#hearts of cinder. jesus fucking christ

[wolfwarrior142]

And he probably realized that, well. His dad would for sure die if he wasn't already dead. Because the spell was cast and his heart was needed for it. And thus had been used. Can't live without a heart.

Haunted by the way Soren reacts to the spell washing over him and the cruel irony surrounding it

The first time he refused the spell, his father made. Flinched away from it because the spell was cast for war and vengeance. It was a spell his father nearly forced upon him.

This time he demanded Viren cast the spell demanded he do SOMETHING. But now this spell was cast to protect, something he willingly brought upon them.

This spell that he was so terrified of, it now being used to do what he had always wanted to do. To save the lives of the people around him.

[quackity1999]

when your heart has finished burning to cinders, alex, when you have finished burning out your humanity like wildfire to a brush. what will you have left?

. . i'm not burning out shit.

and jesus christ, don't call me that name. dream already uses it against me and— motherfucker makes my skin crawl.

if you think i'm anything less than i was, you'd be wrong. i've done more than enough. i've been proving myself, i've been doing everything i never fucking dared to. what, y'think i would've risked any of this when i was running for president?

i was biding my time there, man. this was in me since the start.

[ninjamelissajulien]

DR2 notes

- ok teen riyu super cut

Pixal mentioned!!!!

Lloyd that’s ptsd

Kai my beloved

I love Kreel ngl

Inch resting with Cinder. Didn’t think I’d like him

Fugidove VA I can tell

Cinder fuckin don’t break their backs dear god

Master of smoke… what happened to ash???

EUPHRASIA

bagels are always good

Morro theme

I love the new intro

New colors for imperium outfits

NYAAAAAAAAAA

What is with people trying to make Lloyd eat rancid things

Also panic attacks canon with Lloyd and Zane

Are we not gonna mention Ash???

I love Sora so much

Can we fucking chill with the TEAPOTS PLEASE

Arin is such a scrunkly

Uh oh. I bet this is gonna go after Jay - shattering the goodness inside him.

I love euphrasia so much

CINDER FUCKING CHILL JESUS CHRIST

Ohhh the worm curse I forgot about that

Element masters but evil… force from the East banished them…

I do love that the new ninja are 3 girls 1 boy

Jordana I fucking love you

Aww Nya comforting Lloyd

Ash mention how the fuck did Kai beat Cinder so fast wtf I blinked and he was down

Ok I have to say the fighting is beyond amazing, but also holy shit shatter spin is terrifying and also Zane is fucjin dead rip

The sound that cinder makes with each hit is the gong sounds

They keep zooming in on one of the wolf warriors- also are they real people or the masks manifested

THEY FUCKING LEFT EUPHRASIA BEHIND

Life. That’s the dragon that claimed Lloyd. Lloyd’s element is Life.

The imperium source was Energy. Another is strength. Motion. The other 3 aren’t mentioned.

I love you Kai. So much. I’d kill for you.

Protective Kai for Wyldfire also Zane why are you staying behind

Jordana vs Cinder is fucjing funny

OK GOODBYE RANDOM PIECE OF CLOUD KINGDOM

RGB siblings real

WYLDFIRE you crazy son of a bitgh

God the animation is GORGEOUS

LMAOOO KAI YOURE THE ONE TO TALK

CAN THINGS NOT ATTACK NYA PLS

Leviathan theme

God Arin and Sora are brotp

Damn jays voice is deeper

WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT

Jesus fucking Christ “the real Jay would never forget me” they’re going for that aren’t they

What was Kai’s - was it seabound

Of course Kai would jump first since Cole isn’t there

Me: ok I need to pause to go to the bathroom I’ll pause at the beginning of 4

The beginning of 4:

These bitches gay good for them good for them

WHAT DO YOU MEAN COLE WAS THE CHEF DOES NO ONE REMEMBER THE FIASCO OF COLES CHILI

Yep that’s Cole’s kid

God I love the sound of Nya’s element

Rontu I love you

BE NICE TO GEO

LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOO COLE TO THE RESCUE

Cole I love you so much

Forces from the East meet the Journey to the West

Coles powers are stronger

Bonzle is the key… maybe the undead open the gateway

What was last time???

SCRATCHED THE SURFACE???? TRUE POTENTIAL AIRJITZU TORNADO OF CREATION DRAGON FORMS????

THE PLUSH 😭

COLES BACK

please I’m begging you do we get a whole fucking episode about the backstory of the plush because u want that so badly

W… what… bonzle that’s a lot to just casually drop on someone

I love Bonzle’s voice.

Fuck yeah new story animation I love these (genuine!) also sorceress comes in later

A place more permanent than the realm of the departed… interesting

Cole holding Geos hand I saw that you gay cutie

No. Fucking. Way.

Rontu you amazing beast

Motion was one of the source dragons

God if that is Andrew as Egalt he’s fucking fantastic

Garmadon mentioned!!!!!!!!! SPINJITZU BROS MENTION

the ninja cured his loneliness 💔

MY FUCJING HEART BONZLE WHAT THE FUCJ

Wyldfire I love you you dumb bitgh

My favorite gif of the high five

ARIN 😭

THESE BITCHES GAY

aww Zane 🥹

What the fuck Ras is tripping

SACRIFICE???? JESUS ITS DARK

These worried parents

JIRO

THE SIBS

DETECTIVE FUCKING ZANE LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOO

The rocky dangerbuff mustache

Do it wyldfire

CMON ARIN. NOT LIKE THAT

NO MOTHERFUCKER NOT YOU

Mention Lou I’m begging you

Or Marty Oppenheimer

“I was never the performer in my family.” Me: I… I mean… Lou… but the triple tiger sashay…

Have I mentioned the animation because Jesus it’s so good

The monastery?

Also I’ve noticed I haven’t heard any sound effects from Kirby yet which is interesting. Not bad by any means, but interesting. It’s nice that Andrew’s Cole is becoming his own 💙

Cole why are you staring at the wall oh

“Totally annoying and I was completely blameless” sure Cole sure also interesting that this is now the SECOND time Jay has been mentioned

Chen’s noodle house mention

3 mentions

I don’t know who you are but I love you you queer queen also sprite???

Aww wyldfire

Bonzle 😭😭😭

Uh oh who’s knocking THESE FUCKERS AGAIN????

Zane you handsome dumbass I love you

AAAAAAAAAAA MY GUCJING HHEHEJEKFHFJKJWAAAAAAAAA

KAI YOU MAGNIFICENT MOTHER FUCKER

Uh oh

That happened fast

WHAT OK THE FUCK NO EXPLANATION

Damn nindroid-phobic where the fuck is Jay

Zane I love you

Me: where the fuck is Jay *two seconds later* THERES THE MOTHERFUCKER

wait the shatter spin JAY GET THE FUCK OUT OF THERE

EIGHT EPS FOR THIS MOTHERFUCKER

Ok so amnesia yes but admin jay not too long lmao just bring up Nya

Are we not going to mention Nindroids

Hey can we get to Jay????

/ZANW don’t ZANE HESUS CHRUST DINT SCARE ME LIKE THAT

Jay???? Jay????? HELLO JAY????? JAY?????????? WE JUST NIT GINNA JAY??????

I forgot about Jordana lmaooooo

Oh yeah I forgot Cinder lmaooooooooooo

Wow the super old “using jay’s voice for Kai as a whimper” sound

Are we still not bringing up Jay

BONZLE NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

oooh flashback

Boy Euphrasia really got sidelined didn’t she

So we really aren’t going for Jay aren’t we

Who is this Janet????

GO RIYU GOOOOOOOOO

Arin and his seatbelt

You motherfuckers STOP WITH THE GODDAMN TEAPOT

Cole Rottweiler confirmed

TAKE OFF THE MASKS. TAKE. OFF THE. MASKS. TAKE THEM OFF

Euphrasia!!!!!!!!!

Take. Off. The. Masks. Now.

Uh oh ARIN

Don’t you fucking dare tempt arin

I TOLD YOY TO TAKE THEM OFF

WHY IS IT ALWAYS KAI WHY ALWAYS KAI SOMEONE RESXUE KAI PLEASE MY SCRIMLY

GO NYA GO

I will kill myself if something happens to Kai

They better not

I will do it

I’m not on my meds

Where

Nokt

Hello

Kai

Hello

Hello

Kai

Kai

Kai

Kai

Kai

Kai

Kai

Kai

Kai

Kai

Kai

Kai

Kai

Kai

Kai

Kai

Kai

Kai

Kai

Kai

Kai

Kai

Kai

Kai

I’m suing.

[unofficialadamtaurus]

*Ruby gets stabbed from the back*

I knew it was a dupe!! Aura is such a life saver, am I right 😄

*an actual fucking engine explodes on Blake only to get pancaked by gravity*

Aura is such a life saver, am I right 😅

JESUS CHRIST I expected action and you did NOT disappoint!! An engaging chapter all the way!

Am living for all your descriptions this chapter. Monstra’s grossosity is conveyed perfectly. The sight of its veins? The sound of its bones? The feeling of its flesh? The slimy texture of it all? The overwhelmingly sickening smell?

It’s fucking GROSS. And it gets WORSE once the infiltration group get in deeper.

Speaking of which, the plan is really well crafted. The split made sense immediately, and each group had me really invested and on the edge of my seat.

I especially enjoy Adam’s side. His teamwork with the hero group, and especially with Ruby, Weiss, and Yang was fucking AWESOME. And we know who’d make a great Blake replacement now :D

The reveal of SEW Grimm was great too. There was an atmospheric dread all over after it. And the Salem encounter?

"The silver eyed girl," she said, unbothered by the bullets digging into her flesh. "Find her. Kill her."

THAT’S BADASS

Okay. Infiltration team getting to the heart? Dread increased by tenfold here. Also nasty factor did too. Maybe it’s because I got food poisoning a few days ago (what a fucking coincidence LMAO) but 🤢 this was for real nauseating.

“Know that this bomb goes off when we are clear of the whale or when the whale threatens Mantle. Whichever comes first. I will hear no arguments."

Blake swallowed and echoed the others when she said, "I understand."

Yeah I’m sure you do, buddy 🙃

FUUUCK the ending. You really gotta fucking end it like that on us homie, DAMN YOU WHY (I LOVE IT)

Also, excuse my dumbness here but UHM did they all just blow the fuck up? Was Adam INSIDE the goddamn whale? Where did Ruby take em? Am confused? Need help?

damn this was great chapter 👏👏 I got me some predictions for the next one (like you totally did not mention Cinder NOW of all times for no reason, fucking bet) and I’m SO excited for the next one 🥹 thanks for this.

I spent way too much time figuring out how to convey the grossness so I'm pleased that came across clearly. Sorry to hear about the food poisoning though lol.

They did all just get blown the fuck up inside the whale. If you reread the last bit, you'll see that Ruby (who'd been following Vine's marks) dumped Shock in the hallway immediately outside the landing bay; Blake is waving to them from the doorway leading outside. They were so close to making it. Fifteen more seconds and they would've been outta there...but Winter couldn't wait any longer.

Cinder's mentioned twice in the chapter! Once by Emerald, and then by proxy during Ruby's escape 😉

[a-drop-of-nightshade]

L didn’t let himself look away once, even as he spoke to Cassie he seared the image and memory of this into his mind, this was his punishment for not being strong enough to protect her. When Cassie spoke of the god he frowned, “You mean Cinder?” He asked before nodding, “Please, he’s the only one who can take her burns away.” Although as he said it he felt awkward, he hadn’t met Cinder in this life yet, but the god would see it wouldn’t he? See exactly what kind of monster he was at heart. “I won’t don’t worry.” He said moving over he gently stroked Izzy’s hair and added to the autodoc to give her a heavy sedative to keep her asleep for a while, she needed sleep anyways.

When the god appeared L sucked in a sharp breath and took a step back from the autodoc, covering his red eye a hand, nausea and pain rolling through him, the thorns seemed to shift but it was almost like they were afraid of what was reacting to the presence of the god, he bit back a pained noise and took shuddered breaths trying to keep his eye under control, but then Cassie walked in and he grimaced, he kept his eye covered, “Yeah I know.” He grunted, “Buddy the mass ball of fire and feathers is a friend, he won’t overload ya or be a threat so open up and let em in! He ain’t got a RIG so do heat level signature identification.” He called to his ship, there were a series of hums and noises all around, lights flickering before the ship allowed the god to enter. “Jesus fucking Christ I think Imma puke.” The closer Cin got the more intense the reaction became before L suddenly bolted to a bucket and heaved, but what he threw up was thick black ichor.

L frowned hugging his knees to his chest, curled up on the corner of the couch, face hidden against his legs he felt ashamed. His anger had swallowed him, his hate erupted and he showed a side of him he was trying to keep controlled, and he lost control of it all because of a stupid number.

He rubbed at his bandaged hand, the palm aching where it had split open not to mention his shoulder was bandaged from taking a shot from a guard for going for Carson’s head after killing one of the other guard. Then he heard movement and he slowly lifted his head, he squeezed his legs closer and lowered his gaze to avoid looking at the family, it hurt all the more now. Then came the question: Why did he react like that to that number? There was a long pause, “it’s how much my mother sold me to him for.” He said in such a quiet voice as he refused to look at them.

@izzyfromdeadspace

[questionablepastries]

soulsborne ask 8, 14, 30(also happy late birthday!!! how did i miss it!!!)

ASH!!!!! IM ANSWERINGN SO LATE forgib meh (also THank you for the belated birthday wish YAYAYA <3 )

I wanted to answer this on pc, bc i intended to write a lot given that this is like one of my top favorite franchises and it altered my brain chemistry permanently; aint no way im writing no sorry ass short answer so its gonna go under a readmore :)

8. What are your 3 favorite areas and why?

ough this ones already tough, throughout all the games there are so many good areas lol. I had to write a large list of areas I love and finally managed to narrow it down to three it was super painful and took like 30 min but here they are (in no particular order)

Fountainhead palace from sekiro - probably the most serene location in all soulsborne personally, The music is very peaceful the area is GORGEOUS compared to the bloodbath of the rest of the game. It very much is its own isolated location because technically it is. the royalty in sekiro would seclude themselves in this location and do nothing but ignore the state of the rest of the world and it very much shows since the area is so serene with its cherry blossom trees and massive koi fish to feed. even though the area has since flooded and all the servants turned into fish people hybrids its still awesome to explore what is essentially abandoned royalty temple ruins

Nokstella eternal city from eldenring - the area is just super pretty as well! sorry its starting to sound redundant but unlike fountainhead palace this place is not meant for normal people much less royalty to access and yet its a fucking cinderella castle underground complete with stars and shit, plus everything here is like weird mercury magic and has all these mimics its AWESOME i love doppelgangers and i love the scary silent atmosphere here because its like what did these people DO to get themselves banished underground

Tower of latria/upper latria from demon souls, i chose this one because i think it caused me the most stress in my demon souls run. it was here that i was getting very lost and very scared - probably the most stressed ive ever been my entire demon souls run. going from super scary prison to jesus christ is that a giant fucking beating heart being held up by chains was an experience ill never feel again it was so cool

honorable mentions go to: caelid, lake of rot, crumbling farum azula, academy of raya lucaria (elden ring), the gutter, black gulch, and shrine of amana (ds2), the entirety of shrine of storms (demon souls), nightmare of mensis (bloodborne)

i feel bad not even mentioning one ds3 map so uhhh profaned capital

14. Who is the most underrated boss in your opinion?

leechmonger & adjudicator (yes i chose two, im cheating) from demon souls. I think soulsborne games should lean way more into body horror/horror themes in general given how crappy the state of their worlds are and these guy are like. the definition of both body horror and gore. sad to see both of them being ignored for fan favorite cool people in armor bosses (artorias, ornstein, gwyn, lady maria, malenia, old king allant, soul of cinder, nameless king...etc)

bosses that get this horror thing right include: ludwig, orphan of kos, guardian ape (not exactly underrated but the second phase tho), radahn (he was eating a guy at the start lol he counts as horror in a way? plus he's massive), mergos wetnurse, king allant (the real one!), phalanx (god i love this thing), flamelurker, maneaters, four kings (warped by dark magic and infinitely respawning in an abyss this is the coolest concept of all time), gaping dragon (COOL!!!!), demon of song are a couple i can list with google's help

off topic but my favorite "just a guy" bosses are penetrator (demon souls), looking glass knight + darklurker (ds2) and the corrupted monk from sekiro

30. Rank the games you’ve played!

wahhh......

dark souls 1 (my entry to the franchise im sowwy)

demon souls (really captured the scary morose medieval knight atmosphere i was desperately craving after finishing ds1)

bloodborne (super unique game - has no peer in terms of atmosphere, is only in third place because i much prefer being a depressing knight rather than a cool guy in a trenchcoat on a weekday in london)

eldenring (being unable to ride torrent in the final boss fight, the dissapointment of lack of things to do at the mountaintop of the giants, and no boss living up to radahn or rykard in the end game stretch..(malenia is just a hot lady im sorry; even her second form is just hot lady - now if she was a monster.....) is why im placing this as 4th)

sekiro (another unique game however has zero replayability)

dark souls 3 (might be overdue for a replay since i only beat it like twice since release, and i struggled to remember any bosses or areas when answering these questions. I think ds3 was just like a bunch of references to ds1, however gael one of THE most memorable bosses for me and was a grand way to end the franchise)

dark souls 2 (granted i only played vanilla upon release only once and it left a bad taste in my mouth to the point that i was concerned about the state of the franchise after i finished it because while i knew the main team was working on bloodborne while this was being developed it made me wonder if id ever experience what i felt in ds1 ever again.

