#his wife dies and you hide his kids and he hunts you down and you still love him

[banjodroid]

I think it’s equally heartbreaking and hilarious that obi-wan never quite says he misses Anakin, in fact often rues the fact that Skywalkers and their special brand of chaos seem to plague his life, but also every other line is reminiscent and nostalgic and sad about how anakin always forgot to pack his socks or the look on his face the first time he saw rain or how he’d use the chosen one thing to wheedle extra desserts

[tetitous]

Ngl I always kind of lowkey shipped Alibert with Jason, the guy he almost arrested before taking Yugo, and who years later is the town's baker.

Do you see the vision?

This is such a small village, obviously he noticed the guy settling down in the neighbourhood, wearily. The Enutrof actually spent a dime on something, an old barn he's renovating. He stopped the bounty hunting. He has a kid now, a weird one, everyone wonders whose he is. Jason could have sworn not so long ago that the man had no one.

Years pass, and the man has won over the hearts of everyone. He fills their stomachs and their hearts, his mystery child is a delight. It feels like they've been sent by the Twelve onto the small town of Emelka to bring them something that had been lacking there. Wealth, heart, hope, call it what you want.

Jason has to admit, the inn has inspired him too. There was nothing he could do to afford a living for his family anymore, the people weren't buying and his business slowly died out, but suddenly someone who really didn't know how to bake really needed some bread, so it was time for him to turn his oven back on.

Everything was good for a while, but sometimes life just gets to you. His relationship with his wife simply isn't what it used to be, they decide to split on friendly terms, although they don't live far apart. Alibert's Inn stays, thrives, and Jason isn't sad about anything when its owner comes to his shop and shares a few words and smiles at him. His heart too has been won over, it seems.

Nothing is official. They both have children who would probably be alright with them, but doing the explaining is a bother when all they ever do is share a little company, a little talk, a little walk, when all they ever do is smile at each other a bit more than others, laugh a little harder, hold hands and share moments that only belong to them.

They always have a lot to do, work and family, they're each other's respite and support, but there's no time or need for them to rush into that whole blended family affair, so they don't. They don't hide anything anyways. Mia and Yugo are smart, neither of them seem to feel like anything needs to be said.

Emelka really became something else since this new guy arrived in town, with his weird kid. Something warmer, something special.

[go-river-flows]

Sweet Visions of a flower

Summary: Syulang (OC), an orphaned girl after the destruction of Hometree. She is constanly reminded of this by her amputated left leg and constantly dreams of her deep trauma. Even when she gets adopted by Toruk Makto and his wife, who she resented for over six years before forgiving him.

Part 2 of ?

  Nearly seven years had passed. Jake Sully was made the new Olo’eyktan as Tsu’tey died in war, much to my own discontent. He was once a sky person, and he caused the war, he shouldn't be leader of the clan. 

That night when Sully was made leader I packed what little belongings I had. Pawk tried so hard to convince me to stay at High Camp, but I couldn't stay any more. It broke me to leave him all alone. I was all he had left and I was still young who needed a home and community.

  Jake Sully had mated with Neytiri. Had children. As I made my own home in the woodland four miles away on a small hill with a large tree on the top of it. I built my own tools, built my own home in the trees. Four years after I left, when I was fourteen, an injured thanator appeared near my home whilst I was hunting. It didn't attack me so slowly but surely I managed to heal and befriend it. Making tsaheylu a few days later. Naming her Lo’a.

 Now at sixteen. I have a home built in the canopy, with a river near my home coming from a small lake and many fruit trees, making it easy to hunt and forage. It was a perfect little safe haven. I still had difficulty remembering everything from before the destruction of Hometree, but I looked forward to each day. One day the sounds of children disturbed my hunting. The sound of three children splashing around in the river startled my prey. I sighed as I made my presence known to them.

“What are you doing here?” I hissed at the children, scaring the two boys and a girl. They gasped as they retreated behind a tree poking their heads out. My ear twitched. I sighed lightly, they’re just little kids after all. “You should not be here, it's dangerous out here,” my head dropped.

“Why are you out here?” I looked up to see the biggest boy, now standing next to the tree looking at me.

“I live here,” I turned to point at my tented canopy up above in the trees.

“What’s your name?” the little girl asked. She too came out of hiding.

“Syulang,” I said.

“Aren't you young to be living out here? And why are you living all the way out here?” the bigger boy asked.

“B–because I want to, and I'm only sixteen,” I smiled softly. Kneeling down onto my right knee taking a better look at the children, “What are your names?”

“I'm Neteyam. This is my sister Kiri and my little brother Lo’ak. What happened to your leg?” The bigger boy rattled off. I looked down, reminded of my disability.

“Oh this? I was injured when I was younger,” I explained.

“It looks just like a real leg, but not,” Kiri looked at it in awe, “Can you still walk properly? Or jump? Or run?”

  I chuckled at the little curious children. I unstrapped the fastening and removed the contraption from my leg, sitting on the ground I showed them the prosthetic, letting them know I can still do everything perfectly fine. I even know how to repair and upgrade it if it breaks from wear or to fit my growth. The children were completely mesmerised by the strange artificial limb, never seeing anything like it before. I told them the story of how I was gifted it by a healer from the Tipani Clan of the Umkansa village. The best of the best, how she fashioned it using weaving and bonding. Reattaching it to my left leg, I stood walking in the direction of my own Hometree, grabbing a hanging basket full of puffballs. I retrieved six for the kids. Two for each of them.

“Here, take these,” I offered it to them. “Just don't tell anyone I live out here.”

  They nodded a silent promise before thanking me and running off into the brushes. Yelling about and giggling. I sighed, worried about how they got so far and how no adult was with them. Silently I followed in their direction making sure they got home safely. Nearing the Hallelujah Mountains I realised they came from there, I stopped after distant hearing voices, I hid behind a tree staying as silent as I could. I peaked around as the eclipse approached. I had to turn back, making my way home. 

  Silently and quickly I dashed off into the brush. As soon as the eclipse came, I stopped and waited for the bioluminescent plants to bloom. Lighting up the darkness around. The light breeze caressing my face made me giggle. I began running back to my canopy, jumping over fallen logs. Onto the lush grass, I tapped the glowing plants making them glow brighter, chuckling at the reaction. This was something I did every night before I went to sleep. As I was climbing over a large log, I heard a rustling from the direction I came from. Quickly I rolled over the fallen log ducked down behind it, silently crawling. I heard more rustling getting closer, shifting away quickly into some tall bushes hiding in it. I held my breath, the rustling getting louder before two blue feet came into view. A man’s, by the looks of it. Their thick ankles make it obvious. Women were normally a bit slender with thin ankles.

  It stopped right in front of me, before the na’vi moved around a little bit, they were silent. Probably listening out for any movement. Crap I mentally cursed myself. Thankfully, they didn't stay around for long, running away from where I hid. I waited for a while to make sure they weren't anywhere nearby, finally emerging from the tall bush, I darted in the direction of my canopy. Climbing the rope attached to the branch just above my canopy, I ducked into my home pulling the rope in, sighing a big breath of relief. Before laying down on my mat, I removed my prosthetic leg, resting it on the side of my canopy. I lay down on my mat, listening to the light sounds of the night. I dozed off

I woke up the next morning, my body a little sore. I stretched my body, then arms and legs. I crawled to my pot to drink some water but it was empty. Moving it to the entrance of my canopy I attached two ropes fashioned into a small lift, around the lip of the pot grabbing the rope I lowered the pot to the ground making it easier to lift up to the canopy, tying off the end. Quickly fastening my false leg back on. I shuffled to the other side where there was a thickened rope where I tossed it down. Lowering myself down the rope I made it to the ground, picking up my pot, I hopped a few feet away. Dipping the pot into the river water to fill it up. I cupped my hands into the water to take a sip. Then cupping some water to splash on my face. I walked along the river, to the tree where I hid my bow and arrows and a basket, picking them from within the hollow opening. Slinging the woven bag onto my shoulder, I hiked to the lake with a waterfall half a mile away. There were always good fish there and made for target practice. Picking an arrow from my woven bag, I looked at my prey as I slowly walked into the shallow water. My green eyes honing in on one particular fish, shooting quickly I accurately struck it. Picking up the arrow, I grabbed the fish tossing it into the basket just a metre away. Catching two more fish and tossing them into the basket, it could last me for three meals. I picked up the basket, and headed back home to do my chores. Stopping at the hollow tree to return my bow and arrows. 

  I heard something, my ears perking up, shifting to the direction it came from. I backed up into a tree staying silent. Before I heard a giggle. A familiar giggle. Followed by another. I sighed, relieved. It was probably just those kids from yesterday. I smiled as I could hear their light footsteps. But then I heard slightly louder footsteps, larger footsteps and my smile faltered. When a twig snapped directly behind the tree I was behind, I could feel the blood drain from my face. I realised my mistake of hiding my bow and arrow. The footsteps moved as a blue blur moved on the right of me, four smaller ones moved to the left of me. In some kind of weird force, I dropped my basket of fish. Darting to my right, weaving through trees, I ran to the hollow tree again. A smaller pair of footsteps directly behind me now, a small hand pulled my tail, scaring me, stopping me in my path. Whipping around, a child collided into my right leg falling back onto his back. I was shocked to see a human child with painted stripes, a mask covering his face. I yelped out as the young child started to whine. He started to cry out, making me nervous.

“Oh Eywa. Calm down, please, calm down. I'm sorry I didn't mean to hurt you,” I hushed him, rubbing his shoulders.

“Found you Spider!” Neteyam called out, appearing on the path. A na’vi man approached from behind him, “Sempu! I found Spider!”

His father???!!! Oh Eywa! I looked up at the man. Jake Sully! Toruk Makto! No! Eywa, no! I looked at Neteyam with a scowl on my face, though he maintained an innocent face.

“Hello, sorry for scaring you. I didn't know anyone lived out here,” he didn't recognise me. “Is your home nearby?”

“Y-yes. I was just hunting for food,” I simply said. Just wanting him to stop talking to me.

“All alone?” he asked quizzically.

“Spider? Nete! Lo’ak!” the little girl, Kiri, yelled out. A roar of a thanator piercing the air followed by a high pitched scream. My ears perked up, realising who it was. 

“Kiri!” Jake began running to the source of the scream, I did the same. Speeding in that direction. The roar of Lo’a eliciting another scream from Kiri as she ran away from the angry thanator. I could see Lo’a chasing the small girl a few metres away. I blew out a whistle, catching the attention of Lo’a who slid to a halt.

“Lo’a! Stop girl!” I ran close to her, gesturing my arms to lie down. She hushed down almost instantly, silently purring as young Kiri ran into her father’s arms.

“What in the hell?!” Jake cursed out in foreign tongue. I turned to him clutching the girl in his arms tightly. 

“Sorry,” I apologised.

“Does your clan tame thanators?!”

“Uh, no. Just me,” I meekly confessed, small shuffling came from the bush behind Lo’a. He cubs followed after her. “It seems she has cubs now, she’s protective. Aren't you, girl?” I rubbed the back of her ear. Lo’a eased her head into my rubs.

“Cool! You have a thanator!” Neteyam’s eyes lit up, holding his brother's and Spider’s hand.

“You tamed a thanator?” Toruk Makto whispered in stunned (ptsd) awe, “You can tame thanators?!”

“Can I pet your thanator?” Neteyam asked fearlessly.

“Uh, son. I don’t–”

“Sure, but let her smell you first. She won't attack familiar people,” I explained.

“Cool!” the little human boy yelped out. I calmed Lo’a down as the boys let my thanator sniff their hands.

“May I?” Toruk Makto inquired, so I gave him a nod. He gently lowered his hand near Lo’a’s nose, letting her smell his hand. Even the young girl reached her hand out. Lo’a leaned her head into the girl’s hand letting her touch it's nose.

I chuckled at the strange sight, “I think Lo’a likes you.” 

“Is that her name?” Little Neteyam asked.

“Yes. Lo’a. It means amulet,” I pat Lo’a’s head. Lo’a had enough, making her way to my home. Her cubs followed her. 

“What about the cubs? Can you tame them too?” Neteyam asked curiously.

“Yes, you can. Mostly children tame them and they grow up together. Their bond is much like an ikran. Lifelong and strong,” I walked back to the riverside to retrieve my basket, they followed. Toruk Makto let his daughter down, letting her walk on her own. I noticed the way he looked at me, like he was trying to figure me out. Trying to remember.

“Do I know you?” He suddenly asked, “Because I swear I know you from somewhere.” His voice trailed off. I gulped, starting to walk off to my home. He must have noticed my expression.

“Dad, you know her?” I heard Neteyam ask his father. A hand grabbed my arm stopping me.

“Your leg,” He said. I laughed internally at his sudden realisation. I sighed, leading them to the base of my home. Lo’a laying in the shelter I built for her, her babies play fighting next to her. 

They looked up at my canopy. 

“Wow, you live out here with your parents?” Neteyam questioned. That boy always asked too many questions.

“No,” I looked at my feet, “My parents are dead.” I looked away, Toruk Makto’s eyes stayed on me. He reached out and put a hand on my shoulder. They felt so warm, just like that day when I found my friend lying dead at the Tree of Souls. “You’re that girl. The girl who brought Eytukan to the Tree of Souls. The girl everyone was talking about,” I silently nodded.

<–Previous Chapter | Next Chapter –>

[daenystheedreamer]

pls more abt viserys Omaegorverse I'm so fascinated it's insane and i honestly think grrm would b proud

im so happy u love it and this means so much but i do NOT think he would be proud 😭 he would read my posts (gun to his head ofc he wouldnt just. do that.) and sit in silence for a few minutes and then he would say. Maegor isnt gay what are you talking about. and i go well thats not really the point and anyway sexuality is kinda fluid and its more about opportunity and power than about sexual attraction although i will concede- and then he sends elio and linda with spears to hunt me down.

he's canonically a nothing character with personality of 'Beloved Of The Commons' n nothing else so i can kinda do whatever tf i want with him which is fun. he's also mostly there to be a sad wet cat that gets kicked by everyone and everyone he loves dies or is weird about him in some way. he's my special little sad uke twink i brutalise for my personal entertainment <3 im so maegorcoded so tyannacoded... anyway more about my babyboy viserys below<3 warning its SOOO long like fifteen fucking paragraphs Jesus christ

trigger warnings for like everything. incest death depression mental instability murder psychosis uhhh. torture and suicide. just all of it do NOT read unless youre like super certain you wanna read about my deviantart OCs because guys it is NOT worth it

childhood pre-Torture Labyrinth. he's born in 29 AC and was 8-ish when he was at the deathbed of Aegon1. aegon the uncrowned is three years older than him, and rhaena is six years older. jaehaerys is 5 years younger, alysanne is 7 years younger vaella who i kept alive is 10 years younger. just to give an idea of ages and general canon info :>

his only personality trait is Promising and Beloved of the commons. i think him and aegon were friends :) younger brother so he followed after him a lot. slightly scared of rhaena the big cool older sister who has a pet dragon. think his granddad is soooo cool doesnt really think about The Implications of conquest or anything. normal boy normal childhood (as normal as possible when ur siblings are married...) also he is gay because it adds to the horrors later on 🥰

something i think is Inchresting is the rhaena, aegon and viserys are named for rhaenys, aegon and visenya :3 i think viserys is like hercules right where he was named in an attempt to appease The Wife. aenys was like hiiiii auntie/stepmum visenya look i named a kid after you you dont wanna kill me right?right? and she looks at this kid who didnt claim a dragon isnt a girl isnt maegor and goes oh so youre insulting me huh.

i think rhaena aegon viserys had a slightly weird dynamic. rhaena the lesbian getting forcibly betrothed to her younger brother by her father is gonna make things weird, also aegon was 15 and rhaena 18 which adds just the best most awesome sauce to the mix. i think viserys had very complicated feelings on that especially if he is gay cos like... rhaena obviously does not love her brother romantically right. so u are a boy and ur sister is a lesbian but you dont have that word. and you are gay and your brother is cool and the crown prince and everyone is screwing their siblings and that makes your brain chemistry weird. and now your brother is marrying your gay sister. What about you. the dragon has three heads??? idk he's like 12 at this point he just goes back to playing hide and seek with jae+aly.

