#fable <3

[mrsackermannx]

18: Sweet, sweet ‘filthy’ love

AO3 VERSION

“…You’re insatiable.”

Summary: Amongst struggling to keep your hands off one another, you and Levi organise a leaving party for the ex-cadets.

Warnings: sex, loving degradation, canon-typical violence, unprotected sex, public sexual acts.

Wc: 12.9k

Author’s note: I missed writing these two🥺! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it 🥰🥰!

Fable’s Masterlist

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Levi begins at the peak of his cupid’s bow, swerving over the corners of his lips and then running across his lower lip, trailing his finger in contemplation. He can still taste you, still, feel your lips skimming and sucking on his. It sort of reminds him of the time you went to the coast together, persuading him into the water with you–you both trod water for countless hours under the setting sun. 

Remaining calm for your benefit whilst submerged to his shoulders in the warm salty water and eyeing you with caution whenever you heaved a shaky breath. He can remember how his thighs buckled afterwards, how his body swayed at the restaurant, how it felt like he was still being pushed and pulled by the distant and waiting current. 

Much like that, Levi hasn’t yet quieted or wound down. Instead, the differing factor this time is that it doesn’t make him feel queasy or unsettled. Instead, it makes him feel like he’s floating rather than struggling just to stay upright. 

Every nerve tingles and fires for more, and fragments of sensory heaven glide through his conscious mind, triggered by the touch of his own fingers upon his lips. Where his mouth has been, the sensations and pleasure he’d enacted wherever it explored, the sounds you’d whimpered, cried, moaned. Actions that conjured up sensation and emotion in every pit of his physical and emotional being. 

He takes a much-needed breath. His hands feel empty when they’re not adorning you. 

Yet peace washes over him as he sits at the foot of the bed, gazing at you in this candlelight. Curled up, rolled in bedclothes, and snoozing, your nose pressed against his pillow. Not a frown speckling your brow. 

Grey eyes impossibly warm, he leans to trace the back of your hand. You sigh, a slight moan parting your lips at the soft contact, a lazy smile forming on your sweet mouth.

Your responsiveness adds to this surreality, “I’m right here,” he purrs, scoffing at how you hum at his voice and wriggle closer to his side of the bed. 

“Which one of us is dreaming right now… hm?” You whirr softly once more, his brows knitting at the raspy sound. 

He quickly decides that the faster he checks on Lotti, the quicker he can have you in his arms, warm and undoubtedly his. And to Levi’s delight, Lotti perks up as soon as he enters the living room. Offering her a fond chuckle in exchange for her stretching and rolling over his thighs as she accepts his fond strokes and rubs. 

“I hope we weren’t too noisy,” he whispers, knelt before her. 

‘You’ll have to ignore what you heard…it’s her fault, not mine. Promise .” 

Levi refilled her water bowl and then watched at the back door like a worried mother as she went outside. Then, as he tucked her into bed, he plotted how to propose the idea of a new sibling for his little pup. “You’d like a friend, huh?” 

He’ll ask you.

She curls into a cosy heap, “See you in the morning, girl. Sweet dreams.”

His slippered feet descend down the hallway, and his eyes crinkle again at the sight that awaits him. Then, he detaches his prosthetic and slithers into the warmth beside you. He presses his lips against your nape, grinning when you mumble his name laced with sleep– and then his eyes lull shut. 

Levi proceeds to replay every moment from tonight. Savouring every second. Every utterance, every caress, you’d handled him like you were in awe. The tenderness had 

seeped in and fixed parts of him he thought would forever be beyond repair. He never knew he needed anyone to do that. He has to be careful not to squeeze you too tight. 

From the beginning of the fresh start you embarked upon together, you told him, ‘Now living can be more than simply surviving. It can be about embracing all the little things. Together .”

Lying here and just listening to you breathe fills his chest with joy . You were right. 

Levi still firmly believes in balance. As that is the only explanation for why the happiest moment in his life is being disturbed. Raps of knuckles sound down the hall; yanking him from the borderline of sleep. 

“What the fuck?” he hisses, on his feet in seconds and reattaching his leg with a look that could kill. “I'm lucky Lotti doesn’t bark, or she’d wake you.”

Loyally though, she follows Levi until he reaches the door, and when he opens it to the late-night visitor, he sighs. Oh, how he sighs. Clicking his tongue as he smooths his hair away from his eyes. “Of course, it’s you. Angela finally broke your heart?”

“My favourite insomniac!” Onyankopon booms with a laugh. Choosing only to smirk at Levi’s disgruntled expression. Chuckling as he kicks off his shoes, more laughter ensues when Levi cocks his brow at the assertion. He’s coming in.

“Stop. You’re happy I’m here, and don’t scowl like that, Levi. If a gust of wind comes, you’ll be stuck like that. But no, my Ghanaian goddess is away visiting her family for a few days. So, unfortunately for me but not for you, I’m a little lonely!” He sighs, arms in the air (always the dramatic).

“Wait a-” He double-takes Levi, mouth opening wide.

“Oh my fucking god.” He tugs down the collar of Levi’s robe, fighting his counterattack. 

“Bastard, you fucking caught me off guard,” Levi hisses, turning away from his scrutiny.

Onyankopon’s eyes bulge at the suggestive mauve and purple marks that flush against his porcelain skin. Visible on his throat, collarbones and surely trailing down everywhere else. 

“And those are the ones I can see, oh my…”

Levi beats his grip at last, batting his hands away with a final, wordless scowl; he turns and treks away to the kitchen.  

“Well, I’ll admit, I thought Angela had finally come to her senses. Come on, tea.”

“So where is Miss trouble then?” He leans down, petting Lotti as she jumps up his shins to greet him. 

“She’s so cute!” His voice raises a few octaves, causing Levi to snort a little.

 “Well? Reader?”

“Asleep,” Levi blurts, tugging his robe together a little self-consciously. “It’s late.” 

“Yeah? Guess it wasn’t my girl coming to her senses tonight then, huh?” he goads with a devilish laugh.

“I guess not then,” Levi mutters, sparing him a wry chuckle.

“I’m happy for you both, truly .”

“Thank you for everything . ”

Levi strains the tea leaves while Onyankopon waits patiently at the dining table. And when he pats his shoulder minutes later and sets down two cups of chamomile, he turns in excitement, grinning at the steaming cup.

He thanks him, taking a sip with a deep hum of satisfaction. “You know Vi…You two mean the world to me… right?”

After the night Levi has had, his heart is more open than ever. The weight that normally resides upon his chest has somehow dissipated. There’s a shift in how the air feels against his skin, brushing, no longer pressing. He feels he could look in the eye at the very friend he has grown to be extremely fond of and answer whatever he asks.  

Levi smiles into his mug, “You mean a lot to us both, too. I hope you know that.” 

They sip their tea with content murmurs, allowing comfortable minutes to pass them by. 

“Though, I dare ask, why are you at my kitchen table at three in the morning? You’re okay, right?” Levi dares finally ask.

Onyankopon laughs so heartily that he almost chokes. “Well, I felt like talking tonight, and honestly, there’s something I wanna tell you, her too. But you first.” 

Levi pinches the bridge of his nose, “You’re not dying, are you?” 

“No, no, Levi, I’m not dying.” Onyankopon quickly composed himself, shaking his head at the question with a phantom grin. Then, he inhales like he’s preparing to dive.

“You know I-…I think that I loved Hange.”

Levi’s mouth opens and then closes before he squints, being extremely careful with this declaration. Then, finally, he speaks. “ So . Loved? As in, you love Angela, right?”

“I love her, yes.” He answers without a doubt. 

“I see, but you loved them in that way. Hange ?”

“Yeah, I really did. I really loved them. I still do, and perhaps I always will,” he whispers, eyes fixed in the distance, empty.

Levi is dumbfounded, wishing you were awake right now. He has no idea what to say to this. “What made you tell me this?” Onyankopon nibbles at his lower lip, leaning his chin into his palm. 

“Take your time, okay?” he adds in trepidation, voice gentler this time. 

“I tried not to love them. I wanted us to be friends,” he swears, guilt creeping into his voice. 

Levi pulls Onyankopon from the stew of his thoughts with a loud scoff, “Don’t feel bad about that. All love starts there. What do you have without that first? It’s undervalued….” Levi reigns himself in, “I think.” 

“Ah.” He’s somewhat surprised at how Levi managed to devalue the very thing he’d agonised over these past few years to something not worth another second. Soothing an ache that had been growing in Onyankopon’s chest all this time.

 “You’re right. It is undervalued. To fall for someone so gradually you don’t even see it coming.” He meets his eyes, “Levi?”

Levi spares him a knowing smile, “Yeah, it is… It is. ”

“I’m telling you because– the reason that I root for you two so much is that, they did . They loved you both so much, and I loved that. I’d never seen it. They taught me what love was and what it meant through you two. So I want to say thank you for that and that you never need to thank me for anything.”

Levi shakes his head fiercely. “But we’ll always thank you because you deserve it. I don’t know how Hange did that-“

“Well, can I tell you?”

Levi nods, and so he continues.

 “It’d be small things that they would draw my attention to. No matter how hard either of you tried, it’s like you could never stay away from each other. It was like clockwork every time, when she stormed out, you followed. When you needed space, from everyone and everything, albeit it an hour. That could never include her. She’d be swaggering at your side in the distance. You’d be stressed, and she’d surprise you by cleaning your office or helping you complete paperwork until dawn. Hange would catch you making her tea when she couldn’t sleep, sitting on the roof together at night, sneaking out on horses or ODM gear.”

He laughs fondly, “Do I even need to continue?” 

“Hange knew before I did. I know that….” Levi drawls, a soft grin on his face. “We weren't that bad, though.”

“Watching you two stuck with me more than anything else ever has. I’d never seen two people so in sync, not even now. And Hange, well…they loved science. They loved you both. Yet they always wanted to understand why. Why?” 

Levi wouldn't be surprised if you were the one who taught Hange how to love. Unfortunately, Hange came from circumstances not too different from his, in which unconditional love had only been briefly exposed to them during the most vital formative years. 

Levi continues to listen as Onyankopon tells him how Hange would conduct experiments in their free time, measuring heartbeats, weighing up variables, and analysing testimonials sought from scouts and citizens. What did a heart contain if they were to all dedicate them? Was it possible everybody experienced the same abstract sentiment the same? 

“Somewhere along the line, I fell for them. I was smitten. I brought them things from outside your walls, then I bought them a book on Greek mythology at some point.” 

Levi, engrossed, shakes his head, having never heard of it. “Well, in one tale, it’s said that originally humans were created with four arms, four legs, and a head with two faces.”

“Sounds like a fucking nightmare,” he hums aloud.

“Well, a god named Zeus split them into two halves. Doubling the population and causing widespread misery, dooming humans to spend their entire lives looking for their other half, living empty lives and yearning for their soulmate.”

“Hange liked that?” Levi asks in sheer disbelief. 

Onyankopon cackles at the vision of Hange propped up with the book in hand, nose between the pages. “Well, they loved it. It was one thing they felt science couldn’t explain. They believed they’d found why some people are so drawn toward others. People who were always meant to come together and stay together. Like you two.”

Levi’s cheeks flushed an aggressive shade of pink. 

“Why was it you two could make the other so happy? So content? How could you work together so well? Well, they believed that was the reason, Levi.”  

“Hange did say some crazy shit….” Levi's eyes flicker to the photo of them stuck to the fridge. “But maybe there is some truth in that. She is the light in my life.” Levi sighed at himself but dared to continue when he saw how his words resonated; his voice sweetened. 

“Having someone by your side no matter the world around you, even if it feels selfish. But because you–need them, want them. And it feels more right than anything else you’ve ever felt, so you hold onto it and never give up. I get it-“

Levi pauses as he picks his gaze up from his hands to Onyankopon’s face. 

Slow and isolated, a tear rolls down Onyankopon’s cheek and into his tea. “Vi? You know, Hange would have loved to write that down?

Levi shoots him a sympathetic look, his throat growing tight. “Tell me, Pon. Is it possible that you think they, Hange ? Was your soulmate?” 

He rubs at the streaming tears. “I don’t know. I’ve fallen for Angela hard . I also think we can have many great loves too, but… .”

“But?”

“Hange used to speak about Moblit all the time. They told me how much he drank. So I drank. He used to sketch things in seconds for them. I couldn’t draw, so I used my camera. I get emotional when I drink, and I can’t draw. I wasn’t him. I wanted to be their person, but I wasn’t.” 

His hands draw and paint images before Levi. Frustrated by his own hands and their inability to grasp the intangible memories he’s trying to communicate. 

“I’m sure it wasn’t completely one-sided,” Levi offers, closing a hand over his shoulder. “There’s more to it than those things.”

“Hange kissed me once.”

Unease lines Levi’s stomach, something about the frown obstructing the usual toothy grin of the man before him. He swallows, “I see. And? That’s good, right?” 

“And then they died.”

Shit. “When?”

“The last time I saw them, the look in their eyes was different. You know– they always had such beautiful eyes?”

Levi nods.

“It was the last time I asked them, what do you really think is going to happen? And they said, ‘You’re going to survive, and hopefully, we’ll meet soon’. I was distraught, obviously. They were speaking with such a final tone. All of their passion had gone.”

Levi squeezes his arm tighter. “So? Then what happened?”

“I told them I had one question I needed them to answer, and they agreed. So I asked them, ‘Who is your soulmate?’.”

His jaw tenses. “And?” Levi all but snaps. Did Hange break him in two? Is that what all this is about?

“Then, they kissed me.” A cynical laugh rumbles from his chest. ‘I’ll tell you when I see you again.’ they said, but then I never saw them again. I searched for their answer, but I never found it.”

“Sounds like things are starting to finally make some sense. But the kiss?”

“I still don’t know. I couldn’t feel what they were trying to say. Damn it.” His fists bang on the table–hopeless.

“It’s my fault. I was too busy worrying about them. I wish I’d savoured it! That’s…that’s why I held on to Reader’s letter for so long. I tried to see if there was some kind of code or message they left for me, but there was nothing—“ 

“That damned letter.”

Levi smiles, sighing aloud. “That damned Hange, huh ?”

They spend a few minutes breathing and holding the weight of their words. Then, sipping cold tea, eyes darting anywhere but each other. 

“I’m sorry, Vi, enough about me. I just think of them so much sometimes it drives me crazy. You know?” He sighs in frustration with himself or Hange— he’s not sure. 

“I-I don’t wanna pain Reader, and I can’t speak to Angela about it-”

“Me! You can speak to me, always. Got it? And listen, I don’t know if it means anything but Erwin, I had strong feelings for him. Respect, admiration, love. And yet, it was not sexual, nor was it romantic. I have lived without him. But a part of me is missing, and Reader says the same about Hange. No matter in what way Hange cared for you, know that it matters just as much.” 

Levi stops to pat his back, tears streaming down through the cracks of his fingers. “Thank you, Levi. For some reason, I never thought of it that way.” He sniffles, “What about your first love? Have you ever spoken to Reader about them?”

“Well, she knew them. Our history I told her later on because when they met we were no longer together. In fact, they got on well and liked each other a lot. When he passed, Reader made sure I wasn’t alone.” 

“But—when I met her, I knew she was…the only person.” He clears his throat. “And you and Angela should have these conversations. They’re important.”

Onyankopon nods, mulling over Levi’s words. “Damn, how our roles have reversed. Thank you for the advice though Levi. I needed to hear it.”

They both chuckle, shifting the atmosphere with ease. 

“I say shit that makes sense sometimes, right? All I will say is that they’re many types of love. You never get the same thing twice, accept that, and you’ll feel better. It’s a good thing.” 

“Like a flu?”

Levi chokes on his tea. “Fuck off,” he hisses, but he chuckles even still, scowling and all.

“So, you’ve never had something compare to how you feel for her? At all.”

“I can’t say I have.”

But to be loved by you makes everything worth it. All the regrettable things he’s done, all the good and bad. The things he’s survived. You are the gift he’s been granted in life. 

“But, I will treasure her for as long as I live. I’m privileged to love her and be by her side. Sometimes I can’t believe we got here, but then I remind myself we fought for it. So I’ll fight for her for the rest of my life—“ 

Levi’s mouth forms an o. “Really? You’re crying again?”

“I can’t help it! That was seriously beautiful.” 

They collapse into fond laughter once more. Until Levi clears his throat, “Pon I-I’m glad you came back to us. Until you came back with Hange’s letter, we’d missed you.”

A small gasp left his lips. “Huh? So, so you don’t resent me for what I did?”

“What? Of course not, and Reader doesn’t either. But, somehow, I think getting that letter at that time saved us. Brought us back to life.” 

“No, no! Levi, c’mon, you’re just trying to make me feel better.”

“No, I’m not. We were happy together, but we always have been. I don’t need anything because if I only had her, I’d have everything. But all those months ago, we were still so broken,” Levi swears.

 “Trust me. You have no idea. I think we could say goodbye to the things that were haunting us now, though .”

“I want to believe that, but.”

“Pon, she was having nightmares every night, waking up screaming. Even I lost it a few times. We were scared of any more change. We’d grown closer and made progress, but we were stuck. And then you delivered that letter, and everything changed.”

He almost flinches at the words he’s about to say. “And now? Now, we’re finally happy—I said it.” 

With that, he releases a breath he hadn't even realised he was holding and Onyankopon finds himself captured and rendered silent by the rawness of Levi’s expression. 

“But if I could have one last conversation with shitty glasses, though. " His fingers bunch against the table, “I'd tell them, “I’ll marry her, just like I promised….”

“ Levi ?… Is there anything else you’d say?” 

His lips pull into a thin line, but Onyankopon is unyielding, “You can say it.” 

“That as much as I love them, I hate them so much for leaving her behind, for all the pain they caused her.”

“Just her?” 

“And me too,” Levi mumbles. 

A sigh of relief mingles with a warm smile of Onyankopon’s. “Me too, Levi. Me too. ” 

A wordless communication passes between the two men.

“Refill?” Onyankopon nods, and Levi shuffles toward the counter, fixing a fresh pot. Comfortable silence befalls the kitchen. 

“One moment.” Levi can hear you mumbling in your sleep, so he rushes to the hallway to get a better listen. 

“Hange, you’ll never guess what,” you sleepily drawl, “Levi-ii loves me. He really loves me!”

That warm fuzzy feeling melts down his spine, filling his stomach too.

He slid down the wall and stilled, lips pressed to his knuckles. “Of course I do,” he whispers, a tear rolling over his wrist. 

“Yess– I promise, Hanjii. I’m so happy, so don’t worry about me anymore. Promise me ?”

Yeah?

Levi was now wiping away more than a lone tear, craning his neck when Lotti and Onyankopon reached the foot of the hallway. “Worried you’d both started up again!”

“Piss off,” he says, but his voice grows tender.

“Just checking she wasn’t having a nightmare, is all.” 

“I���m surprised she’s not out cold. Got it, got it!” He raised his hands in surrender. 

