#fight or flight but the flight would mean like what happened to icarus

[gregmarriage]

broooooo, i am actually soooo smart. turn your music up real loud, and then the bad thoughts can’t get through!

[thegayhimbo]

Stranger Things The Voyage Review

WARNING: The following review contains MAJOR SPOILERS from the comic!

Stranger Things Reviews/Theories

Stranger Things Comics/Graphic Novels:

Stranger Things Six

Stranger Things Halloween Special

Stranger Things The Other Side

Stranger Things Zombie Boys

Stranger Things The Bully

Stranger Things Winter Special

Stranger Things Tomb of Ybwen

Stranger Things Into The Fire

Stranger Things Science Camp

Stranger Things “The Game Master” and “Erica’s Quest”

Stranger Things and Dungeons and Dragons

Stranger Things Kamchatka

Stranger Things Erica The Great

Stranger Things “Creature Feature” and “Summer Special”

Stranger Things Tales From Hawkins

Stranger Things x TMNT Crossover

Stranger Things Tie-In Books:

Stranger Things Suspicious Minds

Stranger Things Runaway Max (Part 1 of 3)

Stranger Things Runaway Max (Part 2 of 3)

Stranger Things Runaway Max (Part 3 of 3)

Stranger Things Darkness On The Edge Of Town (Part 1 of 3)

Stranger Things Darkness On The Edge Of Town (Part 2 of 3)

Stranger Things Darkness On The Edge Of Town (Part 3 of 3)

Stranger Things Rebel Robin Book and Podcast (Part 1 of 2)

Stranger Things Rebel Robin Book and Podcast (Part 2 of 2)

Stranger Things Hawkins Horrors Review

Stranger Things Flight Of Icarus

Stranger Things Lucas On The Line

Stranger Things Episode Reviews:

The Vanishing of Will Byers (Part 1 of 2)

The Vanishing of Will Byers (Part 2 of 2)

Synopsis: When Captain Jacoby Cunningham (no relation to Chrissy Cunningham) is approached by Russians for an "off-the-books, no questions asked" sea voyage to Kamchatka, he reluctantly take the job in exchange for much-needed compensation. However, tensions immediately begin to brew between his crew and the suspicious passengers. When a storm hits and a crew member goes missing, Jacoby begins to realize that not only is he way in over his head, but his employers may have brought an unwelcome and deadly passenger onboard without his knowledge.........

Observations:

Back in September (Has it really been that long?) when I did my review of Stranger Things Kamchatka, I predicted that The Voyage (which had yet to debut at that point) would likely follow the same plot threads of Ridley Scott's Alien. Guess who turned out to be right on that call?

And when I say similar plot threads, I mean eerily similar:

A commercial crew is out in the middle of nowhere (space in Alien, the sea in The Voyage) having picked up cargo they know nothing about. Said cargo turns out to be a creature (Xenomorph/Demogorgon) that gets loose on the ship and begins picking off the crew members one-by-one. The remaining crew eventually come to understand that this wasn't a happy accident, and that their employers (Weyland-Yutani/The Soviets) arranged for this to happen for their own purposes. Realizing they've become expendable, the crew is forced to fight for their lives, with their chances of survival looking slimmer by the minute. All of which culminates in a highly tense showdown.

Both the Stranger Things comics and novels have traditionally drawn inspiration from (or in some cases, paid homage to) famous movies from the 70s and 80s. Science Camp did it with the Friday the 13th Franchise. Tomb of Ybwen did it for The Goonies. Darkness on the Edge of Town drew heavily from Escape from New York (as well as the comic Batman The Cult). The Voyage follows a similar trajectory, so it's not unique in that regard, but it does add its own twists and turns (similar to the other comics/tie-ins I just mentioned) to keep things engaging without becoming a blatant rip-off. There were times I didn't know what direction the story was going, even though I had some general idea of how it might end (i.e not well). It's the same feeling I had two years ago when we were all waiting for Vol 2 of Season 4 to come out, and it helped me stay invested in this comic.

Speaking of which, The Voyage takes place between seasons 3 and 4, and acts as a prequel to Stranger Things Kamchatka. Unlike that comic, which was stylized as a Cold War thriller with science-fiction elements sprinkled in, this comic is straight science-fiction horror, with a major emphasis on the horror aspect:

There were genuinely scary moments in this comic, and a sense of dread and unease with each turn of the page. This is a comic that does an excellent job keeping you on edge.

I know I previously said that Stranger Things Kamchatka was a violent comic (even by the standards of the show) that didn't shy away from depicting graphic scenes. While I still stand by that, this comic arguably takes those graphic scenes up to eleven. Some of the deaths at the hands of the Demogorgon are the kinds of moments you'd expect to see in a gory R-Rated film:

Major props to the writers and artists for making effective use of lighting, shadows, colors, and the Demogorgon's vicious nature to truly emphasize the terror of being trapped in an isolated location with a monster that wants you dead.

On top of that, I appreciate how, even with the Demogorgon running around and causing chaos, the writers were able to keep tensions high during the scenes between Captain Jacoby's crew and the Soviets. Every interaction between these two groups was ripe with paranoia and mistrust, and I'm glad that the comic didn't beat around the bush in spelling out that the Russians were the antagonists. They even brought back a familiar face from the Kamchatka comic to emphasize this: Dr. Karine.

The moment she appeared in this comic is the moment I realized that, in spite of being the villain, this was her story. Captain Jacoby is initially set up as the main character, but the comic subverts this towards the end by turning him into a false protagonist who is doomed to die.

In fact, with the exception of one other character whose fate is left up in the air (and who could potentially appear in a sequel should the writers choose to pursue that), guess who ends up being the main survivor by the end of this?

Like I've said, the parallels to Alien (1979) are uncanny. However, instead of heroic final girl Ellen Ripley surviving the Xenomorph's carnage, we get villainous Dr. Karine managing to remain alive and come out on top. Since this comic is a prequel to Kamchatka, it isn't much of a spoiler to point out that she doesn't die (though interestingly enough, we never find out if the Demogorgon she smuggled onboard also survived the explosion).

The only other character who gets fleshed-out in any meaningful way is Captain Jacoby. Bit by bit, we are shown glimpses of his past as a disgraced military veteran, and find out he'd initially been an illegal gun-runner for the U.S. army, up until he accidentally led his men into a horrific ambush that cost them their lives:

When he tried to inquire into how things went wrong so quickly, he was dishonorably discharged (with the implication that his superiors threw him under the bus in an attempt to cover their asses), and it led to him regretting poking his nose in other people's businesses. This in turn led to him suppressing his curiosity in favor of taking shady jobs to survive. Unfortunately for him, and to the detriment of his crew, not only did this attitude cause him to take Dr. Karine's deal to ferry them to Kamchatka, but it also resulted in him missing some major warning signs that she and her people were not to be trusted. Everything went downhill from there.

Captain Jacoby and Dr. Karine's exchanges were interesting in that they provided humanizing moments for both characters, and also gave brief but unique insight into Dr. Karine's motivations:

I remember not caring that much for Dr. Karine in the Kamchatka comic since she came off as little more than a generic evil mad-scientist, but this comic turns that around with this conversation she has with Captain Jacoby. Regardless of what kind of person Dr. Karine is, she has enough self-awareness to recognize that, at the end of the day, she is merely a pawn for her government and their agenda, and that she could easily become expendable in the name of "The Motherland" or whatever self-serving cause her superiors decide to inevitably sacrifice her to. She isn't lying in this scene: You can practically sense the bitterness and resentment in her tone, intertwined with her clumsy attempt to empathize with Jacoby's backstory.

This gives more depth to her fascination with the Upside Down and the Demogorgon: It isn't just about harnessing its power; it's an escape for her. An escape from being under her governments fist, and an escape from the "forced conformity" of being an obedient citizen to a collapsing empire.

Come to think of it, when you look at many of the Russian characters in both the comics and the show, from Agent Frost to Alexei to Enzo/Dmitri to even Yuri, there's a recurring theme of these characters either growing disillusioned with the Soviet Union, or recognizing how shitty it is living in Russia, and doing everything they can to climb out of that hole before they're buried underneath.

I don't know if any of the characters in the comics will make an appearance in the final season of the show (my money is likely on it not happening), but if the Duffer Brothers are planning on bringing back the Russian arc for Season 5, and are looking for an antagonist to fill that role, then they might as well incorporate Dr. Karine. They've already written two comics around her character, establishing her as a credible threat and a compelling villain, and it would be a lot better than introducing another generic forgettable Russian Authority Figure** in lieu of what we've gotten for the past two seasons:

(**Can anyone even tell me their names without Googling them?)

I know some fans aren't eager to revisit the Russian arc return in S5, but considering the show's already spent 2 seasons on it and there are still unanswered questions (i.e. Who was the mole at Hawkins Lab that informed the Russians about El opening the gate? How did the Russians get that piece of the Mind Flayer, and what do they know about it? Are there other Russian facilities keeping UD monsters in captivity? Do the Russians plan to come back to America to either capture more monsters, or take revenge against Hopper, Joyce, and Murray for ruining their plans? Etc, etc.), they might as well wrap this up and give it a satisfying conclusion. Last thing I want to see are more story arcs left unresolved (*cough* Kali Prasad *cough*).

In regards to the other characters in the comic, I don't have much to say about them since they're not really developed. The remaining Soviets on the ship are either generic dumb-muscle or yes-men to Dr. Karine, and the rest of the crew don't have memorable personalities that make them stand out. Considering this is a monster story where most of the characters are going to be killed off anyways, the lack of development doesn't bother me.

Things That (Somewhat) Tie Into The Show:

The Voyage does provides a reasonable, albeit mundane, explanation for how the Soviets got the UD monsters out of Hawkins across the sea to Russia: They found people they could bribe to look the other way and not ask any questions while they smuggled their cargo (and presumably themselves and Hopper) to Kamchatka. Unlike Dr. Karine's Demogrogon, I'm assuming they found a way to keep the monsters anesthetized and hidden better so they wouldn't cause problems or attract unwanted attention.

On top of that, the device Dr. Karine was pursuing in the comic Kamchatka makes an appearance again, except with a different purpose: Instead of it being used to keep the Demogorgon alive, it's used by her to control the Demogorgon and hunt down Captain Jacoby's remaining crew in the climax:

While this is a Retcon from how the device was said to work in the previous comic, it's one I don't mind because the explanation here at least makes sense. The device allows Dr. Karine to mentally connect with the Demogorgon and control it, similar to how Vecna uses the Mind Flayer to possess people/UD monsters and control them. It also gives insight into how the Russians planned to weaponize the Demogorgons and Demodogs to do their bidding without having to worry about the monsters turning on them. While we don't see this particular aspect play out on the show (if anything, the Russians in S4 treated their Demogorgon like an attack dog with barely any restraint), it's an avenue the Duffer Brothers could explore should they choose to continue with the Russian arc in S5.

Overall, this was a grisly and dark comic, but one that kept me invested. For that, I give it a high recommendation.

[lorekeeper-backset]

You know, I find it a bit odd that the kid Icarus fanbase seems to portray Dark Pit as being a more permanent fixture of the forces of Nature when him disliking the gods and being a free spirit are key parts of his character. Sure the said in smash that he’s a part of their forces, but he also said it was just because their interests aligned. Honestly, I could see a scenario where dark pit quits the forces of nature as soon as he finds some means to access flight without viridi, be it with a more favorable employer or some kind of magic item. Actually, I could see a joke there being that Dark Pit quit the forces of nature because they routinely put him in dangerous situations, just like palutena often does to pit, but because dark pit has more of a backbone/less respect for the gods, he decided to quit, with pit calling him a coward and dark pit responding that he actually has self respect.

Woah! An ask! I never get these!

I mean, yeah you're right. In the English version of Palutena's Guidance he says "Viridi's interests and mine just happen to overlap,"

Honestly, I do have to wonder what Pittoo would do if he got back the power of flight. Would he retire? He seems to genuinely like fighting and he doesn't seem the retirement type.

[spiritshaydra]

Okay yeah gonna say screw it and just post the fullbody I finished back in November because her ref is taking too long and I wanna share my cringe ass nae nae hellspawn 😭

OKAY SO

THIS IS REQUIEM (Or just “Em”)

And she’s a Megasound fanspawn,, bear with me, I’ve never made an oc like this before so I’ve been extremely nervous to show the creature off. 💀(especially since this is the fancharacter type I avoided making at all costs when in high school despite it leading to some very interesting character development.) Eventually I just said screw it, I’m proud of the design and character work I’ve been developing since August, I’m going to show her off.

I don’t really take her all too seriously as I originally made her to shitpost because I thought it’d be funny. And like my main TFP OC Quantum, she eventually grew past that and became something more. (While still keeping her silly at the same time)

I have. A LOT. Of development for this single celled organism that prolly won’t fit in one post, so on here I’m just going to do a sort of character bio thing (based on the format of Quantum’s Toyhouse bio) to introduce her. (Maybe I’ll do a Q&A sort of thing if anyone’s actually interested in that?)

HERE WE GO:

Name: Requiem (Em for short)

Name Origin: This is what happens when you put a poetry/mythology nerd and a music nerd in a room together and have them name something. You get a name with origins in both music and literature (A music or literary composition that acts as a form of remembrance for the souls of the dead.) annnnnnd a reference to a mythological figure (the name of Megatronus/The Fallen’s weapon, the Requiem Blaster. Gee sure wonder who’s idea that was.) Unfortunately, the goblin who was given that name has a grand total of two brain cells and has as much class as a hagfish.

Gender: female

Pronouns: she/her

Species: Cybertronian

Height:  12ft approximate (for design depicted above)/ 30ft (adult; not pictured)

Alt-Mode: (Base) Cybertronian heavy bomber/ (Earth) Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack

Home Planet: Earth

Faction: Decepticon

Pre-War Occupation: Did not exist before the war.

Personality: Requiem is loud, stubborn, rude, mischievous, a little naive, and all around a feral mess. Absolutely no filter. Textbook example of “curiosity killed the cat”. The champion of the age-old schoolyard discussion of “my dad can beat up your dad.” For… obvious reasons.

She’s easily bored and easily distracted, and thinks it’s entertaining to mess with other bots in the form of stupid pranks and barrages of questions.

Has a bit of a potty mouth and gets creative with her insults.

A fembo (but a lil mean) was told to use her head in a fight, but ended up head butting the opponent and subsequently knocking them out as a result.

As a result of (EXTREME) helicopter parenting combined with adrenaline junkie behavior, Requiem has the tendency to be an escape artist and to purposely seek out potentially dangerous situations such as but not limited to: Diving into a hurricane (to see what would happen), storm chasing (the bigger the better! Also to see what would happen), playing Icarus and getting struck by lightning on the Flight Deck of the warship (STRIKE ME DOWN ZEUS), sneaking out of the Nemesis and simultaneously smuggling all sorts of creepy crawlies and other organic critters back on board (has to be shaken out just to be sure.), being a little too interested in volcanic activity, sneaking weapons out of the armory and attempting to join the fight, and sneaking away from the ship to “explore”. Em wrangling is a very tiring objective.

If Rumble and Frenzy were alive, they would’ve definitely gotten along. (And would’ve been an unstoppable force of chaos oh gOD.)

She likes the pastel magical horse show about friendship, LOVES stickers, and her absolute favorite color is the most obnoxious eye bleeding shade of pink imaginable. (She was denied changing her PRIMARY paint job color to it for obvious reasons. Honey, that is a LOOK and not exactly a good one.)  She likes to pretend to be a gladiator. She likes to give people really stupid and bad nicknames for the hell of it. A favorite being combining the first few letters of a name or descriptor with “uncle”. She thinks it’s hilarious. A little too interested in arson and explosives. Her music taste can be described as “2012 Warrior cats amv” and “noise”. Really likes slasher films for some reason.

She exhibits several behaviors that could only be described as those of a cryptid. (…or cat.) These range from being able to sneak up on others and move without making a sound, staring unblinkingly and expressionlessly at things and other bots, climbing up and perching on top of things, noise mimicry, recharging facedown in a deathlike manner, and the worst thing being how she used to skitter across the walls and ceilings of the Nemesis as a sparkling. There were a handful of instances where she got into the vents of the ship and it was a nightmare trying to coax her back out. Oh yeah. There was a biting problem.

Requiem either hates or actively dislikes things ranging from water, being told to stay still, the thunder part of thunderstorms, the medbay, and being quarantined.

Her social ability leaves much to be desired, as she was raised in total isolation from her own age group, so she lacks most social skills as a result. Because of this, she often comes across as “weird” and as a bully, even if unintentional. Due to her isolated upbringing, she is a very lonely individual despite not exactly acting the part. Being routinely quarantined does not help that feeling of loneliness in the slightest. Em wants nothing more than a friend, or at least an acquaintance to spend time with. It’s just that, given who her parents are, that makes things impossible.

She has a very unhealthy view on death, as it isn’t exactly rare onboard the Nemesis. Surprisingly, she was actively kept away and shielded from most of the fighting as a child- however, in wartime there’s only so much one could be protected from even as the child of the highest ranking individuals of the faction.

[joe-moi]

❗️FLIGHT OF ICARUS SPOILERS❗️

Do not read if you don't want the entire plot of the book to be ruined for you!