Uh oh daddy's dead. daddy's dead and uncle maegor is king now with his three wives. Uh oh. oh awesome he's kidnapped you and you're his squire now that's so cool. well its mostly a power play and hes not actually making u do anything as long as you stay locked in the red keep all day he leaves you alone. also maegor's insane girlfriend stares at you like you're a baby lamb that would make a delicious lamb tostada. but hey your big brother aegon has a dragon now and him and rhaena are gonna save you soon. Uh oh aegon's dead. aegon's dead and maegor is king for real for real.

everyone steers clear of you in the keep. you used to play with your siblings and the commoners and you used to play on dragonstone and kings landing and now no one wants to touch you. no one is calling you maegor's squire now, the pretence is gone. you are maegor's hostage. you fantasise about a different outcome, where maegor took you to the battle as his squire, and that you being there might have changed what happened. maybe you could have warned aegon. but you know nothing would have changed. youre not a dragonrider. you're worthless you're powerless. youre 14 years old :)

alys harroway is dead. maegor killed his wife. you knew alys, you saw her around the keep. she seemed very nice. she was very quiet and stayed in her rooms. she was always pregnant. you wonder why she married maegor, why she and tyanna are so strange with each other. you hear rumours. you wish you had talked to her. but she's dead now. maegor killed her. maegor tortured her. she's a whore now. you look out the window and see her rotting leg on a stake outside, her torso on another. you wish you had talked to her.

visenya targaryen the looming shadow over your life, the woman you're named after who looked at you with nothing but scorn, is dead. your mother is gone and she took jae and aly. what about you? what about you? is she not your mother too? are you not her little boy anymore? you are 15 years old. maegor killed alys' family when he was angry with her. is he going to kill you now?

ok second person pov over the gimmick is getting lame. anyway this is where the AU deviates: instead of viserys dying of torture, maegor is like hey maybe my nephew will be more fertile than my BITCH wives. and visenya the blood witch before her death compiled a bunch of old valyrian a/b/o fanfiction and said son if you ever find yourself with infertile wives. Consult These Texts. then tyanna and maegor made viserys mpreggable i dont care about how or like. what his body looks like. im not into the fetish of omegaverse LMAO i dont want to think about the fertilisation or birthing process or what organs he has thats unnecessary. only thing thats important is viserys can incubate babies and they are birthed via c-section :3

quick lore dump: vis is forced to maegor -> rhaena crashes the wedding but vis is so broken at this point he just doesnt want anyone else to die and has resigned himself to maegor so rhaena reluctantly surrenders -> alyssa jae and aly DO go to the red keep after they find out about the wedding and jae dies fighting maegor which makes viserys fully break -> alyssa now has husband dead 2 kids dead her son is queen and she also loses her fight :( lives on dragonstone with alive vaella -> alysanne is given to the faith -> rhaena agrees to a truce and she is hand of the king now and viserys' main protector -> vis gets pregnant and the kid is basically a reincarnation of jaehaerys -> tyanna loses her shit and tries to murder/sterilise/whatever viserys so maegor kills her cos he's finally got his babymaker -> vis has a daughter who's the reincarnation of tyanna -> faith uprising, shut down -> vis has his second daughter final child daenys who's birth is heralded by the martyrdom of poxy jeyne poor in the quashed faith uprising

vis is in the torture labyrinth for a couple decades. life sucks husband sucks everyone is weird about him. very death in venice people are weird about the boy type deal. has to wade through gender and sexuality politics of westeros which means several men going utterly insane about him including a couple kingsguard knights (celibate hypermasculine freaks bound to be insane sexually). one point early-ish on he DOES start believing this one kingsguard knight will save him from The Hells The Horrors but maegor finds out and kills that guy adn sexually humiliates viserys in front of the kingsguard and makes their son watch. So that fucks up vis' psyche for a while :3

rhaena and alysanne try to convince him to rebel and run away that they will use their dragons and fight. but maegor has made vis so paranoid and crazy he thinks maegor knows everything knows all his thoughts so he's terrified of plotting escape cos he thinks maegor will kill everyone. plus maegor made sure to force kids onto him early so that vis wouldnt be able to leave :3 world's most evil babytrap of all time.

vis doesnt interact with anyone except rhaena aly maegor his kids and the kingsguard so yeah its bad for him. ceryse hangs around for a while but shes like yeah i dont want any part of this shit dude being queen is NAWT worth it and she goes back to the hightower to plot marrying her niece off to maegor's son.

also there's a curse on the kingsguard all of them die really horribly and early. its a fun little thing for me personally because in f&b maegor's kinsguard is cartoonishly bad and jae's is cartoonishly perfect so i though Hey what if we did a little curse on the kingsguard ey. that would be fun. the only guy who stays long is a bracken because brackenfail cancels out knightfail. he's all godly and pissy about the gay marriage thing but he's also a monarchist so even though he think maegor is satan he's like well. he is my king i must serve him i obey my vows. he thinks viserys is a freak of nature but slowly grows to respect him and helps kill maegor + takes the fall for it. they have a weird father figure/white knight/weird tension thing that never gets consummated yay ^_^ the maegor torture labyrinth will have you 21 years old and best friends with a 50 year old celibate knight like dang where tf ser bracken at today 🥹

viserys snaps in 66AC with no like big catalyst or anything. he just has a good day where he's mostly lucid and he's angry and he's tired of everything and he's sick of maegor and he wants freedom he wants to be free. he wants to breath the air without panicking that maegor is going to hurt him. and maegor says some disgusting comment to him while theyre alone in the throne room and vis just snaps and start fighting him. daenys shows up cos she had her own Visions and Voices and they just start whaling on him. bracken knight helps too he takes most of maegor's counter attacks his organs are all over the floor but maegor dies impaled on the throne YAY

vis is like. A bit better for a while. his son is now king and vis is seeing that oh it doesnt get better does it people will still die. also his son jae has this weird oedipus complex about him thanks to maegor's insane parenting and viserys is fully aware of that so its not fun times for him. jae and daenys try to make him better try to invent therapy but its the middle ages they dont have that yet. they finally send him off to harrenhal (BAD IDEA) because they think viserra (the elder daughter btw, the tyanna one) might be able to cure him with her weird witchcraft. they think she's insane too but its the last option... viserra thinks vis is lame and weak but she does love him in ehr own way or maybe just pities him. anyway she does her best and it works for a while but viserys sorta gives up cos the depression is too much. and viserra believes in euthanasia as a mercy and thinks this is best for him this will let him be at peace. daenys has a premonition about it and tries to stop him. she has a big blowout fight with jae about it too and curses his bloodline and prophesises the long night. burned the red keep a little bit, you know how it is.

blah blah blah anyway daenys and vis end up dying in the gods eye together in a murder/suicide suicide/suicide murder/murder whatever. viserra has the lake dragged and they're found holding each other like a mother and her fetus :3

Fucks sake this post is long. holy shit holy fuck. my fucking bad guys my bad im so sorry. Holy shit. anyway thats my deviant art oc tee hee ^_^

[mystical-flute]

I Am The Ghost That Hides in the Night Chapter 4: Symptom of Being Human

Also on AO3

“Loid, I meant to ask last night… if you’re a spy, did you actually have a wife that passed away?”

It was an early Saturday morning, which meant Anya slept in later than she normally did, and Twilight figured she would probably be sleeping even longer due to the restless night she’d had. Even after Yuri had left and he’d checked on her, he and Yor had heard her mumbling to herself in her sleep, despite Bond trying to settle her.

Twilight caught the deeper meaning in her question. “No. You are my first wife, and Anya’s only mother since being adopted by me.”

Yor frowned, her hands frozen over the stack of plates. “Since being adopted by you?”

Twilight nodded. “Anya had four other families adopt and return her, Yor. It was part of the information I was able to obtain about her after I brought her home.”

“What? How could anyone do that to a child as sweet as Anya? Who are they? Where are they?”

If he hadn’t been made painfully aware of who Yor was the previous night, he would think nothing of the question. However, since he knew she was an assassin, the implications of the question worried him, because it was the same exact urge he felt, especially in the aftermath of the nightmare Anya had last night.

“None of them are in Berlint,” he chose to say. “We won’t run into them, so you have no need to worry.”

“I’m not worried, Loid.”

“I know you aren’t, but killing them will do nothing but lead to police investigations, and possible SSS involvement. I don’t know who you work for, Yor, but I’m sure your boss wants you as under the radar as possible. And honestly, so do I.”

Yor frowned a little. “Why? So you can keep doing your spy work or whatever?”

Well, yes, but also… “No, because Anya needs her mother.”

That seemed to trigger the Yor he thought he’d known all along, and she took a deep breath. “Right, you’re absolutely right, Loid. Sorry.”

He shook his head. “Don’t apologize, I know exactly how you felt. If I hadn’t had that… business at the warehouse I would have wanted to hunt them all down too.”

Yor nodded. “Yeah, of course you would.” She paused again as she set the plates on the table. “I know you’re a spy and all, but you really do care for Anya. That makes me happy.”

“Am I that obvious?” Twilight asked, raising a brow. He should be very concerned about that, but honestly, with Yor around, he found himself more relaxed and at ease. It should have been a problem for the world’s greatest spy, but for Loid Forger, it was perfectly normal. After all, what normal, middle class husband wouldn’t be comfortable with his normal, middle class wife and child?

Even if none of them were normal at all.

“You always came across as a normal, loving father to me.”

Twilight smiled a little. “That’s good to hear considering I have no idea how to even be a father.”

“You don’t remember yours?”

He shook his head. “Not much Just… fragments. Same with my mother. I was a kid when they died in the war.”

“I’m the same way. Just fragments, like my mother’s stew recipe. I don’t want that for Anya, you know? So the two of us will just have to stick together to make sure she doesn’t lose us the way we lost our family.”

There was that uncomfortable feeling in his stomach again, because as much as he wanted that - and he wanted it even more now that he was aware of what sort of life Anya had lived prior to her coming into their care - Operation Strix would end, preferably sooner rather than later, given the tensions between Westalis and Ostania, and then what?

This was supposed to be a long-term mission, but not a permanent one. He wasn’t supposed to develop any sort of feelings or affection toward his family, but he had and now… now he was concerned about what came next, because he doubted Yor and Anya would be a part of his next mission. He didn’t even know what he’d be doing for his next mission, but it was likely safe to say that Yor and Anya would have no need to be a part of it.

And the thought of it terrified him because as much as he was loath to admit it… he didn’t want to leave them.

“Don’t leave, Papa…” he heard a timid voice say from behind him.

Even when he wasn’t trying, Anya still got the jump on him. It would be impressive if he wasn’t concerned about the fact that she had, in fact, heard his frantic thoughts and now his plan of acting like everything was normal was out the window.

So Twilight took a deep breath and turned to his daughter, still looking so much smaller than she normally did, but much less panicked than she had the previous night.

“Anya… I’m not going anywhere,” he promised. He hoped. “Come on and wash up, breakfast is almost ready.”

Yor nodded and gave Anya a bright smile. “That’s right, and your father made your favorite too, as a special treat.”

“Omelet rice?” Anya asked, apparently having forgotten her worries, and Twilight tried to keep them from his mind as he looked over the food again and made sure everything was done before he stepped aside to let Yor plate everything and bring it over to the table.Luckily, in their quest to find more domestic duties she could do to take some of the load off of him, plating food was something she could do without starting a fire.

Twilight did, of course, make sure the stove was turned off before she did so, though.

“Mama, you gave Anya extra sauce!” Anya said.

Yor looked over, her brow furrowed as she slid a plate in front of Twilight and took a seat with her own. “Oh, um, yes, I suppose I did, Anya. Is that okay?”

“Omelet rice tastes even better with extra sauce!” she exclaimed. “Thanks Mama!”

Yor sighed in relief. “Well, good. After you were so scared last night, your father and I wanted to make sure you felt better today.”

“That’s right. And since it’s raining, we’re going to have fun indoors today,” Loid agreed. “Is that okay with you?”

“But Anya has homework,” Anya replied, to his shock. He knew she had been working hard lately, but for her to actually suggest doing homework over spending the day watching or acting out episodes of Spy Wars was more than a little surprising to him.

“If you promise to work hard, you can do it tomorrow instead.”

Anya stared at him like he’d been possessed, or like he was lying to her. “Really?”

He nodded. “Yes, I promise. We could all use a lazy day inside after the late night we had. But you have to study hard.”

“Anya will! Promise!”

There was something in her little voice and face that was much more determined - and yet almost scared. 

They really needed to have this conversation sooner rather than later.

But Twilight didn’t want to ambush her with this so quickly, so instead, he turned back to his breakfast and let Anya chatter about school and about what she and Franky had done the night before. When breakfast was finished, Yor helped her get cleaned up while Twilight cleaned up the dishes, having made a mutual promise with just a single glance that the conversation would be happening now.

Anya stared up at them with her wide green eyes as they sat her down, Bond at Yor’s feet, and Twilight very nearly buckled under the sheer innocence in them.

“Anya… do you know where Yor and I were last night?” he started, completely unsure as to how he was supposed to even start this conversation. Not even a normal parent would have to have a conversation like this, because no one else in the world was a telepath… hopefully. 

Maybe.

“You were at work,” Anya replied with a frown.

Twilight’s lips twitched into a small smile, glad she still had at least a little bit of childlike innocence left inside her despite all she’d been through at such a young age. “Yes, that’s right, we were working… but do you know what we were doing at work?”

Anya gave him a bewildered look. “You’re a feelings doctor and Mama works at City Hall… so boring stuff?”

Yor let out a laugh. “Well, I can’t say you’re wrong about that, Anya.”

“Anya,” Twilight sighed. “Last night, your Mama and I fought some very bad people. We - we found out about your powers. We know about each other.”

Anya’s eyes widened in fear. “Papa and Mama know about Anya’s powers? Then Anya has to leave.”

“No!”

Yor’s tone was sharp, and her eyes were wide with fear. “Anya, you are not going anywhere, do you hear me? You are my - you are our daughter, and we love you. We would never send you away because of your powers.”

Twilight wasn’t certain if he would know what love was if it hit him in the head, but he certainly was fond of Anya and had no intention of throwing her out at this point. If not for himself, but also because Eden would find it very suspicious if Anya Forger suddenly dropped out (even if her grades were still far below their standards). They’d made too many connections at Eden to try again with another child.

“Yor is right, Anya. We are not going anywhere. This family is staying together, no matter what… and we will always protect you.”

Anya’s eyes filled with tears, though she was very quiet, looking between Twilight and Yor rapidly, like she didn’t trust them.

He didn’t blame her.

“Anya, I - we promise. We’re not sending you back to the orphanage. Not this time. Never again,” he thought, looking at her. There were so many little things that added up all of a sudden. Her panic that very first outing he took her on, her sudden need to blurt out information - relevant or not - at certain thoughts he’d had. “You’ll be able to stay here and go to school and be with all of your friends.” And Anya had managed to make a lot of friends, very valuable friends, though Desmond still seemed to be out of his reach, and likely would be until Anya became an Imperial Scholar.

If. If she became one.

“Anya really doesn’t have to leave?” Anya asked quietly.

“Never. Er, at least, until you become an adult yourself.” He had a very vague recollection that was what normal people did - graduate from school then move on to their adult lives.

Yor smiled and lifted Anya onto her lap. “I’m so sorry you met all those scary scientists, Anya. But those bad people will never hurt you again, your father and I promise.”

And Anya would have WISE and whoever Yor worked for looking out for her. It made Twilight actually feel like she would be safe. Hopefully. Despite WISE and Ostania’s government agencies, the school bus hijacking had happened, and Anya had very nearly been killed because of it. But that hadn’t been due to Anya specifically. It hadn’t been because someone found out about her powers.

Selfishly, Twilight wanted to ask her all sorts of questions about what she knew, because surely she knew more than she had ever let on. But now wasn’t the time, was it? Not with the way Anya was clinging to Yor and looking at her with wide eyes.