“You should get back to her. I’m going to head out, but I’ll stop by the shop on Thursday?” 

“Make sure…I’ll see you out.”

He pauses as he reaches the door. “Levi?

“Mm?”

“Thanks for listening.” 

“Don’t thank me, that’s what I’m here for,” he tells him with unwavering sincerity. “Remember, if you need me, or us . We’re here.”

“Me too—oh my….” He gets a better view of Levi’s kiss marks and cackles. “For the record, you two definitely fucked tonight, right? Pulled out all the stops?” 

Levi blushed ferociously and then mustered, “You’re foul,” with a hiss. 

He paws at his shoulder. “No, no! You actually fucked her right to sleep, didn’t you? Wait! Imagine if I came earlier? What would I have heard? I don’t even want to think-“

“I’ll see you Thursday.” Levi huffs, Onyankopon chuckling as he attempts to close the door on his foot. “Good night.” 

“We’re due a man talk this week, then! You can’t avoid it either.” Onyankopon teased, walking down the footpath with a merry wave. 

“I hate you.”

“Love ya too!” 

Levi closed the door with a deep sigh but chose to rush back to the bedroom. He can process all of this later. 

This time when he clambers back in with you, he holds you tighter than before. 

You turned, nuzzling your face into his chest and wrapping your arms around his neck. “Where you been?” you mumbled, voice groggy and cracking. “Cold without you.”

“Yeah ?” His hands shifted under your shirt, tracing along your spine. You whined, moving impossibly closer. “Well, I’m right here now, baby. So go back to sleep.”

“Okay,” you giggled. 

“Sweet dreams,” he whispered, giving you one last kiss before finally nodding away with you in his arms.

That whole soulmate thing doesn’t sound so stupid at all. 

                                                                             ***

You stretch your arms out, languid and grinning at the soft black strands that kiss your wrists. “Levi,” you breathe.

Remnants of sweet sensation remain all over, reigniting wherever your skin meets his in your half-naked embrace. “Morning, sweetheart.” 

His husky voice sends unruly flutters down to your core. “How are you feeling?” Large hands take your waist, dominant yet yielding as he pulls you closer. “C’mere.” 

“Feeling like…” Levi’s hands are far too distracting, sinking into your hips like that, gripping with wordless possession… 

“Like I’m still dreaming,” you blurt. Levi’s fingers swirl absently against the small of your back, but you can feel their desire to wander so much more. 

“If this was a dream, you’d have woken up with my tongue on you, though. Wouldn't you?” he tells you. Still hazy from sleep, you blink twice, ready to take anything he’s willing to give so early, the amber sunrise kissing his skin. Slyly breaking through the curtains to reveal another dimension to the striking man lying opposite. 

“I would?” you ask, breath uneven. 

“Mm, because I’d want you to moan my name before you did anything else, let alone leave our bed. And as the sun rose, you’d be quivering and dripping all over my fucking tongue.” 

He smirks at the arousal darkening your irises, slate eyes obscured by black lash. Heat throbs between your legs, lips not daring to part in case a moan slips and exposes just how much you need him already. 

Instead, you lean closer to gain better access to the elegant curve between his shoulder and his neck. He shakes as you coast your lips down the same slope, searching until you find the sensitive point thrumming and taut. When you do, he sucks in a sharp breath at the sensation of your kisses. 

He moans when your pussy makes contact with his bare thigh. He jerks it back and forth between your thighs, your sweet whimpers sending his cheeks pink. 

“You’re this fucking soaked?” Every word leaves his lips in shocked bursts of air against you.

You nod in desperation, lips slipping against his jaw, “Because I-I want you, so bad. ”

“Yeah? I want you. ” He groans in abandon into your hair, chanting your name as if conducting a morning prayer. “Good girl, go faster—fuck. Just like that, does that feel good? Your pussy likes my thigh, huh?”

You gasp, unable to believe your ears. Levi stokes the flames to the arousal burning between your legs. You’re whimpering so much your voice grows thin and hoarse. 

You’d had the sneaking suspicion that Levi could hone his dirty mouth for this very purpose, and you want nothing more than to see how far he can take it. 

“If this is a dream, then what’s this?” You lurch your hips, fitting yourself bare and slick against the hardness threatening to rip through his briefs. 

Your breaths sync, messy and laboured as Levi teases and teases, rutting his clothed cock against your cunt. His entire body is beholden to your touch growing harder and hotter at every contact. 

“God, I love you,” you moan.

“And I really love you.”

He halts your motions, taking them for himself as he plants a heavy grip on your ass, rolling your lower body himself. Dumbing movements that work you until you dare to snap. 

Finally, you attempt to tug down his briefs, but he slaps your hands away, ripping them down his thighs and kicking them to disappear at your feet. 

“What’d you say? Just minutes ago.” He nudges his leaking cock against your folds, watching your eyelids flicker. 

“I said, I want you,” you drawl.

“And you want it ?”

“Put it in now, please . I’m already ready for you…Vi,” you breathe erotically into his ear before scrambling your hand between your aching bodies. 

You both moan in tandem as he bottoms out in seconds, your slick walls like plush silk.

He groans, deep and husky. “You feel so fucking good today. Can I turn you over?”

You moan a shaky ‘yes’ into his shoulder, and he flips you onto your stomach, pulling your form into an arch. You whine at the loss of him, impatient until…. “Levi!”

His hands sink in deep and rough, pulling you apart to relish the sight. “Levi?” you hiss, cheeks burning, as you attempt to peak over your shoulder. 

He squeezes in warning, “Let me look, don’t be embarrassed…it’s, so, fucking, beautiful,” he whispers, more to himself than you.

“Vi…” you drawl. “Don’t look at it like that.”

He hums in soft negation. “Twitching like that….” He leans closer, the gentle whirs of his breath making your clit throb. 

“Just for me. All for me and me only. Twitching to be filled, and the day hasn’t even begun,” he continues, his tone mocking and low.

“Levi, I need it, now.”

“Mm? But all this, sweetheart….” He drags his tongue across your slick thigh and groans at the taste. “So, so, sweet.”

He pulls you closer and licks at your arousal, and when he reaches your clit he sucks on it until it produces a lewd pop.  You whimper, unabashed at the pleasure it sends rocketing through your veins.

“Please, Levi.” Breathless you beg, and not entirely sure what for. 

He pulls away, voice pitched even lower, “All this mess dripping from the sweetness between your legs, sweetheart.” 

He wades his tongue through your soaked folds, and the vibrations of his undone groans cause you to force your face further into your pillow. All in a poor attempt to muffle your whines there.  

“You taste so sweet it’s driving me fucking crazy. Makes me want to lick you clean, but…. ”

The mattress shifts behind you, his fingers digging right into your ass. “Right now, I need to see you like this, my angel.” 

His cock brushes your opening, but only briefly before he thrusts into your pulsing sex. Your moan is so obscene you’re sure you feel Levi grow another inch inside you at the sound.

“I wanna see you take it like this, this morning, my love. Can you do that for me?”

The haze of your arousal and your lust has you speechless and drooling onto your pillow. You’re also still so curious to see how much further your sweet, grumpy lover can take this. 

“ More .” 

He turns your face against the cushion, forcing the hair away from your eyes. 

“Then let me see that pretty face and tell me what you want?” he urges, his thrusts hard and delicious. Leaving only his tip and then roughly snapping his cock right back in over and over.

“That-that filthy mouth of yours, more !”

“Mm? You wanna hear how much I wanted to bend you over like this?”

“Hm?” You moan in an affirmative.

“While I held this pretty ass in my hands as I did? …Huh ?”

The bed frame slams into the wall as he fucks you rough enough for you to make a sound for him this time. “Don’t be stubborn, baby.” 

When the bed frame audibly splinters from the force a loud and broken moan finally slips your mouth. 

He coos you through it as he slows back down, both of your breathing ragged and uneven. Whilst Levi groans at the way you whimper brokenly into his pillow. “You feel so good around my cock like this.” 

“No, you feel even better.” Levi’s hitting you so deliciously in this downward angle. 

The juxtaposition between his soft pet names and the explicit references to his cock and your pussy has you reeling. Now the sounds of Levi fucking you drown out the twitters of the morning birds, the creaking of the bedframe, or anything else outside these four damn walls. 

His grip on your ass remains like a vice, but he presses his body flush against your back as he keeps up his punishing rhythm. His lips brush your ear as he speaks directly into it. “Now I really know. You do like my dirty mouth, throbbing like that on my cock about it. I had no idea my love was such a filthy girl who liked it a little hard sometimes.” 

“Levi—you’re driving me fucking crazy!”

“I know, baby.” He nips your ear, “I can feel it, remember.” His hand runs down your thigh, slick coating his palm. “Like I said, filthy.”

Levi’s every utterance, every action sends you spiralling further into a bottomless pit of lust and devotion. The sounds of your bodies merging fills the room, like music to your ears—like a honeymoon morning.

“From now on, if you want rough, I can do that. You want it slow? You want it calm. Tell me, and we’ll do it. Tell me— everything .” 

“I will, but isn’t that embarrassing?”

“Huh? You asked for it today?” He teases, “Besides, the only embarrassing thing is how much my pleasure is dependent on yours. So sweetheart, you better come on my cock. Or I’ll get upset,” he hisses into your ear, coiling his arm over your chest he fucks you even harder. “Okay?”

“O-okay!” Every slam of his cock, robs you of air. 

"Y’know, I think this is the best way to start the day.” 

He groans deeply, biting down your shoulder as you clench on him, so close. "The perfect way. Let's do this every morning, then,” he shakily offers. 

"Damn it, c’mere,” he moans into your ear and then flips you onto your back, hands gripping your breasts and pushing them together. The way your face scrunches makes him even needier, chasing your release more than his. "I'll do it." 

“Yeah?” 

"We've gotta make up for all the years. We weren't fuck"—he tries to catch his breath —"doing this, don't know how we weren't."

"I don't know how, fuck, I fucking love you," you groan. “Levi, oh my god!” 

He ducks down to your ear, rubbing on your clit just the way you like. 

“And I love you , sweetheart. Now be good. Be good, and come on it for me.”

“I’ll be good!” You wrap your thighs around his hips tighter. Levi doesn't let up for a second, pulsing against that spot deep inside while he plays with your clit. “Yes’m gonna!”

You attempt to hide under your forearm, but Levi pries it away, pushing his lips down onto yours instead. You moan into his mouth as you come, slipping from the kiss, but he catches your lower lip between his teeth. 

The pleasure ripples through every part of you, blinding and shaking you to your core. 

You crumble into his chest, breathless and boneless. “Oh my fucking god, Levi.”

He smirks, thumb tracing your lip as he grants you temporary respite. “You were so good, sweetheart.” 

But then, when he resumes, he catapults you right back into your fading climax. “Look so fucking beautiful when you’re taking it.” 

You gasp as you’re faced with another impending orgasm. 

He tries to last, but the way you’re clenching on him through his thrusts feels way too good. He pulls out, warmth covering your thighs as he grunts out your name with a string of pleas.

The room fills with your uneven breaths. Levi’s hands grip at your curves—grounding your both. Your hands smooth through his hair as you coo sweet nothings to him. “I’ve almost done it inside a few times,” he pants.

There goes that topic again. Your heartbeat grows as frenzied as it was just moments ago. You try your best to remain cool, emanating Levi’s usual calm. 

He whispers your name, tender and soft, filling you with the courage to face him. You grab his face, pulling him close. His expression is glorious, his body and face so relaxed, a giddiness fills you because no one could recognise him in this state. He's like a different person.

"It wouldn't be so bad, would it?" you dare ask, voice small. “What’d you think?”

He raises his brow, and a shiver flickers down your spine. "What are you saying?"

"That if you wanted to have kids, “ you swallow, letting out a stuttered breath. “With me, that is . That I'd want to have kids with you."

“C’mere.” He bops his nose against yours, eyes unwavering in their conviction. "I want to, with you. Of course, I do.” 

“Levi?” Tears glaze your eyes. 

"But I want to marry you first."

Your eyes well with tears, and he chuckles, his own welling with affection. "I'll propose, but it's a surprise. And no, I won't tell you when or how…like I said, a surprise .” 

His cheeks flush, and he smiles so much that his eyes become overtaken with long black lashes. The sight makes your knees weak. 

"You and surprises? Who are you, and what have you done to my Levi."

"I'm here, becoming more of the man I've always wanted to be, thanks to you." He taps his thigh, exhaling when you stretch to lay your head on them. “Step by step. Let’s do it when it feels right.” 

You nod, kissing his knuckles. “As long as you're sure.”

“We’re on the same page here, I promise.” 

“Yeah?”

“ Yeah .”

"I think we'd be good parents." you muse.

He pulls you into his arms, pressing a breathy kiss to your brow. “Mmhm, we will. Now , let’s get you clean.”

You giggle into his chest as he carries you into the bathroom, “Captain Levi, sir? Aren’t we breaking a few rules?”

“Oi!” 

You end up wrestling on the bathroom mat.

“We’ve gotta open the shop later,” he told you, breathless with you pinned beneath him. “We’re showering, no seducing. Got that?”

Fortunately for you, Levi is crazy good at detecting imaginary sexual subtext, apparently . Innocently you rub your hands down your body, coaxing the water between your legs. His eyes flash at yours in silent warning, following a husky murmur of your name from his corner of the shower.

“What? I need to shower around….” you gesture to your lower body, smirking at the blush spreading down his chest. You wink, “Hey. You got me all filthy, remember? I’m just washing my body, Vi.” 

Filthy . His cock twitches at the word, reminding him of your time barely an hour ago. 

“Fucking hell,” he snaps, and then in seconds, is knelt before you. “Well…are you done?” 

Somewhat amused, you grin at him, wordless and in love. Yet Levi is worked up all over again, his cock weeping and erect. He clicks his tongue as he spreads your folds. "I know what you wanted. You wanted me to clean you like this, didn’t you? Just like I told you earlier.”

Now, why would you argue?

You nodded, smirking at his heated expression. Even though Levi had insisted on a sex-free shower, he had been eyeballing you the entire time. He sunk his tongue into you, closing his lips over your clit as he devoured your pussy. You moaned, grinding on his face. His own sounds vibrated against your sex, only fuelling your arousal. 

His hand reached up to hold yours, steely eyes alight, “Wanted to do this earlier. You taste so fucking sweet.” 

And that’s how successful the sex-free shower was. Levi had you gasping against the tiles, relishing you like a man starved. Telling you just how sweet your pussy was on his tongue. 

Somehow, you’d both broken apart to prepare and cook breakfast before opening the shop. But then you found yourself bent over the counter with Levi’s hands snaking up your shirt, gripping both of your breasts, and then he dragged you toward the sofa, pulling you onto his lap.

Your body's never burned so hot; you feel the tack of sweat as you reach down and push Levi’s cock inside. 

You both moan obscenely, entirely in sync. You throw your head back, and Levi’s eyelids flutter. “Fuck, sweetheart.” He cannot wait for you to sink down further. Instead, he holds your entire weight by a grip on your hips, rolling his own until he’s wholly sheathed inside you. “You feel too good.” He groans into your hair. “I can’t get enough.”

He punctuates every thrust into your throbbing cunt with a slam. With both hands pressed to his chest, you forge a rhythm. His name is sweet on your tongue.

It feels perfect. The way your pussy squeezes him as you push yourself down on him. He hits a deep spot inside you that has your slick oozing down his dick and clinging at the base of him. “Why is this so addictive? What if we fuck all day–and c-can’t stop?” you cry into his lips.

“Making love,” he corrects, nibbling on your lower lip. “Wanna stop?” he asks, but his thrusts only grow harder. The obscene sounds of skin slapping skin and your soaked cunt echoed through the house. 

“No!”

“Of course, you don’t, squeezing me so fuckin’ tight–I couldn’t leave if I tried, sweetheart.” He takes your ass in greedy handfuls, dropping you down onto the coffee table. “No matter how sensitive you must be—for me , you take it so well. You’re insatiable.”

“Because it feels too good being full of you, Vi!”

“Yeah? Well, do you know how good you feel? Unbelievable.” You moan at his words. He’s talking you closer and closer… 

“Why’d you think I can’t keep my fucking cock out of you?” 

That will do it. 

“My god, Levi!” He leans down, nipping on your ear with a deep moan as you throb so erratically on him. 

“Let go, sweetheart. Make a mess of your sweet fucking-” You’ve lost count of how many orgasms he’s given you today already, your entire body vibrating in his hold.

He helps your breath slow, dragging himself in and out to help you ride out the cluster of sensations. “That’s just what I wanted.”

He cups your face in adoration, but you watch as his eyes flick down to your pussy as he pulls out, exhaling at the beads of your arousal that drool out of you.

You catch the way he glances, and it makes your cheeks burn. “Are you thinking the same thing?” you ask, voice small. 

“That I wish it were mine… maybe, ” he says, toying with your slick and rubbing it over the tip of his cock. “Don’t,” he orders calmly, jaw taut at the idea. “Let’s not rush into this.” 

He’s driving you crazy this morning. 

“I don’t know how we’ll ever stop,” he hums airily. 

“Levi, please,” you drawl as he rubs himself against your clit, “Couldn’t you…I want that. You want that. We discussed it.” 

The neediness in your tone is going to drive him crazy. 

“There’s no rush.” He kisses along your jaw, coaxing. His chest pressed against your own, the skin-to-skin contact crumbling you into dust. “Fuck.” He sighs, “Let’s go to work, sweetheart.”

“But, you didn’t-”

“But nothing.” He kisses your forehead sweetly and then helps you to your feet. “Step by step.”

You careen into his hold, “ Step by step.”

As you walk to Ackerman’s hand in hand, Levi’s hand coiled in yours, you rejoice in this privilege. You and Levi made it this far, cultivated your own lives, thrive in the mundane, and love each other wholly and completely. For once, the present feels more bountiful and beautiful than the prospect of any ideal or imagined future, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day. ‘Step by step.’ 

Because if you ever knew anything, you knew your future would always be Levi. And now as well as the past, he is, in fact, your present too.                                                                      ***

Slyly, you brush your ass against Levi’s crotch once more. Pouring a mug of oolong for a regular whilst feigning total innocence. You almost yelp when Levi bites down on your earlobe, his hand grabbing your ass simultaneously. “Do that again, and I’ll spank it,” he hisses. 

“Yes sir—” Jenny approaches the counter, snapping you out of your lewd fantasies. “Jenny, here is your tea. Enjoy!”

She smiles back knowingly between you and Levi, and heat rushes to your cheeks. “Don’t distract me then,” Levi chirps behind you.

The rest of the shift runs smoothly, that’s with counting all the times you and Levi almost tear each other's clothing to shreds between customers. Loaded glances, purposeful brushes of fingertips against thighs and chests…

Yet as you close the store as usual, whilst upbeat instruments sound through the vinyl player. Levi’s eyes cannot help but follow you as you fluff up chair cushions and wipe at the tables, humming to the tune. 

