#he really only goes to his aunts house to see his cousins (which she also doesn't like 😭 but she quietly objects) | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

pearlescentpearl · 2 years ago

Text

Rebirthed!Maedhros AU post 3

You know what time it is, folks, capping the last post again at 7 parts.

Part 15!

“What do you mean they’re blaming Uncle Arafinwë?” Russandol demands

Eyeing him tiredly, Findekáno notes the faint dark circles under his eyes, the delicate tremor in his hands, the way he flinched when he tried to hug his cousin

“They’re inconsolable, and seeking to rationalize a cause and effect,” he repeats, verbatim, what Nienna had solemnly explained to them. “The fire started on his and Aunt Eärwen’s ship. They’d never believe their own princess foolish enough to set a ship on fire, even by accident, and her children were raised as Teleri as they were Noldo. So,” Findekáno shrugs angrily

“So it must be the outsider husband’s fault,” Russandol finishes bitterly. “How do they figure that?”

Findekáno shrugs again, clenching his hands together. “The only area of the ship where fire is allowed is the kitchen.” Because Fëanárian Lamps handily replaced every candle, torch, and lantern they’d used on ships before, but Fëanáro hasn’t yet invented a fireless source of heat. “And since we Ñoldor hold that the men are the cooks...”

“I see.”

“Mind you, Olwë doesn’t believe this,” Findekáno says, dragging the conversation along in the hopes he won’t be subjected to yet another round of grieving, outraged tirade against the Teleri

He’s already sat through Aikanáro, Eldalótë, and Artanis’ reactions. Plus his parents’ reaction, Turukáno’s, his grandparents, and Fëanáro. He loves Russandol, but he’s not sitting through Fëanáro But Worse. He’s tired

“But he’s also having difficulty believing it’s Melkor’s work. Not that we know it’s Melkor’s work, we only suspect. The Teleri are really used to being largely ignored by greater Valinor.”

“Who does believe it then?” Russandol says, evidently willing to set aside any outbursts in favor of focusing on the situation at hand, for which Findekáno loves him even more

“When I left Tirion, we still hadn’t heard back from Olwë on who started the rumors, just that his people were starting to mutter about it.”

Grandfather had been terrifying to behold, in his anger at the news. Even Fëanáro had been taken aback by the sight of his rock steady, indulgent parent so wrathful

Grandmother went silent. She wanted no one to disturb her while she embroidered the funeral shrouds for her youngest child and his two eldest sons

Findekáno isn’t foolish enough to think she isn’t just as angry

She’s just honing the blade of her temper

“And you? How have you been holding up? You look awful.”

Russandol’s mouth twists. “I had a... protracted episode. A few days ago.” At Findekáno inquisitive look, he elaborates; “Wandered off into the deep Gardens and got stuck in my memories, for some reason. I don’t remember what set it off.”

“Ouch.”

“Yeah,” Russandol looks down. “Everything’s... off. I don’t know how to describe it.”

“You don’t have to, you just tell me what you need from me,” Findekáno says

Russandol shrugs a shoulder, but the twist of his mouth softens and some of the tension goes out of his jaw, so Findekáno will call it a victory

He needs all of them he can get these days

He’s not blind to the fact Melkor -- and they do believe it’s Melkor at work -- that the Vala went to Alqualondë in response to him trying to fortify Tirion against him

Aikanáro, now Head of the House of Arafinwë until his father or his brothers return, or Artaresto wants the headship when he’s full grown, had given him a long look when Findekáno, spurred by a deep well of guilt, tried to apologize

Findekáno told himself he wouldn’t let Melkor make him believe any evil thing the Vala did was his fault, and he holds to that

That doesn’t mean he can’t be sorry for others suffering

“Am I supposed to be blame you for protecting our people?” Aikanáro had said to him

“No, I just...” Findekáno didn’t know what he ‘just’

“We didn’t do enough,” Aikanáro said, swallowing hard. “We took the warning to Grandfather Olwë, and then we didn’t do anything. We didn’t even try to encourage him, or our uncles, to do anything. We just assumed Melkor would keep on ignoring the Teleri. After all, wasn’t that why Grandfather Finwë bade us evacuate there? But we are none us safe until we all band together and deal with the threat.”

And then Aikanáro lost the battle of wills against his tears and crawled into Findekáno’s arms until he felt strong enough to face the world again

“They’ll be alright in Mandos, won’t they?” He’d whispered

“They’ll be just fine,” Findekáno promised, kissing the crown of his spiky hair. “They‘ll be back before you know it.”

“Think they’ll back as quick as you were?” Aikanáro asked, so hopeful that he could only agree

There is no earthly way Findekáno can explain that it wasn’t so much that he re-embodied quickly because he healed quickly, so much as he bolted past Námo’s legs like a cat spotting a cracked open door at the nearest opportunity with his dignity intact, so he doesn’t

“You do enough,” Russandol says, breaking Findekáno out of his reverie. “You’re doing far more than I can, really.”

“Hey, no, don’t do that to yourself,” Findekáno protests. “If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t even know to be on our guards. Melkor would have caught us with our pants down--”

Russandol abruptly blanches gray, eyes wild

“Russo?” Findekáno says sharply, half lurching to his feet

Russandol clenches his eyes shut, swallows hard, and takes deep breaths through his nose. “Just a memory. From Mísrilya. It’s all--” he gestures curtly to his temple, “a bit raw, right now. Too close to the surface.”

“Do you want to--”

“No.”

“--switch to a lighter topic?” Findekáno pivots smoothly. “In fact, I insist. I came all this way to visit you. What kind of projects do have going? Are you still into woodworking? Or did you pick up any new hobbies lately? You were telling me all about how interesting the wickerwork is here just last month.”

A content Russandol is a Russandol that hops between hobbies the way bees hop between flowers; with utter abandon

He’ll throw himself into his present joy all the way to journeyman status, accumulate a storeroom’s worth of finished projects to foist on all his friends (mostly Findekáno. it’s mostly Findekáno), then gets bored, picks a new joy, cycle repeat

His parents treat this apparent restlessness with endless indulgence, but it drives his brothers who have committed themselves to their crafts up the walls and all the way across the ceiling

Haltingly, Russandol went with the subject change, describing the paneled divider he was carving out to liven up his living space

Findekáno is gratified when he eventually stops looking like he’s going to be violently ill

“So many of the birds snatch up the wood shavings for their nests, I barely have to sweep,” Russandol jokes half-heartedly

“One less thing to worry about!” Findekáno says, injecting as much cheer as he can muster

“Yes, but I’d hoped to use those shavings!”

“So do the birds!”

#silmarillion #bulletpoint fic #maedhros #fingon #nice little sweet piece after the meanness of the last one

230 notes · View notes

buttacake80 · 27 days ago

Text

My grandmother was born in 1912 or 1913 (birth records vary) outside of Allentown, Georgia, outside of Dublin. All of her grandparents were formerly enslaved [born between 1840-1850]. One of her great-grandmothers was alive for the first 10 years of her life [born about 1820]. This great-grandmother was Gullah-Geechee.

When she was about 7, she survived the Red Summer of 1919.

This was her maternal cousin:

This involved a paternal cousin:

Somewhere in my files, I have a death certificate of another cousin who was lynched. He was leaving church with his family; the cause of death was listed as an "accidental" shooting. But I seem to recall he was shot 13x.

Anyway, she was the second eldest of 13 children, but her eldest sister died young, so she was the eldest sibling. By the time she was in her teens, she was working as a nanny for white families.

She was put on a bus and sent north to Illinois, where she had a great aunt. This great aunt was the child of the Gullah-Geechee and practiced rootwork.

In her late teens, she became pregnant by the man of the house. The wife's family took exception. I think they beat him, but I know they gave my grandmother 24 hours to leave town or she was dead.

[Ya see...the man had been an active member of the KKK and it didn't look good on him to have a biracial baby with a Black teenager. That baby had to go!]

She was a well-known abortionist.

She knew the right herbs to give a woman if the pregnancy was early enough otherwise, she would use a coat hanger, hot water, and a lot of prayer.

She performed an abortion on my grandmother. A few years later, my grandmother marries and starts a family with a military man. He returns from WWII completely broken. We now call it PTSD but he was simply viewed as a coward.

He abandoned her and their 4 kids.

She's always been an attractive woman. And men have always been eager to take care of her, so she carries on with married men, usually white. Has a couple of kids outta wedlock (tried and failed at aborting].

Marries a white man in 1968. Soon after the Loving decision.

This man we call "Mister".

Mister wasn't a nice man. He's tolerated her family. This man is my grandfather, but we could never, ever call him that. Wouldn't really want to.

He developed Alzheimer's when I was in my teens. There was a time when I didn't know which Mister I would encounter.

He sat on a porch swing. In order to enter her house, you had to walk past his swing.

Some days he would storm violently out of the swing. "If it ain't raining niggers and tar-babies" or "here comes the porch monkeys".

Other days, he was disgustingly flirtatious. He would adjust his clothes and smooth back his hair before introducing himself. Making sexual comments about my 14-16 year old body. Sometimes, he would reach for me, but a swat of the hand could knock him over.

Days after his funeral, my aunt goes through an old chest that Mister kept tucked back in his closet. Inside were several postcards from lynchings with his handwriting, noting the date. Buttons and other items that were assumed to be momentos from lynchings he attended.

I didn't understand that duality at the time.

Mister was buried in a known sundown town. It is still a sundown town to this day. In fact, a few Memorial Days ago, my mother was chased from that town after she had visited Mister's grave. Like two pickup trucks full of young white boys chasing a 70+ Black woman through the country roads of Illinois.

In 2021!

Both of my parents are from the Jim Crow Era and thought the period of outward violence was behind them. They sat in the Coloreds Only section or drank from the Coloreds Only water fountain.

My dad was a child in the early 60s when distant relatives were evicted from their farms outside of Memphis. Why? They had registered to vote, so their white landlord evicted them. My dad recalls other Black families who owned their land were also evicted, and he remembers the fire that destroyed those records.

My dad was 15 when MLK, Jr. was invited to Memphis for the Sanitation Workers strike. He remembers the moment he learned King had been murdered in his city. He remembers the riots.

My parents were alive for the signing of the Civil Rights Act.

It saddens me to think that within their lifetime, they saw such slow progression only for it to be unraveled so swiftly.

My grandmother lived to be 102 or 103 (dying 3 months shy of her next birthday). She lived until 2016, so she was alive to vote for our first (and only) Black president, and I distinctly recall her disbelief that white folk would not only vote for a Black man, but that they would let that Black man live.

Providing all of that context, I am not surprised that I have been thinking about her A LOT these past couple of weeks.

First, I think about her great-aunt, the abortionist, and how dangerous abortions were prior to Roe v. Wade. That hanger could puncture organs, leading to massive blood loss. Many women risked death rather than carry a child that was born of rape, incest, or were just plain outside of the woman's plans.

I think about my grandmother, who often said that it had not been a consensual encounter that led to her pregnancy. White folks threatened to kill her because she got pregnant, then she risked death to terminate that pregnancy, so she could find a normal life.