Instead, Twilight moved to sit next to Yor and Anya, and put his hand beneath Yor’s on Anya’s back, pulling the trio into some sort of awkward group hug.

“We are the Forgers, and we always will be,” he said. 

He hoped.

Operation Strix had so many unknowns when it came to the future. Once they found out what Desmond was planning, how were they supposed to stop it? And then when that was handled… there was no telling what would have to happen to Loid Forger. It would have been easy twenty-four hours ago for him to fake his death and disappear on the first train out of Berlint, but now… now Yor knew who he was, and Anya always had. He couldn’t just disappear now - he knew what Yor was capable of, and knew she would tear Ostania apart in order to find him again, if, for nothing else, to make sure Anya still had her father.

“Papa?” Anya’s voice was muffled again, but didn’t have the fearful, sobbing tone it had the night before.

“Hm? What is it, Anya?”

“That white-haired lady you work with wants to take Mama’s spot.”

Twilight blinked and dropped his arms from around Yor and Anya. Then blinked again, as if blinking would confirm to him what he’d just heard. “Do you - do you mean Fiona?”

“Uh-huh! So if we’re gonna stay a family, that means she can’t be my new mama, right?”

Yor was staring between the two of them like she too couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing.

Twilight had questions. So many questions, many of which he wasn’t sure he needed - or wanted - the answer to, so instead, he shook his head. “Of course Fiona isn’t going to be your new mother. I’ve grown to care for Yor too much to ever consider replacing her.” It would look far too suspicious at this point, for Dr. Forger to be down a second wife, and for Fiona to step in so suddenly. Men, as he had found out in his time as a psychologist, mourned their wives, or the loss of their marriages, especially men who cared about their reputations - publicly anyway. What happened behind closed doors stayed behind closed doors… or became something discussed with a doctor.

“Good. She would be a mean mama anyway.”

That was… another fair point, and suddenly made all of the snide comments Fiona had made about Anya and Yor come into a clearer focus.

It also made him annoyed. Had that been why Fiona randomly showed up to their apartment and checked up on the mission? Why she had insisted on interacting with them after the tennis match?

Well, now he was irritated.

“I’ll speak to her tomorrow, Anya, and I’ll make sure she doesn’t make you or Mama uncomfortable again,” he said, glancing up at Yor now, who was staring at her hands. “Yor… are you alright?”

She startled, meeting his gaze. “Hm? Oh - yes, I’m alright Loid… I was just thinking about Fiona. It did feel like she was scoping me out, or testing me. I always thought that tennis match was strange, but I just felt like I had to prove to you that I was capable of being your wife.”

Fiona had made Yor doubt herself? Suddenly things were starting to make sense. Yor’s sudden desire to do good and meet all of Fiona’s odd requests, and her tension and fear during the date that ended when she kicked him in the chin and knocked him out. 

How many times had he told Fiona not to let her emotions cloud her mind? And now here she was, risking the biggest, most important mission in WISE history. What had she been thinking?

“I promise you both, this will not happen again. She will not be able to talk down to you, or try and test you in any way.”

“Loid, you - you aren't going to get her fired, are you?” Yor asked.

What? Yor was concerned about a woman who was trying to kick her out of her own life? He had always thought Yor was naive, or too innocent for her own good, but knowing she was an assassin, someone who could have killed Fiona, well, he was completely baffled now.

“Don’t worry, Yor,” he said smoothly. “I’m just going to talk to our boss and make sure Fiona won’t be stopping by for any unexpected visits. She will not be fired.”

Irritated as he was at Fiona now, WISE couldn’t afford to lose anymore agents, especially agents that had been trained by him personally.

Yor smiled in relief. “Good. Thanks, Loid.”

Twilight gave her a small smile in return. “Of course.” He took a deep breath, his face dropping into a more serious fixture as he looked at his wife and daughter again. “Now… we all know this means we cannot speak to anyone about the truth of who we are. As far as everyone knows, we are still just the Forgers. An ordinary family of Ostanians.”

“Right,” Yor said, ruffling Anya’s hair playfully. “An ordinary family with no secrets and with completely regular jobs.”

“Yes! But we’re going to help Papa in his goal toward world peace! And that means I gotta get an invitation to Second Son’s house!” Anya cheered.

“World peace?” Yor questioned with a raised brow. “But there’s already peace between Ostania and Westalis.”

Twilight cleared his throat awkwardly. “Yes, well… there have been some… concerning developments surrounding Donovan Desmond. That’s why I was sent here - to see what was going on and make sure that peace remains.” Or, even better, anyone like Desmond was permanently removed from power. “It’s why I needed a child to be accepted to Eden College.”

Yor set Anya on the couch and rose to her feet. “Then Anya’s right! I’ll do my part in helping get you close to him. I’ll become better friends with Melinda so she asks all of us to dinner, or whatever it is normal women do!”

Anya pulled a face, but Twilight decided to ignore it for the moment as he rose to his feet as well. “It’s settled then. We’ll have a mission, just the three of us. Anya - ” he paused to lift her into his arms. “What do you think we should call it?”

“I can name it? Really?!” she squeaked. “Okay! Then We’ll call it… Operation Friendship Scheme!”

Oh great, she’d known about that too.

“I think this calls for a celebration,” Yor said with a wide smile. “I know it’s raining, but how about we head to the bakery and pick up a cake? And we can go out somewhere for dinner? Sharon told me there’s a new restaurant on November Drive. Apparently her son loves it too!”

“Sounds good to me,” Twilight chuckled. “Come on Anya, let’s get your coat.”

“We’re going on an ooting!” Anya cheered, rushing over to Bond and laughing as the dog licked her cheek. Twilight watched as she hugged him around the neck and paused for a brief moment, then smiled and pulled away, skipping over to the closet where their rain boots were kept.

Twilight glanced between Anya and Bond and frowned a little.

Strange. He would need to investigate Project Apple further.

[trickstarbrave]

omg okay that's adorable. more thoughts on obsidian and his mom if you have any more to give?

yknow i dont think i have any more ansa bits but i have his bio mom's info and other things. warning of spoilers

>current working name is vuriiaaz, which means dawn, essence, mercy

>scales were a mix of white and red but tbh i should just bite the bullet and draw her in dragon form

>supported alduin's right to rule tho not rly his tyranny. he kinda lost his marbles a little after his wife was murdered, as you do when ur a god. her perspective was akatosh's ability to rule was compromised, so. if you cant be king it goes to your firstborn (alduin) and also alduin as really strong, and if you're strong then you're right to dragons. this was also before they hooked up so it wasn't bias or power seeking (though that might have played a part in it if she was LMAO)

>duty was supposed to be preventing and fixing time wounds and dragon breaks as akatosh foresaw those being an issue. was supposed to be in charge of all the ladies doing that as he quickly realized some organization might be good for that. uhhhhh then she died. bet akatosh was mad abt that come the huge ass first era dragon break huh

>yknow i havent considered yet what killed her. like ive covered she was purposefully murdered but uhhhhh im working on that. uncle shenanigans are more funny to me so thats what i have in my brain all the time

>had her most loyal priests take the eggs individually to hide them away, fearing if they were altogether they would be found and destroyed. was right and most of the dragon priests over time were hunted down with the eggs destroyed.

>one hid away in a tomb though attempting to hatch the egg for an heir to alduin's reign. didnt work since alduin was MIA from the elder scroll and vuriiaaz was kinda not alive and one of the parents has to be around to hatch it

>dragon eggs are surprisingly hard to destroy so i think they had to be like. destroyed via magic

>pre-hatching the dragons are in a weird form of soul stasis. if not actively incubated they just kinda remain temporarily frozen. then start back up again once they are. this means there can be wildly different incubation periods ranging from like, months to decades, usually around a couple of years as dragons have shit to do.

>obsidian doesnt know why he doesn't have siblings. kinda bummed abt it. but could you imagine ansa juggling multiple dragon babies that would be hilarious they would burn down riften if she left them alone too long

>baby dragons stay little for a relatively decent amount of time. when theyre like, teenagers they are still half the size of big dragons. then their power starts to really grow as they master their thuum and they hit a massive growth spurt and become Big (adult) dragons. sometimes they can be stuck in their awkward teenage phase for decades or even centuries in theory but they wont get big until they learn and mature. this makes it in theory convenient to carry them around but ansa is probably gonna learn that convenient for a dragon is prob going to quickly become not convenient for a mortal.

>until dragons become adults they aren't given the same rights as adults. still have to listen to their parents, and are their parent's responsibility. if someone's kid offends someone higher up, it'll be their parents paying for it. dragons are strict on hierarchy after all. this also means little ones and teenagers can't seriously challenge anyone, not even other little younglings, though you will see them practicing with their voice or sometimes bullying younger ones

>typically dragons wait until all their babies grow up before having another clutch, if they wanna. there are exceptions like if a clutch is very small, a lot of dragons have died recently, etc. it's just hard to juggle like 5 kids with more on the way. though its not uncommon to wait until the first clutch is like, teenagers to try for another round of babies.

oh wait i have an ansa fact:

>has no memories before the age of 5. she isn't bothered by this whatsoever and thinks this is totally normal, to the horror and confusion of everyone else.

[critical-chris]

Mouse Hunt (1997)

That's right, folks. Today we're talking Mouse Hunt.

I know what you're thinking. Why? When I've spent most of my reviews discussing recently released or relevant films, why would I suddenly take the time to watch and write about a forgotten 1997 comedy vehicle driven by Nathan Lane and Lee Evans?

Dollar, dollar bills ya'll. This is my first ever commissioned review, and the sick individual willing to cough up some cheese for Critical Chris had to hear my thoughts about Mouse Hunt. What an advertisement for my services.

I had never seen Mouse Hunt as a kid and frankly had never heard of the movie until college, when a friend of mine insisted that we take time out of our busy drinking hours to watch one of his beloved childhood movies. The same friend who spent prime weekend days clicking away at League of Legends, or whatever that stupid World of Warcraft ripoff is called, on his laptop at our kitchen counter. Like smart, intoxicated adults, we declined every time. Instead, we focused on finer films like Anchorman and Katy Perry: Part of Me. You know, classics.

I would classify myself as a Nathan Lane fan, but in the sense that what I've seen of his I have enjoyed and not that I've seen all of his movies. I loved him in The Birdcage, found him to be one of the only good parts of The Producers, fondly reminisce on the life he brought to Timon in The Lion King, and liked a few of his bit parts here and there. Lee Evans, on the other hand, I truly only remember from There's Something About Mary, but enjoyed his performance quite a bit in that movie.

For context on my state of mind going into this movie, I had just watched Aftersun for my upcoming blog on Oscar nominations and predictions, and was still wiping the remainder of the tears I cried at the ending when I decided I needed a pick-me-up. If you've seen Aftersun, and you should, you can understand that mentally I was in a very depressed space once the credits rolled. That movie kicks you in the gut when you least expect it. What better way to pull an emotional 180 than chase that film with a battle of wits between a couple bumbling buffoons and a rodent.

The setup for Mouse Hunt is simple enough: Two rather distant brothers reunite when their father, the proprietor of a string manufacturing company (because that's common), dies and leaves them not only the company but an aging and decrepit mansion. Oh, and he left them a piece of string. Nathan Lane plays a stubborn, indifferent renowned chef uninterested in his father's legacy unless it comes with a payout. Lee Evans plays a simple unemployed man with more of an emotional connection to his father who has recently been dumped by his controlling wife. Lane only desires to sell his father's company, while Evans sees an opportunity to continue the family business.

Both brothers are shocked to learn their father owned a mansion that is now passed down to them, and even more astonished that it ends up being the work of a historically renowned architect. The brothers cannot believe their luck as several magnates descend upon them offering fat checks and millions of dollar, dollar bills ya'll. There's just one issue, the house is occupied by a sneaky, relentless mouse. Oh, did the title give that part away?

There were some really brutal uses of outdated CGI effects through the film that reminds you the quality of movie you are watching. The setup of Nathan Lane inadvertently serving the overweight mayor a lavish meal with a cockroach inside, which had been hiding out in Lane's father's cigar box, was decent enough, but the cockroach itself looks like something made for Jaws 3D or a clay-mation project for film school.

However, I found Mouse Hunt to be funnier and better made than it had any business being. The opening joke of Nathan Lane criticizing his brother for not owning a black suit to wear to his father's funeral, and the subsequent gag of dropping the casket and sending their pops' corpse flying into a manhole, set the tone for the film. There were a handful of funny, well-executed gags and some good back and forth ridicule volleyed between Lane and Evans.

The joke of Lane and Evans rigging an insane number of mousetraps and accidentally trapping themselves in the same room hints at the gag to follow, and the mouse sending a cherry flying to set off every trap on the brothers is another great moment.

The scene where Evans is firing a nail gun into the walls in an attempt to kill the mouse in his territory, and seeing the grand interior destruction and mouse dodging the seemingly massive metal spikes, was fantastic. It not only has you sympathizing with the mouse, but gives some great disaster movie-esque effects. The same can be said towards the end of the film when Lane attempts to 'flush' the mouse out during their mansion auction by stuffing a running hose into one of the mouse's holes in the wall.

I had a funny feeling that we may have a surprise cameo in this move as well, and when CHRISTOPHER WALKEN enters this thing as a crackpot exterminator with an assortment of gadgets, it sent me over the moon. Walken is cranking up his schtick to an eleven, and has a funny moment when analyzing mouse droppings as he subsequently eats one. He, of course, is outsmarted by the mouse as well, but I loved his addition to the movie.

The other side characters are fine. Evans' wife, portrayed by Vicki Lewis, plays her part okay, leaving him at his lowest only to come back into the fray once she hears of his potential payout from the mansion, only to leave again when the mansion crumbles to dust. Maury Chaykin plays an eccentric millionaire obsessed with the famed architect offering absurd checks to Lane who dismisses him in favor of an auction to drive up their earnings. Everyone else is in the movie just for moments or are forgettable.

The ending was fairly cheesy (pun intended) as well. After the mansion crumbles and the brothers are seemingly left with nothing, they enlist the help of the mouse to convert their father's string factory into a string cheese factory. I suppose they had to come up with some happy ending, but I thought it was kind of a cop out to go with a play on string cheese. However, I probably couldn't think of anything better in 5 minutes, which I assume is how long the writer spent drafting the closing scene.

I don't want to praise the movie too much because, at the end of the day, it is a goofball comedy that is far from a classic. The laughs and gags provided do make it a much better comedy than you would expect by the cover photo and title, but don't go in expecting to find your new favorite laugh riot. Fans of Nathan Lane, however, should be pleasantly surprised.

In conclusion, thank you to my first ever paying fan for sprinkling a handful of singles into my bank account so I could take 90 minutes out of my evening to sit back, turn off my brain, and indulge in this comedy. I'd also like to mention that I was correct for all those years in college and beyond, and this was not a classic movie we were dismissing in favor of watching other movies or drinking our nights away in its place.

Mouse Hunt - 6.3/10

[robininthelabyrinth]

Wen Ruohan/Wei Wuxian?🍉

Forked Path - ao3

“You did me a favor, and I intend to repay that,” Wen Ruohan said, adjusting one of his gauntlets in irritation – more at the fact that he was sinking back into that old nervous tic, a tell that he’d thought he’d eliminated years ago than at the actual request, ridiculous as it was. “But to confirm, you’re certain that this is what you want? It’s not in my nature to stop midway, so if you have any hesitations, exercise them now or not at all.”

The two rogue cultivators looked at each other and after a few moments of clear silent communication and struggle, they looked back at him and nodded. The man did so reluctantly - Wen Ruohan looked at his wife, the immortal mountain’s disciple, and her nod was far more firm.

“Very well,” he said, lips twisting in distaste. He hated owing people favors, especially when they rejected his preferred counter-offer to graciously allow them to work for his sect, but he wasn’t yet so ungracious that he wouldn’t live up to something he had to do. “We are therefore agreed: in the event both of you die prematurely, I will take your son into my sect to be raised therein, rather than allow him to be raised alone outside or in the Jiang sect."