[coweggomelet]

it’s happening

i was warned. i kept trying to predict what was gonna happen and my friend was like “you’re never gonna get it” and she was right i didn't cause this shit blew me away

some of it i think i could’ve seen coming, especially when the staff of creation guy was like “hey... don't fall into the void” i think it’s pretty obvious that people were gonna fall in but the whole penny jaune thing... that punched me in the gut

aaaanyywaaayyy

volume 8, the one that made me cry a little and left me in despaired silence for like twenty minutes

- the very first episode is called ‘divide’ so

- sets the tone right away

- oh god the opening jesus christ the brushing going into the nails scratching that quite literally made me cringe both times

- neo’s like… wait a second this looks bad

- that “my queen” was so poisonous

- cinder, taking credit for your allies’ work isn’t gonna go well for you

- see this is where salem’s manipulation starts to wane, like cinder here is clearly angry about how dismissive and controlling salem is and wants to get her revenge but salem won’t let her, so she’s starting to go “hey wait”

- have i mentioned i love the happy huntresses

- this volume happens over like a day which is wild

- yang please do not question ruby’s leadership, none of this is her fault. i understand your fear though

- jaune you really are so smart and empathetic like if that fight had continued it could’ve gotten worse and you saw that and stepped in and helped make a compromise and that’s why you’re a good leader

- aaaand there’s the murdering political dissenters in cold blood

- what happened to your heart tin man

- even the ace ops were like “…jesus”

- oh god the fuckin dog grimm thing

- in the FIRST EPISODE ironwood MURDERS a CIVILIAN because he will do “whatever it takes to protect atlas… no matter the cost” and APPARENTLY a justifiable cost is the DEATH OF INNOCENT PEOPLE

- oh hey new theme cool

- casey you’re the best

- ya shit’s gonna dissolve around you ironwood just wait

- joanna you are amazing i will die for you she said “i can do this better than you newsboy”

- uh oh Special grimm is watching them

- oooo his lil shield grenade that’s so cool!!

- “i really don’t need your extra commentary right now” me at my friend while watching this

- oscar you sweet boy. you are part of the team i promise

- “i do not like it when friends fight” me neither penny

- also around now is when i realized that penny doesn’t really use contractions? which is definitely an autistic-coded thing. i have a whole thing about penny being autistic-coded

- heheh yoink

- jaune you’re so clumsy i love you

- OKAY SO the special grimm freaked me out so goddamn much the first time and it was because of several things building up

- #1: grimm do not run away. several grimm just ran away

- #2: it changed. grimm don’t change

- #3: it was smart. it knew to use oscar as a shield to protect itself. and as jaune says, “grimm aren’t that smart!”

- and number fuckin four: it talked. that shit rattled me to my core more than ANY other piece of media has in my memory. i’m getting goosebumps right now, again, because of how effective this sequence is. not only is it supremely unsettling, it’s very well done

- truly this talking person grimm is one of the best things about this show cause it’s an example of how the show breaks it’s own rules but in really effective and interesting ways and i looooove it

- quick note it broke his aura in two hits and sure he’d taken some hits before that probably but fuckin still

- and the wings beating echoing aaaahhhh FUCK i love this shooowwww

- the line “maybe the end we tried to avoid is already here” from the theme is so uuughhh it’s so gooooood

- this plan is so fun i love a stealth mission

- hahahaa nora pressing all the buttons marry me

- blake going “did penny figure out more about your semblance before you did” and then ruby going “yeah of course she’s smart and im a dummy” amazing 10/10

- isn’t it just so fun when your dad pilots your body for a few minutes

- you always need a quick break for teen drama folks

- oooof that’s quite a heavy thing to realize nora

- uh ohhhh the ace ops are back and team rwby isn’t together for this one

- STOP MANIPULATING MY GIRL YOU ASSHOLES

- penny said not my girlfriend

- these fucking COWARDS separated penny to take her out more easily but they didn’t account for NORA “BE STRONG AND HITS STUFF” VALKYRIE DID THEY??? no they fuckin didn’t

- penny said i’m gonna be on theme and make it haaaiill babey

- listen marrow’s semblance is very annoying when they’re fighting him but damn is it a good one

- noraaaa my love you’re so strong and brave and wonderful. that was pretty awesome and it also for sure fucked you up. those scars are gonna be cool tho

- harriet breaking the string on one of penny’s swords has so much symbolism

- *pats the screencap* you can fit so much symbolism in this bad boy

- huuuuggggsss i love nuts & dolts

- awww robyn you’re funny. you absolutely did win

- “i thought for once i could be around somebody without my semblance making it complicated” yeah :(

- he’s mourning the loss of the potential for a real friendship

- it wasn’t childish!! aww qrow this poor man needs friends that aren’t his nieces and their friends. i’m so glad robyn is there and is nice and befriends him

- fuck yeah robyn taunt this bitch

- my friend saw a post that talks about the cinnamon tography of this shot, with them divided by the one big line in the middle. watts is already waaaayy off to the side and harriet’s walking towards that side. robyn’s way on the other side and qrow’s on that side too, but marrow, he’s on robyn & qrow’s side, just barely, and he’s facing them

- hmmm food for thought

- go get your boy!!!

- uh oh swinging ren off a line behind the flying dude is a recipe for danger friends

- ouch ouch ouch ouch

- it sure did call for backup yang

- oh ren you’re so out of your depth and i know you’re scared it’s okay to be scared

- yang he’s scared you’re gonna push him away if you say that stuff

- oh god he’s here he’s with salem oh boy

- eurgh she gave the hound scritches

- fuck his screaming

- fuck yooouuuuu salem fuck youu

- jesus christ i forgot about this hazel fucking TORTURES A CHILD WHAT THE FUCK

- how do you feel about that morally hazel?

- saaaalemmm you’re losing your control on cinder

- every time cinder says “without you i am nothing” she believes it less and less

- heheh evil mary poppins?

- emerald my baby i love you i can’t wait til you get good friends and stop relying so much on cinder

- god these kids are so emo

- watch out y’all the grimm juice is a river now

- you know if cinder had listened to salem it would’ve been much easier for penny & the gang to get amity up

- fuck yeah maria!!! grandma powers activated!!

- uh oh neo that’s the grimm reaper

- GET HER MARIAAAAA

- penny you are simply the best

- this is the most i’ve ever seen neo get hit

- heheh emerald’s semblance doesn’t affect heat sensing penny can see her

- emerald i know it’s trauma that you’re relying on her but you deserve so much better

- fuuuck pietro loves her so goddamn much he just wants her to live and she does but he has to keep watching her risk her life for it and it’s heartbreaking i’m gonna crryyyy

- penny you’re so strong!!!

- aahhhh the broadcast oh fuck

- awww adrian bb so cute he’s like “oh hey i know her”

- awww ruby’s lil face watching her own broadcast

- she’s just so hopeful and earnest and eager and that is so incredibly valuable and powerful and i’m emotionaaaalll

- awwww penny my babyyy

- awww taaiii oh god that’s the only time he’s seen either of his kids in months jesus he just wanted to see herrr

- “dad!!” oh fuck “please baby say something” fuuucck “…i love you” oh nooooo i’m gonna cryyy

- you really thought you could trust this man ironwood? you really thought you could get him to do exclusively what you wanted and not do some fuckery??

- ya babeeyyy its the river grimm

- oh fuck it’s the Backstory

- such a cute kid

- she just wants to eat :(

- guess what kids that’s called Abuse

- jesus the shock caller is so fucking brutal

- “without you i am nothing” sounds familiar huh

- “not getting the most fair treatment” is the UNDERSTATEMENT OF THE CENTURY

- she’s just a baby :(

- also shoutout to cinder’s voice actress for nailing this

- for YEARS rhodes watched cinder get abused in so many different ways. for YEARS he kept seeing her after getting shocked or starved and kept LEAVING HER THERE, WITH HER ABUSERS. for YEARS she got a couple hours every once in a while of respite, of a glimpse of freedom. and FOR FUCKING YEARS she had to watch him get to leave. i do not understand how, in anyone’s mind, leaving someone with their abusers is the right call. and then, after she stood up to them, finally got a chance to actually fight back, he turns his back on her. he decides that the right call is to kill a child that just defended herself against her abusers. this backstory makes me so mad and so sad at the same time. cinder should’ve gotten so much fucking better than this

- “i won’t have to run now” jesus. fucking christ. this child. she won’t have to run anymore. she won’t have to suffer anymore. she’s fucking free. and then the only adult in her life she’s ever trusted fucking betrays her

- go die rhodes

- mercury just shut up

- yeah cinder!!! you’re losing your manipulation too!!

- oscar you’re so smaaaarttt

- cinder was this close to realizing what salem was doing, she was so fucking close/to seeing the repetition, to understanding that salem has the same role in her life that her “stepmother” did and then salem said oopsie i’ve been slacking on the manipulation front better get that going again

- uh oh grimm juice is eating through the atlas shields!!! uh ohhhhh uh ohhhhhhhh

- here we go babey!!! it’s the big time!! shit’s ramping up!! better get ready

- y’all can gather your military all you want, there’s wave after wave of grimm comin for ya

- grimm are such a non threat in atlas that there are zero precautions. no alarms, no shelters. nothin

- he’s sending them into a suuuiiiciiiideee mission :)))))))) what a goooooood boss what a good good boss

- emerald is not on board with this shit. she just wanted to do some fun crime with her mommy girlfriend. she did not sign up for big bad lady with grimm controlling powers and torturing children and ending the world and having serial killers as coworkers. hostile work environment. no thank you. salem inc (& associates?) is gonna get some negative feedback on linkedin. would not recommend

- emerald said gotta get the kid first. and she’s right

- norraaaaaa you’re good for being a friend!!

- even in the middle of a world ending battle you gotta have a hot cocoa break

- maaayyyy i love you so much you stand your fuckin ground against assholes!!

- oscar my boy hope is so powerful

- mercury might be doubting too now uh oh

- reeeennn my boy fuck yeah he’s your fuckin friend who cares if it’s dangerous you care about him

- caring about people does not equal naive, harriet

- oh yeah tortuga… god that makes harriet’s whole deal so much sadder. her partner died. she lost her partner to the ace ops, to ironwood. if she doesn’t believe in them anymore then tortuga died in vain

- NO ONE IS REPLACECABLE RENNN I LOVE YOUUUU you’re learning so much look at you developing your semblance!!!

- god i love the way his semblance evolved it’s so good and perfect for not only what his whole deal already is but also his arc, like him coming to terms with his feelings and his care for people GOD i love this show

- “i outrank you” GET HER WINTER

- i’m so curious about what all the colors meeeaann. i mean we know some of it but i wanna know the details and nuances and how ren can tell how they’re feeling about certain things

- oh god winter you need a therapist that’s a lot of colors

- KLEIN DAD!!!! i love him 

- whitleeeyyyyyy my boyyyy

- aahhhh healing is happening i’m so happpyyy

- OH FUCK PENNY JUST CRASH LANDED

- klein you’re such a good doctor

- everything is so bad

- hiiiii willooowww

- whitley!! you’re helping!! you’re coming up with ideas! you’re letting yourself care about people!! i’m so proud of you!!!

- oh shit the hound’s coming back isn’t it

- at the beginning of this episode my friend went “ready for more horror” and i said “AGAIN?!?”

- hey guess what i love my girls. i love how much they love each other and respect each other and caaaarrreee

- good lord blake’s ears going down and her eyes going wide is terrifying on its own and then the fucking silhouette no THANK you

- it’s not just a grimm blake

- eurgh i hate when it talks

- oh willow you poor thing

- aaaaggghh penny’s eyeeeesss i hate this

- eurgh the big ol worm dude

- nooorrrraaaa you’re gonna make me cry i love you sooo much you’re so wonderful

- aaagghh i hate the way the hound moooves

- oh willow you can do this i believe in you

- ohhhh FUCK NO it can open DOORS that’s a BIG OL NO FROM ME

- whitley you’re gonna be okay your sister’s gonna keep you safe

- aaaaahhhh i HATE WHEN IT TALKS

- OH FUCK YEAH I FORGOT WILLOW CAN FUCKING SUMMON!!! SHE WAS A HUNTRESS AT ONE POINT

- give us the willow backstory cowards

- aaahhh the shoulder touch i love when a family heals together

- okay blake she doesn’t need to hear that people need her that’s a lot of pressure that she doesn’t need when she’s already got a lot on her

- it grows extra shiiittt this thing should not exiiiist

- ITS A FUCKIN PERSON WITH SILVER FUCKIN EYES I HATE IT SALEM IS SO GODDAMN EVIL THAT POOR MAN

- god the implications

- did summer die because salem tried to do the same experiment on her but failed? does the experiment require someone with silver eyes or does that just make it easier? is it a natural progression for someone with silver eyes or do they just have a special thing that allows experiments like this to succeed? so many questions!! truly one of the most horrifying things in this show!! aahh!!!

- have i mentioned i love willow and whitley

- hehe cinder can just fireman carry watts

- we love character development in the form of evolving superpowers!!

- “… okay! that’s new” i love that this amazing thing is happening with ren’s semblance evolving and yang’s just gotta take it in stride

- ya know… oz has made a lot of mistakes. but he’s very good at being supportive and he’s pretty emotionally intelligent, it seems like

- oh yeah put CHILDREN on the FRONT LINES of a WAR that’s a GREAT IDEA

- oh hazel. if only you’d realized sooner than children shouldn’t be involved in this shit and getting them far away was what you should’ve done fucking ages ago

- uuuhhh ooohhhh someone was watchingggg

- ive seen this ad so many times that i’m starting to regret getting vaccinated. is there anyone who can unvaccinate me please. maybe get some leeches

- oh shit ren coming in with that emotional intelligence and insight!!

- knowing that he’s actually oscar is so fun cause once you know it’s obvious

- also emerald’s so powerful!! her semblance can fool salem!!

- oh marroooowwww

- winter…. ugh cmon man please

- oh fuck here we goooooo

- eurgh god her body just exploding and then reforming i hate iiiiit

- i love all the memes of salem holding emerald and yang by the wrists like that. when you and your sibling are fighting at the grocery store and mom has to separate you

- hazel pulling out all the stops for these kids… man people sacrificing themselves in order to save other people or give them more time or whatever always fuckin gets me, especially if the person sacrificing themselves has recently had a change of heart or character growth or something

- FUCK YEAH QROW

- oh yeah the fuckin explosion!! everyone everywhere just fuckin freezes

- good job oscar my boy

- awww marrow he’s so worried about those fuckin kids

- you know watts, you’re real brave for shit talking her while she’s got you dangled over the side of a building

- it worked though. he’s smart

- hahaaa he said “phew”

- “we can’t let all our actions stem from fear” someone’s leaaaarning

- let’s threaten the lives of children to get what we want. greeeeaaat idea

- SNITCHES GET STICHES HARRIET

- tantrum time!!!

- this pisses me off so fucking muuuuchh!! these kids found a way to save people!!! to save lives!! and what does ironwood do? HE STOPS THEM FROM SAVING LIVES. IN WHAT WORLD IN WHAT FUCKING WORLD IS THAT GOOD????

- aawww reunion

- oh come on don’t do a forehead touch you gay people

- uh oh dramatic lighting talk about Full Villain

- hey ironwood

- hey buddy

- you are evil my guy

- pure evil

- threatening the lives of how many people just to get your way

- there is no justification for that. none.

- “push the kids to see reason” yeah okay vine that’s a great line of logic there

- OOOO GET THEM MARROOOOWWWW

- nice move winter i’m so proud of you

- heheheee jaune finally realizing he’s a third wheel

- aawwww this is so cute!!! god i love ren and noraaa. fuck dude. fuck. so mature. so open and honest and communicative and respectful

- AHHH he booped her i can’t i can’t

- aaaahhhh fuckin nuts & dolts man they have my heart

- heheh “i’m just gonna be super pissed if you all decide to give up the moment i switch sides” emerald i love you

- oooo here we go with another genius ruby idea

- winter you are so smart for keeping yourself on ironwood’s side until the exact right moment

- ooohhooohooooo emerald what a line and the KICK oh fuck yeah and fuckin took his weapon aahhhh i love herrrr

- i think this was about when i was like this is going too well for them. they’re figuring too many things out. they’re coming up with too many solutions. no way this lasts. like i was happy that it was going well but i was also so fucking anxious cause i knew it was going too well and i fucking knew shit was gonna go sideways

- winter betrayed you you bitch!!!!

