#he still has at least another day of training but idk i might king him early

[weyrleaders]

finally got lucky and got two raffle markings on my heir within like two minutes of each other

[triviareads]

Releases April 25th

Summary:

Bàs Sinclair is the executioner of Clan Sinclair. He was trained from a young age to be a merciless warrior and literally portray himself as death personified. But when he's faced with executing Shana, the woman he kissed the other day, he finds he can't do it. Now, the Sinclairs are on the verge of war with another clan, all while Bàs and Shana's relationship continues to blossom.

Review:

It's been a hot minute since I read a Scottish book, and I was even more exited to read this as it's set in the late 1500s. James VI is King, and much of Scotland is still controlled by powerful clans like the Sinclairs. The time period really shows because there is, uh, a significant witchcraft plot.

You know, despite the pretty intense content (parental trauma, murderous brother-in-laws, birth, clan wars, etc.) this book felt like a warm hug. A lot of it had to do with Bàs being the least threatening threatening man ever. His dad basically brainwashed him into thinking he killed his mom when she gave birth to him (Bàs literally means "death"), and that he must be a warrior and an unrepentant killer if necessary, but despite this, Bàs is actually a really nice guy. Like sure, he acts like he's basically death personified and will fuck you up if you cross him, but also, he takes care of babies (but will not hold them for fear of killing them because he is Death Personified)! He heals animals (who he names unless he's gonna eat them) like a jacked tatted Scottish Snow White! He carved a memorial for his late mother! he learned where the clitoris is from his big brothers! He's very much the gruff, strong and silent type. So no wonder his relationship with Shana is really sweet and romantic.

Shana's characterization might actually be one of the weak spots in the book. We know she's a midwife with a strong sense of familial duty (she risks her neck for her sister and nephew multiple times in the story), and that she helps Bàs realize that his self-perception about him being a ruthless monster is incorrect and genuinely harmful, but beyond that, I never felt like I really got her as a character. Maybe it's because Bàs was so unique (and troubled) in comparison... idk. I really liked what Shana stood for, as well as the her relationship with Bàs, but I just couldn't get a sense of who she was.

The sex:

Speaking of their relationship, my personal take on the sex in this book is that because of all the external turmoil (and there's A Lot in this book), sex for Bàs and Shana is kind of their safe space? If that makes sense? So it's very a tender and affirming kinda sexy.

Overall:

I didn't mention this earlier but if you like family-forward stories, then you'll enjoy this book. At this point, all of Bàs's brothers have coupled off, and them and their wives (and their aunt) play a pretty big role in the plot. Heck, Shana even helps birth Bàs's nieces, a process described in semi-graphic detail. Plus, they're all involved in the clan skirmishes and rescue missions.

Overall, if you're a fan of Scottish romances, this is the book for you! I'm sure I'll feel even more strongly about this after I read through the rest of the series. Highland Beast has all the hallmarks of the sub-genre while subverting it in a sense because despite Bàs being a big, brawny warrior, he's actually really sensitive and genuinely a nice man. Heather McCollum managed to write him like this without sacrificing the heat or the chemistry with Shana, so kudos to her for that.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Entangled Publishing for this ARC.

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 309: Gotta Go My Own Way

Previously on BnHA: Muscular was all “well if it isn’t the protagonist on his solo journey of self-discovery, for some reason I’m unironically glad I get to fight you!” Deku was all “hey Muscular before I finish kicking your ass would you please take a moment to answer these two survey questions? Question one, do you regret being a total piece of shit? And question two, if you could do anything at all in the world other than being a total piece of shit, would you?” Muscular was all, “pfft, no and no.” Deku was all, “thanks buddy, your feedback helps make me a better hero, here’s a coupon for fifteen percent off your next ass-whooping.” Then he whooped his ass.

Today on BnHA: Deku is all “what up All Might can you believe you’ve been here this entire time?” All Might is all “I sure can since that’s literally my catch phrase, anyway how are your magic movie 1 gauntlets holding up?” Deku is all “they’re holding up fine, how are Hawks, Endeavor, and Best Jeanist doing?” Hawks, Endeavor, and Best Jeanist are all “we, your fellow co-conspirators, are also doing fine, thanks for asking!” Flashback!Deku is all “anyway so I secretly have All Might’s quirk and the most dangerous people in the world are after me, so sorry mom but that’s why I’m dropping out of school.” Inko is all “I CAN’T ACCEPT THAT” while totally accepting it. All Might is all “I GUESS WE’LL JUST HAVE TO GO ALONG WITH IT SINCE I DON’T FEEL LIKE TRYING TO STOP HIM.” Hawks, Jeanist, and Endeavor, as previously mentioned, are all “yeah that sounds like a good plan”, and Gran is all “see ya kid, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” So basically everyone in the entire world has suddenly teamed up with Deku to defeat AFO, except for the one person whose entire foreshadowed endgame is “teaming up with Deku to defeat AFO.” O Kacchan where art thou.

dear tumblr image limit: okay look. you don’t like me, and I don’t like you. but just as an experiment, I’m gonna try writing this recap with as few images as possible and we’ll see how it goes

(ETA: spoilers for how it went: it didn’t, lol.)

oh my god WHY ARE WE OPENING WITH MORE KETSUBUTSU ACADEMY KIDS.ffs we’d better at least finally get some Ms. Joke content out of this

(ETA: seriously who do I have to bribe.)

so these two KB kids who no one cares about are watching Deku leap away from the scene after dispatching Muscular. but more importantly wtf is this chapter title omg. “I can’t stay being a child” so that’s how it is huh. we’re gonna have feels and we’re going to like them. well then

oh my god he’s hauling Muscular away dhfksklfkh okay this is gonna have to be our first image because I can’t fucking help myself. look at this

just. Deku is so tiny and he’s carting away this massive unconscious lump of a man like it’s nothing why is this so funny to me. it’s like when people buy furniture, and they don’t want to pay extra for delivery and so they’re like, “I can definitely fit this king-sized mattress in the back of my compact sedan if I fold the fucking seat down, idk.” and they refuse to be talked out of it, and the next thing you know you’re watching them drive home with their open trunk door haphazardly tied down with bungee cords, and somehow it fucking works. because it turns out the compact sedan has super strength

anyway for SOME REASON now Horikoshi is all “have fun with that Deku, meanwhile we now return you to your regularly scheduled SHINDOU CONTENT” whyyyyyy

look at this. we’re really using up a whole fucking entire page on everyone arguing over who gets the honor of carrying Shindou

love how the civilians are all, “shit lol is this actually our fault?? quick, how do we play this off all casual like we were the reasonable parties here all along”

turns out all it took to finally get them to listen was making them watch while a kid got his insides ground into a pulp because of their stupidity!! what a heartwarming conclusion to this little standoff

anyways THANK GOD we’re cutting back to Deku now!! well actually we’re cutting back to Muscular who is being dropped off at the police precinct, good bye and good riddance lol

so Deku’s leaving him there and bounding away and okjdlSKFJLKJDSL OH MY GOD

no fucking way. no fucking way this little jaunt is All Might-sanctioned and approved. are you serious?? then who else is in on this?? what the hell is going on

so All Might is just WAITING FOR HIM IN AN ALLEY FFF WHO ARE YOU, JIM GORDON. or would Alfred be a better analogy here?? but like, Alfred if he ditched the suit for a moto jacket and shades

this new ensemble of All Might’s may or may not severely impact my ability to take this forthcoming conversation seriously; please stand by

also, quite the spectacular landing there, Deku. seriously lol what was that

“HOW ARE YOUR LIMBS” “THANKS TO YOU THEY’RE COMPLETELY FINE” I’M SORRY WHAT

LOL WHAT. “THANKS TO THE POWER OF THESE MAGIC GLOVES” OH I SEE THAT EXPLAINS IT

are these the same gauntlets from the first movie, then? well that’s all well and good, except that now there’s going to be more Deku Discourse than fucking ever lol. so if it’s all the same to you guys, I’m gonna once again go ahead and declare this week’s post a discourse-free zone, at least when it comes to the specific discourse of Deku’s merits as a MC, and the impact that him kicking ass and having working arms has on said merits. this has been something of a low mental energy week for me, so I’d rather reserve the energy I do have for more fun topics, such as All Might’s bitchin’ leather jacket

anyway so All Might’s saying that the gauntlets will help reinforce Deku’s arms, but they can’t withstand OFA at 100%. so basically it’s a support item designed to maintain the status quo lol. we’re basically in the same situation we were before, arm-capability-wise

homg All Might’s getting a call. time to see who else is in on Operation: Deku Alone?? or not so alone for that matter

omg

HI HAWKS, WHERE ARE YOUR WINGS

(ETA: seriously are they really gone for good?? why would he even be back on active duty then?? does he have his own American ex-boyfriend who can hook him up with exclusive support items?? dammit Horikoshi we want answers.)

looks like Jeanist and Endeavor are teaming up as well, just like they said they would. I would gladly follow this trio around all day long tbh

is this the same giant villain from the very first chapter??

looks like it to me, and it would tie in with that callback from the end of chapter 306. we all thought that was Muscular, but maybe it was this guy, and Deku left these three to deal with him while he ran off to take Muscular down

oh my god now Deku is running off again just like that

kids these days

ffffff I have not had nearly enough sleep to follow along with whatever tf Hawks is talking about here sob

like, is he trying to say that All Might is keeping Deku’s whereabouts unknown to anyone except for him?? in order to keep him safe?? but Hawks is pointing out that that’s a bad strategy and probably won’t do shit against AFO and it’s better if he lets Deku work with the rest of them?

(ETA: so @hanashimas​’ translation makes a lot more sense -- it’s not All Might who’s being overprotective, but Deku. in other words he’s trying not to drag All Might into his battles. and in addition Hawks is saying that their strategy is to take the offensive and go after AFO themselves rather than wait for him to come to them. which I’m not too sure about myself, but that’s another topic for another day.)

btw I can’t help thinking how much better this entire conversation would be if All Might was still wearing his sunglasses. put them back on my dude. it’s not too late. embrace your inner badass

DKLJSLDKFJL FLASHBACK ALERT, FUCKING FINALLY

“turns out, we were just trying to scare you straight. fuck lot of good that did though lol”

also what is this. one true love: the hospital bed. is that a scanlator joke or is Horikoshi actually that funny omg

SKLJDFLJLK

ITSA ME!! omg I love this hospital so much. though it’s sure not helping me in my quest to try and keep this post below ten images. I’m already up to eleven haha r.i.p. to me if tumblr doesn’t get its shit together

whaaaaaat, so he’s saying that Deku’s injuries were external (i.e. Tomura beating the shit out of him) rather than internal this time?? whaaaaat. excuse me but that’s some bullshit lmao. believe me, I was there

okay now he’s going on to explain that Deku’s “internal structure” seems to have been protected from the inside and out, and the corresponding panel seems to be implying that using Blackwhip as a brace paid off. huh

and also that his body is just stronger now?? so I guess he’s better able to withstand the quirk after an additional year of training?? I’M NOT SURE IF I BUY ANY OF THIS LOL but I’m willing to suspend my disbelief

OH MY GOD RED ALERT, INKO IS ASKING ALL MIGHT TO EXPLAIN WTAF DEKU’S QUIRK IS, IS IT FINALLY THAT TIME OMGGGG

SO HE’S EXPLAINING IT TO HER OFF-SCREEN, AND INKO IS JUST LIKE

I GUESS THAT’S FAIR LOL. IT’S TRUE INKO I’M SO SORRY, YOUR SON IS A PROGATONIST R.I.P.

AHHKKJH DEKU ANGST IS IT FINALLY THAT TIME OMGGGGGG

what is this soft pop beat that’s suddenly being pumped in over the speakers. I’VE GOT TO MOVE ON~ AND BE WHO~ I~ AM~~~, I JUST DON’T BELONG HERE, I HOPE YOU UNDERSTAAAAAAAND. also, follow-up question, when is Kacchan finally going to come back so he can jump in with the “WHAT ABOUT US~~~” bridge, huh. come the fuck on, Horikoshi

lmao All Might jesus christ

but given that it’s a stupid-ass decision...

anyway, yes!! finally that sweet, sweet “I don’t want to put anyone else in danger” angst!!

mmm that’s good angst Brent. Kacchan with center panel honors as usual, you love to see it. anyways though who do I have to yell at to get Deku a goddamn HUG around here seriously

so Inko is of course reacting with panic, and sensibly saying that she doesn’t approve of Deku’s “RUN AWAY AND FIGHT THE BAD GUYS ALL ON MY OWN, DON’T WORRY MOM I’LL JUST GET STRONGER, EASY AS PIE, IT’S A FOOLPROOF STRATEGY” plan

son of a bitch this manipulative green asshole is really gonna sit here and smile fondly at his mom and try to convince her that he’s Not A Little Kid Anymore. the hell you’re not mister

y'all are really just gonna sit there and let him talk you into this?? surely it can’t be that easy??

OH MY GOD

THE FEELS oh my god oh my god. BUT ALSO YOU’RE SERIOUSLY JUST GOING TO COLLAPSE INTO HIS ARMS SOBBING AND LET HIM DO WHATEVER THE FUCK HE WANTS LKJLJLFK. WHERE ARE ALL THE STRICT PARENTS AT?? AIZAWA, GANG ORCA, MITSUKI, SOMEONE PLEASE COME AND TELL DEKU TO SIT HIS ASS THE FUCK DOWN. NOW LISTEN HERE YOUNG MAN!!