He paused, frowning. "To be clear, however, I am not going to raise him myself! He’ll be brought up among one of the branch families.”

Dafan Wen had some kids around the same age, didn’t they? That was pretty out of the way. With luck, he could avoid having to see the brat at all…and that was all assuming that these two died, of course. Still, based on their level of certainty and the association of the immortal mountain with divination, Wen Ruohan was going to assume a worst-case scenario was likely to occur.

“That’s fine,” the man said, his voice oddly sarcastic. “We don’t expect you to do more for us than you do for your own children.”

That pricked at Wen Ruohan’s pride, since he didn’t have a conscience to be affected.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked with a frown. He had two sons of his own, and they were being raised perfectly well by his wives, as far as he knew. It wasn’t really his concern until they were old enough to actually start getting started in cultivation, swordsmanship, or even the scholarly arts, at which point he would naturally take over their education with the assistance of many able tutors – he was far too busy to waste time with them, squalling brats that they undoubtedly were, until then.

“Nothing,” the woman said, and she looked amused – he almost suspected she was amused at his expense. “After all, with hard work, even the sharpest sword can be ground down into a needle.”

That wasn’t how that idiom went at all, but Wen Ruohan was too lazy to correct her.

Later, though, after they’d left, her words kept pricking at him in the same matter as idiomatic needle – it occurred to him that he didn’t much like his wives, even though the connections they’d brought to his sect were exceedingly beneficial. It was said that where there was a father, there was a son, the two invariably resembling each other, and he’d assumed that that would be the case here…but on the other hand, if he left all the initial raising of his sons to those wives he didn’t like, wasn’t he risking them raising the children to be just like theminstead of him? Grinding down his sons’ edges, so to speak?

That would be utterly unacceptable.

He was so busy, though. Beyond his own cultivation, his sect now controlled over a third of the cultivation world, and he was ambitious to raise that to half, and then perhaps even further. How could he waste time on something as pointless as taking care of small children?

On the other hand, he supposed that in the long run he’d actually be saving time if he at least made sure they were raised up right. After all, he’d always assumed that his two sons would be his right and left hands, his able aides capable of enacting his will, and obviously it would be a disaster to find out later on that they’d been spoiled rotten or rendered stupid....

No, he was sure his arrangement was fine. How much damage could his wives do in just a few years?

…perhaps it wouldn’t be that bad an idea to check in on them.

Just to make sure.

He definitely wasn’t going to raise that stupid Wei boy, though. Favors had limits!

-

“Your accomplishments do you credit,” Wen Ruohan said to Wen Qing, and even meant it the way he didn’t mean most of the things he was forced to say at these stupid discussion conferences.

After all, Wen Qing was of his bloodline, if distantly – Dafan Wen was a branch family – but at any rate, they shared a surname, and it was sheer pleasure watching her put all those other ‘promising’ young masters in their place. Anything that added a sheen of glory to his sect was a good thing.

She saluted deeply, trying to hide the way she was beaming, and Wen Ruohan wondered once again if it was time to bring her back to the Nightless City as his ward instead of leaving her out in the wilderness with the rest of Dafan Wen. To get the sort of medical skills she had at her age showed promise and talent, and he needed people of promise and talent, especially ones with his surname, if he were going to make good on his intention to conquer the cultivation world.

He would’ve brought her back years ago, in fact, except that Sect Leader Nie said that children were fidgety, flighty creatures that were bad at dealing with change and that he’d be better off sending medical texts and tutors to Dafan Wen rather than bring Wen Qing back to the Nightless City over her father’s protests. Normally, Wen Ruohan would have disregarded advice he didn’t like and proceed with his own intentions regardless, but Sect Leader Nie had been helping him deal with his own sons ever since he’d reclaimed them from his wives, who he’d discovered had been ruining them, and it seemed unwise to dispute with him regarding matters of child-rearing at that point. After all, if he wanted Wen Xu to end up as even half the son that it looked like that Nie Mingjue was going to be, he needed the man’s expertise, and that meant making compromises, irritating as it was.

Compromises like not just killing Wen Qing’s father for refusing to hand over his children, despite it being easier to accomplish. Or not killing Sect Leader Nie himself, no matter how irritating the man was, because now his sons loved that old bastard.

(Wen Ruohan had spitefully decided to get back at Sect Leader Nie by spoiling his youngest son, who seemed at first glance to be more like the lazy scholarly type, beyond belief. It seemed to be working very well so far, including in causing Sect Leader Nie no end of frustration at his extremely clever-when-it-came-to-evading-work second son; Wen Ruohan, satisfied, viewed this result as being wholly due to his own efforts.)

“How did you find that talisman you mentioned in your last paper?” he asked Wen Qing lazily. “I hadn’t seen it before. Was it in one of the books I sent, or somewhere else?”

In truth, that had been the most interesting aspect of the presentation from his perspective – he didn’t have either talent or interest in medical cultivation, but he could recognize firepower when he saw it. Just because the talisman worked on disrupting things at a very small level for medical reasons didn’t mean it couldn’t be repurposed for larger things…

“Oh, no, Wei Wuxian invented it,” Wen Qing said. “He used it to blow stuff up until I convinced him to make a smaller version for me.”

“Wei Wuxian?” Wen Ruohan asked, frowning, and then recalled – ah, yes, the Wei boy. His parents had died some five or eight years back, if he recalled correctly, and he’d had to go fetch him pursuant to that old agreement; it had been extremely annoying at the time. He’d been in the middle of a very nasty argument with Sect Leader Nie at the time, the one that had led him to think his most serious thoughts to date of eliminating the man entirely, and then, just as he’d been on the cusp of making a decision, he’d received word of the deaths of Cangse Sanren and her husband Wei Changze.

Naturally, he needed to find and recover their son as he’d promised long ago, which given how unreliable reports of the location of rogue cultivators was naturally became a colossal waste of time, but on the bright side it had at least given him a chance to vent his spleen and get out some of his rage on something other than wringing Sect Leader Nie’s neck. It turned out that Cangse Sanren and Wei Changze had died in some obscure night hunt in Yiling, but figuring that out had all but taken a full-scale canvass of six different territories – and then Sect Leader Jiang, who hadn’t bothered to do anything near the same level of search and had opted to search the various towns individually on his own, as if that would ever work, had tried to leapfrog off the back of his hard work, thinking he could just thank him and take the boy away just like that.

Wen Ruohan had refused, of course – he had the parents’ personal request, and that outweighed Wei Changze having been a former servant of the Jiang sect or Cangse Sanren being possibly a former lover of their sect leader – and it had turned into something of a political mess for a while.

That had been where he’d gotten most of the venting out, actually.

Sect Leader Nie had sided with him in that fight, though, rather viciously, and by the end of it all Wen Ruohan was reminded of why exactly it was that the man was a useful ally to have around. He’d also forgotten what exactly they’d been fighting about, but he wasn’t going to admit that, so he just magnanimously forgave him. It had all turned out rather all right, and Wen Ruohan had put the boy out of his mind shortly thereafter.

Why would he come up now, all of a sudden?

No, wait, he’d sent him to Dafan Wen, just as he’d planned. And of course Wen Qing was from the main branch of Dafan Wen as well – she would’ve been raised with Wei Wuxian as a little brother.

“How is he doing?” he asked, more out of etiquette than actual interest, but Wen Qing lit up and started talking about how her little shidi was a verifiable genius, and so good with her actual younger brother, and whatnot. Wen Ruohan nodded, pretending he was listening, and cast his eyes around the rest of the discussion conference, looking for a distraction – there was Sect Leader Nie, who was generally good for a laugh, but he was scolding that second son of his for failing one of Lan Qiren’s classes and having to be sent a second time over. Jiang Fengmian was comforting him, telling him that he was sending his son as well this year, and of course Jin Guangshan’s heir was of age as well, and would undoubtedly be going, too…

Hmm.

“If he’s such a genius, he should interact more with his peers,” Wen Ruohan announced. “I’ll recommend him – and that brother of yours, I suppose – for the lecture series at the Cloud Recesses this summer.”

It wouldn’t do to be left, after all.

“You…you will? Really? That’s wonderful! Thank you for the opportunity, Sect Leader Wen! They’ll treasure it! How can we ever repay your kindness –”

“As long as they impress me with their talents,” Wen Ruohan said, already imagining Jiang Fengmian’s constipated expression at seeing his lover’s son that was stolen from his grasp wearing Wen sect colors and, in an ideal world, smearing his own son into the ground with his superlative skill. “That will be repayment enough.”

-

“You need to get laid,” Sect Leader Nie said, and Wen Ruohan was reminded again of why he despised the man and should have killed him years ago. Why hadn’t he done that again? “As a matter of cultivation.”

“You’re joking,” Wen Ruohan said, putting down his bowl of wine and staring at him in disbelief. He hadn’t expected the man to actually be serious. It was rare enough an event, but in fairness to him, he never joked about matters of cultivation. “How does one help the other?”

“It’ll help balance you out.” Sect Leader Nie thought about it. “Or at least let you get out some of that nervous energy that makes you a paranoid megalomaniacal little bitch about eighty percent of the time.”

That sounded a bit more in character.

“If dual cultivation could fix personality problems, Lao Nie, you’d be immortal.”

“Who says I’m not?” Sect Leader Nie asked, teeth bared in a smile. “Only time will tell. Haven’t I already outlived my father?”

Wen Ruohan rolled his eyes. Sect Leader Nie had outlived his father because when he’d started in on a qi deviation like every other member of his blasted family, he, Wen Ruohan, had personally dived into the irritating bastard’s spiritual consciousness and dragged him back out again. It was very much not something that people were supposed to do, being more likely to cause qi deviations in the person doing the rescuing than resulting in an actual rescue, but he’d never cared what people were supposed to do and, really, it would be extremely annoying to have to do without him now that he’d invested all that time and effort and figured out how to get some real use out of him. Anyway, they both seemed to be fine and possibly they were also soul-bonded now - he wasn’t actually sure, Wen Qing always got a weird expression on her face whenever she talked about it, and he usually stopped listening at that point.

He didn’t really care. As long as it didn’t interfere with his plans, what did it mtter?

“Who exactly am I supposed to be dual cultivating with, exactly?” he asked dryly, deciding to address the matter head-on because that was the only way Sect Leader Nie understood things. “Don’t volunteer yourself again. I already told you that I refuse to indulge your ridiculous kink for dangerous people.”

Anymore, anyway.

Sect Leader Nie made a face at him, but Wen Ruohan ignored him. He might’ve fallen for that before the whole spiritual consciousness-soulbond business, but now he knew for sure that it was a kink, so – no.

Nothappening.

“You have a kink for things that increase your power, I don’t know why you’re being so judgy about my kink,” the other man grumbled. “And I don’t know, find someone – not another wife, you hate your wives, and anyway they’re much happier with their other lovers.”

“I didn’t pick them because I liked them,” Wen Ruohan pointed out. “I picked them because I wanted to absorb their sects and all the aligned sects associated with them. Which I did.”

“See, this is your problem! You married for power, rather than power, if you get my meaning –”

This was true. If any of his wives could cultivate worth a damn, maybe he’d care more about them. As it was, getting a son on each of them had been an exercise in willpower.

“ – and now you’re too busy pursuing power to fuck anyone else. You really need to get it out of your system. Find someone who can kill you.”

“No one can kill me,” Wen Ruohan said. “I’m the closest thing the cultivation world has to a god. Everyone should bow down and worship me.”

Sect Leader Nie started muttering something about megalomania again, but Wen Ruohan ignored him. It wasn’t a qi deviation talking if it was true.

“I bet we could find someone who could kill you if we tried,” Sect Leader Nie finally said. “And if they’re powerful enough to kill you, they’re probably powerful enough for the dual cultivation to improve your own cultivation, which is all you care about…we should start a war, maybe.”

“A war? Against who? And why?”

Sect Leader Nie frowned thoughtfully, stroking his chin. “The Jin sect?” he suggested, probably because he’d never liked Jin Guangshan. “Or the Jiang sect? Or both, I guess, since they’re allied. They’re next on your take-over list, aren’t they?”

“You’re next on my take-over list,” Wen Ruohan said threateningly, except Sect Leader Nie only laughed at him. Which was fair, he supposed, that whole soul-bond thing made the whole conquering business somewhat unnecessary – Qishan Wen and Qinghe Nie were bound together now as thoroughly as if he’d married the man.

Which he hadn’t. And wouldn’t. No matter what stupid snarky comments Sect Leader Nie said about Wen Ruohan treating him as a de facto consort on account of not having devouring his sect whole.

(Which he wasn’t going to do either - his sons still loved the man, and by now they were as thick as thieves with the Nie boys. What was he supposed to do, disappoint them? It’d be the same as disappointing himself, and he wasn’t about to do that.)

“I suppose we could start a war against the Jin and Jiang,” he allowed. His plan had always called for battle eventually, since he knew there was a limit to how many sects he could absorb through political, marital, economic or other means. As long as the other Great Sects stood against him, he’d never be able to achieve total domination – plus, he’d have to continue to suffer through those awful discussion conferences with the boring lectures and the petty politics of it all. Why couldn’t they see that they’d allbe better off under his dominion? “I could send Wen Zhuliu –“

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because that’s not how you fight wars honorably, and also because I hate that man’s guts. I can’t believe you gave him your surname.”

Wen Ruohan rolled his eyes yet again. Such petty concerns were beneath him. “If we launch a surprise attack using him assassinate the Jiang sect leaders, thereby bringing down the Lotus Pier, the war will be over sooner,” he pointed out.

“Makes it harder to assimilate them into the Wen sect afterwards, though,” Sect Leader Nie pointed out, and damnit, he had a point. “Not to mention you’re going to want some experienced people policing your waterways when you finally take over…”

Damnit.

“Fine,” Wen Ruohan said. “We’ll declare war the old-fashioned way. Maybe we’ll find someone on the opposite side that can impress me, and then I’ll marry her – or him – and be done with the whole business. Happy now?”

Sect Leader Nie made a maybe-so gesture with his hand. “Anyone who can match you in power can probably kill me,” he said regretfully. “Would you consider sharing –“

“Paws off my hypothetical future consort, you beast. Anyway, aren’t you already pursuing Lan Qiren because he nearly slit your throat with a guqin string once?”

“A man can look!”

-

“Say,” Sect Leader Nie said, staring at the army of fierce corpses currently shambling along to the tune of Wei Wuxian’s flute, advancing inexorably towards their enemies – an entirely new cultivation style that the boy had recently invented. In an effort to impress his benefactor Wen Ruohan, apparently. “Are you sure about the no sharing rule?”

Wen Ruohan stared at the grown man perched on a tree like a demon, wrapped in shadow and crackling with power, eyes glowing as red as the sun-patterns on his clothing, who seemed to want nothing more from the world than to serve it up to Wen Ruohan on a platter.

“Yes,” he said, voice only a little strangled. Maybe Sect Leader Nie had a point about power being a kink for him. “I’m very sure.”

[thinkingofsimpyboisinc]

Djhdhdjdjd ok ok so imagine this- Revivebur tries to find his darling. But darling joined Las Nevadas with fundy and is like a performer in the casino (idk what's happening currently in the lore cuz I'm so out of the loop rn but i do know that there's a casino for sure-) like they used to give like wholesome vibes but now-?

Bruh they did a whole ass glow up and they now give Jessica Rabbit vibes. And as soon as Revivebur recives word where his darling is, man practically yeeted himself into the casino, where his darling is currently all dolled up, all pretty like a newly bought Barbie doll on the stage..