“You’re staring,” you hum aloud.

Shit. “I was thinking about Lotti, actually. We should get her a friend.”

Although Leslie can dogsit so often, due to being a writer who prefers writing from the comfort of his own home, Levi is wary. 

You tease him no end as you head home. The irony of him asking for another dog is not lost on you at all. Nevertheless, when you and Levi pick Lotti up, Munro promises you he’ll surprise you with a worthy companion when the following pets are delivered to the store. 

After dinner, Levi flops beside you, sleepy and content. He tugs you to lay against his chest. It’s his way of being clingy. Giddy, you discourage him from passing out from pushups in the next room. “Stay with me,” you sing.

He chuckles in lazy amusement, “Oh, I will. You’ve worn me out. Let’s just be glad that thunder spear didn’t blow off my dick.”

“Levi!” Lotti joins your cosy, blanketed heap, curling up on Levi’s lap. “You’re right, though.”

“Damn right I am, vixen…” he drawls, the two of you falling asleep in minutes. 

                                                                     ***

Levi was not a stranger to your anxiety, no matter how well you sometimes hid it from others and even him. He, too, had been thinking about the cadet’s departure that was coming up this Saturday.

Earlier, when Lukas had stopped by for a coffee, you had inquired about his partner Finn’s bar, The Ivory. At the same time, Onyankopon had come in to visit you both, a shit-eating grin on his face as he inspected Levi’s neck. Of course, he knew Lukas,  “Liberio Monthly Capital Press! Best man they’ve got! Finn knows Ebony, so that’s how we met.”

“Lukas, would we be able to throw some kind of celebration tomorrow for our…” You struggled to find the words, and even Levi did too, both of you willing the other to telepathically recall the appropriate word. 

“Their ex-cadets, or as Levi here would call them, his brats!” Onyankopon interjected, chuckling. “They’re leaving for another year, again. ”

Clearly, Lukas detected the looks on your faces because he was more than excited to extend the offer. “Sure! We have some musicians coming in to play some jazz for us tomorrow night, and we’d love to have you all. 

You beamed beside Levi, “Sounds good. They’ll like that.”

He stole glances at you as you got ready, fixing your hair, changing into a long-sleeved navy dress, and pulling on your beige trench coat. “You look gorgeous,” he whispered, gripping your nape as he planted a passionate kiss upon your lips. “But you always do.” You giggled, utterly lovesick.

Somehow you arrived at The Ivory per Onaynkopon’s poorly drawn map. You’d both laughed heartily when you’d first seen it, but it got you here in the end. 

The bar is nicer than Levi, or you had expected too, housing young and old regulars judging by the murmurs of those queuing at the bar.

With an atmosphere Levi doesn’t mind for the type of place that usually triggers memories of his childhood. Of which he’d rather not reminisce about at your side. 

The walls are deep violet, all kinds of art pinned and hanging above the bar and on its walls, cosy, intimate nooks and splashes of padded leather seating border the room, the main floor clear for people to stand, chat and mingle.

You nudge him, gesturing toward the stage, “I’m excited about the music. Pon said it’s the music he gave us! Jazz.”

“Better than the classical shit we had to listen to at all those expedition fundraiser events back home,” you cackle beside him, tapping your wine glass against his. 

“Oh my, there they are!”

Onyankopon had been responsible for picking them up from their hotel for this impromptu surprise. They surge toward you like a pack of animals when they spot you both.

“Brats!” They took great pleasure in picking you and Levi up, embarrassing you proudly to the crowds at first. And then, after their excitable greetings, you and Levi took to watching over them like protective parents for the next few hours.

Jean and Connie pose in front of the goodbye banner pasted to the top of the bar whilst Armin takes a photo. Reiner and Annie don’t look so miserable for once, at least, letting themselves enjoy their last night of freedom. Pieck and Mikasa huddle together, an unlikely combination, yet Pieck manages to rouse a smile in her that you and Levi appreciate.

“They’re happier,” you whisper. 

Levi leans to kiss your head, “They are.” 

“Somehow, though, I can really feel his absence.” 

“Me too.” 

You and Levi haven't visited Eren since it all ended. Even though Paradis’s official restorations to its architecture and post-war damage are close to being finished. It’s all over the papers. 

Familiar faces appear over the night, including Amelia and her sister. You’d hoped they wouldn’t stop by, but they did. 

“Amelia, hey!” You force through gritted teeth, coiling your arm around Levi’s bicep even tighter.

Her eyes flash over the marks flushing above Levi’s collar, and on your neckline, even in the bar’s darkness. “Nice ring…”

“Thanks.” Levi stifles a chuckle at the way your eyes narrow.

“I think I owe you both an apology.”

You hold back a heavy sigh. Gesturing for her to continue.

“Because of the exhibit, I heard that Reader was….” Surprisingly she appears sincere and docile as her eyes burn into the floor, and she avoids the both of you. “Attacked.”

Levi’s heart sinks at the way you stiffen beside him. “I hadn’t done right by you both by avoiding this—“

“It’s fine. I understand that the exhibit is important. It’s not your fault, though, I will say. The thing you need to apologise for is putting your hands on Levi when he said no, Amelia.”

“I was waiting for this.” Her eyes narrow, “You told her?”

Levi shrugs, leaving the talking to you. “If the roles had been reversed,” you hiss, distaste, knitting your brows.

“I suppose you’re right. Levi, I'm sorry. I don’t know what came over me. I was feeling pathetic.” She sighs, “And you too, I see now that you and Levi are joined at the hip-“

“That shouldn't be the only reason you keep your hands off somebody who says no, but we’ll take on board the apology anyway. And Amelia, I respect your enthusiasm for the preservation of our history. I do. Levi and I will come by at some point. You’ve put in all that work, after all.” 

“ Seriously ? You’re just as nice as they say, aren’t you?” 

“ Probably .” 

You both share an uneasy laugh, but you feel her defences lower, if not momentarily.

“I’ve said my goodbyes to the cadets and my piece to you both. Enjoy your night.” And with that, she leaves you both alone.

“Look at you being all civil, island devil, ” Levi whispers, you swat him but careen into his fond grasp with a chuckle.

“We’re not all bad, huh? But she better not touch you again.”

That’s my girl.

“ What do you think of her apology?”

“I think she’s a spoiled brat who’s used to getting what she wants, but if you see hope. I do, too.”

“Levi, Reader! Come join us!” Armin calls, beckoning you both to their table.

“Look at us, huh!” Jean cackles into his pint, slamming it down with his arms thrown drunkenly over Mikasa and Armin’s shoulders.

“Another year, here we come!”

“I wish Historia could come with us,” Reiner groans.

Annie chuckled, flicking his temple, “Seriously, seriously creepy.”

“I’ve been working on our speeches for the next peace talks, and Historia tells me that the people of Paradis are reasoning with communication to other nations. It means in a few years, we can settle down, guys! Maybe even back home!” 

Whenever Armin speaks, conviction shines in his eyes, and he manages to bring ease to you all, even at the mention of the challenges that remain ahead.

With grins on your faces you all clink your glasses together, “To freedom!”

“To our diplomats!” You holler.

“To us all! And to everyone who came before us!”

“One day, we’ll see you all on the other side,” Mikasa adds, smiling into her glass. “We’ll share one when I get over there, Sash !” 

Her eyes grow glassy, Connie’s too. “Damn it! I love you guys!” he slurs. 

You and Levi’s eyes well with pride, “I’m damn proud of you, kids!” he yells, collapsing everyone into laughter with his classic Captain voice.

Tonight has been everything you and Levi could have imagined. As you sway in the audience beside him, the quartet rousing everyone around you, Levi’s eyes remain on you.

At this point, I've taken her in every room in the house. I can taste her on my lips, the tang of her sweat, the softness of her hair brushing against my neck. 

He taps the side of your jaw with a needy drawl of your name, and the tender look in your eyes when you face him has him filling with emotion. He cups the back of your neck, locking you in a loving kiss the moment blanketed by the crowd.

When you finally pull away, Levi clutches your wrist to bring you closer.

“I’m sure my dicks bruised,” he blurts, smirking when you cackle at the admission.

“Hardly my fault.” You grin, “One moment.”

Is this the way she always looks at me?

Levi has no idea what you want, but his body is on fire from how your eyes undress him before you inevitably break his eyes. 

Does she want me to follow her to the bathroom?...But I think this is how she always looks at me. 

Levi parts the crowd, pacing down the hall until he reaches the unisex cubicles. He looks over his shoulder before he issues a brisk knock to the only occupied stall. Luckily the entire crowd is hooked on the performance, and Levi is hooked on you. “Um fuck–there’s someone in here!” you call out, voice wobbly.

“It’s me.”

You release a silent squeal into your palm, “Levi!”

“I thought you were inviting me in here?” he hisses. 

Your fronts clash as you pull Levi in, and his hands fly to the hem of your dress, hoisting you over his hips. “You weren’t, then?” he asks, breathless.

“Well, you’re here now, so. Fuck me.” You nibble on his ear, and he groans, your words ghosting his skin. 

“No, not here. You can wait till later, until then. Let’s teach you a little lesson.”

He happily indulges you for several moments, tugging you close for a heated kiss. 

And as your back hits the wall, Levi hitches your thigh over his hip. You mewl with need when he tears your panties aside underneath your dress. 

“Levi?” He bites on your lip, and you swallow a moan. As he drags your lower lip forward, eyes burning yours, his hand unzips his pants, and he plunges the tip of him inside. 

His hand covers your moan, and his hips remain still. An amused smirk on his pretty mouth. “That’s all you’re getting.”

Your eyes plead with him. 

“You want more?” he whispers into your ear, “Mm? Well, you won’t get it.” He jerks your lower half forward and back, fucking you on the measly inches he’s willing to grant–easing not even an inch further of himself inside.

“More,” you mewl against his palm, “Vi-ii.”

“No, sweetheart.” He at least gives your clit some attention, tutting at how your eyelids flutter. But as soon as he feels your jaw growing slack, he pulls away, fixing his pants with a smirk.

You scowl at him, pulling down your dress. “You’re evil.”

“Mm, I see.” He takes your hand and guides you out of the stall. 

“Not in a bathroom, sweetheart. They’re filthy.” He chuckles at your expression.

Wordlessly you practically stumble beside him, your panties damp and your heart still thudding in your chest. Adrenaline, anticipation, you love this side of him.

The life booming down the hall grows closer and closer until you’re met with Jean and Connie tottering onstage, singing nonsense with their backs pressed to the saxophone players. 

The crowd is wild, whistling and cheering them on. The rest of the cadets applaud in the front row, Jean tips his hat, and the room fills with screeches and mock moans.

Levi sighs, “Lovely, they’re not up to too much trouble.” You fall into fond laughter.

Hours later, when Onyankopon whisks Levi away and the cadets sway drunkenly hand in hand, you slip to the bar. But as you wait for your water a presence creeps up on you. 

A pair of eyes, you feel them, leering and close. But when you turn to catch the culprit, there are nothing but jovial customers at the smoking area exit. But, you follow the pit in your stomach that tells you something is dangerous for you or someone else. You chug back the water and stalk through the crowd. 

The exit plunges you into the icy night air causing you to tug your sleeves right down to your fingertips. You follow the crass laughs of men. Wilfully ignoring all of the scenarios running through your head–someone could get hurt.

You reach a corner, peeping down the exit of the alleyway. A pack of men stand clustered together, waiting, no doubt, for somebody poor and unassuming.

Quickly you tuck yourself behind the safety of the wall. It feels too late to grab Levi now. Maybe they’re smoking there because the smoking area is too full. Perhaps they’re innocent-

“You can’t catch an Eldian here. Clubs owned by a queer, he’d never have it.” They collapse into laughter.

“A fucking what?” you hiss to yourself. 

“Did you guys see her?”

“You’re paranoid! After what we did to her. She wouldn’t be out like this!” 

“I’m betting we broke that bitches ribs! Famous soldier, my fucking ass, Reader, huh?”

It’s them. Your attackers. You knew they sounded familiar. 

Your eyes dart around you, blood pounding in your ears. You grab a wine bottle from The Ivory’s glass trash. But a hand locks around your wrist, the culprit pulling you into their chest.

The smell of cedarwood soap and black tea leaves invades your senses. “I thought we no longer condoned violence.” 

You clutch him, voice shaking, “Levi, it’s them.” 

The way Levi unhands you gives you whiplash. “Look at me. The police are searching for them in there. Onyankopon’s talking to em, but, I slipped out to give us some time.” He rolls up his sleeves, tugging the knife out of his shoe. “So…

Your eyes widen at the sight.

“We’re doing this, together, right? ”

Your fear turns to excitement. “Let’s be young once more, Ackerman.”

He kisses your brow, “We are island devils, after all.”

Levi’s presence behind you is strong. You can practically smell the aggression seeping from his pores as you walk out into the open. “I fucking told you, it’s her! No fucking broken ribs, idiot!”

“Brought the Ackerman this time? Interesting!” the largest one goads, his sick smirk visible even in the darkness of this alley. 

“Damn right she did.”

Levi’s doing a run and jump on him before you can even blink. Without even processing what to do next, your body pulls to his like a magnet, rushing to his side. You check his blind spot before you jump and curve your entire lower body, shin crashing down one of their napes. A guttural groan rips from his chest, and he lands on the concrete with an assortment of cracks.

Another one nears you, “Fucking bitch!-” You curl your arm and let your fist pound his throat. Levi crashes another into a wall beside you, jerking his blade into his palm until he keels over from the shock and sheer speed of his blood loss. 

Then Levi already has the next man on the floor, crushing his foot into his face. He lurches his body over another, in sync, backs facing; you and Levi take them all out, one by one.

Slowly but surely, the adrenaline peels back to expose the sounds of music, the sounds of voices, the laboured gasps and breaths leaving your and Levi’s bodies. 

Your fists ache. Levi drops his blade to the floor. Beneath you, their bodies are tessellated and stacked over one another like a fish market display, except their long wet bodies are covered in darkening blood.

Levi’s arm hooks around you, steadying you indefinitely.

“What you gonna do? Kill us now?” The largest man now croaks, spewing out blood on the concrete.

Levi makes a point of humming and cocking his brow at you. You shake your head, trying not to grin at your lover. You crouch down, tugging his hair until his face scrapes the gravel and he yelps out in pain, an evil scowl on his face. 

“We’ll let you off just this once. I guess you’d forgotten us Eldians were devils, huh?” 

“Matt! They’re here! Now!” You startle at the sound of Onyankopon’s voice. And then all the noises blend into one. All the bodies of the partygoers pool the narrow alley. Some of the Cadets rush to your sides, wrapping their arms around you and drunkenly slurring with joy.

A round of applause emerges all around you, Liberio officers warily eye the bloody scene before accepting their superior’s orders with firm nods.

A mousy woman makes you jolt as she taps your arm. “Hey, you don’t know me, but I saw your story in the paper, and I knew I recognised them, especially when you followed them.”

Your eyes soften, “Thank you. I’m Reader. Nice to meet you.” 

She tells you of her own experience. It had been not too dissimilar to yours. You resist the urge to throw her arms around her neck at the way her voice wobbles. 

“Cassie, I’m sorry it took so long for you to get the justice you deserved. You too.” The man extends a hand to you both.

“I’m Matt Smith, and this is my wife, Cass. Between you and me. I’m glad you did a number on them before we got here. I’d planned worse. I sincerely thank you, Reader and Levi. For your service, too, of course.”

You smile at the woman, watching her careen into her husband's arms, “I’m glad you’ll be able to sleep again, Cassie.”

She clasps your hand, “No more looking over our shoulders. It was very nice to meet you in person, Reader.”

Matt leans forward, “You want that knife back, sir?” he whispers in Levi’s ear.

Levi’s head tilts, asking you a wordless question. But to your surprise, he chuckles and then shakes his head. “Keep it.”

Matt’s team bundled the men into their cars, cuffing them all against the walls of the alleyway and soiling their uniforms with blood in the process. 

Levi’s eyes soften as he watches Mikasa and Jean sprint towards you both, their shoulders butting into gawping onlookers. “What’s going on? What happened?” Jean pants.

“We found them.” 

Mikasa grabs the last of the men before he can head into the car. Her forearm cutting off his oxygen. The police officers freeze, all of their eyes on her. “Mikasa!” Levi warns her though it's so uncharacteristically tame that you struggle to hide your laughter.

“Do you have anything to say for yourself?!”

The man turns to you both, “We never knew any better. We’re sorry!” he stutters.  

Levi's face hardens. “Too late for that now, isn’t it? You’re lucky the police are here. If they weren't, you wouldn’t be breathing, much less talking.”

All of the blood leaves his face, not just because Mikasa is threatening to cut off the blood supply to his brain.

“Eldians–took–everything–from us!”

The vein in Levi’s neck pulls taut. “Get him out of her sight, Mika.”

Her eyes darken, smashing his head on the roof of the car before she throws him inside. “Miss, you can’t-”

She smiles, turning to the officer, “Sorry, I don’t know my own strength sometimes,” she answers, voice honeyed. 

Moments later, the cadets huddle beside you and Levi as the cars depart one by one. 

Triumphant, overwhelming cheers sound out into the night. Two hardened but gentle hands coax you away from the noise, ushering you paces away. 

As soon as you’re alone, his sturdy arms wrap around your upper back, and finally, you let your defences crash readily at your feet. You crumble and melt into his warmth. “It’s all over now. It’s okay, sweetheart.”

You find your voice once more, finally feeling at home in your own skin. “Levi.” Yet instead of catching your breath, you choke on it, tears streaming down your cheeks. 

“I’ve been so scared. I just didn’t want to tell you. Didn’t wanna burden you with it,” you sob through hiccups. 

“You could never burden me with anything.” He rocks you as voices sound in the distance, drunk laughter dancing through whistles of wind. 

“You don’t need to be scared anymore. We did it together, protected each other, we’re family, and you’re mine.”

“I want us to have a family,” you sniffle into his chest, hiding in his chest as you squeeze him tighter.

“C’mere, talk to me.”

“Levi, I-“ You pull away, “I want all of it with you.”

“My love…” Impassioned Levi’s lips meet yours. In this cold, you shiver, but you’re on fire. 

“You’re sure that’s what you want? Can you handle it? I-”

“With you by my side, I can handle anything. That’s how it’s always been.”

He pauses, and his eyes are lidded. “Reader.” He plunges his lips back on yours, the way his mouth melds with yours, dripping with desire. Your legs buckle under the intensity. 

“Let’s go home and start our fucking family, now.”

Returning to the club hand in hand, like lovesick teenagers, you say your goodbyes, finalising the details for seeing away the cadets at the docks. It’s bittersweet, all of it. But Levi manages to make it all a little less bitter, though. 

Dragging you down an alleyway at the mention of the cubicle incident just hours before as you depart home on foot. 

Levi cages you against the wall as his hand wanders along your inner thigh. ”Don’t start what you can’t finish.” He nips your ear, trailing his lips down your neck.