“EVEN IF I TRY TO STOP YOU YOU’LL STILL LEAVE” WELL SURE, IF BY “TRY TO STOP HIM” YOU MEAN POLITELY TRY TO TALK HIM OUT OF IT FOR THREE SECONDS. HE’S SIXTEEN WTF WHEN DID HE BECOME THE BOSS OF YOU ALL. SOMEONE NEEDS TO COME AND TELL HIM HE’S GROUNDED

anyway sob so that’s the story of how Deku talked his parents into letting him drop out of school, and even convinced All Might to be his own personal Guy In The Chair. holy shit. this kid really went and rolled a nat 20 and the rest of them had no choice but to fold without argument

meanwhile here’s a panel of Best Jeanist trying to braid his phone into his hair just cuz

I’m dying to know which part of his language he considers to be crude here. you literally didn’t even use a contraction my guy

so now flashback!Deku is talking to Gran in the dark, and Gran is all “can you believe I’m not fucking dead yet lol that’s too funny. anyway, you sure I can’t interest you in killing Tomura after all?? no?? okay then here’s my cape.” truly a heartwarming scene

I’m kind of torn here tbh. on the one hand, my adhd ass wasn’t all that interested in sitting down and having an extended scene between these two when there’s so much else that I want to get to. but on the other hand, even I can admit that cramming this entire reunion into a single page seems just a BIT rushed. idk. like maybe someone can let Horikoshi know it’s a marathon and not a race. Deku didn’t even get any dialogue here, some of us want to know his thoughts!! but anyway

AND JUST LIKE THAT?!

how did all four of them let him con them into this. I literally just watched it happen and I still can’t figure out how. “I GUESS THIS SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT IS OUR LEADER NOW” ffflfjf. when Aizawa finds out he’s gonna go apeshit. AND DON’T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON BAKUGOU KATSUKI, WHO I HAVE BEEN ASSURED DOES IN FACT STILL EXIST. WHAT ABOUT USSSSS, WHAT ABOUT EVERYTHING WE’VE BEEN THROUGH. WHAT ABOUT TRUST???! YOU KNOW I NEVER WANTED TO HURT YOUUUUU

btw lol don’t get me wrong, I am enjoying this, and I’m honestly glad Deku’s not alone because that would suck for him! but that said, Hawks and Jeanist have lost any credibility they might have once had as far as being The Responsible Ones, and as for All Might and Endeavor, fucking hell lol. everyone just deposited all of their fucks in a bank somewhere for safekeeping and decided to never look back. godspeed you mad lads

[witchmd13]

okay but the image of toddler Arthur running around with a wooden sword won’t leave my head and I don’t know if I want to write it or it’s just there to torture me.

the sword is too big for him. he can barely lift it above his head, but his father had been training with his men all day and Arthur had been watching from the high window where his nursemaid was dozing off in the chair beside him, so Arthur tiptoes out of his room to the courtyard without anyone seeing him. 

unfortunately, when he arrives, training is long over and there’s no one but squires and servants cleaning and picking up training equipment. Except, Leon notices him trying to come near some of the swords put aside waiting to be returned to the armory, because Arthur has gone through a lot of trouble to get there, and he was bound to be in much bigger trouble when his nursemaid notices him gone, so he was going to get a sword all the same.

Anyway, Leon sees him. He’s a newly appointed (assigned? idk the proper word) squire and he almost has a freaking heart attack seeing the blond head of the  bloody prince, who can barely reach the tables where the swords are stacked, reaching over on his tiptoes to a very sharp sword twice his height across the table. Leon has no idea how he makes it in time to stop Arthur from grabbing the damn thing by the sharp end and nearly cutting his fingers off or, worse, his neck.

Leon gently takes Arthur aside and asks him what he was doing. Arthur answers that he wants a sword, trying to make his voice sound like his father’s as best as he could. He ends up saying it with a condescending royal tone that is totally ruined by an adorable lisp and an unsure end to his statement making it sound more like a question. 

Leon wants to ask, wants to tell Arthur that he was too young, that Leon, at 10, was still considered too young to train alone himself. 

But Leon isn’t an idiot, he could see how Arthur always tries to imitate the king whenever he was allowed on the training field, with his nursemaid, to watch. He could see how Arthur always tries to get Uther’s attention on those occasions, how Uther almost always dismisses him. So Leon smiles at the prince and thinks for a moment before he goes up to a few stacked wooden swords that squires use when they first begin, and grabs two, giving one to Arthur and the other to himself and starts teaching Arthur a few basic moves.

Of course, Arthur’s nursemaid notices and Arthur does end up in a lot of trouble for sneaking out like that, but he does end up being able to sneak out later and he does meet up with Leon again. After a while, when Arthur is a little older, at the age he was almost made a squire himself, Leon shows up one day not alone, another kid, a little older than Arthur, is trailing behind him, looking too uncomfortable to be in Arthur’s presence, and Arthur immediatly knows the kid is a peasant and he is taken aback for a moment wanting to ask what was Leon even thinking. Except then Leon introduces the kid as Elyan and it turns out Elyan can fight better than half the squires Arthur tried to swordfight before.

Elyan, Arthur, and Leon end up training together for years after. At least until Elyan leaves Camelot after his mother dies and Arthur joins the knights officially and makes a few new “friends” who were higher than Leon in status and according to Uther are much more agreeable company. Leon doesn’t stray away from Arthur’s side, their relationship turns a little official, but he’s still Arthur’s first knight. Sometimes, he glimpses his old friend under the exterior of the arrogant prince and he remembers how much of a better king he’ll make than Uther ever will and it’s enough for him.

It isn’t until later when Leon notices the new servant trailing after the prince everywhere and openly challenging him that Leon is hopeful his friend is still in there somewhere and might in fact come back. 

When Elyan comes back to Camelot, Leon immediatly finds him. They’re friends again before Elyan had even reopened the forge again. 

[burnedbyshoto]

the countdown

— A reflection on what New Years mean and a New Years kiss.

⋄⋆⊹⋄⋆⋄⋆⊹⋄⋆⋄⋆⊹⋄⋆

pairing: todoroki shouto x reader

warnings: fluff, 2020 year rant kinda idk man

word count: 1,679

a/n: this was supposed to be a drabble, but I don’t know how to shut the fuck up at all. I made It as short as I possibly could, took 5 rewrites. so, take this huzzah. check out the rest of the collab here!

⋄⋆⊹⋄⋆⋄⋆⊹⋄⋆⋄⋆⊹⋄⋆

New Year’s Eve.

It’s a day of endings, a time of reflection, recollection, and remembering.

Time is a finicky thing, convoluted and twisted in ways that people often spend a lifetime trying to understand but can only come to the conclusion that time is memories.

New Year’s Eve is the time to think about what you did in these past three hundred sixty-six days.

Did you have any New Years’ resolutions this year?

Most people are basic, routine, repetitive. It makes sense that the thing most people wish for every year is to make more money, to lose their hated weight, to become more confident, sexier, and to travel the world. Everyone wants some form of weird self-love because we are humans, and humans are so desperately craving to find happiness in life, taking it day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute.

Happiness is weird too.

Happiness is a mixture of chemicals in your brain that controls whether you feel normal or not.

Serotonin, dopamine, endorphins.

A terrific trio that the world always sought to have.

It’s not so easy to have all three; humans are made so weirdly after all. Too many chemical imbalances, receptors, and creators not perfect, and sometimes it’s not even that. It can just be the way the sun shines just too brightly through the cloudy skies, and suddenly that trio is gone.

So, humans consume.

We consume and consume and consume.

This year more than most.

Social interactions are needed to be human, many of us found out this year. You may love four people with all your heart, but going a near entire year with just four people when you’re used to so much more can be challenging, strenuous, exhausting.

But we remember the good things that made us happy this year.

We remember the way that the cold air whipped across our bare faces and the way that huddling up with your friends makes you both warm and cold. Reminisce in the way that the sun shines in deep rich purples and pinks as it breaks through the horizon, a simple, powerful portrait for your eyes only because art will never be seen the same by people who look.

We remember the terrible things this year too. The days were you were an asshole, a jerk, a bitch. How you whined and groaned about nothing. How you were mean for nothing. How you lied and cheated and stole. Admitting to it is one thing, but being able to look back on it is another thing.

You’re human; you have to remind yourself, part of being human is making mistakes. We humans are full of errors from our basic biology, so when you make them, recognize them, and make an effort to be better.

Perfection is not what you should seek, but the betterment of yourself and to others.

We remember the sad, too. Bowed heads as we count the ones we lost this year, tears streaming down your face because they died and because you didn’t get that promotion that you worked tirelessly on. Failure is something we all know of; we all experience it, in the many different shapes it comes in, and yet we are still so easily embarrassed by it.

Failure is okay. You can’t be better or grow to be better without failing once, twice, how many times it takes.

But it is New Year’s Eve, so we try not to think about the latter two; we celebrate the future of a new beginning, not the meaning of the past year.

We celebrate because we humans are selfish, loud, demanding.

We scream to the heavens on this day because fuck the world, we made it to another year, and for that, we demand a celebration.

You know this; you always have.

New Year’s Eve is yet another disgusting, selfish holiday, but you don’t mind it.

You want to be selfish.

You want to see your friends and family on the last day of the year and into the new one and groan loudly when someone exclaims that: ‘wow, y/n, I haven’t seen you in a whole year! Don’t hug me; I haven’t showered since last year!’

It’s stupid to be selfish in this way, but it weirdly comforts you. A weird promise that you might not be doing all too bad in this world, in your life. 

But right now, you’re exhausted, so terribly exhausted, you can’t even fight to keep your eyes open.

It’s dark outside. The moon is shining brightly in the vast wide sky, stars barely visible with the city pollution and the great light of the rock in the sky. It’s not a white New Years’ Eve, not this year in Japan at least (a kid with some stupid crazy quirk had actually managed to ban snow for six weeks). In the woods is a house that is large, bright, and warm. There isn’t much going on in the house from the distance, but the closer you near it, the louder the voices become, the more abundant it becomes that there are over twenty loud, near annoying adults who are playing a million drinking games.

Aoyama is hanging on the ceiling, demonstrating how he can get his laser beam to swirl around him like glass art as he spins.

Mina breaks dances on the pool table because someone told her to “break it,” and she might be a bit too drunk to realize what she was doing was not what was asked. Kirishima and Kaminari are stumbling against each other, laughing as they cheer her on, their eyes crossing as they watch the pink girl send ball after ball unintentionally into the holes.

Tsuyu is not surprisingly winning a game of beer pong against Iida. They’re only allowed to use their quirks for this game, and her tongue is better suited for this than Iida’s pipes.

Uraraka is still doing a kegstand, her early proclamations of how her zero-gravity training has made her the keg stand champion seem to be entirely accurate.

Ojiro is currently trying to find a word that rhymes with tail for the Kings Cup game he is playing with Shoji, Tokoyami, Dark Shadow, and Mineta. They’re undoubtedly the drunkest of them all, this is the seventh round of the binge drinking game, and all five of them have yet to tap out.

Kouda is begging Midoriya and Bakugou to stop taking shots as they both pulled the ‘take seven shots�� Jenga piece on the Drunk Jenga set for the third time. They’ve played as a team after being assigned as ‘mates’ in Kings Cup two hours ago. Poor Kouda is not set out to handle these assholes and having a drunk, instigating Sero as his own teammate is not helping in the slightest.

There’s a boom in the kitchen that rattles the windows. Still, no one even flinches as Sato, Hagakure, and Jirou stumble out of the kitchen, their blushes basically radiating light onto the walls as cake mix drench their bodies. Hagakure screams out for their uncaring old class to hear that sonic waves do not cook cake mix.

Momo, who is sitting in a rocking chair, sips her drink smoothly. It’s her eleventh bottle, and the creation quirk holder is barely tipsy; her metabolism was untouched.

And Shouto?

Well, that was easy.

He’s sitting on one of the lover’s seat, his body as upright as he could be, your body flushed to his side as you sleep. Shouto is drinking his own mixed drink that was prepared for him by you, still cool in his right hand. He’s warm, content, and at peace even with the chaos going on behind him. It was normal.

Shouto shifts his gaze over to your sleeping face, his chest warming pleasantly at the sight of your squished cheek and small puffing breathes. How you got so exhausted today was beyond him, he did warn you that daring everyone to start drinking the instant everyone woke up today was going to backfire, and it seems he was correct.

His hand reached for your cheek, his thumb stroking your cheek softly, the warmth of your flesh nipping as his colder fingers. You sighed contently in your sleep.

Chuckling, Shouto rested his head against yours, his heart speeding up quickly when you buried your face even further into his neck. Small smacks of your lips raising goosebumps as you spoke of your content even in your sleep.

By god, did he love you.

“Alright, everyone, please make your way over to the living room! We have one minute till the New Year!” Momo yells above the group's noise, and somehow everyone hears her and makes their way over.

“Aw! Look at y/n-chan! Knocked out like a baby!” Mina coos delightfully, her lips in a pout and her eyes shining brightly as she stumbles onto the armrest by you.

Shouto debates whether he should tell Mina to back off or to agree with her, but it’s far too late for him to decide when numbers begin flashing on the screen.

“FIVE!”

Shouto feels you stirring, your head lifting off his shoulder and your bleary eyes gazing into his. You look tired, sleepy, drunk, and oh so confused.

“Wha’s goin’ on?” you slur to Shouto, voice thick and husky.

“FOUR!”

“Looks like you woke up just in time,” Shouto comments, his fingers swiping at your face, fixing up the slightly ruined makeup. “It’s the countdown.”

“THREE!”

“Oh, good,” you sigh, your arms softly wrapping around Shouto as if he was made of clouds. Shouto laughs at the delirium still trapped in your eyes. “I made it.”

“TWO!”

“Thank you for making this year wonderful,” Shouto sincerely states, his hand setting down his drink and wrapping around your waist, pulling you toward him.

“ONE!”

“Thank you for loving me,” you cheekily sigh, and with the one still painted on the wall, Shouto pushed forward, kissing your chapped, sticky lips as the year ended and the new one began.

“HAPPY NEW YEAR!”

“I’ll always love you.”