(i can imagine the darling singing "Killing me softly" maybe like this? https://youtu.be/KGyTtPeP0Lw or like Kz Tandingan's version: https://youtu.be/CyPF91Qbf48

Or maybe like Jessie J's? https://youtu.be/GHyj93FGmuA

Idk i couldn't find a version that kinda gives off casino vibes id try to sing it but ehhhh ^^;;)

Basically this is the first time He hears his Darling sing, and man literally falls in love all over again. And he just simps so hard for them, and is oh so desperate to get them back, but darling is like "bitch my feelings died the moment the Wilbur I knew was gone-". (I tried to think of a more badass line but I'm tired ha-)

(Neways idk what to add more lol- i just thought of this while I was in the middle of reading an angsty Revivebur x reader ^^;;)

-🌻

the darling would absolutely take no shit from revivebur. what he did during the festival broke them and they felt as if they would never get the wilbur that they knew and love back.

when ghostbur is around, the darling allows herself to feel pity for the ghost. even though they know that ghostbur isnt their lover, theyre willing to let him believe that. at some times darling even believes that ghostbur is as close to their lover that theyll ever get so they let themselves feel like their lover.

darling joins las nevadas without telling ghostbur alongside fundy. even if fundy always acted defensive towards the darling due to how step kids can be at first, he warmed up to them really quickly. he doesnt know where hed be if they werent still besides him.

enough of that, revivebur. when darling hears that wilbur was revived, their first concern was fundy. they loved him more than they loved themself so they had to make sure he was alright. when both darling and fundy process the news, they both agree on hiding in las nevadas. it wouldnt be hard considering they already lived their, but they would definitely work on limiting their interactions with others outside of the country.

revivebur is almost immediately on the hunt for you. its been forever and his memories as ghostbur are a little foggy. he asks tommy where you are, but he doesnt know. so revivebur goes around the entire smp asking for where you are. some people (cough cough eret) would refuse to even tell him if they knew or not! its skeppy that tells where you are. not only is revivebur curious about the new country, but hes also curious as to why you're working with quackity. you and him never really got along.

its at nightime when he stumbles inside the casino and he's immediately blown away at the sound of your wonderful voice (second time jve wrote that today.) he feels like hes 20 years younger! (canon revivebur is 40+. don't believe me? check tommys first stream after c!wilbur was revived.) it feels like hes falling in love all over again.

eventually you head inside a door to the side and wilbur waits until the bodyguard (lets be honest, its just sam or purpled 😭) in front of the door has looked away to sneak past. it seems to just be a plain dressing room.

you turn at the sound of the door opening and immediately glare at wilbur. you werent worried about yourself, you were worried about your son. you would not let wilbur hurt him again.

"what do you want, wilbur?" he laughs and shrugs.

"what? im not able to see my wife? come here," he teases as he tries to pull you into a hug. you immediately back away and glare at him harder.

"dont lay a hand on me. i am not your wife and fundy isnt your son. get out," you hissed as wilbur stared down at you in disbelief. he lets out a breathy laugh.

"what? what do you mean youre not my wife?"

"i mean, im not your wife," you spoke, your tone laced in venom. you were even angrier than before. he didnt even care about fundy.

"youre being ridiculous. we have never gotten divorced," he mumbled. his anger was slowly starting to show through. you had to get him out.

"...."

"...."

"get out. before i scream," you responded. unfortunately, the one thing your outfit didnt come with was a dagger.

"i dont see what your issue is. love, do you have any idea how much i missed you? no one would tell me where you were and i was worried sick! now, im here and im trying to make things right and youre just trying to kick me out?" he took one step towards you and that was it for you.

"SAM!"

it took one shout for sam to come in. he had wilbur restrained immediately.

"will, you say we never got divorced. so, i would like to declare this our last conversation as lovers."

he gave a sharp inhale and stared you down as sam dragged him out of the casino.

he couldnt even give two shits about fundy.

this turned out so much longer than necessary. 😭

[oitommothetease]

Invisible String (12/15)

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Female reader (Modern AU)

Word Count: 1.9k words

Warning : angst, violence

Getting kidnapped sucked. Majorly. The most important three things that one should keep in mind before getting kidnapped; 1) Call the cops 2) Keep your doors locked 3) Don't leave the safety of your powerful and hot boyfriend. The last one might seem absurd, it's the one you regret the most because it had been two hours since you were abducted from the confines of your apartment and the only person you could think about was James. Maybe you were scared, or maybe it was the drugs that made you a little fuzzy, all you knew was that you couldn't think right. Your mind was reminiscing the image of your boyfriend in your bed to distract you from the man standing in front of you. This strange man was asking you several questions you didn't have answers to and hitting you whenever you told him the truth. The truth being you didn't know anything. 

“I'm going to ask you this last time,” He seethed, “Where is Barnes hiding his mother and sister?”

You inhaled sharply, waiting for the inevitable as you answered honestly, “I don't know.”

Although your body was heavily drugged, you still felt the impact of his slap on your face. Blood was trickling down your cheek, some of it seeping through your lips, making you realize the severity of the situation. You were sure his hand's imprint was already formed on your face, and it made you shiver with fear. 

It had been hours since a man kidnapped you from your apartment. He was already in your home when you entered, and one syringe at the back of your neck was enough to confirm your compliance. Not that you were strong enough to put much of a fight in front of this large man anyway, but you were strong; you could have at least injured him a little to feel some sense of pride and not this helplessness. 

The only thing you knew was that your kidnappers were behind James's family and not money. They probably wanted to hurt them, but since James and his friends never talked about their loved ones or even mentioned them, it was evident that they were being kept far away from their life. A part of you wondered if maybe you hadn't been with James, then you wouldn't have been in this mess either. But another part of you was thankful for James, for making you feel loved and cherished in a way you've never felt before. So, the bigger part of you would be fine if you died tonight because you got to experience that kind of love. The kind of love you never thought you would endure in your life, the kind that people don’t get to feel in a lifetime — which you had the opportunity to feel in a couple of days.

***

Bucky was distraught. After a few drinks with his friends, finally, he fetched his phone to call you, only to find out what had happened. Sam was leaning over Bucky’s shoulder to get a look at your text so that he could tease him, but the picture left him shocked. 

Bucky kept staring at the image, hoping this was a sick nightmare, and he would wake up in your bed.

 “Buck,” Steve called for his friend. Gently, placing his palm on Bucky's shoulder. “She must be in one of Rumlow’s warehouses. We will get her.”

But no, Bucky couldn’t hear anything that his friends were saying. He couldn't look up from his phone, couldn't shake his eyes to focus on anything except your distressed figure. All Bucky could think about was you — you were held in a foreign environment forcefully because of him. You had been with him for a day, and you were already being hunted by his enemies. He felt so selfish about dragging you in his life. 

He couldn't stop thinking about all the wretched outcomes. What if he loses you? What if you never forgive him? What if he never gets to tell you how much he loved you? 

“Clint contacted our source,” Sam informed him, “Wanda Pietro will go and check out the possible places where she could be kept, while the rest will lay low till then.”

Bucky finally looked up, he placed the phone down on the table and met the concerned gaze of his friends. He thought about how no one knew about Sam and Steve's daughter, Wanda's girlfriend - Natasha, Peter's aunt, Clint's wife - Laura and their kids. He thought about how no one knew about his own mother and sister. The only reason their families were safe was because no one knew that they were related to them or even existed. 

Bucky wasn't naïve, the only reason you were attacked was simply because you meant something to him. He was aware that he needed to protect you from his life, he didn’t think it would be necessary this early. He just got you, and you were already slipping away from his grip. 

Furthermore, he knew what needed to be done to keep you safe; he could hide you forever. Bucky wasn’t a selfish man and as much as he wanted you in his arms every second, he couldn't put you in harm's way, and hiding you would be like taking away a part of you. Everything you've worked hard for would be lost, you would not be able to publish your work, you would not be able to leave the house. It would rip any sense of freedom from your life. He couldn’t take all those things away from you just so he could hold you close to his heart. He couldn't do that to you, so he would have to let you go.

***

The plan was simple. They had located the warehouse. Steve and Sam would attack from the back entrance. Pietro, Wanda, and Peter would keep a watch outside and Clint and Bucky would strike from the front entrance. They didn’t need to bring many men because Clint’s source had confirmed that there were only 4 guards with Bucky’s girl. Bucky could have taken down all four of them on his own, but Steve insisted that they should assist him for safety measures. Bucky didn't want Peter out in the field. He was still very young, the only reason he got involved in this was because of his uncle’s murder. He needed the money to gather for his college tuition and help his aunt financially. Peter was hired because he wouldn't take no for an answer and Bucky agreed to his assistance with the club, but barely on the field.

Stealthily, Bucky made his way inside the warehouse with his companions, only to find it empty. 

“We gotta check all the floors,” Sam advised, “Steve and I will take the basement, you both take the floors.” 

Bucky nodded and made his way to the stairs, clutching his gun tightly in his hold. Clint followed him, mimicking the actions of his friend. The first floor was also empty. 

Each empty corridor felt like a wound being pressed over and over for Bucky. He needed to find you, he needed you. He pointed his gun in hopes of finding Rumlow’s men, but was met with vacant rooms. Not only that, but he could hear his heartbeat getting faster. What if you weren’t here at all? What if Rumlow had already hurt you and he was too late? No, he can't think like that. He would get you back safe no matter what.

“Let's check out the second one,” Clint said, and Bucky almost flinched. He forgot that he wasn’t alone. 

The second floor wasn't as eerily quiet as the first one, they could hear shuffling of shoes and muffled noises. You were here. Cautiously, they made their way towards the sounds and noticed two of Rumlow’s men. Carefully, Bucky tackled one of them to the ground, covering your captor's throat tight enough for him to pass out. Clint took care of the second one. Two more to go, Bucky thought. Two more and then you'll be safe with him in his arms.

The man that Clint hit made a noise, indicating to the other men about the breach. That was good for Bucky, he didn't want you to see this side of him. He reserved all of his sweet touches for you, and he didn't want you to see those same hands hurt someone. Expectedly, the other two captors made their way towards Bucky and Clint, and both men easily took them out.

Bucky finally made his way inside the room, where you were kept — after being taken away from him. His face fell when he caught sight of the bruises running along your cheek, the fingerprints on your face. You couldn't stifle the fear and the relief as you burst into tears at the sight of him.

You wanted to be strong for him, but you just weren't. Likewise, you were scared and exhausted. All you wanted was for Bucky to tread towards you and hold you. 

And that he did. 

In three long strides, he knelt in front of you, he took a bloodied knife out of his pocket and started cutting the restraint surrounding your hands. Under any other circumstances, a bloodied knife would have made you nauseated — scared even, but this was James — your James. He wouldn't hurt you.

Softly, he took your left restraint-free wrist in his hand, gently running circles to soothe the pain. He hadn't looked at you yet, he was so focused on your injuries that he didn't see you. You wanted to shout and make him hold you, but only a trembled sob came out of your throat.

You could speak, you didn't have anything covering your mouth. Why weren’t you speaking? Why was he so focused on your wounds and not looking at you?

“Bucky,” you whispered, his eyes snapped up to meet yours and you could see the tears welled up in his eyes. Under any other state of affairs, he would have had a different reaction to you calling him Bucky instead of James for the first time. He was so vulnerable that your words caught him off guard. His eyes were scanning your face for any discomfort or pain.

“Bucky,” you exhaled again, and that broke him out of his trance. His palms instinctively came for your face and you closed your eyes. Carefully, he pressed a kiss on your forehead, eyes, cheeks, nose, and finally to your lips. The kiss was so gentle, soothing even, as if he was scared that his kiss would hurt you. “I’m fine,” you assured him. Without saying a word, he nodded and continued to free your right hand.

It was so easy to get lost in his concerned gaze — to get lost in him.

Bucky was focused, too focused on your wounds and comfort, that he didn’t feel the movement behind him. It wasn't until you felt another prick at your nape and you hissed in pain. But it was too late and by the time Bucky looked up to inspect your uneasiness, the butt of a gun hit him in the head, knocking him unconscious on the floor.

Clint put the gun back in his waistband and made a call to his brother, Brock Rumlow. 

TAGS:  @bananapipedreams​ @akkinda10​ @rivers-rambles21​ @emmabarnes​ @valsworldofcreativity​ @boofy1998​ @marvel-3407​ @mybuck @priii​ @coffeebooksandfandom​ @ladydmalfoy​ @shaking-a-jar-of-bees @elizamalfoyy​​

[saintobio]

Hi Saint! 👋 I hope you're doing good

Ok, blimey, SN was a rollercoaster of emotions but I absolutely loved it! You write amazingly!

My thoughts. Y/N has all the right to be p*ssed off with Gojo. She has all the right to separate and live her life. She's not obliged to stick around and "fix" Gojo. But, big BUT, she had no right to keep their son from him. Was Gojo an arsehole, heck yeh. But he was really trying after the first divorce incident and nanas death. He was stupid for the house thing and not just being honest when trying to fix their relationship. I think that Y/N is going to feel like absolute shite when she finds out that Gojo tried to unalive himself when he thought she got rid of the baby. And now the accident because he realised he was alive this whole time!

Gen and their dad, wasn't a great idea to support hiding the munchkin from Gojo. Yes protect your daughter and sister, but you're making her do some silly things.

Now saying all of that, I'm going to counter myself 😅 I can somewhat get why Y/N would have wanted to get as far away from Gojo. Especially holding on the beginning part of their marriage. Then to hear his stupidity at the end would have brought up the previous thoughts. As a woman, I may do the same to protect my child (maybe not exactly the same tbh... lol I still don't like that Y/N hid this from Gojo for 3 flaming years!). I can see she was trying to protect herself and her child, but it wasn't a great way imo.

In the same way, I get Gen and why she may have supported this. As an older sister, I'm a surrogate mother to my siblings and can be protective.

Right this was too long. I'm sorry 😅 don't even know if I made any sense whatsoever.

My main ask was going to be: may I get permission to write a mini one shot type scenario based on the last chapter? I was so wound up in my emotions after reading the last chapter, I had all sorts of thoughts and ideas that I'd like to jot down and share. But only with your permission! X

hahah it’s very conflicting right ?? i love how ur analysis on it tho :) and yess you may write a oneshot as long as i get tagged <33 looking forward to it !!

@hollowpurpl said

I'm not blaming y/n for keeping the baby then hiding it. Yes, it is true that my heart aches because satoru didn't get to cry in joy after the baby was born, but what matters is the munchkin is alive. It would burn me more if the lil munchkin died. Besides, it was the most selfish thing y/n has done in a while. I can't hate her. Her ex-husband was a selfish cheating asshole. I understand that satoru wanted to change but, he's not that deserving to have an expressway to happy ever after. It's just karma (or saint) doing its job.

For toji, i think he won't have the audacity to cheat on y/n because of gen and the kids like hello??? But i do think mc just reminds him of his wife, that's why he wants to marry her. (This shit hurts so much because im a toji fucker)

And im sorry for sending lots of asks. I just love sn so much i cried when i didn't get on the sincerely yours taglist.

Drink your water and eat veggies saint! Every sn reader is praying to u ❤️

Anonymous said

Y/n keeping munchkin from gojo makes so much sense to me. She just prioritised her child's health and happiness more than theirs IT WAS LITERALLY THE BEST THING TO DO IN THAT SITUATION AND PPL WHO HATE HER FOR DOING IT CLEARLY DONT KNOW WHAT THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT LIKE????? imagine a child growing up in the kind of negative publicity that surrounded gojo post the scandal... yeah no. she did the right thing definitely and I rlly hope she knows that :((

Anonymous said

I think some people forget that soulmates who don’t end up together can fall in love with someone else. Granted the connection won’t be as deep as with their twin flame, but it’s not impossible to love again. Tbh I don’t care if gojo x uhtamie happen, Toji x y/n or gojo x y/n. I just think it’s unfair that her hiding her pregnancy is going to hunt her ten fold. I really like that she didn’t hide from munchkin who her real daddy is though. Mad respect for that.

Anonymous said

Omg I’ve been dying to send an ask in! First off congratulations on sn1, it was amazing!! Okie, I’m sorry for all the upcoming grammar mistakes lmao, but I need to write it before I forget x.x Over the past few days I analyzed both y/n and gojo’s situation. I’ve seen how most people are upset with y/n for depriving Gojo 3 years of his sons life and thinking he “killed” his baby, and some agree that y/n made the right call faking the abortion. I was just shocked at how quick people switch sides instead of analyzing both parties. I remained neutral.

