#here's my latest fic!!

[infinite-beginnings]

The line when Charles said, "Edwin's told me loads of stories about Hell," and him seeming to know he'd find a map in Edwin's book always hits me hard.

Now I acknowledge Charles might’ve been posturing to reassure the Night Nurse he could navigate Hell, but let's assume this fact was real.

Because that means that Edwin felt comfortable enough to talk about all of his trauma to Charles. He mentions Hell a lot in passing in front of the girls, but he never goes into specifics. However, it seems as if he actively told Charles quite a few details about Hell. I also noticed that Charles is very calm when he's going to find Edwin. Yes, he's studying the book a lot, but he is also navigating the space with a certain amount of confidence. I'm sure it's partially due to Charles' tendency to do things without thinking and project confidence. But also, it seems as if he might have at least a very basic level of knowledge or familiarity with the levels of Hell based on the stories Edwin told.

I think this is probably another reason why Edwin struggled to believe the fact that Charles had faced abuse in his past and never shared it with Edwin. Because Edwin was always up front and honest with Charles. He told him the very first time they'd met that he had just escaped Hell. I'm sure Edwin did not want to relive his memories of Hell, and maybe it took him decades to feel like he could share. But I bet when he started talking about it with Charles, he felt relief. Because sharing your trauma with someone who accepts you and loves you no matter what is always a relief after holding it in and pushing it down.

So I just imagine Edwin feeling that relief after sharing his stories from Hell and feeling closer and more bonded with Charles because of it...and then he finds out that Charles has this huge amount of trauma from his past that he has been keeping inside. It probably breaks Edwin's heart that he hadn't been able to offer Charles the same relief he'd felt.

And yes, Crystal mentioned that Charles was probably denying the trauma even to himself. We all know that Edwin knew something was off with Charles and that he was probably frustrated in himself because he hadn't been able to figure it out, but Crystal apparently had.

But I also think there might be another level to it. The boys have been solving cases for 30 years. I find it hard to believe that they never had another case involving abuse or at least someone with a controlling personality that would've reminded Charles of his father. Maybe Edwin thinks back to a couple of those cases and how Charles was acting strange and withdrawn during them and realized he'd missed a huge clue about how his friend was feeling.

All those years of sharing his stories from Hell and being comforted by Charles and Edwin hadn't been able to do the same. Edwin is definitely hurt that Charles didn't feel like he could confide in him and heartbroken to think about how much pain his friend was going through alone.

[forgetme-eternally-blissfully]

Cale isnt a cuddler.

He never had toys to fall asleep with, he couldn’t snuggle up to his parents after the accident and he certainly couldn’t with his uncle, and he was, most often, barely comfortable when he slept anyway.

So when the apocalypse arrived, he was the perfect person when it came to sleeping.

He didn’t move around, he didn’t snore, and he had already gotten used to falling asleep on shitty surfaces!

Jung Soo described it as eery, with the way that Rok Soo would get into a position to fall asleep and then he would stay that way for the rest of the night. His chest barely rose and fell, and on more than one occasion Soo Hyuk had woken him up because they were afraid he wasn’t breathing. Thankfully he has always been a light sleeper, so just moving around nearby would be enough to startle him awake.

They tried having a buddy system where they would sleep next to Rok Soo, “for his safety” but he would refuse and find some private place to cram himself into to sleep, scaring them even more. They tried to trick him multiple times, but Rok Soo never fell for it.

He allowed it one time.

It was a cold night, and Jung Soo was too tired from fighting monsters that they couldn’t get back to their company before nightfall.

Jung Soo had been barely coherent, grasping onto Rok Soo as he had been temporarily blinded by a poison grade 2 monster.

He refused to let go of Rok Soo, and so he gave in. He laid on the ground, curled up to Jung Soo, and pretended to be asleep.

He used his record ability intermittently throughout the entire night. It got cold enough to snow, and so Rok Soo had to be the fire for the time.

He never told Jung Soo he stayed up to keep him warm.

But that doesn’t matter.

Because now he’s Cale Henituse. He’s trash. He can sleep anywhere and at any time, but he demands a bed because he can. He demands comfort and warmth and safety. He always wants to fall asleep with a full stomach.

The others know this.

Except he can fall asleep easily when he hasn’t eaten. He can barely be counted as safe, ever, because of the White Star. He complains about the cold but they know he sometimes forgets to ask for a jacket.

The strangest story, however.

The oddest story?

Cale sleep walked.

Once.

Raon watched him get out of bed, and followed him to a nondescript corner of their newest house, where he laid down and stopped moving.