You're past shame, eagerly parting your legs to grind yourself on the thigh he nudges against your sex. Levi checks either side of the alley, hooking a finger underneath your gusset and exposing your soaked pussy to the night air. 

“That’s it. Show me how wet you are,” he coos, his soft whisper ghosting your mouth. “Do we have to get you off? Right. Fucking. Here?” 

“Oh fuck.”

Two of his fingers swirl at your slick in circles. 

“Levi, don’t tease,” you whine, grinding yourself into his palm. 

“What do you say to going home and getting filled all over again?”

I wonder how she’d feel knowing how badly I wanted to hold her down and fill her with my come all night. Until she was so delirious, she could only call my name.

You gasp into the corner of his mouth, “Vi, tell me. You’re not ordinary, right? Those words, you like it too, huh?” Your cheeks burn. “Y’know, the way you were this morning.”

“Mm, something like that, sweetheart,” he croons, flicking your clit until you fall apart in his neck. 

“I just mean, surely there are things you wanna do or say to me. That you may think I don’t want or won’t like,” you stammer. 

“What things?” he purrs before he takes your breath, sinking two of his fingers in you knuckle deep. “Tell me,” he commands silkily. 

“In the bedroom.”

“Ah?” You cover your own mouth so Levi doesn’t make you scream into the night with his fingers' skilful, deft movements.

“What if I told you–that I wanna tie you to our bed and fuck you full of my come, until you couldn’t take anymore inside. Until you were dripping with what I’d done to you… my love .” 

You groan at his words as they stir arousal in your lower belly you’ve never felt. “Yes, I want that. I need that!”

“ Need it, huh?” An affectionate kiss of praise presses against your jaw. “You’re so wet you could take me right here…you would if I asked, wouldn’t you?”

You gasp, “Of course, I would. I’d do anything for you, Levi.”

“I know, you’re such a good girl.” He leaves you empty, sliding his fingers onto your tongue. 

“Seems unfair for me not to share.”

You whine on the digits, sucking obediently while Levi ruts his hard cock against you. He cups the heat between your legs, pitching his voice low. “You know what I’d do anything for? This pussy .”

“Vi!” you hiss, burying yourself into the warmth of his solid frame.

“I love licking it, I love tasting it. Thrusting my fucking cock into it…it’s taking me everything not to get on my knees for it, right here, right now.”

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

“Levi, your cock, I-I ache without it.”

His fingers brush your quivering hole once more, “Oh? We can’t have that. Show me where it hurts.”

You nod into his neck, groaning when Levi’s fingers tease that pleasure spot drooling for his attention. “How much can you take for me?”

Over the past few days, you’ve had moments where you’ve found it hard to believe that mere months separate: the shy man you sat with in Sasha’s and the man whispering all these dirty little nothings in your neck right now. 

Levi’s so confident in his skin now. It’s undeniably thrilling and sexy.

He finger-fucks you until he has to hold you up straight, the wall useless. Your pussy dripping down your thighs and drowning Levi’s fingers.

You shake in his arms, “My god, Levi. You’re gonna kill me.”

He smirks, pulling your panties back over your drooling cunt. He sucks away your taste and coils his hand through yours. “Just wait until we get home.” 

When you arrive home, exhausted and stripped bare, Levi washes your back, kissing all the while he adorns planes of your skin with his hands. You careen into him, steam fogging the windows, the tiles, and the mirror. “I love you,” you gasp into his lips. 

You breathe deep and as focused as you can muster, so you can stay calm enough to memorise how his body feels pressed against yours. How perfect it feels.

Levi sits on the shower bench, beckoning you upon his lap. His tongue laps at you all over, eyes lidded and adoring the angel before him. 

“You are so fucking beautiful.” He grunts into your lips, fingers sinking into your hips. “Y’know, seeing you like that tonight, I’d missed it.”

You grin, carding your hands through his wet hair, “Oh?”

“It reminded me of the fierce woman I met. It reminded me of how strong you are. I want you to know that I’m protective of you, not because I underestimate your strength but because I couldn’t bear not being at your side if something was to happen.”

You link your hand with his, eyes crinkling, “Because we’re stronger together, right?”

“Well because I can never lose you,” he hums. 

The emotions that Levi rouses in you. 

In a heated heap, you both land on the bed, skin still damp. You melt into each other, lips hot and aching, bodies grinding in every direction. Your arms wrap tight around Levi’s neck, unwilling to let him go, not tonight–not ever.

“You’re all mine,” you whimper.

“You’re all fucking mine,” he pants into your neck, delighting in the moan that tears from your throat when he slides himself, hot and waiting against your pussy. 

“I’m all yours, Levi. Always have been, always will be.” You buck your hips forward, Levi’s cock sliding inside with ease. “M’ waiting to feel you, all of you, tonight.”

“Mm? Gonna take all of me tonight? Because baby, I want to see you full, so fucking full.” 

His voice is so husky and arousing you cannot stop the incessant throbbing between your legs.

“Do it,” you moan. “I want it all, inside. Please.” 

“Fuck.” He throws his head back, his hips stuttering as he wills away his impending orgasm.

“Don’t hold back. Let go, Vi.”

“You want it, baby? Right in this sweet cunt of yours?” he groans, his voice shaky. 

The moan that slips your lips at Levi’s words is sinful. 

His thrusts grow sloppy, but they remain hard, his gravity placed on your lower half. He hits that spot inside you repeatedly until tears leak from the pleasure, and you're shaking wildly under him. Creaming all over his cock. 

“It’s n-now?” he whimpers, one hand on the headboard, one holding your face. “You really want this? You’re sure?”

“Come inside. Let’s do it together.” You thrust your lips onto his, moaning into Levi’s mouth at the sensation that immediately follows your words. 

He fills you with his warmth as you moan endlessly. And he groans and whines right back too, collapsing against you. 

You rock him in your arms, cooing whispered love you’s and shaky exhales of his name. And when he pulls out, your chests heave from the erotic nature of the exchange. 

His fingers delve inside and deep, cheeks burning before your eyes. “I did it,” he purrs, scissoring his come inside you. “Now you’re all fucking mine.” 

“More,” you groan, dazed and grinning. “Feels good.”

“Oh? Like this?”

You pant, throwing your head back against the pillow, thighs clenching around his hips. “Feels good!”

His tongue flicks over yours, and tangible lust clings to the air around you. Levi couldn’t take his hands off you right now if he tried. Not yet, not tonight.

“Show me that pretty face.” 

                             ***

The afterglow of your morning with Levi was even better than the morning after your first time together. Passion and love seeped into every kiss, and every second you spent merged and moaning together. His fingers trailed lovingly over your curves in the bath as you drank tea and laughed and even cried a little.

Reaching the pier hand in hand, your stomach wrenches at the sight of the cadets queuing for their boat. Once they reached the next city over, they’d fly to somewhere far from here. But you’ll see them again soon . 

Mikasa breaks first. “Thank you for giving me hope again. Captain’s.” She shakes her head, “Reader, Levi.”

Levi clears his throat, shy. “We’ll be waiting for you all to return. Thank you for allowing us to move on. All of you.”

The waves crash, birds caw, and all of you huddle together. Laughing, crying, saying your goodbyes. “If you guys get married before we come back!” Connie starts.

“We’ll kill ya!” Jean teases, Armin and Mikasa nodding too.

“We can wait a year,” Levi tells them, offering you a cheeky smile. “For marriage.”

“For marriage,” you repeat, giggling.

“You both make me sick!” Onyankopon calls over.

Levi smiles, waving over at him. “Pon! You came?”

He takes off his hat, bowing his head at you all. “Goodbyes are important. Aren’t they!”

The boat staff announce departure once more. Only minutes left. 

“We believe in all of you. You’ve already convinced so much of the world. Only pure goodness comes from each of you and your actions,” you swear, hand on your heart. “I know in my heart.”

Armin sniffles in your arms, and even Reiner wraps a hesitant arm around you. “Don’t let anyone tell you any different, got it!”

You, Levi and Onyankopon stand in a loyal line, waving them away as they bicker about whose bags are going with who’s. They remain waving, at least, yelling goodbyes from afar until the boat becomes a dot on the horizon.

Levi dabs his handkerchief over your damp cheeks before he coils his arm around you and pulls you close. “I’ll miss them a lot.”

“They’ll write,” he coos. Onyankopon clears his throat, and your and Levi’s faces frown in confusion at the two boarding passes he produces from his coat pocket.

“Angela and I will take care of Lotti. Take a few days.” 

You and Levi accept the tickets, eyes widening as you read. “Huh?”

Paradis.

“Pon, Paradis?” you ask, voice barely above a whisper.

“Go! Go and see your homeland. It’s become so beautiful.”

“What’s another goodbye?” you ask.

Before a new beginning.

“It has been years.” Levi turns to you, “We could see Eren.” 

You smile, “Yeah, we can go see him.” 

“The boat leaves at five today and returns here in two days. Go .”

You grip Levi’s hand tight, “You’re right, Pon. Let’s go.”                  

[vio-starzz]

mh…..

[thatmooncake]

xd

(I once saw a tumblr post with these kitty images but I couldn't find it again)

OBSESSED WITH THIS THANK YOU<3<3<3

[cannibal-stag]

can’t relate when people try to be normal in this fandom. i’m here to lick disturbing concepts off the wet pavement

[linterteatime]

More hollow knight gijinka- wait nvm wrong bug game

[tsevile]

2004 in video games

[vioyume]

(Edit: Thanks to the people who informed me on what Leif's species is!)

Sat down and got to finally properly render these fuckers while also settling on how I should draw them. I actually did a tiny bit of research on their respective species, took a few elements here and there but nothing to drastically change them.

So as far as I'm aware, Leif is not a specific moth but plenty of blue and red moths will usually have the eye patterns on their wings and as well as have fluff on their bodies. Had fun with the posing and if you can guess where I referenced it then you get a cookie. Thought it was neat that the original concept was that he was suppose to dance.

Vi is obviously a honey bee, they're very well known to be fuzzy. I don't have much to say besides from that but if anyone doesn't know, only females have stingers.

Now Kabbu was really testing my patience, according to the wiki it states that is he is a rainbow scarab beetle. If that is wrong then too bad, those guys are gorgeous and it took me too long to figure how to balance the colors without burning my eyes. Its faint but noticeable, just so I can still be true to the game model, also I know it's not as visible here but I realize beetle wings are very pretty.

So what's the conclusion here? There needs to be a website dedicated to bug references so I can sit there and admire them all day.

[brandyrobbinscyberpunk]

Fable is 20 years old today

[bayporwave]

bottom bin kids films me like

[thatbiblob]

Kai & her kiddos

Art for @goldenocie !! i hope you like it !! it took me a hot minute but it’s here! I also didn’t know what the kids eye colors was so i improvised- hope that’s ok !! /g

[morgueyouknow]

wanted to do a little outfit thingy for reaver — honestly, I feel like his goofy ass would have a painting like this in his mansion with his self absorbed ass ☝️🤓 I also know the five active fable fans are going to eat this up

[ghostplasmas]

I just wanna go to metal island, man

[thatmooncake]

xD

Freedom is just out of reach (but not if he wiggles fast enough)!

[sylkana]

[centross-mistvale]

Who would win?

A goddess of the literal fucking mind

Or

A man in pajamas with a pointy stick

[sage-is-in-fact-very-tired]

might've cooked too hard on this. it sure is. so many worbs. [18,320 words, to be exact.]

but, i commit to my bit, and I will continue to do so because i'm a *loser* - so, welcome to the “sage looked at the c!sherb playlist and went far more bonkers than probably necessary” post. because uh. nothing i say ever stays a bit very long-

—

[Section One - Man. Icarus Morningstar is such a character. The most character of all time.]

-> [Icarus]

-> In my mind, this is 2 to 3 people talking to/about Icarus. The first section, up until the instrumental in the middle, being Centross. Just the whole idea of drinking, it feels very much Centross about them. (“Living beyond your years” is very reset coded - not Centross talking about them, but the rest of that section definitely feels like Centross.) The second section, up until “you put up your defenses when you leave”, is very much Fable talking about them. Just the whole idea of them falling - he would've been the one to see that - and the whole idea of him being scared of that happening again and again and *again.* The last section, following that, could be argued it's either Centross or Rae. How they both know that Icarus puts up this front, this armor, when they talk to people, when they walk around, and only really *really* drop that when they're alone or when Centross or Rae is around. (Well. There's an argument that they *don't* drop their walls completely around Centross or Rae, but this is playlist analysis, not character analysis-)

(Also the whole reset idea of Icarus dying over and over again, forgetting over and over again - falling over and over again.)

-> [Redesign Your Logo]

-> This is very much about the whole change from *just* yellow's and golds, to the yellow and purple color scheme they end up with due to the eye. It's very Midas to Icarus coded, basically. Because as a kid, they were mostly dressed up in yellows, but as time went on, and as the eye happened, and as the resets started, that *changed.* they shifted into wearing purples more often, mixing them with yellow - for all intents and purposes, redesigning the logo they had previously had. Also the whole idea of the trident changing from the trident to the Quixis symbol - cause. Yeah that's kinda Icarus’ logo. (The argument could also be made about how they become nicer with the eye and the following resets - their logo, their typical-ness of being a snarky asshole shifts into being something kind and caring and compassionate. It's Redesigned, and it's at least *partially* Midas’ doing.)

-> [Any Day Now]

-> Icarus about the wack. How they want it to stop, *think* it will stop, soon. It'll stop ‘any day now’ - it can't keep going forever, can it? (Also the pain Icarus is constantly going through - the bad, the horrible and the terrible and the suffering - it'll stop eventually, right? It can't keep going on forever - it'll stop any day now as long as they can *make it* there, make it to the point they're good and happy and it can stop. They just have to keep going and it’ll *stop.*)

-> [&]

-> Icarus’ hypocrisy. How they do things, harm, yell at, everything like that, to others - while doing the same things they're berating others for themself. How they'll do one thing, and call it fine, while criticizing that *exact* same thing. Also could be seen in a light of Fable talking about Icarus’ actions and friendships and things of that sort.

-> [Comb Attack]

-> Okay this one is. Mmm. Okay. Most of the words in here are very glitchy, very cut off from each other - something about the resets cutting off Icarus? Cutting their words off, cutting their actions off, cutting their memories off, *glitching* them.

-> [Hungover in the City of Dust]

-> Icarus’ Isolation. How their friends are constantly leaving them alone and isolated, and how they're constantly pushing people away, and how they're left running around in circles trying to catch up, trying to save themself, figure out what's wrong, figure out how to *fix it.*

-> [Mr. Backwards]

-> Icarus’ more backwards way of thinking. How they'll tell you what they *want* How they're hurting, but they're not going to tell you. How they're trying so desperately to not let people see that, seem so backward to others.

-> [Never Meant to Know]

-> Just the whole idea that there is so much about this world that Icarus cannot and should not be privy to until the correct time - how they live their life rather peacefully up to that point, not knowing, never knowing. The whole idea of the resets - and how really, truly, Icarus wasn’t supposed to know about *any* of this, how they were supposed to be *dead* and they’re not, they were genuinely *never* meant to know.

-> [Out of the Box]

-> Resets. The whole idea that Icarus has died again and again - and that whole like. Abrupt manner of the resets. How they can be doing something one moment and the next they're outside, surrounded by grass and surprised.

-> [Digital Silence]

-> Icarus siding with Fable, and really, Icarus’ actions in general - How they have to do this, regardless of what others say, and regardless of how it makes them *feel* - they *need* to do what they're doing right now; it's all a means to an end and they *need to* do it - because if they don't, things could go very wrong and very different. (Different in a bad way, of course.)

-> [Alien Blues]

-> Just kind of describing Icarus’ whole life - the pain, the bad, the terrible. The whole idea Icarus plays everything off as a joke - they *don't* let people see what really happens, and the snark and asshole attitude people give them because of that. Also maybe the whole idea of the way the things snark them sometimes after bad things, when they're repeating history in a bad way. (Also also also “I'd do anything for you, Mrs. Highness” something about how they’d do anything for Fable, *anything* - even if it meant killing their family, if it meant that he might love them; if it meant they’d be good and they’d have succeeded in something - succeeded instead of *failing.*)

-> [Under My Skin]

-> Just. Everything with being not entirely yourself. Everything about being yourself on the outside, but having someone else simmering right under your skin, telling you things, making you do things. The entire idea that Icarus isn't entirely all *themself.*

-> [Able]

-> That whole idea of Icarus not wanting to be alone in their own mind sometimes, on top of wanting to just be *fine* - on time of trying to so desperately *convince* themself that they're all entirely and completely fine. Saying it out loud so it properly sets into their mind, so it properly comes to fruition.

-> [Mirror Man]

-> That need to be *seen* by someone - anyone. That need to be heard and seen and known by someone - and the knowledge that if they don't, Icarus will make it worse for not only themself, but *everyone* else - make them live Icarus’ nightmare.

-> [Brass Goggles]

-> A) Copper duo; B) That whole idea, almost, that Icarus likes to shove down their feelings. They like to pretend the Icarus that has bad, upset emotions doesn't exist - at least, when in front of people. That whole idea that they try to present themself as someone who doesn't break down in front of others, they try not to cry and they try so desperately to keep this facade up and teach themself more as time goes on how to do so.

-> [Bleed Magic]

-> In my mind, this is very Midas talking to Icarus. Just that whole idea of Midas knowing what Icarus is like; that whole idea that Icarus is *lonely*, that no one believes them just because of how much they *lied*, and is, somehow, bleeding magic out. Literally, in the direct form of Sherbert's eye (Which was, in a way, *killing* Sherbert - not necessarily the bleeding eye, just simply the fact they didn’t become Quixis when they needed to), as well as the whole concept that due to the fact they didn't become Quixis when they should've, Midas has spent far far too much time and energy and *magic* on them. Icarus literally draining them, bleeding them, leaving them with such little control.

-> [Gold]

-> This being about how everything they touch changes no matter what they do, how they try so hard to keep if from changing - but the wack is random, Midas’ can't control it, and so it *changes,* it changes gold and bright. Everything they touch changes to gold, huh?

-> [Gold]

-> Just, I guess, that whole idea that no matter how many people leave them, or get killed around them, or anything like that, they'll come back. The idea that those people can't break like that, because Icarus has always seen them like a rock that *can't* break.

-> [creature]

-> That whole idea of how Icarus *is* Creation's child. They are creation, in a way. They push His ideals, however subconsciously, into people. He is leading their way, and will be, and this is a good thing. And Icarus pushes and pushes this idea - showing both the good parts of themself, not quite the good parts of Creation, as well as the bad more twisted parts, parts almost completely Fable's fault due to them almost being *His* ideals. (“I am creation, both haunted and holy.”) Also almost that whole idea of the resets, their body re-created and re-created over and over and *over* again. They *are* the embodiment of Creation's powers - a person remade through Him, made in His image, made to be the person *He* wants them to be. Haunted, in the idea they might as well be a ghost, and Holy simply because Fable deems them as such - deems them His favorite.