I do agree that her depriving him from the birth of his son and making him believe that he was at fault was wrong, but did the readers take a step back and think how his past consequences drove her to do it? It hurts that Gojo never got to tell his side of the story, and now with amnesia probably never will, but it also hurts knowing that y/n was treated horribly throughout most of their marriage. Yes, he had a lovely redemption arc, but the thing about Gojo and y/n is that although they’re soulmates, they’re badly flawed. He had this ideal dream family, but didn’t know the current y/n. Just bits and pieces. He was more familiar with the little girl he was best friends with, whom he made a promise too. Y/n suffered a lot the first few months in their marriage, which causes her to start having trust issues, and clearly those trust issues were still rooted just untouched. In my honest opinion, seeing as to how badly flawed they both are, if there was no divorce, munchkin would be the only thing that would tie them together. I’m sorry this was long :’) also hoped this made sense.

Also, I noticed something. You said the zenin family is y/nxToji, but everyone else is GojoxY/n. Does that mean Gen has forgiven Gojo? 😟

nooo gen hasn’t. i take back what i said. very few people in the snverse are rooting for gojoxyn 🥲

Anonymous said

imo, I think y/n had a good enough reason to hide munchkin from Satoru. BUT y/n should have told Satoru when she had the chance, when he came to see her.

Anonymous said

Yooooooooo I sad .

Because I don’t know who’s in the wrong in the SN finale ?? Like I get each of Y/N’s and Satoru’s feelings and mistakes and whatnot, but now at what cost? While I definitely believe Satoru is much to blame for actions to Y/N, his past and how he was brought up shaped him that way, yet he was able to change; and he’s even worse for wear?? And even now Y/N, who’s suffered so much and very much doesn’t owe Satoru anything (besides telling the truth of baby Gojo), will have to go through this again???

there’s really a huge divide among the readers bc some people understand yn’s pov (like u guys in this case) while some choose to side w gojo for good reasons. but all in all, thank u for sharing ur reactions <33 it allows me to understand how people are reading into the series and i’m glad that most of my readers are still looking at this story with depth

[featherfur]

Meng Yao should have been around when Jiang Cheng was running around with his head cut off trying to make disciples out of rogues and convince everyone to get started on the war. I just think he’d see this, probably manic, idiot who needs help and is 100% willing to be bossed around and who really doesn’t care about Meng Yao station in life because he’s just fucking desperate and wants to die but can’t because Yanli and just go “actually I’m interested”. Because Jiang Cheng would riot if he knew Meng Yao wanted to go back to his dad, and well Jiang Cheng is very pathetic when he thinks he’s being left behind (“You’re leaving me for the Jin just like Shijie? Tears and loud words for you! Tears and loud words dor a thousand years!”)

And Meng Yao would have a spot in Lotus Pier where he is VERY clearly wanted, he probably doesn’t become sworn brothers with anyone (or LXC and NMJ realize that no one needs to give the Jin any more influence and become sworn brothers with Jiang Cheng) unless it’s Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian (unfortunately WWX will still probably be killed or hunted at the very least but atleast Qin Su is alive? Maybe having MY around will help calm JC into the fact that LWJ wants to bang his brother and help him so JC can convince WWX to let LWJ atleast play for him, then maybe WWX can accidentally let slip about him already destroying one half and LWJ can help destroy the other half… Dunno if the Wen Remnants survive either sorry, honestly I don’t know if anyone can stop JGS in the long run)

So there’s two ways this goes: (under read more I have Thoughts)

Meng Yao DOES go to the Jin Sect still because JC gets wanting your Dad’s Approval even when he’s a dick AND he protects Yanli who immediately adopted him when JC showed up to the war with him. Without being stuck between a Rock and a Hard place (sorry NMJ not everyone is a annoyingly stubborn with their morals as you and MY is being hurt :( leave him alone :(( ) MY is able to continue being pressured without breaking and even though JGS keeps trying to get him to manipulate JC, MY won’t and won’t manipulate NMJ either and every time he goes to Lotus Pier to ‘look into’ the Jiang Sect he actually just spends the week being plied with children and listening to Jiang Cheng explain the fashion industry Again and talk about silks vs cashmeres vs wool so he just gets a vacay and is more prepared to stand up against his dad.

Also JC and Yanli catch on pretty quick to Madam Jin abusing MY because they were there after Madam Yu would hurt WWX and they know the signs of trying to hide the pain and Yanli suddenly starts Show Up whenever Madam Jin tries anything because that is her Didi now and she will protect him and if anyone ELSE tries to mess with him she will rip them apart like when Jin Zixun tries to bother WWX.

JGS does eventually manage to frame something on WWX but MY intervenes immediately by telling JC the truth and without the ‘did my kinda insane PTSD ridden brother so this?” Panic thoughts JC gets his people and is waiting for the force of Jin and smaller sects, with his two sworn brothers on either side. Because yeah NMJ absolutely hates the Wen but can he really ignore LXC and JC? Plus NHS on the side? He’s only there to protect WWX, anyone else can get fucked and even then he’s only protecting WWX because JC asked him too because NMJ thinks WWX sucks for choosing the wens because he’s very much of the one track ‘the wens suck’ mind. MY pretends he has no idea what’s going on but he does summon Jin Zixuan on ‘accident’ who shows up, annoyed he had to leave his kid, and is like “are we really going to accuse Nie Mingjue, known Wen hater, of protecting Wei Wuxian and lying about his innocence? Because his sword is the same size as my body and I’d rather Not”

(okay he’s more polite and subtle but that’s the gist) somehow Jin Guangshan dies, I’m voting Yanli poisoned him because I think Meng Yao is 100% willing at this point to simply take the abuse because Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen aren’t essentially telling him to murder his father and that he’s stupid for not holding harder to his morals (sorry NMJ,,, you just,, I love you but MY is hurting and he’s not as stabby as you) NMJ is still very much crankily telling him his dad sucks whenever they meet but Jiang Cheng gets all sparkly whenever MY is around because MY will say he’s Doing Good, so there’s only so much room before JC start just biting anyone who even looks at MY wrong. (NMJ says he’s proud of JC once and JC just starts crying and NMJ UnderstandsTM why MY won’t leave him alone)

But Yanli has to be the one to kill him because MY wouldn’t because he’s a filial son and probably hasn’t lost his hope he will be Loved, Jin Zixuan wouldn’t because he’s like the only one in the entire show not down with murder, Madam Jin is not about to give up the power and money that comes from being the wife of Jin Guangshan even if JZX would take care of her because Yanli clearly is willing to rip everyone apart who fucks with her family and unlike Jiang Cheng is willing to change the status quo, and if JGS dies on a hunt they’ll blame WWX so Yanli just poisons him slowly and he dies from ‘illness’. JZX takes power, Meng Yao is told he’s amazing twelve times a day because JZX can do busy work and argue against anyone but he cannot have a small talk conversation to save his life. Life continues peacefully, Jiang Cheng keeps kidnapping JZX’s advisor because he misses him. Meng Yao knows how to control literally every single great sect but he’s busy chasing down his nephews and helping Jiang Cheng avoid marriage offers to do anything.

Once Jin Guangshan died, LXC and MY both swooped in to have the Wen Remnants moved somewhere else to ‘civilize’ them (using LXC’s own words here) and WWX is very much caught between Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji arguing over who he’s going home with and he’s honestly never felt more Loved TM. WWX spends six months to break the rest of the tiger rally under the grumpy/watchful eye of NMJ who still isn’t happy anyone from the Wen’s is still alive but he’s weak to puppy eyes and also when he’s being strong armed by his sworn brothers, MY, and NHS (though he still keeps an eye on the actual cultivators, he’s pretty much forgotten the rest of the Wen Remnants exist he just cares about the ones who know how to use a sword). Wangxian happens, idk how I’m voting for a wild Jingyi another orphan decides that he wants to meet the Purple Angry Man and body slams into WWX’s legs trying to get to the Purple man and LWJ catches him and it’s a full on romantic moment of staring into each other’s eyes while Jiang Cheng makes disgusted noises and Meng Yao pats his hand and just tells him to accept it.

Or Meng Yao stays in Lotus Pier because Jiang Cheng has problems and Meng Yao loves a messy loudmouth aggressive bitch with a secret heart of gold. Also Jiang Cheng is the exact kind of Demi-aroace dummy to not realize Meng Yao has a crush on LXC and keeps sending him over to Cloud Recesses to help with trade or something and MY gets to hang out with his crush constantly.

MY is Jiang Cheng’s personal advisor since WWX is currently refusing to process his trauma and staying in a very traumatic place. MY does try to help but WWX doesn’t trust him and probably only half trusts him around JC, BUT MY is very good with kids and helps work with JC on how to slip WWX supplies while negotiating directly with Nie and Lan without Jin glaring over him this time, and Jin Zixuan is more than happy to help when he can because again he’s just like the only one with modern morals and wants Lotus Pier to be strong since if all the sects fall then well the fucking demons/ghosts they hunt will eat them. So WWX is slowly atleast not ready to kill him, Meng Yao finds out WWX already destroyed half the Tiger Tally and tries to get him to let NMJ and LXC help him destroy it further (because that ties the three sects closer and so WWX won’t just stab someone if someone isn’t happy about the Wen’s existing)

Yanli poisons Jin Guangshan again because I think that’s the best way for him to go, Meng Yao does grieve but also that lasts for three minutes before Jiang Cheng shows up with some children he found in Yunmeng and Meng Yao needs to explain to him again that just because the kid latches on doesn’t mean you can take them home. But with JGS out of the way it’s a lot easier to strong arm NMJ into letting the Lan take the remnants (JC and NMJ still aren’t happy about it but NMJ can’t fight the three other sects and JC is getting his brother back and he’ll take the Wen living if that means WWX is too) and WWX returns to Lotus Pier. The truth of the golden core comes out probably via WWX having a flashback or panic attack or something (or that one theory of Yanli knowing,,,) words happen, WWX storms off to find LWJ.

Meng Yao wonders why he likes messy cry babies but still helps out Jiang Cheng because they’re technically brother in laws and also because he really does care about him. Wangxian happens and now Jiang Cheng is really pissed but WWX also said he wasn’t going to just up and leave so they’re on a rotating system but honestly everyone’s just waiting for them to move permanently to Lotus Pier because Lan Wangji has this giant hole in his heart for kids who love Wei Wuxian and Lotus Pier is filled with kids who are Jiang and therefore are insane ans love WWX.

Personally I think this one is the least likely but it sounds very nice right?

[fluffyk97]

Basic backstories, setup and just few little things about Werewolf Cole Au. A synopsis if you will?

There's no elemental powers, Overlord, Zane isn't a nindroid, etc. Just basically a regular world with small real myths such as Werewolves.

Werewolf wolf forms aren't humanoid, but really are just big 6ft tall wolves.

Kai and Nya do live in a house near the woods and their parents were never kidnapped so they were raised by them. However they both are in a line of work that has them not home most of the time.

Kai & Nya found Lloyd on the streets being bullied from other kids. Kai immediately couldn't stand it and stepped in. When asked where Lloyd lived so they could take him, Lloyd said he didn't have one.

After a long video call later, and a quick visit by Maya, Lloyd was able to be adopted into their family and enroll in school under the name Lloyd Smith.

Kai is 20, Nya is 18, Lloyd is 14, Cole is 21, Jay is 18, Zane is 23, Pixal is 22, Skylor is 21. Excluding Cole till later, they're just a big friend group.

Kai is trying to find a good College to get into while working at Skylor and her Mother's small Noodle Shop. There is no Chen because I said so.

Skylor and Kai used to date in Highschool, but found to be better friends instead and now are just close friends.

Jay & Nya are in highschool Senior Year, and are together.

Zane & Pixal was friends with them in highschool, but now are in College together. Also a couple, and they love to visit when they can and video chat.

Lloyd is in Middle School. He's managed to make few friends there but his best friends are his adopted siblings, their friends, and his adopted cat, Meowthra.

Cole was childhood friends with Jay back in another town until one day him, his father and mother had to suddenly move out without a word to anyone. So to Jay, his childhood friend just one day disappeared.

There are Werewolf Hunters after them.

Cole gets his wolf side from Lily.

Lily doesn't pass away when he was younger, but is sick. Lou moves them to the Town where the gang are, hearing about how it's nice and close to some woods, good clean air, and he did some digging and saw nothing about Hunters being in the town because the Forest and its wildlife are supposed to be protected.

Cole is trying to figure out what to do for his mother and always goes out to the woods at night to let himself be a wolf, especially because he doesn't have complete control of his transformation like Lily.

Unfortunately Hunters did follow them.

The Hunters one day went to eat at the Noodle Shop and talked about going hunting in the Woods. Kai overheard, and he knows the Woods are not to be hunted in. Kai tried leaving a voicemail to Skylor but his phone unfortunately died mid message. He wasn't sneaky enough about it and the Hunters did notice.

At the end of his shift, locking up the Noodle Shop, Kai is jumped by the Hunters so they don't have a goody goody try and ruin their hunt.

Kai managed to get away and did run off into the woods, hoping to lead them off his tail, not find their way to his house, while also hoping to manage to get home through the woods.

Kai of course loses the Hunters, but unfortunately his ankle did get sprained pretty bad and he stops to sit against a tree once he's sure he's safe.

That's when Cole finds him after smelling some of his blood.

Kai never heard of any reports of wolves in the woods, especially none that are 6ft tall. So understandably, Kai freezes up in fear while also knowing he wouldn't get anywhere if he tried.

Cole approaches, luckily just have hunted something himself so Kai's blood doesn't affect his hunter instincts too much.

Cole slowly approaches Kai before licking his wounds. He turns Kai around and grabs him by the back of his jacket, carrying him off to his little den he set up for when he's out in the woods.

Kai freaks out and is about to yell before he hears the distant sound of a Jeep driving through the woods which leads him to shut up in fear its the hunters.

This also has Cole rush to the den.

The den is set up with a large bedroll, campfire and few other necessities because Cole goes to it when he's a human as well. It surprises Kai, but he doesn't complain when the big wolf sets him down and carries over a first aid kit.

Even after patching himself up, Kai still can't get up, but it seems the Wolf in front of him basically saved him and maybe has an owner. Plus, out of fear of running into the hunters, he decides okay he'll stay for the night.

Cole does notice Kai starts shivering when trying to sleep, so he goes over to offer some warmth. Kai while uneasy with a big wolf next to him, accepts it, not wanting to risk going against it and it is nice.

This leads to both of them falling asleep and Cole completely forgetting he's going to change back in the morning.

So Kai wakes up being hugged by this large shirtless man. His screaming wakes Cole up, leading him to screaming as well as the scramble to get apart.

The den is surprisingly close to Kai's house, so as Nya is about to head out on her bike to find out why Kai didn't come home last night, she hears him screaming in the woods.

After the screaming stops, Kai and Cole stare at each other. Kai in complete bewilderment, glancing around for that wolf from last night unaware it was Cole. Cole meanwhile is frozen, slapping himself mentally for some reason helping this random stranger as a wolf and not thinking about him turning back in the morning.

Nya calls out for Kai though, drawing his attention away from Cole and allowing him a moment to slip away.

Kai after realizing he was left alone, decides to get up, limping out of the den to call out to Nya.

Kai is brought home and his wounds are more properly treated. A call to Skylor to look out for the guys that jumped Kai and to let her know what's up.

Kai tells the story about the Wolf. Lloyd gets excited wanting to find a big nice Wolf himself, but Nya quickly dismisses it to it most likely just being a dream passing out in the woods. Hoping to delude Lloyd from going and searching the woods for said Wolf, while also not believing it herself.

Kai is basically forced to stay home till they know the Hunters aren't going to go after him again, and to heal up his ankle.

Kai keeps thinking about that night while during his little house arrest, and even dreams of the man he woke up next to, turning into the 6ft Wolf that helped him.

One night when he's okay to walk again and Nya is at Jay's house with Lloyd to help him study, and for a little sleepover, Kai sneaks out back to the woods, finding the den again and hopes to come across the Wolf again.