[wesokkasimp]

general zuko relationship headcanons

-hmm

-so i’m writing these for a post-war relationship

-don’t mind me projecting my crush on firelord!zuko

-this boy def doesn’t ask you out right away

-too nervous for that

-i know i said in my long distance h/c that he would propose right away, but that was for an established relationship

-if y’all aren’t already dating expect to be waiting a lil while

-once things have kinda… settled in the world? like it’s still rather unstable, but at this point most passive aggressiveness between nations is gone

-that’s when zuko would finally take some time for himself and his personal relationships

-if you had left the Fire Nation after the war to do other things, he may have realized he missed you more than the others

-and he missed you in a different way

-with the others he just missed interactions and the good times they had as team avatar

-and he missed that with you too

-but he also just kind of craves your presence

-your scent, your warmth, your touch, your voice

-he could probably sit in a room with you silently all day

-taking in the very essence of you

-because there’s just so much to take in

-when he realizes this, he doesn’t peg it as a crush at first

-zuko’s the guy that can read his friends and loved ones like a book but cannot decode his own feelings for the life of him

-poor kid :(

-he probably just pegs it as knowing you better than the others

-especially if you grew up in the Fire Nation

-ESPECIALLY especially if y’all grew up around each other

-but he starts to question his line of reasoning when you come to visit

-he hasn’t seen you since the southern water tribe drama

-and it’s been two or three years since then

-so you get off… the boat? idk wtf they use for transportation

-he’s waiting at the bottom of the harbor

-he knew when you stepped off the landing and he saw you for the first time in years

-he knew when all it took for him, a very focused person, to become distracted was you paging through a file of things for your work, a furrow in your brow

-when he can normally work through various natural disasters (the Fire Nation is an kind of an archipelago so i assume they get lots of hurricanes/tsunamis and stuff like that)

-THAT was when this boy finally came to his senses and realized he had a thing for you

-but him acting on it? that’s a whooooole different story

-HE’S SO SHY AND NERVOUS OMFG IT’S CUTE

-but it’s also a little annoying at times

-because for years he’s been loud and boisterous with you

-and now that he knows he has a thing for you he doesn’t know how to act

-you don’t catch on tho (thank god for him)

-like you know he’s acting different, but you don’t know why

-he knows you’re gonna figure out what’s going on if he doesn’t fix his behaviour soon

-so he keeps an air of normality around you

-but on the inside he’s still super shy and nervous

-zuko doesn’t have a ton of experience with relationships in general but especially romantic ones

-i don’t think he would’ve gotten with someone after mai broke up with him

-it took him a little bit to get over her, as seen in smoke and shadow

-he’s also a busy guy in general; not tons of time for dates

-iroh may have set up a few dinner dates but nothing substantial has grown from those

-so… in conclusion… king has no idea what the fuck he’s doing

-mai was a pretty special case as she was ridiculously low maintenance and showed zero emotion

-aka exactly like zuko

-i feel like them being so alike was probably one of the reasons their relationship didn’t work out

-like… i’m showing no emotion, you’re showing no emotion, i’m not gonna coax emotions out of you, you’re not gonna coax emotions out of me, we both bottle up anger at each other, ourselves, the world, etc, aaaand cue huge screaming match

-getting off topic whoopz

-since mai was so much like zuko, he had an idea of how to court her

-if he thought something sounded stupid, mai would probably think that too

-but it’s a different story with you

-you might have similarities to zuko but you’re not EXACTLY like him (if you are sorry but i had to make y/ns persona less generic)

-so… romantically? has no clue what the fuck you’re looking for in a relationship

-even if he knows you really well platonically, he thinks that doesn’t translate into romantic relations because he’s clueless ok

-so zuko decides on the subtle approach

-would he confess? no! of course not !!

-but do his touches tend to linger?

-does he let you catch him staring at you?

-is he suddenly very invested in the dating scene wherever you’re living?

-...yes

-and you’re not stupid, you catch on

-and… honestly, there’s no big confession from either of you

-things just sort of evolve on their own

-you end up staying in the Fire Nation a lot longer than you originally planned

-fun excursions that were once platonic turn more and more sensual and flirty

-pats on the back and high fives slowly become back rubs and hand holding

-but... HE STILL HASN’T ASKED YOU OUT

-at this point no one know what the fuck your relationship is

-friends? lovers? fwb? 

-no one can figure it out

-least of all you

-i wish i could make zuko super smooth and have this super romantic confession but that would be so ooc for him

-HE TRIES HIS BEST BUT ROMANCE IS HARD FOR HIM OK >:(

-what probably happened was he took you out to dinner

-and you’re tired of not knowing what you are to him

-so you’re like zuko? what are we to each other?

-and he has been DREADING this question

-he knew it was coming eventually

-and to be honest he’s not quite sure either

-he knows he likes you as more than a friend

-and he’s pretty sure you feel the same way

-so he decides to go out on a limb and speak his mind (finally omfg)

- “More than friends, I think. I mean, I think of you as more than a friend… I think you feel the same way? Or-”

-“Zuko, it’s fine. I like you as more than a friend too, but we don’t have to label ourselves right away.”

-the boy is RELIEVED

-it’s like a weight has been lifted off his shoulders

-he’s not the kind of guy that says “i don’t like labels” as an excuse to fool around

-even though you never really talked about it, it’s a silent agreement that you’re both exclusive

-so… i mean that’s basically dating 

-our boy just has commitment issues ok 😔

-eventually you start kissing him in the cheek

-when i tell you he was FLUSTERED when you did that the first time

-i honestly can’t decide if zuko hates pda or loves it 

-he’s touch starved, so idk if he really craves or is really hesitant to physical contact

-if it’s the former, expect hand holding, cheek/forehead kisses, him wrapping his arm around your waist, etc 

-even if he likes pda he keeps it professional

-if it’s the latter…

-the only consistent pda you’re gonna get is hand holding

-if ANYONE gives you shit for something like your socioeconomic status before you started dating zuko or if you came from somewhere outside the Fire Nation

-he will get annoyed and tell them off as politely as possible 🥰

-as for marriage…

-he wouldn’t really think it out that much if he was trying to decide if he wanted to marry you

-by the time he would be considering marriage, he knows right away that he does in fact want to marry you

-his PROPOSAL, however

-he definitely plans this big thing and then somehow messes it up after practicing it a bunch of times

-you still say yes ofc

-zuko is pretty dedicated to the Fire Nation, so he will most likely follow most traditional aspects of the Fire Lord and Lady’s wedding

-he’d integrate important wedding traditions if your culture if you’re from another nation

-married life would be pretty similar to pre married life

-he just gets to call you his wife now :)))

-so it’s canonical that people try to assassinate zuks

-like ALL the time

-he felt like he could handle it but once you moved in with him he started to become very worried :(

-so he beefed up the security around his quarters. even if you also have training in combat he just wants to sleep a little sounder

-hngh if y’all want kids that can be another post this is already kinda long

-that all folks :)

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AHHHHH HI THESE ARE VERY LATE BUT THEY ARE HERE,,,,, anyways might have to turn off my inbox because,,, uh,,, very angry anti semites and zionists in there rn don’t really feel like getting death threats today

[bakugohoex]

Idk your feelings but what about a student confiding in Aizawa about being part of LGBTQ? I'm not able to come out in my household because of my parents views, but it feels like Aizawa would be a good person to confide in.

”i’ll always support you”

pairing: platonic!shouta aizawa x platonic!gender neutral reader

cw: platonic!, angst, fluff

word count: 1000+

a/n: this is something different, i hope this is something you liked and i know it can be hard to be yourself when you’re hiding your sexuality from your parents, but i hope you know and anybody else who doesn't have support that i’m always here to talk and i will never discriminate against someone just because of there sexuality

summary:  in which you confide in your teacher about your sexuality and he brings you the support your parents never gave you

↞ back to my hero academia masterlist

The sound of the class being dismissed filled the air; you’d have to go home. A home that didn’t feel like home, the stigma around your sexuality that you had been hiding for so long now. The mocking from your parents, the threats of even coming out had arisen in your household. Even with having gotten into the best school for becoming a pro hero, you’d thought it’d bring about your parents to be proud of you. But if you ever confessed about your true sexuality, the disgust and horror would erupt from them, even kicking you out. 

You were never yourself, even at school you were worried people would find out and relay it back to your parents. The fear of fighting villains was incomparable to your fear of coming out, you slowly packed your bags. You didn't want to be at home, you wanted a safe space and at the moment in time it felt like being alone in the room was it. 

“Y/n, class has ended.” Aizawa spoke in his sleeping bag, he wanted to leave as soon as he could. Knowing he could get in another nap before the meeting regarding the recent Hosu incident that had happened prior.

You couldn't admit it but being away from your house for the week, with a pro hero you had gotten comfortable enough with to act yourself had been relieving. Being out and helping the pro heroes had made you happy and you didn't have to try and hide your true self. You look at your teacher, he had been nice most of the time and you had been thinking about revealing it all to someone. 

He looked back at your small form, he always thought you’d become an amazing pro hero, with a quirk like yours and the smarts. He had hoped that you wouldn't become some unknown hero, he saw that you’d become better than him in a couple years. But seeing how your eyes were tense, the normal calm student he had seen for months now had become almost scared. “Y/n.” He repeated your name.

“Can I...can I tell you something?” Your stuttering had made the man get out of his sleeping bag, he walked towards you seeing how tears formed from your eyes.

“Hey, hey, hey.” He spoke quickly looking at you, “is everything okay?”

You turn to face him, he sees how you tried to wipe the tears away, trying to stop the sobs. “I...I…” You could barely breathe, heavy breaths just trying to form the words, but how could you tell him, would he react how your parents might? A prominent feeling in your chest made it harder to breathe, the confident person you were had been swept away and you became a scared child.

“Why don’t you sit down?” Aizawa directed you to the chair, making you sit down, you were weak, and he could see more tears form in your dull eyes. 

You felt yourself fidget more, your leg tapping away as your fingers played with each. He noticed how your lip quivered, bringing his hand to your shoulder to provide some comfort. “I...I don’t normally, cry, sorry sir.” You mutter as he gives you a saddened look.

“You don’t need to apologise for crying.” He tries to meet your gaze but even then, sitting opposite you, you felt scared, fearful even that he would send you away as an unknowing teen. “What’s going on?”

“I’m (insert sexuality).” You hiccupped out, the way he looked at you softly with a bright smile on his face.

“Were you worried about the class and I wouldn't accept you?” He questions rubbing your shoulder in familiar comfort. “Y/n, whoever you like, it doesn’t change the fact that you’re going to be an amazing pro hero one day.” 

You hadn't said a word, still anxious about it all. “Is there something more?” The Aizawa you had met on the first day, so filled with coldness and a lack of apathy. But now bringing you a comfort you hadn't gotten from your parents; he was providing you with the adult familiarity that you needed.

“My...my parents don’t…” You hesitated not knowing if you should even talk about family matters with him. You saw how he urged you to continue, wanting to hear your voice and how you felt surrounding it all. “They don’t accept that kind of thing.”

“Y/n.” He whispers softly, “the class and I will always support you, you know, that right?” It was comforting but you still felt on edge with it all. “You haven’t told your friends yet?”

You shake your head, how could you admit to him that you felt fearful of even telling your friends, people who you were supposed to trust. People who were supposed to support you and have your back. “I’d never pressure you to tell them, but just know that they’re reaction will be like mine, if you need to talk some more about this, we can talk about it tomorrow, your parents will be worried about you and it's summer break soon. Hopefully, you'll be more comfortable when we go on that training camp.” You nod grabbing your stuff.

Just as you walked out you heard your name again, “Y/n, your sexuality really doesn't change my opinion on you, I’ll always support you.”

It was something you needed to hear; he still saw you in the same way. You would always be the future pro hero that he had high hopes for. The tears stopped coming from your eyes as you walked out from the gates. You were happy to say the least but the sight that had stopped you in tracks was confusing. Midoriya, Iida, Todoroki and Ururaka all stood talking, you gave a confused look before Midoriya spoke, “we didn’t know how long you’d be, but we waited to walk home.”

You smiled at the group, Aizawa was right they would accept you. You were there friend after all, they’d bring you comfort that your parents would never give you. True friends wouldn’t go against you and mock you, hell even Bakugo would accept you and he hated everybody in general. “You guys didn’t have to wait for me.”

Ururaka was the one to speak next, “that’s what friends are for.” You smiled at the group as they beckoned for you to follow them all. Walking through the sunset with friends you knew would truly accept you for who you really were. 

i’d really appreciate if you guys could leave a like, reblog or comment, thanks x

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[vegalocity]

Peachtea/TripSun angst idea. Nobody knew Wukong would disappear for 500 years so they're mourning until Xiaotian starts training with him. Tang composes himself to wait a little longer but Wukong just ignores all the signs. Until he gets into an argument with Tang and Tang ends up snapping "Why did you disappear for 500 years?!"

Okay so here’s the thing, I can only get behind the whole ‘The other Pilgrims ALL thought Wukong was dead and are PISSED at him now’ stuff, only, and I mean ONLY if Wukong either thought they all didn’t want to hear from him again anyway, or if he thought they were dead too.

....I mean my only contributions to all those ‘Reunion with Baije and Wujing’ posts were both ‘Wukong thought they were dead too’ so CLEARLY thats my read on the whole thing. I sincerely can’t see him just... NOT telling people he cared that much about that he was gonna bounce for that long to be alone on FFM, so if he knew they were alive he would have told them. 

And then you know someone spotted that little shrine with the origami figures in the Special and I was there like:

 So like, lets do something we’ll both enjoy here then because all of those reunion fics are almost exclusively centered around the trio, and we oh so rarely see Sanzang (whether he is Tang or not) get involved. 

So like first off, assuming LMK is on a sci fi alternate earth instead of being in the future, there’s still a solid nine hundred or so years between the end of the Pilgrimage and the supposed time Wukong disappeared for Monkie Kid timeline (JTTW is set in like the 600s or so if i remember correctly, might be wrong about the exacts tho) so lets assume those nine hundred years were uneventful.

So yeah, idk the hows, the hows don’t matter. What DOES matter is Wukong somehow loses contact with the others and is somehow convinced they were all killed, had his last stand against DBK and then went off travelling for a century to come to terms with his brothers and his precious, darling, beloved Master all perishing due to his inability to protect them.

and meanwhile for the others he was just... GONE. Like he’d vanished off the face of the earth, And the last the three of them ever saw of him was the staff rooted into the mountain that now kept the Bull King below. Just in case maybe the tree of them would periodically head off to Flower Fruit Mountain and check in with the monkeys that could still talk, but after about a century it was clear. If he WAS still alive, he wasn’t coming back. And the idea that he’d purposefully leave all of them behind just for the hope that he WAS still alive would do his memory a disservice. 