-> [Path to Isolation]

-> A) Oh my gods this song is so fucking coded what the fuck; B) The whole idea of how loss, be it of someone, or *something* - leads them down this path. Leads Icarus so often down this path of immense anger, leads them down the path of the side of the enemy. That whole idea of everything breaking, be it through their own means or someone else's. That whole idea that going down this path so often means that they're so incredibly alone, and means they can't *recognize* themself - they don't know who they've become in all this pain and hell and *bad*, they can't find it. They just keep falling apart and they don't even know when or where to begin to pick up the pieces.

-> [Bet On It]

-> Just that whole idea that Icarus wants to do the right thing, so desperately. Despite all their doubts, their disbelief, their questions about this world, they want to do the right thing - they *will* do the right thing. They need to. They've put all their effort into doing the right thing - it'd all fall apart if they didn't continue to do that.

[Section Two - Broters. also family <3]

-> [Problems]

-> Am I aware this is on the playlist because of Charles? Yes. Am I going to say this is brothers coded anyway? *absolutely.* Because it is brothers coded - something about Icarus seeing themself as bad and someone who can't be saved, while they view their brother in a significantly better light, and see him as the good one and the one who's gonna save them.

-> [Two Birds]

-> *Separation* - This is very much Icarus and Rae drifting away from each other. Icarus drifting away and leaving and hiding, while Rae continues time and time and *time* again to help them and save them and drag them back *home.*

-> [Family Line]

-> Something just about repeating history, and something about following after your parents, and something about how they'll try to change and change themself so much so they don't mirror their parents, and something about how they have to live with everything their parents have done.

-> [Call Them Brothers]

-> Separation!! Again!! The brothers are apart from each other, separated rather permanently through the resets, and, from Icarus’ point of view, they probably *can't* fix it. They can't mend themselves back together like they used to, they're broken.

-> [Brother]

-> Something about how despite being broken, despite all the separation and time lost that hangs between them, they still rely on each other. They'll still help each other no matter the cost, because, in the end, they're still brothers - they still love each other and they still *care.*

-> [Rule #4 - Fish in a Birdcage]

-> Icarus being trapped and isolated, be it through their own doings or their father's or *anyone's*, and how Rae will always be there to sooth them, help them, care for them, *love them.* He cares so desperately, and he'll do his best to take care of them, and Icarus *believes it* - that he loves them.

-> [Icarus]

-> This one feels *mostly* Rae talking to Icarus - Seeing just how far they've flown, and just how far they're willing to fall. That realization of what Icarus has become after all of this, and trying so very hard to drag Icarus back down in any way he can. The last part is Icarus to Rae, however. That try to get him to stop - that “you can't save me, Rae.” That acknowledgment, no matter when in the timeline, that Rae can't save Icarus. (Icarus has to be the one to save themself.)

-> [The Family Jewels]

-> Just that whole idea of cycles - that whole idea of just fucked their whole family is. That whole idea that this cycle of pain and suffering will continue until *they* (Icarus) stops it. Their almost snark to Rae, that idea that they only share *one* last name - Morningstar - and not both. Also that whole idea of Icarus being the favorite - that Fable conditioned them to be the “better” one, conditioned them to be like *this.* (Also just the whole idea of “jewels” - royalty. That idea, almost, of Icarus welcoming Rae to this life. This life of trying too hard, so very hard to be perfect - to be the best, to be royalty, because they have to be. And, arguably, that realization that Rae never had to live that life. That realization Rae never *had* to be the perfect one - Rae got to. Live normally, pretty much. Whereas Icarus grew up young having to be a prince and be as perfect as they could.))

-> [Sparkbird]

-> The whole idea of Icarus noticing little things, pointing them out, needing Rae to notice them. The whole idea that Icarus grew up far *far* too quickly, and Rae is almost their outlet of that - they want so desperately to make up for a) all the time they lost with the resets, and b) all the times Icarus was just an asshole to him.

-> [When the Day Met the Night]

-> Did Sherb say this was Fable, Enderian, and Isla? Yes. Am I going to say it’s brothers coded anyway? Also yes. Just the whole idea of how Rae is always there for Icarus, and how they make each other better when they’re together, and how yes, they often have their bad moments between each other, but in the end, there’s always good - in the end they always manage to find a way to have the sun shine brightly upon them, how in the end they still love and care to deeply about each other.

-> [Icarus]

-> Rae to Icarus. That whole idea that Rae can so easily see through Icarus’ front - so easily see what they're trying to hide. The idea that Rae can so easily see the danger Icarus so often leads themself to, and so often tries to deter them away from that. The whole thing of Rae so often giving Icarus an *out* - asking them questions, leading them in the right direction. (Or, at the very least, trying his hardest to do so.)

-> [I've Got You]

-> Considering this is a Zenni song, and one made for Fable specifically, it doesn't *really* need an explanation - However, just like. The whole idea that despite everything, despite all the brothers have been through and all their arguing and all their bad and terrible, Icarus and Rae still care about each other. Icarus will still keep Rae safe no matter what happens, because that's what older brothers *do*, that's what *family* does.

[Section Three - Season one, am I right or am I right-]

-> [Fine]

-> Just that whole idea at the beginning of season 1 that everything was actually *okay.* It was fine, it was okay, they were all *okay.* Nothing bad had happened yet (at least, not that they could remember), and it was all going well - and the idea that it was going to *continue* to go well. To them, nothing bad was going to happen, because why would it? It's all gone well up to this point - why would it start now?

-> [My Eyes]

-> This is very early corruption - the first part being Icarus, that slow realization of what they're falling into - bad and anger and hopelessness (almost?), and that whole idea that they're getting *worse.* The second part is Momboo - almost trying to comfort herself and Icarus, convince herself and Icarus of what they (Icarus) *really* wants - that they don't want to be bad, truly. (Regardless of their actions, and what Momboo and Co see so clearly in front of them.)

-> [If I Killed Someone for You]

-> Icarus to Momboo in early corruption. The idea of their true sense of self - or at least, the sense of self they had before - is slowly rotting away as corruption takes hold. Slowly killing the good person they were, slowly killing them, and leaving only the bad, ugly, and bloodied pieces of them. Would she still care about them, still hold their hands, if they weren't the same person she had fallen in love with?

-> Could also be viewed as Icarus to Momboo in late corruption, more towards the end, after killing Haley. How there's physically blood and gore on their hands, and would she still hold their hands knowing that that covered their hands like that.

-> [Laplace's Angel (Hurt People? Hurt People!)]

-> Corruption. Basically Icarus to *everyone* - That snark of “am I *really* that bad?” because they know, if necessary, they can be so *so* much worse. That acknowledgment that if anyone else was in their shoes, they'd probably drop to the same lows they had - the same bad, terrible and horrible actions. (Well - they *think.* They come to know later that probably wouldn't be the case, but it's almost what they end up believing up until, really, Breaking Bonds.) Just that whole idea of their mentality during corruption - how bad they can be, and how much worse they could be, and how much someone else in their same shoes would be just as bad.

-> [Ways to Be Wicked]

-> Very Ominous Bane. Just that whole idea of there being so many ways they can just be *evil.* The whole idea of trying to convince people to join their side, to join their cause, to change the story, to be *bad.*

-> [Heathens]

-> Sherb said this is very Easton talking to Athena about Ominous Bane/Icarus, Centross, and kinda sorta Seven, and I very much agree with that. Just the whole idea of a *warning* - of how messy and chaotic and bad Ominous Bane can be. The whole idea of everything they've been through before this, be it if they remember it or not, and how it affects them still to this day. The whole concept of someone trying to warn Athena of what they're getting into, *tell them* what everyone here is like.

-> [I WANNA BE YOUR SLAVE]

-> Just that whole idea of wanting to be seen as good by Enderian - almost? That whole idea of *wanting* to be her puppet, and wanting her to tell them what to do. (And that whole idea of after it, wanting to be redeemed.)

-> [Twisted]

-> Hot take - Icarus taunting people. Icarus trying to get Ominous Bane with them to help taunt people - *specifically* Athena. Just that whole idea of trying to get them to believe that, a, they're not a hero, they're not going to be - and b, this world as it is, isn't worth saving. They need to mess with it, blow stuff up, kill people, *something* to make it worth it.

-> [Ramalama (Bang Bang)]

-> Just the whole idea of Icarus and Co going around and blowing shit up. Just the snark and annoyance and bullshit they say during it, and the stuff they tell people while they're blowing stuff up - the whole *loudness* and bangs of the explosions - all of it.

-> [Secret]

-> Icarus asking Athena to keep all of this - Ominous Bane, *everything* about corruption - a secret. That loosely veiled threat of what would happen if Athena told *anyone* - what would happen to *them* if they dare spill that to others. The fact that Icarus so desperately wanted to keep corruption, keep their actions, keep Ominous Bane and Athena's involvement in it, a *secret.* (And how, in the end, they can't. Because in the end, Athena *tells* - and Athena gets hurt because of that, but they also get *saved* because of it.)

-> [Hawk in the Night]

-> Icarus to Athena - That whole idea of Athena doing good and being what Icarus wants her to be for them and Ominous Bane. That whole idea that Athena should fight against their friends, stop trying to call out to them for help, stop trying anything - and being proud when Athena would finally end up doing that, cutting ties.

-> Hot take, not in the correct spot in the playlist for this, but also Fable talking to Icarus - be it before or after the cathedral. That whole idea of Fable *wanting* Icarus to isolate themself from their friends and brother, and being pleased when they did that; as well as the whole idea of fighting your friends and family and siding with the “bad guys” and not, well, your family. (Or well, Your family family. The people who really love you. The people who’d care if you’d die. The people who want you to be there and you to be around them.)

-> [Sharks]

-> Just that whole idea of Icarus and Ominous Bane almost taunting Athena while he’s with them. The whole idea that everyone knows, that Athena thinks they can be better than everyone else (when in reality they’re just the same), and the whole idea that one day Athena will see that all she’s doing is swimming with sharks that want her gone and dead and hurt the same as everyone else.

-> Another hot take, Rae to Icarus around A Brother’s Final Stand. That whole idea that one day Icarus will realize their mistakes and missteps and wrong doings and how *Fable* is wrong, and they’ll truly realize how in too deep they are, and just how deep they’ve gone to swim with the sharks.

-> [Lies]

-> Just that whole idea of *all* the lies Icarus tells during season 1. To others, to get people on their side; to Ominous Bane to make themself look better; to *themself* to hide away they're *cracking.*

-> [We Both Reached for the Gun]

-> That whole idea of being a puppet to someone else. That whole idea of someone standing behind you, trying to control your actions and words and *everything* about you. That whole idea of corruption, being a puppet to yourself - in a weird sort of way. And that whole idea that during corruption and Ominous Bane, Centross tried so desperately to make Icarus do what *he* wanted.

-> [Wolf in Sheep's Clothing]

-> Just the whole idea of corruption. All that anger and upset and *mad* - targeted at *everyone.* Arguably, Icarus to Centross. Just that anger at how he gets to Enderian, that anger he gets to do whatever *he* wants, and they're delegated to. whatever this is. All of the arguing that happens between them - it's very season 1 prison duo.

-> [Play With Fire]

-> This is Centross and Enderian, yes; *Arguably* them almost taunting Icarus. The whole idea of them getting to do all of this, and do it *together* - while Icarus hasn't even gotten to *talk* to Enderian.

-> [Can't Stand the Rain]

-> Just that whole idea of literally not being able to stand the rain - how it's constant, how it means this just keeps going and going and *going* and they're not really getting any further than before. (Also like that whole idea of love - how there's truly no such thing as it, as long as this keeps going; as long as they’re corrupted.)

-> [Bust Your Kneecaps (Johnny Don't Leave Me)]

-> Three Strikes Three Strikes Three Strikes. This is so *incredibly* three strikes coded. Just that whole idea of Icarus taunting Athena, chasing after them and everyone else, threatening them. The way that Icarus was fully willing to hunt and kill all of them - fully willing to *go there* and hurt them like that.

-> [6up 5oh Copout (Pro / Con)]

-> This is so very prison coded. Just that whole anger at the fact they were even *put there* - the idea that people would dare misuse their trust like that to trap them. The anger of being alone and trapped and the fact no one was even *considering* letting them out. That need and what to be *out* because they were perfectly fucking *fine* - they didn't need to be trapped like this, why did they even *think* Icarus needed to be trapped like this?

-> [Murders]

-> Getting put in the prison. The idea that they go looking for something, they’re promised something and they work incredibly hard to get to that point - but in the end the prison ruins that for them. In the end, all their efforts were really worth nothing. All their efforts to see the end of this weren’t worth anything because look at where they are now. Look at where this has gotten them - trapped in a prison, panicked and alone and *hurt.*

-> [Nothing Left To Lose]

-> Loose Ends Loose Ends Loose Ends. This is so very incredibly Loose Ends coded. Just that whole idea of Icarus’ to put Centross into the prison - and their attempt at that. Then Centross almost immediately trying to put *them* back into the cell. The following argument and then Centross flying off, Icarus and Rae following. And then the whole idea of Icarus trying so *desperately* to keep him from blowing up their house - and failing because Centross just doesn't give a shit. Centross doesn't have any attachments to them anymore, they've served their purpose (his words), and he doe\snt need to keep them or their house or their anything around any longer - and so he goes through with blowing it up. He leaves Icarus alone there to pick up whatever they can.

-> [As the World Caves In]

-> The season 1 finale - just that whole idea of Centross blowing up the tree, the world literally caving in as Fable rips away yet another page. The way everyone gets ready, gathers around for the funeral of a woman none of them *really* knew, ready to mourn, but not knowing the events that would follow; they get ready for a funeral - only it’s not *only* Haley’s, but also their own. Sure they’ll come back, but the world will still cave in, and the person that sat in those seats will be long gone by the time they do.

-> Arguably also could be the season 2 reset - that whole idea of getting ready and dressing up and *armoring* up to fight Perix/The Warden and getting to that point, putting her soul into the portal frame; only to find Midas had switched Fable and Haley and it was all for nothing, and. Oh. Now the world is caving in - it’s falling apart.

-> [What if Tomorrow Comes]

-> I guess really that whole idea of hoping that Centross blowing up the tree isn't really, truly, the end of this all. That hope that tomorrow will come regardless because this can’t be the end. But also almost that doubt and unknown of if it really would come - that idea that, to them, it really seemed like they were *going* to die with no way of coming back. (And that whole idea of being proven very wrong as they wake up a few weeks later in a reset world, and slowly work to get their memories back as time goes on. That realization that tomorrow *will* come because it came once, it came tens of times before, so it’ll come again and again until they figure all of this out and stop it.)

[Section Four - Season two, why are at least a half of these about putting centross in the prison. *sherb*]

-> [New Life]

-> Just that whole idea of how since no one remembers at the beginning of the Sculk reset, they all - Icarus especially - have an opportunity to, at least until they remember properly, start anew. Icarus doesn’t remember, and for a while no one really remembers them, so they have an opportunity to have a new life; to rebuild things long since broken and make them better. Icarus doesn't have to worry about everything they did in the past if no one can remember it, meaning they get a free past to - at least, for a while, and for all intents and purposes - start a new life on a clean slate.

-> [People I Don't Like]

-> Very much Centross at the beginning of season 2 - to everyone really; though considering this *is* the Icarus playlist, it's arguably to Icarus. Just that whole idea that Centross *knows* them and everything they did and all the feelings he holds about them - and the whole idea that Icarus just. Doesn't. That whole thing of Centross trying to make himself seem good in everyone's eyes, save face and all of that - especially to Icarus. (Especially considering Icarus has/had *very* strong feelings about everything Centross did and told them and. All of that. Not that they remembered all of that at the beginning of the reset, but. Concept.)

-> [Turn The Lights Off]

-> The whole vibe at the beginning of season 2 that people shouldn't go to the end - or at least go to the end *alone* - because look at where that got people last time. Don’t go to the end because you could end up corrupted just like *they* did, and they don’t want that to happen again.

-> Part of me would also say, maybe not within this season, but also season 3 - with the end, that this could also be used in reference to the Worldport and how it’s decaying and how that’s where Quixis is and everything that happens every time Icarus goes in there.

-> You could also maybe make the argument that it’s about Purgatory and Fable - Don’t go with him, don’t go in there and subject yourself to that because you could become more of a monster than a man - more of a loyal soldier than yourself, more of a guard dog than a person. Don’t go down that hole, turn those lights off, because who knows what will happen. (Don’t side with him because you’ll become the monster you’ve always feared becoming - you’ll become the person you’ve never wanted to become.)

-> [The Devil You Know]

-> That whole idea of Icarus not remembering - but also *wanting* not to remember. Icarus has seen the way people react to them, they don't want to remember that person. Sure, right now they're not the *most* amazing person, but they can tell that they were so so much worse before - and they don't want to remember that. It's better to *just* remember the devil they are now, the person they've become, than the person - devil - they were before.

-> [What Did I Do?]

-> Very much season 2 Icarus runaway arc. Just that whole lead up if it - that idea of them wondering what they've done for months and months, and their proposal of an *arena*, and the fallout, the way they ran. That whole idea of them not knowing what they did, what they were, who they were; that whole idea of them wondering what they *did* to be looked at like *that* - what they did to be talked to like that and threatened, what they did to make their family (the only semblance of stability they had even during season 2) so *afraid* of them. (And almost the idea that they were afraid of that - afraid and scared of being viewed in such a way; that idea that this is an active fear that they have.)

-> [It's Not the Same Anymore]

-> Very much Icarus remembering - but less that immediate “*oh fuck yeah I remember!*” and more that “oh. fuck. I *remember.*” Just that whole idea of now that they remember, nothing back home, nothing within town, is going to be the same. None of it will have the same connotations to it, and none of their relationships with people will be the same - because now Icarus *knows* and now they're going to be far, *far* more cautious with their words and actions. It's not the same - and oh how they remember just how fucking *miserable* they were. Additionally, that kind of whole idea of how they should be happy, they should be happy now that they've remembered everything - they *know* now; but really, in the long term, remembering everything just makes it so so much harder to navigate *everything.* (The vibe the end of the song really gives is after all of the Prison Arc Part 2, Icarus trying to make up and make their relationships and friendships and *everything* better - fix them up and pick up broken pieces.)

-> [Could've Been Me]

-> Remembering but we're happy this time! Don't think about all of the consequences and bad feelings and *everything* that comes with remembering you're a horrible person - only focus on the fact you remembered and can now go home and definitely totally be incredibly happy with your family again! All jokes aside, that's very much the vibe this song has. Just that whole idea of Icarus being incredibly happy that they've remembered everything - that they can go *home* finally, they don't have to stay out in the middle of nowhere alone because they're terrified of hurting people. Also that whole idea of everything they want to do now that they remember and know where the line is - know what they can say that won't tow too far over a line and/or trigger someone.