I think about the women, post Roe, who faced similar situations but were granted a safe abortion. Even if Trump implements a nationwide abortion ban, women will still seek abortions. We have only forced them to seek out those coathangers again.

Second, I think about the summer-long race massacre she survived. When I was a senior in college, I had to do a family research project which triggered my genealogy journey.

I interviewed and recorded my grandmother, asking for her earliest memory. She always said her first memory was standing on a train platform, waving goodbye to one of her uncles as he went off to fight in World War I.

Her second involved another family member. According to her, a lynch mob sought to kill him because he had voted. I don't recall if it was the same relative from her first memory, but this relative was also a veteran.

He had returned from Europe after wearing the uniform and thought he should be allowed to vote! A clever man, he dressed up as the janitor, then mopped his way to the voting area. I know he got the ballot. I can't remember if he was able to actually drop it in the box before they realized what he was doing. They chased him from the courthouse. He ran to his mother's home. The family intended to hide him through the night but once they heard the bloodhounds, they knew they weren't letting it go. So he rapidly packed his belongings, kissed his mother goodbye, then fled into the woods. He survived by hiding in either a dead animal or a decaying tree. Whatever it was, it was dead, so the scent covered his. Once he was safe in another state, he wrote his mother to let her know he was safe.

I imagine living in such a time period when white people could be so fickle with human life. A time when a white woman could lie and get Black folk killed. I know there are violent people who commit violent acts, but I am talking about a period when an entire people could and DID commit murder and got away with it.

Although I haven't given up on this country, I have given up on white people ever learning from history or their mistakes.

In fact, they have taken active steps to suppress that history. To ignore those who lived through it until they die, then totally rewrite history. It's what white people do.

A huge portion of them relish violence. So many are seeking an opportunity to terrorize Black folk just like their ancestors did.

They don't want us to vote.

They don't want us to own property.

They don't want us to obtain college educations.

They don't want us to fully realize the American dream; they have taken hostile steps to ensure just that.

You got the MAGA who are so totally uneducated and resentful of the fact that their whiteness doesn't hold as much capital as it once did. You got the greedy white folk who are never satisfied with their wealth, who build up their esteem by stripping others of theirs, then fill their hollow souls with designer brands. You got the religious hypocrites who rejoice in human misery and have openly labeled Jesus Christ as being "too woke". Then, you got the other white folk who are too "uncomfortable" to confront those OTHER white folk despite knowing they are wrong.

I know there are *good* white individuals but, as a people, y'all are fucking lacking as human beings.

#ask auntie #ask me anything #black girl magic #critical race theory #sociology #history #racism #maga #race riots #genocide #ethnic cleansing

4 notes · View notes

goddessofroyalty · 2 years ago

Note

What do the people in Driftmark think of Lucemond ruling them? Also Heleana and the kids staying there?

In short: their overall pretty decent Lord (who happens to be an omega) and his very scary guard-dog-husband (plus live-in sister-in-law/aunt and cousin-niblings).

With Luke particularly I do have Additional Plot that has yet to be included in the fic which is that not long after Corlys dies (and Luke inherits the Seat) a particularly harsh winter blows in and it kind of becomes the Final Test of both Rhaenyra and Lucerys to convince the people that they are worthy to rule despite their designations. And they both manage to guide their people through riding it out fairly well. So while there will always be people unhappy about omegas sitting on important seats for most people that winter is enough for them to at least come to the conclusion that Targeryans Are Exceptions and even omegas in that family are Fit To Rule. So while it's still not smooth sailing for Luke for the most part people are happy enough he was the one to inherit.

Aemond is a bit styling himself after Deamon. And if you actually think about it the only Daemon Aemond really knows is Domesticated Wife-Guy Daemon. So while I don't think Aemond's got the exact same flavour of obsession with Luke as Daemon has Rhaenyra, he definitively ends up with the similar reputation of "violently protective of his mate". Plus you have the fact that after Corlys dies Aemond is the only Alpha in the House (until the kids present) so he internally tasks himself with being The Protector of it. Also once the whole succession thing settles down he starts going out conquering in the name of Driftmark/Luke. So he has an intimidating presense, a protective streak, and the achievements to back it up - he's Scary. But he answers to Luke (partially because learning off Daemon, partially because if he was seen as challening/questioning Luke others would see it as an invitation to as well, and partially because Luke grew up learning off Rhaenyra how to 'handle' alphas like Aemond).

Heleana is a bit of a funny one where I think the Gossip that goes around her and the kids isn't that they're Aemond's but that she and Aemond conspired to ensure Aegon didn't get the crown for the Good Of The Realm. Because Aegon kind of more and more gets himself this reputation as a emotional unstable drunk pretty quickly after Rhaenyra takes the thrown (which is also when Heleana and the kids come to visit... permanently). I think people started to wonder if she had seen the signs of Aegon being unstable before the King died and perhaps asked her other brother to help ensure the safety of herself and her children from him. Sure, there are probably some people who question the parentage but there isn't actually that much evidence if you don't know the full story - Luke is perfectly pleasant to Heleana (and it is ultimately his house not Aemond's) so there's no obvious jealousy to tip them off and I mean even with the kids having some of Aemond's features that's like... he is their uncle on both sides. Even Aemond doing things like training the boys or taking them on as Squires or weighing in on potential matches, that's all something a Good Uncle would do (especially when their father is not around). The narrative of "Aegon was a cruel husband and Aemond and Luke sypathised with Heleana so offered her and the kids refuge" fits with all the evidence people have and is still juicy enough to make interesting gossip (plus is a bit more sweet then "yeah they're political prisoners to keep Aegon in line" which is the other non-said narrative).

The more I think about it the more I think people say Driftmark is a King's Landing in miniature - both have an omega at the helm with their guard-dog-alpha-mate by their side, housing the wife of the previous/almost King.

73 notes · View notes

luke-shywalker · 4 months ago

Text

the kids’ table

“Yo.”

Rey looks up. It’s Ben.

It’s funny. He always seemed like the cool cousin. The reigning Mario Kart champion, purveyor of piggyback rides—the one who still sat at the kids’ table at dinner, his knees pushed up against his chest. But now he’s, like, thirty and still lives with his parents and doesn’t have a job and wasn’t at the last five Christmases for reasons Uncle Han and Aunt Leia won’t disclose—not to members of the kid table, anyway.

Rey is twenty. Not really a kid. But she might as well be.

“Yo,” Rey says back. She shuffles over so Ben can sit next to her on the steps.

They are at Uncle Lando’s house, which is so big and so rich-looking Rey doesn’t know what to do with herself. There are too many expensive things around here, and she’s afraid they might break if she looks at them. So different from the little two-bedroom apartment she and her dad live in.

“You in college now?” Ben asks.

“Community college,” says Rey. “Transferring to university soon.”

“What’re you studying?”

“Mechanical engineering.”

“Ah,” says Ben. “All those Legos paid off.”

Rey laughs and nods. “What’re you doing?”

“That is a great question,” says Ben, and nothing else. “How’s Uncle Luke? I mean, your dad.”

“He’s right there. You could ask him yourself,” Rey says, gesturing to where the adults are congregated near the drinks.

“That’s the grownup table,” says Ben.

“We’re grownups too, now,” says Rey.

“Not here we aren’t,” says Ben.

Rey shrugs—she knows exactly what he means.

“Do you have a boyfriend?” Ben asks all of a sudden, probably to annoy her, like he used to when she was a kid. Except now, it’s not a weapon of embarrassment, it’s an actual question, with an actual answer. But it’s unclear whether Ben knows that or not.

“Yeah, I do, actually,” says Rey, pulling out her phone. “His name is Finn. We met at school.”

“Oh. You actually do,” says Ben. He leans over to see the picture. “Nice. He looks cool. Why isn’t he here?”

“We only just started dating,” says Rey. “Maybe next year. What about you? Are you in a relationship?”

“Just got out of one,” Ben says. “But it wasn’t with a girl.”

“Oh,” says Rey, surprised. “I didn’t know you were…”

“I’m not,” says Ben. “But he was my boss and I was in a dark place and it seemed like a good idea at the time.”

Rey stares at him, not sure what to do with this information.

“Is that why you haven’t been at Christmas?” she asks, finally.

“Well, that and being in and out of the psych ward.”

Rey blinks. “Your parents never said anything about that.”

Ben looks at her, curious. “What did they say?”

“Well, your dad never said anything. Your mom said you were with The Peace Corps.”

“Well, actually, I was. But just for a year. When I was like, twenty-four. Then I had my mental breakdown. The first one, I mean.”

Rey scratches the back of her neck, caught off guard by all this trauma-dumping. She is starting to think the cool cousin is maybe not as cool as they all thought he was. She suddenly remembers that, when they all had sleepovers, Ben was always the last to fall asleep and would try to get everyone else to stay awake as long as possible. He used to get kind of desperate, in a weird way, as if he was keeping them all alive—or, keeping himself alive.

“Well…are you okay, now, Ben?” Rey asks.

“No,” Ben says, with a smile. “No, kid, I am so not.”

Rey starts to feel afraid to be sitting here with him on the steps, and she doesn’t know why. She’s not sure what she’s afraid of. Somehow, she feels afraid that Ben will suddenly explode into a thousand pieces. She can see it now. There has always been a suppressed scream building up inside of him.

“I can feel it,” Ben goes on, looking around and vibrating his leg anxiously. “Everyone thinking about me, and wondering where I’ve been. I don’t think they want me here. But also, I don’t think they’d let me leave.”

Rey doesn’t know what he’s talking about. But he looks like maybe he needs to walk around or something.

She stands up. “Let’s go see if anyone wants to play Mario Kart,” she says.

Ben’s eyes light up. “Yes, yes, yes! I wanna be Waluigi.”

Ben stands up and he and Rey wander around Uncle Lando’s house, trying to round up the cousins to play. Nobody seems to want to. A couple of them say yes, in a second, hold on, but then they just stand around talking while Ben and Rey wait awkwardly. It’s looking like the cause is a bust.

“I guess no one wants to,” Rey says.

“Can you play me?” Ben begs.

“Just the two of us? You’ve always been so good, Ben. You’ll smoke me.”

“I’ll go easy on you.”

“That’s no fun.”

“Please, Rey. Please.” It’s like the cousin sleepovers all over again.

“Why do you want to play so bad?” Rey asks, a little amused.

“Because Mario Kart is the only thing I’ve ever been good at in my whole life,” Ben says, and the words sound like a joke, but his tone of voice and his eyes are communicating that this is really how he sees himself. He’s desperate. A thirty-year-old man who somehow never stopped being thirteen.

Rey pauses, then pats him on the back.

“Okay, Ben. Let’s play.”