Cole wanders in as a wolf and freezes noticing Kai waiting for him. He was no different from Kai, constantly thinking about the other in numerous ways since their encounter.

Cole unfortunately wasn't so prepared for another meeting and turns to run away, but finds himself freezing when Kai cries out "Wait!"

Kai slowly approaches Cole.

"You can understand me, can't you?" Cole looks Kai in the eyes and nods to Kai's slight surprise.

"Are you that guy I woke up next to?" Cole whines in response, in fear of Kai knowing.

"It's okay! I... well its little weird to think about, but... wow I was actually right? Haha, I don't know how to feel about this, but I won't go ratting you out don't worry!" Cole's ears perk up in surprise.

That's when the familiar sound of a Jeep reaches both their ears. Smelling the air, Cole whines, recognizing the smell of Hunters, moving to turn and run again, but Kai stops him again.

Kai offers and brings Cole back to his house to help hide him. Cole feels like he should reject, and not trust so easily, but he finds himself following Kai easily.

That's when Kai walks in with Cole, ducking through the back door and see Nya and Lloyd who just got home because the sleep over got cancelled.

After a lot of panic and explaining later, Nya agrees to help out Cole, wanting more explaining from him if Kai saying him turning into a human is true.

Lloyd is very excited to see such a big wolf and starts talking to Cole a lot. It surprises Cole, but he also finds it enjoyable to see a kid so excited to actually see him like this after growing up and being told by Lou he should never show his secret to anyone.

Lloyd does bring Meowthra to Cole, and while Kai and Nya were expecting the usual Cat vs Dog or this case, Wolf, Meowthra surprisingly really likes Cole and they get along fine.

Lloyd helps Kai give food to Cole once they hear the wolf's tummy growl.

The next morning, Cole wakes up in the living room as human and he does explain what he is. Pleading for the trio of siblings to not say anything, especially after he smelled Hunters and learned they're the ones who hurt Kai. They of course agree to the promise.

This starts the cycle of Cole coming over some nights as a Wolf and staying the night.

Cole is excited to talk to people again after being on the run and being hidden for so long and a nice distraction from worrying about his mother.

Kai finds himself wanting to spend more and more time with Cole until he realizes he's actually falling in love with a werewolf.

Overtime the rest of the friend group also accidentally learn about Cole but agree to keep the secret. Jay especially being really happy to see his childhood friend again and getting an explanation why he disappeared so long ago.

Kai find himself talking a lot about Cole to his siblings and Skylor. Cole does the same to Jay about Kai.

Of course they do confess at some point. Or basically forced to by everyone.

Cole keeps all this a secret from Lou because his father has grown to always have a constant worry of his son and wife being hurt because their Wolf sides. He talks to Lily about everyone though when he thinks she's asleep, but she does hear it all and is happy to hear her son is happy. She doesn't tell Lou until Cole is ready.

Cole is a clingly bf when him and Kai are together, being very touch starved from only having his mom & dad for so long. Kai loves attention, so it works out perfectly.

Cole as a wolf will sometimes just pick up Kai to bring him t lay down with and enjoy cuddles. When human, he loves to come up from behind for a hug.

Kai brought Cole to work one day and Cole fell in love with the food there ofc.

When Cole first ate cake around the others, he was a wolf and they did immediately get scared with mindset of chocolate bad for dogs. Morning came and Cole reassured he was fine and is still okay to eat anything he can as a human, as a wolf.

Cole does still struggle with gaining control of his transformation but that mainly affects to him turning into a wolf every night. Lily can turn into a wolf anytime she wants.

However sometimes Cole finds himself losing to his wolf instincts and needs to hunt or gets hostile.

First time Cole loses himself as a wolf he is hostile, but Kai slowly approaches him, treating it like he would for Lloyd when he has panic attacks, and brings Cole out of it. Mostly succeeding to get close because Cole smells his own scent on Kai.

They all do try and pitch in to find a way to help Lily, and stop the Hunters.

[dojae-huh]

Oh you did say "might" when I read it again. Apologies I read fast and always have to read sentences over more than normal, but I still miss words >_<

LSM has done well with showcasing the powerhouse he has built through the years. That is why he is very respected in the industry. Those fans saying things like SM is falling to shit do not realize that SM has been around since the beginning and is still going strong. How many companies can say that? I am truly most impressed when they work with Seoul philharmonic, but then again I love instrumental music. I also think SM is good at what it does. For example, your post to nourtan you mentioned GOT Step Back and how many Ifans did not like the lyrics, but I noticed in the comments many of them like the sound of the song. I think SM plays it smart here. Many Ifans listen on the first go without looking at the lyrics unless they do put subtitles on Youtube. The song draws you in and everyone did their job of delivering their lines well. However, the lyrics are not what many were expecting because the song sounds has that girl power vibe in it. They gave powerful sounding song to a highly anticipated group, but the lyrics are trash. It will still do well because fans will support their bias mostly. So to answer your question I would say 90% or higher is mostly consumers fault.

Anyway since you said it's not too late for the prompt I guess I'll share. Well as I said the puff video with hugging Jae was made me start thinking that there was more than friendship. I watched that video in 2020 btw. I don't know why, but when they hugged I swear I said to myself I want to be hugged like that by my significant other. You can just feel the "love" in it. So I went hunting for ship videos. When I was watching ship videos the moments from 2018 was when I fully determined they were dating. You don't look at friends like that and become gooey. Their actions throughout the years made it more obvious especially with Do going all red during a live video in front of thousand of fans, and he has not turned red since then for anyone else. Plus all the secrecy like not saying what they got each other as gifts and Jae's obvious romantic gazes makes me wonder how can people be so blind. They literally have all the stereotypical we are in a relationship, but we keeping it on the down low. Plus, everyone needs to pay attention to Taeil when he's around JaeDo. Taeil literally was the one who called them out. I feel for Jae though I am hopeless romantic too, so him not showing he's in a happy relationship probably kills him in the inside.

Anyway, I do think Do always had romantic feelings for Jae from the beginning. I believe Do never doubted his preference in men, but he probably was never open about it. When Jae confessed it probably scared the hell out of him, because he wasn't out and I think he wasn't planning coming out anytime soon. Do probably panicked that he was obvious and started worrying if others knew as well. Which is why 2017 the "break up" happened. I do think Do did take time to think about what a relationship with Jae could/would be. Plus, coming into terms that he's gonna have to tell the people closet to him (family, members, colleagues) what he's been hiding for so long. Coming out is never easy, you become more of a minority in the world. I always had a feeling Jae knew he liked guys from a young age and he flirts way too naturally with guys. In 2017 even though it was the "break up" year you can tell they were awkward, but they still wanted to be there for each other. Do never really told Jae to get lost as well. He probably told Jae to wait a till he figures everything out and the rest was history after that.

Boy this is long. Thanks for reading lol

LSM took a break from SM when his wife was diagnosed with cancer, I think they went to US for treatment. She died, he still found powers in him to comeback to his company and dedicate himself to his idol kids again. And now he negotiates with bigger companies that can both fund and secure the future of SM, he wants to make it as big as Disney one day.

Burn SM, idols should go solo. Many idols are not really suited to "real life", especially in such a harsh society as SK. People like Taeyong, Taemin, maybe Kai (who, I'm told, has ADHD), they need support of a company and managers, of their groupmates. Other idols need time to find their voice, their strenght. Asian cultures don't nurture individuality and self-expression, trainees need to unlearn a lot of things.

21:17 - the hug

Huh, interesting. I personally wouldn't pay special attention to such a hug (I notice Jae's wavering voice instead). But then, Russians hug during greetings and farewells, and it's a culture I hate, heh.

I also think Doyoung had the feelings from the beginning, but I'm not sure he understood them for what they were. What makes you think he knew he liked boys? Jaehyun was very obvious with his flirtation, he called himself Do's boyfriend during an FM, wrote that "won't we date for real?" letter in 2015, and said during interviews stuff like "what others do with their girlfriends, we do together". Jae's confession shouldn't have been a surprise. The boy wasn't subtle.

Do stopped touching Jaehyun, but he didn't stop touching everyone else. He didn't start acting "manlier".

Doyoung didn't stop being the hyung, he didn't stop caring for Jae or give him his company, they continued to stick to each other during airports. Do was torn between continuing to be a friend and fearing encouragement.

Personally, I think Do understood himself on some level but was denying and avoiding it. There was an interview with a Korean gay couple were they talked about how hard it is for gays in SK to accept their orientation, what stands in the way, how long it takes for most. In the West young people are encouraged, in SK there is an opposing hammering force to be like everyone else, to not be a deviant. Even Koreans who simply know English as a second language well are avoided by those who don't know it.

Heh, hopeless romantic Jae. During his early years as an idol he showed how feelings take over him. Like that famous example when he said "Instagram" during Victory live and comically clamped his mouth with his hands after realizing what he had said (a brand name). He learnt to keep himself in check, but it's not natural for him. He was a cry baby, he told many stories on EnNaNa how he cried seeing a clown or an animal. He is enduring, but he isn't stoic. Jae likes experiencing "the feels". The way he turned into a smiling gleeful idiot when Do was showing him how to take a selca is a good example.

[antebunny]

April 30: rebirth

(Also called Bargaining–idea is taken from an old Loki fic with the same time travel premise).

When Jiang Yanli dies, Wei Wuxian goes into denial and just runs from Nightless City. He goes back to the Burial Mounds and feverishly works on a time travel array. Within the month he completes it and prepares to travel back in time, but there’s a catch. He first activates the array and then spends the next several hours going through the ritual, while outside the Siege of the Burial Mounds begins. The Wens know what Wei Wuxian is up to so they understand why he’s not bothering to protect them. He completes the ritual just as Jiang Cheng and Lan Zhan burst into the cave. They’re both there, at the front, in order to protect Wei Wuxian, but by the time they arrive it’s too late: the array is fading and Wei Wuxian is already dead. He barely sees them in the entrance when he dies, which leads him to (logical) conclusion that they’re there to kill him.

Here’s the catch: Wei Wuxian gets to go back, rewrite time, and change things. He decides to go back to the day before he got kicked out of the Cloud Recesses. But when time finally arrives at the time he activates the array, everyone gets their memories back. Although a lot of people will remember dying, it’s preferable to actually dying. Then Wei Wuxian has to conduct the ritual again, to ensure that this is the future that stays, and seal the deal with his own life. Basically, in order to change the future Wei Wuxian has to die. And obviously because he's Wei Wuxian, he decides that that’s okay so long as everyone gets to live.

So Wei Wuxian comes back to life with a golden core and cries for a solid minute, scaring tf out of Jiang Cheng, before he gets a grip. Then he proceeds to yell at Jin Zixuan, not get kicked out, and live life like everything’s normal. He enjoys the next six months of peace, and then he gets to work. Once the year is over, he goes on a very long night hunting trip, kills the Xuanwu of Slaughter, and sets up the cave for use. A year later and they’re at the archery competition, where Wei Wuxian still places first, meets Wen Ning again, and doesn’t pull off Lan Zhan’s forehead ribbon.

Then Wen Ruohan is ~mysteriously~ assassinated and the Wens declare war on all the sects in revenge. When the Wens come for Lotus Pier, there’s no personal vendetta, and Wei Wuxian hides in the shadows and drowns all of them. Then he pretends that he got knocked out and was unconscious somewhere hidden from the main battle where Jiang Cheng finds him. They win the war, and Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan are still alive and bickering with each other, the Jiang sect is still strong, etc. etc. Wei Wuxian personally hunts down Wen Zhuliu early in the war, before he can cause any damage. Then he also kills Jin Guangshan, blames it on the Wens (does it make sense? No. does anyone care? No) and Jin Zixuan commits fully to the war. Jin Zixuan learns to appreciate Jiang Yanli during the war, and since they’re already engaged they get married soon afterwards. Jin Guangyao gets taken in as Jin Zixuan’s younger brother, and since Jin Zixuan is a decent person who doesn’t want him to commit crimes but also needs Help, it goes a lot better. Meanwhile Wei Wuxian finds the DafanWen and they move to the Xuanwu cave, which Wei Wuxian has prepared. Also the carcass of the tortoise should scare anyone away.

Wei Wuxian sticks around to see his sister get married, takes Lan Zhan on a tour of Lotus Pier, at the end of which Lan Zhan proposes. Wei Wuxian is confused but figures that Lan Wangji must like this version of him that hasn’t used resentful energy as far as Lan Wangji knows or recused the Wens as far as he knows, or done any of the things that Other Lan Zhan hated him for. The Wens ask him to adopt A-Yuan, which he does after talking about it with Lan Zhan and after they get married. So now Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are married and they have an adopted child. That part was all the fluff and fix-it, cue the angst. The date of Wei Wuxian’s death draws near, and Wei Wuxian starts getting moody and antsy, starts drinking. Yu Ziyuan yells at him, of course, and everyone else worries over him. It is during one of these blackout drunk sessions that Wei Wuxian tells Lan Wangji that he fully expects Lan Wangji to regret marrying him in the future. Lan Wangji swears up and down that he won’t, and Wei Wuxian kinda critiques himself and calls himself selfish, for marrying Lan Wangji and raising a kid when he knows it’s not going to last.

Basically Wei Wuxian starts getting skittish and disappears for periods of time to the Burial Mounds, where he acquires enough injuries that Lan Wangji suspects that someone is hurting him, which Wei Wuxian vehemently denies, but Lan Wangji is still Onto him. He goes to Jiang Yanli, who says that Wei Wuxian has been acting differently ever since he came back from the Cloud Recesses, seemed to know things that were going to happen before they did, disappears at odd times and incidents that occur when Wei Wuxian is missing, and they get Jiang Cheng, who recalls that one time Wei Wuxian woke up in the middle of the night and just bawled, and after that didn’t lose his temper on Jin Zixuan, pulled back on his most crazy antics.

Still, none of them suspect the exact day, so on that day, Wei Wuxian gets up, tells Lan Wangji he’s going to train the Jiang juniors, and then just…disappears. Night comes and Lan Wangji is already worried, according to the juniors he never showed. Yu Ziyuan accuses him of slacking, but then Lan Wangji barges in crying, holding a note. In it, Wei Wuxian doesn’t tell him about the time travel, but says that Wei Wuxian is going forever, and Lan Wangji will understand why tomorrow. He understands that it’s too much to wish for that Lan Wangji won’t hate him, after how selfish he’s been and what a terrible person he’s been, marrying Lan Wangji and pretending it can last, but he hopes Lan Wangji can still look back and remember him fondly in the future. He apologizes again and tells Lan Wangji again that he didn’t mean to tarnish Lan Wangji’s reputation or saddle him with a child, but A-Yuan is here now and he knows Lan Wangji loves A-Yuan. He leaves a similar cryptic note for Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli, apologizing to all of them for things they don’t understand.

Lan Zhan immediately begins searching for him all through the night, and then in the morning everyone blacks out and suddenly has memories of a different past couple of years, for most people starting with Wen Ruohan getting assassinated. People don’t immediately suspect the Yiling Patriarch, because they think he was simply never created in this timeline, and lives as Head Disciple Jiang and Lan Wangji’s husband, but Wei Wuxian’s family know better. They immediately rush to the Burial Mounds, and find it guarded by corpses. Inside the cave, Wei Wuxian begins conducting the ritual, also crying because he really had a happy life this time and he really really doesn’t want to go, but he can’t bear to revert to the original timeline, not when everyone is still alive here, so he continues. Yu Ziyuan and Jiang Fengmian find out about the whole yiling patriarch thing and jiang yanli is just like…i don’t care. Jin Guangshan is dead and can’t care, Jin Guangyao doesn’t have a vendetta, Jin Zixuan does what his wife says, and Jiang Yanli is alive so Jiang Cheng has no beef, plus he sees the lengths Wei Wuxian went through to save everyone. He also understands the letter now, then he and Jiang Yanli confront Lan Wangji like…do you no longer love him? Lan Wangji of course reacts poorly to this accusation and denies it. They leave A-Yuan behind and go to the Mounds with the intention of convincing Wei Wuxian that he doesn’t have to run away and they want him back.