Raon woke him up immediately, and Cale was very disoriented and confused, but Raon didn’t care about the sleep walking. He cared about the stillness. Cale had looked as if he was hiding from a monster and could barely lift his chest to breathe softly.

Raon demanded to sleep next to Cale from then on, because he was worried Cale would get himself hurt.

Cale reluctantly gave in. He thinks about Soo Hyuk and Jung Soo, and thinks they’d be proud of him for opening up.

He casts that thought away.

(December 30, 2022)

[to-the-all-blue]

On my walk home from the cafe I was thinking about Sanji (as one does) and how every influence in his life for 19 years screamed at him to hunker down, stay silent, and never appear weak.

As much as I love Zeff and know he loved Sanji, it's clear he has such a straight-laced and unflinching view of masculinity and what it means to be a man. The environment on the Baratie was an extension of that.

It was a machismo world where affection was hidden behind kicks to the head and insults. The kind of environment where cutting your hand or something gets a response of "what? You call that an injury? Don't cry over nothing". Where outright kindness has to be dragged out of people, and then immediately covered up with a half-baked insult.

Throw into that environmemt a little boy who is desperate to prove he's not the failure he was told he was, and out pops a man who wears his heart on his sleeve for "acceptable manly emotions" but who hides real emotions behind anger, and hides pain (physical or emotional) altogether so as not to seem weak.

Tack onto that the idea that the only surefire way to show love is through self sacrifice (his mom + Zeff), then of course Sanji will be all sorts of jacked up.

We see throughout the series how Sanji is so unwilling to be vulnerable or to even admit he's feeling hurt at all. Plaster a smile on, make some comment about loving women, and voila! He's the man's man everyone expects. No need to worry about him. After all: he's strong.

...🥺

[piningpercussionist]

transfem scott getting lots of support from ramona and kim in the early 2000's when shit's very taboo but they all 3 have a fire forged bond and lord if they aren't going to make sure they're all as happy as they can be because they've come this far and I dunno it just makes me happy all three of them

YES YES YES

It makes me very happy as well,,

Like I've said before. General Trans Scott enthusiast here- I love the idea of their little support network *violent coughing* I (we?) mean polycule *violent coughing* so fucking much.

Ramona I think has a bit of a more gentle hand with reassuring Scott with gender issues, but sometimes she just can't help herself from some pointed banter or teasing- how could you with someone so dense? (Said w affection)

And then Kim I think is more blunt. But like, in a good way mostly, you know? The kinda blunt that makes you snap to attention and go "Oh. Yeah that was silly of me." And if Ramona's started some sort of banter? Kim is SO piling on. Maybe sometimes she's a bit TOO blunt with it- but it's only because she's so firm in her support. She wants Scott to Get It Together- and be happier for it. So if some ribbing now and again is in order, then goddamnit she will do so! Anything to crack that shell.

And ohhh can you imagine how they would react to some transphobic bullshit?? Unholy terror would be driven into the offender before they walk off with an absurd amount of coins between them. I can feel it in my bones. Scott doesn't even have to lift a finger (if the transphobe is even noticed/processed at all, bc I honestly can see Scott just. Not realizing someone's being transphobic.) Kim giving someone a lashing with her tongue as distraction and then Ramona coming in with the hammer- BAM! Free Money! Paying literally with your life for your transphobia. A Better And Just World.

And of course (transfem Scott more specifically, here,) the way Scott would start to flourish under their support... cagey and maybe a little (perhaps a lot-) resistant to start- but Kim's blunt affirmations and no nonsense attitude for bullshit (which is what Scott insisting on "being cis" would be, c'mon now,) and Ramona's also low bullshit tolerance but less Stabby (bc I won't lie, that's probably how Kim's comments would feel,) assurances? Ough... My Heart... Be Still-

I would Kill for them, Your Honor-

(Ran out of tags so putting this in the body of the post- I am SO tired someone pls sound off if this isn't as coherent as I am hoping this is. I WAS trying to nap and get the extra sleep I desperately needed but the writing bug... it Bit Me.... only a little but enough to stop that process-)

[billy-royalton]

LaRusso

He's always said it like a jab. A punch. A right hook and a kick. He still does, some days, but more often than not it's easy. The way his mouth forms the L and A on his tongue and moves seamlessly through to the R. How his lips part at the O. It's not complicated, like some Italian surnames can be. It's a name that belongs to a family of Jersey scrappers, all feisty and fiery like Daniel so often is himself (he can't help it, you see - it's in his blood) but Johnny says it like it only belongs to him.