#my writing #not reylo. they’re cousins in this one. platonic.#solo family #skywalker family #space cousins #rey skywalker #ben solo #I may be reylo-neutral but you’ll never take sibling benrey and cousin benrey away from me

6 notes · View notes

luphorics · 8 months ago

Note

Hi! First i want to say that i love your art and your ocs and i wanted to ask something about Gale if you don't mind. In the info you said they were being framed for deaths especially surrounding umbrella, would Gale have had ties to umbrella then? Would they have met Luis Serra, and how would their relationship have been? Would they have met other characters from the organization? Sorry if i asked too much questions i just love RE ocs, specially if they had a past with umbrella

HELLOO ANON ;0; thank you so much!! hearing that put a huge smile on my face hehe :3

aahh, Gale is an oc that i haven't talked about in forever, but i was super excited when concepting them at the time. this is gonna be a bit of a read, so i'll be talking about everything that i can under that "read more" section!! :3

so Gale themselves weren't directly associated with Umbrella, but they do have ties in the sense that three relatives have worked as scientists forbthem. One of these relatives was Gale's aunt (Dr. Elois Dimaaya), and the other two were more of older cousins. Their works were well-recognized and Gale's aunt in particular has worked with Luis.

Of course, already having three relatives who work for this corporation easily sets Gale on a path of blood. This is especially considering that Gale was pretty close to them to a considerable degree as family members

In the lore I have down so far, there have been rumors that the cousins were collectively working against Umbrella in secret—which is eventually proven true after they both suddenly drop off Umbrella's radar. One of the cousins sought refuge in the house of Gale's father, only for the latter to discover that he was infected with an unnamed virus and was gradually mutating. The two fought to the death with no fruition, as they both ended up dying. In that same week, Gale was apprehended one night by the other already-mutated cousin, also forcing them to defend themselves once she had lost all her humanity. Gale, however, managed to gain the upper hand and kill their cousin—but this news quickly reaches Umbrella associates.

The only remaining relative was Elois, but she had mysteriously resigned from Umbrella months prior to the cousins' mutations. Her whereabouts remain unknown afterwards. Without any trace of Elois for Umbrella to find and pull her into questioning, they sought out to apprehend her niece, Gale, into questioning—especially after Umbrella learned that they had killed one of their cousins, and the other was also killed by their father. This prompts Gale to go into hiding after being ambushed by Umbrella's security services, thus changing the trajectory of their life.

To make matters more serious, Umbrella eventually fabricated a story that framed Gale as responsible for the deaths of their cousins. Along with the security service on their head, Umbrella hoped this tactic would somehow drive their aunt of the shadows.

Anyhow, between the events of RE2 and a personal arc of theirs that takes place after RE5, they're kinda working alongside a secret organization of vigilantes with an agenda against bio-terrorism. So, unfortunately they aren't present in RE4 and therefore has never met Luis Serra. However, I did headcanon that Luis has mentioned some things about Elois Dimaaya and Gale's cousins to Leon, which implies they were collaborating colleagues at a point back at Umbrella. Eventually, when Leon does encounter Gale after RE4, he shares to them what he learned about their relatives from Luis's perspective.

While I can't fully say for sure how Gale would've hypothetically interacted with Luis had they met, I feel like they would have similar sentiments in terms of how they view Umbrella. And I can see that Gale would've asked him a lot about their relatives if they discovered he once used to work for Umbrella and all that.

But yeah, as far as it goes, Gale hasn't really met any other characters from Umbrella since they're also working against them akchajcj. They are pretty familiar with a lot of the other characters such as Leon, Ada, the Redfield Siblings, etc. because they've encountered these guys at least more than once during their stint as a vigilante ;0;

#ask luo #talking about Gale again was so refreshing so ty for the ask !!! :3 #luphorics oc: gale dimaaya

2 notes · View notes

thekatebridgerton · 1 year ago

Note

Michael raising little Lucy in the Labyrinth au, so cute 🥹

i can’t stop thinking about how caring and protective would he be with her

could we see some cute moments?

ok some backstory of what happened with Lucy and Michael. The Abernathys and the Stirlings were having a party of some kind. And the house burned down, and like I said, only Michael and Lucy survived. So he took responsibility for her, because he figured they were both orphans now.

The thing is that while 18 yo Michael is very responsible, he's also not really mature. So what ends up happening is that he and Lucy live a very bohemian life. Where he basically homeschooled her while they were traveling around the world. my HC for Michael raising Lucy goes like this.

-Lucy has never had a formal education, but she knows how to speak Chinese, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi and Russian. Also some Turkish. But Michael prefers Gaelic, so it's the language she's most fluent in after English. Hence why she's got afinity with fae language.

-Michael's understanding of girl recreational activities starts and ends with figure skating and ballet. And he has donned tights for both, just to join Lucy when she's having fun.

-Lucy doesn't call Michael dad or brother, or cousin, or anything, to her he's just Michael. The goofy dude who really needs her, because who else would be the mature one in the household.

-They lived a very nomadic lifestyle most of Lucy's life, never settled down anywhere, but more or less made the world their home. And Lucy never felt she was missing anything. But she knows Michael missed home.

-The last time Michael tried to give Lucy the birds and the bees talk, she pointed to a box of condoms falling off his backpack and told him that just because she's 14 doesn't mean she doesn't have ears. He still soldiered on bravely. Just to embarrass her.

-Michael tries so hard to be a good guardian, but he's also the type to bring Lucy with him into tattoo parlors and introduce her to all his friends. trust me by the time Lucy was twelve, the appeal of tattoos and piercings had lost its shine. it's bad enough that she knows in which part of his body Michael has the Stirling coat of arms!!.

-They have a rule, that dictates that if Lucy ever wants to do something normal kids aren't allowed to do. They MUST do it together. Hence why, when 8 yo Lucy decided she wanted to dye her hair hot pink, Michael got Magenta to match. And the only time she's ever tried wearing a sports bra and shorts to go sightseeing. Michael did it too. (she was so embarrassed, but he was rocking it)

I like to think that Lucy and Gareth had polar opposite upbringings in the Labrynth au. Like, even when he was with aunt Agatha, Simon made sure Gareth had the best tutors, the best education, the best clothes, he was a very mature guardian, Gareth looks up to him and as a result he has has never rebelled in his life. But Lucy grew up in a very permissive environment where Michael never actually set any clear boundaries to what she was allowed and not allowed to do, and as a result she is SO over it. Nothing surprises her anymore, not even the fae. She just wants things in her life to be normal for once. And while Gareth is having the time of his life with Hyacinth, Lucy on the other hand is looking at Gregory like 'oh great, another idiot, now how do I trick this one into letting me go' she's a young girl who doesn't suffer kidnappings lightly. She was raised by the merry rake and Michael taught her well.

And that's the tea

#labrynth au #lucy abernathy #gregory bridgerton

17 notes · View notes

schrodingers-romy · 1 year ago

Text

Ranking my blorbos on how well they do at Family Thanksgiving

Kento. He is such a gentleman. He knows enough about food and cooking to help in the kitchen, and makes sure the meal prep goes smoothly. Years of being at a job he hates has also given him the ability to keep his mouth shut and ignore various family members saying weird bullshit, but he has enough tact to step up and deflect when things go too far. Would be my mother's favorite of all my blorbos.

Kakashi. I feel like every family member I care for would be endeared by him. He gets doted on by my older cousins. Gets the extra groceries we need before we even run out. Great with the kids. He has been in so many situations more stressful than this he can navigate it with relative ease. One of the best at calming me down when I get too anxious or mad. Throughout the whole dinner no one except me saw him pull his mask down to eat. (He made sure I saw him so he could blow me a kiss).

Rumi. Every child in my family thinks she is amazing. The house is 100% more peaceful during meal prep because she takes them all outside to show them some pro hero moves. Loud enough to speak over everyone when she wants to. Makes sure I get all the food I want before the vultures descend.

Satoru. He seems almost in his element in the chaos of Thanksgiving. Manages to be one of the loudest in the room, which is quite impressive. Tells a bunch of wild stories to the kids, and brings them a bunch of candy, "But you can only have some if you eat all your vegetables!" Breaks his own rule immediately by having some candy while waiting for food. Annoys my mother but my dad and uncles think he is hilarious. My mom comes around when she sees him calming me down in private.

Shigure. I feel like he is a solid middle of the road. Everyone either hates him or loves him. Doesn't really help with anything, but isn't a huge hindrance to anyone other than me because he keeps bothering me when I'm trying to cook by draping himself over me constantly (he's very clingy once the curse is broken).

Choso. Such a family man! But he is also a 150+ year old undersocialized half human half curse. He does his best, but he ends up having to go sit outside for a bit because it gets too much for him. Everyone whose opinion I care about loves him though, because of how we clearly care for each other. We are just the worst introvert x introvert couple when it comes to social events.

Giyuu. Terrible at any social situation. So awkward. Kills any conversation he is invited into. Many aunts and uncles comment on his messy eating and dead expression so i end up having to defend him. He does his best though.

Uramichi. Does not enjoy dealing with my extended family at all. He is a master of putting on a happy face when he is secretly miserable though; but it ends up cracking by the end of the night. Then bluntest of my cousin's kids notice and loudly comment on his exhausted expression. He then drops some classic uramichi wisdom (tm) and makes them fear for their emotional state once they reach adulthood.

Nakime. Sits in the corner in silence. No one even realizes she is there. Offers to murder anyone who even mildly annoys me.

Akito. Snippy with everyone. Can't stand seeing my cousins' kids take my attention, so she ends up clinging to me and being really mean to anyone who tries to talk to me. Ends up throwing hands with my mother and losing.

Douma. We don't even go because I am locked up in his cult

#romy can talk #💔ronami #💕rokashi #💕rorumi #💕satoromy #💕shiguro #💕romichi #💕rocho #💕romioka #💔nakiro #💕akiro #💕rodouma #so many selfship tags rip

4 notes · View notes

nausikaaa · 2 years ago

Text

WIP Wednesday

thanks for tagging me @forabeatofadrum! i’m a little late posting, but finally found some inspiration to write again, so here’s some of a new perspective from my post-troy novel- Hermione. context below the cut as always!

All in all, I was thoroughly unimpressed with my husband, and his awkward mannerisms were beginning to grate on my already exposed nerves. And then he did something that did more than just irritate me. He stood up, walked away from me, and joined the dance.

I didn’t move a muscle, but I could feel eyes on me. This is ridiculous, I thought. Dancing was for young girls, not men such as him, small and lithe as he may have been. I wondered if he intended to humiliate me, or was he truly oblivious to the ways of the world? I knew he grew up on an island, isolated from the rest of Greece, but this was unorthodox by any standards.

He leapt and whirled with seven women from Skyros, ranging from barely his elder to just over a decade older. They all shared his ginger hair and blue eyes- his aunts, and there in the centre, his mother, Deidamia. I thought she ought to be ashamed of herself, a widow, dancing! Her skirts flew around her, her feet barely touched the ground, and she laughed and laughed as she took her son by the hand and spun him round.

I took a small sip of wine and hoped my veil would hide the red of my face. My grandfather made furious eye contact with me from across the hall, as though this shameless display was somehow my fault, while my mother had the audacity to clap along with the beat. My father didn’t even seem to notice anything amiss, deep in conversation with one of Neoptolemus’s advisors.