Eddie's mom died when he was 6 and his dad left when he was 8.

When Al left, Eddie waited by the window for days waiting for him to come back, because he couldn’t believe his dad would leave.

Wayne finally figured out what was going on and tried to take Eddie in, but Eddie refused because he was afraid when his dad did come back, that he wouldn’t know where Eddie was if he lived with Wayne.

Wayne still cares for Eddie and buys him food despite Eddie living in a house in an entirely different area.

Al Munson returns sporadically in Eddie’s life but never stays. 

Eddie meets Ronnie in the trailer park when he was young. Her dad died and her mom was in sick. She lives with her grandma.

Eddie and Ronnie are very close, to the point where Eddie assumed they were dating and tried to kiss her before Ronnie tells them she doesn’t have romantic feelings for anyone and never has. It's implied that she's ace. (I know a lot of people think that means she's queer, but I got ace from that context.)

Ronnie is very smart and actually gets into NYU to become a lawyer. So she graduates and leaves at the end of the year. 

Gareth is a freshman, who didn’t have any friends and joined hellfire to make friends, despite never having played D&D. Eddie helps him find himself and actually get excited about playing.

Gareth also is a main target for the jocks bullying. Eddie catches Tommy, some other guy and Jason beating Gareth up. Chrissy was there watching it happen and tried to get Jason to leave AFTER she noticed Eddie. 

Eddie remembers bonding with Chrissy at the talent show because he was wishing his dad would’ve been there and she was wishing her mom wasn’t. 

Eddie works as a bar back at the hideout in exchange for little money and being able to play with Corroded Coffin there.

He is performing with Corroded Coffin when he notices Paige watching. He says she's the only one who's actually paying attention to the music.

Paige says she remembers him from the talent show and she graduated two years ago and works for a record label as a junior scout. 

Eddie immediately has a crush on her. 

Eddie mentions having kissed two girls before. One named Nicole and one named Cass. Both girls didn’t like him that much, they just wanted to brag that they hooked up with the Freak.

His nickname at school is “King Freak” (I think this is a nod to King Steve, both kings in their own way) 

Eddie’s dad shows up and claims he owes $10,000 in gambling debt. He wants Eddie’s help stealing weed and selling it because Eddie is the only one he trusts. 

Eddie is reluctant to help because although he loves his dad (reluctantly so), he’s tired of people comparing them. People in town frequently call him “junior” which he hates.

He has a run in with principal Higgins who essentially asks him why he’s still around and tells him that he’s just holding his friends back. Specifically Ronnie.

Eddie convinces Paige to send a demo of Corroded Coffin to her boss. She agrees but says it’s going to cost money. 

Eddie decides to help out his dad if he can get $5000 out of it to record the demo and move to California. 

Eddie and his dad meet Reefer Rick and after some debate, Rick decides to buy the stolen weed from them once they have it. He also tells Eddie that if/when his dad runs out on him, he has a job with Rick selling weed.

Eddie and Paige go to a recording studio and Eddie opens up about his mom. He says his mom taught him to love music, and she used her albums as plane tickets to escape Hawkins in some way. He also mentions his dad taught him to play guitar, but his mom taught him about music. 

Eddie and Corroded Coffin record a demo along with a video of them playing their single. Paige sends them to her boss. 

Back at school Eddie tries to break up another fight where the jocks (Jason, Tommy and the other one) are beating up Gareth and Gareth breaks his wrist in the process. They are all called into the office and principal Higgins blackmails Eddie into dropping out by threatening him with writing to NYU to tell them Ronnie got into a fight and showing him a letter from one of the hellfire club members moms explaining it was a satanic cult and that she pulled her son out of school and moved far away to keep him away from Eddie. 

Paige finds Eddie working and tells him her boss wants to meet only him and not the band. And that Eddie has something special and could be a rock star. 

Paige and Eddie drive out into secluded Hawkins where she gives him a blowie. Over the next several days it is implied they fuck a lot. 

Eddie and his dad have a little bonding moment over their love for Eddie's mom, who we find out was named Elizabeth. Together, they drink his parent's wedding wine.

Eddie and his dad manage to pull off a heist by stealing weed off a transport truck driving from Oregon to Maryland. Eddie ends up doing most of the work because his dad makes him and meets the two guys who are driving the truck across the country.

He and his dad sell the weed to Rick. And Eddie gets $5000 while his dad gets $10,000. They decide to both move to California and start new lives together.

Eddie begins packing up all of his belongings and goes to make amends with Ronnie who he had gotten in a fight with because he dropped out of school. And she refuses to see him. He then tries to say goodbye to Wayne and they end up getting in a fight about his dad but Wayne is still supportive.

The last night in Hawkins, the two guys who were driving the transport truck show up at Eddie's house. They demand that Eddie and his dad give them the weed back, and they say that they sold it, and Al gives them his part of the money.

Eddie then finds out that his dad didn't just randomly pick this truck to steal off of. The two men that were driving the truck are actually his old accomplices. And he lied to Eddie about who he owed money to and who they were stealing from. Eddie's dad was actually working with their boss and decided he wasn't getting enough of a cut, so he took matters into his own hands and tried to get more money by selling their stolen weed.

The two men threaten Eddie and his dad by shooting off the gun in the house. And then one of them sets fire to the living room, destroying all of Eddie's dad's stuff and all of Eddie's mom's stuff. Including her records.

Outside of the house while it’s on fire, the cops show up. One of the drug dealers shoots the cop in his side, and then they flee.

Eddie’s dad tries to convince Eddie to run away from the scene with him before more cops get there because he thinks they'll arrest them both. But Eddie refuses and decides to stay to make sure that the cop is okay. Eddie’s dad then gets in Eddie’s van and drives off leaving Eddie behind, telling Eddie he'll leave his van somewhere just outside of Hawkins.

Eddie is arrested and thrown into jail for the night. He makes his one phone call to Paige to tell her that he’s not coming. And he doesn’t exactly explain why but tells her that he’s in jail. She's very upset and tells him that this wasn’t only his big break but also hers and basically implies that he has fucked everything up for her. The last thing she says to him is "fuck you."

Hopper comes to talk to Eddie and explains to him that he did the right thing by staying to help the cop and that he’s not his dad. He says that he’s better than his dad. And he has a chance now to turn his life around so that he doesn’t end up in the same way.

Wayne shows up to get Eddie out of jail, and Eddie learns that Paige was the one who paid his bail.

Wayne offers Eddie to stay in his trailer with him and shows him that he managed to save most of Eddie's stuff from the burnt house including his guitar. Eddie asks if Wayne has heard from his dad and Wayne tells him no. Al never comes back for Eddie.

When Eddie realizes that Wayne is having money problems, he goes back to Rick and tells him that he will work with him selling drugs. During this conversation, Eddie notices little blue pill containers that Rick tells him are benzos. 

Eddie goes to a record shop to start replacing his mom's records that he lost in the fire. And when he’s there he runs into Jonathan and Will. Jonathan goes into the back room leaving Will out front, and when people come in to start picking on Will and calling him zombie boy, Eddie stands up for him. He then asks Will if he's ever played D&D and when Will says yes, Eddie tells him that he should check out hellfire club when he’s in school. He then asks Jonathan if he smokes weed, and when Jonathan says no, Eddie says let me know if that changes.

The last thing that Eddie needs to do is repair his relationship with Ronnie. He goes to the school to find her and goes to the principal’s office, and tells him that he’s re-enrolling in school. He then threatens principal Higgins, because he had seen one of the blue pill containers in Higgins’s office and blackmails him into allowing Eddie to come back to school and to keep hellfire alive.

He and Ronnie meet back up and he apologizes for everything that he had done and tells her that he’s staying in Hawkins to take care of the sheep. He offers her a ride home, and then she declines when she sees the jocks beating up another kid. He goes up to them to be king freak and defend the kid while Ronnie leaves to go home and eventually go to New York.

TLDR; Eddie Munson has daddy issues and a super tragic life and everyone he's ever loved leaves him (except for Wayne who is written exactly like every AO3 fanfic ever. Also Eddie Munson fucks.)

[zorelle]

En la ciudad de la Furia

En la ciudad de la furia (In the City of Fury) is a rock song made by the argentinean band Soda Stereo. This is a band I would parallel to, like, The Beatles, in the english speaking world. They were BIG is what I mean. In style tho, they would be closer to The Cure (extremely affectionate).

That Destiel shot

This song, to me, is THE SONG made for our glorious encounter with Castiel Angel of The Lord. Long before he becomes Cas our best friend, silly lil nerdy dude Cas. The vibe of the song comes with this awe for the character that is Castiel, never stronger than at first glanze, the moment we meet him.

So to place it specifically... To our and Dean's perspective, this is a song about Lazarus Rising.

We get that AMAZING intro scene in the barn and we know this character is THE SHIT. Cool cool cool cool nodoubt nodoubt nodoubt then Dean, shitting his pants, goes for the killing (?? Dean pls) and this creature not only doesn't die, doesn't hurt, he kinda SMILES? The fierceness, the tranquility, Dean has never met anything THAT powerful.

So this song carries that in the lyrics and the arrangement (imo). The coolness, the fascination and fear produced by the badassery, the sexyness and calm of this winged powerful figure.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE. I don't think this song applies to that moment exclusively, it speaks to you about season 4, 6, 8, 10, it gives you Castiel's character development, his traits and challenges, it winks at things that keep on happening for a decade. But it very much sings to you about Castiel, it´s a Cas song, it's about the angel on earth experience.

Those Destiel Lyrics

You will see me fly by the City of Fury where nobody knows about me and I am a part of them all.

Nothing's going to change with a "curve-ahead" warning. In their faces, I see the fear. No more Fables, in the city of fury.

You will se me dive like a bird of prey. You will see me fall on empty terraces

(Right? right? and then get this, this is sexy)

I'll undress myself by the streets of blue I shall take refuge before everyone awakens

You'll let me sleep until dawn between your legs, between your legs you'll know how to hide yourself and then dissappear into the fog, into the mist

A winged man... misses the ground.

Tell me that doesn't give you early ferocious theywerefucking destiel vibes, like the song just has it. That's the dynamic, but that's also what makes this Icarus figure miss earth, the earthly desire, the intimacy, the falling asleep for a brief moment, tangled in human legs, in the warmth of their skin. Angels are wavelengths, your atraction can't be carnal or emotional if you're not participating in the human (or earthling) experience. Cas is some sort of conscious intentional light, but the conflict we see him face is how his semi-human experience makes him owner of that intention, this way.

Then it has a bit of maybe Godstiel / season 6 that also rings about the complicated relationship Castiel sustains with heaven as an Icarus of sorts:

With the light of the Sun, my wings melt Only in the darkness I find what binds me to the City of Fury

About his choosing of the darkness...depending of the day I give it the more elaborated meaning of darkness as leaving heaven, his family of Multi-Dimensional Wavelengths Of Celestial Intent, stepping away from the powerplay and choosing humanity and the dark fight on earth, or the easy meaning of darkness as the night and what happens at night. With Dean. Then there´s the awful third option, like word for word "when you allow yourself to be happy and let the sun shine on your face..." asjldakffjkhlkj ok bye.

Skipping ahead, a bit that prophesies of Castiel's falling, and the falling of Heaven's structure:

You will see me fall Like a wild arrow You will see me fall amongst shooting flights

Now here's my favourite part: The song's structure has these phrases that keep coming back, one is about "the winged man" and the two times it's mentioned he shares a picture of himself in the third person: A winged man nostalgic of the ground, and then a winged man who prefers the night (the mud, the hunt even). The other phrase will make you mentally scream as it opens almost every verse and it looks you straight in the eyes, from the get go involving you, the spectator, the lover, the one on the ground, it tells you about what you´ll see him do, what you´ll see of him, although he knows there´s no use in a warning, this will happen either way. The phrase repeats itself around three moments, more like three actions and those are

Me verás volar ... Me verás caer ... Me verás volver. You will see me fly ... You will see me fall... You will see me back.

Fly, fall, come back. That´s Cas. That´s Castiel. And the song closes on that note: you will see me back. You'll see me come back.

About the song

The delusion would be such if this song were released around 2010-2015, right? everyone here would be sure Soda Stereo were all hellers, Gustavo Cerati (singer, songwriter, composer, beloved) would've had his inbox filled with fanart and questions (not only because of this one, too, there are a LOT of songs to claim for the Desticule, we'll get to those).

But no, the song is from 1988. It was built around a guitar riff that Cerati had made up at the age of 14 (!!). In Cerati´s words when they began to write it and play with it he also took inspiration from a character he made up and used to draw in his childhood, a sort of medieval superfighter, a terrestrial Icarus. He was into it. (x x)

Gustavo dressed as a super hero (1966) picture taken by his uncle. LISTEN DON´T GET ME STARTED ON CERATI HE WAS SUCH AN ICON but this post is already so long. (x)

As for the song´s original/intentional meaning, it was written about Buenos Aires, THE city of Fury, it tells you about this unhinged sensation that bled through the city and the country, with Argentina in the 80´s experiencing hyperinflation and just out of its last dictatorship (1976-1983). In a very rough political landscape in Argentina, Chile and across Latinoamérica there's this urban dread that makes the name catch: Urban Latinoamérica IS the city of Fury, a population and a place lost to their governments, after being severely repressed, dancing in a space of incertainty and rage and madness and fierceness, processing the violence they´d been subject to at the same time as the recently reclaimed freedom and all it's possibilites, in a world that pressures everyone to catch on, keep up, adapt, get in the competition. The only verse I´d miss before expresses it better:

Buenos Aires appears so susceptible It´s the destiny of fury It´s what remains in their faces.

The Icarus figure performs as young doomed Latinoamérica, the souls that are ready to take in the task of living and flying through this chaotic space, defyingly looking into the eyes of the metropolis, dancing with the madness of it without getting caught, hiding from a structure that binds them and choosing themselves at their most honest, truest form, only available when the city sleeps and the streets are empty and the sky feels limitless. It´s not only an "Oh to be young", it´s an "Oh, to be young while your society falls apart", it´s like a gothic anthem to life, youth and dread in the space and experience of late capitalism.

That´s the last mirror that I felt towards my beloved Cas. There´s a rage and a power and a dance to be held while the structure around you succumbs. He feels by spn canon narrative as tamed and gullible in the end bc he fucks up so frequently, but that agency of chaotic outcomes against an outter fource constantly hitting you to the ground is what helps deconstruct a world that is intrinsecally flaud at its structure, the fuck up is neccesary, it's a part of the dance and the resilience, the learning, the building of your own trust that ignites real change and it starts with something like this, a powerful energy that changes the game, that seduces the leads, that keeps itself liminal and you'll see it rise, fall, dive to the ground, hide in the mist, touch your core and keeps you as witness of their return.

This is the first of my Destiel el Español playlist rants, I will NOT review them all but the most Iconic ones. I think. Anyways this was something else, I would be very surprised if any other song has as much meat as this one, although all of Destiel feels so very cerati coded and telenovelero so we'll see.

That´s it for now, my heller friends and latinenatural vibrs. I hope you enjoy it. 👐🏾✨

[elsanna-shenanigans]

August Contest Submission #10: in my chest, a garden made for you

Words: ca. 6,000 Setting: Canon Divergent Lemon: no CW: Brief mention of blood, angst

—————————————————————

Elsa was three years old when her world changed forever. 

It was high summer, and the castle had reached a fever pitch of frenetic activity as the entire kingdom awaited the birth of the queen’s second child. Her labor was longer and more fraught than that of her first child, the crown princess; Elsa was an easy baby from the moment she came into the world as Arendelle’s heir.

The princess sat quietly in her room with a nursemaid while they waited for news. When the king came to get her hours later, Elsa took her father’s hand, a strange premonition building with each step closer to her parents’ room. 

Her mother was propped up in bed, looking drained but radiant. Instantly, Elsa’s eyes were riveted to the swaddled bundle in the queen’s arms. Her hand fell from her father’s grip, and she padded up to the bed in hushed anticipation. The bundle was titled towards her so she could see, and a scrunched little face with a head of bright, strawberry blonde hair came into view. 

“Her name is Anna. She’s your little sister, Elsa.”

Elsa held out a hand, pushing up on her tiptoes to reach one impossibly small fist, gently running a finger over the baby soft knuckles in awe. She gasped; those miniature digits moved, wrapping themselves around Elsa’s finger and holding tight. 

Elsa felt her world shift, and something in her young heart knew in that moment she would never be so taken with another.

—————————————————————

Elsa was nineteen when her world changed forever, again. 

Golden summer light streamed through the castle kitchens, adding to the humid warmth from recently used ovens. Lunch was being served upstairs, leaving it perfectly deserted for a pair of princesses who were sneaking off for a secret lunch of their own. 

Elsa set aside a couple fastelavnsbolle from one of the dessert platters, hesitating for a moment before plucking out another. Anna’s appetite had always surpassed hers; all of that natural exuberance required more fuel. The cardamon flavored buns were cut in half and filled with whipped cream— one of Anna’s favorites. 

She jumped when there came a bang, followed by a muffled ‘ouch’ that echoed from the one of the store rooms. The one where Anna was currently searching for the cook’s private stash of chocolate.

Elsa paused. “Are you alright?” She called softly. 

