HIM to be the watch dog and guard her crown. That was so adorable I can't even. He seemed so genuinely proud and happy there! Plus he's so damn cute wearing that tux lol

When they were going to rescue Skye and Chase was so worried upon hearing that she was the one in need of rescue. Then when Ryder was choosing which pups would be part of the rescue, that moment he was like "Pick meee pick meeee-"?? That was so cute, he really cares about her and wanted to impress her so bad lmao personally make sure she would be safe (Bonus points for his excitement over being picked for the rescue and everyone else like Go ahead king, we all know you wanted this XD)

The entire time he spent with the owlet and working to rescue the mama owl from that fallen tree. It was so sweet!! The fact I also love owls surely didn't help AUSHAUSHAUSHAU I love that episode SO MUCH

That moment when he finally turned into a Merpup. Poor boy was so fixated on "being on duty" despite wanting SO BAD to go and participate in "the fun". And he couldn't even enjoy being a merpup immediately because he was transformed just because he needed to swim faster for the rescue but he was so overjoyed anyway! Only after that mess, he could go and finally have the fun he wanted and deserved so much.

That moment in the first Sea Patrol episode when he and Skye were left behind at the beach while the rest of the team went on the first mission with the Sea Patroller. His face upon SEEING the HQ turn into a ship and sail away was just priceless XD (Also it's rare to see Chase being put on the sidelines for once lmao)

The first Ultimate Rescue episode!! God, Chase was SO HAPPY. He's THE Police Pup, he gets to lead the mission, supervise, plan, give orders. And the way all the other pups clearly loved the experience and were SO ON BOARD with being Police Pups with him, it was just awesome!

So far these are my favorite moments! Actually I legit just got to watch this first Ultimate Rescue episode like one hour ago. Not to mention it took me five days to think of these moments and then go find the episodes again to take the respective screenshots XD