I cast my eyes skyward and silently prayed he would get whatever this was out of his system by the end of the song and return to my side, where I would pretend to be amused by his antics to save face and return to the silence we had been comfortable in before, but the song came to an end, a new one started, and he didn’t stop.

I downed the rest of my wine and waved a slave over for a refill.

i love writing Hermione so much, i think anyone who reads my carry on Agatha fics can tell i just really enjoy writing from the perspective of a total bitch (affectionate)

Hermione is the daughter of Helen of Sparta/Troy and her first husband, Menelaus. after the war she was married to Neoptolemus, also known as Pyrrhus, the son of the hero Achilles and a hero (or war criminal, depending on your persuasion) in his own right.

Hermione had been engaged her entire childhood to her cousin, Orestes, but sources vary on which man she loved. whatever the case, Orestes eventually killed Pyrrhus and took Hermione by force.

the interpretation i chose to go with is that Hermione and Pyrrhus’s relationship begins very strained, Hermione has very rigid ideas about what is proper while Pyrrhus, having grown up surrounded by young women and then losing any remaining childhood wonder he may have had when he was drafted for the war at 15, likes to cut loose and buck tradition.

eventually, they manage to find common ground- the expectations they have grown up under due to their parents. Pyrrhus is the son of the greatest warrior the world had ever known, but he hates violence and can’t stand the sight of blood, for all he was forced to endure it at Troy. Hermione is the daughter of the most beautiful woman in history, but she resembles her father and has a very strained relationship with her. after this, they grow close and have a loving relationship, but Hermione struggles to conceive.

after only 4 years together, Hermione suffers a miscarriage, prompting Pyrrhus goes to Delphi to pray to Apollo, who has cursed him. Hermione also carries a family curse, but there’s nothing she can do to end it, it’s built upon generations of infanticide and cannibalism (the House Of Atreus is wack), and there he is killed by Orestes, who then goes as kidnaps Hermione.

Hermione’s POV ends there, but we see from Astyanax, the main character, that she eventually escaped Orestes and went back to Skyros, Pyrrhus’s home country, the place she was happiest, where she was accepted as the Queen by his aunts and the people. so a bittersweet ending.

and here’s what Hermione and Pyrrhus look like, in this scene and 4 years later:

fun fact: Hermione’s hair is short in the first picrew because Spartan girls would cut it short for their weddings. Spartan men and women lived very segregated lives as men were raised in military barracks since childhood, and both young men and women often had gay relationships with others their age because there just wasn’t the option to be with someone of the opposite sex. so the short hair was both a symbolisation of rebirth for women but also to ease men into heterosexuality 😂

for a late wip wednesday or next six sentence sunday, i tag @otherpeoplesheartachept-2 @ileadacharmedlife @ionlydrinkhotwater @martsonmars @confused-bi-queer @aroace-genderfluid-sheep @bazzybelle @castawaypitch @ivelovedhimthroughworse @gekkoinapeartree @erzbethluna @facewithoutheart @sillyunicorn @moodandmist @tea-brigade @whatevertheweather @stillgeekingout @wetheformidables @onepintobean @basiltonbutliketheherb @theearlgreymage and @whogaveyoupermission

#untitled post troy project #hermione #neoptolemus #pyrrhus

11 notes · View notes

detectivejrdude583 · 2 years ago

Text

“I just want to my family is okay”

read on AO3

summery: Noah always enjoys his time at the McCanns, although, since the BX9 case when he was sent to stay with them for a couple of days, there's always a certain nervousness that comes along with driving up to Woodstock, the feeling always goes away after he's there for a little while, but this time it doesn't go away- and to make matters worse he knows something is wrong with his mother, but no one will tell him what the hell is going on.

............................

Set after Liv is shot in the finale, Olivia finds out Noah has been struggling a lot more than she thinks.

Chapter 1/1

……………………….

Noah always enjoys going to see the McCanns, but going there comes with a new sense of dread, ever since his mother was attacked by BX9 and he was sent away, every time the potential of him going to see them or stay the night, for just half a moment his stomach would drop.

He knew it didn’t make much sense at all to get nervous about just going to see his half-brother, especially when the family was so welcoming toward him.

He knows that whatever case his mother is working on is a hard one, he knows more than his mother has told him, but rather because Jesse is quite the eavesdropper and is kind enough to text Noah every bit of info she hears from her parents when she should be asleep.

Noah and Jesse had been talking a lot lately, Jesse was experiencing a lot of new things with moving into a townhouse instead of an apartment, and Sonny moving in with them, and Noah was happy to listen, or distract her when necessary. Jesse is several years younger than him, but neither of them really thought about it, they had a relationship like you would with your cousin, which Noah supposed made sense since Jesse was his aunt Manda’s.

Noah knows that Amanda is back working on a case with SVU, and he also knows that she was asked to do that by Elliot.

He is still a little unsure about Elliot, he had only ever met him so many times, and when he had shown up to pick him up from the McCanns if he hadn’t already been told by his mother that he was coming, then he’s not entirely sure he would have gotten in the car with him.

……………………….

When his mother tells him he’s going to stay with the McCanns for a while so that she can take a trip for work his stomach drops, he had no more warning than a couple of hours- that was never a good sign- but he told himself he was being dramatic and went to pack a bag.

His mother had driven him up to the house, which made him feel better than when Fin had driven him after his mother had been attacked. He hugged his mom- longer than he normally would have- and got a kiss on the top of his head before his mother had to go to make her flight on time.

Noah couldn’t explain it, but the sinking feeling he got whenever he was going to the McCanns, which normally went away as soon as he got there, just didn’t go away.

When Ginny had cooked a lovely meal for dinner, he ate what he could so he didn’t seem rude, but his stomach churned every time something hit it.

“You alright Noah!” Ginny asked with a concerned sort of smile as she saw Noah pushing around his food more than he was eating it.

“Oh yes, I'm sorry, my stomach is feeling a little odd right now,” he said, and it wasn’t a lie. While Ginny accepted that answer, Noah knew if it was his mother, she would have pressed him for details- and that, somehow made him feel worse.

“Oh well you don’t have to eat if you don’t feel like it, do you want to lie down, I can get you something that may be easier on your stomach, or some ginger ale”

Noah shook his head- it wasn’t that bad “No thank you, I appreciate it though, my stomach may just need some time to settle after running around outside”

“We’ll let us know if you get any worse, we can get you some medicine”

……………………….

Even after staying up too late to play video games with Conner, the feeling in Noah’s stomach didn’t go away and he found himself staring at the bunk above him when he should without a doubt be asleep.

He felt his chest tightening, his first instinct being to grab his inhaler, but he quickly realized that he was not having an asthma attack, but rather he was getting nervous. He flung the blankets off himself grabbed his phone out from under his pillow and walked into Conner's bathroom across the hall.

It's 3am now, and he tries to remember if his mother is in the same time zone as him, he would google it but it didn’t seem important enough for that. Want he really wanted to do was call his mother, he just needed to hear her voice for a minute, it was irrational and he knew it, but his mother had told him repeatedly whenever he was away from her that he could call her whenever he needed.

His mother was pinned on his message’s app, so it was the quickest way to get to her contact, but when he clicked on her profile picture, he noticed that his mother hadn’t texted him at all since she told him she had landed in Ohio, and that had been several hours ago.

Noah felt bile rise in his throat, his mother always texted him when she would be working overnight- or even just late into the night, even if she thought Noah was already asleep, she would do it anyway.

He told himself he was being ridiculous, that his mother wasn’t even in the same state, and that she was probably busy with a case, he had no idea what was going on, for all he knew his mother’s phone was lost or broken.

He clicked to call his mother- she wasn’t perfect, maybe it had just slipped her mind- it rang and rang, and eventually, Noah heard his mother’s automatic voicemail, he didn’t bother leaving a message. He tried his mother again, he just needed to hear her voice- that’s all he needed.

When it went to voicemail again Noah didn’t think twice about calling Fin, knowing he was with her mother, but that one went to voicemail too and Noah thought he might throw up. he considered calling his aunt Amanda, he knew she was there too, but she was pregnant and Noah thought it would be wrong to wake her up if she was asleep. Finally, he remembered that Elliot was also with his mother, and while he had only ever contacted him once, he scrolled until he found his contact and put the ringing up to his ear, just praying for him to answer.

When yet again he went to voicemail Noah coughed several times, trying to swallow down the saliva that seemed to just suddenly appear. He stood for several moments trying to catch his breath, before ultimately his body won over and he fell to his knees in front of the toilet, heaving quite violently.

He didn’t think his stomach had that much food in it, but it apparently did. He had just stopped heaving when there was a knock on the bathroom door.

“Noah, kid, you alright, can you let me in” That was Matt’s voice, Noah knew that.

He gagged again continuing puking and it seemed like Matt decided he would let himself in and opened the door.

Noah stopped vomiting resting his head on his arm that was gripping the toilet seat, sweat nearly soaking through his clothes.

“Conner go grab his inhaler” That was Ginny’s voice. Noah guessed his puking his guts up in the middle of the night had to be a family affair.

Ginny came and sat on the floor next to him, rubbing a hand up and down his back “I'm sorry you're not feeling well, if you think you're done we can get you into bed and I’ll grab you some crackers, and ginger ale”

Noah nodded but made no move to get up, he needed to use his inhaler, but he wasn’t going to do that until he was able to rinse out his mouth, but without even saying anything he was handed a cup of water so he could swish and spit into the toilet.

Once he had used his inhaler and left like he could Noah pushed himself up, feeling Matt’s hand on his arm helping him.

“Let’s get you back to bed, we’ll put a trashcan by your bed,” Matt said leading him back to Conner's room.

……………………….

Noah woke up the next morning, school was still in, but he would be getting all his work online since he wasn’t going to be there, but conner still had to go to school, so when he woke up the room was empty, and he realized Ginny had let him sleep in rather than waking him up for the day.

He didn’t tell Ginny and Matt what had made him throw up, as far as they knew he just had a stomach bug. The first thing he did was check his phone, hoping for something from his mother, it didn’t even have to be from his mother, it just had to be from someone who knew what was going on, who could tell him that his mother was alright.

To his great relief, he saw a text from his mother, as well as one from Fin asking what was going on, and a call back from Elliot, all of the notifications were from after he has fallen asleep, and while his phone was set up so that notifications from the squad would come through even on do not disturb, clearly, he had slept through it, and Elliot’s call was silenced since he was not on his mother’s squad.

He opened up the text from his mother, even just reading it brought a sense of calm over him, his brain automatically read it in his mother’s voice, and while he would much rather be actually with his mother, this would have to do for now.