Anna’s head appeared from behind the pantry door. “Yup! Totally fine, nothing to worry about over here!” She eyed something inside— probably whatever had fallen. “Pretty sure those dents will come out,” she muttered under her breath. 

An eyebrow inched up Elsa’s forehead and her lips twitched fighting a smirk. “Just try not to make it too obvious we’ve been here, please,” she said, her voice leaking exasperated fondness. 

“Don’t worry Elsa, it’ll be like I was never even here. A ghost.” She waved a hand in front of her face, fingers wiggling. “Poof.”

Elsa snorted delicately, more of a forceful exhale through her nose, and gave her sister a pointed look. 

Sunlight caught Anna’s face as she smiled back innocently, burnishing her hair and illuminating her freckles, flashing more green than blue in her eyes. She glowed as if the sun had sought her out, or perhaps, and more likely, that radiance simply came from Anna, as she gave Elsa a cheeky salute and ducked back into the pantry. 

Elsa shook her head, smiling softly to herself. 

She had just finished wrapping the smørbrød with smoked salmon when she felt an odd ache in her chest. Elsa frowned and brought a hand up to rub at her sternum. Brushing it off, she continued packing the rest of their picnic. Not a minute later, an itch sprang to life in the back of her throat. That was Elsa’s only warning before she was coughing roughly into her palm, and pulling something from her mouth. 

She looked down and froze. 

A petal, blush pink, lay in her palm. Alien and accusatory, it looked like an omen in a language she had never seen before. There was no time to begin questioning how and why; a rustling from Anna’s direction had Elsa snapping her fingers closed, the silken flower petal crumpling in her fist. She slipped it into the folds of her skirt, knowing without knowing how she knew that this was not something she could share. With anyone. 

Anna reappeared, concern pinching her face. “You okay Elsa?”

Elsa cleared her throat with a quick smile. “Perfectly.” She uncurled her fingers and let the petal fall to the bottom of her pocket, masking the tremor in her hands by fiddling with the tablecloth in the picnic basket. Tying off the corners over their food, she glanced up at Anna, who still hadn’t moved. “Well?”

Her sister blinked. “Well what?”

“I don’t see any chocolate.”

Anna rolled her eyes with a grin and ducked back inside. “Yeah yeah, hold your horses your highness, I’ll get you your chocolate.” 

Elsa chuckled, but the mirth slipped from her face as soon as Anna was out of sight.

She shivered and rubbed at her chest again. 

It no longer felt warm in the kitchen. 

—————————————————————

It was six months before Elsa found another petal on her tongue. 

She was troubled by the occasional tickle in her throat, sometimes a lingering congestion, but for a while everything seemed normal and she could almost forget the strange thing that happened on that summer afternoon in the kitchen. 

Elsa’s twentieth birthday came and went, and so too did any illusions that the first petal had been a fluke. 

One morning, in early spring, she woke from a dream she couldn’t remember with a petal in her mouth. After that, one appeared every few weeks, until she could no longer deny the truth. 

Something was growing in her lungs. 

—————————————————————

It was becoming obvious to everyone that something was not right. 

The unease in Anna’s eyes deepened every time she had to supply a fresh handkerchief, or ran to fetch a glass of water, or rubbed soothing circles over Elsa’s back. 

Their parents had finally summoned the royal physician. He would be there first thing in the morning. 

Elsa stared up at the canopy of her bed, heart pulsing with dread. 

She thought of her last fit— the one in the library. Curled up on the plush loveseat with Anna tucked into her side, Elsa had been reading from an anthology of old fairytales. Anna had looped an arm through Elsa’s, leaning her head on Elsa’s shoulder with a sleepy sigh. She’d only made it through two pages after that before her lungs seized and Elsa had to excuse herself. 

Before that had been during a state dinner. To escape boredom, Anna had resurrected an old game: first one to smile lost. Her tried and (mostly) true method was to make increasingly absurd faces at Elsa when no one was looking. Elsa rarely lost, but that night she’d cracked, fingers shielding her lips to avoid offending the present company with an inappropriate smirk. Except it wasn’t a giggle that came out of her mouth next, but a cough. With a few murmured apologies, Elsa was gone, necessity forcing her to duck into an empty room to clear her lungs. 

Elsa worried her lip, trying to remember the last time her lungs had bothered her when her sister wasn’t around. She came up blank. 

Could …proximity to Anna be making her worse? 

The idea was impossible, absolutely ridiculous, and yet…

Elsa thought of her sister. Anna. Little Sun- the king called her- Arendelle’s summer princess. Full of relentless enthusiasm and joy, who had a kind word for everyone she met and would go out of her way to help anyone who needed it. Any situation was made better, simply for her being there. Anna was loyal and selfless and fierce and sweet.  

She thought of the way their hands fit just right, like when Anna reached for Elsa’s because she had something to show her and couldn’t contain her excitement. How she rambled with passion about whatever caught her interest, or stuttered adorably when she was flustered. The way her freckles accentuated the charming slope of her nose, or the appealing silhouette she made in her dresses. The way her lips…

Elsa convulsed, her body curling into a ball as a bright flare of pain twisted in her chest. When it passed, she was left gasping raggedly, clutching a fist full of petals. A flood of horror turned her stomach.  

When had she started feeling that way about her own sister?

How could this have happened?

Fingers twisting in the fabric of her nightgown over her heart, Elsa thought suddenly of Icarus. Was there a moment he’d missed, a sign he had ignored that could have stopped the undoing of his ambitious flight? When the sun seared a warning into his skin as the wax began to soften? Or was there no discernible line between safe and deadly, between one moment and the next before he was plummeting towards earth, crashing to the swallowing sea in a blaze of feather and flame?

Plants need the sun to grow.

Like Icarus before her, Elsa had flown too close to her sun.

She turned her face into the pillow, and wept. 

—————————————————————

The royal physician pulled the dressing gown closed over Elsa’s chest, a frown tugging at the wrinkles bracketing his mouth. He removed the stethoscope and set it on the bed, where it lay, limp and sinuous as a snake. Rocking back in his seat, he chewed the inside of his cheek for a moment, then turned to address the monarchs who stood on the opposite side of the bed. 

“There is an… obstruction in her lungs.”

The king and queen shared a look, distress painting their features. 

“An obstruction?” Elsa’s mother wrung her hands fretfully. “What does that mean, what kind of obstruction—”

“—can it be removed?” Her father’s deeper baritone interrupted. 

“Is it contagious?”

“Is it consumption?”

The physician held up a hand. “Forgive me, your majesties, I wish I had more answers to give but…” he glanced at Elsa. She stared at the patterns in her comforter, spine rigid, hands folded primly in her lap. “At the moment I don’t know more than that. All we can do for now is continue to monitor her, make sure her diet is healthy, and see that she gets fresh air and sunlight.” 

Elsa flinched. 

“It may go away on its own,” he added. 

The look on his face said he doubted that very much. 

—————————————————————

Their parents were reluctant at first, but eventually Elsa convinced them that isolation was the safest option for everyone, including Anna. At least, she reasoned, until they could be sure she wasn’t contagious. 

For a little while, things seemed to improve. Less coughing, fewer petals. If the staff caught Anna lingering outside her door they were instructed to shoo her along; Elsa tried not to hear the desperate cajoling and entreating as their voices faded down the hallway, leaving behind a cavernous silence and an even larger ache. Breathing marginally easier afterwards was the smallest of comforts. 

Most days, it really wasn’t a comfort at all.

It became a concerted effort to keep Anna occupied and away from Elsa, but that didn’t mean there weren’t nights when Anna camped outside her door anyway. In hushed tones she’d tell Elsa about her day, what she thought about her studies, the latest gossip she’d overheard— anything she could think of to draw Elsa into conversation. When those nightly monologues were interrupted by more frequent bouts of coughing, Anna reluctantly conceded her sister wasn’t fit enough for visits. 

Letters and notes started appearing under Elsa’s door instead. 

Elsa tried to keep herself busy with her own studies, tried to keep thoughts of her sister as far from her conscious mind as possible— when she wasn’t inundated with endearing slips of parchment containing every thought Anna wanted to share. 

Dreams however, were out of her control.

The petals she occasionally found on her pillow in the morning made that abundantly clear. 

A year went by and still, Elsa tried. 

—————————————————————

It’s been such a perfect summer and we’ve had so little rain, I can’t help spending every possible moment outside. But then I remember that you’re in there, sick and miserable, and I feel awful that I’m enjoying things you can’t. Remember when we used to sneak out and have picnics by the fjord? Gosh it really sent Kai and Gerda into fits didn’t it? Don’t think I never noticed how you always packed more dessert for me, or claimed you couldn’t finish so I could have yours. 

I’m sure you know mother and father are leaving next week for that coronation down south on the continent. I bet the summers in Corona are even warmer. Maybe when you’re better we can go,  just the two of us! You’re twenty one now, plenty old enough for us to travel alone. Apparently the princess is around our age, though I guess she’ll be the queen soon. 

I wish I could see you Elsa, I don’t even care that I might get sick. I just miss you. 

—————————————————————

Their parents went to sea and never came back.

Anna attended the funeral alone. 

Elsa lay in bed, sheets strewn with handkerchiefs and the corollas of a flower she still had no name for. Her tears had been exhausted and she stared listlessly out the window at grey skies heavy with unspent rain. Emptiness carved a cavernous hole inside her, hollowing out all other feeling.  

Except, that wasn’t exactly true. Guilt slithered inside her, making its presence felt lest she forget her sickness was adding to Anna’s pain.The one thing that might give them both a measure of comfort— finding solace in one another — Elsa’s curse prevented. The one thing she wanted so badly to do was the one thing she couldn’t, because she wanted it so badly. She couldn’t hold Anna, or dry her tears, or squeeze her hand as they stood at their parents’ empty graves and the last rights were spoken. 

She was bound to her bed with a corrupted heart and damaged lungs, useless. 

Anna came to her room late that night. She sat with her back to the door, not speaking a word. Frozen between fear and longing, Elsa waited. Eventually, her sister slumped over and fell asleep, right there in the hallway. Elsa stumbled out of bed and sank to the floor, the unforgiving hardwood digging into one hip as she lay facing the gap between them. It was only about an inch, but she could see a swatch of black fabric and the red of Anna’s hair, muted in the darkness. She was still in her mourning dress from the funeral.

Elsa splayed one hand flat on the floor as close to the crack under the door as she dared. Close enough to touch, almost. She watched the rhythm of her sister’s breathing until sleep pulled her under. 

When she woke there was an entire flower beside her lips, and Anna was gone. 

—————————————————————

For a while, there were no notes or letters.  

And so, for the first time in more than a year, Elsa wrote Anna back. It no longer mattered that it cost her more petals and sometimes an entire flower, she just needed Anna know she’d been listening, that she was still there. Regardless of her… illness, Anna deserved more than silence. 

It only took a few days for Anna to respond. Soon they were writing nearly every day. 

With her letters, Elsa began including flowers. Kai or Gerda were gracious enough to fetch them from the garden, which had been cultivated rather extensively under their mother’s direction. One of the books she’d kept since those first frantic searches in the library was a piece of literature called The Language of Flowers. Elsa had read it so often that she knew the illustrations and their corresponding meanings by heart. 

So, when she could, Elsa added an extra sentiment to her letters, a veiled meaning that Anna would never guess at. 

That summer she sent honeysuckle often. Devotion and affection. 

In the autumn, the pansy. You occupy my thoughts. 

For winter, cyclamen. Sincerity and love. 

Nearly every morning Elsa tossed handfuls of her own petals and the occasional full bloom into the fire, burning the evidence of her heart’s indiscretion to fragrant ash. If Kai or Gerda noticed a lingering floral scent amongst the metallic tang and wondered at it, they said nothing. 

As time passed, Elsa found herself slipping in flowers that were more revealing of her true feelings, things she could not, should not ever say, even if her heart desperately wanted to. Not that Anna would ever know. They were hidden in a language she would never think to learn, and probably wasn’t aware existed. 

That next spring her letters were perfumed with orange blossoms. Eternal love. 

For summer it was lilac, for first love. In some of her weaker moments, the cornflower. Hope in love. 

In fall, the intoxicating scent of jasmine. Romance and sensuality.

Primrose for winter. I can’t live without you. Sometimes, when she was feeling melancholy, a daffodil. Unrequited love. 

Now that she was expelling entire flowers, Elsa finally understood what was growing in her lungs. 

Camellias. 

They meant deep longing.

—————————————————————

I never realized how much you enjoyed flowers. Did we ever spend much time in the gardens? I don’t think we did, at least not together, though I know it was one of mother’s favorite places. 

Either way, I love them. Each one is so different and beautiful. But that’s not surprising. I think beautiful people have an eye for beautiful things. Or actually, maybe that’s just you. Being beautiful I mean, not that you only have an eye for— never mind, you know what I mean.  It really is just the two of us now, isn’t it? Though, there are some days it feels like it’s just me.

I miss hearing your laugh. I miss seeing that intense face you make when you’re concentrating, or hearing your voice when you read aloud. I miss the way I could talk about anything and you’d listen, even if I went on forever about something silly or stupid. I miss how safe I felt when you were with me, like no matter what happened things would be okay, and you’d catch me. I miss watching your eyes light up when you try to hide a smile.

I miss you. 

—————————————————————

Elsa tugged her thick dressing gown more securely around herself. It was only the cusp of winter, but already a permanent chill had seeped into her bones, agitating her lungs. Her strength leeched out of her a little more each day; time that wasn’t devoted to official paperwork or Anna’s letters, was lost to sleep. 

Elsa fidgeted with the handkerchief on her desk, folding it into a crisp square. The creases in this one were so deep they had become permanent guides, a map she followed to sooth anxiety and pain. Hand stitched in one corner, the words: To Elsa, love Anna. 

I do.

Like a lightning bolt, her lungs rebelled; Elsa’s forehead nearly touched the desk as she bent over, expelling her floral inhabitants into her hand. She scrambled for another handkerchief, fingers reaching blindly across the desk until they encountered cloth, bringing it quickly to her mouth.

Only after she’d caught her breath did she realize, too late, that she’d used Anna’s. She unfolded it, picking out a handful of petals and one full bloom, setting them to the side in a small pile. Elsa stared at the painstakingly stitched cloth, full of slightly crooked flowers and missed stitches. Anna hated embroidery. It required a patience and precision her energetic spirit did not often allow. 

This had been pushed under her door in the early hours of her twenty first birthday, wrapped in blue tissue and silver string, along with a letter and a handful of crocuses.       

I know you’re going to be queen soon (well, I guess technically you already are) and I thought these were appropriate. Or maybe giving you our national flower was dumb? I don’t know, but Gerda said they mean cheerfulness and hope, and that’s something I think you need right now. Happy birthday Elsa.

The letter was still in Elsa’s bedside drawer, next to every other letter Anna had ever given her. The flowers had been pressed between the pages of her favorite book, and the handkerchief she kept with her always. Though never used— for this very reason; now it was stained in blood that would never come out, not completely. An indelible corruption on something otherwise pure.  

Slowly, Elsa folded it back up again, allowing the clean sections of linen to obscure the lurid evidence of her deviant heart, until she could almost pretend it wasn’t there at all. 

She picked up a pressed flower from the desk, one for her next letter to Anna, twirling it between thumb and forefinger as she watched the snow drift down. 

Purple hyacinth. Forgive me. 

—————————————————————

Elsa was losing time. 

Dizzy and weak, she’d find herself suddenly in bed, or slumped in a chair. A handful of times she woke with her cheek pressed to the cold floor, body aching all over. 

Sometimes she thought she heard Anna’s voice, but the line between reality and dreaming were blurring, and it was impossible to know if her sister was truly there, or figment of the visions that clung to her like cobwebs after waking.

Elsa didn’t write many letters anymore, but the flowers said what she couldn’t. 

Pressed gladiolus. You pierce my heart. 

Dahlia. One true love. 

The red tulip, pressed and preserved. I declare my love for you. 

—————————————————————

A knock on the door. 

Kai let himself in, calling softly, “Your majesty? You wanted me to deliver Anna’s gift?” 

Elsa stirred, rousing from a half sleep. Anna’s gift? Her mind fumbled, trying to understand what he was talking about as a tide of lethargy fought for her consciousness. 

It was still December… wasn’t it? It must be Christmas. 

“On the desk Kai,” she wheezed. Was that her voice?  

“The stack on the corner ma’am?” 

“Yes…thank you.” Sleep was dragging her under. “… Merry Christmas Kai.” 

She did not hear him leave. 

—————————————————————

Elsa was having a rare good day.

They were few and far between, but when she was able to rise in the morning, lucid and aware, that was a special thing. Elsa reclined in bed while nursing a cup of tea, a book of poetry propped against her knees. She couldn’t find her copy of The Language of Flowers, which she’d been in the mood to peruse. It was nearly always on her desk, but it came as no surprise that she seemed to have misplaced it. 

Knock knock kn-knock knock

The blooms, the heart in her chest strained towards the sun. 

“Elsa?”

Anna’s voice, sweet and painful; ache and salve both. Grey winter light flickered through the gap underneath the door, Anna’s footsteps throwing off distorted shapes. Elsa stared at Anna’s shadow, heart shuddering at her closeness. 

After a moment there came a big sigh, and her sister sat down against the door with a thump. 

“I hope you’re doing okay in there.”