-> [Brutus]

-> Oh to be Icarus Morningstar upon opening their door, post remembering, and seeing David Centross Mistvale. Just that whole anger and upset Icarus holds for Centross after they remember. That anger at what he did, at what he didn't do, at what he said and told them, the anger at what he *left them with* - and the anger that *he* got to talk to Enderian. He got to hear her and listen to her and know her, and Icarus didn't. He was her favorite, and *gods* how that made Icarus so very angry. And the whole idea of how that anger carries over - how Icarus so desperately wanted what Centross had, and didn't get it, and now that they remember they want to *make* it known just how angry they are. (And that whole idea and action of putting him in the prison.)

-> [Absinthe]

-> Very similar to Brutus - that just *anger* at Centross for all of this. That anger at everything he did and everything he said and everything about the endstone reset. And also that way they *don't* believe that front he's put him since the beginning of the reset - don't believe the “good guy” front he's tried to keep up since appearing this reset.

-> [The Main Character]

-> The whole idea that they can do this - do what they're doing to Centross, and *keep doing it* because there are worse people than them out there - there are so so much worse people than them out there, so they can do this, because, well, they’re better; they’re not bad bad like a lot of people. The idea that this is okay because of everything else.

-> [You're Not Welcome]

-> Just all of that angry Icarus holds for Centross bubbling over - this *is* the act of putting him in the prison. That need to make it known he's *not* welcome - the idea they try to convince both themself and him of that no one would care if he just disappeared. And, well. Welcome to the first of like four more detailed line by line analysis cause i'm a loser.

“Don't you know you're not welcome ‘round here?” Just that whole idea of Icarus being willing to lock him away because they fully believe, what to believe, want *him* to believe that he's not welcome - he's not welcome and therefore that makes their following actions “okay.”

“I think you should go ‘fore you cause some drama.” Almost that idea that he needs to leave - he shouldn't be here. That whole idea that he should leave before *they* do something. That whole idea that if he stays, regardless of if he does something, they’re going to *hurt him.*

“Don't you know I'm the one you should fear?” They *want* him to be afraid of them - want him fear them so they *finally* have that upper hand on him. (Want him to be afraid of them like they were afraid of him after they got out of the prison - want him to know that fear, want them to be able to get their revenge.)

“Talk to me if you've got a problem.” That whole idea that Icarus wants to be the one to deal with him - that whole thing of no one else dealing with Centross the way *Icarus* thinks he should be dealt with.

“I can't believe you used to truly scare me.” Because he *did* genuinely scare them - after they were uncorrupted they were genuinely and truly scared of him. However, like this, with the offer that Icarus can stab him, with the way he just lets himself get put into the prison, he's really not that scary. They can't believe he used to genuinely scare them when he's just. almost pitiful like this - in the prison.

“You were like a ghost story told to keep me weary. But I never listened, no, I slept good ‘til morning.” Arguably *he* was the one telling them the ‘ghost stories’ - the warnings he'd tell them, the arguments they'd get into. The way Icarus never heeded them, only pushing further and further until they tipped him (or themself) over the edge. The way Icarus would just sleep it off - because that's what they always did.

“And when our paths finally crossed, I didn't heed the warning.” Similar to that last line - Icarus didn't heed any warning. Icarus just kept pushing and pushing and pushing, arguing with Centross over and over and *over* again.

“Then push, push, push, push. Yeah, you pushed me to the edge.” Haley. Arguably, Centross was part of the reason Icarus killed her in the first place. That need to prove themself not only to Enderian, but also to Centross. That need to prove they weren't useless (weren't a *failure*), that they could be of use to Ominous Bane and weren't just *there* - that they could *do something.*

“I used to dread the thought of falling quickly” Something something resets something something. While they don't remember them or know about them at this point in time, just that whole idea of falling like that. Also, arguably, that whole idea of falling into an ideal and thought process - that idea they don't like to do that quickly, they don't like falling down a thought rabbit hole without thinking and considering it properly first. (Even though they do that so incredibly often.)

“But now I just wish that you'd send me off that ledge - So I can finally fucking take you with me” But also that whole idea that if it meant Centross was going down with them? if them falling down a thought rabbit hole, if them falling and doing something terrible, meant Centross would go down with them? If him pushing them to that point meant they'd go down *together* - two birds, one stone and all - and no one could be hurt by him again? Oh Icarus would gladly fall down. They'd gladly let themself if it meant they could kill or hurt or do *something* to him that meant they were going down together.

-> [Blood // Water]

-> Just that whole idea of Icarus being so very angry at Centross for all of this. That whole idea of there literally being blood in the water - he tried to kill all of them, and he *did* kill hundreds more. That whole idea that Icarus doesn't plan on letting him go *any* time soon - they want him so desperately to know just how what he did made them feel. (Also “you poisoned me just for another dollar in your pocket” that whole idea that he let Icarus dig themself into this hole, he argued and argued and *argued* and pushed and poisoned their mind with thoughts and words that *stuck.*)

-> [Lonely]

-> They hate each other, yes. However, What if they held hands about it? Maybe even kissed about it. Just like. That whole idea of of how during the season 2 prison arc they were really each other's *only* company. They were alone, but alone together. Yeah they hated each other - but they still *had* each other. That whole idea Icarus was *alone* - but they still had someone, regardless of how much they hated each other. (Also “Hey love, Have mercy on me, and keep me company” is very Centross to Icarus. Just that idea of wanting mercy, wanting Icarus to *stop* hurting him - but also still wanting that company because they were *alone.*)

-> [GONER]

-> They definitely still hate each other - like absolutely still hate each other. Like they are arguing and fighting and snapping at each other every fucking opportunity they get the longer Centross is in the prison - especially more towards the end, Centross is being just as snippy and antagonistic towards Icarus as they're being to him. That whole idea of Centross snipping at them - that idea of “at least he fights back when he's imprisoned.” However, arguably, they also probably kissed about it. They hate each other - but like, sometimes you have to acknowledge the other person is definitely a little kiss-able. (“You look so damn appetizing” like. *like.* so many of these lines imply they at the very *very* least kissed about it.)

-> [Forgive Me Chester]

-> Very end of season 2/the season 2 reset. Really that whole idea of seeing the 3 people you've spent your life chasing after all at once, all in the same room, all together. That idea of fighting the Warden, that whole idea of trying to get Fable out, that whole idea of trying to finally chase the bad away - chase the resets and the Warden and the anger and the bad and *all of it.*

-> Verse one is very much talking about Haley; Verse two is about Centross (prison duo the beloved); Verse three is about Rae, something about broters and their relationship being good for that bit at the end there.

-> [Rock in a God's Shoe]

-> Just that general demeanor of late season 2 - trying to figure out if Fable getting out would *actually* help (even if Icarus really really wants him back), and that whole idea of trying to figure out if he will actually be on their side or not. That worry after everything that happened with Perix that maybe he isn't. Also that idea of Fable not giving that much information, and them all trying their absolute *hardest* to figure out how to get him out. (Also that bit at the end is Icarus to Midas coded, especially with the glitchy voice, and in this essay I will-)

-> [Moonsickness]

-> Very much the season 2 reset. The annoyance at Fable, that annoyance and *anger* at Quixis. That very demeanor they have toward Quixis at the end - being done with them and being annoyed at them; them seeing themself as a failure because of *course* they fucked up the thing that was supposed to help them. They can't do anything right ever - they fuck up *everything* they touch. Also, hot take, Midas talking to Icarus and Fable (and almost the grove in general? but I feel like *mostly* Fable). and, well, I have thoughts about some of these lines, so take this silly more specific analysis. (Not *every* line, just some I picked. Because if i picked all the lines we’d be here forever.)

“Everybody knows this place is dying, as am I.” Something about Midas dying as the Worldport does - decaying and falling with their realm. Something about the season 2 reset showing the world *literally* dying, falling apart, crumbling and everyone *knowing* it.

“I might not get another chance.” Midas switching Haley and Fable - they *knew* they probably weren't going to get another chance to try and stop Fable like that. As well as the whole idea of the grove only having one chance to open the portal - they, Icarus especially as the one who *put* Perix's soul in the frame, fully thought this was their *only* opportunity to get Fable out. Obviously this is proven wrong in season 3 - but they didn't *know that.*

“I am such a fuckup, if you only knew that I am such a fuck up.” Something about Icarus seeing themself as a failure - a fuckup. They couldn't even get their father out correctly, why can't everyone just see how much of a failure they are? Why can't everyone see how much they ruin everything they touch? (And, arguably, Midas as well. That whole idea of them failing in their duties to bring Icarus when they were supposed to, leading to so so *so* many worlds decaying.)

“And I am the worst mistake that God has ever made.” Sort of that same idea as the last one - that idea of Icarus seeing themself as a failure. Only this time it's more related to their Dad than themself. He made them, they're *his* child - therefore, if they see themself *that* badly, they're the worst mistake he's ever made. They're a terrible fucking person and they're a *failure.*

“But I make lemons out of lemonade.” Wack wack wack wack. This line is so very about the wack. Something about changing things from one thing to another in a way that *shouldn't be possible.*

“In your guts you know it's all destroyed.” Okay, Midas to Fable. Something about Fable knowing that this world is dying - something about how Fable would *know* the outcome of doing all of this. He would know that Rae would figure it out one day, the cause of the resets, and it wouldn't go *well* - that his relationship with one or both of his sons would be destroyed. (Also, mayhaps, Midas to Icarus - that whole idea that the world is destroyed and their chance at getting Fable out (at least this time) is *also* destroyed.)

“None of us belong, Everything I do is wrong.” Something about everyone being pulled into the resets from different time periods, being shifted and tugged and placed into the present but not quite *belonging* there. Something about how Icarus tries their very hardest to be *good* - but so much of what they do ends up being wrong on so many levels. (But it's all they know.) Something about how Midas tries their very best to fix and fix and *fix* and they can't really - it almost always ends up *wrong.*

“And in your blood you know what's right.” Midas to Icarus - that whole idea that Icarus has Fable's blood running through their veins, that they believe that he is *right.* Even if in the moment they don't know him well, don't remember him well, they still subconsciously think what they're doing that mirrors Fable's own actions is *right.*

Could also be Midas to Fable? That might be a slippery slope to climb and explain though.

“And in your bones you know what's wrong.” Midas to Icarus - something about Icarus so often knowing, but not *acknowledging*, that what they're doing is wrong. Icarus *knows* it's wrong, deep in their bones, they really really do. (But rarely do they acknowledge that.)

Could *also* be Midas to Fable for similar reasons.

“And in your throat you know you're lying to kids” Midas to Fable - While they're not *literally* kids and children still, they are *his* kids - and he's lying to them. Fable is lying to his kids and he *knows* it, not that he'll acknowledge that ever.

“And you know nobody belongs in this hell.” Midas to Fable - Something about Fable *knowing* none of them belong in this hell of resets and everything; that he should probably just let life run its course, let it go as it *should* - but he doesn't. And he's dooming them to this hell none of them belong in. (And he knows they don't.)

“I am God's worst Mistake” Just. Icarus. Once again just that whole idea that they just think of themself as a *failure* - especially after the portal glitches. They can't keep doing this - at some point they're just. A mistake. (Arguably, could also be seen directed more at Quixis as well - the way Quixis made them like this with the eye and all.)

“And you seem happy on the knife's edge, but I just lick the blade.” Midas to Fable - That idea that Fable kind of hovers on the knife's edge, but never tips over it. He tows a line, about to tetter over. The way Midas will *gladly* tip over that line - lick the blade, on this case - they'll go down, tetter over that edge, but they sure as fuck won't do it quietly or unnoticeable.

“And I'm the worst mistake your God has ever made.” Arguably, Midas to Icarus. Fable is the reason they couldn't get to Icarus - Fable is the reason they're *like this.* And, *arguably,* Fable is kind of sort of Icarus’ God. Also just that whole idea that Fable is the reason for *so much* between Midas and Fable. And now Midas is *angry.* Mistake in this case isn't a bad thing - mistake in this case is more “Midas is about to make their anger *very* much Fable's problem - and it's his fault.”

“Invisible hand savior, fucking up your definitions even though it's life or death.” Midas to Fable - Fable is, in this case, the invisible hand. He saves Icarus every *single* reset - he *is* the savior, and he's fucking up definitions *every* time he does it. Even though it's life or death, even though Icarus absolutely *should* die, they should be dead, they're not. He's literally fucking up definitions everytime he rips a page out or edits or does *anything* to As It Is.

“Don't you think it matters when we wish our friends the best.” Midas to Fable - again. Something about Fable wishing Rae and Co good luck on figuring out what the resets were being caused by - when *he* was the one causing them. It *should* matter that he wished them luck, but it really doesn't considering he *knew.*

“Because of all this bullshit I'm not anything at all.” Midas in general really - something about how they're just trying to fix everything now, but they're not really a person anymore. They're alone and they're almost a god and they're *angry.*

“There's nothing to believe in and there won't be ‘till we fall” Okay this line goes *far* deeper into the finale and things than it should. This is Midas talking to Fable but for once they're not being an *asshole* - they're lumping themself in with him. Something about Fable dying at the end of Fable, and Midas passing their torch (metaphorically falling/dying), and the way it leaves room for new gods - new gods people will actually *like* and believe in and won't cause harm and and and. Something about Midas knowing that until both of them are gone, no one is going to properly believe for a *while.*

“I can't get the numbers right - I can't fucking count because not one goddamn thing is in it's place.” Midas to Icarus *or* Vice versa (Icarus to Midas). Something about the wack changing and altering so so *so* much neither of them are really them anymore. Nothing is like it should be, and it hasn't been for a while. The Worldport is decaying, soon Midas will be too. Icarus isn't themself - they haven't been in a *while.* The eye isn't theirs (not that they *know* that), all of the purple isn't theirs, some of their members *aren't theirs.* Nothing is in it's place and that's *really* fucking shit up.

“You fuckers know it's all built on lies” Midas to *both* Icarus and Fable. Just that whole idea of how Fable manipulates and abuses in the way he does; twisting words and fabricating truths, lies laid with the grounds of a truth, but built on things objectively very false. And in Icarus’ case - their entire life and personality is a lie. They act so very differently alone than they do around others, it's all a front. Everything they've built to this point, and *so much* of what they'll build as season 3 starts is built on lies and half truths. (And that whole idea that Midas is *angry* at them.)

“But the beast refuses to die, and so I guess well neither can I.” This line *arguably* also leans very heavily into finale territory - mostly with things we know after the fact though. Just that whole idea that Fable can't die, he refuses to - as long as he's immortal he *can't.* And if Fable is alive, and actively keeping Midas from Icarus - then Midas can't pass the torch, Midas can't *die.* Something about how Midas fully thought they were going to die upon passing the torch to Icarus. If Fable refuses to die, meaning they can't reach Icarus, then Midas *can't* die. (Because what happens then? The Worldport is left without an overseer and wack gets hundreds of times worse? *No* that can't happen. So they power through it to let Icarus see the end.)

[Section Five - You died. Deal with the consequences, Icarus. (Season 3)]

-> [Is There Anybody Here?]

-> The season 3 break my beloved honestly. That's this song in a very very loose nutshell. The season 3 break - both their time in the Worldport as well as their time here. Just that whole idea of trying to find Quixis - and then trying to find *something* that they know and can hold onto. That idea of looking for something, anything, anyone that can help them because they *don't know where they are.* That idea that they're trying to find their way back home, and are struggling because they don't know how.

-> [Maybe Man]

-> Very much that whole mentality Icarus has early season 3. That idea that they *don't* know how they are, not anymore. They're just kind of. Floating. Also that whole idea of trying to figure out who the fuck they even want to be in the first place. They don't really have a direction - they just want to be *something.* (Something that will please people, make them smile whenever Icarus passes by because they're doing *good.*)

-> [Chasing You]

-> That whole idea of how Icarus has spent the past *year* trying to bring Haley back, trying to figure out how to see her and fix their mistake - and that whole idea that now that she's back, now that Midas brought her back, Icarus doesn't know what to do. Icarus doesn't know how to act around her, what they can and cannot and should and should not say/voice, what is too far over a line and what isn't. They're really just left floating not knowing what in the *world* they should do about it.

-> [The Garden]

-> The whole idea of Icarus getting so done with and so incredibly over Quixis and the wack and the changes and *us.* The whole idea of wanting to dig them up and out and remove them completely, no matter the consequence, no matter where it would get them in the end. The whole idea of how Midas knows their name - and we have to figure it out - and the way they don’t, and the way, more often than not, we as chat snark at them and are very passive aggressive sometimes, rather than being helpful - and how they don’t like that.

-> [New Eyes]

-> Two samples Two samples Two samples. Just, Icarus about the eyes in general. The finding put that the purple eye's blood *isn't theirs*, and the following realization that if the blood isn't theirs, then the eye itself isn't theirs either. That want and that need for people - Midas - to stop changing them, to give them *their* eye back - so they can see with new ones; so they can see with the eyes that were always *supposed* to be theirs. (Also just the general idea of needing to see things through a new lens, see things better, because they're suffering and hurting and *no one* seems to see it, and how one day that fact might kill them. (And well, it does, doesn't it?))

-> Sage and their ability to be so normal got this one on the playlist. We win these.

-> [The Tornado]

-> So very Unlocked - this *is* the Unlocked song. That whole idea of them being used to the wack, being almost surprised as it just *kept getting worse*, *the wings,* the running to the bunker and the *yelling* at Midas, Fable finding them, and - arguably - the aftermath of the wings and those few streams following Unlocked where they were just trying to heal and fix and *clean* up the path they had made. (Okay yes Quixis ascension, yes, but we’re not at that part in the playlist yet - so.) And, well. Some more detailed line analysis because I’m a loser.

“It was just startin' to drizzle as I walked out the door, But I've delivered papers in the rain like that before.” Just that whole idea that the wack being weird - being worse, changing their house more than normal, changing *them* and their clothes more than normal - was okay, in their mind. What’s the worst that can happen? It’s done this before, and everything was fine for both them and others - why worry about it this time?

“3:30 in the morning, I was happy as a lark.” That idea that Icarus was so very happy to get Fable out. They were so happy and excited, because this was what they had been working to for months and years and *resets* and they had finally been able to do it. They might’ve been a little worried, but they were mostly *happy.*

“The wind was pickin' up and howlin' louder all the time.” The redstone beginning as they were all standing in front of the now open portal - the way they weren’t expecting it, the way it just kept picking up and getting *worse* no matter what they did to stop it.

“The sky churned like a cauldron and the distant thunder roared, And I knew that I was in for quite a storm.” The redstone picking up, but also the fact Fable hadn’t come out yet - and they had been waiting and waiting for the others to get him for *minutes* now and it was beginning to worry everyone outside of the portal; that idea that they *knew* something might be up - with Fable or the wack.