- YEEEAAHH MARROW’S HERE YALLL

- dude they broke his aura SO FUCKING FAST i love these people

- RUBY’S SO SMART

- oooooo here we gooooo

- SHES A REAL GIRL NOWWWW MY HEART

- AHHH “do hugs always make you feel this warm inside?” “yes” “wooooooww” pennyyyyy i would fucking die for you

- SUCH A GOOD PLAN I LOVE IT

- except “one way ticket to vacuo” is such a heartbreaking line now

- do not fall so dark dude

- second to last episode babeeyyy heh heh i’m tooootally ready this is where it aaall goes to shit yaaayy

- fiooonnaaa you’re so cute

- gooooddd they can’t go back!! it fuckin hurts knowing that!!

- there she is. gotta fuckin ruin everything

- someone’s learned from the salem school of manipulation

- jinn doesn’t wanna tell cinder :( she likes ruby!

- hahaaaa bitch emerald switched sides that’s right you asshole

- jesus the smash cut in the control room. screaming starting to the room on fire and full of dead people

- HA YOU BITCH YOURE IN PRISON YOU DESERVE IT YOU ASSHOLE

- listen. i hate ironwood. but i’m so glad he killed jacque

- OH FUCK NO SHES ABOUT TO FALL OH FUCK

- jesus christ

- god blake is already running

- they slow this down but oh my god it happens so fast

- it just fuckin missed her FUUUUCKKK

- fuck that scream

- weiss is having to pull blake back from the side because she’s trying to go over with yang i’m gonna cry i’m gonna fucking lose it

- ooo weiss is skating that’s fun

- god this is so fucking bad jesus fucking christ

- oh harriet. look around you. principle? loyalty? what does any of that matter right now?

- FUCK YEAH ROBYN

- HARRIET YOU BITCH

- winter you’re fucking incredible!!!!

- FUCK THEY CANT GO BACK AND THERES SO MANY GRIMM JESUS CHRIIIIIST

- last episode :))))) yay :))))))

- come on winter get his ass

- “i want it all” sharpay???

- and yang is in the fuckin voiiiiddd god i’m so sad

- “because you’re our friend!!” fuck dude why do you have to do this to me

- i knew it was gonna be bad when i first watched this. i knew it was all too good to be true. and all my friend said was “just watch”

- it breaks my heart that when they all finally admit to themselves and each other that they care about each other, clover’s already dead and vine decides to sacrifice himself. like if they’d admitted it sooner their growth would’ve happened sooner. and i get that that’s the point but. fuckin heartbreaking

- “i can, if it means saving all my friends” i’m crying

- harriet’s scream fucking christ

- vine is so good man look at what he did

- SELF SACRIFICE BABEY IT GETS ME EVERY TIME

- there go ruby and blake!!!!! i’m in hell!!!

- there’s so many if onlys. if only weiss hadn’t said “one way” they all could’ve gone back through and fought cinder and neo and team rwby and jaune would potentially not have fallen and penny would’ve known to go help with the storm. if only neo had realized that cinder was never on her side then she would’ve kept the lamp and cinder wouldn’t have discovered team rwby’s plan. if only man

- oh goood i forgot weiss got blake’s weapon FUCK

- cinder what the fuck my dude. your arm does all that weird shit because salem’s back and you’re like yeah following her is a good move for me. fuckin dark mark death eater coward

- penny has flesh now. she can bleed

- oh fuck. no. not this. i can’t fucking do this

- the first real choice penny gets to make for herself is still very much a forced choice. like she has to in order to help her friends

- oh god. oh fuck.

- when people kept fighting with broken auras man. kills me

- god his scream

- her lil feet rocking shes so wholesome

- “salutations!!!” i’m fucking crying

- “oh penny” me too winter. me too

- WINTER IS THE WINTER MAIDEN BABEYYY

- and jaune is fucking crying. and cinder broke his sword. specifically she broke off the part with most of penny’s blood on it. and that’s some kind of symbolism or something but i have no idea what

- there goes weissssss!! all of team rwby is gone!!! hahaha. hahaha. hahaha.

- and now jaune. i still don’t understand why winter didn’t grab him and fly with him. maybe she just didn’t think about it? idk but i’m sad :)

- kill watts harder machine babey

- listen. i know that watts isn’t strong and he’s trapped in a room with a lot of fire. and i know that the likelihood of ironwood surviving atlas crashing into the crater is very low. but i have watched too much media to trust that shit. if we don’t see a body we don’t know for sure that they’re dead and even then there’s still a possibility they come back so. i’m suspicious

- and qrow’s fuckin face when he’s not hearing from ruby or yang fuck dude

- hey at least they’ll all be together in the void! :))))))

[amaidasfairassummer]

Updated- A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE THE MUSICAL!

Various songs from existing musicals brought together to tell the story Asoiaf, including some pre-series stuff. Obvs some of this doesn’t translate literally, some of the songs I chose more for the vibe rather than specifically relevant lyrics, and some are pretty much just jokes.

- Aerys- “Johanna” from Sweeney Todd 

- Tyrion’s birth- “Miracle” from Matilda (mostly the last couple of minutes).

- Baby innocent optimistic Tyrion before Tywin fucked him up- “Naughty” from Matilda.

- Also baby Tyrion- “Quiet” from Matilda.

- Elia @ Rhaegar- “No Way” from Six.

- Robert and Ned during the rebellion- “You and Me (But Mostly Me)” from The Book of Mormon. With Robert as elder price and Ned as elder Cunningham of course. Also kind of works for robert and stannis I guess 

- The rebellion- ABC cafe, Les Miserables

- Rebellion-era Robert- “Gaston” from Beauty and the Beast. 

- The siege of Storm’s End- “Those Canaan Days” from Joseph 

- Stannis meeting Davos- “Pulled” from the Addams Family musical

- Stannis- “Stars” from Les Miserables because he’s got Javert vibes.

- Lysa being made to marry Jon A- “I Don’t Need Your Love” from Six.

- Tyrion and Tysha meeting- “Love is an open door” from Frozen the musical 

- Tyrion and Tysha’s elopement- “A Million Dreams” from The Greatest Showman, “Marry for Love” from Cinderella fro (or for a modern au, “Wishing for the Normal” from Soho Cinders).

- Tysha after the elopement- “I Dreamed A Dream” from Les Miserables

- Ramsay @ Roose after murdering Domeric- “One More Angel in Heaven” from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.

- Catelyn- “How Do You Solve A Problem Like [Arya]” from The Sound of Music.

- Jaime and Cersei- “Our Love Is God” from Heathers.

- Sansa during her and Joff’s courtship- “I can hear the bells” from Hairspray and “I Feel Pretty” from West Side Story (this could be repeated with her when loras gives her the rose during the tourney actually). 

- Cat saying goodbye to Bran- (parts of) “Heart of Stone” from Six.

- Bran coming out of his coma dream- “Defying Gravity” from Wicked (he probably also reprises this when he learns to warg into birds)

- Arya and Syrio’s “dancing” lessons- “I’ll Make A Man Out Of You” from Mulan.

- Petyr @ Catelyn- “I’m Not Saying A Word” from Blood Brothers.

- Petyr @ Sansa- “Hello, Little Girl” from Into The Woods.

- Tyrion every time he’s in a jail cell- “Close Every Door To Me” from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.

- Cersei after Robert’s death- “Get Down” from Six.

- Theon and Robb- “That Guy” from Blood Brothers.

- Cat after Ned’s death- “The Cold, Hard Ground” from Treason the musical

- The northern lords @ Robb in the King in the North scene- “Take Things Into Our Own Hands” from Treason and “Once We Were Kings” from Billy Elliot.

- Theon finding out he’s going back to the iron islands- “I can go the distance” from Hercules. 

- Inroducing Davos and his family- “Jacob and Sons” from Joseph. 

- Renly and loras, and renly deciding to be king- “The Promise” from Treason the musical 

- Renly in ACOK- “You Don’t Even Know It” from Everybody’s Talking About Jaime 

- Loras and Brienne about Renly, and davos and mel about stannis- “Blind Faith” from Treason. 

- Robb and Cleos Frey- “Farmer refuted” from Hamilton

- Joffrey when he finds out about northern independence- “You’ll Be Back” from Hamilton.

- Bran, Rickon and the Walders- “Kids’ Game” from Blood Brothers.

- Bran @ Jojen in ACOK- “Song of the King” from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.

- About Sam after he killed the Other- “Zero To Hero” from Hercules.

- Theon in ACOK- “My Shot” from Hamilton and “Damned for All Time” from Jesus Christ Superstar 

- Sansa and Sandor in ACOK- “Angel of Music” from The Phantom of the Opera and “Something There” from Beauty and the Beast.

- @ Sansa in King’s Landing- “School Song” from Matilda.

- The people of King’s Landing during ACOK- “At The End Of The Day” from Les Miserables and “Food, Glorious Food” from Oliver!

- Sansa and Sandor during the Battle of Blackwater- “Music Of The Night” from The Phantom of the Opera.

- Margaery’s arrival in King’s Landing- “New Girl In Town” from Hairspray.

- Jaime (not really sure when)- “Wait For It” from Hamilton.

- Devan telling Davos about his brothers dying- “[Four] More Angels In Heaven,” from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, a really heartbreaking version of Ramsay’s song earlier, made 100% times sadder because four people are dead not one and... devan is actually genuinely sad/isn’t responsible for the deaths instead of faking.

- About Davos as Hand (also kind of him being knighted for saving storm’s end- “Stone the Crows” from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.

- Ygritte @ Jon- “Colours Of the Wind” from Pocahontas.

- The slaves of Slavers Bay- “Look Down” from Les Miserables.

- Jaime and Brienne- “I Can Do Without You” from Calamity Jane.

- Theon finding out about Robb’s death- “Judas’s death” from Jesus Christ Superstar 

- Cat as Lady Stoneheart- “Heart of Stone” from Six. Again.

- Purple Wedding- “The Day [Joffrey] Died” from Treason.

- Shae @ Tyrion- “Mein Herr” from Cabaret.

- Tyrion and Tywin- “Your Obedient Servant” from Hamilton. I know this doesn’t really reflect their story but there are just bits like “here’s an itemised list of thirty years of disagreements” “sweet Jesus” and “you call me immoral, a dangerous disgrace” and them both signing their names “T. Lann” which fit well.

-Varys and his little birds- “Be Back Soon” from Oliver!

- The Lannisters at some point- “Roar” from & Juliet and also “Be Prepared” from The Lion King. And for a modern au “Candy Store” from Heathers.

- Tommen in AFOC- “I Just Can’t Wait To Be King [In My Own Right]” from The Lion King.

- Asha, Arianne and Aegon in AFFC/ADWD- “Don’t Rain On My Parade” from Funny Girl.

- Genna- “Big, Blonde and Beautiful” from Hairspray.

- Sansa- “I Know Things Now” from Into The Woods and “All You Wanna Do” from Six.

- Melisandre during her POV chapter- “I Believe” from The Book Of Mormon.

- Arianne- “Speechless” from Aladdin

- Tyrion in ADWD- “Til I Hear You Sing” from Love Never Dies.

- Penny- “Little People” from Les Miserables.

- Shireen in Castle Back- “Giants In The Sky” from Into The Woods.

- Shireen, Devan and Edric at some point- “Revolting Children” from Matilda, because even though it doesn’t really fit it would be epic.

- Arya- “Reflections” from Mulan 

- The “killed their spouse/lover crew” aka Tyrion, Cersei, Jaime, Petyr, Lysa and Victarion- “Cell Block Tango” from Chicago.

- Jon about Dany in ADOS- “Heaven On Their Minds” from Jesus Christ Superstar.

- “The Last Supper” from Jesus Christ Superstar, with Dany and Jon doing the Judas/Jesus bits and the Lannisters as the apostles.

- Dany in ADOS- “Gethsamane” from Jesus Christ Superstar.

1 note

[dopescotlandwarrior]

Sinners & Saints - Chapter One

                     Special thanks to @statell​ for all your help.

Find on AO3

Chapter One

Galerie Charpentier is home to Sotheby’s Auction house in the center of the Parisian art world and host to almost eighty auctions per year. Art buyers worldwide watch for pieces to add to their collection and millions of dollars change hands as the gavel comes down on the final bids. A rare Rembrandt was up for sale today. One of three self-portraits done by the artist and the only one still in a private collection. The estimated price at auction is twenty-eight to thirty-five million dollars for the eight by twelve-inch painting. It will elevate any collection to new boasting heights and there is a lot of interest.

Jamie Fraser walked the halls of the auction house and checked in on his team trying to stay clear of buyers flocking into the building. He could care less about the art bought and sold today. He was here to catch a master art thief, his nemesis, who bested him at every turn. Jamie was number one in the world for profiling and catching the most accomplished thieves until he signed on to find Casper, the most prolific art thief in Europe. He was dubbed Casper because he came in and went out like a ghost, leaving nothing behind.

Jamie’s jaw clenched thinking of the many times he was closing in on his prey only to have him vanish with the prized art. This time was different, he could feel it. He was tipped off by a black-market snitch that told him the Rembrandt would be in play soon and that painting was being sold today. Casper had to be here, and Jamie would leave him crippled when he took him down. Payback for leading a merry chase for the past two years.

Jamie walked quickly toward the back entrance to verify the doors were locked. He was surprised to pass a large group of people in one of the auditoriums and glanced at the signboard, Doctor Claire Beauchamp, professor of fine arts, University of Chicago. By the size of the audience, she was quite popular. Jamie caught a glimpse of the striking professor in a body-hugging dress that she wore like a fashion model. Black rimmed glasses were perched on her nose above red lipstick and a pile of hair on top of her head that looked exquisitely messy. She pushed a coil of hair off her face and looked up at a huge screen, flipping slides with a remote control. One word came to Jamie’s mind; fascinating. His earpiece crackled and he spun around to head back to the front of the building.

Claire Beauchamp clicked for the next slide, clicked again, and again to no avail. She apologized to the audience and ripped her headset off to find some assistance. Five minutes later she was back to wrap up the lecture with the slides moving perfectly.

Jamie walked by the auditorium three more times as the professor worked her way through the questions, signed copies of her new book, and accepted the thanks of the Parisian art world. Jamie watched her, knowing the auction was underway and the clock was ticking on Casper’s entrance.

“Doctor Beauchamp, there’s a rumor you’re joining the team to catch Casper. Any truth to that?”

“Well, no. He has stolen pieces that I have a particular fondness for, and I would love to help catch him, but I have not been asked. It’s just a rumor.”

Claire shrugged her shoulders and smiled at the last of the people leaving. She stuffed her materials into her briefcase and took a deep cleansing breath. She had one more meeting and a plane to catch back to Chicago. She would give anything for a day to herself in Paris to wander around the Louvre and spend as much time as she wanted with the Masters. Maybe next time, she thought.

Claire emerged from the auditorium and made her way to the back entrance where she was allowed to park. She stopped abruptly and opened her case, smiling when she saw her headset tucked safely inside. She pulled the case up to secure the retaining strap and lowered her arm as the explosion blew her sideways, off her feet, and into a wall that was coming down. She could hear herself screaming until something heavy hit her on the head. Her screaming stopped.

Claire was vaguely aware she was laying in rubble from an explosion. The rubble was warm and had hands that held her upper arms, and a voice that kept asking if she was alright. She tried to lift her head and bumped it on something above her.

“What the bloody hell?”

Her hands were splayed on someone’s chest and she felt around deciding it was a male with a body like Arnold Schwarzenegger! Claire looked to her right and left seeing the tiny space they were pinned into and her heart pounded in her chest, feeling the claustrophobic fear that made elevators impossible.

“Jesus Christ, I have to get out of here, right now! Help me get out of here Mister, please!”

She felt the beefy arms wrap around her and hold her down making the panic even worse. Her wiggling made it hard to hear the man saying her name, getting more stern by the second. He finally held her tightly to him and warned her not to move.

“Doctor Beauchamp, Doctor Beauchamp, Claire! Stop moving! Something is holding the tonnage of walls, ceiling, and live wires above us. If you knock it loose it will kill us. Do you understand?”

Claire gripped his arms and panted from her attempt to escape. She listened to his voice calming her down and telling her to breathe with him. He was very encouraging and kept telling her they would be all right. He talked her down from a panic attack but kept his hands on her to be sure.

“May I call you Claire?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“Alright, thank you. I need your help lass. Look around for something strong, like metal, a strong metal box, or something like that not connected to anything, free moving and about a foot tall. Do you see anything like that?”