Elsa slipped out of bed and padded silently over to the door, sitting down against the wall. She tucked her legs under her, arranging the velvet dressing gown over her bare feet. 

“I’m here.” Elsa winced. It sounded like she’d swallowed gravel.

There was a sharp intake of breath. Clothes rustling, Anna scooted closer, and her voice sounded from mere inches away. “Hey.”

Elsa could hear the soft smile in her sister’s voice, could picture the charming curl of her mouth. She closed her eyes and tipped her head back, savoring the warmth that flooded her chest like a gentle fire, even as it clenched in warning. She couldn’t bring herself to care. 

“Hi.” Elsa chuckled, feeling shy and a little giddy. It had been so long since they’d done this, actually talked face to… well, door. 

“So…,” Anna said after a beat of silence. “Christmas was nice. We sent out an invitation for an open brunch cause I thought, might as well right? No one’s using the space and we have food to spare. It was nice to see the place so full, but…well, you know. It’s not the same.”

Without you, she didn’t have to say. 

Elsa toyed with a lock of her hair, winding it between her fingers. It hung in loose platinum waves to her waist; she hadn’t braided it in days. At least she’d brushed it. 

“I’m sorry.” For all of it, she wanted to say. I’m sorry for everything I’ve put you through. 

“You don’t have to apologize Elsa, it’s not like you can help being sick.” 

Couldn’t she though? If Elsa had just tried harder? When had she stopped trying to fall out of love with Anna?

There was a huff of a laugh behind her. “Do you remember that one Christmas when we snuck buckets of snow into the ballroom? We had just enough to make that one lumpy snowman, what was his name again?” Anna snapped her fingers. “That’s right, it was—”

“Olaf!” They said together, dissolving into giggles. 

Elsa wiped at her eyes. “They were so furious with us. I’d never heard them run down that staircase so quickly.” She winced as her lungs pinched briefly. 

“Honestly I think father was secretly impressed we managed it. Just a shame our little guy melted so fast.”

Elsa hummed in agreement. “It was worth it though.” 

“Sure was.” 

“You always had a talent for finding fun that involved trouble of some kind.” 

Anna laughed. “You loved it. Besides, you were always there to get me out of it.” 

“Of course.” 

Pain, sharp as a thunderclap burst inside her breast. Elsa’s lips parted in a soundless gasp, her hand flying to her sternum. Her lungs roiled. 

Not now. Please not now. 

“…Elsa? Are you okay?”

Elsa staggered to her feet with a whimper, camellias already occluding her throat. She suppressed the first few hacking spasms, but this was so much worse than usual. A few steps into the room her knees buckled, as the flowers came and came and came. Her legs gave out and Elsa crumpled to the floor at the foot of her bed, unable to stem the floral tide from her lips. Faintly she registered Anna pounding on the door, calling out, but then it was lost to the darkness. 

—————————————————————

Elsa

Elsa!

A voice, calling her from above a dark ocean as she sank. It was so hard to breathe, her limbs weighted with lead and useless while the sea seeped into her mouth. In her darker moments she’d imagined what it would feel like to drown, what it must have felt like when their parents were dying. The pressure, the ache, the burning breathlessness—

But no. It wasn’t water in her lungs. 

A living thing clamored in her chest, growing where no living thing should grow. Roots… she was rooted to the earth, not adrift in the ocean. She was being swallowed up in dark soil, a garden ready and waiting to burst from her ribs as soon as her body was finished struggling. Then she would finally be free. 

And Anna would be alone. 

Anna.

—————————————————————

“No…no, no, no—”

She was being lifted, jostled into someone’s arms. Hands, fluttering and frantic, ghosted over her, soft as butterfly wings, unable to settle. Words filtered in and out. The voice sounded incredibly upset. 

“Elsa… oh please, Elsa…”

Confusion snagged thoughts adrift in a heavy fog. That couldn’t be right… Anna wasn’t supposed to be in her room. She was on the wrong side of the door. There was something she wasn’t supposed to know, that Elsa had to make sure she didn’t know. 

It drifted away. 

—————————————————————

She was in bed. 

Elsa felt the familiar weight of her comforter and the pillows at her back. How had she gotten there? How much time had passed, and what had she been…? 

Anna. 

Her eyes fluttered open with difficulty.   

She froze.

Anna was perched on the side of the bed. On her bed. In her room. 

“Hey.” Anna’s smile was soft and hesitant, and a little sad. 

Elsa pushed herself upright on shaky arms. Reflexively she touched her mouth, but found it free of blood. Anna must have lifted her into bed and cleaned her up. “Hi.” Her voice was a painful croak. 

Anna quickly reached for a glass of water on the nightstand, pressing it into Elsa’s hands. Elsa gave her a grateful smile, studying her as she drank. 

Anna’s thick russet locks hung free over her shoulders, the hair near her temples braided in a circlet around her head. The dress she wore was deep green with plum embellishments, a matching sash cinched at her waist. A sharply tailored black jacket with their autumn wheat motif embroidered on the shoulders finished the ensemble. She looked older. Beautiful. 

Elsa set the glass back on the nightstand. There was too much to say and Elsa had no idea where to begin. She looked at her sister and found herself blurting, “How did you get in?”

Anna gave her an exasperated look. “I learned how to pick locks.”

“Oh.” 

“Elsa…what is all this?” She looked confused and unsettled as she gestured to the flowers scattered on Elsa’s floor. In her hand was a camellia, spotted with blood. 

Elsa’s throat tightened. She felt suddenly, unbearably naked. 

“It’s…” Elsa waved a hand over her chest, feeling small and ashamed. “They’re in my lungs,” she finished in a whisper, shrugging helplessly. It was not even close to the whole truth, but how could she explain the nature of her affliction? How was she supposed to tell Anna that her sickness had manifested as a reflection of her perverse heart? 

If she did one thing right in her life, it would be to take this truth with her to the grave. Anna had enough burdens to carry. 

Anna gaped at her, then down at the flower nestled in her palm, her brow pulling into a deep frown. “Wait… what? How is that poss— I…I don’t understand.”

The absurdity of it all struck her then, startling a faint laugh out of Elsa that ended in something closer to a sob. She quickly pressed a hand her lips. “Neither do I.”  

One of Anna’s hands gripped the comforter, twisting the fabric until her knuckles turned white. She struggled for a moment, and Elsa’s heart squeezed painfully when Anna’s eyes turned glassy. “I… I can’t lose you Elsa, not when I—” 

Elsa reached for her, but something behind Anna caught her eye and she stopped. 

At the foot of her bed was a bouquet of flowers. Not just any flowers. 

“Are those…” They couldn’t be. Elsa was fluent in the language of flowers, but Anna wasn’t. Her sister had no idea what those meant. No idea what they said. If she had, she wouldn’t be giving them to Elsa. 

It was a bouquet of Camellias. 

Pink and red camellias. 

Pink, like hers, for longing and red for—

Desire. Passion. 

Romantic love.  

A mistake. It was a mistake, there was no other explanation. 

“Are those for me?” Elsa rasped, weak with disbelief and a shameful pang of longing that slithered out before she could stop it. 

“Yeah Elsa, they are.” 

She shook her head in denial, staring at those impossible flowers. “But—”

Fingertips settled against her lips, and Elsa’s heart stopped.

Soft and warm, it was the first skin to skin contact she’d had in longer than she could remember, and it sent shockwaves through Elsa’s body. Suddenly every sense that had been dulled over the years, though intention or neglect, came alive. She had the irresistible urge to press a kiss to those fingers, had only to apply the slightest bit of pressure to do so, but that beautiful teal gaze had turned her to stone. 

“Yes Elsa,” Anna said quietly. Unshed tears lingered in her eyes, her expression solemn yet underscored by a quiet resolve that blazed just beneath the surface. So unlike the girl Elsa remembered; a queen in her own right. Seeing it now broke her heart as much as it made her proud. She was meant to protect Anna from that burden. She had failed in so many ways. 

Anna’s thumb grazed the corner of her mouth, and Elsa’s breath hitched. “I know what they mean.”

How could you? Elsa’s gaze drifted to her desk and the designated corner where The Language of Flowers always sat, now empty. The last time she’d seen it… was three days ago, when Kai had retrieved Anna’s present. Which had been sitting on top of the book. Elsa’s heart stuttered. Had he…? 

Anna reached down and clasped Elsa’s hands. “Every flower you gave me… I finally understand what you’ve been telling me all this time.”

“That wasn’t… that wasn’t my intention, I— ” Elsa stammered. She could hardly breathe, her heart was beating so fast. “You weren’t supposed to know. Ever,” she whispered thickly, too laid bare to even deny it. 

Anna’s smile was rueful. “I kinda figured as much when I got my Christmas present and your Language of Flowers was there too, with all your notes and bookmarks.”

Elsa squeezed her eyes shut, a single tear streaking down her cheek. Shame raged inside her, hot and hungry. She felt lightheaded.  

“Hey.” A hand brushed her face, encouraging her to open her eyes. “It’s okay Elsa, I promise.”

Anna reached back, liberating a red camellia from the bouquet. She held it up between them. “It’s okay because… I love you too.” Anna took her hand and closed Elsa’s fingers around the stem. “And when I say ‘love’,” she continued gently, “I mean in love.”

“How… why?” This can’t be what you want. You aren’t broken, like me.

A fond smile curved Anna’s lips. “Because you’re you, Elsa. Beautiful and kind and smart and thoughtful and loving, and so many other things. You’re perfect.”  

Elsa most certainly was not, but it was difficult to argue when Anna was looking at her like that. And then she was leaning in, dark pupils fixed on Elsa’s mouth.

“You could get sick,” Elsa hedged weakly. 

“I don’t care,” Anna murmured. 

She was so close now and Elsa couldn’t think; words deserted her as those flushed pink lips drew her into their orbit. 

Anna’s lips brushed hers in a whisper, her kiss ghosting over Elsa’s mouth in a touch so sweet, so unerringly devastating, it shattered the last crumbling walls Elsa had erected around herself. Her foundations fell away beneath her, until the only anchor was that forbidden touch, more perfect than anything she’d experienced. Frisson rippled along every nerve, shivering over her bare skin.

Elsa reached out a hand and found Anna’s neck, the delicate pulse beneath soft skin thrumming in time with her heart, accelerating under Elsa’s touch as she allowed herself to claim Anna’s lips like it was the last thing she’d ever do. 

Maybe it was. 

A noise, soft and high, caught in Anna’s throat, and her mouth parted to allow Elsa in. Elsa took what she offered, losing herself in the lush warmth of her, caressing Anna with a purpose she never dreamed she’d have the chance, let alone the right to do. 

Anna broke away first, her gasps falling heavy against Elsa’s lips, amplified in the quiet room. Elsa cupped her cheek, stroking it with her thumb as she gazed back into eyes heavy lidded and bright. 

Anna closed the distance again, her nose brushing along Elsa’s as she brought their foreheads together.

“I love you, Elsa,” she breathed, voice breaking. “I don’t want to lose you. I can’t, not now.”

Elsa opened her mouth to respond and stopped. Something had changed. She’d almost missed it in the overwhelming euphoria of kissing Anna, but now a stunning absence was made plain. The revelation echoed through her like silent thunder. 

“You won’t,” she said, her voice possessed by certainty, and filled with awe. Elsa lifted their hands, placing Anna’s flat against her chest. The heartbeat under Anna’s palm was no longer weak and thready, but strong and sure. 

Elsa stared at Anna in wonder and inhaled deeply, from lungs that were completely empty for the first time in six years. 

[forasecondtherewedwon]

À la Carter

Fandom: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Rating: T Word Count: 1572

Summary: Even when she’s helping Sam, Sharon has her own agenda.

Sharon’s fingers tap. They spread and pinch, manipulating the scale and definition of Riga’s rooftops. When she feels like she must be zeroing in, she stops, straightens from where she’s been leaning over the screen of her tablet.

She tosses back a swallow of her drink, a flinch around her eyes as the alcohol stings her cut lip. It had been a while since she’d had to fight her way out of a tight corner (or configuration of shipping containers), before Sam, Bucky, and their pet baron showed up in Madripoor. Her tongue prods the cut.

Her satellite access came through, like she knew it would, and John Walker’s no needle in a haystack. On her screen, he’ll be displayed as TRACKER 01, but his position might as well be stamped with the shield—that symbol of justice and virtue and treachery and regret and whatever else the thing stands for these days. She’s a little behind on American public perception when she only feels very loosely American herself. An expat snagged on the last unravelling thread of her former country’s flag.

Another sip, another wince, is punishment in advance. Sharon’s about to do what she does in this new life of hers: take her cut. Her deal with Sam is going to develop a deviation he doesn’t know about. It’ll be seamless, wasting very little of anyone’s time, a detour on the streets of Riga; the view lies between her forearms, resting on the glass surface of the table.

She likes Sam, likes him a lot. The patience and problem-solving in his eyes that say he’s actually listening. The way he looks without his shirt. His persistent trustworthiness when trust is something Sharon thought she no longer dealt in. No giving it out and no inviting it. People don’t just trust her here. That’s why she has hired security. But she’s already expecting Sam to follow through on his end of their deal and sort out her little being-labelled-an-enemy-of-the-state issue, so she’s committed to helping him. The instinct to is annoyingly natural.

Here’s the wrinkle in their verbal contract: the job’s personal. Sam and Bucky are aware of that, she’s certain, and she wonders if they’ve considered that she might be too. It isn’t about her freedom of travel between countries or the do-gooder urge—which Sam in particular appears to overflow with—to ensure Zemo is once again caught and held to account. It’s a Steve thing. She’s heard a lot of rumours (there’s one circulating in High Town at the moment, that Steve is on Mars, building the bones of Elon Musk’s Martian colony in exchange for a couple billion dollars and, presumably, his own self-respect), and it hurts that she can’t dispel any of them, even to herself. Sharon doesn’t know what happened to him. All she knows is that there’s a new guy slinging his arm through the straps of Steve’s old shield and that she doesn’t really feel as casual about it as she might’ve led Sam and Bucky to believe when she mentioned Walker to them. She’s angry. Because she looks at New Cap and wonders what it was all for.

She drums her fingers on the tabletop.

With a deep breath, Sharon touches the screen again. Now swiping intently, she finds TRACKER 01, AKA John Walker. She pulls her phone towards her because she should call Sam to tell him the location. And she will. What she’s going to do first is just for herself.

Hacking into Walker’s comms is surgical and effortless, not requiring payment or bartering like the satellite access, just the skills she keeps honed. Sharon enables a moderate vocal distorter and slides into the ‘secure’ channel. She’s determined to keep her anger and bitterness out of this side-mission, but with nowhere else to go, resentment climbs the back of her neck as an uncomfortable, spreading heat.

“Hey, John.”

“Who is this?” his voice snaps at the other end of the line.

“Oh, don’t you worry about that.” Sharon tilts back in her chair until she can prop the heels of her boots on the table, posture perfectly at ease as she goads him. “Do you prefer ‘John’ or ‘Captain America’?”

“Who are you? A fan?”

Well, she has to laugh at that.

“Um, yeah,” she gushes, channeling the preteen goddaughter she might’ve had if she were living a life where she could make real friends and have neighbours instead of hosting underground art auctions and sniping hostiles from an open window while two idiots from her old life sprint past on the street below. “Is this the Captain America Hotline?”

“Let me tell you, you are seconds away from being located and identified by the U.S. government,” Walker threatens. At least he’s smart enough not to hold on to his fan theory any longer.

“At ease, Cap. I’m not doing any harm.”

“What you’re doing is something incredibly foolish and you will reap the consequences.”

“It’s been a few seconds,” Sharon taunts. “Either the government’s found me and they don’t want to rudely interrupt our conversation or my capabilities exceed theirs. Which one do you think it is?”

“What do you want.”

It comes out flat and hard.

“No more warnings? You’re not going to try to brute-force your way to the conclusion of your choosing?”

“That isn’t always the best method.”

“Something tells me somebody taught you a lesson recently,” Sharon observes, crossing her ankles and rocking her feet side to side on the table. “How bad were you humbled?”

“I went up against the Dora Milaje.”

“So you really got your ass handed to you. I’m surprised you’d be so forthcoming about that. Stiff-upper-lipped soldier type.”

“I figure you could find that information if you really wanted it.”

“You’re being generous then? Saving me time?”

“I just want you to get the fuck off this line.”

“Back to business then,” she says.

She can hear Walker’s breathing change, from a heavy pant to the sound of him clearly trying to control it. Less background noise too, like maybe he just entered a building. She assumes he’s trying to be stealthy. That means he’s either sneaking up on the Flag-Smashers or fears they’re sneaking up on him. It’s almost time to quit toying with New Cap and alert Sam so he can soar in, kick a few asses, maybe save a life. While she goes back to drinking alone in High Town, knowing Madripoor is beginning to tear itself to bloody shreds with so many sharpened claws.

“What do you want?” Walker repeats.

“To tell you I wouldn’t have minded calling you ‘Captain America.’” Sharon shrugs for her own benefit. “It’s just a name, and yet… I think it’s going to bother you. Realizing that you won’t live up to it, I mean.”

“You’re pathetic.”

His breathing’s a little harsher again. He might be climbing a flight of stairs.