So when Wukong returns to FFM wouldn’t it be great if he like, JUST missed that last visit? Like DAYS after Sanzang, Baije and Wujing had been there for the final time to hold an impromptu funeral for their dead friend on his homeland and finally accept that he was gone, Wukong returns to the mountain and builds his little shrine for his dead friends... the Monkeys all look at eachother awkwardly and shrug, assuming this will be settled soon enough, surely it’ll be solved before too long.

And then another 400 years of kingly depression naps and the others falling in and out of contact with eachother as they adapt to the ever changing world around them later, Xiaotian snatches the staff from the bull family.

And... Look... It’s been a ROUGH 500 years on Sanzang now called simply Tang. He’d only recently tracked down Baije-now-called-Pigsy in the past... what Ten years? and was only tangentially aware of what Wujing-now-called-Sandy was up to. And... Look... LOOK. It’s ridiculous that he’s still hung up over losing Wukong as much as he is. He’s Well FUCKING aware it’s ridiculous. He should know better, he quite LITERALLY reached immortality through enlightenment. He KNOWS he should know better. 

So why-... Why can’t he say his real name without his gut still twisting into knots? He still tells the stories because telling them behind a wall of detachment, pretending he wasn’t there on the action for most of them helps in some small way, but why does he have to always call him ‘the Monkey King’? What a question, he knows why. He gave his heart away when he was still mortal, and so mortal his heart will forever stay. Dead and returned to the stone with the impulsive monkey he’d given it to.

And then It’s not dead. Because he’s not dead. and honestly at first it’s just shock, it’s just reeling with the sheer tidal wave of feelings he had to spend hours meditating just to sort through. The three of them meet up after Xiaotian and Xiaojiao have turned in for the night to discuss what the FUCK just happened, and all three of them come away with different conclusions. 

Baije is furious and will refuse to seek out Wukong unless its to tell him off for letting the three of them belive him dead, Wujing is sad and would like to see Wukong again to simply ask why he’d decided to cut the three of them out of his life like that, but doesn’t want to do it alone. And he’s...conflicted.

He wants this to be a joyous discovery. he wants to be so relieved and euphoric at his monkey still being there, having ALWAYS been there, that he wouldn’t be able to stop smiling for days on end. But he can’t. It’s all so... messy inside and he’s going to need to keep his distance if he wants to be able to approach Wukong with a level head. This was why attachments such as these were foolish he should have known better all those years ago but it was centuries too late now, and this confliction is what he has to suffer through as the result... wanting to laugh and cry and scream all at once because Wukong is ALIVE, he’d spent SO long in mourning for him, and HOW DARE HE ignore them all and let them assume the worst?!

So he hides behind that Scholar Tang persona while he sorts through his emotions. And it works for the most part. 

And then New Years happens.

And... Look, Wukong’s been THROUGH it in the last 500 years. He’s done everything he could to just... GET OVER the loss of his love His Master and His brothers. he went through all the damn stages of grief, 

Spent that first decade in denial poking around everywhere he could to see if any of them-ANY of them were in hiding somewhere, spent another three decades wandering the world and starting fights with other cultures divine warriors (and that Aphrodite chick was DEFINITELY hitting on him the entire time, extolling about how rarely she got to use her ‘Aria form’ whatever that meant) to work through his rage without actually getting himself in trouble with his own heavenly court. Spent another twenty years or so looking through as many underworlds as he could find, no matter how many of them really wanted to test just HOW immortal he was (Answer: Too Immortal for any of them) to see if ANYONE had anything he could work with, and always coming up empty. eventually crossed the ocean to the other landmass because he was tired of looking at all of these places and seeing either memories or wasted time looking for bargaining chips, and spent a decade or so deciding he hated Mexico and went back to China. and then spent another thirty years just procrastinating returning home to his mountain.

When he returns to flower fruit mountain its as though he’d never left. His monkeys greet him with excitement but he’s standing on the shores of his home he hasn’t seen in a century and... feels nothing. Like his ability to feel anything for anything beyond the people he’s lost is gone. He makes a little shrine that spends most of its time on a shelf that's difficult to be able to look at full on without craning your neck weirdly and if any of his subjects notice that he takes a bit too much care in folding the little paper figure of the monk as he sets the four figures up along the edge of the little thing none of them judge him over it. He’s rarely got the energy for tears anymore, but when he does it’s usually when that little figure catches his eye.

By the time Xiaotian crashes into his life he’s... getting better. At least he thinks he is. having the loud excitable boy in his life is helping chase the shadows away a little bit (though when they return oh how they scream) and he hears some stories of his friends on training days and... geez sometimes he’ll tell this or that story and Wukong will be so THOUROUGHLY reminded of someone that it just... hurts.

And then New Years happens.

And he finally sees him again -- And he finally meets Xiaotian’s friends

And he still doesn’t know how to feel it’s all SO MUCH -- And they feel familiar so he gives them all a quick glance with golden eyes

And he can only do the one thing that feels safe right now -- And oh... that makes sense. How lucky they all found eachother again after reincarnating.

Sanzang hides behind the Tang persona and lies with an energy that could only be harvested from the sheer maelstrom of emotions fighting for dominance -- and Wukong leaves before he says something incriminating because now he knows and he can’t Un-know.

He should have known better but its centuries too late. And it doesn’t even matter that he doesn’t know how to feel about this whole thing he HAS to keep seeing him, he can NOT let him vanish again -- This was a mistake, this was a mistake, he cannot face them all and see lack of recognition, he cannot have his brothers treating him only as Xiaotian’s mentor he can NOT handle looking at him and seeing a stranger.

He needs to at least TALK to him -- He can’t stay away

Wukong doesn’t start out hanging out at the Noodle Shop on down time, that’d be too much too quick, especially since Baije-.. Since Pigsy is clearly still pretty steamed for the whole ‘letting Xiaotian into the world of magic and monsters’ stuff. But he’ll often shapeshift and keep an eye on things like that... No he is NOT eavesdropping on the reincarnations of those three out of the ridiculous desperate desire to feel close to them again. Because he’d rather just love him miss them from afar than be treated as a stranger.

But of course Tang notices when he does. Every time. And every time he wants to say something but his throat feels too tight. That first day he’d fallen on the persona because it was all he felt he COULD do but now the very idea that he’d have to pretend to be someone else just to be able to speak to his monkey not his not anymore Him was completely out of the question. Tang’s actually surprised with himself the first time he finds his voice. 

The conversations come quickly, neither of them quite content to ignore the other now that its become obvious. The conversations are mostly stilted, awkward. Wukong seems both unable to help himself from talking to him, but unwilling to LOOK at him. Tang’s best guess is that he somehow doesn’t recognize him, Had he really changed that much in the time they’d been apart? Had he really lost so much affection for his old master that he could no longer recognize him beneath a slight change in appearance? That might be the reason the Hurt finally starts to win in the eternal standoff between Joy and Sorrow in how this whole thing makes him feel. 

And maybe it’s something simple, maybe Wukong is just barely starting to lower his guard a bit. Maybe just sharing a space with the man who once was the love of his life his master was finally starting to chalk over the rough edges his long since broken heart would constantly stab into him with. and he just SAYS something. Something probably innocuous, something he’d said a million times on the Journey alone. And to Tang it just... feels like he’s mocking him, like he’d known this whole time and had just been playing with his emotions in a way he wouldn’t have tolerated back then- so why should he tolerate it now?

 And the first words out of his own mouth are “Bad Monkey!” and Wukong freezes as Tang begins to lecture him

How he’d spent a solid third of his time immortal in mourning over him, how he’d been the one to tell Baije and Wujing that it would be a disgrace to his memory to believe him alive and instead that he’d chosen to cut the lot of them out of his life, despite how much HE’D wanted to believe it too. How hurt he was to find out that not only he HAD been ignoring them for so long but also that he’d apparently had apparently not even recognized any of them when they HAD all seen each other again! How much he’d missed him, how happy he’d still been to see him again. 

Yes, yes, pathetic, emotional baldy always bursting into tears at the simplest of things nothing’s changed etcetera etcetera- He hadn’t been lying on new years when he said he had a million questions, but all he really wanted to know was why? Why did he cut them out of his life, why did he shut HIM out? Why did you disappear for 500 years Wukong?

And Wukong reaches out, his hand is- shaking? and removes the glasses from right off his face--normal glass obviously, Baije had insisted they completed the scholarly look and annoyed him into compliance--

“You’re-” he hesitates, looks, almost afraid? “You’re not a reincarnation..?”

Oh... 

Well now they both looked the part of fools.

Two sobbing fools clutching to eachother in the alleyway behind Pigsy’s shop, and oh MAN did they have some things to talk about, because Wukong was DEFINITELY coming back with him to his apartment for the night and then first thing in the morning he was going to visit his brothers to internalize that THEY weren’t reincarnations either and then he was going to have to explain where he’d been for that first century while they were all still looking for him to THEM too. 

And yes he should have known better than to get attached to him in this way in the first place, it was disgraceful, the sheer misery it had brought alone was proof enough of that. But Wukong was nuzzling into his shoulder, and pressing those strange feeling monkey kisses across his cheeks and jaw,  and his breath was hitching with pure relief and joy and it was for him-

And fuck it, he just didn’t care. 

[lunarreaper-ut]

Will cross ever be on better terms or rather... More trusting/less on edge with nightmare later (i dont only mean as king and guard but as persons too?) I mean sure nm is still a king and cross a royal guard (of dream) but that doesn't mean they on good terms. I just wish their relationship will kinda develope too... Oh yeah does cross even know how highly nm thinks of him as a guard and how much killer doesn't like that fact? 🤭

What exactly did dream think of killer first and after more time? I mean he surely, didn't like the idea if having an serial killer as his Brothers guard and didn't trust him one bit but i just wanna now more about his thoughttrain...

(Which also reminds me on the question /how & why dream accept killer as his Brothers guard? How did killer gain his trust or at least his approval, leading dream to even apologizing to him?/ u said it was an big event so will this be answered later as an story??? OwO )

My last question(s), in one of my last asks u sad that "at times killer might even gets physicaly get in the way of nm's work, just so nm puts it aside for at least a few minutes" ... So my question is: how does he do that?? Is he laying down across nm's desk like a cat, or just turning him around with the chair and shoving him somewhere else, or taking nm's pen throwing it somewhere or hides it quickly o make him stop, or maybe idk more subtle ways... Like looking at nm with puppy eyes?

Wait... Did he ever try that move on nightmare at all? If yes, When? Was it effective???

Ah that's a good question

Cross and Nightmare rarely interact with each other, so their opinions of each other are that of people who have only seen what the other wants to show. Cross is a bit too caught up in his worries for Dream to see Nightmare's true nature.

Cross has been complimented on his skills directly by Nightmare, and it certainly shocked him. The interaction was odd to him, because of how nonchalant Nightmare was. When Nightmare saw his confusion, he'd said: "Why wouldn't I praise your skill? Only a fool would ignore your capabilities."

Cross isn't aware that it bothered Killer.

He's wary of Nightmare still, and honestly it's not like we can blame him. Nightmare hasn't done anything particularly big to show that he's changed at all. Besides, Cross never knew Nightmare before the incident. He'd only heard stories, and then his first meeting wasn't... the greatest either...

It will take a bit for Cross to feel more at ease with Nightmare. For now, he doesn't see him as a direct threat, and respects him as a King. That doesn't stop him from questioning a lot of Nightmare's decisions (silently), but it's progress.

What does Dream think of Killer?

At first, Dream thought Killer was a despicable person. He couldn't understand the need to cause harm to another, and he had even more trouble processing it after speaking with Killer at his trial. How could someone who had killed so many innocent people seem so... unbothered?

He believed that Killer was wholly and truly insane. When Nightmare told Dream he was taking Killer on as his Royal Guard, he practically threw a fit. (as much as a thousand year old King could do at least). He refused initially, saying they had already sentenced him to death.

That is until of course, Nightmare pointed out the fact that they didn't, Dream did. Nightmare didn't say much as to why he was taking Killer in, and he wouldn't listen to reason. For once, since Nightmare's return, the two Kings had disagreed.

Dream was hesitant to push against Nightmare too much, and he wanted to trust his brother's judgement, but he just couldn't. Unfortunately for Dream, he also couldn't prevent Nightmare from assigning Killer as his Royal Guard. The Kings had equal power in their Kingdom, regardless of who supported them.

There are many things that require both Kings to be in agreement, but a King choosing their Royal Guard was not one of them. Nightmare was exercising his right as King by choosing Killer, even if Dream was sure it was a terrible choice.

After Killer became a Royal Guard, Dream was... well he tried to be polite. Killer was annoying, he was rude, unmannered, and he didn't care for his job. Dream was frustrated nearly every time he saw Killer. Eventually Dream couldn't stand it anymore and talked with Nightmare. He said he didn't need to have a Royal Guard if he really didn't want to, and he would understand.

When Killer remained as Nightmare's Royal Guard, Dream was confused, and a little frustrated again. It seemed after that, however, that Killer was becoming more tolerable. Dream had begun to get used to Killer's jokes, but honestly? His manners were much better. Dream was still wary about him.

It was the night that Killer lost his arm that Dream's entire point of view changed. He hadn't thought Killer would do something so selfless, and when he'd heard about what happened he hardly believed it.

He only truly believed it when he actually saw Killer after the fact. The entire castle could practically hear the scolding Killer got from Nightmare, and when Nightmare put Killer on leave. Dream was... conflicted to say the least.

Killer was still trying to insist on doing his duty, even when he was meant to be recovering. He was frequently asking Cross to train with him so he could get back to his duties, trying to speak with the guards who wouldn't let him see Nightmare, and he even asked Dream if there was anything to be done.

It was probably the first time Dream realized Killer actually cared about his job. When Killer returned to work as a Guard, with a new arm- made from Nightmare's own magic even!- Dream apologized to him.

How does Killer physically get in the way of Nightmare's work?

Oh he'll do anything he thinks won't get him in trouble. Taking papers Nightmare is working on, "misplacing" his files, getting in the way of his writing, all sorts of things. He doesn't try to move Nightmare though, since he's sure that will get him in trouble. He might lay on the desk if he's feeling particularly lazy that day, and he will indeed try his best for "puppy eyes". Which is a bit hard without eyelights, but it comes across.