Momma: Hey sweet boy, I'm so sorry I didn’t text or call you last night, thing’s got crazy very quickly after we landed and everyone was away from their phones for a while, but everyone is okay and I’ll be home in a couple of days. Ginny called and said you're sick, I hate I can’t be there with you, if I was in the state, you know I would be. this case is getting to be quite complicated, and you know you're my number 1 priority, but I can’t promise I’ll be able to get to my phone a whole lot while I'm here, but I will answer you whenever I can alright. Mom loves you <3

Noah felt extremely relieved to know nothing was wrong, but as quickly as the relief came it was replaced with him berating himself for panicking over nothing, the entire squad was in Ohio, plus Amanda and Elliot, his mother would be fine.

……………………….

Noah walked through the house, Matt was working from home, and Conner had just gotten home from school and was in the shower, Noah had gotten what work he needed to do done rather quickly, despite Ginny telling him to take it easy, he didn’t think sitting at a table was going to do him much harm.

He hadn’t heard from anyone in Ohio all day, but he tried not to think too much about it, Ginny was doting on him hand and foot, but he was fine, he wasn’t even sick, he had just gotten himself worked up the night before.

“Hey Matt,” Noah said walking into the office, hoping he wasn’t interrupting anything.

“Hey Noah, you feeling any better?” He looked away from his work to turn towards him.

“Yeah, I am, I think it might have just been a short bug or something,” Noah said- a lie- “I wanted to know if you’ve heard from my mom at all”

Matt took several moments before speaking as if you decide what he was going to do. “Your mom is fine; you don’t need to worry”

For some reason that made Noah’s stomach begin rolling again, he was old enough to know that someone was holding something back, Matt was making the same face his mother made when she had a rough case and didn’t want to show it. “So, you did talk to her, what did she say”

“Nothing you need to worry about, she said she’ll be home probably the day after tomorrow, she’ll send someone to pick you up or I said I can drive you up there, either way”

“Why can’t she pick me herself?” Noah asked his voice going up a little, mind going to any place it could come up with.

Matt seemed to realize he probably should have said that and worked quickly to fix it, “She will be exhausted after this case, plus she may still have things to do at the station”

Noah knew this was not the real answer, but he also knew he wouldn’t be able to get any more info out of Matt, he could try Ginny, but she would probably be even worse and offer him some kind of pastry- I mean he would take the pastry, but that wasn’t the point.

……………………….

Momma: I’m back in New York, you can stay another night with the McCanns, but if you want to come home today you can.

Noah felt his phone vibrate against him in the middle of a game of Mario Kart, and paused the game to be able to read it- which Conner did not appreciate as he was winning and this was going to throw him off. He couldn’t help but smile at the text, his mother had done a good job of contacting him regularly, although she had gone quiet for a couple hours in the afternoon, Noah reminded himself that his mother had a job to do.

Noah: I want to come home tonight, will you be picking me up, Matt said he could drive me, but he may still be working I don’t know.

Momma: I was going to send Elliot up there to get you again if that’s alright.

Noah wanted to ask why his mother wasn’t picking him up but stopped himself.

Noah: That’s fine, let me know what time he is going to be here, do you want me to tell Matt and Ginny, or will you?

Momma: I’ll give them a call. I love you.

Noah: I love you too.

……………………….

Noah knew Elliot would be there soon, his bags were packed and he was waiting patiently- mostly- in the living room.

He saw a car pull into the driveway and he figured it had to be Elliot, everyone else was home, he stood and grabbed his bags, thanking the McCanns for letting him stay over, accepting a hug from Ginny.

Elliot came inside briefly to talk to the family and use the restroom, but pretty quickly they were off and, on the road, Noah sitting in the passenger seat, all his things in the backseat.

Finally, Noah was able to ask someone who might give him a straight answer “Why couldn’t my mom come and pick me up?”

Elliot knew better than to lie to the kid who barely trusted him to begin with “She’s okay, but she did get hurt while we were working the case, but like I said she’s alright, just isn’t able to sit down quite right”

Noah furrowed his brow- he had no idea what that was supposed to tell him. “How did she get hurt?”

“Look the important thing is that she’s alright” Elliot didn’t answer Noah’s question, and Noah felt an odd anger flaring up inside of him.

“But how is she hurt, was she attacked again?” Noah didn’t like to bring up what happened with BX9, but it felt right at the moment.

“I’m not going to lie to you, but let’s wait until you get home to your mother”

Noah did not like that answer but just looked at the road in front of them.

……………………….

The ride back to his apartment seemed much longer than usual as he anxiously awaited seeing his mother. She had gotten hurt and hadn’t told him, he knew his mother’s job was dangerous, and there was always a certain level of anxiety around his mother’s work, but he also knew his mother was doing an extremely important job, and the squad was there to have each other’s backs.

When they finally pulled into the parking lot of his building he couldn’t get out of the car and grab his stuff fast enough. Elliot didn’t make a move to stop him as he walked in front of him into the elevator, but he did tell him to hold it until he was in there with him.

Noah had to stop himself from bouncing on his feet in the elevator, not wanting to keep over eager or anything, but in reality, he just wanted to get to his mother, just wanted to know that she was alright- even if she was hurt.

He didn’t bother waiting on Elliot or checking if he was behind him as he marched through the halls to his apartment. When he reached the correct door, he used his own key to let himself in.

Immediately upon walking into the apartment he dropped his bags and looked around for his mother, but couldn’t see right away, which was odd because she always came and met him at the door when he got home from being away. “Where is she? Mom!”

“She’s in her bedroom buddy, but listen” Elliot didn’t get to finish his sentence as Noah marched through the house not even bothering to knock on his mother’s door.

Olivia was laying on her side in her bed, phone in front of her brow furrowed like when she was working on her computer, but Noah didn’t think she was working.

“What happened!” Noah demanded.

Olivia was a little startled by Noah’s unusually loud voice, there was very little yelling in the house- if any- other than when Noah had friends over, and while Noah wasn’t technically shouting, it was pretty damn close.

“Noah,” Olivia said with an air of warning in her voice that Noah didn’t quite pick up on.

Noah walked forward his eyes scanning over his mother trying to identify where she was hurt “Where are you hurt, why are you hurt, what happened”

Olivia looked to Elliot who was standing in the doorway for some kind of help, but he had apparently decided to stay out of his one for the time being.

“I got hurt in my left hip, but I'm okay, I’ll be back at work within a couple of days” Olivia explained gently able to see how upset her son really was about this.

“How did you get hurt, did someone hurt you” Noah wanted the answer, and he wanted the real answer, not an adult trying to shield him answer.

Olivia looked like she didn’t want to answer but knew she had to “I was… shot, but it was not a big deal it was- “

“Shot! You were shot! And no one told me!” Noah exclaimed looking at Elliot with the scowl he had gotten from Olivia more than once.

“Noah honey” Olivia started watching Noah get worked up “It wasn’t even a standard bullet; it didn’t hit anything important”

“But you were shot! Is that why no one was answering my texts or calls? You were shot and no one told me!” Noah felt his eyes stinging with angry tears.

“Noah, listen to me. I didn’t even have to go to the hospital, and no that is not why no one was answering you” Olivia would have made a move to sit up further but if she did Noah would notice how injured she really was, and that wasn’t going to help anything.

“Why were you shot! Were you hostage? Was it a shootout? Crossfire? Just tell me what happened”

Olivia watched her son closely as he listened off reasons she could have been shot, clearly, he had done some thinking about this. “It doesn’t matter why I was shot; I'm telling you that I'm okay and there isn’t any reason for you to be worrying about this”

But Noah was worrying, that’s what he had spent the majority of his time at the McCanns doing, and while he knew his mother was just trying to calm him down, it wasn’t going very well. “But I will worry, I will always worry, I know the squad is there to keep you safe, but you keep getting hurt, there are people that want to hurt you, but just hurt people but hurt you for all I know there is always someone who is out to get you. You were attacked with none of the squad with you, but now you’ve been shot when the squad was with you, how am I supposed to know you're okay when you get shot and NO ONE TOLD ME” With that Noah turned on his heel and marched out of the room and Elliot watched him until he was in his bedroom.

Olivia sighed and rubbed her face, she didn’t bother calling after her son, she wasn’t going to be able to make him stay, and she wasn’t exactly in a place where she could go after him. She looked towards Elliot who was no longer in the doorway and had moved closer to her bed.

“Give him a little while, I'm sure he’s overwhelmed, he needs some time to cool down” Elliot reassured her.

“I should have seen this coming; he saw me being attacked during the BX9 case, I mean he was right across the street, he’s still rattled, I should have known this was going to be a bigger deal with him” Olivia shook her head, no idea how she hadn’t thought about it “I mean you heard him, clearly everything is bothering him more than I thought it was, I am his mother, I should have seen it”

Elliot shook his head, taking a seat in a chair beside the bed in order to be more on Olivia’s level “Don’t do this to yourself Liv, when I was shot while I was working SVU Lizzie was so worked up about it for so long that I barely made it to work each morning”

“What did you do?” for how long Olivia had been working on the police force, she had never had to deal with a child after being shot- she had never even been shot.

“Kathy took her to a child psychologist, didn’t tell me since she knew how I felt about shrinks, but looking back I know it was the right decision” Elliot said seriously “And you know everything that’s gone on with Eli, and while that is not exactly the same situation as what’s going on now, but I think you need to get ahead of this, send Noah to a therapist for a while, or maybe a family therapist, I think it would do you both some good”

Olivia didn’t respond, she didn’t want to think about it.

Elliot moved so he was crouched next to the bed grabbing both of Olivia’s hands in his own “I know what you're thinking, you're thinking ‘how did I cause my own child to need therapy’ you're blaming yourself, but I am telling you not to, if this was any other child you would tell the parents that this is what they need to do. It is not your fault, Noah has seen things happen to you, and as much as we both avoid thinking about it, he is going to find out about other things that have happened to you, and you need to be prepared for that”

Olivia knew Elliot was right, didn’t mean she liked it. She leaned forward until her forehead was rested against her and Elliot’s clasped hands.

……………………….

Olivia knocked on Noah’s door, not getting a response. “It’s mom”

“Come in” the words were muffled.

Olivia turned and looked towards Elliot one last time, him giving her a nod and walking into the kitchen to give the mother and son all the privacy they needed. Olivia tested the doorknob to Noah’s room, happy to find it unlocked. She slowly pushed open the door.

Noah was sitting on his bed leaning against the wall with his knees bent and his legs in front of him, arms propped up on them. Any other time Olivia would have reminded him that he shouldn’t have shoes on his bed, but that wasn’t important at the moment.

“Should you be up and moving, shouldn’t you be resting” Noah said, not angry but Olivia could tell he was still a little worked up.

“I can move around pretty easily, I just can’t sit down like normal, I'm good standing or laying on my side” Olivia explained with a fond look towards her son, Noah hadn’t exactly had an easy life, “I wanted to talk to you though, about everything that happened, but I don’t want to talk at you I want to talk with you, and that means I need you to tell me what’s been going on and how you’ve been feeling”

Noah was quiet for several moments before be began speaking quickly not looking at his mother “You sent me to the McCanns when you were attacked, and now whenever I go I get nervous, it normally goes away after I’ve been there for a while, but it didn’t go away this time, I couldn’t sleep and I knew I could call you if I needed to so I went into the bathroom and noticed you hadn’t texted me at all, so I called you but you didn’t answer, so I call uncle Fin and Elliot, but they didn’t answer either and that’s why I threw up, I wasn’t sick. I was worried about you and I asked Matt if he had heard from you and he said you were okay but I could tell he was holding something back, and then you came to get me instead of Elliot and he wouldn’t tell me what was going on, and when I got here, I find out you’ve been shot”

Olivia felt her own tears pricking the back of her eyes, she felt awful “Come here” she held out her arms.