“John Walker, I almost feel sorry for you,” she says. “I might if you came off as less of an asshole.”

“Don’t waste your condescension on me. I don’t give a fuck what you think.”

She laughs at him.

“That’s ridiculous. What sort of man agrees to be Captain America when someone as incredible as Sam Wilson has just given up the shield? When the world doesn’t need to close their eyes to picture Steve Rogers still standing behind it? Walker, you stepped into a shadow that was still fading because you were too vain to miss your opportunity. Well now that shadow’s never going to fade,” Sharon hisses at him, her feet hitting the floor as she hunches forward, studying the orange tracker. “You think you’re standing in the sun, but you’re not. And it’s only going to get darker for you.”

“I’ll take my chances.” His voice is hushed, but the tone is arrogant.

“I’m sure you will. You’ll take them without any regard for anyone around you.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he lectures. “I’m helping—”

“Of course you’ll say you’re helping people when, really, you can’t see past the larger-than-life persona you borrowed like a rental tux. It’s never going to fit, John. While you’re watching yourself, all those people are seeing the guy in the ill-fitting suit, the guy who thought he was going to pick up that shield and turn into Steve Rogers. You’ve got one thing in common with Steve: a name that would be forgettable without the actions you attach to it. Soon, you’re going to wish you really were that forgettable, but it’ll be too late. The world will be watching.”

Sharon closes the connection and throws herself back into her seat, slapping her phone to the table, almost too hard. She rubs her temple and mindlessly watches the tracker flicker back and forth; Walker must be moving around the building more rapidly without her in his ear to distract him. She could’ve done worse, gotten him discovered by the Flag-Smashers, gotten him shot. That’s further than she’s willing to go though because Sam’s given her this pesky sense of hope that her life won’t always have the blinding lustre of destruction. The high shine of a speeding car, the glint of the sun peeking past Icarus’s silhouette. It’s time to let Walker destroy himself.

And, because he must think he can get in the way of that and mitigate the fallout, it’s time to call Sam.

[randomguywithwords]

As The Dust Settles: Chapter 24 (Geten x Dabi Slowburn)

Chapter 24: Icarus Takes Flight

AO3 Link

Previous Chapters: 23, 22, 21, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

––––––––

Geten knew she was rusty the minute she raised the lake of ice. In the same way muscles atrophied after unuse, her quirk felt, ironically, as if it were thawing after being frozen for a century. 

Her cryokinesis was sluggish, rigid. The ice body jerked forward and stalled as she attempted a simple levitation towards her. Finally, she returned the ice to the snaking gap in the ground where the water had been. 

She scowled. Despite doing simple manipulation exercises during her hospitalisation, using whatever ice cubes she had, it wasn’t enough — wouldn’t be enough to go up against the might of the entire army. 

As she allowed the bottom of the lake to melt back into water —  something she could still do just as well, to her relief, the thought struck her immobile for a few seconds. That is, after all, what I am seeking, yes? Freedom from this place and its people.

But I am still not strong enough. People as strong as Shingu Takame existed amongst the ranks of the advisors, and perhaps even the common soldiery. If she were to fight multiple of them concurrently, she could be…

Flashes of Mihara Takame’s corpse sent a shiver down her spine. 

“Killed.” She whispered. 

“Who?” Hawks’ voice gave her a reeling shock, creating a barrier of ice out of instinct. Upon registering it as his voice, she lowered it with a scowl. 

“Don’t do that,” She said. 

“My bad,” Hawks replied. “Who died?” 

“It’s nothing of importance.” 

“If you say so.” From his coat, he pulled out a half-eaten packet of chips. He offered one to her, who declined with a wrinkle in her expression and a shake of her head. 

“So, training for the Festival?” He observed. 

“Yes.” She still had to keep up appearances. “Why aren’t you asleep? It’s quite late.”

“Still have some errands to run. Just taking a break to catch up with you, if you don’t mind.”

“It doesn’t matter to me.” She sat on a constructed ice-bench, to which Hawks followed suit.

“Cool. Quick question, why do you always have your hood on?” He munched on more chips. 

“Not always.” She shot back. 

“Ah, you know what I mean.” Even though his tone sounded playful and curious, there was a sharpness in his words that pierced through all pretence.

“I do,” She conceded, “But I don’t want to share that with you. I hope you’re not offended.” 

Hawks waved his hand. “All good, I get it.” And he let the subject die. But the topic only grew like a fungus in her mind, until the question – innocent-sounding as it was, brought her back into her memories.

“Who am I? Apocrypha, a weapon for the Liberation Army.” That was what she said, and a statement she once lived by. 

“A sword has no need for a name any more than a stray dog does.” The words she had spoken with such conviction in front of Shigaraki – perhaps in hindsight, an act of bravado in the face of destruction incarnate…

She made herself shiver. Yet she lived by this doctrine imposed upon her, which she reinforced herself all those years. 

Till now. 

She reached up and pulled down her hood. Besides her, Hawks raised an eyebrow. 

“All right, I get it,” He chuckled. “Not all the time.” 

Geten returned a small smile. He wouldn’t understand. Her focus shifted to the pair of crimson wings on his back. 

“Where did you train?” Geten said aloud the question rising to her mouth. “Did you go to…” What was it called? “A school?”

“Not me. I was...special, you could say.” His tone took on some solemnity. 

“So you trained under a mentor, like myself?”

“You could say that.” Hawks said, after a pause. 

“He must have been good, for you to attain such a high hero ranking, in the public eye.” 

“Ha!” He burst out. “Almost too good...too good for me.”

Geten recognised that look. It was her own expression whenever she stared herself in the mirror as a young child, after she’d finished writing in her journal. Childish habits.

“It was difficult, was it not?” She felt a strange connection between her and him. It was sympathy, to an extent, but not the same way her spiteful past self viewed her inferior soldiers. She sympathised with Hawks, but she also understood his pains of training. Was there some word for it? She couldn’t grasp it.

“You got me. It was. Really was.” 

A silence. Geten was unsure what to say.

Eventually, she said, “I went through something similar, though you must’ve realised that by now, given our last conversation.”

Hawks nodded. After another moment had passed, he said, “I had a friend who went through the same thing with me. He was a fun person. He made things easier.” 

“That’s good,” She said softly.

Hawks must’ve caught the look on her face which she tried to conceal. “Sorry, didn’t mean to make you feel bad.”

Geten waved it off. “He sounds like a nice person. What happened to him?” 

“We’ve went our separate ways. But I think you would’ve liked him.” 

“Perhaps I might meet him someday. Is he a hero?”

Hawks shrugged. That was all he did. 

“At any rate, all that training...Seems like it’s biting me in my ass now, what with the Festival and my assigned task,” He said. 

“Your...Oh.” She recalled it. 

Shigaraki had given the lieutenants and Hawks a more in-depth briefing just this morning, right after Geten left the hospital. There, he assigned groupings and explained his strategies to annex the cities they were to strike, taking out the heroes on guard there and keeping the populace under control. Suspiciously, he gave Dabi a job to be on the backline during the Festival, along with Apocrypha, which meant that Dabi’s other assignment was more secretive than she thought. 

As to what Hawk’s mission was, it was to keep up appearances. Shigaraki ordered Hawks to fight as a hero, against the invading Liberation soldiers. That way, his cover would be maintained, and he could continue infiltrating the Commission. 

“What about it?”

“To fight against people I would consider peers, and with the abilities that the Hero Commission know I have, they’ll expect me to round them up quickly, which means I’d be dooming them to prison. The total opposite to liberation.” Hawks sighed. “I feel horrible.” 

She responded, “They’ll understand. It’s for the greater good.” In other words, they would be so brainwashed they would accept come what may. But she didn’t say that. Judging from Hawks’ creased expression, he seemed troubled by his role in the Festival. 

“For Destro.” She said. 

Hawks looked at her. “For Destro,” He echoed. Standing up, he let his wings spread, pocketing the empty packet. 

“Thanks for keeping me company. I’ve gee to gee. Make sure you get some sleep, you did just recover fully.” He flashed a smile.

“Gee to gee?” 

“Got to go. It’s a shorter way to say it.” 

“But they have the same number of syllables. That’s illogical.” She argued.

Hawks chuckled again, not offering a reply to that, before ascending. 

“See you on Monday! Festival’s going to be great!” Hawks shouted, and then he sped off into the night sky. 

Geten resumed her training, feeling slightly better. At the same time, she tried to push away the thought that one day, when she had abandoned the Liberation Front, it could be Hawks that would be dragging her back into the clutches, and they would have to fight. 

–––––––

Hi, I don’t have much of an excuse. I said a few days and it ended up at least a week and then some. I could get into a rant on writer’s block but you’ve seen it all. Really sorry. Am hoping to make it up to you guys with the next chapter which should be an appropriate dose of Dabiten fluff and angst. Our usual orders as a fandom, I suppose. 

Shoutout to kannra21, kerasion, novella12nite and avirabbit (I know there are others but I just remember these few of you, sorry! ><) for still sticking with this story despite everything. 

Really hope you liked this chapter despite the lack of Dabiten, but I felt that some fleshing out of the Geten Hawks relationship was needed. Because it is somewhat important to Geten’s character. It’s not like something bad is gonna happen, right? ._.

[descendant-of-truth]

So, just recently, I found got into Kid Icarus and found your blog! It's given me some amazing Pit and Dark Pit content to think about. Anyway, my question for you is: Besides the opening, do you think Pit and Dark Pit interacted in World of Light? How did Pit react when he woke up without him or Palutena? Was he the one to save Dark Pit? I like to think so, regardless of what I've seen a few people say. Sorry if you don't take Kid Icarus asks anymore, but I just needed to know!

Okay so first I just wanna say that I'm glad you liked my Kid Icarus posts! And even though it's been a while since I've posted about it, I still love the game a bunch. So, anyone can always send me asks about stuff I haven't posted about in a while!

Now, moving on to your question - the World of Light was a huge missed opportunity for character interaction all across the board. I understand that there are a lot more characters to juggle than there were in Brawl, and a fully realized story mode would be a lot more linear than the free-form world map that we got, but it just seems weird to have such a dramatic starting cutscene and then just... not continue with it.

I'm not gonna sit here and write an entire story mode, because that would be getting wildly off-track, but the game gives us just enough content to let us extrapolate how our angels are doing.

Starting with that first cutscene: we can see from the blue glow on their wings that Palutena is actually directing both of their flight paths, implying that she's improved her power of flight since Uprising. Possibly for this very purpose?

As she flies them off to safety, you can clearly see Pit looking back towards her - he clearly doesn't want to leave her behind, but it's not his choice to make. Even Dark Pit looks like his head is angled slightly towards her, but of course he doesn't show his feelings as obviously as Pit.

We all know what happens next. Palutena's barrier fails, she vanishes, and with her gone, our angels fall.

Poetically enough, Pit and Palutena end up being controlled by Galeem while Dark Pit is taken over by Dharkon. How Dharkon got ahold of people that Galeem took out is beyond me, but I'm not here to fix plot holes.

Pit is the first of the three to be rescued, and wouldn't you know it, he's found in a ruined Skyworld.

For him to wake up to see that his home has been destroyed again, with Palutena and Dark Pit nowhere in sight, saying that he'd be distressed is an understatement. The main thing keeping him together would be that he isn't alone - he has Kirby and whoever else he's rescued at this point.

(I personally like to think that the cast eventually divides into groups so that they can cover more ground because that map is huge and it would make for better storytelling)

Without his usual support group, I'd imagine that Pit would spend a lot of this journey being antsier than usual. He of course wants to save everyone, and pursues that goal with the same determination as always, but getting Palutena and Dark Pit back is personal. The same most likely goes for Viridi, whose Spirit he probably equips at all times. Can Spirits talk?? Because if they can, that would definitely alleviate some stress.

By the time Dharkon shows up, our heroes have scoured what looks to be a whole continent and then some, and still no angel or goddess in sight. At this point, Pit's gotta be pretty frustrated with his lack of progress, so he practically dives into the portal that Dharkon opens up.

Fun fact: Dark Pit is an absolute pain to unlock because he's found in the trickiest sub-map in the game. Which happens to be Dracula's Castle.

He's specifically on one of the rooftops, which tells me that the fight where Pit saves him would look amazing and it's one more reason why we deserved a proper story mode but whatever.

After so many trials and tribulations, Dark Pit is finally saved! This isn't a proper fanfiction so I don't have time to go over how great their reunion would be, but ideally there'd be a hug in there somewhere, maybe some banter amidst all the feels.

But Dark Pit has more important feelings than fluff to deal with at this point, like rage. Ironically enough, he was the only one of Ultimate's Kid Icarus trio to not get possessed during Uprising, and he's not exactly fond of it now. He made such a big deal over how he didn't want to be anyone's puppet, and now look at what happened.

(Pit can relate because wow, becoming a mindless slave to a god of light sure does hit close to home, doesn't it)

With their combined determination to rescue Palutena and defeat yet another pair of gods, the two of them aggressively tag-team their way through the rest of the story mode until they reach Palutena. Which just so happens to be during the final act of the game.

This wonderfully chaotic place is the battleground for Galeem and Dharkon. And Palutena is placed pretty close to the starting point, which means we'll get to have her around for the whole level! It's what she deserves after being separated for so long.

Now, the game mode itself doesn't let you do multiplayer (as far as I'm aware), but I say to heck with that, it's more narratively satisfying to have both angels save her.

This time around, we might not get hugs unless Palutena initiates it. Pit's too respectful and Dark Pit's not very affectionate to begin with. But the point is that they're finally together again, which means they get to be a triple threat.

Another fun fact: both angels would have been entirely grounded this whole time. They simply can't fly without Palutena's magic, which makes me wonder how many fights you could win without using their recovery move. But now that they can fly again?? Pure chaos.

The banter is in full swing with Palutena back, the entire Smash Bros roster is here with them, and somehow this goes better than the last time. Was there ever a plot explanation as to why? Who cares! I just wrote several hundred words about Kid Icarus again and that's all that really matters anyway

So, to summarize: Pit didn't do so great when he woke up without the others, he absolutely saved Dark Pit and they had many interactions, and they then proceeded to free Palutena together because that's just what makes the most sense with what we were given.

[pinchserveprince]

Favorite Songs: Kagehina Edition, Playlists included

I have four Kagehina playlists now, so I thought I’d share some of my favorite tracks on them, the lyrics that scream Kagehina, and the link to those playlists!

Ends of the Earth by Lord Huron

“Oh, there's a mountain that no man has mounted/I’m going to stand on the peak.... To the ends of the earth, would you follow me?”

“I was a-ready to die for you, baby/ Doesn’t mean I’m ready to stay/ What good is living’ the life you’ve been given/ If all you do is stand in one place?”

Fits the summit theme of their shared story and how volleyball is more important than anything else. It’s a shared journey, but I can also see how there's the fear that Hinata won’t catch up? 

Million Pieces by Bastille

“You blow my mind/It makes my heart beat... The king’s a clown/ No one is laughing, it’s not a drill/ Don’t look outside/ The world is ending/ Faster, faster, faster, faster, fast”

“If it’s gonna break me/ won’t you let me go?/ Leave it till the morning/ I don’t want to know”

This is like end of their high school partnership vibes. They know their lives are going different routes, even if the goal is the same as it always has been, but again, nothing is guaranteed 

Face My Fears by Utada Hikaru (JP version)

“Like I did in the beginning, I want to walk”

“Let me face my fears... The sea not found on my map isn’t far at all”

“I really want to meet my unknown self soon.”

Though this song is more self-reflective, we know the struggles Kageyama went through and the promise of meeting someone who he could continually sharpen himself against. But that person had to start at the very beginning. 

Turn by the Wombats

“I like the way your brain works, I like the way you try/ To run with the wolf pack when your legs are tired/ I like the way you turn me inside and out”

“I think I saw the world turn in your eyes”

We all know that these two have ways of thinking that just don’t click with other people. Hinata is always pushing and pulling and making Kageyama reevaluate his assumptions. 

I Wanna Be Yours by Arctic Monkeys

This whole song is just cringe-worthy metaphor one after another. When people think about Kagehina being romantic I laugh. I’m sure they would mean to be romantic, but it would be all comparisons and ideas that would only make sense to THEM.

You and Me by Attack! Attack! (UK)

“Far too long now I have been waiting/ Waiting for something just to happen/Far too long now I have been thinking/ I’ve been thinking you’ve got the answer to...”

“You and me aren’t thinking the same way/ And I’m so used to getting my own way/ That I’m burning us down tonight/ And I swear that no one is getting out of here alive.”

Peak Kagehina fight feelings. They spend so much time on the same wavelength, that when there is a difference of opinion, it explodes. 

Sidekick by Walk the Moon

“Why don’t you stay with me and be my sidekick?”

“We’re kissing on the kitchen floor/ our friendship up against the ropes/ and don’t you wonder why/the things you want are so hard to find?/ Well it just occurred to me/ The one that I need could be right here by my side?”

Risking a wonderful and fulfilling friendship for the chance to turn it into something even deeper, more vulnerable? At what point does friendship turn to love and do we always notice it?

Same Thing We Do Everyday, Pinky by Broadway

“Are you owned by your fears?/ What happened to the world that moved that moved so fast?”