If getting in the way doesn't work, he'll resort to his secret weapon. "Please, Your Majesty? For me?"

Killer started doing that after he lost his arm, and 9 times out of 10 it works. He says it in the gentlest voice he can manage, and he has to make sure Nightmare is looking him in the eyes, or it's effectiveness goes down.

[teen-bxtch-movie]

I found a weird analysis I wrote about the bidding by tally hall and how it fits Nico di Angelo

I wrote this at twelve am months ago and I have no clue if it actually makes any sense to anyone else but me but here y'all go

Why “The Bidding” By Tally Hall Fits So Well With Nico Di Angelo: An Essay

vhttps://youtu.be/2-rXKAN8oK4

Let me preface this with the fact that this song does not in fact perfectly fit Nico Di Angelo, but there were enough lyrics that fit for my monkey brain to be intrigued.

Starting with the first line of the song we have,

“ I've been sleeping in a cardboard box

Spending every dollar at the liquor shop

And even though I know I haven't got a lot

I'll try to give you love until the day you drop

The “ sleeping in a cardboard box” would reference the fact that Nico di angelo was homeless for about two years, and while he can’t spend his money at the liquor shop because he is at most 12, what he does spend his money on is food to try and raise his sister from the dead, an obsession that could be seen as being as unhealthy as alcoholism.

I've been training like a pavlov dog

Let my independence out to take a hike

All you gotta do is activate my bell

And I'll fetch you anything you like

These lines are not very Nico specific, they apply to most demigods. It’s basically a nod to the fact that demigods go on quests to do their parents bidding, whether they’d like to or not. We see this with Nico when after Hades gives Nico validation, Nico starts doing errands for the god. ( Note: not incredibly sure if that's a head canon or not).

Going once, going twice

Every man here has a price

The “price” of doing the gods bidding is little recognition and a high mortality rate.

Sold

To not a single lady in here

This is a bit of a stretch, but I see this as a nod to Nico’s lack of attraction to women.

I've been to every continent

Broken all the hearts in every hemisphere

And if I'm not the type of guy you like to circumvent

Just remember not to love me when I disa-

From what we know about Nico and shadow traveling is that he had a bit of trouble getting the hang of it. While we only for sure know that he’s gotten stuck in China, I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say that he could go to every continent. While ‘Broken all the hearts in every hemisphere’ is usually seen as romantic, I like to see it as all the people Nico pushed away after the first war or as Bianca in the after life being sad that Nico still doesn’t have a good life. ‘Remember not to love me when I disappear’ is not only another reference to shadow traveling but also to the fact that Nico Has a history of running away from things.

I like to take advantage of the bourgeoisie

So if you have a fantasy of being a queen

Maybe you should blow a couple bucks on me

This might just be me, but I think that the Bourgeoisie fits with Hades because he is also the god of riches.  The ‘ Fantasy of being a queen’ lyric ties into Nico because one: He claimed the title of Ghost King after he stole it from Minos and 2: Hades is the lord of the Underworld and that would at the least make Nico A prince. ( Side note: If Zeus is the king of the gods does that make Thalia and Jason Prince and princesses???)

I promise I'll be all you'll need, ever need

You'll never have to shop around (don't shop around)

And I'll give you all you'll ever need, ever need

Don't worry I will never let you down, let you down

Don't worry I will never let you down

(...)

I feel like these lines correlate to when Nico has the plan to bathe Percy in the River Styx( It might be the wrong river idk) And it’s later revealed that Nico thinks that doing this will make Percy fall in love with him. Now, we all know this doesn’t happen, but from then on we do know that Nico never lets Percy down. And Percy is the main reason he does most of the things he accomplishes in the books. While I think Nico does have some loyalty to demigods, he doesn’t really have a reason to help them when he’s been so ostracized by them. So I feel like he really just takes the not letting Percy down thing to heart. This is also a reference to Nico being in love with Percy with the lines ‘ don't shop around i'll be everything you'll ever need. Nico wants to provide for Percy and being the only one to provide for Percy and don't shop around is basically saying ‘ you don’t need Annabeth when you have me’.

I wrote way more than I intended to and I’m not even sure if this makes sense or if I  articulated it well enough. If you got to this point I love you and thank you for reading my bullshit. <3

[hxmosuperior]

for the silm ask meme, 14, 17, 19, 21, 22, 23, and 24?

14. Saddest moment in The Silmarillion?

Fingon's death, I think, cause you have the sense that they are trying so damn hard to prevail against Morgoth, his cry when greeting Turgon's troops is "Behold, the day is come!", and then he dies, and it's like, idk not to get fake deep but the hope of the Noldor sort of dies with him, he's the Valiant one, the one who long before Beren and Luthien has already snuck into Morgoth's lair and took back what was dear to him, really the closing out on an age of Kings (Turgon didn't have authority outside Gondolin, and Gil's Kingship didn't come really to full potential till the Second Age), "and death was his reward" for his bravery, his estel, so to speak.

17. Are you glad the Last Battle isn’t in the published Silmarillion?

Yeah, I prefer it without because it feels more "living" without it? Because we already have the Doom of Mandos that shadows over the entire book; the Second Prophecy of the End of Days feels too limiting, as if everyone's actions will have to fall to that inevitable conclusion, but if it were only alluded to and not included in full, it makes it feel as though it gives more interpretations more room to breathe and stuff.

19. You get to save one character from dying. What would they do instead?

I would save Feanor probably, because I feel like he's very much a person who seeks to defy fate, and if he were still alive, I feel as though it would definitely change the sociopolitical landscape of Beleriand drastically. He would be on the front lines (and his sons would likely serve as his lieutenants). His paranoia is likely a big snarl to work through, but I feel like Fingolfin's crossing the Ice would assuage that fear of his somewhat, as it proves that those who crossed have enough gumption or devotion (even if they only wished to rule their own lands or confront him, they still willingly damned themselves by the decree of Mandos for it).

As for the High Kingship, it'll likely be a reversal of the canon Silm, with Feanor as High King but the Nolofinweans and Arafinweans doing their own thing, so long as it doesn't oppose Feanor's own mission. Maedhros is likely the diplomat in this situation, which is definitely going to be an overtime job. I feel like his presence might even be enough to offset the potential Thingol intended with a Quenya ban, as he is notably very much a stubborn linguist, though there's likely less reason this time around for the Arafinweans to keep the Kinslaying a secret from Thingol, and the ban might be enacted even earlier if only because the secret was revealed out of their spite for Feanor.

It might even lead to full-blown conflict between the Sindar and the Noldor, but on a characterization level, I feel as though the Nolofinweans and Arafinweans would have caught more of their deserved culpability this time around. The Arafinweans would have to acknowledge they were willing to follow the person who killed their mother's kin into exile (and use the boats that Feanor procured through Kinslaying). Likewise, it's possible the Nolofinweans would have to confront their own role in escalating the Kinslaying (iirc, the Feanorians were pushed back twice by the Teleri when they tried to steal the ships; not until the Nolofinweans joined the battle did it become a full-on Kinslaying.) It's hard to scapegoat a man who's still alive, and ready and willing to vehemently defend himself after all.

Political issues with the Sindar aside, one thing's for sure though, Feanor would absolutely adore the dwarves, and like Curufin and Caranthir, would definitely learn Khuzdul even if he acts like a nerd without social graces meeting the Dwarven lords. As for humans, they do possess a distinct lack of reverence for the Valar as Feanor himself does, and I think he would feel some degree of connection for them to that extent, especially considering his views of death as something of permanence due to Miriel's death, even if philosophical conversations might end up devolving into sort of a mutual feedback loop affirming the flaws of the Valar.

I think another main difference is probably in what happens during the Siege, as it is mentioned that the Bragollach occurred after the Noldor grew complacent. I feel as though Feanor would have been far more proactive, even the appearance of Glaurung might be pretext for him to push for full-on invading Angband, or at least striking preemptively against Morgoth. Say goodbye to the Long Peace, but at least we have more Feanorian shenanigans. Or, in a more whimsical universe, Feanor (likely with Celegorm's help) manages to capture Glaurung and train/tame him, and turn him against Morgoth.

22. What is your opinion of Fëanor?

He did nothing wrong.

23. Do you have pity for Melkor?

Yes, absolutely. I'm like, really baffled by him as a concept, in general, I suppose, like, if Eru created him as is, if all Melkor did was through Eru, does Eru sanction the horrors Melkor committed on Arda? If Melkor was created thus by Eru, and all Melkor did was through Eru, how much free will was he accorded? Was there a line between his evil as Eru decreed it, and his malice as he chose to be? Did he have a choice? Was he always destined to end up as Morgoth, Black Foe of the World?

24. Your job is to write The Silmarillion: The Musical. What is one of the songs?

This is a hard one,,,, I don't listen to many musicals lol

I think I mentioned on Twitter once that I really liked Marie Josee-Lord's cover of Les Sans-Papiers from Notre Dame de Paris as the vibe of a song about the Bragollach. It feels like there's this sense of foreboding looming underneath, and the lyrics lend themselves well to what it must have felt like for the people of Himlad and Dorthonion and Tol Sirion and Thargelion to see the fire rising on the horizon, and decide either to make their last stands, or flee south into the unknown, hoping desperately that Doriath will show mercy and let them through (they don't).

[cheerfulimp]

Cursed....characters

ok no I wont wait days...and I will talk about characters, I’m not gonna compare it with the book I haven’t read. Just what I saw

Arthur 

I didn’t like the Arthur at all....like at all...I’m not judging him being in a band, he was abounded kid, and stuff, didn’t know what to do blalal...but come on like he STOLE the Sword, and then after Nimue went after him and demanded the Sword back...he was like “hey nothing really mattered, just a sword sis chill,  why are you talking with me like that and stuff..pff...why are so rude to me, why why”...aagghhh...and after, through the series, I can’t explain it, aghhh I hope there will be a NEAT character development for him...I really hope...how do they even fell in love?

Green Knight aka Gawain

Boi my boi....such a perfect character, again I hope to see his character development. Because heeere what I didn’t liked at all. He told us a story about his close friend being killed in front of him blalal, and it was tough yet the right decision, to let him die. AND THEN we have windmill scene, where another yet fairy is tortured in front of him, they demand him to come and fight, BUT hey oh my lovely Gawain whom I really love, this time you’re not alone, it’s not only about your life, there were kids, and honestly you didn’t even know that fairy, so the reaction you gave was really stupid. Yeah Yeah we all can agree that that fairy life really mattered, plus he remembered his friend’s death etc., but come on we all know  he saw/witnessed/went through that same things after many times. And sure that stupid behavior of this only was written in order for ARTHUR to kill himself that poor fairy, so Gawain would not kill his own-kind, though he knew it was the only logical move. Come on people, we saw/ read plenty of movies/books with similar situations.

Nimue

I love the actress. Her character is not set well yet. She was not really practicing with her powers during her childhood, neither she can really fight. Idk we need more I hope we will get more. I’m not talking about her sometimes crazy behavior under the RING’s influence , sorry SWORD’s...this LOTR RING and CURSED SWORD have SAME ENERGY honestly =D However I must say something. The scene where Dof died, let’s be honest she didn’t even really tried helping, like “man i’m so tired after all that and stuff, i might not be helpful blala...sorryy my best friend since childhood...welp he’s dead sorryyyy” and immediately when the other viking dude announced that now they with  Red Spear are allies, she immediately had that smile on her face, like good good thanks!! Sure in that time of trouble it’s good to have someone on your side, But I mean let’s be honest she didn’t even tried hard enough to save that man. And we all remember that on the other hand she really tried  hard to save dead Gawain. Double standards? like IDk who is this man so nope im tired, GAWAIN my childhood ( i feel he was a crush) i will try to undead you. Remember Vinny? yeah had that vibes

Merlin 

How can you hate Floki?Sure Floki killed Edelstein, but it was in the past. And his Flokiness was coming out in Merlin. Nah really good character....we need more of him agaaain to understand him, well ok not understand  rather than  justify his actions. True there’s a lot went between him fairy people and human (not mentioning shadows, creatures and other dimensions ) during his loooong lifetime. Man can have depression and anxiety. IDK we saw lot’s of characters that live long life and vie life differently idk idk. He tried at least saving his own daughter, that is a start I guess, and now his powers are back, who know what craziness awaits us.  ALSO NOW he has no connection with humans, neither with shadows, and fairies, he is all by himself. This can lead to something interesting? morality? He will train Morgana? who knows? he still have fairy fire or smth .I was not going to talk about him honestly. I love Floki

MORGANA 

Before knowing who is she. I hated her, cause for no reason she slapped Nimue..like dude wtf she just woke up she don’t know where is she, who are you and who was that future bitch little nun sitting in front of her. WHY SLAP?? ANd then we found out her love towards Fairies, and i loved her. then we heard her version of letter she said her fav part, that was “ damn i feel we gonna see it in the future”. Plus How did she killed  the Widow?? spider? sword? Graphics  were weirdish. And with all due respect, you left the “one you really loved that hard” in the monastery, and then “I will do shady things to return to you..more like dead version of you”. We all know this is not her but the spider, and Morgana is supposedly  smart, why is she not considering that option? blinded by pain and love? naah...this is ridicules, but heey she is not fully doing shady things so far she returned to Nimue, idk how becoming a Widow on the way...maybe this is some king of time paradox type things...anywaay let’s seee...SHE IS THE MORGANA PEOPLE>>>SHE MUST BE BAD ASSISH

Percival=PERFECTION nothing to add. He’s gonna be trained by best out of bests!!!

Weeping Monk? Lancelot!! He did nothing wrong! And in this fandom we love him!

When I first saw him, I was like ok ok i know your backstory. Definitely fairy raised killing machine. For a little brief moment in the very beginning i though he might be Mordred (first two episodes), but then we had Gawain, so i was like “ okaay I see some epic Lancelot revel coming soon”, cause the whole squad is here already.You can’t have Arthur, Gawain, Morgana,Nimue,Perci,Merlin, but magically bring Lance in the end or somewhere in the middle of seasons. Have you noticed that “Weeping Monk fighting against Trinity Guards had the SAME energy of Ben Solo fighting  agains Knights of Ren” ?I will go down with this character...perfection...