“A little rain never hurt no one, so I kept pressin' on.” Up to this point, the wack hadn’t hurt *anyone* - well, with the exception of Icarus themself. Sure it had hurt and changed and wacked animals and blocks and all that - but never Icarus’ friends and family. It hurt them time and time again - but they were fine after all of it (for the most part - with the exception of the many breakdowns and *the eye*), why should they worry about others getting hurt? It had never *severely* hurt them like that; so they kept going and standing there and letting it get worse upon that assumption that it *wouldn’t do that.*

“And I tried to tell myself it's always darkest before the dawn.” Just that way they were so desperately trying to convince themself that it was all okay - that the group in Purgatory *will* bring Fable out and it’ll be okay. The wack will be fine and it’ll stop and it’s just a small little bad thing before they get Fable back - that desperate way they try to convince themself it’ll be okay.

“Lightning struck an oak tree as I leapt off my bike.” The way the redstone, the *bad* just keeps getting worse and worse as time goes on. Regardless of what they do it gets worse and they can’t seem to *stop it.*

“The sirens started wailing, but there was no good place to hide.” That whole idea that Icarus really, really, *really* wanted to run - they wanted their dad and they wanted the wack to *stop* because it just kept getting worse and they really, really wanted to just run. But they knew they column’t because running would make things so so much worse - so they don’t run, they just stand there and let it keep getting *worse.*

“I knew without a doubt there was a twister touchin' down.” That idea that they *knew* it was only going to get worse and worse the longer they stood there, without a doubt, but there wasn’t anything they could *do about it* - they just had to power through whatever happens, like they always do.

“The little bit of courage I had left was almost gone.” Something about how at the beginning of Unlocked they were mostly okay - that had *some* bits of courage - but the longer no one came out of the portal and the longer all the redstone did was get bigger, and the longer they just *stood there* the more that courage just. faded.

“And then the nightmare started, it got deafeningly loud.” Momboo. The redstone getting bigger and the wack *hurting her* (hurting someone other than Icarus, for once) and the way they almost *immediately* panicked and ran (or, at least tried to) off. And then like the following moments of running and running and trying to fly and then their wings *shattering.*

“Every fiber in me screamed out, but I couldn't make a sound.” Something about how they screamed as their wings broke, but about how their panic after the fact was so very quiet. They weren't screaming - they were just hurt and in pain and weren't going well but were trying so desperately to keep it under wraps. They refused to let themself break at *any* point during the run to the bunker, refused to let themself fall apart like that. They wouldn't - they *couldn't.*

“It sounded like a freight train was draggin' me to hell.” Something about the particular way the the wings sounded when they shattered - so *loud* and overwhelming as they crystalized and as Icarus *fell.* Even louder as they shattered against their own weight and Icarus’ back. They dragged Icarus *down.* (Metaphorically dragging Icarus to hell, I suppose.)

“And this was my prayer, "Save me from this terrible nightmare"” *Icarus yelling at Midas.* This line is os Icarus yelling at Midas, both on their way and inside of the bunker. They just wanted Quixis to *stop*, to know why they just kept *doing all of this* to Icarus and their friends. -They just wanted Quixis to stop, and they just wanted someone to be there for them and save them because *gods* they hurt so very badly.

“That was when I saw my family with my eyes shut real tight.” Fable showing up at the bottom of the bunker - they literally see their family. Also something about how they just wanted this to stop - their eyes shut and the denial of the past delays creeping back up on them.

“Would they know how much I loved them if this was how I died?” *Would they?* How many times does Icarus tell their family they love them? (How many times do people tell *them* that?) Would their family know just how much Icarus loved and cared about them if Icarus died - if they died like *this* with no one around?

“No, I vowed I'd not be murdered by a monster in the sky that night.” If you think about it - this injury could’ve killed them. It didn’t - and they definitely didn't want them to - but it *could’ve.* But they wanted to so desperately survive and live and *not* let Midas’ actions get the better of them - they vowed it wouldn’t happen.

“But if I went home to heaven, at least that's where I'd belong.” Midas’ would’ve pulled them before they died (just like they did in the finale) if the injury *did* kill them - they would’ve been where they belong because they were meant to become Quixis *decades* ago; that, the worldport, Quixis, was supposed to be their home for years yet it *wasn’t* - it's where they belong but, at this moment, they’re not there.

“There was nothin' but destruction and wreckage in that town.” The mess the path and wack made; the redstone in front of the portal; *the tree.* (Their wings.) It was all a mess and destroyed and, for at least some of that - there was no fixing it. It was just destroyed and they just had to deal with that.

“And that was how I learned to live when you can run, but you can't hide.” They could run from hurting Momboo, and they could run from the wack, and they could run from their wings breaking - but they can’t *hide from it.* They have to deal with the consequences of their actions, they can’t hide from it. They have to see the tree - see their mistakes, see their bad - nearly everyday. They can run from it, sure, but they can’t *hide.*

“How to feel trapped in a tunnel but come out the other side.” They’re trapped and grounded and alone (somewhat - Fable is doing his whole “isolate his kid so they lose attachments” thing) but they come out of it, eventually. They get their wings back, they can fly again - they may have felt trapped for a time but they *made it out.*

“'Cause with all the stormy weather in the world, you learn to take life one storm at a time.” Pulling out the character analysis card - Icarus gets very focused on *one* (big) thing very easily. Their wings, they wanted to fix those - spent weeks trying to get better; Enderian talking to Rae - they were so incredibly stuck on that until they made up; And, the more obvious one from season 3 - Centross. It was a 5 month long storm - but it’s all they focused on. They take their life, especially during season 3, one big problem and thing at a time - focus on *it* and nothing else. (Because focusing on other things means acknowledging just how much you’re hurting, and they can’t do that.) And I mean, it gets Icarus through. They make it to the end going like that. It’s not healthy - but they *make it.*

“I keep hangin' on.” No matter what happens, no matter how close to death they get and no matter how much death would probably be kinder at a point, Icarus is still there. They keep hanging on - keep living and keep just, going through the motions.

-> [Birds]

-> Just that whole idea of how after Unlocked (and arguably also *during* Unlocked) Icarus just wanted to *relax.* They were done and hurting and upset and they just really, really wanted to sit, alone, with the flock. They just want to be calm and relax and not have to think about any of what just happened.

-> [Look Who's Inside Again]

-> Unlocked. Probably Midas to Icarus? Or just someone outside looking in at Icarus in the moment after their wings break. This song specifically being more about Icarus’ desperation to get to their bunker - and their feelings while inside of it. How this is just like the prison - putting themself into a box, a prison, a *room*, to keep people safe. To keep them from hurting people. They're back here again - trapped in a box with no way of getting out until someone comes to get them, yelling at the person who (for all intents and purposes) put them there. They're back here again, *inside* again.

-> The whole idea of Fable, after he gets out, beginning to isolate and cage Icarus - with the guise of keeping them safe. He’s removing them from their friends and family and leaving *him* as the only person Icarus can safely - at least in their mind - rely on.

-> I have further words about Fable and Icarus in regards to this song, and that’s really tying into the “again” aspect of this. Viewing this through the lens that this is Fable isolating Icarus, and the visions of a child shown throughout this song, then it’s not terribly hard to come to the idea that this probably isn’t the first time Fable did this - isolate and cage and manipulate - Icarus. That whole idea that his manipulation and abuse has been going on for much longer than we see on screen - this isn’t a new thing. He did this before and he’s doing it again and Icarus just has to deal with that. (Even if they don’t *know* he did this when they were a child. They don’t remember any of that aspect of themself.)

-> [Let Me Make You Proud]

-> That whole idea that yes, Icarus has failed and made mistakes and disappointed Fable - probably time and time and *time* again - but that they really, really, *really* want to make it up to him. They want to make him proud because they feel so much like a failure after everything that keeps happening - they want to make all their mistakes and missteps up to him. They want to make it up to him and they keep trying and trying and *trying* to do that. (And, arguably, failing at it rather often.)

-> [the fruits]

-> The whole idea of how Icarus wants so desperately to help Fable and all he’s doing, but the idea of how Fable can’t see that they’re not entirely them - can’t see just how much they can keep falling and repeating history and just how badly they’re doing. The whole idea that they can’t help him - they can be the person he wants them to be and the person he’s trying to make them into because they’re not entirely themself in the whole sense of them; they can’t be that if they’re not entirely themself - they can’t help him like he wants them to, and how they spiral because of that.

-> [Loser Baby]

-> Centross and Icarus. Kind of to each other. This song is. So *incredibly* drinking stream coded. Just. That realization of just how similar the two of them are, just how much they have in common, just how much they're both going through the same shitty situation. That realization that they can *rely* on eachother. The realization of how they're so so *incredibly* similar - especially in regards to Enderian and Fable - and how they're both losers, they're both having a bad bad time, but they can do it together. (Which, arguably, they’ve known for a while - but it becomes a lot clearer in the drinking stream; especially with Icarus calling Centross their best friend.)

-> [Down the River]

-> *Breaking Bonds* - This song is very Athena to Icarus. The whole idea that Icarus likes to run and hide and leave the past and everything they’ve done behind and not acknowledge it whatsoever - How they can’t do that; How even if Icarus wants to forget and leave and run, others aren’t going to do that for them - Others are still going to remember all of this and all they’ve done, and what happens to them, the grove, once Icarus leaves and decides to ignore it. What happens then? What happens to all those people you’ve hurt?

-> [Hero]

-> Centross’ death. That way Icarus just spends that immediate moment after him fading just trying to convince themself it's *okay.* They're okay and he's okay and he'll be *back* and it's okay. Them just trying to convince themself it's alright and trying so so desperately to comfort themself in this hell. Arguably, also almost their anger at Fable for killing their best friend - that immediate sharp anger and bared teeth (“I'm the hero of the story, don't need to be saved.” Just that whole idea that Centross saved them - but he shouldn't have had to. They were the *hero* of this story, no one should have to save them - and no one should have to *die* doing that if they even tried. Icarus’ whole thing is trying to save themself, figure out ways they can fix it *themself.* No one should have to die because Icarus couldn’t do that. They’re a prince, they’re supposed to be alone. People shouldn’t have to die because they weren’t.)

-> [Can't Catch Me Now]

-> Centross almost like. Taunting Fable and trying to comfort Icarus. How he's always going to be there for Icarus, he's always watching over them, even if he can't tell them and show them that physically, he is *there.* But also almost taunting Fable in regards to the fact that Fable can't catch him now; Fable will not find him no matter what he tries and attempts, he will see Centross everywhere, be reminded of him just like Icarus is, and he *will not* find him - and won't be able to bring him back.

-> [Do What You Gotta Do]

-> This that short bit after Fable kills Centross where Icarus just *yells* at Fable. That snark, that anger that Fable *did that* - and Fable's argument that he “did what he had to”, and that was *necessary*; Fable did this (killed Centross) because he had too, Icarus should hear him out. Just that whole conversation between Icarus and Fable after he kills Centross, and that whole falling out between the two of them, and that whole slow manipulation from Fable's end as the conversation continued. (Also Fable's whole “being a god” thing-)

-> [The Cave]

-> Centross to Icarus after the cathedral. How he *will* be there for them, no matter what, but also how he has other duties to attend to - but also also how he can't stick around due to the fact that Fable is currently killing every God in his sight, taking every power for himself. How Centross *wants* Icarus to know he's there for them, but also how he can't physically be there. He'll try his *hardest* to keep them alive - try his hardest to keep them going until the end.

-> [Paid in Exposure]

-> Very much Coworkers - just that whole idea of doing only what they're told and becoming, a, a coworker, and b, one of the bad guys - or the people on the stereotypically “bad” side.

-> [Natural]

-> *Also* Coworkers. That whole idea that for them to be on this side of this war they have to be assholes - they have to be cold and sharp and not care, and the whole idea that they're *good at it.* The idea that all three of them are good at that - they're almost naturals at it. They don't have to practice because they can settle into that role far, far too easily. (Also “Rather be the hunter than the prey” is incredibly Coworkers - because they all know that Fable is hunting gods and hunting people down, and they'd rather be beside him as he does that than cowering beneath his sword.)

-> [Burning Pile]

-> Just like the whole idea of wanting to put all your problems in a big pile and just light them up and on fire - kill them, get rid of them, ignore them. That whole idea of wanting to get rid of all your current problems, all the shitty stuff you’ve gone through, get rid of it all and never properly look back - you’ve burnt it, it’s gone, you don’t have to think about it anymore. (Or, that’s the dream at least. Not really what ends up happening in the end.)

-> [Can't Go Back]

-> Just that whole idea that Icarus should forgive themself - how most of this isn't really *their* fault, and how they should be learning to forgive themself for that - not blame themself for stuff that isn't their fault. (Also the whole idea that none of this is *fair* - it's not fair to them and nor fair for Fable and not fair to *anyone* in the grove.)

-> This definitely feels like Violet trying his absolute hardest to comfort Icarus the best he can even though he can’t physically be there with them in the moment (and he won’t be able to be for a while. (And even when he was able to be there for him, at the end, it wasn’t for very long.)

-> [Try To Change]

-> How Icarus just keeps trying to change, change and change and change, they're trying so incredibly hard, and it just keeps failing. The whole idea that they can’t find it in themself to change - there's safety in it, they’ve always been like this, why wouldn’t they just keep going and being like this. Why would they try - there is *no* point to it. They’re safe like this, Dad likes them like this, why would they change into something he wouldn’t?

-> [Let Us All Down]

-> Just that whole idea of how the Grove feels about Icarus working with Fable. Arguably, they all thought Icarus could be good - they gave Icarus so so *so* many chances, they didn't think that they'd go this route. They didn't think they'd be involved in Centross’ death like this and this didn't think and and and. (Also, arguably, Icarus spiraling. Just *thinking* about what people would say, what people would think, what they would *feel*, how they would react.)

-> Arguably kinda sorta maybe Two Shall Break/Two Shall Mourn for the priorly explained reasons.

-> [Lima Bean Man]

-> Icarus about Momboo. Icarus so *desperately* wants Momboo to not be dead, so desperately wants to be able to bring her back. Not necessarily telling themself she *isn't* dead, but that she *can't* be - because that means they killed another person, that means they did it *again.*

-> [Shots]

-> Icarus to. Everyone basically. They're so so *sorry* - they're breaking down crying near everyday by this point, and they just keep *killing people.* (“why do I kill everything that I love?”) and they're so so *sorry.* But also that they need everyone to know they're *in too deep* - People aren't going to be able to save them now, not through normal means. It's not going to happen - they need to let Icarus drift away because if they *don't*? More people will only get hurt.

-> While I won’t elaborate on this statement, as it speaks for itself, your friendly reminder that Icarus did not truly hate their father when they killed him - Icarus still held some sort of semblance of love for him, even at the end, even after everything, even as they stabbed that trident into his chest as he revealed he was never going to bring Centross back.

-> [Prodigal]

-> That whole idea that where Icarus is right now is all their own fault. They caused it, it's their fault, and there's nothing they can really do about it. They're alone, they've dug themself a hole and fallen down it (because that's all they do, really) and they can't get out - and it's their fault. It's all their fault - it always *is* their fault.

-> [Solitary Confinement]

-> They're alone! After Momboo, and after their conversation with Athena, they're *alone* - Confined. And they're. Okay with it, almost. They wanted to push people away, wanted to be alone, because it makes all of this so so much easier. But they *really* wish they didn't have to do it. Didn't have to push people away like that, didn't *have* to do this to everyone and themself. They do it, yes, because in the end it will benefit them to do so, but they really really don't like doing it - they're spiraling. (And really, they have been for months.)

-> a “devious read” by yours truly according to the sherbertquake56

-> [No Longer You]

-> Okay. Now. What I'm about to say *might* sound like. horribly wrong because everyone kind of looks at this and goes “oh the prophet is Haley” and to that I say. Nope. No, the prophet is Midas. This song is *Midas* talking to Icarus about their future - regardless of how this goes. Because Midas would know what would happen after they “Draw their final breath” so to speak - Midas would know. Haley wouldn't. Also, because I'm a little loser, and the fact this song *really* lends itself to this, line by line analysis.

“I see a song of past romance” Perhaps talking about Momboo? This line could be very ambiguous. Cause you could also argue Wet Birds, but I'm not sure that really *fits.* (If you wanted to go the Prison Duo route, you probably could as well.)

“I see the sacrifice of man.” This line being about Centross - Sacrificing himself to save both Icarus, as well as the rest of his family.

“I see portrayals of betrayal,” This line being about Jamie - Betraying the family they *had* for the family they *want.*

“And a brother's final stand.” This is. Just the ‘A Brother's Final Stand’ stream. Rae trying so so *so* hard to save his brother, and failing because they *just* don't *want* (don't think they need, don't think they deserve) help.

“I see you on the brink of death.” Icarus after they kill Fable. Or, really, Icarus throughout the last week-ish; throughout that they're on the brink of death, they're *dying.* (They have been for almost 5 months - but after he dies Icarus is left so much worse off because Fable isn’t around and alive to keep Quixis’ powers at bay.)

“I see you draw your final breath.” Them *jumping* - Them thinking they were going to die. Them being fully fully accepting of it.

“I see a man who gets to make it home alive.” Midas pulling Icarus into the Worldport, *alive* - telling them that they'll be able to go back home eventually.

“But it's no longer you…” But the person Icarus would become after all that time in the Worldport, after leaving it, would be starkly different to the person that entered it - that it wouldn't really be Icarus anymore. It'd be Icarus, of course, but they'd know and have been changed that they wouldn't be the Icarus they *were.*

Just. It really encompasses those last few months of Icarus’ life before becoming Quixis - those last few months of pain and desperation and *bad.*

-> [Monster]

-> The whole idea of how Icarus *will* be the monster if they have to. They'll kill and slaughter and murder and *be* the monster if it means they'll all make to end - if it means they'll get to bring everyone back, *fix* everything.

-> [No Children]

-> This is very much Icarus’ mentality at the end - about Fable and about Rae and about *everyone.* That idea that they don't want to be saved anymore, not like this. That idea that if they have to go down - they're going to take Fable with them. That idea that they just want Rae and *everyone* to give up on them - and, arguably, that idea that if *they* die, they want Fable to come down with them. Uh. Well here's another set of far more detailed line analysis <3 Not the last one either <3

“I hope that our few remaining friends give up on trying to save us.” That whole idea that Icarus doesn’t want to be saved - not like this. They don’t want to and they don't think they’re deserving of it - they fully hope that Rae gives up on trying to save them.

“I hope we come up with a fail-safe plot to piss off the dumb few that forgave us.” While they didn’t *know* it’d be fail-safe, Jamie. Because by this point there were *very* few people still trying to save and help them - and really, to their knowledge, it was *just* Rae - and to them? To those people *that* was the tipping point. For that last week they were left completely alone because they had *finally* pissed off the people trying to save them.