Danielle

It's always a tease, light and maybe a little snarky. A kind smirk at the end of it that makes him laugh even if it's supposed to be insulting. Sometimes he delivers what Johnny's looking for in return; the light shove to his shoulder or the dramatic eye roll of annoyance but mostly he lets it go. He gives Johnny that one.

Newark

Said like a push or a shove. A goad, insisting, following a command. "On your feet, Newark! Let's go!" Thrilling and a little silly because Daniel's lived in California twice as long as he ever lived in New Jersey, has tried to scrape the accent out of his mouth and the frigid attitude off of his skin. But it's still there, still part of him, and Johnny says it like he sees him and remembers.

Tiger

Once, with teeth scraping the side of his neck and lips at his pulse point. Hands underneath his shirt, running up his sides and holding on with purpose. Growled into his skin while Daniel is this close to begging. It only made him moan louder.

Daniel

In the middle of a choked off moan, a breathless crack in the 'a' that sets Daniel's skin ablaze. Whispered like a prayer, a string of them mumbled and strung together so wrecked that he doesn't even recognize the word anymore. Said quiet and low, pressed into his skin and seared into his lips. Soft and sweet with the lights off when it's just the two of them. Broken and vulnerable when Johnny needs him more than anything. Absolutely perfect.

[velvetwyrme]

DOG DRAGON?! // The Nebular Theory: Chapter 16

A sketchy comic for The Nebular Theory (@theundertalenebulartheory) which has been dominating my thoughts for the last while!!!

Please please PLEASE go read this fic. It's absolutely amazing and delves into some REALLY COOL exploration of timeline shenanigans and has a hella neat way of visualising that!!

I could sit and spout praises about this fic for hours but honestly just go read it, it's SO good.

[teecupangel]

https://youtu.be/ifCWN5pJGIE?si=MvBHr36xNbHdsjYH

This kinda fits Desmonds mom in some way. Thoughts?

Here’s the embed video version for those who don’t wanna copy and paste the link:

I’m just imagining her hearing for the first time that her son, the son she hadn’t seen for nine years, could not even seen or talk to for one last time for the sake of both of their safety, was now dead.

Sacrificing his life to save the world.

Savior?

Messiah?

What used were those moniker to her dead son.

She wouldn’t be able to see him ever again.

She wouldn’t be able to touch his cheeks and take a good look of the man he had become in person.

She wouldn’t be able to smile and say “You’ve grown so much.”

She wouldn’t be able to ask…

“Were you happy these past years?”

“Was letting you go to be free worth the pain of not being by your side for nine long years?”

“It should have been you.”

She felt him freeze, the hands on her shoulders trembling ever so slightly.

“You should have died instead of our son!” She screamed as tears fell from her eyes.

He opened his mouth, most likely to call her name but stopped, letting out a gasp as her hands curled around his throat, squeezing him with the strength of an Assassin that have been in the field since she had been a teenager.

“You share the same blood as him! You’re a descendant of that cursed Auditore-Kenway line these beings haunt!” She shouted.

She could break his neck.

Snap it.

She’d done it before.

She’d kill so many people in the name of the Brotherhood before.

She was raised to be an Assassin.

She could just as easily-

She let out a frustrated scream as she threw him away, covering her eyes as bitter tears fell from her eyes.

He called out her name, his voice hoarse.

Was he grieving as well?

Did he loved their child as much as she did?

Who knows?

Who cares.

“Get out.” She lowered her hands as she ordered, the decades of forcing her emotions to shut down coming to the forefront, “Don’t ever show your face to me again, William Miles.”

Her expression turned to one of frigid nothingness.

It reminded William Miles of a recording of a memory of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad.

The face the legendary mentor had made when his desire to kill the man who killed his youngest son triumphed over his desire for peace and truth.

“The next time I see you, I will claw open your chest and rip your heart out.” She promised in an emotionless tone.

She watched him leave.

The man she loved and loathed in equal measure.

It should have been him.

No.

It should have been them.

They should have been the one to die in their son’s place.

They both failed him as parents.

And now…

All she had left was a Brotherhood barely afloat and the useless legacy of her blood.

After all…

Those who have the blood of the Ibn-La'Ahad were meant to lose their beloved child.