Red Spear 

Is she Guinevere ? Maybe i forgot some knight with a spear..Sir Balin? he was not part of round....but idk this book i haven’t read, so why not he was one of the Savagest one...I ship my/this theory

[zpetlovesglitter]

The Wicked Powers Theories

The Wicked Powers has recently been getting me excited WAY too much - which says a lot about how weird I am since Cassie hasn’t even started on it yet (LOL).

aND, so, I kind of thought it’d be nice to jot down some predictions and theories on how the series might go and maybe some thoughts on THE SHIPS (that really do be the real TEA).

So.Here we go.And do let me know about any thoughts you have on this topic as well - I read anything about TWP like a crazed creature these days istg.

1)The POV has already been envisioned to be from Ty, Dru and Kit. I absolutely love this settlement since they are all very intriguing characters. Ty is an interesting person and his actions are always unpredictable, so we might enjoy this one. And,I believe he is at The Scholomance while the story progresses, followed by Livvy (Ghost Livvy, I mean).It’s still unclear what Livvy’s situation is, so I can’t wait to know more about that - it’s bound to be something unexpected. And, as for Dru, it’s kinda obvious. We all know that WE HAVE A LOVE TRIANGLE COMING UP. But, other than that, we also know she attends The Academy and finally starts to makes some friends and even has that really close Italian (..or was it Spanish???) Shadowhunter friend who’s her age and Cassie also revealed that the two are really tight indeed. And I will be honing in on the Love Triangle soon - I told you I’ll be trying to spill whatever tea I’m guessing at.  And, as for the last character WE HAVE KIT! OMFG YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW MUCH I LOVE OLDER BROTHER KIT.LIKE GOSH DARN IT HE IS SO ADORABLE AND MINA IS SO EFFING CUTE I CAN’T EVEN-                          AND KIT’S TRAINING WITH JEM AND HE IS GOING TO BE A WELL-TRAINED SHADOWHUNTER IN TWP, SO YAYYYY!! And, I absolutely CANNOT wait for MinaXKit interactions, they are the cutest siblings ever and I absolutely know that Mina grows up to be sarcastic. I can’t wait for the possible sarcastic arguments between Kit and 4-year old Mina. YOU THINK I FORGOT ABOUT KITxTY? NOPE.THE REAL SHET’S COMING UP.

2)Now,we know that the storyline is going to have something to do with that Faerie Heirloom that was from the Rosales Family. And, Cassie also said it was going to be kind of an Arthurian Legend-ish story. If you don’t know the Arthurian Legend, I suggest you read on it. I’m not sure if Cassie meant the characters and LOVE Aspect of it or the LEGEND aspect of it as in the stuff about Excalibur and all. But, for now we’ll view it in both and examine it, shall we?

King Arthur's reign ends after his wife and best knight have an affair.

This is the drama in the legend.But, there are no relationships with the MCs yet. So idk. I’m clueless. Like, maybe Dru has a relationship?? Okay I’m clutching at practically nothingness so don’t judge me. :/

So,it’s obviously something to do with the LEGEND.

I am afraid I cannot say too much about it, since I have never read too deeply about it. But, here’s some of the basics:

-He managed to pull out Excalibur from the rock it was stuck in.

-He wielded Excalibur for the people and not for his own self-interest.

-He gets help from a wizard named Merlin.

-The peeps go on a quest.

And I have this reference from a website..I’ll hit u with the link as well, if you’d like to read more on it like I did

Arthurian legend, the body of stories and medieval romances, known as the matter of Britain, centring on the legendary king Arthur. Medieval writers, especially the French, variously treated stories of Arthur’s birth, the adventures of his knights, and the adulterous love between his knight Sir Lancelot and his queen, Guinevere. This last situation and the quest for the Holy Grail (the vessel used by Christ at the Last Supper and given to Joseph of Arimathea) brought about the dissolution of the knightly fellowship, the death of Arthur, and the destruction of his kingdom.

(I’ve linked it with the text above.)

So,now I thought this was interesting- the destruction part. After all, it’s something I’m expecting about the Shadowhunters. Will the Clave maybe be destroyed? Or maybe Faerie will be destroyed? So,there were three things that brought on this uh Destruction.FIRST, his wife and his best buddy were going behind his back and doing them lovey-dovey stuff. And they all go on some quest to retrieve something important to them. So, this sounds like something plausible to be the plot of TWP. Maybe the Heirloom’s missing? And who goes on the quest though? Maybe they venture through Faerie? BLAH MY HEAD HURTS SOME THINGS ARE BETTER TO BE SURPRISED WITH ;)

-----I kinda scrolled back up while writing about Janus down there and remembered CLARY MIGHT BE TAKEN HOSTAGE LIKE YESS AND THEY GO FIND HER MAYBE?

3)We will defo see Christina, Mark and Kieran at some point- no worries, Emma and Julian too. Happy Couples! XD

4)So,then we can look forward to Dru and Jaime’s interactions. I am absolutely excited for this the most, as a shipper of the two. If you remember, we saw Jaime ignoring her for a while back there at the end of QOAAD and then he says “See ya at the Academy soon ig”. I really do hope they meet and hang out as friends, at least. I am excited to see what kind of trope it’s gonna be tho. Like, do they ignore each other and remain awkward until they start the adventure stuff in the book where they eventually have to talk to each other after years or smth. Or, maybe they’re really good friends rn. But, what I’ll warn y’all shippers is that they might not end up together, and could wind up as brother-sister-ish kind of best buddies. Which is equally cute a relationship imo. It’s a really sweet thing to be, really. I lowkey hope Cassie spins something beautiful for their relationship like a sibling-like best friends kind of thing. But, I feel like they might have feelings for each other in secret. Or maybe they date. Or maybe they suppress their secret-feelings for the sake of friendship later on in the book and end up having that really sweet friendship I was talking about.There are SO many options and that is precisely why I am so freaking excited.

5)JAIME ROCIO ROSALES.       Like, I have this gut feeling that he might end up being my fave male protagonist character in TSC. He’s got it ALL. Like, the sense of humour, the looks, the bubbly yet brooding personality, the quirks and OFC THE FRICKING NAME ITSELF IS CUTE AF LIKE BRUH I CANNOT WAIT TO READ ABOUT HIM.I have so much to say about Jaime but I’d rather we let ourselves simply wait for the crumbs Cassie might give us or maybe reread all his parts in TDA like I do everyday or just wait for the book to come out rather than simp for someone we know nothing about yet....

6)Ash Morgenstern.         He’s a cute lil bean.        That was random and untrue lmao. He’s not a ‘lil bean’. He’s totally badass with dem wings and all, but we know he’s soft inside for Janus and ofc Dru, I believe. I find him the most intriguing character, honestly. I would love to know what goes through his head. He’s actually, like, the one character in TSC that I don’t have all figured out. He gon surprise us all for sure tho. He is awesome. That’s all I have to say for now. And he looks up to Janus which is SO GODDAMN SWEET AHHHH. And THE WINGS I CANNOT WAIT TO READ MORE ABOUT THE WINGS IT SOUNDED SO BADASS ISTG I LITERALLY CANNOT WAIT GOSH DARN IT. But he really do be a cute lil bean lowkey tho.

7)Kit and Ty LOL. I have no words really. But lemme tell you how it might go. There is definitely going to be some kind of reunion. AND THEN THAT’S WHERE IT GETS CUTE. They could either be awkward and we know what tension that gets us-perhaps some whisperings of My Watson...(?  ;) and maybe they go all sad and brooding with dem looks later OR, they could be the sweetie-pies they were before and be happy and all HIII BUDDDYYYY MISSED YAAA LESS GO BE DETECTIVES YAY BURN IT UP MAH BUDDY!! Either way it’s going to be cute af and we know it . TRUST IN CASSIE Y’ALL.I trust Cassie to let this ship sail the seven seas and seven more like it deserves.

8)Ash and Dru So, Ash has a strange lil fixation on Dru and I believe he even thought she was ‘pretty’ or something. It was definitely a good adjective, but I think he said ‘pretty’. idk but we know he likes her. and I can imagine a nice relationship. I can picture them with her hair flying in the wind and they meet for the first time or smth. IHNI WHAT IM SAYING. But, there will be DRAMA. They are going to be real cute with each other YOU CAN BET ON THAT.And, by cute I do not necessarily mean ‘Oh, you have the loveliest eyes’ or some shet like that. I have a feeling it’s going to be a case of ‘Well,that’s not weird or anything YOU WEIRDO - NO U - NO U - NO U’ However this relationship is going to go, I know that it’ll be a sweet one.And, for all you shippers of these two, I have no assurances that HE IS THE ONE or anything but he is definitely a candidate. Jaime is going to be some competition I can tell. So, idk. It depends on the Jaime x Dru ship to decide things for Ash x Dru ship imo, since it might be a no-brainer if the two have feelings for each other- I mean,Jaime is an actually perfect love interest in TSC, while Ash is strong potential Best-Friend material, so it’s ONLY if Jaime and Dru don’t like each other that way that Ash could make it as a love interest. So, if y’all wanna find out what’s in it for you guys, ask Cassie maybe about how the Jaime x Dru ship might go, the next time u wanna ask her ;)

9)Tavvy and maybe the kid Helen and Aline might have had We were getting hints of another baby, so HERE WE GO.Tavvy might have a playmate. :D. YAYYYYYYYYYY

10)Janus  I’m honestly worried about him. He is a worrisome character. I hate empathising with the antagonist, personally. AAAAHHHH . I hope we see some character development in him. I really don’t want to see him as an antagonist in the story. He’s sweet and feels cheated, but he should realise that it ain’t Jace’s fault but SEBASTIAN’S fault. I would like for him to make amends with Jace :( And, also, he might get the story started in TWP tho idk. But, seriously tho, when he went home in that short story and Ash asked, “I thought you were gone forever?” or something of that sort and he shook his head sadly and Ash went soft for him. Like, that fricking broke my heart. I love this relationship tho. And, i hope Clary and him can be good friends. But, I feel like he might end up dying to save her or smth and make us all cry . T_T

11)WHAT TF IS GOING ON WITH THE SHADOWHUNTER POLITICS RN THO?HOW AND WHERE ARE THEY ALL SURVIVING TOGETHER WHAT IS THEIR SYSTEM AND STUFF THIS IS NOT A POINT WITH POTENTIAL THEORIES COZ HONESTLY I WANT TO BE SURPRISED BUT I THINK THEY MIGHT ALL JUST BE IN HIDING AND THEN IN TWP THEY MIGHT HAVE TO COME OUT FOR A QUEST OR SMTH AND WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THE SHADOWHUNTERS AT THE CLIMAX OF THIS WHOLE SERIES??? IT IS THE END OF TSC SO IM SCARED AND KINDA SAD TOO :(((((((

12)Thule We might learn more about the Thule world and maybe they restore it or maybe the Quest is in Thule. idk. we don’t know much, but Thule will most probably be explored a lot. Cassie wouldn’t have opened up Thule for no reason.

13)Zara and Emma  Showdown? Befriend e/o ? What’s in store for these two? If it’s a showdown we get to see CORTANA YAY I AM OBSESSED WITH CORTANA NOW BECAUSE OF CORDELIA AND HER OBSESSION GOSH DARN IT WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO ME

14)BIG WAR I see a huge war coming I just know it. It’s a climax so there MUST be a big war and so I cannot wait! Feel like there’s gonna be some deaths as well. Lowkey feel like Jia might die. I can feel it. :(

15)The best-friend shadowhunter of Dru is a nice thing to look forward to! I can’t wait to read about the two! And I love the fact that Dru is finally exposed to new people. And, for anyone who’s confused as to how she goes to the Academy, in QOAAD she only said she’ll have some maturity done AFTER some years .  Those years are over and she at the Academy now hecc yeah I BELIEVE THE BFF IS CALLED THAI AND SHE’S FROM THE SPANISH INSTITUTE CORRECT ME IF IM WRONG???