“There’s nowhere to go but up from here”

“I’ve escaped this feeling/ It’s back and I know that it’s not right”

This song reminds me of how Hinata constantly pushes everyone he meets. Kageyama has the same expectations of others, even when it has been to his detriment. 

Sunlight by Hozier

“But whose heart would not take flight/ betray the moon as acolyte/ In first and fierce affirming sight/ Sunlight, sunlight, sunlight”

“All that was shown to me... was something foreknown to me... Oh your love is sunlight”

“Each day you’d rise with me/ Know that I would gladly be/ The Icarus to your certainty... Strap the wings to me/ Death trap clad happily/ With wax melted, I’d meet the sea.”

So this song is mostly from Kageyama’s perspective of having his world absolutely rocked by the star that is Hinata, but the Icarus part, I can see also being from Hinata’s perspective. Mainly because, compared to Kageyama, he stands a lesser chance of going professional and keeping the promise to stand on the top of the world with Kageyama

There are so many more songs, but these are the ones that stick out to me the most. Here are the links to the playlists!!

Soulmates

Chemical Reaction

Sunlight

To the Top

I’m addicted to making playlists, so like lmk if you want any specific haikyuu ship 

[gale-gentlepenguin]

Gale’s Top 10: Favorite Rivals

For this list, I will be picking my favorite Rival Character’s in Media. Video games, anime, manga, comics, etc.

Now the question is, What makes a character a rival?

For this list I will be making clarifications:

1. If one of the goals of one of the characters is to surpass another character, battle multiple times, state that this person is their rival, and/or have the same objective as a character but puts them in conflict.

2. Moral alignment doesn't mean anything. They can be friendly rivals or even hero/villain rivals as long as their main objective is to best their opponent.

3. Bonus points if the rival is equal in strength and find themselves on opposite sides.

4.There are differences between Archenemies and rivals. So likely Super villains, Like The Joker (who do exist to defeat batman, are more like nemesis rather then rivals).

5. One per franchise

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10. Dark Pit/ Pittwo ( Kid Icarus Uprising)

Dark Reflections are often seen as cliché when it comes to rivals, but I have a soft spot for this dark copy.

Dark Pit is a copy made by Pandora to be Pit’s equal and defeat him for the sake of the underworld. But the process of making him resulted in his obedience being... shattered.

Dark pit doesn't side with the underworld or Skyworld. He does his own thing and wants to be his own person. Even achieving unlimited flight for a brief period, making him superior to Pit.

Equal in strength, speed, power, and abilities. Dark pit is a pinnacle of dark copies. But he is even seen being more observant and smarter then Pit. Since he is more self reliant, he is shown to see things more objectively.

His connection to Pit is revealed that if Pit falls, He will fall as well. So it makes for an interesting dynamic that Dark pit wants to prove his superiority yet still bound to Pit. Which leads to an interesting dynamic.

(also if you have not played Kid Icarus Uprising, for the love of Palutena DO IT!)

9. Metal Sonic (Sonic the hedgehog)

Oh I can see the anger from the Shadow Fans. ‘Why did I pick Metal Sonic?’ ‘Why not Shadow?’ ‘Shadow and Sonic have more of a rivalry?’

Here is my response. Metal Sonic is Sonic’s greatest rival and vice versa.

Created by egg man to be Sonic’s equal, to learn and grow with each fight. Metal sonic always pushes Sonic to his limit.

There are even cases where Metal Sonic has Surpassed Sonic going so far as to have sonic need the help of others to best him.

His goal of defeating Sonic goes beyond programing. He will even find a way to break free of Eggman’s control just to achieve his goal of besting sonic.

Whether its the Comics, the games, movies. Metal Sonic is seen as Sonic’s most dangerous rival.

And proof? He is a character in the game Sonic Rivals! So that shows he is a rival of sonic.

Not to insult shadow, but the OG shadow wasn't focused on fighting sonic, he had his own goals and sonic just happened to be involved. While later renditions have him more of a vegeta knock off to sonic. I find these interpretations lame.

I also considered Scourge, but that would give acknowledgement to ken Penders and honestly I aint gonna do that.

_______________________________________________________________________

8. Sasuke Uchiha (Naruto/Naruto Shippuden)

Yes, cue the cliche gasps. Despite how obvious he was that he is on the list, it makes sense why he is here. His and Naruto’s dynamic is iconic. Best friends, rivals, enemies, brothers in arms.

The two went down two different paths, striving to surpass the other to achieve their dreams.

The main reason I put him on here is simple.

I could write several essays about why Sasuke is on this list, but that would be boring. You all know why he is here.

He is an iconic rival and that is a fact

_______________________________________________________________________

7. Kim Ban Phuong (Sun-Ken Rock)

Now I know what you are thinking. Who the f*** is this guy? Time for gale’s obscure pick.

And that is understandable, since this is a manga that wasn't made into an anime (despite DESERVING TO BE ONE) (though to be fair, it is MEGA DARK, a lot of messed up themes in this. Really nails how corrupt people can be)

A man that became a monster for the sake of surpassing Kitano Ken (the main character of the manga)

A man that was one of the only two people to have ever beaten the main character in a fight (and the only one to do so when the main character was trying to be a boss)

Formed an assassin guild to destroy Ken’s gang. 

The tragic backstory of this character is enough to give the reader the understanding on how he is Ken’s shadow. Why he is fighting against Ken so hard. All the way to the tragic end he faced. Something which I dare not spoil here.

The fight between him and Ken is nothing short of breath taking and this is written by the guy that did the Dr.Stone Manga.

Seriously, while the fan service can be grotesque at times, the plot of the story about Korean gangs, race relations and asian history are something to behold. The fact that its so underrated is a travesty. (but skip the idol arc, it does capture how messed up the entertainment industry can be.)

_______________________________________________________________________

6. Ryoga hibiki

The undisputed king of getting lost. The man of many misfortunes. The half piglet half man. Ryoga.

For those who have seen Ranma 1/2, What you see here is top tier best boy in the series.

If you go strictly by the anime, you would believe that he is a better match for akane (or Ranma depending on what side of the fandom you are on)

Ryoga puts Ranma as the focus of all the misfortune he has faced, he is mostly self taught and is acknowledged by Ranma as his only true rival.

When it comes down to it they are constantly on a seesaw on who is stronger. Despite all of the hardships, Ryoga does see Ranma in a friendlier light as the series goes on, even considering him a friend. They actually have helped each other on occasions, The manga showing times where Ranma tried to help Ryoga with his date with another girl. Or Ryoga putting his feelings for Akane aside to stop Brainwashed Ranma from marrying shampoo.

The back and forth between the two and the unspoken connection of having a jusenkyo curse has really made the two have a strong bond.

Ryoga deserves a spot on this list because of his strong character.

______________________________________________________________________

5. Henry Cooldown (No more Heroes)

For those of you unfamiliar with the series of No More Heroes, Henry is the Scottish Half-brother of the main protagonist. Cool, confident, a kick ass accent, and a masterclass assassin. He is the final boss of the first No More Heroes.

The rivalry between the two really takes head when the main character, Travis, finds out that this cool customer that stole his kill and saved his life was his half brother and wants to settle it in a duel to the death. Henry was a rival that was always one step ahead of Travis. Travis wants to bang Silvia, (the woman that set up the assassin ranking system) She was Henry’s Ex-wife. Travis wanted to be the number one assassin, Henry was the original number one. Travis has a beam Katana, Henry has one that looks even cooler.

In terms of the cool rival/ brother rival archetype, Henry Cooldown is the best fit, and he even helps travis out again in the sequel.

_______________________________________________________________________

4. Paul (Pokemon Diamond and Pearl)

For those of you that have seen the anime, You understand EXACTLY why Paul is on this list.

In Ash’s journey through Sinnoh, there was a Pokemon trainer that always seemed to one up Ash, no it wasn't Gary Oak, it was Paul.

But what made Paul so different? Why not pick Gary?

Paul was Ash’s antithesis.

Ash loved his Pokemon and battled with instinct and trust.

Paul evaluated his pokemon’s potential, he released any that failed to meet his standards. He was focused on attaining power and would use any means necessary to attain it.

He saw how his older brother failed, and refused to give up like his brother did. Paul wanted to prove himself better.

Ash saw Paul as a strong trainer but HATED the way he treated his own Pokemon. Ash even ended up asking Paul’s Chimchar to join his team after Paul abandoned it, which allows for a more dynamic clash in their beliefs.

Battle after battle, Paul kept proving better then ash, until the Sinnoh League tournament. Where they faced off in the quarter finals.

(Which is personally my favorite anime Pokemon battle of all time)

Ash gets to show Paul the importance of Loving and respecting one’s Pokemon. And that is pretty beautiful.

_______________________________________________________________________

3.Shego

Shall we talk about my favorite character in Kim possible? About time we had a lovely Lady rival on here.

Yes, we shall.

The former Super powered Hero turned Villain, the Number two of Dr. Drakken.

Shego is a self interested individual that loves to pamper herself and to do bad.

Whenever she is involved, it is guaranteed that she and Kim are going to be fighting.

The fights are always intense and always show the capabilities of both fighters. In a way Shego is a dark reflection of Kim.

Capable, sassy, fashionable, and a total threat to anyone that gets in her way.

Not to mention, (I TOTALLY WAS CRUSHING ON HER AS A KID)

Shego’s only reason for not being the most evil villain out there is simply because she couldn't care less about actually ruling the world, Not that she wouldn't do it if she had the opportunity (a stitch in time showed she totally would) She is just more relaxed, even willing to help Kim.

There is even an episode where Shego turned good and she and Kim got along legendarily.

When it comes to rivals, Shego’s got sass, class and can whoop ass.

______________________________________________________________________

2. Seto Kaiba (Yu-Gi-Oh!)

Don't act like you don't love this arrogant douche.

Seto Kaiba is one of the most iconic characters in Yu-gi-oh.

This Blue eyes dragon fetishist is the head of his own company and wants to prove that he is the greatest duelest in the world.

His obsession with besting the Pharaoh (Atem / Yami Yugi) is documented and the lengths he is willing to go.

He advanced the technology of the world so far just so he could find the long dead pharaoh who went back to his time/ spirit world and he nearly did it.

He even found a way to counter magic using technology.

Though despite his ego that could rival MOUNTAINS in size, Kaiba does care about his little brother mokuba, willingly sacrificing himself just to protect him. Even willing to put his life on the line to save him.

When it comes to showmanship, Seto Kaiba is number one, and likely the inspiration for EVERY BADASS ANIME OUTFIT TO EXIST

_______________________________________________________________________

1. Vegeta (Dragon ball Z and Dragon Ball Super)

When one thinks the word Rival, one man pops into my head. Bar none, the Prince of all Saiyans. Vegeta.

The prince of all Tsundere’s, the walking Napoleon complex. The genocidal warrior to defender of earth and father of two.

Vegeta’s goal was to be Number one, and Kakarot/ Goku is the one that stands in his way.

After Frieza’s defeat, Vegeta’s goal was to surpass Goku, to prove he is number one.

His actions and antics could hardly be considered good, not until the end of the Buu saga would he even be considered a good person.

But the reason why vegeta is number one is because of what happened during Super.

Vegeta has gained a LOT of character development during the sequel series. Especially in the super Manga.

Vegeta shows that he has grown to care about the planet that he has lived on, even feeling guilty of his actions back in the Namek saga, doing his best to make things right.

He still wants to beat Goku, but he has more reasons to fight then simply his pride.

Vegeta is arguably the most developed rival on this list.

There are other iconic rivals that could have hit number one, but Vegeta is the text book definition of Rival.

Thats why the Prince of all Saiyans is finally number one

[thelordstears]

Prepare for some dope ass writing guys gals and nonbinary pals!

“ If love is sinful, and who I am is unholy, then I'll be nothing more than myself.” - Camilla Davidson

“ He follows old scriptures and old fashioned standards of human decency, this is a whole new world, and he'll die on the wrong side of history, while I live on the side that's more loving, accepting, and stable.” - Camilla Davidson

"The human race hates, and hates, and got damn hates. But for what, really? Why hate when you could love instead? All hate does is make ya angry. But love? It hurts, it brings ya pain and sorrow. But it also gives ya peace, happiness and pride. And all those emotions mixed inta one make love, beautiful.” - Sofia Johnson

“ He was gettin' beaten up in some alley, a bunch of white folk decided his skin color, was more important than his humanity.” - Sofia Johnson

“ I am trapped by these memories, because they echo in my head, and I remember everything.. by God, I remember it all. The first time blood other than a fishies stained my hands, the way Caityln'd hold my hand, the way bodies splashed in the seas and the whir of cannon and explosion rang in my head.” - Augustus Seaborg

“ I'm scared, because in this new world, it kill or be killed, fight or die. I raise my weary fists, if only just to survive another day. Because this isn't life, it is survival of the most broken.” - Augustus Seaborg

“ He's everything to me, he's so intertwined into my heart and soul, I imagine he's part of who I am. We're beautifully us, in all our imperfection, we found perfection.” - Malachi Razor

“ Strength isn't in how many pounds you can lift, or how big your muscles are, true strength, is in the heart and mind.” - Malachi Razor

“ As they've always said, violence for violence is the rule of beasts, so does that make war a battlefield, or hunting grounds?” - Burke Castles

“ The leaders start war, but never pull a single trigger. They watch their pawns and brooks move across the board, we never had a King or a Queen, just ourselves and our sins.” - Burke Castles

"I'm the damned priest, the forgotten messiah, I'm just another man. How can you fault me for the sins of another? How can you condemn me, for what I did not do?” - Gusto Mellowrich

“ People use God as an excuse to slaughter, they say they shalt die on the cross for their sins, and don't realize driving nails against the condemned only drives nails into their coffins and secures their place in Hell.” - Gusto Mellowrich

“ I find so much damnation on this Earth, because if this is Earth, by God do I fear Hell.” - Gusto Mellowrich

“ People say God is dead, that his grave is up in the Heavens and he's rotting in his golden throne, but if God was dead, I believe it wouldn't rain. Because it is my belief, that it rains because God weeps for us, he weeps for what has happened. And weeps for what is to come." - Gusto Mellowrich

"Life either kicks you down, or you don't allow yourself to fall.” - Icarus Richens

“ My dear brother has fallen far, he believes his wings clipped, his honor stolen, but if he simply climbed, and took my hand, he would find salvation is for the sinners of this world, which in theory means salvation is for everyone.” - Icarus Richens

“ Gregory is a soldier, he stands sturdy, smelling of ash and smoke, because he let the fires of love build him anew. He is a phoenix, not of light nor darkness, but of love in all of it's grace.” - Icarus Richens

"Even God, sins on the occasion.” - Alastair Sambridge 

“ People walk this earth and call themselves saints whilst sinning just under the nose of the people, we've allowed the commandments to be re-written, where in the commandments did it say, "Steal from the rich?" where in the commandments did it say, "Let the rich steal?" And where in the commandments did it say, "Be sinful as long as it's for a good cause?" - Alastair Sambridge 

“ You believe God loving? If any ruler in history was loving nothing would happen. Imagine what would've happened if George Washington fought violence with peace. We'd still be shackled by Britain, so tell me why it is you wish me to fight your sin, with holiness?" - Alastair Sambridge

"Ain't it the most wonderful thing, bein' able ta break a man and give ta yourself? The Hell's morals doin' in a world that don't give a fuck what happens? It'll tear ya down, push ya down several flights 'a damn stairs, the world is fucking cruel, ya gotta be just as cruel ta survive it.” - Gunther Mirowick

“ I'm only alive because other's aren't.” - Gunther Mirowick

"Isn't it better to sacrifice your life for a good cause rather than die for nothing? I imagine no cause is worth killing for, there's only causes worth dying over, and love, is something to die for.” - Vekel Kidelman

“ Love is what makes us human, the lack of it often creates monsters.” - Vekel Kidelman

"This blackhole in my mind would destroy anyone who dare stepped forth to walk into it's depths, so imagine what's happened to me, wandering inside of it every day.” - Daniel Abacross

“ Knowledge is a weapon, and I've allowed mine to pull triggers and create a cacophony of suffering and the demises of those who didn't deserve death.” - Daniel Abacross

“ I learn this world is a brutal place to live, the killings of innocent men and women is commonplace, but I survive, and when you survive such tormented things you become the very things that tormented you.” - Isiwoah Sakigowami

“ We are not in control of destiny, but at least I'm in control of yours.” - Isiwoah Sakigowami

“ I live by no moral code, because when one is in power, morals only allow the crown to be stolen from atop your head by he who's willing to cut it from your neck.” - Isiwoah Sakigowami

"To live is to die, so might you allow yourself life, so you may experience death?” - Will

“ I have found such a cold heartbeat inside my chest, I believe if one were to perform an autopsy on me, they'd find a hollow ribcage and strings attached to my heart, played like a violin, it may sound beautiful, but the meaning behind the melody is sinful. They'd find the coldest of blood and it'd flow the color of the night sky, except when my soul is involved, the night sky is starless.” - Will

“ My pain shaped me into a beast, and I'll never find the strength to put myself down, because I am no hunter, simply a scared child, trapped inside the mind of a wilder beast he once would've imagined was so fantastical that he could ride it into the sunset. But with the lenses of childhood innocence removed he sees it's bloodstained lip, it's teeth cracked and stuck between each one flesh of a fresh kill, it's eyes crazed with hunger, he'd find nothing but a wild beast, the hint was within the name wilder beast, because it twas simply a beast wilder than any other.” - Will