“Why, for what?” Claire finally lifted her head a few inches and looked up at the man’s head, but it wasn’t there. A very large piece of the wall was suspended right above his throat and his head was on the other side of it.

“Oh my God, oh my God! Sweet Jesus, what are we going to do?” Her panic was rising again, and the arms came around her while the disembodied voice told her to breathe and keep her wits about her. It took several minutes but she finally gained control again and looked around for something strong with the limited space she had to lift her head.

“There are cinder blocks in the rubble, two of them are not touching anything. Will those work Mister?”

“Sorry lass, my name is Jamie, and those might hold this wall up long enough for me to scoot free of it. Can you move one, can you reach it?”

Claire could move the block slowly by stretching her arm until it hurt. Little by little she scooted the cinder block closer to the wall, muttering about a decapitated Arnold and she didn’t want to be alone. Jamie patiently calmed her reminding her to breathe deeply. He helped her push the block under the section of wall and patted her shoulder, thanking her for being so brave. Claire felt the man’s body scooting slowly, taking her with him an inch at a time until he was free of the would-be guillotine.

Jamie laid very still, trying to calm his racing heart. He could see what Claire could not and knew they were buried by at least twenty or thirty feet of debris. It would take hours for rescuers to find them if they ever did. Shafts of light were coming through, but those would disappear when the sun went down leaving them in complete darkness. Jamie felt a murderous rage boiling in his stomach.

“You fucking bastard,” was whispered through clenched teeth. “I will hunt you right into hell before I give up.”

“Who’s a bastard, who will you hunt, who’s going to hell?”

Claire was patting his arm trying to comfort the rage she felt in his tensed muscles. It scared her because she didn’t know this man. Jamie’s arms encircled her lightly for a few seconds.

“He’s called Casper and he’s a dead man walking because I’m gonna finish him when I find him.”

“Casper? The art thief did this?”

Claire got very quiet for a few minutes before asking, “who are you?”

“Jamie Fraser. I head up the task force trying to catch that piece of shit. Just so you know, we are getting out of here, one way or another, because I won’t let him win.”

He felt Claire shaking and heard her sniffling. He held her, feeling bad because he scared her. He lifted his head to look at her.

“I’m sorry lass, I didn’t mean to scare you. Look at me, Claire.”

Jamie wasn’t expecting the large whisky colored eyes and long black lashes wet from her tears. Her face stole his words for a moment, so he just looked at her. He wanted to touch her porcelain skin and feel the coils of curls that had fallen around her face and shoulders.

“I’m sorry Sassenach, rest now. It won’t be long.”

“Sassenach means crazy bitch, doesn’t it?”

Jamie laughed and Claire bounced on his stomach until she smiled too. “No. It means outsider. You’re a Brit, living in America, trapped in Paris, with a Scott,” he said laughing. He laid his head back down, “tell me about yourself, are you married? Any kids?”

“There is an offer on the table, but I haven’t decided yet. I like him fine but he’s a politician and I’m …not.”

“Tell me more. Why hesitate?”

Claire talked about the senator from Illinois who said he loved her and promised a life of excitement and purpose. Jamie listened to the story of two mismatched people and hoped she would choose herself over a man with plans to change everything about her. She couldn’t see that yet but to him, it was very clear.

“What about you when you’re not chasing a master criminal around the world?”

“I cannot say, it’s been too long. I asked a beautiful girl to marry me once and she said yes but she died in an automobile wreck before the wedding. I haven’t dated since then, about two years now.”

“I’m sorry for your loss Jamie, and if it hurts you, I’m sorry to bring it up.”

“I have never been to Chicago, what is it like?”

The conversation was interesting as they took turns asking questions about the other. Jamie was waiting for some sign, pounding, or yelling, that would indicate workers were close. He heard nothing so far and the light was fading in their rubble pocket. He prayed the night would not be terrifying to the woman on top of him.

“Can you sleep, Claire? I think you should try, it will make the time pass faster. Close your eyes and think about something you do at home for fun, breathe deep, that’s a good lass.”

Jamie could hear Claire’s breathing deepen into her slumber and he closed his eyes hoping to join her. He had a feeling it would be a long night.

Senator Randall was startled by a tap on his shoulder and a note passed to him by his aide. It said Doctor Beauchamp had not gotten off her plane from Paris and was not answering her phone. Frank nodded to the aide and gathered his papers into a case leaving the meeting as quietly as possible. He was calling Claire when the door closed behind him. No answer. Claire was reliable, punctual, predictable, and always called when her plans changed. He felt a nervous twitch in his stomach as his phone vibrated continuously with messages delayed while his phone was turned off. He read through the text messages quickly and was jogging to find his driver and get back to his office.

Claire’s secretary and friend had bombed his phone about an explosion at Sotheby’s, part of the building collapsed, and Claire had not boarded her plane. Frank was feeling a surge of anxiety that was quite unfamiliar and unwanted. He kept his life sterile and empty of drama so he could pursue what made him happy, successful, and energized. He barked at the driver to find a way out of the traffic and back to his office. He couldn’t wait. The laptop lid flipped open and Frank searched for news of the Sotheby bombing. It was all over the internet and the pictures of the damage almost stopped his heart. He started dialing for his aides, giving orders to find her, book a flight to Paris tonight, and get him an emergency number for who was in charge at the auction house. He walked briskly to his office followed by jogging aides handing him notes with flight times, and phone numbers.

“Hello”

“Thank God! Jesus yer hard to find Frank. Ye know whats happened at Sotheby’s. Claire didn’t check-in at the airport, she didn’t return her rental or check out of the hotel. I’m sorry Frank, she is unaccounted for and …”

Frank clicked off of the call when Geillis was mid-sentence. He couldn’t deal with her at the moment, and punched in the numbers to Sotheby’s but couldn’t get through. He assigned two aids to keep calling the emergency number until one of them got a person on the phone.

The sixty-inch television in his office was streaming news of the explosion and the missing Rembrandt painting that was discovered. The explosion was reported as a possible diversion so the thief could get away. One of the aides held her phone out.

“Senator Bradley, sir. He says you won’t answer your own phone and he needs to speak with you.”

“Hello, yes, no I can’t meet tonight, I’m flying to Paris, my girl…” Pausing to listen, “sorry Gary, I can’t, it’s an emergency. No, I won’t be voting tomorrow, I have an emergency, I have to …”

Senator Bradley could be heard from across the room making the aides press into the farthest point in the office to complete their tasks. Frank drew his arm back to throw the phone into the wall and someone shrieked and grabbed her phone away from him. It might cost her job, but this was her brand-new iPhone and no cranky senator was going to smash it to pieces. She headed for the door and disappeared.

“It’s the manager at Sotheby’s, sir. Please don’t break my phone.”

Frank dropped into his chair and reported the news of his missing fiancé, Doctor Claire Beauchamp from the University of Chicago. The manager wanted the name of her rental car company, hotel, and time of day she was last heard from. Frank gave him Geillis’s cell phone number adding she would be the point of contact. Tomorrow would be a ball-breaker and he needed someone attached to their phone in case any news came in.

Hours later, Frank laid in bed in the dark and thought about Claire. So many hours after the explosion and no word from her. He didn’t want to believe it but found little hope she was alive. He closed his eyes.

Claire was shifting her weight trying to get comfortable on the lumpiest mattress ever made. When she moved to her side Jamie’s eyes slammed opened and he groaned loudly from her hip crushing his balls. He lifted her hip and moved her over three inches letting his hands rest on her hip and leg. The dress she wore was knit and very soft. It had pulled up above her knee so Jamie pulled it back down.

He didn’t know Claire, and would never see her again once they were free, but he did not like hearing about her fiancé and that made him feel weird. He closed his eyes again.

“Jesus Christ! What is that?”

Jamie was yanked to the surface of consciousness by a loud and panicked voice coming from a wiggling woman trying to move up his body. His arms came around her and he shushed her, asking what was wrong.

“Something crawled up my leg and it had sharp claws, small sharp claws. I need to sit on your chest.”

Jamie grunted and held her still while he talked her down from another panic. He had worried about rats in the building being attracted to their smell. He told Claire to breathe with him while he stroked her hair in the pitch darkness. She had wiggled up toward his head and now her cheek was pressed against his, her mouth only inches from his. He could feel her relaxing and truly hoped for no more surprises tonight. He fell asleep with his arms around Claire.

Jamie opened his eyes when the noise of pounding pulled him back to consciousness. He felt Claire pressed against him, their faces touching, and the morning erection that threatened what little dignity he had left. He willed it away, quite unsuccessfully. The banging started again and he smiled to himself, it won’t be long before they are back on their feet, he thought. The pounding gave way to ripping metal and the distinct sound of a backhoe.

Claire moaned and moved to her stomach, rolling her face so her mouth was smashed against Jamie’s. He didn’t want to breathe for fear she would wake up and take her lips away. The noise from moving heavy debris got louder and the light from the new day flooded their pocket. Claire opened her eyes and screamed, pushing away from Jamie and hitting her head hard.

“What the bloody hell!”

“I’ll have you know madam that you accosted me just now, taking advantage of my inability to move and get away. This assault comes after you nearly strangled me getting away from a mouse.”

Claire rubbed her head and looked at the most beautiful face she had ever seen on a man. He could be a movie star with looks like that, she thought. Jamie was trying to look indignant but started to chuckle when her mouth turned into a smile. She looked adorable with a mass of curls pouring over her face as she felt for a bump on her head.

“Do you need me to rub it for you?”

The laugh that followed was genuine, feminine, and he loved hearing it.

“I’ll let you know if I want you to rub it.”

She laid her head on his chest and listened to the cavalry above them. “Sounds like they are making progress Jamie. I think you will soon be free of me.”

“Let’s hope it’s before I die of dehydration. I have never felt thirst like this in my life.”

With nothing to do but wait for the rescuers, they dozed and tried not to move too much. Through the early morning, the efforts above them intensified. The crew boss called a halt to the noise so they could get a radar fix on the heartbeats again. The radar technician moved his finger in a circle above their location and the infrared tech nodded his agreement. The noise continued.

“Jamie?”

“Yes, Sassenach.”

“What is the first thing you want to do when we’re rescued?”

“Drink like an elephant.”

“How is that?”

“Someone hands them a hose and they use their trunk to place it in their mouth. An hour or so later, the elephant pulls it out.”

“I’m quite sure you made that up but it’s still funny.”

“It’s God’s truth, I swear. Next, I will jump into the hotel pool until my body temperature comes back to normal. You laying on me is like a giant quilt heating me through for the last twenty hours or so. What about you Sassenach?”

“I’m down for the elephant thing, and a bubble bath, while I pray there are no flights to Chicago today. I want to lose myself in the Louvre.”

“Your list is impressive but surely a phone call to the senator will be done first, even before you put the hose in your mouth?”

Claire was giggling at Jamie’s charm, “of course, the senator, and then the hose.”

“Your dress is so soft, I woke up petting it like a rabbit in the middle of the night.” Jamie ran his hands down her back for effect and then instantly dropped them to his sides while Claire laughed. He just wanted to make her laugh until they took her away from him forever.

“Don’t move Sassenach!”

“Why? Is something crawling on me?”

Jamie grunted when her knee made contact with his balls as she twisted to look for a bug, or worse.

“No, it’s a phone call is all.”

Jamie reached up and pulled a phone to his ear. He spoke to the rescue worker and described how they were trapped. The phone was then pulled upward through the remaining debris until it was out of sight.

“Wow, how do they know exactly where we are?”

Jamie watched her childlike wonder and smiled at her until the dangling section of wall that had been directly above his throat dropped onto the cinder block making a deafening noise. Claire screamed and held onto Jamie tightly. She buried her face in his chest and cried until he could calm her down again. Claire felt his hand stroking her hair, and his arm around her waist. It was so foreign to be held this way and she didn’t want it to stop but could not force more tears, so he let her go. Jamie smiled encouragingly at her and pointed to the crushed cinder block.

“You see, you saved my life. That means you’re responsible for me forever.”

“Wait. If I saved you, that means you owe me a life, I think.”

“Anybody’s life?”

“I’m not quite sure about that. Maybe it’s like a debt that is paid by saving my life.”

Jamie took a chance and twisted his body and hers until they were lying side by side looking at the other.

“I don’t imagine a professor of fine arts and future first lady of the United States finds her life in peril much. But if you did, I will be the first one there Claire.”

She looked so innocent and beautiful looking at him. He seized her mouth and gorged himself on the beautiful professor. She turned her head for better access to his lips and he felt the exhilaration of her interest, however brief it would be. Aside from inhalation, the kiss continued until a large section that had them pinned was ripped away.

Claire sat up smiling at the men that surrounded them about ten feet up. She waved and stretched her back. A harness was lowered, held still by the men until she was safely in it. She pulled her briefcase strap over her head and was lifted through the debris to safety. Jamie watched her legs until she was pulled from his view.

Jamie looked up at the men, “any of the art stolen yesterday?”

“One small painting is all,” said with a heavy accent.

His stomach suddenly felt like a rock grinder. He asked the man, “quelle peinture?” The man shrugged his shoulders and looked around at the other workers until someone yelled “Rembrandt”. The sling was lowered again and Jamie was tempted to wrap it around his neck, but then Casper would win. He buckled himself into the harness.

Claire was loaded into an ambulance and whisked off to the nearest hospital. She gripped her briefcase and tried to calm her sense of shock at being thrust back into normality and away from Jamie. The EMT bent the straw top of a bottle of water and placed it in her mouth. She pulled the cool water into her mouth and thought about the elephants.

Claire was released by nine in the morning and now sat on her hotel bed with the phone in her hand.

“Sweet heavens, I am glad to talk to ye Claire, I haven’t slept a wink!”

“You are such a good friend Geillis. I tried to call Frank but his phone is off. Is he on his way to Paris?”

“No, he tried to leave last night but there’s an important vote today, it couldn’t be missed. What do ye need me to do? I already checked flights and they are booked today and tomorrow, even first class. I booked ye on United, leaving Paris at ten in the morning on Friday. All your appointments are canceled because ye were missin from a building that was bombed and I dinna ken if you were dead or alive.”

Geillis sobbed through the last part of the sentence and continued to cry until Claire calmed her down.

“I have quite the war story from the experience. I spent almost twenty-four hours laying on top of a giant Scot with a gorgeous face and bulging muscles.”

Claire giggled at Geillis’s reaction, knowing her friend would find that part of the tragedy delicious. After the call, Claire pulled her filthy clothes off and dropped them in the wastebasket. Flipping the security bar on the door meant she would be undisturbed while she scrubbed the dirt away. Sinking into the hot fragrant bubbles, she exhaled and thought about the rest of her day. She would meet with her client later and conclude their business and then tomorrow was all for her. The silver-lining as it were.

The exquisite bed in Claire’s room was so expansive one might miss the 8x12 inch Rembrandt in the center. Soon it would be handed over to the client in exchange for a deed to an Italian property valued at three million dollars. All in a day’s work.

[faunusrights]

OFFAL HUNT REMASTERED LIVEBLOG // CHAPTER 19

IN THIS EPISODE OF MURPHY IS SCREAMING, CONSTANTLY, TRAPPED IN THEIR PERFECT NIGHTMARE:

Glynda was saying: “I know we aren’t friends. I know we aren’t partners. I know you’re a criminal. But—I think I can trust you. I think I have to trust you, even if you’ve done awful things before.”

EVERYTHING GOES WRONG BUT LIKE SOMEHOW WORSE THAN EVER? LIKE A WHOLE NEW BRAND OF LOW. LIKE CINDER’S GOT A PICKAXE AND THE CENTRE OF THE PLANET CALLS FOR AID.

IT’S BEEN A WHILE HUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but dw offal hunt, like the rising of the sun, the arrival of winter, and the eventual downfall of capitalism, always returns. so lets go.

(i just quickly reread chapter 18 liveblog to remember what happened and Ah Yes I Remember Now. The Suppressed Memories)

The place was emptier without Glynda. Quieter.

/gunshot oh we’re in danger right out of the gate huh? we got some yearning right out here? right now? how quickly the turn do tables.

Cinder appraised her work, holding the beige coat up to the light and squinting.

man i forgot. i FORGET. how much i just love cinder in this fic. sometimes she kinda zones to the back of my mind where she sits waiting for me to start thinking about her again, but now i remember that this cinder is Peaque. look at her GO, minding her own BUSINESS. im proud of her. does she know i love her.

It didn’t take long to don her new, fire-proofed clothes.

in another world, in a more comical plot, she used asbestos. it didnt go well.

The subtle warmth of the Dust teased tension from Cinder’s stiff muscles, even as she marvelled at the strangeness of her own bedroom’s space. It seemed bigger now than it had the last two nights.

h

She chose not to dwell on it.

h

i choose to dwell on it! ME!!!! I CHOOSE TO DWELL ON IT. HEY CINDER WHAT THIS GAY SHIT. hello. ma’am. can we look deeper into this. i, for one, would like to, and i, for one, think its of value to think abt this. that said, small segue

Quietly, Cinder murmured, “I didn’t freak out.”