16)Magnus Bane He is literally everywhere. He gon be here too. No worries for all the Magnus Bane stans. He’ll make it here without a doubt!  Good for you :).  and the entire community of shadowhunters they literally always need him  17)THE MAIN MAIN PLOT THE SHADOWHUNTERS SHOWDOWN IS OBVIOUSLY GOING TO ALSO BE RELATED TO THE PRINCES OF HELL COMING TOGETHER AND I AM TOO SCARED TO LOOK TOO INTO IT BUT WE KNOW SHIZ COMING GNJODIFPEDWEFHUGBJ VM

18)THIS IS KINDA RANDOM BUT I CAN’T WAIT FOR THE SELF-ESTEEM GROWTH IN DRU LIKE PLEASE SHE QUEEN MWAH

[happypuppys-archive]

pls do pls do pls do !!!! i love books

:DDDD !!!!! okay okay okay this will be slightly long bc im just gonna explain the entire first book (since that series has 12 bookz n then therez 3 different sequel series kdh)

putting under cut bc itz v long

BUT okay so the main character of this book is will!!!! he is an orphan that lives in redmont castle (? i think itz called that but i haven’t read the bookz in like 7 nearly 8 years lol) n so he is with a bunch of other orphans n then there is one, horace, who bullies him. hez a dick atm but genuienly by the end of the book hez one of ur fav characterz

SO they have this whole thing at 15 where the like. important people come in and they tel them what job they want ? like one wants to be a courier, one wants to be a chef, n horace wants to be a knight. so they tell them that but then will:[ he wants to he a knight bc he knows his father was one but they’re like ‘lol no’ so hez sad BUT..... a ranger appears :ooooo and he handz the baron a note n itz about will so will is like ‘i am going to read that letter tonight’

SO when everyone is ~asleep~ he sneaks out and hides and climbs his way up the wall to the barons room n getz in AND THE FUCKER ISNT ASLEEP!!!!! AND THE RANGER IS THERE!!!!! (his name is halt btw) n then the baron is like ‘well we should let him at least read the note’ n it’s like ‘i will take will on as my apprentice for him to be a ranger’

SO!!!!!! i think the next day or smth? will leaves n goes with halt and he starts training and stuff n itz just. cool!!! n there’s also a whole thing where he gets a horse who will only respond to him + a word itz cool skfhjd.

meanwhile horace is at the knight school n now HE is getting bullied!! by these boys a year above him and hez like ‘oh fuck now i know what it feels like n i feel bad’

(now at this point a couple things might be out of order bc idk which happened first)

SO willz been training yknow hez gonna be a RANGER bc they r. vv cool they have bows they shoot with and they are Silent they have cloaks that blend in to the nature so that they can Sneak and Hide!!!!

and so halt takes him to this whole rnager camp thingy where all the rnagerz meet up at But on the way there he gets will to hide because his former apprentice tries to sneak up on him every year and he wantz will to shoot an arrow near him to show that hez there so will is hiding n then the former apprentice, gilan comes up (i love him soso much btw) n hez like ‘oh i got u halt!!!! i got u good!!!’ n then halt is talking and will is pulling back his bow and then halt says smth about having two horses n gilan Realizes and as he turns to look will shoots the arrow n it hitz the tree beside gilan!!!

so then they get to the camp n there is Bad Thingz happening so they leave to go back to their home

and so then therez a scene where all of the orphans are hanging out on this like rlly happy day but then horace is a fucking DICK so it getz ruined but u know what? whatever

so then another scene is where therez a wild boar thatz running around, so everyone tries to hunt it, right? and so therez halt and will wirh the knights and stuff and i think will kills the boar? but then he goes a tiny bit away and then therez horace there and i think they’re gonna argue when THEREZ ANOTHER NOAR!!!! and then willz horse tries to get the boar away and he’s like ‘TUG MO’ but then soon the boar is coming at them

and will puts out his knife (? idk if thatz the right word) hoping that at least he can kill it before it can hurt horace AND THEN!!!! an arrow comes flying n KILLS the boar!!!!! and i have screenshots for this i just Need to share

SO HORACE AND WILL FRIENDSHIP!!!!!!! they r friendz now itz soso great

ok so remenber the fact that horace is getting bullied? those fuckerz think hez gonna tell will (or think he told will) so after they beat horace up theyre loke ‘letz go teach his friend a lesson’ n horace is like FUCK so even tho hez hurt he gets up and follows them and then when they arrive and EILL is there they fucking hurt him??! but then horace arrives and hez like ‘you fucking fuckers, stop hurting my friend’ BUT THEN!!!!! HALT ARRIVES!!!!!

n hez liek. a Scary Ranger okay! hez known across the land bc hez so good but these boys see him being like 5 foot 4 so they’re like ‘oh we can take him’

(note: they cannot)

they get their asses fucking BEAT!!! one getz his ankle broken, another one getz rlly hurt, n then horace spanks the other one with the cane they brotught to hurt will with n he hitz them so hard that it broke lmaoo

BUT THEY GET EXPELLED FROM KNIGHT SCHOOL!!!!

(also there was a scene some point in the book where the whole knight teacher dude noticed horace doing stuff during their training and he realizes horace is unconsciously adding a swipe to the thing hez learning for fighting which will fucking Kill whoever hez fighting so the dude is like ‘damn. he smort’)

okay okay so the end of the book. therez this whole Evil Dude that u slowly learn about throughout the book but he has an army of these ducking like. night creature thingz! itz rlly weird they r covered in fur and see best at night and can only be killed by fire but the thing is that once they have a scent to track. they will not stop tracking until either them or the person they’re hunting is dead

and remember how i said halt is like a Scary Ranger? itz bc hez known for defeating the Evil Dude in this war. so guess who the evil dude sendz those monsterz after.....

and they dont know this yet, so like. halt sendz eill back to the castle to get the baron n the knight leader dude and will genuiwnly doesnt stop until he arrives and theyre like ‘woah what the duck’ n he frantically tells them and so they’re like ‘fuck u need sleep’ n hez like ‘NO HALT COULD BE DYING’ but they. Make him sleep for a few minutes n then they all head back but when they arrive they hear the creatures like hunting call and they know that they r hunting for halt

BUT halt has killed one already so therez one left so hez weak and then one of them nearly kills the knight dude (and i can’t remember what happened to the baron but hez still alive) but will putz stuff on his arrow and then dips it into the fire and it lightz on fire and it burns his hands but the holds the arrow back and points or at the creature and then firez it and kills the fucker so for now. everyone is safe

(n then therez a whole scene where the king expresses his gratitude blah blah n then it endz)

sorry that thatz so long skhd

[thecrenellations]

Return of the Thief Notes, Part One: The Book of Pheris, Volume I

Notes from my first read, October 2020. (Part Two | Part Three | TaT)

Contents:  "So, so, so” watch, Costis watch, swearing, trashing the king’s attendants, being objectively wrong, boundless enthusiasm and love 

I promise I’ve had more developed thoughts since these often incoherent ones, but I’ve enjoyed having these notes to refer to - for sentimental reasons and for  entertainment, so here they are, for others who enjoy liveblogs and/or being whisked back in time to their first read of this wonderful book.

Format: Page number. My thoughts (Context?)

Dedication, Table of Contents, Exordium:

There it is – to Sounis

Exordium – vocab #1

Interregnum?!? Alyta?

Pheris!!!

Yeah I love him from the first page

MOIRA

MOCKING COMMENTS HELP! Gen lives!

A new level of unreliable narrator

Moira, messages of Gods, Pheris, messages of __

Wtf is going on in this study? A zoo?

high king vs great king vs annux?

okie dokie dude

Chapter 1

1. Susa – Costis

2. Infirmity – who gets to be hero/tell story (I started reading right after the book launch, in which mwt spent some time talking about her writing influences and decisions connect to this question - Pheris isn’t her first disabled protagonist and storyteller, of course, but it was lovely to meet him properly directly after hearing her talk about it. Book launch foreshadowing part 1...)

Melisande?

Is this why he wasn’t taught to read?

3. Always the summer

Bees!

4. Hunting cat… hm…

Ok … shrine … 😬

5. Once again we start with a disaster or having to flee

Which Eugenides precipitated

Bite!

Little monster :(

6. Falling…

:(

7. :( :( :(

His purpose? D:

8. YIKES

Chapter 2

9. Hello there! (Gen!)

Massive chair?

10. CRACKED WATER JUG (amphora motif???)

11. Triangle from seal!

Gen that’s rude to Pheris :( (“He will fit in very well with my attendants”)

Wait. This must have happened before ACoK! (nope)

12. :(

Xikander … never made an impression before

How old is Pheris? (lol)

13. Philologos come thru!

Royal closet reappears!

14. Hello weird secondhand scene!

He is Eugenides

Marina…

15. Petrus? GALEN? OH SHIT! 

Is this why Galen was called? (nope)

16. Hell yea Petrus

Miras’ golden balls oh no

All these previously unnamed sucky attendants!

17. Ula – goddess of hearth and healing

Ok … Galen … or a god? Eugenides????? (why did these options occur to me before Mr. Shows Up At Your Bedside At Night himself)

18. Finally the attendant floor plans I crave + hunting scenes!

19. EXCUSE ME he slept through Sounis + Eddis wedding!!!

Again – high king!

20. So Ion is beautiful … hmm.

Yeah … Sejanus has facets. I like it.

21. Clearly no one would know what king would do … lol

Don’t mind me just sorting the attendants on a spectrum of awfulness!!!

22. SO SO SO – ION!!!!!

How many fucking attendants are there and how many are on my hit list!

Is “the necessaries” bathrooms or like … him stealing? (just the bathrooms ... the Gen-Pheris parallels were really getting to me at this point)

:(

23. OH MY GOD THE UNIFIED CREST

Also … frogs. Frogs.

24. Big day for Gen huh

Definitely an aura of Something as he writes about Gen

25. HELLO EVERYONE

26. Sorry Kamet, Pheris does the physical descriptions better. They’re beautiful

I’m blacking out at Eddis and Sounis

27. Jesus Christ. The bear.

Cousin time!

Under the table is the new up on the roof!

Uh… twin imagery ….

Gen’s feet!

Jesus. The matching

28. Cleon … wtf? A cousin?

A trial for Sophos?

Show! Us! Sophos’s! Shoes!

29. If u throw things out the air shaft you might hit the king

Was it a chicken?

Lol nvm the guy at night is Gen. That is … very sweet

- Showing up at night

- Accent

- Complaining about Petrus

- Swearing

- One hand

I am judging Costis and Sophos for not describing the paneling in Gen’s room!

Chapter 3

30. Was it a chicken?

An earring huh, good hand huh

31. Literally screaming “NO!” at Gen. Don’t joke about dying! I am killed by Gen on annux day. This is. My boy. Yes he is perfect. Yes he will refuse to get up. I love him. I died on page 31

Philologos is still the best of them

32. Dancing bear indeed

Always the powdered gold

Ruby!!!!! <3

Aww a smile!!! <3

Pheris he likes you!

33. They both love invisibility and lost it … I cry

Erupt like the sacred mountain excuse me!

OR WORSE return to bed! Lol

34. He’s Eugenides when he’s talking to Attolia

Ouch hero talk

! from Irene!

My queen!

Hey Phresine!

They way we do <3 he’s hating it but he’s so comfortable with her

Sister and bro mention! C’mon!

I love them

EYEBROW

35. Honestly that’s a yes (“I have no idea what you mean, my queen”)

It’s so cute they hang out in the morning … like how long was it even since they’ve seen each other lol

:( tough walk for Pheris

Is it prophecy time?

Lol how long does this construction take?!

Also … she’s pregnant, huh? but no one knows (nope)

Is befriending someone weaponized as a prank count for Gen’s enemies to friends list?

Also SHOW ME the magus. I know he’s here!

36. Pheris excuse me, why not recreate this!

Lol cast off language of history indeed

Feel the thrum of the goddess!

EXCUSE ME… a minor goddess? Mystery goddess? Or Philia?

Oh Gen

37. Well, Gen, someone is having a worse day than you.

Damn, how far we come.

Aww Sounis, babe, I love you and so does Gen

[drawing of the four of them sitting in a row]

38. Artadorus???? Pomegranate?

39. HEIRO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A friend! Also lol. Two smiles, for Pheris and Heiro..

40. Yesss Melheret joke in action.

Costis has left tho right?

Jesus, Melheret

SHE GAVE HIM A HORSE (I COULD NOT DEAL with this entire conversation, but then again I could not deal with this whole book.)

41. I love them all so much

“on that horse, you will look like a king” I can’t with her sense of humor

He sure did say that

I feel like I’m missing something with the fight on foot thing … remembering battles?

Helen called him Gen!

Sophos stop talking about yourself and bringing apricots into everything lol

Lol these bystanders don’t know how lucky they are. Nor does Pheris, yet

42. She’s protecting him

Also … Gen … you didn’t want to be a soldier.

43. Guards have capes

2 startled men … hm …

Oh Gen. The fucking brutal echoes…

44. :( :( :(

Gen tell your wife you’re sick!

The attendants are so dumb

45. So, so, so :(

Tell who? Petrus?

Wink!

Yes?

46. Bleeding! Salt! Lemon! Heck no! What is he, a piece of meat?

Oranges?

47. “savoring each bite as if it were my last” ... Same … but with this book

Hmm… Alyta! Goddess of the gentle rain! (despite this “hmm,” I did not put the pieces together)

48. Oh no Teleus! And someone?

Aw he realized <3 lemon water

49. Gen eat your broth lol

50. I love them.

Ion’s really trying to make up for what he did that one time

51. Without the approval of the great goddess HAHAHA

I love them. Cousin time! Growl?

Idk whether or not to be reassured, Gen.

Wow Cleon I do not like that. Also didn’t he die? (...)

Comma (“I am not, Eddis”)

Go smack him!

52. Gen I love you.

Helen I love you.

He’s so bad at self care but I love him

Chapter 4

55. love that our narrator just disappears and reappears

56. Attolia’s brother’s bedroom? Yikes. Ominous. A detail in a story we’ve already gotten, different every time <3

57. fucking attendants. 3 good ones. Medander you were beneath Costis’s notice before but I hate you. Costis didn’t have time for you or Xikos or Xikander and nor do I

58. interesting pawn talk!!!

59. <3 Pheris :(

The Gen comparisons though

:( :( :( :(

60. flamboyance <3

Cemphora bush

Bees

61. I love him

62. I love them

Also lol “Your majesty?”

63. Name … hm … (“I have deliberately omitted [my tutor’s] name here”)

64. more twin imagery I swear

WAIT … it was his birthday! Not just Annux day?!! Gen was born in late summer???

Attendant list thank you

65. laying it all out there, huh … (that one Gen quote)

Lol they’re the same but Pheris likes horses

66. Insellia! Hello nice to meet you

67. Gen that’s mean. (“He is hardly even half of one.”)

68. Coleus leves???

“I am Eugenides.” <3

Gen why

69. Gold cups???? Hmmmmm. Also lioness. Def invoking Costis. (they’re probably not the cups, but STILL)

Earth….

70. Moira! Hi!!! Rainbow shawl!

Like a rabbit!

Pester!

I’m … very sad he uses his Attolian accent with Helen

71. Aaah so good

Mortals

Moira knows another messenger?

Does he think he can’t die in battle?

72. hmm are they WRANGLING?! (Galen and Petrus and my Fire and Hemlock word association)

Kill that pastry Irene I love you

morning training with his … guard? (Is that the whole guard or a guard? Costis senses tingling once again.)

73. Oh gen.

Ouch! (“to send people to their deaths and not risk my own is contemptible”)

Is she implying he’s paying Therespides?

74. Interesting Cleon plan. So many doubles

OUCH. (“Only if he comes back from the dead.” I assumed Lader had died in the war; it’s a different ouch now. I love that they both accidentally say things to each other that poke old wounds, and it’s not a big deal but it’s also not dismissed! Their relationship has come so far, and I love them so much.)

75. Verimius – Lavia – Celia??? Somebody is queer in there!

A GUARD

This scene confuses me. Xortix? Layteres? Aris! but dice thing is less political … so maybe? (just wait....)

76. So many reasons to hate Medander

Hey Costis! You exist! KoA happened!