“ I've learned knowledge is power, but it can be misused dare one use it to harm another. If you use knowledge as a weapon, you've already failed.” - Lola Crabthorn

"If this is what it's like to feel alive, than bury me low. Sink the coffin into the hallowed soil, toss dirt upon my grave and etch my name upon the tombstone, and let this girl finally rest in peace.” - Malarie Cavafich

“ I've grown so cold on this journey to find home, they say home is where the heart is, but perhaps my heart is in so many pieces I can't possibly find home. I've pulled a trigger so many times, I simply believe I can never be whole, because I've stopped the heart beat of so many other's, I ask why mine deserves to beat for another.” - Malarie Cavafich

"Live your life fearin' change, you'll fear yourself in da futcha'. But if ya learn ta embrace change, ya ain't gon' fear da futcha', because da unknown ain't so scary when ya learn if life was predictable, it wouldn't be worf' livin'.” - Daurice Marston

“ I'm nothing to my mind but a meat sack of rotting intention.” - Faymelina Van Patten

“ Though revenge didn't help, I still see him in my nightmares, perhaps he's a haunting now. A poltergeist in my mind who throws my mental state about and crashes around the halls of my mind, creating a ricochet of death and eternal sorrow.” - Faymelina Van Patten

“ Though I wield a spear as a warrior, my heart beats that of a woman who wishes to see only peace, and sadly, peace has to be fought for.” - Nova Toria

“ The meaning of life is different for every soul, for one it might be dancing underneath the stars with the one they love, for another it could be solitude. For some the mind is most keen when surrounded by others, but for others the mind is most keen when surrounded by only their ideas.” - Nova Toria

“ You don't have to fall into the arms of another, you can catch yourself if you wish.” - Nova Toria

“ Just because something can kill, does not mean that is it's only use.” - Morgan Gaskill

"Days come and go, I keep each memory close to my tattered heart, because if I forget the little moments, I forget life.” - Journey Castlehill

“ I don't quite identify with any of the norms people have set in stone, and if people hate me for that, they aren't worth my time. They're stuck in a construct, and refuse to dig themselves out.” - Journey Castlehill

"The rule of predator and prey, the dance of gnashing teeth and ragged fur, a melody of naturality and sinful desire. Thus is the rule of life, a song of gnashing jaw and flowers of misery bloomed from sinfulness so deep not even a God could wipe it from existence.” - Ranbraker

“ She's my hero, really. Even if she's my little sister, she kept me safe from my demons, and I'll always keep her safe from her demons. We've both suffered, both thought who we were is wrong, but you know what? Screw that. If being who I am is a sin, I'll be a sinner. Because I'd rather burn in Hell for being who I am, then enter Heaven being who I'm not.” - Tristy Hem

“ In all my pain, in all my scars, I find hope. Because I still have people I need to find, people I love with all my heart.” - Hailey Fellwitz

“ Be the author of your own story, and remember, not every page is one with pain written upon it. There's peace, too. Fight for your happily ever after." - Hailey Fellwitz

"I've been drowning in the depths of my shattered soul, gulping in false promises and empty threats. And yet here I am, searching for myself when other people is all I've found.” - Tina Diamon

“ People say love is a double edged sword, but that's because you love the wrong people. If you find the right person, love isn't a sword, it's a shield.” - Tina Diamon

“ A love so beautiful can not be destroyed, though the world has tried to tear us apart, it only brought us closer together.” - Tina Diamon

“ They say what's done in the dark shalt be dragged into the light, but I'll only come into the light when I will it so. And when the sun soaks my bones, and light is all you can see, I'll grip my club and let it be the sinking of the sun, cuz when I lower it, you lower a damn coffin.” - Luga the Hidden

“ Us orcs aren't treated so well, so I think it's about time I showed em the monster they damn well created. Because here I am, nothing but claws, teeth and crimson.” - Luga the Hidden

“ I can be vile, I can be a monstrosity, and people'll blame it on my heritage.” - Luga the Hidden

"When you're broken down to nothing, and find yourself mourning all that you've lost, remember what you have. I've been stuck in the past before, but I found there's always a rope, whether it be one of love or hope.” - Thorballa Ulfdottir

“ You have to be careful, when you're in a dark place. Because your decisions could lead you straight to your demise, the path to Hell is paved in bad deeds, don't follow it.” - Thorballa Ulfdottir

"My mind is so filled with ghosts of me you could walk into it and find only a graveyard, every tombstone reading my name, and the name's of those I've slain.” - Sheriff ~~Redacted~~ (Can’t say his name, it’s a twist and my twin sister follows my Tumblr)

“ I hear a blood curdling howl on the wind and I come to the haunting realization that it came from my own throat.” - Sheriff ~~Redacted~~

“ This life, it'll throw you through the ringer and then some, but what matters is that you rise like the champion you are.” - Vasiliki Mathers

“ Family is made up of loyalty, not blood.” - Vasiliki Mathers

“ I've spilt so much damn blood that it's just another habit these days, one trigger pulled, one man dead and one bullet torn through the got damn sky.” - Oswega Creek

“ Ya'll sip on regret as if it were a cure ta your damn sinfulness. But regret can't change the damn past, it only changes the future. But when you decide ya don't wanna live in regret you keep pullin' the damn trigger and watching bullets tear through the sky on burnin' wings and bloodied talons.” - Oswega Creek

“ You better tell the whole world Oswega Creek is coming home, because peace is an option better left in the past and harsh words are best left unsaid lest you wish to end up in a pinewood box with nuthin' but the wrigglers ta give ya company.” - Oswega Creek

"Life ain't all dat bad, ya focus on da shade unda' da tree, ya'll miss da branches dat provide it. Ya can't focus on da bloodshed 'a nature when bird's sing songs just fo' da soddin' world ta 'ear.” - Daisy Gloria

"I know, you'd think a gal like me would have a pitch perfect life like in a shitty comedy movie, but that isn't the case, ya see perfect lives reside in the land of fairy tales and fantasy, while I live in the gritty reality of this bizarre world, life is a bumpy fucking ride, and you better hope you can hold onto those reigns, because sometimes you get bucked off and fall, and sometimes you fucking stay there." - Mary Adler

"Oh if they thought they'd seen the end of days, just wait til they see what happens when they utter the word, "No." - Javier Cross

"The hope of morning can't come if your mind is stuck in the night." - Dale Markus

"I hide in the shade of my deeds, but you, my friend, will lay underneath the shade of a willow." - Edgalzio Halvlies

"I'll sip on this regret as if it were a cure to the disease of my past. But all it'll ever do is poison me." - Chase North

"Jou can regret jour actions, but jou can not change zem." - Marlene Dayvrack

"The echoes of death and tragedy ring in my ears. But it's not my own." - Autumn Wolfmoon 

  "Sin only intensifies when the whole world is set ablaze and all ya got left is the echoes 'a normality." - Davy Blight 

"Reckon we do what it is we always do. Sin as if our lives depended on it, cuz these days, the do." - Davy Blight 

“ You’ll see Hell, it ain’t no man with red skin and a pitchfork, it’s me in all my vengeful rage.” - Davy Blight

"You touch 'im I swear ta every God I'll send you their way fuckin' howling!" - Davy Blight

 "Life don't get that much betta' these days. It's a symphony of broke bones and spilt blood, only difference 'tween you and me is, you're the one singin' the damn song, I'm the one echoing the harp." - Lind Blight 

  "Life ain't a constant state of kill or be killed. There's peace, you just have to fight to achieve it." - Cago Envers 

 "The truth is suffocating. It's why I breathe in a lie." - Sam Dellwotfire

  "I could burn alive within the hatred of my family tree and still I wouldn't find peace." - Rover Calico 

"You know, I'd be who I am if it ever did me any good." - Drew Dreadful 

"All I've ever been is scared, and in this new world, fear only kills everyone but you." - Drew Dreadful 

  "The sky bleeds golden, yet my scars bleed black, and the color of my skin, is but the troubled sin within." - Sandro Colorfeid 

"It ticks the wrong direction, because it is damaging itself in the process of working how it was built to operate." - Gregeno Puley 

  "Ben you live in a family of heroes. Will you become one by circumstance, or will you become one the hard way?" ~~Redacted~~ (Another case of my twin would see his name)

"No one can become me, Ben. Only I hold such a torment." - ~~Redacted~~

"My curse will only be the death of you." - ~~Redacted~~

 "That's where you're wrong, Ben. I am fate, I am the law, I am peace, I am chaos, I am everything, Ben. you're nothing but a speck, whilst I'm the sun." - ~~Redacted~~

"Stars can only be destroyed if they implode upon themselves, and thus I chose to implode so I could destroy the darkness I had found." ~~Redacted~~

"You're so covered in the blood of wolves you think you are one." ~~Redacted~~

"You want to be a leader, step on the podium and speak to your subjects. You want to be a King sit on the throne and wear the crown, you wish to be a subject sit still and listen. But if you want to be a God, show people that resisting your dynasty is a death sentence and all you have to do is snap your fingers to rid yourself of their treacherous ways."  ~~Redacted~~

"They say we aren't our sins, but here I am, nothing but death." - Arthur Wellburn

"I looked Hell in the eyes and all I saw was myself." - Betty Shalfien

"You look evil in the eye, you begin to get a taste for it." - Destallo Starend

"Sometimes secrets are best untold, because when something's too awful for this world it is best erased from time entirely rather then brought to the light." - Yuntara

"Don't walk the path you're given, find a different way, cuz often if someone hands ya a path, and tells you ta walk it, they've got tricks up their sleeves. And they ain't card tricks." - Church Godsel

"Mr. Bundy! Killa' of men! You think you got the damn balls ta take on three devil's? Cuz I'm tellin' you now, you can slay men, but you damn well can't slay legends." - Saul Northutt

"You don't know what I've done in the dark, but unfortunately for you, it hails in comparison to what I'll do in the light." - Corvenstain Bonstellos

"I never pulled you down, Idian, your life was Hell before our destinies intertwined. I could see it in your eyes, the mark of a broken soldier, what was your battle Idian?" - Corvenstain Bonstellos

"Get off the tracks, boy. This is a revolution, and you're in our damn way. Do you wish to be a splatter across the tracks or the conductor?" - Corvenstain Bonstellos (Props go to my twin for the beginning of the line, a callback to what her character said)

"Abel! Your ambition is what's going to kill you in the end." - Corvenstain Bonstellos

"To some, I am life, to other's I am death. It is up to you what end of the blade you receive. The hilt, or the sword." - Raimundus Wolfes

"If the holy spirit were to ever meet me, his name would be tarnished." - Caldwell Ramirez

"Hunting is an art and you're a canvas to be splattered red." - Luther Woolhaun

"The hunt is all about what you do with the prey, how you stalk them and how you execute them. The hunt is a sport, an art, a masterpiece that smells of gunpowder and the tangy scent of iron." - Luther Woolhaun

"All I find in myself is the blood of those deemed weaker than me by the rule of sword." - Violincia Bloodwort

“The pits are me only 'ome. Me 'eart 'as resided 'ere fo' da longest time, and now all it beats is a thirst fo' more." - McCannon Bowitsend

"All it takes to ruin a life is one bullet. But all it took to make mine a glory to behold, was one bullet." - Ewan Hanstammer

"I'd say I'm lost in daydreams, but those are just an echo, these days." - Hanzo Sabian

"I slipped from the edge of my own ignorance." - Pedro Bonfire

“A man who spreads violence is remembered, a man who doesn’t, isn’t. It’s the curse of a hero.” - Miella Fang

"Crumble? We all did that fifteen years ago, we're the rubble of judgment day fighting amongst ourselves, difference between me and most people is, I've been fighting for scraps since I was ten. I'm fit for battle. What about you?" - Scow Wiston

[lev1than]

10 Famous Inventions that were the particular culmination regarding other people’s work

An unclean (yet open) secret regarding innovation is most wonderful breakthroughs seldom happen due to a single only genius.

Whereas history is rife with stories with famous inventors, who are generally national game characters, in almost every event they were just the first reduce weight improve a preexisting system to your final level where the item achieved muscle appeal.

Imagine how research discoveries with hundreds of years in the past inspired the works for subsequent ages of professionals.

Or what sort of iPod changed personal song thanks to the actual combination of advancement in the despropósito fields about digital favorite songs compression, hard drive miniaturization, affordable ARM microprocessors and other sorts of technological innovations.

1. Galileo and the telescope

Even while Galileo is normally credited having devised the main telescopes, there was actually a good Dutch individual called Hans Lippershay who had been making addition devices making use of the ever bettering qualities of glassmaking at the moment.

Allegedly, Galileo heard about all these and chosen to build his personal, even generating some changes in the process. Having been also the first person to work with these brand-new optics being a scientific musical instrument, which is where his true value was initially added.

2. James Watt and the steam engine

While I was in secondary school, my scientific research teacher thought it was funny individuals “What was the name of the man who seems to invent the particular steam website? ” Very funny, because “Watt” was the reply, so the problem was a fashionable statement.

Merely steam applications predated Watt’s design just by almost 58 years. Brit Thomas Savery patented the very first steam serps design for 1698, to take out water from coal fosse. Subsequently, Jones Newcomen superior the design to function at atmospheric pressure, of which became the normal design for concerning 50 years.

Watt’s real advancement was building the program with an independent condenser, which made the full process now more efficient.

3. Eli Whitney and the cotton gin

During periods of captivity in the USA, Georgia predominantly expanded cotton that had quicker fibers. The didn’t are very effective with the products at the time which usually tried to take away seeds on the fibers (roller gins), plus required a great deal of manual job. So the point out of Ga sponsored a good engineering force to come up with an improved design.

Whitney improved within the roller gins by updating the sturdy rollers by using wire your teeth.

While this drastically improved manufacturing ability with regard to cotton, this also had typically the sad complication of increasing the requirement for slaves to a fella the career fields.

You may also interesting in invention ideas

4. Elisha Otis and the elevator

Equipment capable of working out with people straight into tall architectural structures has endured since the early Egyptians. And since the industrial wave and the regarding cities triggered taller homes being designed, people started to be tired of being forced to climb various flights associated with stairs. And so elevators had been invented, applying either steam or power engines which often pulled uplifts with ropes.

However, rules have a tendency to bust. And even having an elevator just one or two stories excessive, if the rope broke so you plummeted while using carriage it will result in no less than severe personal injury, if not the loss of life.

Otis truly invented the safety break, which will stop often the elevator through crashing when it was initialized by quick falling every time a rope got destroyed. This took off a major potential for death coming from buildings tall than several stories and even spurred around the building in the first skyscrapers.

5. Thomas Edison and the light bulb

It's perhaps the most popular invention in recent history, and its sign actually sums up the concept of a notion.

And yet, Youngsters Edison didn’t invent the sunshine bulb. Not necessarily the wine glass bulb, or perhaps the glowing filament inside it. They merely better the previous styles to the point that they can become otc practical, in 1880.

The initial electric light product, called a great Arc-Lamp, was made by Humphry Davy with regards to 78 decades before in which but did not last long together with was too bright. Throughout 1850, Ernest Swan has seen that carbonized paper was much better stuff for a filament and put to use them to help make light bulbs. But he could not get the design to be more effective or durable.

After furthermore experimentation, both equally Swan and Edison uncovered subsequently more beneficial materials, and ultimately their a pair of companies amalgamated to market most of their new improved upon design jointly, though most of the people only recall Edison.

6. Guglielmo Marconi and the Radio

In the 1890s, both Marconi and Nikola Tesla have been fighting to formulate the radio. Tesla actually got more of the beginning patents to the technology. Still, the initial treasure of electromagnetic radiation was actually made seven years earlier by German researcher Heinrich Hertz, who was capable to both broadcast and acquire radio swells in his research laboratory.

However, the guy couldn’t imagine any sensible applications regarding his knowledge.

It was after Marconi who has been able to acquire all these technological innovations and switch them perfectly into commercial merchandise.

7. Henry Ford and the car

Honda released the exact Model Testosterone levels in 1908, and it is the first auto to gain block market elegance and good results at a time any time many people nonetheless traveled through the horse.

Nonetheless, the car while powered simply by an internal combustion engine was really created by Karl Benz within 1885, and many other engineers, therefore, improved about the design for greater efficiency, coziness performance.

Precisely what Ford reached was improve production technique of the machine. Her assembly line advanced production productivity significantly, slashing the cost of every single unit for a price point in which people could possibly actually have the funds for it.

8. The Wright Brothers and the airplane

Teens have been hoping to see flight intended for eons. Via Leonardo Kc Vinci’s sketches of hovering machines to story regarding Icarus, many people desired to clear themselves on the shackles involving gravity.

And then the Wright Brothers were not really the only people of their time to try and establish a machine competent at powered airline flight.

George Cayley was the first person to move via designs regarding flapping similar to birds towards a “fixed wing” design. Yet another engineer referred to as Otto Lilienthal then implemented a lot of those models to create genuine gliders through fixed wings and examining them, putting together a lot of files which the Wright Brothers would likely subsequently usage.

Additionally, the very Wright Siblings were able to implement another the latest invention within the time: the internal combustion algorithm from vehicles. They were all-around at just the right age when this kind of became offered.