THE FACT SHE SAYS IT ALOUD LIKE EM AND MERC CAN HEEEEEEAR HEEEEEEEER i am. INFATUATED with this family. cant wait for the 100k spinoff thats basically an elongated beach episode where they go to like. alton towers. or butlins. six flags??? thats a thing in america right??? anyway. beach episode. call me. (wink wink nudge nudge push push shove shove)

 We had to stop back in because Merc left his favorite binder, and it was 2 in the morning, so it was easier to crash here for the night than mess with the ship’s autopilot.

them,,, THEM!!!! mercury is just a son and childe. thast it. he canot change this. i love these kids so much i am SHAKING THE MONITOR RN!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAA

Stuck here in one of the homes they’d shared, Cinder missed them terribly. Missed the sound of their voices and the easy comfort of their presence. Finding the time to contact them had been difficult, between managing Glynda and Hati both, but Glynda was gone, and she’d sent Hati onwards to Atlas. She remembered her call with Emerald, before arriving in Umbraroot; she knew it had not soothed her or her fears.

im sorry was this chapter targeted at me, specifically, as a human being on planet earth? GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE THIS FAMILY!!!!!!!!! THIS WONKY OLD BANDAGED UP FAMILY UNIT!!!!!!!!!!!!! i thrive every time they are mentioned on the page. it is a blessing. my succulents grow stronger each time they show up.

“No,” Cinder argued softly, “I had to. Mercury, you deserve to hear it from me as well. I am sorry. And I am promising you: I’ll come back.”

For a long, heart-wrenching moment, he was completely quiet. It was good that Cinder was alone in the apartment; laying herself bare like this would be unbearable with an audience.

GODDDDDDDDDDD AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

i am OBSESSED WITH THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IM GOING TO BE THINKING ABOUT THIS UNTIL I D I E. of all thing the remaster does better than og, this is just. SPEEDING AHEAD. this whole CONFLICT this whole MESS just makes everything so much RICHER its like when u splash some wine in yr fancy food or stick some cinnamon on yr favourite desserts u dont NEED TO but it adds that lil SOMETHING,,, that little KICK that just ties the flavour profile together and in this case ofgughugguhu it just GIVES SO MUCH. im making SNOW ANGELS in the WORDS on the PAGE.

“Mercury. If I could prove it to you, I would. But you have to—trust me. For just a while longer.”

“It’s getting harder,” he said. He didn’t sound like he was lying just to hurt her. That wasn’t spite. That was honest anger. And it made her feel like dirt.

im less picking these for specific instances of like, things i want to say, but more just because bits of this r rly just so /chef kiss. cinder has these.... endearingly (take that whichever way u like) human qualities in OG to rly make u realise she had ties to add to her #Doubt but the remaster is just AMPING it up and u FEEL IT and ive never been more SYMPATHETIC to a round-faced sinnamon bun of assholery and fire id DIE for cinder fall and this is a fact PUT IT ON MY GRAVESTONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“Is there anything you need?” What was this? Cinder could barely focus on her words. It felt like... “Anything? At all?”

“We’re fine.”

“Mercury, wait please—” She was losing him. “I think—”

“Just hurry up.”

The line went dead.

this place is not a place of honor.................. no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here........................ nothing valued is here................ IM DYING

Cinder began to type out her response, and that was when the nausea really kicked in. 

[...] 

She recognized this now.

Glynda.

stress stress stress stress STRESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

There shouldn’t be anybody. Cinder had done everything in her power to cut Glynda from people who would interfere. To isolate her. Make it easier to bring her to Atlas, to the frozen north, to her mother and the machine…

Cinder’s esophagus quivered; furiously, she shut her eyes and thought of nothing.

god cinder don’t remind me that you’re an asshole and dipshit and also a moron im trying to be NICE and CARE ABT YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! STOP REMINDING ME YOU’RE A PIECE OF SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

FOR FIVE MINUTES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The front door clicked open.

Cinder couldn’t have said how much time had passed, only that it had passed slowly. What she did know was that it was Glynda returning, the sensation of boils bursting wafting off her soul. It crawled over Cinder’s flesh. She curled in on herself.

There were mites under every nailbed. Salt in her weeping mouth.

offal hunt’s brilliant use of this horror aspect is something i have tried previously to emulate and here’s a fact, take it from me: that shit is HARD. offal hunt consistently able to whack those real nasty, really Disgusting vibes on the head EVERY TIME is a work of art. i mean, kc and diesel do not fuck around, and therefore i am NOT surprised, but it’s only when u try this shit yourself that you realise: this is hard! this is difficult! it’s a huge testament to how GOOD this fic is in every way. also this whole fucking body horror aspect is something i didnt know this fic needed, but it did, and here we are. 

Thickly: “Things were going okay. If you hadn’t gotten nasty, I might have smoothed things over. I could have fixed things with my son.”

with my son

with my son

with my son

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA I CANT TAKE IT EVERY TIME ITS TOO MUCH FOR TO BEAR I CANNOT HANDLE IT I CANNOT STAND IT ITS LIKE BEING SHOT JUST DIRECTLY IN MY DICK

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

im like sweating rn

Glynda said, “I’m scared.”

“Why?”

“I don’t want to tell you.”

I SAID IM SWEATING

Glynda asked, “Are you lying to me?”

And Cinder said, “What?”

“About me. About Witches. About Ozpin—” Cinder’s guts went sour. “—About anything. I need to know if I can trust you.”

I SAID I! AM! S W E A T I N G

“I know you’ve lied to people. Hurt people.”

Adrenaline and the image of her kids’ faces behind her eyes made a potent, sick cocktail. “—Not. Now.”

so lets like double back to when i said hey was this chapter written to target me specifically and as it turns out, yes. yes it was. yes it was and as MUCH AS I AM LIVING FOR THIS MOMENT THIS SWEET BUILDUP THE EXPLOSION AND THE CRATER IT ALL LEAVES BEHIND

I

AM

so this next bit is like. i cant really quote one section but as i was saying in Vague DMs, this whole bit feels like wading through mud. usually if you say something consumes energy to Read it’s in a Bad Way when yr bored but this is more like. you Feel cinder all over everything feels so sluggish and it’s like dragging your own corpse around as you try and leave and you’re TIRED and your LEGS HURT and you’re kinda thinking god what if i just fell face down for just a moment of my LIFE.

The putrid weight of Glynda’s soul filled the room until there was no space left for her.

it’s like being trapped in a sauna, like getting stuck in a humid waiting room. where do you GO. what do you DO. god this whole section is fantastic and offal hunt NEVER fails to fucking nail the Vibes but reading it is HARD. i literally keep having to stop and breathe like ive been holding my breath. jesus h christ.

a small intermission for a mood:

“Get fucked.”

back to regularly scheduled hell

Out of the bedroom. Down the hall. The walls were sweating with heat. She tasted smoke. 

i love that i just said how i feel like im trapped in a sauna and it turns out: thats because me and cinder both, baybee!!!! hahahaha help

Glynda’s soul chewed her to the marrow. “Move, Glynda.” 

cinder being hunted at the start of this fic: teehee! im running away! now im gonna getcha! heehee! arent i clever :) cinder being hunted now: this uh. this blows, actually,

Cinder’s pulse roared in her ears. Her hands twitched. She smelled Ochre Brown’s round face melting off. His wide smile shattered with each of his teeth, going black and popping like corn.

this chapter is probably my favourite so far for this blending of so many elements. i cant even begin to like. THINK STRAIGHT about how all of this is tying together. the lore. the THEMATICS. like i said this character rly is just Rich with what og lacked and oh is it RICH. im gonna read this chapter in future and see so much that i know ive already missed. holy shit.

“Ms. Fall,” she said. “The White Fang requires your presence immediately.”

NOT NOW

Cinder stood there looking at it for a moment. Her thoughts were slow. Copper-tinged. Something small and indulgent whispered to her through the blood-fog.

It was obvious enough what would happen if she got into this car. The driver would take her to a secluded place, where she would be ambushed by a squadron of battle-hungry White Fang grunts.

They’d try to take her down. And she was a killer, wasn’t she? Ochre Brown wailed in her ears with every thump of her runaway heart. Her hands itched for action; her teeth, for blood.

She’d burn them black.

never mind! you are already dead,

She thought about Glynda. About her saying that if there was trouble with the Fang, she wanted to come. That she would fight for Cinder.

She thought of Glynda’s question: What aren’t you telling me about Ochre Brown?

Yeah, fuck that.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!! WHAT A CLIFFHANGER!!!!!!!!!! WHAT A MOMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!! MORE MOMENTOUSLY: WHAT A CHAPTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

this is EASILY my favourite chapter so far. EASILY. everything about this was peak offal. the relationships. the dynamics. the dialogue. the vibes. the Grossness. the fighting. the EVERYTHING. this is some other level and its BITCHIN. PEAK. that said im now very tired. im going to have a cup of tea and Consider Things for a few hours. brb.

[sweetestrequiems]

kit’s release radar + reflecting on things

alright so let me give y’all a normal post now aka the release radar for this account just without dates.

they’re all under the cut cause it’s a LOT.

aka, look under the picture of the broadway queens. thank you.

-foreboding (targets part 2) will come your way soon. jo and i need to finish writing and editing. 

-chapter 2 of out of a book is in the works. it will be a parr-centric chapter. -out of a book will go between boleyn-centric/parr-centric until i start working on chapter 6. chapter 6 and onward should be an even split or just about. -the title of the chapter is Scones and Coffee, by the way.

-aragon angst is finally being written. i was going to have the nightmare aragon has be set in historical times, but i can’t see myself doing it because i am not confident enough with history. so, i will set it in modern day instead.

-the boleyn fluff i promised jo is being plotted out as we speak. im gonna turn it into beheaded cousins fluff because i felt bad for asking for kitty angst lmao

-i might do some queen x reader one shots. they’re gonna be super cute, too. i think my favorite idea i had for one was jane seymour’s. cause stargazing and picnics. yeah. -if you guys actually want some queen x reader stuff i’ll write it for y’all.

-my apex legends fic titled spark of hope will have a release date pending in the next two months. with apex legends’ lore of it being a bloodsport, i have to properly think of the trigger warnings, tags, and so on. i also have to replay through titanfall 2 for the twentieth time, and play more apex legends to actually memorize the layouts of the maps (world’s edge/kings canyon). -i will probably release spark of hope as an Ao3 exclusive. i have the good understanding that i might have followers who are very sensitive to certain triggers involved in this, so i don’t want to put anyone in harm’s way.

-with new day, same queen getting ready to finish up in the next two weeks, it gives me more time to openly take requests and stuff. so if you have a prompt you’d like for me to do, once part 6 is finally up, come into my ask box and drop it in there. -cleves is part 4, she comes out friday. -seymour will be entering the world of the living next friday, april 17th. -howard will be the last queen to wake up on friday, april 24th. -pretty much a complete series which wow good job kit you did it lmao

-jo and i (mostly jo) are planning for a total of FOUR parts for targets. the last part is just us indulging in the softness of parrlyn but that’s besides the point. but, because the events of parts 2 and 3 are so emotionally charged, we decided to make it parrlyn because boleyn seems to be the only one that has been able to calm down a very angry parr. and it gives us two an opportunity to write out the complexity of parr’s emotions.

-so do y’all remember the ask that boleyn got from kitty about a prank? -rest assured i am actually writing that because jo and i accidentally plotted that out. -honestly it is the most hilarious thing we have thought of. -can you just imagine aragon dumping a whole ass bucket of water on boleyn and screaming “THE POWER OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST COMPELS YOU!” -part of me wonders how i think of this shit and i’m sober 99.9% of the time.

-sending in asks for the queens is ALWAYS welcome btw. i love responding as the queens and it gives me motivation to write for the queens that answer so... go for it.

-i am most definitely doing Six x [insert show here] stuff. will it probably be parrlyn singing something cute? yeah. -do i care? not really because it gives me an excuse to be a nerd. -i mean... writing fanfiction makes me a nerd but besides the point!!!

-speaking of, Six x Soho Cinders is apparently the actual brightest idea i’ve had on this account because almost if not 70 notes on it???? -like thank you??? so much???? -i honestly thought y’all were gonna be like “oh no here she goes again” but y’alL REALLY ACTUALLY MADE MY HEART HAPPY

i honestly cannot stress enough that i am grateful for all of you that follow me. for the ones that like my stuff. the ones that reblog. the ones who reply. ALL OF YOU. we are in hard times. the world is fucking terrifying. i mean, i’m an adult for fuck’s sake but i’m scared too. i write for you guys. let me explain what i mean:

i have spent a solid fifteen of the twenty years i have been alive on a stage of sorts. under a spotlight, or in an ensemble. i’m a semi-professional musician. i am a novice/amateur actress. i have played in a symphony orchestra.

during hard times is when people turn to the arts. whether they love seeing dancers fly across the stage, actors tell stories, visual artists create landscapes and portraits of scenes unknown... they’re all turning to these people for something i like to call a gift.

my former saxophone instructor is a well known man. he plays in a world renowned saxophone quartet. this man took a chance on me, and taught me the greatest thing i could ever learn as an artist of sorts. 

the arts, performance or visual, are a gift. you are taking your raw emotions, your feelings... you’re making yourself vulnerable for the world to see. you are giving these people a light in their darkest times. you are helping them escape their cold realities for just minutes at a time. you are giving them a piece of you that you would only think to give to your significant other. you are taking something from your heart, filled with your emotions, and allowing someone else to be a part of that. and that is the greatest gift of all.

truth be told, that’s what i consider all of this writing. an art. it is as valid as dance and as music. as valid as painting. as valid as ceramics. as valid as any breathing and living art form out there.

so, for me to see that you all do enjoy this? it lets me know that this gift is well received. it’s... loved. it's in the right hands. 

so from the bottom of my heart, thank you. thank you so much for not only allowing me the chance to do this, but for letting me into your lives.

i will see all of you later with the tumblr release of out of a book, and a video. 

much love to all of you, kit

[rwbyconversations]

RWBY Volume 6 Vocal Songs review

Well, we finally have it people- the Volume 6 soundtrack is out. And hopefully this time Spotify mains won’t feel left in the corner like the Ladybug fandom does during the inter-RWBY shipping discussions.

I’ll say overall I adored the songs this year and there weren’t any duds- in fact this is probably my new overall favorite lyric soundtrack since Volume 4, which was just overflowing with bangers. This year was similarly jam-packed, with every new song being the usual outstanding fare that RWBY has become known for.

... and then there’s the remixes which continue to be absolutely awful and will never go onto my playlists but this is the token mention of the remixes. Why do they keep doing them, the only good one’s been Sacrifice.

But regardless, this is my review of all the vocal songs in Volume 6. Enjoy! (forward warning I’m not a music critic so don’t expect anything too deep here)

All GIFs were made by @edelblume​, someone actually proficient in talking musical theory.

1) Rising

Rising was already one of my favorite openings to date for RWBY, if for no other reason than the superb opening animation itself. But fortunately, the song itself more than met my expectations. Featuring an incredibly strong riff from Jeff from Alex along with a surprising synth appearance in places, Rising kicks off the soundtrack with gusto, a defiant acknowledgement that their road is faced with a permeating darkness, but it won’t last, and much as nature simply knows how to be, they were born with the knowledge to do the right thing and stand against evil. For they are paragons, and death can’t hold them down for long. After years of ranking Time To Say Goodbye as my favorite opening of the show, Rising supplants it and takes its new spot on the throne.

2) Miracle

Miracle was a surprise- for the first time since Volume 3 and It’s My Turn, we got a new song in the premiere alongside the opening itself, capping off RWBY, Oscar and Qrow’s desperate struggle to buy the Argus Limited time to escape with its civilian cargo. It’s a much bleaker song than Rising, coming right as the heroes are about to have their senses of morality tested by the truths that Ozpin had been hiding from them for years. Miracle laments how they’re running out of time and that their own triumphs don’t matter- a reckoning is near and they have to answer the question of whether or not the path they’ve been walking was the right one, or just one made of lies. As the heroes scramble for a miracle, they’re dismayed to find that none’s in sight, but as they realize they’re fighting on the sight of light and all that’s good in the world, they’re determined to stand and fight until their miracle arrives.

Miracle can be seen as a proper theme song for the first half of Volume 6, as it more deeply examines the themes of the volume, especially the team’s inner conflict. The final verse especially can be seen as almost an abridging of the Brunswick arc, as the team reach their lowest points and despair at how nothing they do is worth anything before they take a breather and decide that even if the end time are coming, they’ll face it head on and give it a bloody nose before it consumes everything, still hoping for that miracle to arrive- just like a young silver eyed girl arrived in Brunswick to cleanse its tainted halls of apathy. 