Noah didn’t hesitate before getting up from his bed and wrapping his arms around his mother, carful to avoid where she might be hurt.

“You're not hurting me” Olivia whispered and felt Noah’s arms tighten around her.

They stood like that for a long time, just taking comfort in the presence of each other, Noah listened to his mother’s heartbeat, just to remind himself that she was there and she was- well not okay- but she was there.

“I'm so sorry I haven’t noticed that you’ve been so worried about everything, I don’t want you to spend your days worried about me. I tell you all the time that the squad is there to protect each other, this was a weird situation, Elliot was with me, but he wasn’t able to see, but he did protect me, there could have easily been more shots, but there weren’t”

“Still, I would like to know when you're shot instead of everyone being weird and avoiding questions, it only made me worry more” Noah said, not moving from his mother’s hold.

“I know, I'm sorry, you should be able to know people with be honest with you regarding me, and I will do better in the future, I didn’t want you to worry about something you didn’t need to be, but clearly I didn’t do a great job of that” Olivia said finally moving so she could look at Noah’s face rather than the top of his head.

Noah looked up at his mother, “I know there are always things you won’t want to tell me, but I want to know what’s going on sometimes, when aunt Amanda got shot, I didn’t know until Jesse told me about it, I had no idea, you didn’t even tell me, and then you get attacked, and now you’ve been shot. I just want to know what is going on with my family, just to know that they’re okay”

Noah referencing Amanda as his family brought a small smile to her face, even through everything going on. “You're right, you're getting older and you're able to know more about what goes on, and I haven’t been telling you much of anything have I. from here in out I am going to make a real effort to talk to you more about what goes on, and there are some other conversations we need to have about things that have happened in the past with me. And I want us to talk about you maybe seeing a psychologist” one of those ‘other conversations’ Olivia was talking about had to be about Lewis. She didn’t know how she would get through it, but she needed to have the conversation before he found out some other way.

……………………….

Noah started seeing a therapist quickly, Olivia sitting on the first couple of sessions, but eventually he started going in on his own. He still struggled, but therapy wasn’t a cure all for anyone, it took work on everyone’s’ part, but he did improve, and that’s what was important.

The Lewis’ talk still hadn’t taken place, Olivia was going to talk to her own therapist before she did that, it was going to be hard no matter how it went. She had been making a real effort to clue Noah in more to things going on, and it was going about as well as it could so far.

In an effort to make sure Noah felt connected to his family a SVU barbecue was hosted at Bruno’s home since he it was the summer and he had a large backyard that included a pool.

Noah was messing around in the pool with Jesse and Billie, Sonny in there with them trying to help Billie get over her fear of jumping in, and to make sure that Noah and Jesse’s competitions didn’t turn into someone drowning.

Amanda stood by Olivia watching the yard “Noah doing better?” Amanda asked, she and Olivia had been talking a whole lot more since the case they worked together.

“Yeah, I think he is, I hate I didn’t pick up on what was going on earlier, but he’s still seeing the therapist, I figure that’s a good thing” Olivia said taking a sip of her drink.

“Is he having nightmares or anything” Amanda knew both Jesse and Billie had nightmares after she was shot for a while.

“Not often, he had a really horrible one a couple of weeks ago, I woke up to him standing in my doorway crying saying he didn’t want me to die, took be over an hour to get him calmed down enough to get back to sleep, and even then, he was sleeping in my bed”

Amanda hummed and nodded, but let out a sudden gasp, hand flying to her stomach.

“What, what’s wrong” Olivia was immediately concerned, grabbing Amanda’s arm. her question was answered rather quickly when he saw clear liquid trickling down under Amanda. “Is that- “

“My water just broke”

……………………….

Amanda had been told that as you have more babies the labor gets shorter, and that was apparently true because there was about a 20-minute period between when she got taken into the labor and delivery room at the hospital and when her newborn baby boy was being placed into her arms.

The entirety of the squad- including those who hadn’t worked with Amanda long sat out in the waiting room, anxiously awaiting Sonny to come out and tell them all was well. A lullaby played every time a baby was born, and after each one the group would sense, just waiting for news, Amanda had had complications during labor before.

Sonny walked into the waiting room with the biggest grin on his face anyone had ever seen from him, although he did look a little pale. “It’s a boy”

……………………….

Jesse and Billie were the first taken back to meet their new brother, Serafina Carisi planning to take them back to her home afterwards to allow Sonny and Amanda a bit of a break before they had to manage 3 kids.

When they returned no one said anything about going back, not wanting to take the opportunity away from anyone, but Sonny took care of it “Liv, Noah, y’all want to come back for a little while”

Noah wasn’t expecting to be called back, but stood with his mom.

When the enter Amanda’s room it was much like when Billie was born, Amanda was sitting up in bed holding the newborn. Giving a smile when Noah and Olivia walked in.

Olivia walked over to look at the baby “look at those eye”

Sonny was standing behind them “He’s got Amanda’s blue”

Olivia pulled Noah who was just standing a bit away over so that he could see his new cousin.

“Sonny told me everyone is out there” Amanda said looking up at Olivia, gratefulness clear in her eyes.

“I don’t know what you expected, we’re all family, and family shows up for each other” Olivia said reaching to squeeze Noah’s shoulder, receiving a smile from him.

“Well, I did interrupt what was supposed to be a family gathering” Amanda said and almost sounded guilty about it.

“Well since it was to bring a new member into the world, I think it’s alright” Olivia assured her, she would not allow her to fee guilty about going into labor.

“If y’all wash your hands y’all can both hold him” Amanda said.

Olivia went to wash her hands, but Noah stayed at the foot of Amanda’s bed. “You don’t want to hold him?” Amanda said raising her eyebrows at Noah.

“He’s just so small, I don’t feel like I should touch him” Noah said his eyes wide; he didn’t remember Billie being that small, but then again, he himself was a good bit smaller when she was born.

Amanda smiled “Go wash your hands, I’ll help you”

Noah did as he was told, washing his hands as thoroughly as possible before returning over to the bed. Amanda scooted over and patted the spot next to her for Noah to sit down.

Noah sat down right on the edge of the bed next to Amanda, his mother standing next to him. He didn’t move his arms on his own rather his mother arranged his arms the right way, supporting him in the right places as Amanda placed the bundle in his arms.

Noah froze as soon as the weight of the baby was rested on him, the baby stirred but remained asleep. Olivia removed her hands when she was confident her son had a steady hold.

Noah looked down at the baby in what could only be described as disbelief, afraid to even breath with such a fragile thing in his arms.

“You two better get along considering he has two older sisters” Sonny said from his spot on the other side of Amanda.

Noah nodded, “Is he supposed to be this small?” he whispered.

Amanda chucked beside him “He’s smaller than Jesse when she was born, but bigger than Billie, since she was born early”

Noah didn’t remember anything from when Jesse was born, and he only a few memories of when Billie was born, but he remembered going to see Amanda and having to be told no to touch the baby, but this time he not only got to touch the baby, but he got to hold him.

Noah felt an odd surge of protectiveness overtake him, he was already protective over Jesse and Billie, and adding a 3rd Rollins Carisi to the fix only made it stronger. These people were his family, his aunts, uncles, and cousins, even grandpa don. He was the oldest of the cousins- unless you were counting Ken, but he had kids of his own- he was the oldest and therefor the protecter, he knew he would protect his family- they were his own squad.

#law and order svu #olivia benson #elliot stabler #noah porter benson #hurt/comfort #tw: anxiety attack #tw: vomit #tw: gunshot #bensler #EO #rollisi #fanfic #svu #svu s24

5 notes · View notes

storytellersumayyah · 4 days ago

Text

THE GUIDE AND THE LIGHT: SEASON ONE, EPISODE FIVE

The Guide and The Light are a series of comedic, romantic and soft short stories detailing the representation Muslims want but are never allowed to have. We all deserve to see ourselves fall in love and keep that love. We all deserve to have our beliefs respected and celebrated, instead of treated like a joke or insulted.

It’s about giving my community what they want and turning conversations that shouldn’t have happened in public into something we can all smile at. I hope you enjoy. (Also yes, this is a lot more than a month later since the previous episode, is anyone surprised? Updates are now sporadic e.g. they will come when the episode after is finished)

read on wattpad instead! | rewatch previous episode | play next episode | view full series

EPISODE FIVE: TOUR DE MARRIAGE

SYNOPSIS: ONE OF THE THINGS THAT NOBODY WARNS YOU ABOUT WHEN YOU GET MARRIED IS THAT THERE WILL BE A LOT OF VISITING PEOPLE. IT WAS INEVITABLE THAT WITH THE WAY LIFE GOES, ALL OF THIS WOULD BE CONDENSED INTO A FEW SPECIFIC WEEKENDS IN THE SUMMER. IT'S GOING TO BE FINE!

note: they are asked about pregnancy, and there is implied discussion of abuse (hypothetical), as well as explicit mentions of forced marriage

It’s only when they come back from their honeymoon that the invitations start flooding in. They both knew they should have expected them. But it’s quite overwhelming to suddenly receive so many messages asking them for dinner. A few even come from unknown numbers.

Ever the logical one, Yahya takes both their phones and writes down the date that each person is inviting them for. And where it’s clear that some relations are distant enough that the rumour mill will have nothing too bad to say about them, they eliminate those. There are a few aunts and uncles that simply want to do their duty, and they’re old enough to just let them. It won’t be more than dinner and a cup of tea, and if they go on the weekdays that have been suggested, they can use the excuse that they both have work the next day and vanish before Isha.

They don’t even bother negotiating with their parents. They just accept the invites, appreciative that they spoke enough to put two weekends between the two.

“We’re going to be so tired,” Noor complains, once they’ve finished entering the dates and times into their calendars.

“I’ll carry you from the car,” Yahya teases.

“Not that tired! If your foot starts aching, I can drive us home. Honestly. I’ll be- you’re flirting.”

“It took you so long to realise I was going to cut you off by kissing you so you’d get it,” he says.

“I mean you still could, you know. If you really, really-” her words get lost to a sharp inhale and then a lot of laughter.

It begins a week later, with a visit to one of Yahya’s aunts. He clarifies that it’s his father’s cousin, not sister. She had made it very clear that they were expected to attend, and no amount of saying that they would see her with everyone else was going to change that.

As soon as they walk into the house, Yahya is standing a little closer to Noor. Something is going to happen.

And then it ends up being much more than one thing. First, they were lied to about the guest list. It’s not just them and their hosts. It’s random people from the community that they haven’t seen in years, but apparently knew them as children.