[magicaldreamfox1]

dreamy snippets

— i know what you desire (you're such a bad, bad liar): chapter 9

don't even mind the change in font from the last snippet my phone updated and it did this to my notes app. let's not talk abt it. anyways new chapter soon i'm currently editinggg 👀

[cuteniarose]

Personally I find it really funny that based on what the twins said in the Book 2 finale re: having to tell their mom about what happened to Unalaq, it's literally canon that Unalaq's wife a) exists, b) is alive, and c) is just chilling in the Northern Water Tribe

She took one look at all the spirit fuckery her husband was getting up to and went "Well that's none of my business" and honestly I respect that

[thursdayinspace]

the urge to post sth because you need validation, but not a single wip is close to being finished 😂 it's been a bit of A Month so far lol. my mind always goes to hating my writing when stressed about completely unrelated things and I wish it wouldn't do that. 😂

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

ough....the laughingstock In My Head... im unwell....

[iridescentis]

i cant believe one of the most perfectdolls songs i have ever heard has come from my childhood tv show obsession what on earth

[sibillascribbles08]

Where's all the post-movie sleep paralysis Leo headcanons, surprised I haven't seen it yet tbh

[crowlixcx]

When the fic describes Crowley or Aziraphale calling out each other's names like a prayer

[bittybeanie]

[billy-royalton]

*slams this fic on the counter* Okay, look. I've been thinking about the parallels between Sam/Tory and Daniel/Johnny for far too long now. And then then season 6 trailer dropped and my brain would not let me know peace until I wrote this fic so I wrote it over a 48-hour period until I could finally get it all out. Enjoy.

AFTERBURNER | Lawrusso, Samtory, Johnny Lawrence & Samantha LaRusso | T | 8,634 words | non-linear narrative & parallels all the way down

The thing about history is we're doomed to repeat it. That's what Mr. Murray says on Sam's first day of AP World History. It's human nature, he says, to make the mistakes of our ancestors. The only way to anticipate these mistakes is to learn of them, learn from them, and hope we can use what we've learned to avoid the same pitfalls as our predecessors.  --- A fic about patterns, trusting, and how history is always just repeating itself.

The inciting incident, like most things in Johnny's life, is a punch to the face. 

Before the twerp manages to land it — right into Johnny's mouth pow! right in the kisser! — it's just a game to Johnny. Here's this skinny kid moving in on his girl, sticking his nose where it doesn't belong, like a gnat in the sand just buzzing around. And Johnny, sure, he toys with him. Dances around him and lets him try to land one. But it's only when he manages to get a good one in there that Johnny sees red and nothing else. Because who does this kid think he is? Who does this kid think Johnny is? Doesn't he know who he's dealing with here? He can hear Kreese’s voice in his head: the enemy deserves no mercy. And Johnny doesn’t know who this kid is by name but he knows he’s just made a new enemy.

So Johnny shows him. With fists and kicks and a hard landing with a mouthful of sand. Forces him to cover up the dark bruise around his eye with a pair of aviators on his first day of school. Hide those Bambi soft brown eyes from Johnny's field of vision before he can even think about losing himself in them. 

That one punch sets each of them forward on a trajectory they are powerless to change. Their moves are now set in motion, each one preordained: LaRusso ducks left and Johnny swings right, LaRusso runs and Johnny chases. The interference by deus ex sensei only prolongs the inevitable moment: the pivotal accident that the tournament is only a few weeks away. That Kreese will do anything to win, even asking Bobby to fight dirty and deliver that crushing blow to the knee: it’s all a set up for the perfect storm that ends with Johnny’s face getting kicked by what shouldn’t be a long graceful leg but somehow it is. A beautiful kick. And if Johnny’s going to get kicked like that, it had better be a beautiful one. 

Johnny finds himself wondering what would have happened if that fist never swung his way. How different 1984 would have ended. First ever three-time All Valley Champ. Would Daniel LaRusso have found karate without punching Johnny Lawrence first? Would Johnny have found Daniel some other way? 

It's useless to wonder what could have been but Johnny does it anyway. He wastes years on it until one day he’s forced to walk into LaRusso Auto and sees the smug, charming, ageless face that’s plagued him all this time. Another hit, this time a hit and run, that resets the board and puts them in motion again. 

Three and a half decades later, LaRusso swaps a punch for a kiss — another pow! another pop in the mouth! — and just like that first night, Johnny doesn’t see it coming until it’s already happened.

He doesn’t see red but he does strike back. Uses his hands to tell LaRusso just what Johnny thinks about that, one with a grip on his jaw, the other threading through his stupidly soft, dark hair. Pushes him up against the wall of the dojo because this is just another fight that Johnny’s going to win.

LaRusso pulls back with puffed up lips and heavy dark eyes. His hair’s a mess and his grin is infectious. 

Another inciting incident.