Miracle was a surprising song back in October last year, and now that it’s out in full it’s honestly my favorite song lyrically on the track. It’s a perfect assessment of the situation the heroes wind up in this volume, capping off with their blunt refusal to let the end take them quietly. 

3) Lionized

I know they spell it Lionize but I don’t care, they say Lionized in the song for Christ’s sake! 

I’ve been waiting for this song for nearly an entire year since RTX and the short that won me back onto RWBY, and fortunately Lionized didn’t disappoint. Adam finally got his solo song to bow out his character after sharing From Shadows with Blake, and much like his character short, it offers a compelling, if truncated, account of his rise and fall into darkness. 

While Amity Arena’s bio had already revealed Adam’s early life to be horrific- born into slavery in an SDC dust mine, dreaming of looking up at the sky with his own two eyes one day- Lionized also makes no point of hiding the details, having the lyrics open with Adam reflecting on how he was “Insulted and reviled, Enthralled by human overlords since I was a child” (which gives off serious vibes of Adam being a sex abuse victim as a child to me and Jesus Christ). That punishment broke Adam and drove him mad in his desire to make humanity pay for what it had done to him and the hundreds of thousands of Faunus in those mines. 

Jeff kills it in this song- it’s easily my new favorite solo from him as we get a deep dive into what drove Adam past the brink of madness, as his revenge dovetails into building him up and making him more of a figurehead than an actual hero- “Watch them fall as I am glorified,” “You’ll see, I’m their hero/I’m here, I’m your savior, I’ll be lionized!” And the guitars are something else, a constantly churning ripping and shredding beat that combines with Jeff’s voice sounds like a feral animal about to attack. And if there’s one way to get me hype for a villain in anime, grab some guitars and start shredding. 

While Miracle might be my favorite song of the OST on a lyrical level, Lionized just knows how to get me hyped and this’ll probably be the one that gets the most replays on my playlist. It captures the old spirit of RWBY’s original music and delivers with a rip-roaring track that matches its narrators madness with shredding gusto.

4) Big Metal Shoe

I had no expectations for Big Metal Shoe. In fact I figured this would be the weak link of the soundtrack. Surely what seemed to just be a diss track at a villain I wasn’t especially fond of wouldn’t make for a good song, right?

And then we got Caffeine 2.0 and... it was actually kinda good. Again, I’m a simple man- throw some guitars at me and I’ll smile and nod like a kid watching fireworks. This sound wound up being a fun little darkhorse for the soundtrack, alongside a seeming self-imposed challenge by Williams and Abraham to make as many fairytale references in two and 3/4 minutes as physically possible. 

There is one downside though- this song’s actually incomprehensible. I don’t understand half of it. Jeff and Casey have this problem a lot of the time where it’s hard to understand them but this is just peak “Are you even speaking English anymore?” And then Lamar shows up for the Token Lamar Rap Verse that every RWBY OST includes and then it gets even worse.

While I wasn’t expecting much from Big Metal Shoe, it still made for a fun few minutes. Now I can’t wait for Flynt’s lyric video so I understand most of the song! 

5) Forever Fall

RWBY’s track record with ballads can be generously described as “hit or miss.” For every Cold or Home, we have Wings or All That Matters. Forever Fall has a crucial advantage over those weaker examples in that I actually like most of the characters featured in the song. Being about Pyrrha encouraging Jaune from beyond the veil while Jaune struggles to press on, much as she did in the Boundless Jaune Amity Arena bio, it’s a somber tune, and easily one of the better attempts Jeff and Casey have made at a slower, more quiet song. I’m not the biggest fan of how RWBY has handled Pyrrha’s death since Volume 3, sometimes it feels a little like they keep JNR around just to more easily have access to angst fuel for it, but Forever Fall definitely helped set the bitter stage for the statue scene, which does still stand as one of the better scenes of Volume 6 (even if it does lose some of its weight once you realize Pyrrha probably wouldn’t have actually liked the statue due to her hatred of being put on a pedestal). Casey knocks it out of the park with her voice and the piano plays a beat on many a fan’s heart. 

I’m especially fond of the theory that this isn’t so much a Pyrrha singing to Jaune song as it’s a song that can symbolise both of them at the same time. Credit to the crew for that.

6) One Thing

Neo’s far from my favorite character in RWBY, and I’ve made no secret of how I think she’s dreadfully overhyped outside of being a good luck charm for well animated fights. Luckily for her and fans then, her charm status made it into Maya unscathed, and Neo was protected by the universal rule of soundtracks.

The villain songs are always really fucking good.

Casey finally lives out her dream of voicing Neo in One Thing, a bitter revenge fantasy where Neo makes no reservations about how much she’ll love putting down anyone and everyone responsible for Roman’s death. She talks (heh) of how she had nothing before Roman came- not a voice, not a home, maybe not even a name if I’m hearing that one line right. “Then a brand new flame brought a brand new name.” 

Add in a badass as all hell chorus and Neo jumped up a few places in my personal RWBY polls thanks to the presentation of her musical debut alone, to say nothing of her fantasies about killing Cinder (can relate). One Thing shows just how effective a great song can be, setting the scene for a fantastic fight scene, a solid return for a fandom-beloved character and then even making someone who considered her the Boba Fett of RWBY start to like her. I’m eager to learn more of Neo’s past before she met Roman, whenever that day comes.

(btw is it bad if I kinda ship Neo and Roman now?)

7) Nevermore

I don’t have a lot to add that hasn’t been said since the finale aired- it’s a pretty great song and a fantastic closer for the volume, I hope Atlas means we finally stop getting Blake or Yang-focused credit songs because this was the third in a row and it’s getting tiring, the disconnect between the writers and actors calling Adam “the worst” while the songs and bios paint a far more complex picture is a bit of an odd disconnect that I hope doesn’t repeat if they ever remember that Cinder’s an abuser too. 

8) Armed and Ready Acoustic

Nice song, shame it’s gonna get ruined by all the fucking Beehaw/Yorse jokes. You weren’t funny in February, you’re not funny now. You’re not even worth a comment about beating a dead horse. Not sure I like the acoustic going full country but whatever. Wake me up when I’m The One gets the acoustic treatment.

9) Indomitable

Indomitable was the song I was probably the most hyped for in the V6 OST alongside or even surpassing Lionized. Ruby’s Silver Eyes scene was a strong contender for the best scene of the season and single-handedly made up for what otherwise could have been a Breach-level anticlimax of a finale, and part of what made it work was Indomitable, the short but powerful song that played as Ruby gave Bubbles The Leviathan both ocular barrels. Ruby finally getting a song after five straight albums was ambrosia to my soul, after years of having to make due with “Maybe Ruby’s song is meant to be the OP?” as Weiss, Blake and Yang got song after song after song, oftentimes getting multiple songs in a single year (Hi Yang. Stop hogging the jukebox. Please.). Finally, I thought, she’d get a track, and one that appeared to be about her accepting her role as the light standing against the darkness, all capped off with a beautiful quiet tribute to Monty in the form of his old blog quotes about the human spirit.

So I must admit, when I listened to Indomitable proper, I was... disappointed on the first listen. It’s still a lovely song, but it wasn’t what I hoped and wanted it to be and it took a little while to appreciate it in spite of that.

Indomitable is a tribute song to Monty, a la Cold from Volume 3. But while Cold had a double meaning that made it work in and out of universe (being a song from CRWBY mourning Monty that could also reflect on Jaune mourning Pyrrha), Indomitable is far less connected to RWBY in-universe unless Ruby had a dream offscreen where she met a tired looking guy who made worlds based off his ketchup stains then woke up and made a Christian Rock song out of it. 

Rather sadly for me at least, this also hurts the original Indomitable scene in question as well. It doesn’t truly fit the original scene now, as much as it did when we thought the song was about Ruby recognizing her spirit. It was a great way to cap off a volume that was overall great for Ruby. As she finally got to take center stage as protagonist in her own show, we finally got a new song about her standing unyielding against the darkness. What was a great character moment for Ruby has now rather sadly been hurt by the song. Not terribly, I still love the climax of Volume 6. But now the song just feels a touch out of place.

I know some people have already been rather critical of anyone who didn’t like the song because it wasn’t what they wanted (I’ve seen a fair few people express disappointment that the song wasn’t the Ruby-focused song the chorus and placement in the show led us to believe) and that tired old “subverting expectations” argument came up. To which I must reply that “What did you expect me to take from a song showing up during Ruby’s most powerful moment, that the song was actually about Port?” While what we got was still a powerful song that makes for an interesting trilogy of songs of RWBY dealing with Monty’s death in Cold, Let’s Just Live and Indomitable, I think Ruby’s fanbase especially are very fairly allowed to be disappointed that they were stripped of the chance to finally get her first focus song in half a decade. Instead we get another Ruby song where she’s not even the real focus (much like Blake’s trailers get hijacked by her supporting cast, Ruby’s songs get hijacked by anyone within a mile of the recording booth),  

I still liked Indomitable, and it does become a stellar song after the first chorus.. It still has Ruby’s overall attitude and the lyrics do still allow one to reflect on Ruby and her growth over Volumes 1-3 and 6. It’s a lovely, touching and very emotional tribute to Monty and a rousing anthem to celebrate his legacy (wait does this mean Indomitable breaks the Monty Rule? ;) ) and had it been a simple bonus track that we only learned about when the OST dropped a la BMBLB or Dream Come True it would have been a lot better in my opinion. We still got a lovely song and in the heat of the moment, it worked really well for Ruby. But at this point, I really just want a new inarguable Ruby song above all else, and this probably should have been kept as a bonus song instead of being used in-show. Still good, but I’m just a bitter bitch and wanted something else

Conclusion and ranking

Volume 6′s vocal tracks were a near-perfect selection this year. After Volume 5′s tracklist was more comparatively disappointing (Smile and This Time are the only ones I’d really go back to at this point), the V6 tracklist was far more impressive and a near constant streak of home runs. While Indomitable wasn’t what I hoped and wanted it to be, it was still a touching tribute to Monty and proof that his soul lives on in RWBY. If Jeff, Alex and Casey are as on fire next year as they were this year, the wait for the Volume 7 OST will be even more painful. Round of applause for the music team this year, they did a stellar job and I wish them all the best for Volume 7. 

1) Miracle 2) Lionized 3 One Thing 4) Rising 5) Forever Fall 6) Nevermore 7) Indomitable 8) Acoustic Armed and Ready  9) Big Metal Shoe 10) The music that played during Merc and Em’s scene in Lost.  10) The godawful Triumph and Path to Isolation remixes. Please. Leave the songs alone, I hate Volume 5 but even it didn’t deserve that torture. 

Thank you for reading. 

[wilhelmjfink]

The Great Divide - Chapter 3

Summary: Daryl had told Riley a hundred times: people are not to be trusted and one day she’d run into the wrong person and learn pretty quickly that her confidence in strangers would get her into a lot of trouble. They both knew he was right. He was just trying to teach her before it was too late for her to learn.

Warnings: i’m not going to warn yall anymore there will be swearing in every single chapter and if you don’t like it what the fuck are you even doing here?? 

A/N: this one’s a little sad :-[ 

Previous Chapter • Next Chapter

“Jesus Christ, I’m so glad you’re okay...” Riley’s words broke as she choked back a sob, leaning forward onto the bed that Daryl rested on, trying to avoid touching him at all for fear of hurting him further. “I don’t even know what I...”

“Hey,” he interrupted her despite his own voice still weak from a combination of yelling in pain followed by a long period of underuse as he just lay unconscious for the night. Riley had sat outside the door all fucking night while Hershel worked away at him, stitching and cleaning him up, tending to the many wounds he’d accumulated on his trip in search of Sophia, and even after. All night she’d waited for the archer to wake up because was so fucking worried. “Stop it. Don’ need to think about that, alright?”

She nodded and sniffled, avoiding his gaze with flushed cheeks. She’d realized something in the long hours of the night while she waited for his eyes to open bak up: if she was harboring any doubt about how she’d felt about him before, she was sure it’d been made very clear to everybody, including herself. She wasn’t sure if Hershel had told Daryl about her lunging at Andrea, fists, tears and curses flying sporadically until somebody managed to pull her off of her. 

She didn’t even know why. She had no clue what exactly had come over her at that moment, but there was no more denying her feelings anymore.

And he would doubt it until the day he died, though; hell, she could look him in the eyes and say it flat out, point blank, and he still wouldn’t believe her. Maybe she would do that some day, and maybe he would believe her when she did.

But for now, he was fine with the relationship they had, hesitant for it to develop into anything more and ruin it. He gingerly reached out toward her, cupping her chin in his hand and forcing her to look at him with red-rimmed eyes and tear stained cheeks and smiled weakly at her, the confidence to do so completely new and unfamiliar to him. “Cheer up, sunshine. I ain’t goin’ nowhere.”

Riley could remember smiling then as she laid her head down gently on his chest and the feeling it brought her when he hesitantly brought his hand up and placing it on the back of her head. That was the first time he’d ever called her that stupid nickname, but it grew on her very quickly.

“You kinda have a habit’a runnin’ right into danger, Ri.”

She looked up at Daryl as he crouched overtop of her, dressing the new wound on her ankle for her. She winced as as he tightened the ace bandage around it. 

“Too tight?”

“No,” she bit the words out through gritted teeth, trying her best not to show her pain and give him the satisfaction of knowing he was right. They both knew he was — but she was far too stubborn to let it show. It was an honest mistake, and she had no way to see the broken metal protruding from the ground where an old chain link fence used to stand. Anybody could’ve tripped over it and sliced their shin open through their jeans. “And for the the record, Dixon, trouble has a way of running right into me, thank you very much.”

He snorted in response, pinning the bandage securely in place before leaning back to observe her. “You good to walk?”

“Yeah, I’ll make it.” She pushed herself up to prove it, using a nearby tree as a crutch. He watched her skeptically, fighting a smirk when she hobbled just a step before her knee buckling under her weight and sent her tumbling back down to the ground. “Ugh, just leave me here. Go on without me.”

So he bent down, scooping her up bridal style even as she protested tiredly. “Shuddup,” he told her, “we’re almost home.”

She smiled again, though unintentionally, at the feeling his radiantly blue eyes and slight smile brought her. Her fingers scratched at the top of her bed longingly, before she was torn from her unconscious at the realization that whatever she was lying on was not her bed but rather some hard, cold surface that was unfamiliar and unwelcoming. She shifted uncomfortably, dull aches and pains taking over in waves, her head throbbing with every beat of her heart.

“Ho-o-o-me?”

Daryl chuckled quietly at her delirium as her head lolled to one side tiredly on his lap, her dazed eyes trying to blink away the sleep. He could see Alexandria approaching in the distance through the windshield, rising over the dark horizon.

“Yea, sunshine, we’re almost home. Go back ta sleep.”

“Alright, sunshine, up n’ at ‘em!”

The foreign voice instantly tore her from the safety of her dreams and she knew immediately it wasn’t Daryl, despite the nickname she’d grown so fond of being spat at her. It was definitely not him, and she was not home.

“Please, I need help. My daughter is starving, just.... please help us.”

Riley stared at the stranger, her greasy black hair falling in front of her hollow eyes. Her prominent cheek bones and protruding collar bones said she wasn’t lying -- what could her daughter possibly look like?

Torn, Riley looked to the dead rabbit she clutched in her right hand and then to her pistol in her left. The woman was filthy, frail, helpless and obviously scared. She seemed young, so there was no telling how little her daughter was. Did she give up her only kill for the day, or continue back to her meeting spot with Daryl to head home? She knew the guilt would weigh heavily on her if she did the latter.

So with a sigh, she stepped up toward the lady who flinched at the sudden movement. “Do you know how to skin a rabbit?”

She was met with wide eyes and a subtle shake of her head.

“I’ll show you. Where’s your daughter?”

The stranger had wept the entire ten minute trek as she led Riley to her camp, which turned out to be a small campfire next to one dirty sleeping bag with a little tent to the side. There was a garbage bag and one milk crate full of empty water bottles and Riley briefly wondered how they’d made it this long in these conditions.

But she also noticed that there was no little girl but then thought she might be in the tent as the lady made her way toward it quickly.

“Here, Maya,” she said quietly, reaching for the zipper on the flap. “The nice lady is going to feed you. See? Mommy told you she would take care of you.”

Riley gasped as a walker shot out of the tent, stumbling and falling from the rope around its feet that was tied to a cinder block inside the tent.

And before she knew it, she was thrown to the ground, the rabbit and her gun flying from her reach.

The dirty, emaciated woman wrapped her boney fingers around Riley’s neck, sobbing and babbling unintelligibly, managing to hold her down despite weighing maybe one hundred pounds soaking wet. Riley’s right hand fumbled blindly at her side for her gun with no success.

“I’m sorry!” The stranger cried. “I’m sorry! She’s so hungry. I’m a failure! I’m a failure!”