Noor keeps an eye on Yahya. When he goes into the garden to referee the children as they play football, she watches from inside, a small smile on her face. Nobody else is looking, so she takes one video and a few photos so she can pick from them for her scrapbook. Their tour de marriage- as they have taken to calling it- deserves its own spread.

“You shouldn’t be smiling at him so much. It’s inappropriate,” one of the guests informs her.

She very quickly puts her phone up her sleeve. “Excuse me?”

“It’s too public for you to be acting like that.”

Now that Noor looks at her, she realises it’s one of Yahya’s aunts friends. Which unfortunately, explains a lot. “It’s not inappropriate for me to smile at my husband in public. If anything, it’s a good thing. Shows people we don’t hate each other.”

She walks away after that, taking a deep breath, and she hopes that’s the end of it all.

But of course, it can’t be.

When they’re sitting and drinking tea, now all in one room, the inevitable questioning begins. It starts off okay, but there’s a distinct awkwardness when Yahya says that he is perfectly capable of cooking and working the washing machine.

And then the unfortunately inevitable event happens. “When are you having kids?”

Yahya looks to Noor. She’s smirking as she moves slightly closer to him. They were already sitting next to each other, so the movement brings them close enough that their aunt is staring at them with thinly covered disapproval.

“Well, we’re actually trying really, really hard right now so hopefully in nine months time!” Her voice is dripping with sarcasm that unfortunately (or maybe it was fortunately) goes over most people’s head.

Their aunt turns to Yahya. “You need to learn to control your wife.”

He raises an eyebrow. “No I don’t. She hasn’t said anything wrong. And even if she had, that would be a discussion for us to have in our own home. Not here. Because I understand what appropriate behaviour is, even if you don’t. Noor, let’s go.”

She follows. It’s only when they’re on the main road that she looks at him from the passenger seat. “Can I just say, that was really sexy? I swear, I’m going to kiss you so hard when we get home.”

The only reason he doesn’t close his eyes is because he doesn’t want to get into a car accident. “Noor,” he whines.

“It’s true! Most people would not have stood up for someone like that.”

He sighs. “I guess. But you really weren’t in the wrong. If people are going to ask dumb questions, you can give dumb answers.”

“You would hate being a solicitor,” she teases.

He laughs, and something inside him settles at the knowledge that he can say what he wants without everything descending into complete madness.

(Noor very much keeps her promise.)

A week later, they go to see Yahya’s parents. Yahya tones his excitement down when he realises that Noor is a little stressed about meeting the rest of his family. They both know his own parents like her, which should be good enough, but as the new couple, isn’t.

They park a few doors down.

Yahya turns to her. “Look at me.”

Noor is very determinedly reapplying her lipstick.

He sighs. “My light.”

That makes her turn. “Hmm?”

“They’re going to love you. And if they don’t, they would have felt like that about whoever I married. It’s not going to be personal. Also, I know I’m not as brave as you, but you’re my wife. If anyone has something to say, they can say it to me. I’ll defend you. Always.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course I am. Nobody in this world is easier to love than you. My little light.”

“Keeper of my heart,” she murmurs.

“But our hearts are synced,” he says, just to keep the lightened mood going.

He only lets go of her hand once he needs to ring the doorbell.

She smiles, then takes his wrist and traces nonsensical shapes onto it. It’s something she’s started doing when she wants to kiss him but probably shouldn’t. It’s bad enough his parents heard her remark about children. They don’t need to start any more rumours by having him turn up with a mouth that matches hers.

When it opens, his mother pulls Noor in for a hug before even greeting Yahya. As she rests her chin on Noor’s shoulder, she smiles at him. Yahya smiles back. Of course.

And then it all goes perfectly. His older sister is delighted to finally have another girl in the family, and although his brother is a little awkward, he tells Noor that her earrings are nice. And that he overheard his aunt tell his mother what happened, which was pretty iconic. Yahya tells him to shush, but Noor smiles and says that she always wanted a younger sibling when she was younger, so she could be cool, and now it��s like that wish has been answered.

The rest of the family are as nice as they could be expected to be when the eldest son marries. Noor’s just grateful nobody else brings up what she said. And that the girls in her own age group aren’t too awkward. She appreciates how it can be strange to introduce a new person into your family, having had to do the exact same thing when her own sister got married, but they’re welcoming enough.

They even add her to their group chat and promise to invite her on the next girls day.

And then the guests start to leave. It’s Yahya’s family, so he would stay forever if he could. Which was why he had told Noor beforehand that they could leave whenever she wanted. But there are things he’s talking about with his dad that need to remain private for a little bit longer. And there are things they have to say now.

So she follows Radiah into the kitchen. If she’s being honest, it’s a little overwhelming being with so many people from Yahya’s family without him there to guide her. Radiah won’t let her help in the kitchen just yet, but the pretence will keep everyone else away for a long enough time that she can recover. And she can always just start putting things away without permission. It’s what all the new brides in her family do.

“So, how is it? Being married to him? And I want you to answer honestly. Please. He’s my son, but he’s still his own person and I need to know,” Radiah asks her.

Noor is almost taken aback by how earnest she is. Most wouldn’t want complete transparency. But she sees the fear in Radiah’s eyes. She knows she would have the same if she was given a son, however misplaced it would be.

Her and Yahya chose each other, but that doesn’t always make a difference.

“It’s perfect. Well, Yahya would say nothing can be perfect because we aren’t the Prophet Muhammad, but it’s pretty close.”

Radiah looks like she wants more. Noor could spend hours talking about her husband, and she has done. So she smiles, hoping it will soothe her nerves slightly and continues.

“Loving him-” because that’s what she does, she loves him- “is the easiest thing I have ever done. We’ve had minor hiccups, but he listens. He responds to what I’m saying, not what he wants me to be saying. And he’s, he’s a good son. An even better husband. He makes sure I know he loves me. I’ve doubted a lot of things in my life, but never him.”

Radiah smiles, looking soothed. “I’m glad. It should be easy. It won’t always, because that’s not life. So when it is hard, you need to remember when it was easy. But- and this is important- if it ever gets to the point where you cannot remember a time where it was easy, you need to go.”

Noor’s face betrays how shocked she is.

“Your religion gave you rights well before your country did. You have to use them.”

Noor smiles back, and hugs Radiah. She hopes that she won’t need to use them, but it’s nice to know that the choice will be respected.

And then two weekends pass with them visiting relatives that they hadn’t even thought would want to invite them.

On the third, they go and see Noor’s family.

Her parents present them with more gifts. Yahya quietly expresses his gratitude. He’s also grateful that everyone else’s extrovertedness counteracts his shyness. But Noor has been trying to remind him that he’s funny. And that her family don’t want him to be perfect, they just want to get to know him, so all he needs to do is say something. And when the noise gets a little too much, his new brother-in-law is always willing to ask him something specific so he gets reeled back into the conversation.

He leaves their section a few times to get another glass of juice. Noor smiles each time, looking every bit as lovestruck as their wedding day. Her sister and mother tease her for this, but Yahya just smiles back. There are worse things to be than teased for a happy marriage.

They aren’t going to leave until Noor is ready. So even though everyone else has gone, he still sits with her dad. It’s not uncomfortable. It’s just quiet.

“You know, it’s funny. You’ve been here almost five hours and not a single person asked you how married life is going,” he says.

Yahya laughs into his juice. He then realises there’s an expectant stare on him. “It’s good. Nothing has ever felt so right. And I know she’s happy. She always reminds me when I’m doubting that I’m enough.”

He panics for a moment, scared he’s said too much. But he’s met with a wide smile. “I’m glad. I know her mother and I didn’t set the best example. And no matter what we did, I was always scared she would settle because she would think it was what we wanted. But she didn’t. You’re a good man.”

Yahya coughs. He doesn’t like to think of himself as good.

“It’s true. My wife tells me I was a good father to them both. But I wasn’t always a good husband because I was so caught up in my own anger over the injustice of our situation that I forgot it was our situation and not just mine. She had her own dreams. She has forgiven me, but I still feel guilty. I know that every daughter in your generation resents her father in my generation for creating the idea that you can be a bad husband and a good father. Mine are no exception. Because it is true. You can’t be a good father without being a good husband first. Or at least, you have to try and be a good husband. But with you, if the time comes, I trust you with her soul.”

His heart aches. He wants to say thank you, but it won’t be enough. So he settles for something better. “If your wife has said she forgives you, then it’s time you did that also. You aren’t supposed to punish yourself.”

“I’m not. But I can try and ask for forgiveness from them as well.”

Yahya thinks of the changes Noor has commented on recently. He doesn’t want to betray her father’s confidence, but he knows he needs to say something to her about this. That is a problem for later. For now, he just nods and lets the silence weigh on them like a comforting blanket.

When Noor appears in the doorway, she fears she’s interrupting something. But her dad calls her in, and she tells Yahya that they should probably start heading back. Her bag is already on her shoulder, the directions to his flat programmed. As he stands, his ankle twinges.

She hands him the keys whilst they say goodbye to her parents and Khadija, who is spending the night. Once they’ve started walking to their car, she takes them back.

“I know you don’t want to tell everyone. About how it still sometimes hurts,” she explains.

He nods, then holds her things as she switches into the trainers she always keeps in the car for situations like this.

“What were you and my dad talking about?” She asks. She looks at him through the mirror.

“Just how marriage is going. He- he feels bad. Sorry. That really reduces what he said. He basically said that he can understand that the way he treated your mum was unfair. And he’s sorry. Not that he thinks that’s enough. But he is.”

Noor keeps the vehicle moving at the speed it should. “There’s no undoing any of it. But that’s… something.”

Yahya makes a vague noise.

When she pulls into the car park, she hesitates before she unlocks the doors. “Thank you,” she whispers.

“For what?”

“For not being the kind of man that means our daughter would resent.”

It is not something she should have to be grateful for. But Yahya still nods. When Noor has finished removing her make-up, he kisses her forehead. She leans into it. She will never not.

Rather out of the blue, they receive a message from an unknown number. It’s a woman, who says she would like to invite them for a meal as she’s involved with the mosque and heard from the imam who conducted their nikkah that they had just gotten married.

It seems normal enough, and so they go.

But when they ring the doorbell, she looks confused. “Who are you?”

“I’m Yahya. This is my wife, Noor. You messaged us? Said you were Alfiya, from the mosque? You’re involved with the women’s committee?”

“Oh! Of course. I think- I may have gotten you confused with another Yahya. I’m so sorry.”

“We can- we can leave, if you’d prefer,” Noor says.

Something like fear flashes across her face. “No, no. Come on in. I’ve cooked. And you’re here so it would be rude to send you away!”

Yahya looks to Noor. Something is up. But it’s not bad per se. So they both toe their shoes off and follow her into the house. Her husband smiles at them as they come in. It looks a little forced.

They all sit down. Because Alfiya thought they were someone else, they explain their jobs, when they got married and who they are. It’s all rather unsettling.

When she starts to carry the food into the dining room, they both immediately jump up to help. She tries to send them back.