Gen is just … still so uncomfortable and miserable. He chose, he has people, but still.

RIP Clopius also WHAT

77. Lol Hilarion’s grand statements

78. Yorn Fordad Hello!

Luxurious mustache

The mighty Pents?

Besin Quedue – she’s coming 4 you watch out

79. RIP Baron Hippias

Chapter 5

80. Spring! Plays! Cenna!

81. Oh dear

Oh dear

At least they said he was pretty

83. ?!? :( wine

Uh oh. Stockpiling

85. What even.

AAAAAAAAAH COSTIS

86. Omg Irene. Hissing. I love her.

Also … Gen’s the viper

Also this scene was written by Pheris.

Damn.

87. oh no.

What better man

She fucking quoted Howl. I love them.

Also, bees (this scene killed me)

90. Falling?

Oh shit

Also … Juridius and Pheris, Susa and Costis (comparing demands for information)

93. oh my god (IT’S THE WINDOW SCENE)

Oh my god

Uh

94. She! Called! Him! Gen!

I love this and it scares me

Lol Chloe

Irene you learned from her though

95. D:

96. :(

97. water stuff

98. what the heck

OH NO (Quedue scene)

Hm

100. yikes

Omg

Wow.

102. yikes yikes YIKES

103. a blade has protruded from his chest (tbt to The Thief)

jesus

106. shit

Did Gen hit him?

108. lol Phresine

109. lol

I want genuinely every character’s reaction to this shit

Chapter 6

111. what the heck Gen.

112. like a god [crown doodle]

114. Perma?

116. Gen. Gen. Gen. Do not.

117. AAAA (god intervention)

122. Juridius to Dite

124. bye Iolanthe and Ileia! Tell us about Caeta and Silla.

125. did not expect so much Ion

Chapter 7

127. Fryst god of winter

She laughed!

They’re so married

128. OH SHIT (Costis ship is sighted and I remember what’s about to happen next)

Interesting timing

He rode the horse home?

131. Beauty and good, beauty and kind

134. The gods’ goodwill

Keep them safe <3

135. Is that his MOM?!! Wtf (it was!)

Pheris steal those earrings!!!

RING! SMASH BOX!

137. AMPHORA EARRINGS (and flowers)

138. I love Phresine

139. Why do I feel like all the game birds are pigeons

140. meanwhile Gen’s been hanging out with Kamet. Shit. I cannot.

WELCOME HOME BOYS!

HELL YEAH KAMET ATTEND THOSE MEETINGS!

RELIUS COME THRU

141. lethium soup! The reversal

Safe for you

142. of course he knew <3

143. Kamet time! I love him. We get to see Kamet!!!

Also … echo of Gen’s notes on Mede

145. very handsome. … gaycostis vindication (referring to @costis’s url at the time and this post. Little did I know what else was to come in the next chapter and then a few months later with the adaptation news...)

Do you know who I am?

Chapter 8

147. Of course he’s a cartographer

A favorite huh

148. of course she didn’t tell us his age!

149. the angsty window staring I crave

Music!

151. adventure, huh

I do have a soft spot for Melheret

152. concerned about amphora gift

153. Glad they can be well and united in spite!! (Gen and Melheret)

154. Pheris loves math and I love him

155. Hello Teleus. Hello olives

Lol Relius is not into math

156. pigeons. Inkpot!

157. yeah honestly. He tortures people. He was NOT tortured by the king

159. lol (“I have noted the elective nature of certain behaviors” ... I love Relius and Pheris.)

160. The Invitation! I <3 it

161. EXCUSE ME WHO

Legarus!

FOLKS HERE WE ARE (I cannot overstate how wonderful it was to read this page. I did not know who the poem was from, and “Someone loves me very much, even with all my faults” is even sweeter to reread, but it’s just ... his confidence is so different from the tentative consideration of a new philosophy of trust and love we see in KoA. And there is subtextual queerness in the books before this one, some more apparent and some more subtle (and what is obvious to one reader may be subtle or invisible to another, in these books especially), and there is the attendant love triangle a few chapters back, but HERE - here, Pheris acknowledges the real feeling and love in Legarus’s disastrous relationship and tells us directly that his lover was a man, here he seamlessly makes it clear how bi and poly Relius is, and he quietly ties these relationships and realities to his growing understanding of the world. It’s not subtext. And there’s a lot more to come, but this page really hit me, and sort of promised the “more to come” while assuring me that what had come before, more subtly, was there. I used to have heteronormative readings of both these books and myself, and when Thick as Thieves brought them crashing back into my heart after years away, I knew better about myself, and I saw that - or the possibility of that reading -  reflected in the new book, and it was such a good surprise. It meant a lot, and this page meant a lot, and that is why I’m writing a small essay to accompany this note.) 

Lol wow

162. Where are you traveling, man (this question remains)

163. Fuck you, Orutus

164. Stole an inkpot!

165. the map!!! (Kamet’s)

166. I love them!

167. The Math Master hmm

Am I an oracle (Nope! :) )

[cursesthemusical]

so I finished my raphie fic, the one that snippet earlier was taken from. the fic is called A Promise of Forever, and I’m not honestly sure how I feel about it. It’s a lot shorter than my other oneshots, and the style, especially at the end, is really different than anything else I’ve written.

idk. it’s almost more like a poem than a fic? it feels a bit snooty, honestly, like it’s trying too hard to be deep or whatever. 

read it under the cut if you want to. I’m not totally sure about the ending and I might completely change it before posting on ao3, so we’ll see what happens there.

also, keep in mind that it’s not beta-ed, which might be why it feels so strange. 

hope you like it, and do tell me what you think of the ending.

Classical music plays as Sophie walks slowly down the aisle, golden hair caught in a bun encircled by intricate braids, green eyes gleaming beneath dark eyeshadow, lips stained the crimson red of fresh blood. The people in the pews turn, watching her with various expressions on their faces, and she smiles, her eyebrows narrowing wickedly. Her gray silk dress rustles around her feet, the billowy train supported by three rats. She looks forward, her gaze focusing on silver haired boy standing in the front of the ballroom. For a moment, she sees his hair curl and turn to gold, and she stumbles, memories flashing into her mind at dizzying speeds.

A ballroom much like this one. 

A golden boy on his knee.

An arrow turned to a daisy with a flash of pink.

A mother, begging for a kiss.

A ring of black swan gold, carrying a promise of forever.

A father, begging for his life.

A golden boy, not so golden anymore, lying in a pool of blood.

A dark haired girl screaming as she was sent back to a town that could barely hold her.

A silver boy on his knee, gazing up at a golden haired, silver souled girl.

And a yes.

When she looks back up, Rafal’s hair is back to silver. He’s as stunning as she is in a black suit with silver accents and a gem of black swan gold in his silver crown. Their outfits match. Matching outfits for matching Evil souls.

She continues walking, black high heels clicking on the polished wood. In the seats near her, Hester and Anadil are shooting fearful glances at each other, then Rafal, then Sophie, and back to each other. To think Sophie used to call them friends. When she’s Queen, there will be no friends. There will only be servants.

Rafal extends a hand to her once she’s only a few steps away from the raised dais at the end of the ballroom. She lays her hand in his, pale skin on pale skin, so unlike golden Tedros, and he pulls her up with a gleaming smile. At least his smile isn’t much different from Tedros’, with those white teeth and softening eyebrows. She knows Rafal’s Evil, just as Evil as she is, but when he smiles, it’s hard to remember. 

When he smiles, she can almost imagine he’s her happy ending.

He is her happy ending. He is her only happy ending now.

Now that Agatha’s gone.

She steps up and turns to face him, hoping her smile looks real. They stand, eyes locked onto each other, icy blue and emerald green. One of Anadil’s rats comes scampering up the aisle, holding the two rings, both made of shiny black swan gold, on a velvet cushion. They each take a ring without looking down, and Rafal takes Sophie’s free hand.

“With this ring, I thee wed,” he says. “I promise, Sophie, to give you forever.” His voice is soft as he slips the ring onto her finger, and she stares at it for a second before taking his hand.

“With this ring, I thee wed. And I promise, Rafal, to love you with all I am.” Thankfully, she’s pretty sure Rafal can’t feel the slight tremble in her hand as she puts the ring over his finger. They clasp hands and turn to face the audience.

“May I present,” Rafal says in his silky tone, “Queen Sophie of the Woods.”

At that, people start clapping, though Sophie thinks it’s not because they’re happy but because they’re scared of what she and Rafal will do if they don’t. She likes it that way. She is a Queen now, and that certainly warrants fear. 

She casts a smile into the pews, a gleaming smile of wickedness and true evil. Already she can feel the black swan gold of her new ring soaking into her skin, intoxicating her with the silky promise of forever.

~

Two days after the wedding, Sophie stands on the balcony of the School Master’s tower, Rafal behind her, staring out at the sky. The sun is just setting, filling the Woods - her Woods - with orange and pink and gold, like a beautiful fire burning the kingdoms to the ground. She turns to Rafal. “What are you thinking of?”

He hesitates before saying, “You. My beautiful bride.”

She knows he’s not telling the whole truth, but she doesn’t press. The feeling that filled her body when he called her his bride is threatening to make her explode. Because though she may be a Queen, she’s just a girl. She’s eighteen years old, and she’s in love, and that love will kill her, one way or another. Right now, she can’t bring herself to care. She feels so light, like she could go soaring into the air and never have to come back down.

As if Rafal hears her thoughts, he puts his hands on her waist. “Shall we?” he murmurs, and she nods, bringing her gaze upwards to the heavens. She hates to look at him when he’s flying. There’s something in his eyes, something she’s almost scared of.

After a few seconds, Sophie feels herself lifting up into the air, Rafal’s arms around her back, protecting her from the memories. When they’re so high up, nothing matters. There are no princes or princesses threatening to ruin Sophie now, just the rising moon, so close she feels like she could reach out and touch its silvery surface. 

“Isn’t it beautiful?” Rafal says, his words flecked with gold. She doesn’t quite know what he’s referring to, her or the sky or something else entirely, and she doesn’t answer. They gaze at the moon together, king and queen.

She should be happy.

~

Over the next few weeks, all Sophie can think about is that this is what she’s been dreaming of since she knew what happiness was, and yet. 

And yet it’s not enough.

Rafal isn’t the problem; she’s pretty sure about that. He’s everything a prince should be, charismatic and loving and of course, handsome, with those eyes made of ice and the hair, shining as silver as the glow of the moon. And of course, he loves her. Every night he takes her flying, whispering promises in her ear and kissing her neck, his lips warm and real and right there. 

Life is nice, too. Her days are spent in the School Master’s tower, and she has everything she might want there. A beautiful pink bathtub with a gold rim. Perfume in all the scents she can think of. One hundred pink gowns and heels that match each gown perfectly. A bed with the finest fluffy sheets and goose feather pillows. But for all her luxuries, she tosses and turns in her bed every night, with not even the melodies of the stars able to lull her to sleep.

So it’s her. Her doubts that are ruining her happily ever after. She misses Agatha with every fiber of her being. She knows she shouldn’t. This should be all she needs, Rafal and queen and her kingdom. But Agatha, greasy haired, bug eyed Agatha, is still holding on to her heart with those freakishly pale fingers, and as hard as Sophie tries, she can’t let her best friend go.

True love, she’s starting to realize, isn’t enough. 

~

The days have started to blur together. Rafal’s kisses taste like the bitter taste of sugary sweet licorice, leaving her craving more when he pulls away even though she knows she can’t last for much longer. When they go flying at night, she doesn’t feel light anymore - she feels heavy, fearing she’ll sink as soon as she looks away from Rafal. The hands that once protected her are now chains, grasping her so tightly that she can’t let go.

Does she want to let go?

She doesn’t know.

Without Rafal, she’d be nothing. Though he brings her into the night sky, he is the only thing keeping her grounded.   

Queens are not helpless. Queens are graceful but strong, always standing up to their enemies.

But Sophie’s never heard of a tale where your enemy is your true love.

~

And now she’s falling, she’s falling, she’s falling and she can’t even see what’s above her, only icy eyes capturing her in their gaze, surrounding her with frost, and she can’t do anything to stop its spread and she doesn’t even want to even though she knows she has to if she wants to survive--

-- but maybe she doesn’t want to survive --

-- and Rafal’s smiles aren’t kind anymore, they’re gleaming with evil --   

-- Agatha Agatha please come back please save me please --

-- but there’s no Agatha and wasn’t Sophie the one who banished Agatha back to Gavaldon so it’s her fault and she wouldn’t be here now if she’d just been better, it’s all her fault --

-- Agatha’s voice in her mind, telling her it’s too late --

-- and emerald eyes staring up at the sky because when did it get this cold? Her teeth are chattering, she’s freezing, and there’s a silver haired boy with fire in his palms, fire in his cheeks, fire rushing up to hold her, to embrace her, to protect her -- 

~

and if she turns her head ever so slightly and looks out the window where there used to be Woods, there is now only fire.

~

As she burns, she tries to remember what day it is. She is still as youthful as she was years ago, blonde hair and smooth skin untouched by the cruel waves of time, sustained by Rafal’s magic and the life of the Woods.

Try as she might, she cannot remember anything except sweet, sweet poison and icy eyes and silver hair and love that wasn’t really love, but she couldn’t tell the difference until it was too late, and it’s too late and things could have been better but they’re not, this is how it is and she can’t escape it.

Her breath is coming in raspy puffs now, hanging in the air for a moment before vanishing. She has to let go.

“Sophie.”

She looks forward and she’s catapulted to a moment, long ago, walking down an aisle in a beautiful ballroom, gray dress rustling around her legs, gazing at her true love. Her true love, who’s staring at her now, something like pity in his eyes.

“It’s sad it had to come to this. For a while, I thought you could be the one,” he muses, not trying to hypnotize her anymore. He doesn’t have to. She’s pulled in, and she’s not going to come back out.

“But I suppose it wasn’t to be.”

She crumples to the ground, gaze drifting in and out of focus. The fire has settled down to a warm feeling in her heart. It’s almost peaceful.

Slowly, she raises her arms, letting her eyelashes flutter closed, and welcomes his poison.