Struggling still as she ignored the black dots that littered her vision, she was driven by the snarls of what used to be a little girl chained up next to her, her the decayed flesh on her hands outstretched and tangled in Riley’s hair.

“I’m sorry.... I’m sorry... I’m — “

The lady stilled, words lodging in her throat, the grip she had on Riley’s neck releasing allowing her to gasp in the oxygen she’d been striving for. The deadweight on top of her still held her prisoner like a heavy blanket where she lay in the dirt, and suddenly the growls beside her were silenced as well, and then everything was still.

Riley strained to look around the corpse on top of her, panic rising rapidly, before she noticed the arrow protruding from the lady’s skull.

She exhaled a deep sigh of relief as the weight was torn from on top of her, a familiar voice grunting as it hoisted the body from its place on her and discarded to the side. But the moment of comfort didn’t last before her hero stepped up and she could feel the anger in his words. 

“What the hell’s the matter with ya?” Daryl chastised her, rage glowing in his eyes as he yanked her to her feet. “Ya can’t jus’ fuckin’ run off, girl! Do I really have to tell ya every fuckin’ time? You gotta fuckin’ death wish or somethin’?”

He continued as his hands ghosted her body desperately in search of bites or scratches, his anger obviously stemming from worry. Riley knew that much by now, so she focused on regulating her breathing and calming herself down. She was embarrassed and the adrenaline was still coursing through her veins.

“How many times do I have to tell ya to fuckin’ stay with me? Huh?” He got even angrier when she didn’t listen, didn’t look at him. “Hey!”

“I’m sorry,” she finally said, catching Daryl off guard as his hands fell to his sides. It wasn’t like her to cave so easily instead of snapping back at him, but she knew she had been wrong to take off after that stranger — very wrong. She had quite literally brushed with death and it was all because of her nativity. “You’re right.”

Daryl’s eyes bore into hers as she stood still, slowly bringing her hands up to rub the bruises already forming on her neck.

“I just thought... she seemed so...”

“I know,” Daryl sighed before retrieving his crossbow off the ground and, with his free hand, rubbing his face tiredly as he tried to simmer himself down. All of the anger had dissipated the second those words came out of her mouth. God, she could make him do anything in the world with just one word and one bat of those eyelashes. “I know ya mean well, Ri, but ya can’t just go runnin’ off alone to help everyone that asks. Ya can’t trust people like that no more. Ya know that.”

“I know.” She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him tightly, savoring the familiar feeling of security and warmth, the next words tumbling out of her mouth before she could even try and stop them. “I love you, Daryl.”

Riley was ripped from the hard surface she’d been laying on, suddenly submerged in the hot light that enveloped her in a warm, comforting hug before she forced her tired eyes open, ignoring her pounding head as it pleaded for her to remain in the quiet darkness.

It was still fuzzy; the world around her was bright and hazy and she didn’t know what was real anymore and what was fiction. She could hear voices, unintelligible and unfamiliar, and a loud metal grinding and clanging somewhere close, too.

Blinking several times to try and clear the fog did nothing — in fact, she soon began to realize that it wasn’t just inside of her head but all around her, the air thick with smoke and smog. It was so dense that she could see it; it turned the sky reddened above her dark and gloomy. The scene looked like some post apocalyptic industry-based utopia, the metallic clanging getting louder and louder before a train engine roared to life beside her.

Holy shit, she thought, I haven’t seen a working train in years. Am I dreaming?

Once again she was forcefully pulled to her feet before being shoved harshly until her feet stumbled in front of another before she could remember how to walk. It helped her senses return, slowly but surely, and she noticed her hands were bound together with thick, coarse rope.

Her mouth was too dry to speak, and her head was still pounding, the debilitating throb hitting with each beat from her pulse, blood and adrenaline pumping through her veins.

She couldn’t see the person shoving her but she could see several people around her, all of them dressed similarly in some sort of leather or metal armor, some knee pads and shoulder pads with spikes protruding from them, some with gas masks covering their faces, others with welding helmets, all of them wielding some sort of weapon. Assault rifles, shot guns, scythes, sickles, spiked flails, guillotine swords. They looked like characters from a horror movie. Riley was speechless, absolutely shocked at the sight. What was first confusion and possibly anger had quickly turned into crippling terror.

She was lost. She had no idea where she was and, the more she thought about it, no idea how she got there, either. She had gone to help that guy in the woods — what was his name? Warner. And he was freaking out because somebody had taken his wife, Laura. The dead body in the woods — it looked an awful lot like the crowd of people wandering around her. She’d stopped to get a close look at it and that’s the last thing she remembered.

“I know ya mean well, Ri, but ya can’t just go runnin’ off alone to help everyone that asks. Ya can’t trust people no more. Ya know that.”

No, Daryl, apparently she didn’t know that.

Trudging down a sidewalk littered with garbage shell casings and broken glass that crunched underneath her feet, the wheels began turning in her head as they drug her carelessly along. She knew a few things for sure: one, she was alone; two, she was far away from home; and three — though she didn’t know exactly how yet — she knew that she was in for a lot of trouble.

And she had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach that Daryl wouldn’t be able to save her this time.

uh oh.... anybody guess the video game yet? hehehe

thanks for reading ch. 4 will be out friday :-)

@crossbowking @jodiereedus22 @apossiblegentleman@mtngirlforever@sourwolf-sterek32 @winchester-angel @qrangr@cole-winchester @the-bottom-of-the-abyss @twdeadfanfic@crazyaboutnorman@deliciousassafrasssandwich @bunnymother93@96ssi @fireeyes-on-teller-dixon-grimes @ima-mther-fckn-starboy@thatsoragan @lonewolf471

cover: background daryl i am the girl on the right lmao  

[remnaentarchived-blog]

dAMN i have so many mixed feelings about this finale and not a lot of this is good lmao so peruse at your own peril

this was so short???   like from start to finish excluding the genlock thing and the credits, that episode barely hit over 15 minutes.   for hyping it up the way they did, i was expecting a longer episode with much more of the moments in there fleshed out.   this was a poor finale, especially contrasted with the other ones that we’ve gotten.   no one died and none of the stakes were followed through, rwby + co didn’t face any consequences for their actions !!  like, at all !!!!

neo and cinder !!!   the fact that neo’s semblance has evolved so much from what we saw in volume 2 / 3 really makes me smile, and her new outfit is fucking stunning !!

cordovan’s last you did this then becoming her realising that she is responsible for this too makes it seem less like her face heel turn was out of nowhere, but it cut away far too quickly and there was no moment inbetween that and her then removing the arm of the robot to defend argus.

ruby’s memories !!   taiyang and yang, all those happy moments ; but then they fell into the sad, dark, traumatising memories and they didn’t work.   ruby’s quick thinking ( or pure desperation depending on your view point, ) of calling jinn was good ; and god i fucking stan jinn so much ghdfjgh. i love her and want more of her please.   the different way the memories were drawn and animated really made me smile, and the happy memories made me sob.

i’m not even gonna get into the blake yang vs adam arc and the way it’s been handled.   it’s shoddy, and suffers from poor writing and shoehorning, but i do like that they’re at least on a level now from which they can begin to discuss what’s happened and try and resolve their own issues, especially before any romantic stuff if that’s where rt wants to take it.   they need that honest talk.

yang’s reaction to ozpin pissed me off, and is honestly making me dislike her more and more, even though i know that her reactions are in character for her.   ozpin helped to save them, and that shouldn’t be discredited, especially when oscar himself is sticking up for ozpin.   leave that fuckin man alone goddamn.

weiss’s admission that they destroyed the only thing that could take down big chungus gave me mad respect for her like,, yes you did !!   you all fucked that up with this shit plan to get into atlas when there were a million other ways to get into atlas and you chose to go head on against their military.   once again weiss proves herself to be the most mature out of any of them.

ren’s excitement about ruby petrifying big chungus was so adorable and i loved it, as well as ruby hyping up oscar !!!   so adorable !!!!

SUMMER SUMMER SUMMER SUMMER SUMMER

that snapshot of taiyang and baby yang killed my heart it was so sweet

ATLAS ATLAS ATLAS ATLAS ATLAS

also yeah the entire military is on alarm you guys fucking tried to invade atlas when you were denied entry gdfkjghjdkfghdkjfgh jeSUS CHRIST

that was short and i’m disappointed

EMERALD MERCURY EMERALD MERCURY EMERALD MERCURY

I HAVE MISSED YOU HAZEL AND YOUR SOUTHERN TWANG

[kasumiafkgod]

Hide and Seek in Waterfalls - Reaper76 Week (History/Decay)

Summary:  Brief glances of the relationship between Jack Morrison and Gabriel Reyes through their years; the joy, the anger, the sorrow, the love.

AO3 Link

Let's say sunshine for everyone But as far as I can remember

The first time Jack holds Gabriel’s hand, he can’t help but notice the strength in his grip.

“Gabriel Reyes,” says the dark-skinned man, giving Jack’s hand a firm, decisive shake, the calloused fingers stopping just shy of strangling his own.

“Jack Morrison,” he replies in kind as they release each other. “I guess we’re partners now, huh?”

A smirk lifts the corner of Gabriel’s lips, displaying a flash of white teeth. “So long as you don’t dig into my hot sauce stash or dump your shit on my bed, yeah.”

Jack lifts an eyebrow, lips quirking into a smile of his own. “We laying down rules from the get go? No borrowing my shampoo under any circumstances.”

Gabriel plants his hands on his hips, releasing a bark of laughter. “Jokes on you, chico de oro! The crap we use is all standard issue.”

“Not my stuff,” says Jack, shaking his head. “I buy my own. Can’t stand the hair care products around here.”

Scoffing, Jack’s new roommate reaches out and ruffles his blond locks. “Heh. Figures that the pretty boy won’t stoop to using the same stuff us commoners do.”

Ducking out of Gabriel’s hold and out of arm’s reach, Jack aims a half-assed punch at him that goes wide by a mile. Maybe the SEP won’t be so bad after all.

---

His vision is flickering like a faulty holo-screen, there’s a faint ringing in his ears akin to nails on a chalkboard, and Gabriel’s grip on his hand is vice-like despite it being slippery with red.

“Mierda! Hang in there, you son of a bitch! Don’t tell me you’re going to roll over and die that easy.”

The familiar voice breaks through the ringing, pulling him back from that blank serenity. The thunderous roar of gatling guns is muted, sounding more like tiny beads clattering on granite. At his side, Gabriel curses, bowing his head closer over Jack’s to better hide behind the fallen slab of concrete and protruding rebar that minutes ago had been part of a building. His blurred eyesight is not letting him see much beyond the other man’s dark complexion, but there’s no mistaking that ferocious scowl.

“Answer me, cabron,” hisses Gabriel, squeezing Jack’s hand tighter. In his free hand he hefts one of his ridiculous shotguns, while Jack’s own is pressed on the sodden, scarlet rag of a shirt over his stomach. “Come on, asshole. Don’t think you can get away with those ten bucks you still owe me.”

“You… cheated…,” Jack says in between gasps, struggling to hold on to what little clarity he has left. “Do-doesn’t count.”

“No I didn’t and hell yeah it does,” says Gabriel through gritted teeth. “It’s not my fault your poker face is terrible, jackass.”

Jack manages a weak chuckle, ignoring the warmth trickling from his lips and down his chin. “I keep my cash... inside the ladybug printed… sock… in my underwear drawer. Take it… but I’m… counting on you… not to be an ass… and give the rest to my family.”

“Give it to me yourself after this mission is over, bastard,” shouts Gabriel, popping out briefly behind cover to return a few rounds of fire. “Don’t you dare think I’m going to let you half-ass it like that!”

He never once lets go of Jack’s hand, and Jack releases a quiet bark of laughter before his vision fades completely.

---

Breath frozen in his burning lungs, Jack stares at the ground, refusing to meet Gabriel’s eyes.

“I mean,” Jack forces out, the words tasting like chalk in his mouth. “You’re not obligated to me and it’s not like I expect anything from you or anything, but I just-just thought it would be better if I got it out there. Yeah.”

Still nothing but silence from Gabriel, and Jack continues to study the cement floor of the practice range than look at whatever expression might be on the other man’s face. He doesn’t want to look up and see the disgust, or worse, pity , before Gabriel inevitably straight out tells him that the sentiment isn’t returned.

Jack tightens the fists at his sides to dissuade his fidgeting, eyes stinging. This was a stupid idea. What did he even expect to happen? That Gabriel would break out the hearts and rainbows and say ‘I love you, too’? Jack chuckles, though it sounds empty and forced even in his own ears.

“Anyway, that’s that,” says Jack, turning on his heel and making for the exit. “Sorry for interrupting your training, I’ll just—”

A vice grip and jerk on his wrist sends Jack reeling back, a sound somewhere between a shout and a squeak leaving his mouth as he stumbles in a turn to stare wide-eyed at Gabriel. Noses touching. Eyes inches apart. Gabriel’s warm breath washing over his lips.

“Gabe?” he asks, after enduring a few long seconds of silence.

“Did you mean that?” breathes Gabriel, each word exhaled over his lips and Jack suppresses a shudder. “Any of that?”

Their proximity doesn’t let Jack look anywhere except Gabriel’s eyes but now that they’ve made eye contact, he doesn’t think he could look away if he tried. Gabriel’s eyes burn the molten brown of dark copper, his grip on Jack’s wrist scorching his skin through the sleeved hoodie.

Not trusting his voice, Jack nods. Numbness spreads through his body. He’s not sure if his heart is thundering a mile a minute or stopped completely but he’s fairly sure that neither situation could be healthy.

Gabriel’s other hand is behind his neck, the contact sending electricity down his spine. He’s leaning closer to Jack, their lips a hair’s breadth apart, chest pressing up against his. Loosening his grip to slide his hold on Jack’s wrist to his hand, he intertwines their fingers, his grasp firm but gentle enough that Jack could pull away if he wanted.

“Is… is this okay?”

In answer, Jack closes the distance between them.

---

Jack stumbles back from the blow to his cheek, hand coming up to feel at the bruise that’s already starting to swell.

“The hell was that for?!”

“You know damn well what that was for!” Gabriel snaps, lips pulling back in a snarl. Warm hands that used to hold Jack’s in a tender grasp now curled into fists at his sides, ready to strike again at a moment’s notice. “You don’t fucking listen, do you? You just lie down and let the UN walk all over you so you can lick their boots clean like some blind old dog!”

“I was in that press conference to cover up your mess and you know it,” Jack snipes back, glare knitting his brows as he watches Gabriel, wary of another attack. “The media was all over that recent fuck up Blackwatch made, somebody had to do damage control or the whole world would have found out about you.”

Brown eyes blaze in fury, teeth grinding together like rock brunching rock. “You—! Are you even listening to yourself anymore?”

“Overwatch can’t afford to have Blackwatch become public knowledge, Reyes. You know that.”

For a moment, Gabriel’s glare intensifies tenfold, fists clenching tighter. Jack half-expects his former partner to take another swipe at him. But the Gabriel turns his back, stalking out of the room.

“You disappoint me, Morrison.”

The spat out words spoken to the door hurt more than any punch, any bullet wound Jack had ever known. He glances up, mouth open to call Gabriel back as the other man opens the door, a desperate need surging within to pull him close over the ever increasing distance between them and coax Gabriel’s hand out of the fist, tangle their fingers together and relish in the shared warmth of their skin.

But then Gabriel steps through the threshold without a glance back, and Jack closes his mouth, clenches his own hands, and watches him walk away.

---

Burning. He’s burning. Everything is burning.

Jack chokes on another lungful of ash and cinders as he gulps for air, stumbling through flaming rubble on unsteady feet. His pulse rifle dangles from one hand, the other held in front of him and blindly groping for any obstructions. The thick black smoke makes it hard to see.

“Gabe!” he yells—or tries to. His name falls from his lips in something more like a rasp, voice forced through his scorched throat. Not helped by the shouting match that took place mere minutes before.

And how they had shouted—shouted and screamed at each other until their throats were raw. Screamed and shouted some more until weapons were drawn. Until someone shot at something they shouldn’t have that brought the whole of Overwatch down over their heads in flaming ruins.

Jack wheezes, doubling over as his body shudders with wave after wave of wracking coughs. His vision is still shot to all hell, his lungs are burning from the inside out and the heat from the flames is searing him alive and he doubts the remaining structure is going to hold for much longer but he can’t leave. Not yet. Not without—

“Jack!”

“Gabe?” Jack whirls around, straining his ears, desperate to hear anything other than the roar and crackle of approaching flames.

“Jack—”

The voice breaks off into a pained grunt.

“Where are you?” Jack calls, the hold on his steadfast calm slipping as hysteria creeps into his tone.

“Over here!”

“I don’t see you!”

“What do you mean you don’t—shit. Jesus fucking Christ, Jack. That looks bad.”