“No, you’ve already done too much,” Yahya says.

“Exactly. This is the least we can do,” Noor continues.

Alfiya looks like she’s about to cry. Then she just laughs and says she supposes young people now are too stubborn to listen to their elders. Yahya and Noor give each other a look.

They’ve just complimented the food when it all unravels.

“There is no other Yahya,” Alfiya confesses. Her husband sighs.

“What?” Yahya asks, convinced he’s misheard.

“You are the only Yahya. I heard the imam speaking about you, and I just thought that if you were visiting so many other people, we could pretend and get you here. But you’re too good, and you deserve the truth. I’m sorry.”

“Why, why did you lie?” Noor asks. She doesn’t sound upset. Just confused.

“Our children… they don’t come and see us. I think we wanted them to be successful so much that their dreams stopped including us,” her husband explains. “And now we’re just two lonely old people with no friends and very limited access to the outside world.”

Yahya thinks about how there is no car on the driveway. About the walking stick the man requires to get around. About the lack of devices in the house. “Well, we are young people with friends and access to the outside world. We can take you places!”

“Really?” Alfiya asks.

Noor nods. “Of course we can. We’ll show you how to access things online. When Yahya is on school holiday, he can drive you to jummah!”

“And actually, my friend lives around here and works from home. So he can take you when I can’t.”

“Oh, and once a month, I go to this crafting group- they give you a crash course in something new each time. If you want to come, there’s always space! You don’t even need to be good at it!” Noor says. “You wouldn’t believe how bad my creations are.”

Alfiya smiles. “You are both blessings. Well and truly.”

Their car seems to have become a new space for them to have serious conversations. “I hope our parents never feel like that about us,” Yahya says, his jaw clenched.

It’s not something they discuss often. Yahya may be a middle child, but he is the eldest son. That comes with obligations. And Noor may not have a brother, but she has an older sister and brother-in-law. Their situations have always been different. It does not change that both were difficult realities. It just changes how that difficulty manifested.

“They won’t,” she says. “We won’t let them. And unclench your jaw. It’s not good for you.”

Without even thinking, he relaxes. She makes a slight noise of triumph.

When Yahya wakes up the following Saturday, it’s without an alarm. Noor is still asleep. Although he knows he’s not supposed to, he immediately checks his phone. The calendar is empty.

It’s empty.

They have a break!

Without disturbing Noor too much, he slips out of the bed and starts to get ready for the day. He reaches for comfortable clothes that aren’t pyjamas, then changes his mind. There’s absolutely no need this time.

Noor is a little sad that Yahya isn’t there for a morning cuddle when she opens her eyes, but she lets it slide and immediately goes to brush her teeth. Her mouth feels disgusting.

When she returns, Yahya is perched on the bed. The little portable table she brought to the flat so she could do things comfortably whilst not at a desk is on the bed.

“What’s this?” She asks.

“Thought we could do breakfast in bed. We’re changing the bedding anyways. And we should celebrate that we don’t have to go anywhere but between rooms today,” he says, rather proudly.

She smiles. “You’re too precious.”

He shrugs. “I know. Eat!”

He’s made pancakes. His speciality.

Noor reaches for her coffee. Yahya immediately takes it and sets it on the bedside table. “Glass of water first. Remember what that woman said- you’ve been sleeping for six to eight hours. You are dehydrated.”

She rolls her eyes with love, but does as he says. When he’s satisfied she’s hydrated, he passes her the mug. She takes a sip. “You made my coffee right.”

“I know how to make your coffee,” he says, mildly offended.

“Nobody ever makes it right. It’s either too milky, too sweet or too bitter,” she explains.

“Well. I guess I pay better attention than everyone else.”

“I guess you do,” she says, leaning her head on his shoulder.

And like always, he kisses her forehead.

#sumayyah writes #the guide and the light #original story #original characters #muslim #islam #muslim romance #romance #rom com #short story #love

1 note · View note

leaf-in-a-flower-garden · 8 months ago

Text

Hi! So this post will be going into how I've been coping with soon-to-be tragedies in my family so if you aren't able for that, please, don't bother . I really only made this post to vent.

A couple weeks ago I came across this game on Nintendo store called 'Spiritfarer', and thought ,"hey that looks cool, and there's a demo! Sure I'll try it!" And lo and behold, I loved it, so I bought the actual game and played it.

Until I began interacting with the fan base, I didn't really understand the solemn message of the game, which is grief, and moving on. It is about guiding spirits to the afterlife after completing requests for them, it goes a lot deeper than that once you get into the lore side of things, but that's what it is in simple terms.

I got this game during a difficult period, a period I am still in actually. Which is, my grandmother is dying of stomach cancer. As well as my Great-aunt slowly fading away after a horrible, horrible, stroke she experienced over a year ago now. Not to mention, one of my older cousins got diagnosed with cancer, again, after being clear for a few years after fighting a different cancer for over 20 years, it's back somewhere else.

So a lot has been going on for me, funeral planning, most specifically . And a stressed family and mother.

One of the characters in the game is called Alice, I'll try not to go too in-depth about her story, but she began to experience dementia before we brought her to the Everdoor (afterlife). Misremembering and simply not remembering. That's happening to my grandmother, right now, she is experiencing the first stages of Alzheimer's. It's really sad, she is saying things that people did and said that didn't happen, and it's causing problems because what she's saying is really bad, 'you can't just say they did that' kind of bad. She is withering away and I just have to see her go, I know she's happy, end of life care in a beautiful hospice, genuinely a very nice place with very nice people.

And I guess it just hasn't really properly been processed in my head that she's dying, that this is the end of her life, yet ., because when she was just in the hospital, I could say, "no its grand. She'll be out soon, in her house, she'll be grand." But she won't be. She's 93, dying of stomach cancer which has spread to her liver. And she's in so much pain.

She's also tired. For the first bit, in the hospital and hospice, she had energy, she was exhausted yes, but she could stay awake, she could talk to us and not have to shut her eyes. Now she does . She doesn't realise people have visited purely because she slept through their visits. And my grandmother, who used to stay up till 1a.m. in the morning, even when my mam and aunts and uncles were kids, now sleeps at 12. She's dying, fading away and we can't do a thing to stop it.

She isn't even on death's doorstep, she is in his house, havin a cuppa, probably complaining about her husband, my grand-da, that I never got to meet. She would never say 'gone too soon', instead she'd find a way to give out to him beyond the grave, "should've given up those fags (cigarettes) when I told him to, he'd be here and I could berate him here and not at his grave," she said once. It was quite surreal for her to say that, because his death was kind of ironic. He smoked so much, when he began to feel unusual pains, he was scared he had lung cancer and was too afraid to visit the doctor about it, didn't want a diagnosis. But if he did go to a doctor, even a week earlier, he wouldn't have died of an aortic aneurysm.

There still wouldn't have been a chance for me to meet him mind you, it's his funeral where my parents met, I wouldn't have been born without him dying.

I also have just been kind of processing everything, it sounds mean, but right now, almost everyone in my close vicinity is hoping she dies before my Junior Cert, which is only about 3 weeks away. Not for her to be gone, god forbid, but so that I have the time to be wailing over her death, and it not affect my exams. Either way, she made it to May, which is what we were all hoping for. It's a silly thing in my family, regarding my Great-aunt and Grandma die in May, there'll be, what, 7 deaths in May now? We don't doubt this'll be the month, because now my Grandmother, she doesn't have much to fight for, she's at peace with that she's dying, she's lived a long life, experienced so much, why wouldn't she be ready? At first she wasn't, no one is I don't think, but some people resign to it, being their fate, my Grandmother, my amazing Grandmother, hasn't 'resigned' to it though, she is okay with it, she's okay.

She is okay.

But I'm really not. Because this is this, including my cousin, is the 6th person on my mother's side of the family to get cancer, and possibly die in my cousin's case, in the last 4 generations. It doesn't seem like much, but it was 3 of my Great-grandparents that died from cancer, the other one stroked. I'm not sure about my father's family history, his biological family isn't his family so he doesn't have much of an idea either. But, with so much cancer in the family, and the possibility that more will arise, scares me. I'm scared I will be the 'more will arise' because I don't want to die from cancer, I've seen what it does to you, your very self, and I just wouldn't be able to stand it. Everything is making me so scared, before I've even dawned my already planned funeral clothes for the already decided and sorted funeral. I'm scared, and I'm sad.

And that's where Stella, the SpiritFarer comes in. She upon, looking into lore, is experiencing her own journey of acceptance during the game, revealing that this is her on death's row and she's dying of a terminal illness after facing many hardships. I may not be in that situation now, but that could be me, my life flashing before my eyes, tainted by my fantasy driven mind.

I had a dream, the other night, that I was her, and instead of a base game spirit I was rowing to the Everdoor, it was my Grandmother. I dreamt that she was telling me all those stories she never got to, about the Troubles, Éamonn De Valera, and how he was a shite Taoiseach, she'd tell me about how it was like to read the newspaper and hear what was going on in the North. She'd tell me about my Grandfather, and how my Mam was like when she was young, "the spitting image of you (literally, it's really creepy)". She'd tell me jokes and rant about her stupid, but ultimately wonderful husband, who she'd spend everyday with just the same. She'd give me advice on cooking, sewing, everything, encourage me to learn new skills and become a plumber and "fix the bleedin' house before I was dying!". And all of a sudden, we were at the Everdoor, I'd help her stand up, with her beautiful cane, and I say goodbye.

It was a vivid dream, and I can tell it was my subconscious guilt tripping me, rightfully, about how I never spent enough time with her, I never listened to her stories, had her teach me something, play the piano in her living room like all my cousins could do, how I couldn't grow up fast enough to show her that she could be proud of me.

I know I'm young, kids are stupid and most kids reach adulthood before their grandparents die, and learn to appreciate them., but mine didn't, she's the last one and she's 93 and dying as I write this. Everyone is always so shocked to hear that a 15 year old has a 93 year old Grandmother, 40 year old cousins, uncles twice that and aunts close. But that just was my life, and I didn't get the privilege my older cousins had to live with my Grandmother, or to buy a house and show photos to her, bring my kid over or whatever, I won't get the chance to do that before she dies. Even now, I can't just visit, and if I were to, she wouldn't know, she's asleep right now I bet you.

So yeah, tragedy is becoming a big thing in my family at the moment and I am procrastinating on actually figuring that out in my head, because thinking too deep causes a lot of tears and I'm dehydrated enough as is. It's horrible because my literal Junior Cert is only like 3 weeks away and all this stress isn't helping and I just can't bring myself to study so I'm just gonna be a failure, I won't even be able to prove myself to her when she dies at this rate.

Moral of the story, love your Grandparents, talk to them and learn from them because you have the privilege others don't have at all.

#vent post #long vent #long text #text post #grieving #a lot #before it even happens... magic #*sighs*#i might just die #it isnt even lookng good for me or the future of everthing #i just want to see Beetleguice supernova #and ill die happy /serious #spiritfarer has been a big help to this #spiritfarer

1 note · View note