Their real innovation was a student in their patterns which authorized their planes to actually always be steered as well as controlled. And also rest is usually history.

Also, check out: invention help

9. Philo Farnsworth and the TV

An excellent sort of an invention that had been only probable thanks to quite a few other pioneering technological advances across market sectors.

Farnsworth had the ability to take the trends of the cathode ray tubing (by Ferdinand Braun) and also combine them with an approach to scan graphics using electrons which the person apparently started out thinking of inside high school.

This design likewise outperformed other competing TV SET technology at that moment: mechanical TELEVISION SET.

10. Bill Gates and the Graphical User Interface

Beginning computer systems were being primarily command-line driven, this means you had to know every one of the inputs for you to type right keyboard in order to the machine that which you wanted it all to do.

A lot of people credit Roshan Windows utilizing introducing the globe to the Gui (GUI), which you could use a rabbit to just click on-screen materials to tell it again what to do, making the whole course of action much more simple.

However, much of the progress throughout GUI growth happened very much earlier. Some sort of pioneer was basically Douglas Engelbart, who exhibited an Operating System which has a mouse pointer in 1968. This plan was subsequently taken up by simply Xerox, exactly who released their valuable Alto pcs which were the 1st with a duck and GUI.

As figures go, Apple’s Steve Work opportunities saw an Alto when visiting Xerox’s PARC study center along with inspired him or her to make sure the main Apple Macintosh personal computer would have some GUI, the initial mass-market GUI computers. This unique then flat the way to the even more business-focussed Intel Windows Main system, which got the idea absolutely mainstream.

[theunusuallysuspect]

Broken and Whole

https://archiveofourown.org/works/21314665

Chloe was brave… or Chloe was reckless.

At times it was hard to tell.

It was easy to seem brave when consequences were an abstract concept in a foreign tongue that she had yet to learn.

Somehow, whether by sheer dumb luck, or her parents’ and Max’s efforts to temper her wildest flights of fancy into something more reasonable, if not entirely safe, the pain of consequences had yet to leave their mark on her life.

With the beautiful naivety of youth, she fought her parents for the freedom of the skies while they desperately tried to tether her to the ground in the hope they could keep her from flying too close to the sun.

With Max, it was different.

A word from Max could stop her mid flight and call her back to earth, for it was no fun soaring through the clouds if her best friend, her first mate, was too scared to enjoy the height.

Together they were more than the sum of their parts, they balanced each other’s extremes.

Where Chloe’s eyes scoured the endless horizon of possibility, seeking adventure in the unknown, Max’s were drawn to the treacherous depths below; to the reefs and rocks that would sink, the waves that would capsize and the monsters that lurked in the deep, waiting to swallow them whole.

Together they managed to keep their ship afloat, to navigate through danger and adventure alike.

But then everything changed.

Chloe’s blessed run of luck ran out, and instead of learning about consequences by a thousand small bruises, scrapes and cuts, she was sliced open in one huge gash. A cut to the bone that bled and bled and bled.

Too many hours on the road and a red light not seen was all it took for a truck to end a life and shatter more.

Her father’s death left her in so many pieces that she feared she would never again be whole. But she knew deep down that with enough time and her first mate beside her, they could stitch her back together. Sure, it would be bloody and messy, but eventually she would fine.

Not satisfied with one loss, fate twisted the knife and tore Max away on the day of William’s funeral, right when she needed her most.

From casket, to car, to Seattle; Max left.

Without Max, her gaping cut weeped and festered, poisoning the air with the vitriolic bile of a teenager that had lost too much, too soon, all at once.

Their ship had foundered and Chloe was adrift, cut off from their haven where the future was bright and anything seemed possible. Instead she was gasping and tumbling and desperately trying to stay afloat in the turbulent high seas where she knew with terrible certainty that anything was possible.

Chloe was reckless… or Chloe was brave.

It was easy for moments of bravery to seem reckless when consequences were no more than a possible end to suffering.

While Chloe didn’t intend to invite Death to dinner, if they tapped on the door with their scythe, she would welcome them in. It wasn’t that she had a death wish, she was death indifferent at best, or at worst; take your pick. She could be or not be. Whatever.

She trudged through the days with an air of cold apathy only those with nothing left to lose could project.

Each morning, she armoured herself with torn clothes and spikes, and wrapped herself in barbed words and murderous looks to keep others from crawling under her skin and into her heart.

Better to be alone than to open yourself to loss.

But no one can block out the sun.

Rachel Amber swept into her life; a radiant star burning bright. And for once, Chloe didn’t have to strive like Icarus; the sun came to her. She was soaring. Her long winter gave way to spring. The feelings she’d numbed, kept frozen in thick glacial ice, thawed and flooded all at once.

Rachel Amber brought Chloe light. She brought fire and passion and purpose; a reason to get out of bed, a reason to hope. In return, Chloe gave her heart.

But like the sun, Rachel brought light to many. She collected hearts like jewellery. Like charms on a bracelet, or earrings or beads on a necklace.

She was the wind, free and wild. She danced through lives like a tempest, whirling and scattering and flinging hearts to the far corners of the earth, leaving lives in chaotic disarray. She didn’t mean to, it was just who she was.

Rachel was never meant for just one person, and the more Chloe grasped, the quicker she slipped through her hands.

Then, one day she was gone.

Chloe wasn’t reckless, she wasn’t brave. She wasn’t much of anything for a while.

She was consumed by loss and uncertainty. Surely Rachel wouldn’t leave without her, without so much as a goodbye. Surely.

She latched onto that thought with the tenacity of an animal fighting for its life. She was fighting for her life. Rachel was everything and Chloe was desperate with a grief she dared not name as such for fear she would somehow manifest what she feared most.

She threw herself into the search for Rachel with a single mindedness that put shame to the lacklustre efforts of Rachel’s family and Arcadia Bay’s finest Prescott lapdogs in blue.

When Rachel disappeared, she took with her a piece of Chloe and left behind a new void to join those left by William and Max. Though the three never met in life, they held hands in Chloe’s heart, a paper chain of loss cut from the fabric of Chloe’s love.

She felt like she was more void than human, like she was falling, tumbling endlessly through the dark nothingness of space, collapsing into the vacuum within.

Chloe was empty, until she wasn’t.

Until the unexpected happened. Until a part of her that she’d given up all hope of ever seeing again returned home.

Max wasn’t light, she wasn’t a blazing sun of fire and passion. But that was ok. Chloe still bore the scars from her dance with a star, she didn’t need more.

Max was the smell of pancakes in the morning, the warmth of a soft blanket on a cold winter’s night. She was the laughter of a pun so bad it came full circle back to good, she was the comfort of hot cocoa in the fall and the satisfying crunch of leaves underfoot. She was the salt in the air and the wind in her sails.

But most of all, Max was her home.

And Chloe was brave, and reckless and everything in between. She was empty and full and broken and whole.

But most of all, she was alive. Alive in a way that she hadn’t been since their ship first ran aground. The day childhood ended, when rose-tinted glass shattered and the world was revealed to be ugly and vile.

She wasn’t ok, but neither was Max and that was alright. Rachel was gone and so was the town, but they were together. That was what mattered. They were more than the sum of their parts once again. Together they could mend themselves and each other and one day, when their wounds had closed and the scabs had fallen, one day, they would be able to share their hearts.

[archivesdiveronarpg]

Congratulations, VIC! You’ve been accepted for the role of BENVOLIO. This was an incredibly difficult decision for me to make because both apps we received for Benvolio were amazing. But they both captured such different sides of him, that my heart was torn in two. There is a certain tragedy, though, that I had never really thought of when it came to Benvolio. He’s affected by the war in a way that no other character is -- and Vic, you brought that vision up so vividly that I felt as if I couldn’t deny you. I cannot wait for what Benvolio will bring to the table. Welcome to Diverona!  Please read over the checklist and send in your blog within 24 hours.

                                                                            WELCOME TO THE MOB.

Out of Character

Alias | Vic

Age | 18

Preferred Pronouns | They/them

Activity Level | I’m rather busy Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, but am freer on the other days of the week! My activity level’s probably at an 8/10.

Timezone | EST, most of the time- CST during breaks.

In Character

Character | Benvolio ; Bellamy Santo Domingo

What drew you to this character? | In the play, Benvolio was coincidentally present for many of the conflicts between the Montagues and the Capulets, and he tries to diffuse most of the fights he encounters. He’s a peacemaker and brutally honest in recounting various situations, rather than being even the slightest bit biased to his own side. His name literally means ‘good will’, but I wanna’ see him written as something other than a typical doormat character (his yearning for peace doesn’t make a difference in the end), as he’s kinda’ portrayed as the classic nice guy in the play. I really want to play a man who’s stuck between the shackles of filial piety and loyalty to his family and his own dreams and desires. Essentially, he’s a martyr-type character; perhaps not the kinda’ martyr where he dies for the cause, but he gave up his freedom and dreams in order to serve the family and that’s also a kind of slow death. I see him as a gentle person; in any situation he’d first attempt to work things out by talking, but he’s also not regretful for resorting to violence if the other party tries to harm those he considers family. He’s a tragic character, but he also doesn’t seem to show it. He’d gladly give up everything for his family, but what happens when the desires of the famiglia are in conflict with his own morality?

What is a future plot idea you have in mind for the character? |  I’d like to see Benvolio struggling between what is right and what is easy. (Perhaps not even he knows which is which.) He deeply values his family and the bonds that he creates with other people, but he’s not a mindless soldier: his desires for flight and peace are deeply rooted into him. Where other people might’ve become demons and conquerors when faced with violence at such a young age, he grew up to be a pacifist. However, given the nature of his upbringing, I’d like to think that he wouldn’t shy away from violence either, when the situation calls for it. There’s this heavy burden on his shoulders, multiplied by each person he’s ever killed. Perhaps he views death as a mercy, and perhaps he yearns for something <i>more</i> than just mindless violence.

I. Bellamy might look upon the Three Witches of Verona with something that’s less akin to awe than it is to envy and wonder; they don’t <i>need</i> to fight, and that’s something he’s always hungered for. Let none say that Bellamy isn’t ambitious, that avarice and want hasn’t been bred into him, for he <i>burns</i> for the possibility of peace. The Witches are held above the petty fights of the Capulets and Montagues; they’re the closest thing to peace he knows. I’d like to see him seeking them out, with full knowledge that they might only deign to toy with him, but wanting to secure an alliance with them nevertheless. Not for their power, for though his words are silken and soothing, he’s not a manipulative person in such a way. (sometimes he fears for the day when he must use his words in a more poisonous fashion.) He simply would like to know how they view peace and how they achieved such a goal. Perhaps he desires friends who he doesn’t need to speak of war to. It’s a far-fetched dream, he knows, but he’d undertake the self-assigned mission nevertheless. It would be in secret, for if he succeeds, he would not want to be torn in half by duties and freedom again. (when has want of friendship become a piece to be played?)

II. Roman’s his Boss, and any other person’d probably try and use that brotherly bond between them for their own gain. Bellamy, however, may only hint at his desire for Roman to be more peaceable in his dealings with the Capulets; said family might think it to be a weakness, and Bellamy has no desire to make things even harder for Roman. On his days off, he might try and make friendly acquaintances with neutral players, or perhaps even other famiglia members who’re more receptive to cordial overtures. What happens if he has to fight them, though?

III. I see Bellamy as an existentialist, and thus as a student of that particular school of thought, he believes that “…the individual can choose. He is inevitably committed in a situation or a certain social and historic context. But in any event, we undertake, and we engage our responsibility because our freedom is total. Even the one who refuses to act, or to undertake, chooses. His retreat, his “abstention” are still forms of actions, or choices. The man doesn’t escape his freedom, and his responsibilities. ‘’The man is condemned to be free”, which can seem paradoxical”. I want to see him struggle in killing someone; he returned to Verona, the bloody cesspool, after four years of freedom and travel. Inevitably, he cannot blame the act of killing a person on another circumstance or person; it will all fall upon his shoulders. I want to see him struggle with knowing full well that he ended a life- and that in choosing to end a life, he also snuffed out a being of infinite potential. Death is final, and how would he deal with that?

In Depth

The following THREE questions must be answered in-character, and in para form (quotations, actions written out if applicable, etc). There is no minimum or maximum limit for your response - simply answer as you would were you playing the character.

What is your favorite place in Verona?

Heavy lashes feather across the slant of his eyes as the lounging male allows a slow breath to fill his lungs. There is a small smile playing around the corner of Bellamy’s mouth, even as his gaze cuts through dark cillia at an angle. His head tilts just the slightest bit, and lightly chapped lips part in order to let a thoughtful tenor ripple through the air. “I suppose it’s sitting on the Castelvecchio Bridge,” he muses, dark irises absently laced with self-directed amusement. “It’s,” a pause as he searches for words, “freeing, in a sense.”

Each syllable is carefully moulded from his mouth, and the curve of his laugh is tucked underneath reserved mirth. “The air’s fresh, the water’s clear, and on good days, you can see fish flicking their tails at your reflection. Hardly anyone passes by, much less sits there like I do, and I find it fairly relaxing. There’s something about watching fish and water, something timeless and beautiful about the bridge between two warring sides.” Here, the intent of his gaze affixes upon the questioner, firmly present in a way that he hadn’t been while recounting. “As long as that bridge is standing, as long as I can watch the fish from that very bridge, I will believe in the inevitability of peace.”

The set of his features morphs into something rather teasing as he adds, “I won’t let it burn, though. I’d miss watching the fish too much.”

What does your typical day look like?

Bellamy’s gaze diverts towards an open window, and for a second there’s a tension in the air, as if he longs to catapult himself from the ledge and catch the breeze like a bird. Slowly, he starts speaking. “I- before my parents called me back, I’d travel wherever the wind took me.” His head tips back, the slender baring of his throat at odds with the quiet assurance that wraps around him like a cloak, before his regard cascades back towards the questioner. “Now, whenever I don’t have jobs, I usually visit To Tame a Soup, and help out there whenever I’m not on the bridge.” A self-deprecating smile rewrites the curve of his mouth. “Otherwise, I’m practicing parkour.” There’s something faintly nostalgic lacing through his eyes. “It’s the closest I can get to freedom nowadays. Doesn’t hurt that it also counts as exercise,” and he offers a quick wink.

What are your thoughts on the war between the Capulets and the Montagues?

His gaze darkens, and suddenly he is Atlas with the burden of the sky. “It is, in a word, pointless,” he pronounces, averting his gaze from the window. “An endless cycle of vengeance dogs every step Verona takes-” He shifts in his seat, artfully easing against the slope of the settee. “-and no one will do a thing to stop it. Where do we end? Do we stop once everyone has been killed?” The slant of his eyes burns with an almost fervent prayer. “Do we stop once every son and every daughter is slain and fed to the dogs? Every action in our dear Verona brings its own cycle of death and destruction- where do we stop?” Bellamy allows his eyes to flutter shut and he is Icarus, shackled to the earth when he once knew flight. “My apologies.” How else would a martyr react towards the chains of loyalty, when those very chains direct him to become a creature of blood and destruction?

In-Character Para Sample:

An onyx gaze slips across the veneer of the airport, the slightest tilt to his lips marking the faint happiness he felt upon seeing the myriad of colorful people, all milling about and chattering to one another about different destinations. The airport is the center of many worlds colliding, the starting and ending point for many. A huff of laughter emerges from his lips as he dips down to collect a newspaper from a lady who’d accidentally bumped into him. “Apologies, madame,” spoken smoothly as he offers it back to the woman, eyes shifting across the surface in a cursory glance.

Those who knew him would be able to tell when he’d suddenly felt the very same staccato beats of eminent doom shackled upon his wrists and ankles, though he merely offered another closed-mouth smile and slipped away. Calloused fingers wrapped around the structure of a chair, and with a light tug, he pulled it out and eased himself down. A vague thought crossed his mind to forcibly stop his digits from trembling, and as he inhaled, he numbed himself to the inevitability of an end to his travels.

Romeo needed him. His family needed him. How could he- How could he ever say no? He has already taken leave for selfish reasons, and he felt that sin weigh upon his very soul. What if- What if he was there? Would the situation have turned out any differently?

No. Chapped lips pressed lightly together, and lashes feathered across the slant of his eyes.

If he dared, he would’ve allowed a slightly frantic laugh to escape his tongue, but they were in public and who knew where enemies lurked? Once again, he was brought into the rhythm of paranoia and revenge. Once again, he was on his way to Verona, beloved city, hated city.

His phone rang. Breath in, breath out- He steeled himself and his hand drifted toward his cell. “Hello?”

All he could hear was the thump-thump of his heart beating a butterfly rhythm, and all he could see was the newspaper in his mind’s eye. Mechanically, he replied. “Yes. I’ll be home soon.”

Extras:

Parkour: He’s rather passionate about parkour, even though it was Roman who’d first brought him and Mercutio into the art. Nowadays, you can probably catch him up on the highest spires and dangling his feet from a rooftop. It’s the closest he can get to the sky, and also the closest feeling to freedom. Doesn’t hurt that it keeps him agile.

Tea: Rather than whiskey or coffee, the drink he indulges the most in is tea, as it’s both healthy and lighter than the rich taste of alcohol and coffee.