“Where are you? ”

“Your ten o'clock. Behind an assload of broken ceiling. I’m trapped.”

Stumbling in that general direction, Jack feels in front of him until he bruises his fingers against gritty metal. Something reaches over his hand and takes hold of his fingers.

“Gabe,” Jack whispers, crying with relief. The tears still don’t clear his vision, but Jack would recognise that touch anywhere.

“Damn, you look like shit, cabron.”

“Shut up,” rasps Jack, dropping the pulse rifle at his feet to feel at the obstacle in front of him. Exposed and twisted rebar, slabs of concrete still clinging to it.

“Can’t get around it,” hisses Gabriel, “it’s got me in some fucked up tomb. And my leg’s busted, pinned under all this trash. I can barely reach you.”

“All right,” says Jack through gritted teeth, seizing part of the rebar mesh with both hands. “I’m getting you out.”

A laugh. “You’re fucking crazy. We’re super soldiers, but that doesn’t make us fucking Superman. There’s no way you can lift this thing.”

“I’m not fucking leaving you, Gabe,” Jack gasps, wrenching at the rebar and throwing his weight behind the pull. It doesn’t budge. He fights back the surge of despair building in his gut, adjusting his grip on the heated steel.

“Well, sucks for you but you have to,” Gabriel snaps, and Jack doesn’t need the use of his eyes to know that the man is glaring at him. “There’s no way I’m getting out from under all this crap and the rest of the building is coming down any second now.”

“I’m. Not. Leaving,” hisses Jack, wrenching at the rebar, uncaring of the twisted steel tearing his skin and bloodying his palms. “Not until you’re coming with me.”

“Don’t be fucking stupid, Jack!” There’s the same heat returning to Gabriel’s tone now, but it's interlaced with something else that sounds almost like fear. “ You’ve got two working legs. I’m going nowhere. Get the fuck out of here while you still can!”

“Fuck off, Gabe —”

He’s given a flash of a moment to realise what is happening before it does. The crunch of crumbling concrete, the groan of tons of rubble giving way.

“Jack! ”

There’s the barest swipe of calloused fingertips over his bleeding knuckles, like someone making a grab for his hand, before something collides with the top of his head in a burst of agony and sends his world careening into black.

---

“Figures that we’d end up like this.”

Jack doesn’t move or acknowledge the comment, lying on his back in the filthy alleyway staring up at the storm clouded sky. The rain continues to pelt at his waterlogged clothing and distorts his vision whenever the fat droplets splatter over his visor. It washes the blood from his body like a baptism, pulling the red down onto the ground where it is near indistinguishable from the wet concrete. His pulse rifle is somewhere a few feet away, dropped when he finally lost his footing, stumbling to the ground in a panting heap with a hand over the gaping wounds in his stomach.

“Hey, you falling asleep on me, boy scout?”

He drags in another breath through cracked lips before turning his head to the side to take in the shock of bone white mask not two feet from his face. Reaper doesn’t look any better off than he does, unable to get back up again after being hit by the dart gun Angela had given him—whatever it contained. The black leather of his coat blends into the shadows, wisps of smoke rising from his body and disappearing into the damp night air.

“Just taking a god damned break,” rumbles Jack, turning his face back towards the pouring sky. “I’m not a young man anymore.”

“Neither of us are.”

That’s true. He listens to the thunderous drone of rain impacting against his visor, the concrete, the black leather of Reaper’s over the top outfit. He’s almost reminded of their time in the Enhancement Program, dropping to the ground side-by-side after a full day of intense drills that had sweat pouring from every inch of skin. Or in the early days of Overwatch, when things between them were bright and promising even as the world around them burned, sneaking onto rooftops on quiet nights to lie back and look at the stars and talk as if they were the only ones who existed in the whole world.

Ever since he and Gabriel had met, their lives had intertwined in a way so intimately that pulling them apart would be near impossible, like iron and carbon forged into steel. They always functioned best together, whether it was with or against one another. The last few years had proved that. The both of them frothing at the bit to rip each other’s throats out, demand answers to misunderstandings that they’d both been responsible for causing. And now here they are, lying in a growing pool of Jack’s blood and out of breath as they tried to have a talk that came too little way too late.

Had anything really changed?

“You still breathing, old man?” Reaper demands, yanking Jack back from his murky thoughts. “Got the strength to hold up your gun? If you want to kill me, you’re not going to get another opportunity like this one.”

Jack focuses on the rasping voice to isolate it from the thundering rain falling around his head—the voice that shouldn’t sound familiar but does—even through the distortion of a constantly decaying and regenerating throat. It reverberates between the dingy narrow walls, a rich bass sound that he remembers singing him to sleep in the dead of the night. Songs in a language he didn’t understand, only their melody and scattered words clinging to his fraying memory.

Without a word, Jack reaches up with numb fingers and fumbles clumsily with the edges of his visor. Beside him, Reaper freezes.

“The hell are you doing?”

The latches release with a muted click and he pries off the visored mask. His red-tinted world falls away, replaced by dull colours and somewhat distinct shapes. A dull thud echoes in his ears as the visor drops to the ground, as though the effort of removing it had exhausted his remaining reserves of strength. Rain now freely beats his scarred face. It stings his faded eyes, plasters thinning white hair to his forehead, runs over his lips and onto his tongue. He tastes ozone.

“We’ve come a long way, haven’t we?” he asks the weeping sky, a hint of a laugh creeping into his voice. Or maybe it was the start of a crying session, he couldn’t tell anymore.

There’s no answer from Reaper, the silence stretching out long enough that Jack almost turns to look at him again when the touch of ice cold metal on his cheek stops him.

Reaper runs the back of a gleaming claw over Jack’s sopping skin, the surprisingly tender contact tracing the line of his jaw down to his chin. Jack suppresses a shiver and turns to look at Reaper then, when the tips of those pointed claws are resting inches from his unprotected throat. Water streams over them both, their silhouettes highlighted by their leathers made glossy by the rain. The wraith no longer wore his mask, the visage of an owl cast aside when he hadn’t been looking. Staring back at him is a spectre of his past.

“You’ve gotten old,” rasps Gabriel, face literally cracking apart in a grin. Skin and flesh stretch and tear over his cheek, briefly revealing teeth and gums visible even without his visor. Before Jack can react, the wounds knit themselves closed. Gabriel’s eyes glint blood red instead of molten brown, dull black hair streaked through with grey. But it’s still Gabriel.

Ignoring the jab, Jack reaches past the clawed hand at his jaw to run his own along Gabriel’s brow. The man turned wraith closes his eyes, allowing Jack’s fingers to roam over the familiar contours of his face. His skin runs hot, flakes of grey dispersing like ash wherever Jack trails his fingers.

But it’s still Gabe.

“Both of us have,” says Jack, his lowered tone barely audible above the rain.

Gabriel’s other hand comes up to wrap over his, their fingers lacing together like they had so many times long ago as if they’d never stopped. The press of Gabriel’s palm on his, Gabriel’s fingers between his own, rouses a sweet ache in his chest he’d long forgotten.

For the first time in a long time, he felt like he’d finally come home.

It’s enough for him so Jack smiles and lets his eyes slip shut.

“Jack?”

---

Sunlight filters through the glass of the window, steadily brightening the room as the sun peeps above the horizon to greet the Gibraltan watchpoint. It reveals a white and blue pulse rifle resting on the lone desk, empty canisters of biotic emitters sitting in an orderly row against the wall waiting to be refilled. Contrary to the care of the weapon, armour and articles of clothing lie strewn in a haphazard mess over the linoleum floor, though a long black leather coat is draped neatly over the backrest of the rickety chair. All is quiet as the sun climbs higher in the sky, its warming rays growing brighter and casting a beam of golden light from the window over the rumpled covers of an occupied bed.

Jack wakes when the patch of sunlight moves across the sheets to eventually hit his eyes. Even partially blind, he grumbles at the direct blaze of light, twisting away from it. Instantly, the firm weight resting on his waist curls around him and pulls him back.

“Stop fidgeting,” slurs Gabriel, voice gruffer than usual from sleep, tightening his hold on Jack and tangling their legs together to enunciate the point. Clad only in their briefs, Jack feels every point of contact like a warm brand as if he’s hugging a giant ceramic mug holding freshly made coffee. Almost too hot under the blankets and in the Gibraltan weather, but Jack refused to have it any other way.

Tucking his face into the base of Gabriel’s neck to shade his eyes from the sun, Jack mumbles into mottled dark and grey skin. “You’re not the one facing the window.”

“I told you last night to draw the curtains before getting into bed.”

“But you’re closer to them, why can’t you do it?” Jack drawls in a whine, pushing his palms into Gabriel’s chest

Gabriel murmurs something that could be an assent or retort, his words muffled as he presses his nose into Jack’s hair.

“You still using that shitty smelling shampoo after all these years?”

“You like this shitty smelling shampoo, shut up.”

Gabriel shifts to press a kiss to Jack’s receding hairline and Jack feels the smile against his temple. “It’s your only redeeming factor, cielo.”

Huffing in mock offense, Jack pulls Gabriel’s arm from his side and takes the hand into his, dark and pale contrasting in the morning light as they interlace their fingers. The red of Gabriel’s eyes are obvious even without his visor, looking like warm mulled wine with the way Gabriel is looking at him. Achingly tender and mesmerised, as if Jack was the most precious thing in the world.

“Love you,” says Jack, the words spoken under his breath like they were priceless treasures and he was afraid someone would come to steal them away. Gabriel leans forward to brush their foreheads together and Jack closes his eyes, smiling as a contented hum rumbles up his throat.

“Love you too,” Gabriel whispers back, their exchange kept quiet, a secret from the ever more curious sun pouring more light into their room. With their linked hands between their bare chests, the subdued sound of their breathing synchronised with one another, Jack wishes that this moment would last forever.

“Get up. My other arm is under your pillow.”

“I know.”

“You’ve been lying on it all night. It feels dead.”

“Close the curtains next time, asshole.”

“Farm boy.”

Jack smiles against Gabriel’s skin. Forever with Gabriel sounds nice.

Someday we will foresee obstacles Through the blizzard, through the blizzard

[amaidasfairassummer]

Okay... this is something I think about and come up with ideas for a lot and I thought I should finally make a post about it....

A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE THE MUSICAL!

Disclaimer: I’ve brought together various songs from existing musicals to tell the story Asoiaf, including some pre-series stuff. Obvs some of this doesn’t translate literally, some of the songs I chose more for the vibe rather than specifically relevant lyrics, and some are pretty much just jokes.

Now enjoy!

- The mistresses of Aegon IV- “Ex-[Mistresses]” and “[Nine]” from Six.

- Aerys- “Johanna” from Sweeney Todd (obvs played very creepily).

- Elia @ Rhaegar- “No Way” from Six.

- Robert and Ned during the rebellion- “You and Me (But Mostly Me)” from The Book of Mormon. With Robert as elder price and Ned as elder Cunningham of course.

- Stannis- “Stars” from Les Miserables because he’s got Javert vibes.

- Lysa being made to marry Jon A- “I Don’t Need Your Love” from Six.

- Baby innocent optimistic Tyrion before Tywin fucked him up- “Naughty” from Matilda.

- Also baby Tyrion- “Quiet” from Matilda.

- Tysha- “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly” from My Fair Lady.

- Tyrion and Tysha during their elopement- “A Million Dreams” from The Greatest Showman (or for a modern au, “Wishing for the Normal” from Soho Cinders).

- Tysha after the elopement- “I Dreamed A Dream” from Les Miserables

- Stannis @ baby Renly- “Turn It Off” from The Book of Mormon

- Ramsay @ Roose after murdering Domeric- “One More Angel in Heaven” from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.

- Catelyn- “How Do You Solve A Problem Like [Arya]” from The Sound of Music.

- Jaime and Cersei after Jaime throws Bran out of the tower- “Our Love Is God” from Heathers.

- Sansa when she finds out about the betrothal to Joffrey- “I can hear the bells” from Hairspray.

- Joff and Sansa- “[Eleven Going On Twelve]” from The Sound of Music.

- Cat saying goodbye to Bran- (parts of) “Heart of Stone” from Six.

- Bran during his coma- “Wake Me Up When September Ends” from American Idiot.

- Bran at the end of his coma dream- “Defying Gravity” from Wicked (he probably also reprises this when he learns to warg into birds)

- Arya and Syrio’s “dancing” lessons- “I’ll Make A Man Out Of You” from Mulan.

- Petyr @ Catelyn- “I’m Not Saying A Word” from Blood Brothers.

- Petyr @ Sansa- “Hello, Little Girl” from Into The Woods.

- Sansa about Sandor- “Angel of Music” from The Phantom of the Opera.

- Lord Commander Mormont @ Jon- “One Last Hope” from Hercules.

- Tyrion every time he’s in a jail cell- “Close Every Door To Me” from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.

- Cersei after Robert’s death- “Get Down” from Six.

- Theon and Robb- “That Guy” from Blood Brothers.

- The northern lords @ Robb in the King in the North scene- “Take Things Into Our Own Hands” from Treason and “Once We Were Kings” from Billy Elliot.

- Joffrey when he finds out about northern independence- “You’ll Be Back” from Hamilton.

- Loras and Brienne about Renly- “Blind Faith” from Treason. Though this also works for Davos and Melisandre about Stannis...

- Stannis @ shireen- “Where You Are” from Moana.

- Bran, Rickon and the Walders- “Kids’ Game” from Blood Brothers.

- Bran @ Jojen in ACOK- “Song of the King” from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.

- About Sam after he killed the Other- “Zero To Hero” from Hercules.

- Theon during ACOK- ”Go The Distance” from Hercules, “My Shot” from Hamilton, and “Damned for All Time” from Jesus Christ Superstar.

- @ Sansa in King’s Landing- “School Song” from Matilda.

- The people of King’s Landing during ACOK- “At The End Of The Day” from Les Miserables and “Food, Glorious Food” from Oliver!

- Sansa and Sandor during the Battle of Blackwater- “Music Of The Night” from The Phantom of the Opera.

- Margaery’s arrival in King’s Landing- “New Girl In Town” from Hairspray.

- Jaime (not really sure when)- “Wait For It” from Hamilton.

- Devan telling Davos about his brothers dying- “[Four] More Angels In Heaven,” from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, a really heartbreaking parody of Ramsay’s song earlier, made 100% times sadder because four people are dead not one and... devan is actually genuinely sad instead of faking.

- About Davos as Hand- “Stone the Crows” from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.

- Ensemble @ Jon, Dany, Robb and Bran- “Everything’s Alright” from Jesus Christ Superstar.

- Ygritte @ Jon- “Colours Of the Wind” from Pocahontas.

- The Astapori, Yunkaii’i and Meereenese slaves- “Look Down” from Les Miserables.

- Jaime and Brienne- “I Can Do Without You” from Calamity Jane.

- Cat as Lady Stoneheart- “Heart of Stone” from Six. Again.

- Purple Wedding- “The Day [Joffrey] Died” from Treason.

- Shae @ Tyrion- “Mein Herr” from Cabaret.

- Tyrion and Tywin- “Your Obedient Servant” from Hamilton. I know this doesn’t really reflect their story but there are just bits like “here’s an itemised list of thirty years of disagreements” “sweet Jesus” and “you call me immoral, a dangerous disgrace” and them both signing their names “T. Lann” which fit well.

-Varys and his little birds- “Be Back Soon” from Oliver!

- The Lannisters at some point- “Roar” from & Juliet and also “Be Prepared” from The Lion King. And for a modern au “Candy Store” from Heathers.

- Tommen in AFOC- “I Just Can’t Wait To Be King [In My Own Right]” from The Lion King.

- Asha, Arianne and Aegon- “Don’t Rain On My Parade” from Funny Girl.

- Genna- “Big, Blonde and Beautiful” from Hairspray.

- Sansa- “I Know Things Now” from Into The Woods.

- Melisandre during her POV chapter- “I Believe” from The Book Of Mormon.

- Tyrion in ADWD- “Til I Hear You Sing” from Love Never Dies.

- Penny- “Little People” from Les Miserables.

- Shireen in Castle Back- “Giants In The Sky” from Into The Woods.

- Shireen, Devan and Edric at some point- “Revolting Children” from Matilda, because even though it doesn’t really fit it would be epic.

- Sam in Oldtown- “Non-Stop” from Hamilton. Okay this doesn’t fit perfectly but he’s important and deserves songs.

- Sansa at some point- “All You Wanna Do” from Six.

- The “killed their spouse/lover crew” aka Tyrion, Cersei, Jaime, Petyr, Lysa and Victarion- “Cell Block Tango” from Chicago.

- Jon about Dany in ADOS- “Heaven On Their Minds” from Jesus Christ Superstar.

- Dany and Jon in ADOS- the confrontation bit in “The Last Supper” from Jesus Christ Superstar.

- Dany in ADOS- “Gethsamane” from Jesus Christ Superstar.