They arrive in the cave just as Wei Wuxian is finishing with the ritual. But of course, parallels, Wei Wuxian looks up to see them standing in the entrance of the cave and thinks that they’re there to kill him, but also can see how distressed Lan Wangji looks and attempts to reassure him that he doesn’t have to kill Wei Wuxian! You know, his husband in this timeline! Because Wei Wuxian will do it himself! Wei Wuxian makes them fight some corpses while he rushes to finish the ritual, because they seem keen on stopping him (“i know you disapprove of demonic cultivation but this is the only way to save everyone”). Lan Wangji tackles him away from his ceremonial knife, and Wei Wuxian fights back (still has golden core!) they both fight desperately (“i have to do it myself Lan Zhan, otherwise I would let you do it”) over the knife. Jiang Cheng insists that there must be another solution, bc he doesn’t want Jiang Yanli to die. Then Wen Qing and Wen Ning walk into the cave, and Wen Qing like the genius she is, proposes the Alternate Solution. (What is it? Idk. just a magic solution in which Wei Wuxian doesn’t have to die). Wei Wuxian pauses in the middle of fighting Lan Wangji (“i don’t have to die?” he asks while Lan Wangji is busy shattering the knife and then he and Jiang Cheng pin him down so he can stop trying to kill himself in front of them. “Nope,” says Wen Qing, the only person with brains here). So Wei Wuxian sits on the floor of the cave, tied with deity-binding thread (Wei Wuxian: let me go Lan Wangji: not until you promise to go with wen qing’s version of the ritual Jiang Cheng: unless…do you want to leave? Wei Wuxian: no!) (What’s the solution? Maybe all of them sacrifice something important to them, maybe they just…all use their power to BS their way through a solution? Again, I don’t know).

So Lan Wangji unties Wei Wuxian and they hug and kiss and they all head back to Lotus Pier, where they eat a celebratory dinner, and reunite with A-Yuan, and Wei Wuxian celebrates the fact that he can live this happy life and not owe the world anything/need to go through the ritual.

The End!

[anakinisvaderisanakin]

Imagine yourself spending the first nine years of your life as a slave, with only your mother to guide you. Imagine being owned by another person, imagine being fatherless, struggling to get by in an unforgiving desert working for scraps. Imagine there’s a chip inplanted in your neck, in your mother’s neck, that will go off and blow you up if you run. Imagine living with that threat hanging over you, just one misstep and you or your mother will be doomed. Even when you find a way out, and are freed, she must remain. So, you vow to free her.

Imagine finally being taken away from that place, from your mother and the only comfort you know. Imagine being placed before a harsh, judgmental religious order and told that despite this one male stranger’s conviction that you are special enough to be a part of their convention, you don’t suffice. They condemn you, tell you you're not good enough, and you believe them. Then this man, whom you have begun to latch onto for lack of paternal idols dies suddenly and brutally. The boy he trained, who you clash more often with than not, is instead vowing to take you in.

Imagine meeting a girl with whom you are immediately besotted, imagine memorizing her beautiful face for years despite not seeing her again for a decade. Imagine you trying too hard to make her feel the same, imagine the guilt as you know you’re not supposed to fall in love. You’re not supposed to have emotional attachments, you’re not supposed to break your code. Imagine the desire to be with this woman of your dreams, imagine yourself knowingly breaking your rules simply to be with her. Imagine the rush of her feeling the same, imagine the fear of the secret coming out as you marry her in a candid ceremony.

Imagine you having visions and nightmares of your mother dying, and being unable to rush to her aid. Imagine pleading with your mentor, the older brother that the man raising you has become, only for him to deny you the opportunity. Imagine the stress, the anxiety, the fear. Imagine yourself, yet again bending the rules to finally rescue her. Imagine the terror when you find out your visions were premonitory, as you learn your mother was captured under torture. Imagine you sneaking into the place where she’s being held captive, only for her to be so weak she dies in your arms. The woman who was your entire world for the first nine years of your life, whom you have not seen for a decade is gone. You promised to free her, and you failed. 

Imagine yourself, blinded by rage and sorrow, seeing red as you slaughter the entire village responsible for her demise. Even the innocents are killed off, even the children.

Imagine yourself in a battle, your adversary intent on killing you. Imagine you being unfocused, furious, and out of your league. Imagine him sneering at you, jeering, mocking you. Imagine yourself aiming for his head, trying so hard to take him down. He’s already wounded your mentor, and you want revenge. Instead, he outmatches you with ease, twirling your weapon out of your hand and dismembersing you. As if it was naught but air, he has cut through and severed your right arm from your body. You are saved, but scarred and a grudge is growing within you. An urge to kill him, to punish him for embarrassing and decimating you.

Imagine yourself being nineteen years old, motherless, married, and thrown into war. Imagine yourself leading an army of men whom you become close to, who you are proud to call your brothers in arms. Imagine being forced to watch them die, imagine having all their lives on your conscience, imagine being expected to behave like a responsible adult. Then imagine being placed in the position of mentoring, and raising, a child of your own. Imagine having a fourteen year old girl dumped into your lap, to teach right and wrong when you’re still just a kid yourself. Imagine you being expected to act as a parental figure, imagine you being expected to be mature enough to make this girl turn out okay. Imagine you have to teach this child to lead squadrons as your war commander, imagine yourself forced to instruct her how to cope and deal with the losses of life when you can barely manage yourself.

Imagine trying so hard not to become attached, imagine sneaking around on your tiptoes not to expose your secret marriage. Imagine feeling like you always have to hide your true self to live up to expectations, and still never feeling like you’re enough. Imagine this older man who has been somewhat distantly watching over you entering your life, imagine him being kind, and understanding, and you begin to depend upon him. You share more with him than anyone else, perhaps even your wife. You view him as a role model, finally a fitting father figure to guide you through life. Imagine him gradually becoming all the more important to you, and your life.

Imagine your mentor, your brother within the convent betraying you. Imagine him feigning death, imagine him lying to your face on behalf of the schemes of your superiors. Imagine you, believing he’s dead, mourning the man who has despite any shortcomings become your best friend, your hero. Imagine you finding out he is not only alive, but he purposely let you believe he was dead because your emotional reaction was necessary to sell the hoax. Imagine realizing he played with your feelings, he used your weakness to his own benefit. Imagine yourself trying to justify it, but unable to dismiss the seeds of doubt that have been sawn.

Imagine the child, this girl you’ve been tasked with mentoring for two full years of war and death, this girl you have accepted as a younger sister, is suddenly suspected of carrying out a terrorist attack. Imagine how the entire religious group you’re a part of point their fingers at her. Imagine them turning against her one by one, even your brother stays silent on the matter. Imagine your despair, your discontent as she is expelled from the convent, from the only family she has ever known. Imagine yourself finally hunting down the actual culprit, only to find it’s somebody your sister considered a close friend. Imagine your rage, as you realize she too has been betrayed by people within the circle that was supposed to be a sanctuary. 

Imagine your relief as you are told your sister is let back into the order, that you salvaged her status and cleared her name, only for her to walk away. Imagine knowing you did everything to prove her innocence, and still she leaves. Imagine yourself, and your already self internalized insecurities as she turns her back on you. Everyone always leaves you, everyone lies to you. Imagine blaming yourself, believing that had you only done better, she would have remained by your side. Imagine her disappearing without a trace, and when you finally do meet up with her again after what seems like an eternity, she shoots you down. She’s distant, and while she is only being professional, you take it as a sign that she has moved on. That you were never as important to her, as she was to you.

Imagine your father figure being kidnapped by the adversary who took your hand whom you have now targeted as an enemy, a nemesis of sorts. Imagine you coming to the rescue, goaded by the enemy as he professes you are worthless, you cannot harm him. Imagine yourself snapping, finding strength in your anger and your hatred towards this smug, snarling menace. To his shock, you best him. You pay him back, cutting off both his hands as retribution as you disarm him. He’s helpless, on his knees, and you know you should spare him. You have been taught to value compassion within the convent, your religion doubles down on it. But your father figure implores you to kill the nemesis. You falter, but your hands move. He repeats the request, and you give in, beheading the enemy. The unarmed, harmless old man whom you were supposed to take into captivity. Still, your father figures reassures you you did good.

Now, imagine those same prophetic visions you used to have of your mother’s death returning, only to target your wife. You already doubt the sister you raised, you already doubt your own mentor and brother. You can’t turn to your convent for help, as you’re still married in secrecy and to admit that would have you expelled. When you ask the religious leader for help in a cryptic manner, he blatantly tells you to let go, to let whomever you’re worried about fade. You learn that your wife is pregnant, and while it is worrisome, you’re also overjoyed. And frightened, seeing as your visions foretell your wife will die in childbirth. 

You’re desperate, and as you share your fears with the only person you feel you can trust - your father figure - he begins to persuade you that the path you’re on is insufficient, if you want to save your wife and child. You begin to doubt the dogma you have been taught, the moral code that has been drilled into you, and you doubt everyone around you, even the wife you wish to save. Again and again, you are let down, as your convent requests you to spy on your father figure because of his politically powerful position. Imagine you knowing it’s against their religion, but you reluctantly agree as it’s your brother asking you to go through with it.

Imagine your father figure slowly but thoroughly beginning to shift your world view, insinuating that he has powers to save your wife. Imagine you buying into these suggestions, and even as you find out that he is a literal demonspawn - a murderer, a psychopath, a sadist, a monster - you hesitate to call him out. Imagine you desperate to do the right thing in sharing what you have learnt with your superiors at the convent, only for the one leader who trusts you the least to yet again ask you to stay behind rather than be helpful. 

You are tormented, desperate and break down in tears as you contemplate whether keeping this dangerous man alive, the man you admired, to save your wife is worth it. You give in, because in the end, you are selfish and your wife means more to you than anything else. Her life is worth a thousand others. Hence, you rush to your father figure’s aid, at first trying to beg for his life, only to hear this supposedly saintly religious leader tell you it’s just to kill your father figure. Your father figure who appears weak, disarmed, on the brink of death. When you the leader moves in to finish the job and execute your father figure, you step in and you parttake in the murder of the superior whom you already disliked.

Disfigured by the struggle with the now dead religious figurehead, your father figure notes that you are full of guilt and regret, as he tells you you did good. He praises your actions, and tells you that as long as you follow his orders, and his dogma, he will help you save your wife. You accept the offer, and you know deep down that you have just taken a path you can never renege on. Your father figure asks you to murder in his name, to be his silent assassin. You are sent to purge the convent you were tutored in, ordered to kill everyone in sight as a religiously targeted genocide - spare no one. You act on autopilot, without autonomy. This is a job, and it’s necessary to save your wife. Nothing else matters, and you follow your orders. You kill everyone, even the children. You tell yourself death is a kinder fate than life within this sect, which you now think this religious order to be.

Imagine yourself reporting in, and being dispatched to kill again. You relent, but when the deed is done your, guilt and regret catches up with you. You realize you have become a murderer, a monster, the blood of the innocent soaking your hands. You realize that while perhaps you can justify the deaths of the problematic political leaders you’ve just slain as unavoidable, the children haunt you. You think of your wife, and your own child, and tell yourself even as you weep that this is for a good cause. Imagine knowing you spoke to your wife just after you murdered those children, assuring her everything will be alright, and now you have to reassure yourself that what you said wasn’t a lie. 

Imagine your wife showing up out of nowhere, so close to the crime scene. Imagine her being shaken, panicking as she reveals your brother told her you have murdered children. Imagine you for some reason not understanding why that’s troubling her, when it was a necessary sacrifice to secure her survival. You admit to everything you have done, that whatever your brother told her, you did it for her. You tell her you refuse to watch her die, you refuse to lose her. Imagine her backing away from you in horror, and above all else, you feel enraged. She tells you she can’t believe you, she can’t stay with you anymore. She can’t accept you as you are. You are furious. You have broken every rule in the book, crossed every line imaginable, and she rejects you? You can’t accept it, and when you realize she has brought your brother with her - knowing he is intent on stopping you, whatever the cost - you refuse to believe her profession that she was unaware of his tagging along.

You see red, and you choke your wife. You choke her, even as she tearfully begs you to stop, as she tells you she loves you. You don’t listen, you can’t hear her words. You don’t trust her. Finally, you come to your senses and let her go. She crumbles to a heap, unconscious and you feel the weight of the blame, the guilt on your shoulders. Instead, you redirect the remorse towards your brother. You accuse him of being the root of all evil, the reason for all the atrocities you have committed. You make him into a figurehead for the sect, the cult you now believe to have brainwashed you. Imagine him telling you that he will kill you, if he needs to. Imagine you lunching at him, both of you fighting viciously. You want to see him dead, you want to punish him for all of your sins.

Imagine you coming to a stalemate, him offering one last warning. You disobey it, ignore it - and pay the price. He cuts off both your legs, and your remaining flesh arm. You shriek at him, and in that moment you loathe him with your entire being. You despise him, even as you use your only remaining limb, your prosthetic arm, to drag yourself towards him. Except you’re lying face down on pyring ashes, a lake of lava nipping at the exposed stumps of your legs. And in a second, you're set ablaze. It’s scorching, searing, agonizing as the flames eat away your clothes. Then your hair. Then your flesh; leaving gaping wounds in its wake as it devours you alive. You writhe, and moan, and try to plead as you reach towards your brother for salvation - for mercy. He just said he loved you, didn’t he? He still walks away, leaving you to burn. Leaving you for dead.

But you don’t die. 

As if by some horrible, cruel twist of fate you live. Your father figure comes for you, he picks you up, he brings you back to a makeshift medical facility to patch you up. You are given no anesthesia, and as robotic aids perform the lifesaving surgery on your ailing body, you feel every single, agonizing rip, tear, cut and probe. They wrench mechanical prosthetics into the stumps of your limbs, into your severed nerve endings. They dress you in a harsh bodysuit that rubs your already sizzled skin raw. Wires and tubes are inserted into your chest, your throat, your stomach. 

Eventually, the pain becomes too much but you remain conscious, remain in limbo. Finally, you receive a helmet to cover your face. It protects your scorched retinas, your charred esophagus with pressurized oxygen. Its lenses are red, and for the rest of your life, you will view the world around you through a crimson hue. You’re no longer breathing on your own. Something else is breathing for you, forcing your singed lungs to inhale and exhale rhythmically. You are strapped down, even as you are brought into a standing position to face your solemn father figure.

Then you remember how you ended up here. Your wife. Your everything, the woman you sold your soul to protect. She’s nowhere to be seen, and you find yourself both alarmed and confused through the haze of your pain. You speak, but the voice is not your own. You ask for her, shocked by the mechanism that now speaks for you and its brash, deep tone. You need to see her, even this hellish torment is worth it as long as you know she’s safe. As long as you know she made it out alive. You ask your father figure, but he reminds you of what you did to her. You hurt her, you choked her. You killed her, he says. 

Just like that. She’s dead. She’s gone. 

Despite everything you’ve done, every life you’ve taken, every crime you committed in her name. You wanted power, you wanted recognition, you wanted more - but not without her by your side. She’s lost. You will never see her again, you will never get to meet your child. You are trapped in a walking iron lung, a prison of your own making. You are scarred, warped, twisted, with countless lives on your conscience which you cannot write off as slights. You murdered your friends, your family, your convent - small children - in her name. When you finally could have had a future with her, you messed it up. You want to blame your brother, the religious order, the sister you raised, even your father figure. 

But you can’t. It’s all on you.

You’re alone. 

You have driven away everyone, you have killed the person who meant the most to you. You have nothing, you deserve nothing. You have poisoned and diminished what little joy you had to cling to. Imagine yourself, broken, battered, barely alive. Imagine yourself, now a murderer, a monster; a selfish, lost little boy who’s only just turned twenty two. Your life is in ruins, your wife is gone by your hand. Your child died with her. Your sister might as well have been executed, your brother left you to burn. You have fulfilled your own prophecy- You were the key to your wife’s demise, not her salvation. You are to blame, you are the reason, you did this. You can blame no one else. Only you.

You are Anakin Skywalker, and you will live with this knowledge for the rest of your life.