“I hope the fences we mended fall down beneath their own weight.” Very similarly to that previous line, during Family Reunion - arguably - Rae and Icarus had *kind of* mended their relationship. Icarus didn’t like that - Icarus really hoped that he’d just let it go. They really hoped that the weight of everything would mean their relationship, whatever Rae thought was left of it - at least, would just crumble. That Icarus wouldn’t have to hold on to him and their family anymore because holding onto it means there is *complications* and attachments and they really can't have that - not now.

“And I hope we hang on past the last exit. I hope it's already too late.” That whole idea that Icarus was in too deep - Icarus was going to hold on and stay attached to Fable until the very, very, *very* end. That whole idea that Icarus very much thought, very much hoped, that they were too far gone and it was far, *far* too late to turn back now. (Also that whole idea that

“In my life, I hope I lie. And tell everyone you were a good wife.” Okay, a, that whole idea that Icarus lies about *nearly* everything - they lie about so, so, *so* much that it’s really all they do and hope to do. B, that idea that they so desperately want to see their father as a good person - so desperately want *everyone else* to think he’s a good person; to the point that they *will* lie about it, they hope to, they hope they get the opportunity to lie about it.

“And I hope you die. I hope we both die.” *If he dies they don’t have to do this anymore.* Just that whole idea that if he dies they do not, really and truly, have to continue to do any of this. They can fully and completely leave it behind and *gods* how they really, really want to do that. Also, arguably, that whole idea that they don’t think they’re worth saving, and that whole idea that they think they fuck everything up and ruin it regardless of how much they’re trying. If they both die between now and the end, then when this is all over no one will have to get hurt anymore - their family will be *safe* and sound and they won’t have to stress about themself *or* their family *or* what their father is doing.

“I hope I cut myself shaving tomorrow. I hope it bleeds all day long.” That idea that icarus thinks they’re deserving of all the hurt and pain and sorrow sent their way. All this pain and suffering and the way it’s constant - they fully, *fully* think they’re deserving of it; they fully hope it keeps happening solely to prove that point. (This is not the time or place to go on a rant - but I would like to bring up how, after Centross dies, whenever Icarus gets really injured - unless it's dire dire - they refuse to use potions on themself. And even when it *is* dire they’re almost hesitant about it.)

“Our friends say it's darkest before the sun rises; we're pretty sure they're all wrong.” Rae thinking he can save Icarus, save them despite everything they’ve done and despite all they’ve been through - and Icarus thinking, *knowing*, he can’t. Regardless of what he says, Icarus knows they’re in too deep and knows that means Rae can’t save them or get through to them very easily.

“I hope the worst isn't over.” Ties back to the line before last - that idea that Icarus thinks they deserve all the pain and suffering they’re going through. It’s their fault, they deserve it, maybe they don’t really like it very much by they do understand where its coming from and they can agree with it because deep down they *know* what they’re doing is so very very wrong.

“I am drowning. There is no sign of land.” They’re falling and falling deeper into this little pit they’ve dug themself and they can’t find a hand hold to even start trying to climb themself out. They are lost and *alone* with no one there to help and they *know it.*

“You are coming down with me, hand in unlovable hand.” That idea that if Icarus goes down - they’ll take, to try to take, Fable with them. That idea that both themself and Fable are seemingly unlovable - at least in Icarus’ eyes - and the two of them would go down hand in hand; it’ll be one of their faults and they’d drag the other down with them (Also, arguably, Icarus and Midas as well - if Icarus goes down they want to drag Midas down with them; if Midas goes down they’ll inevitably *have* to drag Icarus down with them. The two of them are so intertwined that if one goes down they’ll drag the other whether they want to or not.)

-> [Mr. Author]

-> How Icarus really just wants this to all *stop* and finish up - how it's been going on for so long and they don't know how much longer they can keep going like this. How they want to talk to the person who wrote their story like this - talk to the person that keeps *letting them do this*, want to talk to the author ruining their life.

-> [Icarus]

-> Something about Fable realizing, however small, that his actions are hurting Icarus. How Icarus is hurting and dying, and how he can't *fix it* - he's not going to be able to fix it, fix *them*, make them what he wants them to be. He can't save them in the way he wants to - they're *going* to die and gods he won't be able to stop it. Specifically right at the end, Fable's death by his own son's hands.

-> [The Bad Guy]

-> That whole idea that all Icarus wanted to do, really and truly, was *fix* everything - but that's not how it went. They went to bad places to fix things, they became the bad guy. They didn't want to be, of course - not again, not after last time - but that's what *happened.* They became the bad guy, and they're finally finally realizing it. (Only, it's really too late, because they're dying now.)

-> [In My Blood]

-> Just that whole idea that this is how Icarus is always going to be, how this is how Icarus is and there's no changing it - how it's in their blood to do this, to *be like* this - how there's no stopping it, no turning back.

-> [Daniel In The Den]

-> Really just that whole idea of Icarus killing Fable, and the following way they attempt to move on. That way Fable was killed by “the ones you think you love” - Icarus, yes, but really everyone contributed. (And, arguably, almost that bit of anger Icarus harbors toward Fable at the end - that idea he wasn't ever going to fix this; that all this pain and suffering was for *nothing.*)

[Section Six - They're. Kind of God now. Question mark. Maybe. I dunno, Icarixis is. Yeah. They're a guy. That's for sure.]

-> [Ruin]

-> They have a conversation. This is simply Midas and Icarus having a back and forth conversation about mistakes and Quixis and *all of it.* It’s very hard to summarize - so uh. Hi line by line analysis, welcome back-

(ICARUS)

“I will bring you ruin in everything I do.” Something about how no matter what Icraus does and no matter how hard they try - they ruin things. Their family, their house, their friends house, their *life.* They bring the people in their life - including Midas, and including themself - ruin and pain no matter what they do.

“It’s never my intention, but it happens all the same.” Icarus rarely means to hurt their family and friends like that - it’s rarely their intention but it *happens.* They can’t stop it happening, be it because of the wack or because they’re trying to *fix something* or or or. They never mean to hurt people - they don’t *like* hurting people - but it just keeps happening and happening and *happening.*

“It starts with love and comfort, becomes a strength of will.” Arguably, talking about their time in the three resets they remember. It started good and okay and alright and it just slowly became their goal to just *survive* - it became a strength of will to just keep going after every little thing that just kept *happening;* After all the death and harm and suffering they’d experience they had to fight to keep going.

“But all that strength made rubble of the towers we built.” Icarus keeping going like they did broke *so much.* The Worldport, Midas, Themself, *The overworld.* It all fell apart, was all unstable, because of *them* - all of that kept falling apart into rubble because of *them.* (And, arguably, also partially because of Midas.)

“Cause brick by brick, you built us and I’d fill in the cracks.” Midas helped build this world, this *life* for Icarus. They built it brick by brick - keeping Icarus from being Quixis so young gave them *this* - a family, a life, safety. Midas built it, and Icarus made it *theirs.*

“Nothing quite prepares you for when they don’t come back.” Icarus wasn't prepared for when Centross didn't come back - when it wasn't just a fluke. They weren't prepared for being *alone* and by themself for that long and they weren't prepared for him just being. Dead.

“I wish I’d done things different, I wish that I’d been brave.” Something about wishing they'd home about getting Centross back differently - not killing people, not doing any of that. Something about wanting to be braver - be braver to leave Him and side with their brother and the rest of their family and not side with the person who killed Centross and who killed so many people. Something about *wanting that.*

“I wish I’d known these stones were something I could save.” Arguably, something about wishing to have known that they could have saved Midas so much earlier - could've taken up their role *months* (*years*) ago and saved Midas so much pain and bad and suffering.

(MIDAS)

“Our mortar was your laughter.” Something about the funnier aspects of Midas changing things - it kept them together. At least for a little bit. It kept everything okay and alright - the silly-ness of it all. (Obviously that didn’t stick very long.)

“And you hurled curses at the land.” Icarus yelling and ranting and being so *angry* at Midas. That anger that Icarus just let boil simmering over whenever something bad or upsetting or just *annoying* happened.

“We didn’t talk, we made universes - out of bitten lips and broken hands.” Something about how Icarus and MIdas never talked talked - sure they had the book and their comms but they never really properly *talked.* Something about how despite that, they built things through their pain and hurt. They built friendships and lives and all of that - even without talking.

“You said, “I love you less than when it all began.”” When it first started Icraus didn’t think anything of it - wanted to know what was up with it but also wasn’t really *worried.* Icarus, at the beginning, almost thought it slightly funny. They didn’t really care what it did. But as time went on and as Midas lost more and more control and as the wack got worse and worse and as it broke more and more - the less and less Icarus liked it. It lost its novelty once it started hurting people.

“And I said fewer cause I make jokes to show how broken I really am.” Something about Midas communicating very *directly* with the wack and their comm and things as the end came closer and closer - they stopped with the messing around and the jokes and the silly changes they used to do, and they just became serious calls for help on both ends. (And beyond the direct communication - the *interfering* with things that could get Icraus hurt or killed.) Gone are the jokes and the small silly laughable changes, replaced with calls for help and calls for *something* because Midas was dying and so was the Worldport. And something about how the direct communication was a lot more spread apart in comparison to Midas’ jokes.

“And in the wreck of all we burnt, stands our piano like a wound.” Something about how in the wreck of everything Midas has done, and everything Icarus has done - The two of them still stand tall, *alive.* And something about how so does the Worldport - despite all the decay and all the things it's been through, it's still alive and it's still going and it's still holding all the worlds and it's slowly getting fixed and and and.

“I’ll play our song to see if it’s in tune.” Arguably, something about letting Icarus see to the end of their story. Letting the song play rather than stopping it far far too early - letting Icarus live and learn and seeing if they’ll make the correct choice; seeing if the song is in tune.

“And I promise to be patient.” Something about how Midas kept *going* - no matter what happened and no matter how much it seemed like Icarus was too far gone and no matter how much it seemed like Icarus wasn’t going to make the right choice, Midas persisted. They were so patient with them - waiting and waiting and *waiting* until Icarus *did it.*

“And you promise to be kind.” Something something Icarus never really wanted to hurt their family - they just wanted their best friend back something something Midas telling them that they’ll be - *knowing they will be* - a good Quixis something something to be Quixis you need to be kind and considerate and things like that something something

“”We can rest,” you say, “in the pieces of what’s left or what we’ve found.”” Guys we don’t know where Midas is, but we do know they’re *somewhere.* Something about Icarus taking up the mantle of Quixis means Midas *finally* gets a break. Midas finally gets to rest and relax after so long of not being able to and having to constantly be doing something wand watching someone - Midas can just *rest.* (Wherever that may be, we have yet to find out.)

“I wish I’d done things different, oh, I wish I’d made it right” Something about how even if Midas doesn’t regret what they did - doesn’t regret leaving Icarus to live their life, doesn’t regret keeping them from being Quixis - part of them probably wishes they had done it differently. Something about wishing so many people didn’t have to die, or their worlds decay, or or or. Something about wishing they had made it right earlier - so they didn’t have to go through nearly as much pain. (So they didn’t have to go through feeling their body decay and *rot* from the inside out.) Something about wishing that, but not regretting - not truly - how you did it in the first place.

“But we’ll burn a hundred theaters, If it means we get the wallpaper right” Something about how Midas would let the Worldport fall apart, let worlds die, let *themself* die, if it meant Icarus got to see the end of their story - if it meant Icarus got to live the whole of their life that had been written out. They’d let it all die, let so much decay and fall apart until it was even decaying *them,* if it meant Icarus didn’t have to Quixis so young (they were younger than midas), if it meant Icarus got to say goodbye.

“Nothing quite prepared me for when that piano sang again.” While we don’t know exactly what Midas has been up to fo the past 2 months since the finale - I feel like finally getting a break and *centuries* and finally passing on your title and finally being *yourself* (or, mostly yourself) again wouldn’t be something you'd prepare yourself for in years of being alone - something about not being prepared to be able to rest and be yourself again after so long of *not* being able to do those things.

“Tomorrow I’ll do things different.” Maybe a bit more Icarus than it is Midas (Mostly because there’s not much more different Midas can do, not now, not after so much time has passed) - something about knowing what happens when you wait to bring a Quixis and something about vowing to *not* do that and put all of the Sherbs through that for a second time. Something about vowing to be different than the person you look so much alike. (Something about vowing to be different than Fable.)

“Tomorrow I’ll be brave.” This one is Midas - something about finally being brave enough to pass on the title of Quixis to Icarus, finally being able to let it go - give it up. (Even if it was just the end of Icarus’ story - even if it was the only logical time to pull them and pass it on - it was still brave. They had waited *so long.*)

-> [Icarus & Apollo]

-> Something about Midas living vicariously through Icarus. Something about Icarus showing Midas *so much* about life and their world and everything. Something about in turn Midas showing Icarus how to be Quixis, how to do this job *correctly* and not fuck it up like they did. Just that whole idea of ascension.

-> [505]

-> I guess Midas after Icarus ascends. That idea of going back home and not really knowing what awaits you. You have an idea, a concept of what might, and you're fully *prepared* for it. That idea of them *knowing* they have to leave after Icarus takes their place - or something like that.

-> [Show Yourself]

-> Icarus to Midas - How they just want to know what in the *world* Midas wants with them, and wants to do with them. Why Midas is following them, why they're changing the stuff they are, the decay, the eye - just wanting to *know*, but also very promptly ignoring Midas more often than not.

-> [Who You Are]

-> They're supposed to be Quixis!!! This is exactly who and where they're supposed to be!! This song really feels very Midas talking to Icarus - Telling them all of this as encouragement that they're going to do good, and that this is exactly where they're supposed to be, regardless.

-> [The Last Goodbye]

-> Saving the multiverse with another version of you. This is very Midas and Icarus coded - How Midas was willing to go down hand in hand with Icarus if it meant the multiverse surviving; also how Icarus was completely willing to take up the mantle of Quixis, even if it meant the people back home couldn't remember them.

-> Something about how they both think they're gonna die, Icarus and Midas - something about it.

-> [still feel.]

-> Dying over and over again, being reset over and over and *over* again, and yet. They still feel alive. Fable pulled them from the grave more times than they can count, and they still feel *alive* despite all that's happened.

-> Quixis is where they're supposed to be, Despite *jumping* they're still here, and they're still alive, and they're still *living.*

-> [Back To Black]

-> Oh so very wet birds. Something about them genuinely only saying goodbye with words - they didn't hug, didn't touch, no. Only words. Something about Ven going back to when he got pulled out, going back to Fable and all of the consequences that come with it. That whole idea Icarus isn't going to go back like that - they're going to go back to the present day and they're *going* to remember him.

-> [Spring and a Storm]

-> This one feels just very general epilogue/post finale times to me. Just everyone off doing their own thing, having fun and being happy. Reminiscing about the past *sure*, but having fun and being good all the same. (If you wanna look at it through an Icarus *specific* lens, for some added angst - Icarus watching their family and friends grow and be happy and gain things they couldn't gain before, while they're in the Worldport. Watching their family grow and get to be truly truly happy while they work on cleaning up Midas’ unintentional mess.)

-> [Ghost Song]

-> Just the whole idea of how after becoming Quixis, Icarus isn't reality seen or *known* anymore - And how they so desperately want to be. How they so desperately want to be seen and known and lived, but they can't - not for a while. How at this point they're just a ghost - changing and lurking, an entity everyone knows the name of, but not knows properly. Also almost that whole idea that they spend so much of their time watching over the Grove while their in the Worldport; changing and altering the small things so people, even if they won’t know until Icarus comes back, know they’re *there.*

-> [Introduction to the Snow]

-> Just that whole idea of now that Icarus is Quixis, they're alone. The Worldport is *empty* - no one is physically there with them, they're alone. They can't talk to anyone, no matter how much they so desperately want to. Also how this is *exactly* where they're meant to be.

-> [Today Today]

-> Just very ‘end of season 3’ coded - how upset Icarus, how much they were just *crying*, and they couldn't seem to stop regardless of how hard they tried. Also that whole idea of time going so so much slower in the Worldport, how ‘today' to Icarus must feel so so much different now. Also just that whole idea of being stuck between places, having everything to do because of everything up with the Worldport. That whole idea of so much happening in all the worlds they’re watching - there's so much to see and watch and understand and and and.

[Section Seven - Group songs, but an asterisk is attached to the first 4 because I write those pre stream and pre playlist re-organize- (sherbert please why did you do that right before stream-)]

-> [Machine]

-> The doubting of Fable's ideals, the realization of maybe they (Icarus) aren't doing the right thing by doing this, and how they don't *really* want to be a part of this anymore - how they don't want to be a part of Fable's machine, don't want to be a tool in his tool box, a means to an end.

-> The Idea that none of the people here, any of the members of the grove throughout the seasons, *want* to be a part of any of this - what to be here, want to do this, want to see any of this. The idea they don't want anymore resets - don't want anymore people to go through this, don't want to be a part of this revolving machine Fable has built for them.

-> [Suburbia Overture / Greetings from Mary Bell Township! / (Vampire) Culture / Love Me, Normally]

-> Just that whole idea of how Icarus is just *angry* at Fable - How they're beginning to doubt him, and his ideals, and how they're just angry at the concept that he won't bring people back - that this was all for *nothing.* Also just them being so incredibly angry at *everyone.*

-> This is also very just season 1. Just the anger at Enderian and Ominous Bane and. All of season 1 and its hardships.

-> [Enemy]

-> Something about how, especially at the end, *everyone* wanted Icarus dead, gone, or both. They didn't want to be friends with Icarus, they'd been given too many chances, and no one was willing to save them anymore. How everyone wants to be, *is*, Icarus’ enemy by the end.

-> Just. The idea of everyone, at some point, being each other's enemy. At some point everyone has been on opposite sides with someone else in the grove - and that meant everyone else was going to side with *one* of them.

-> [The Search]

-> Just Icarus’ mentality right at the end, trying to find something, *anything,* that'd save or fix them, regardless of what. Searching for something they won't find, looking for something they can't see. Also their whole mentality towards Fable - anger and annoyance and *mad* - how in the end they end up killing like he almost killed them.

-> The whole idea of everyone like. Looking for something they can't find, can't get back, can't *see* - and the idea that over time they all slowly grow angry toward Fable and the resets and everything that's taken *anything* from them.

-> [Misery Fell]

-> I feel like you could argue this is either the very end of season 3 coded, or just the grove coded in general. Something about how they're constantly going through terrible terrible things - constantly having misery fall upon them.

-> [When You're an Adams]

-> How living in the grove is often a while experience - How you need to be prepared for anything, really, because you never know what's gonna happen next; never know what Gods are going to get involved or whatever people are going to go on a harming spree or or or.

-> [Ready As I'll Ever Be]

-> Either Perix fight coded, Or the Faction preparing to fight Fable. Something about getting ready for this big battle and fight, while the other side does exactly the same as that.

-> [We Don't Talk About Bruno]

-> I feel like you could argue either Enderian or Fable? The grove singing about them - respectively. Enderian mostly after season one, while the singing about Fable more now. How they probably don't really want to talk about much of that, no matter how far into the future it gets.