#i bend like a willow

[thequibblah]

I BEND LIKE A WILLOW THINKING OF YOU, a ct holiday gift exchange fic for the inimitable @cascader // jily angst + holiday party + what if it was kind of everything everywhere // 7.3k words, rated T

She wanted to shake him by the shoulders, to ask him point-blank why this seemed to be the only bloody universe in which he couldn’t see how she felt about him—and the only one in which he felt nothing beyond friendship for her.

READ. PLAYLIST.

[ofbakerst]

David Stuart Davies on the bookseller disguise:

It really is over the top, but the thinking behind this was simple. The series was called The Return of Sherlock Holmes, and therefore viewers knew that Sherlock Holmes would turn up at any minute. No disguise, however subtle or restrained, would fool them, so Brett decided to let the pendulum swing the other way and make it outrageous. Whatever, it still fooled Watson.

[aisling-saoirse]

Creek Bend, Hedden Park, NJ - July 27th 2024

[myevilmouse]

Thank you for the tag @blackmonitor​​!!! This was a fun Friday night activity... so let’s see if you can guess my type friends...

1.

To the surprise of no one:

This guy.

2.

One (1) hot goblin stud (and basically any role bowie ever played)

3.

Corporal Hicks omg

4.

madmartigan my beloved

5. 

Erik I would so bang your psycho brains out

6.

I think I came from just looking at gifs of David just now

7.

Let’s pretend it’s the soccer coach I love but honestly JRM it’s you

8.

William Wallace isn’t quite fictional but um...I’m a sucker for long hair and blood-spattered hunks.  He comes to mind...

9.

Look I don’t make excuses.  When I was like 12 I wanted Marion Cobretti to be assigned to my witness protection detail.

Honestly this was harder than expected because I have more RL crushes than fictional ones.  Like I have a cadre of actors I am devoted to and will watch in whatever (we have discussed Tommy Lee Jones and probably Kevin Costner before) but if we restrict it to characters mmmm yeah.  I also ignored books or this would be too difficult.  Thank you so much for the tag!

[nsewell]

this has to be the most romantic song ever written

[vlindervin7]

all of our love filling all of our room <3

[welcometogrouchland]

"if the shared mindscape theory is true then we might see Hunter and Caleb interacting!!!" Absolutely but have you considered that if both the shared mindscape theory and the "emerald trio inside hunters brain" theories are true simultaneously we'll get Gus and Willow meeting Caleb??? Have you considered that?????

[foxboyclit]

ohhhhhhhh new mitski single

[bagelthey]

the other day at work we started making a list of everyone at work if they were a plant and it was just so fun and nice. my cafe definitely needed the good energy bc my shit ass manager that i’ve posted about before is literally just a hater like all she knows how to do is hate people and it definitely takes a toll on everyone whether they’re being hated on or not. but when we were decided what plants everyone was, there was nothing but kindness and love being spread. like we would talk about people behind their back except we were saying things like “yeah reece is a pink rose because she’s so lovely and beautiful but she also has thorns if you mess with her.” just appreciating people for who they are. moral of this post is that it’s so easy and fun to be loving and appreciative of people instead of being negative — something i have been practicing at work but need to remember to apply in other parts of my life too.

[ofbakerst]

at the beginning of empty house, acd watson has recently lost his wife. granada watson has never married but lived with holmes for 'some years' until the latter's disappearance.

in real life, brett's wife joan wilson died of cancer in the summer of 1985, having been in treatment in america during the last months of the filming of adventures.

return began filming the following summer. burke had left the series to join his wife working at stratford and had suggested hardwicke, another shakespearean actor, as his replacement.

empty house was the fourth episode to be filmed, to give the actors time to settle into their roles. the first episode brett & hardwicke filmed together was abbey grange, followed by musgrave ritual and second stain.

[joannasprose]

now I bend like a willow, thinkin’ of you.

shy!reader who gifts abby sliced fruit as symbolization for love and affection <3

———

“For me?” Abby says, watching as you hold out a bowl of sliced watermelons in front of her, eyes darting from the floor to the ceiling—looking everywhere but at her.

“Yeah,” you begin, “you said you liked them. I thought I’d make a bowl for you.” Abby doesn’t recall telling you such a small detail like that—and didn’t expect you to remember it either. She smiles, one that shows the pearls resting inside her gums—a smile that always seemed to make you shyer than you ever had been before.

“Can you look at me?” She asks, hands sunken into her grey sweats, eyes still on you—still so unbearably soft. She watches as your eyes grow wide—from embarrassment on your part, but she renders it such a sweet thing, to see you gushing over such a simplistic question.

“I—“ you start but you falter. She watches the struggle, the way you begin to chew on your cheek and the you try to slyly clutch the container against your chest. But she doesn’t comment. She doesn’t pry. She waits. And she watches as you look up to her eyebrows still knitted together in the way they always had been—something she found so appealing about you. And she finally meets your eyes. The ones she’s been searching for this entire time.

“I’m sorry.” You say, but she quickly rejects all of your apologies with a shake of her head as she takes her hands out of her pockets. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for. You haven’t done anything wrong.” She says, her smile dying down, but it’s there. More softer. So she doesn’t risk the chance of scaring you away.

“I just want you to look at me. You don’t have to, of course. I just like it when you do.” Abby watches as you fight the smile that tugs at your lips. She watches the way your eyes flicker from her face to every corner of the room.

And she can’t help but smile.

———

tbh this is probably one of the worst things I’ve ever written but I wanted to get something out! I promise the next thing I write will be proofread and edited <3



[darkbluekies]

Cannot take what was never meant to leave

Yandere!king OC x fem!fairy!reader

Summary: Edmund walks out in the forest and finds something he never seen before: a tree fairy. Upon learning that he can't take her as long as her tree is there, he does the only thing he can think of.

Warnings: Edmund is a bit more insane than usual, reader is in a lot of pain, kidnapping, basically killing, use of an ax

Word count: 2.5k

A/N: this is HEAVILY inspired by Erutan's song "The Willow Maid"!! I have absolutely loved that song for ages, and after seeing PurestarMedia's music video of it on YouTube, I had to write something!! Edmund felt like the perfect fit for it!!

Summer is almost over. He can tell by a slight shift in the winds that colder times are approaching, even though barely any of the trees show any signs of autumn. He can't wait until he can bring out his thicker coat. He likes the colors of it much more.

Ten men he brought with him on his hunt for rabbits. They've decided to go into another part of the forest in hopes of finding anything.

Suddenly. A sound.

“Shh!” Edmund hushes and holds up a hand, signaling the others to stop.

He listens closely. It sounds like humming. It's a tune he has never heard before, but one that feels weirdly familiar — as if he has heard it in a dream or past life.

Quietly, they follow the sound until they reach a field full of small, white flowers. In the middle of the white field stands a tree with dark leaves. A scene taken straight out of one of the paintings hanging on the castle walls. Edmund notices someone sitting by the foot of the tree, resting among the roots. A woman?

The group of men creep closer. The woman is lying on the tree roots, leaning her head against the tree trunk, having a root under her knees for support. She's dressed in a long, white gown reminding Edmund of the small flowers. On her head rests a flower crown made of the very flowers. Her eyes are shut. Her mouth hums. 

A fairy.

One of Edmund’s men steps onto a branch on the floor, which snaps in half and pulls the fairy out of her thoughts. Her eyes snap open, revealing them to be deep and dark — and full of fear. She shoots up from her root and stumbles backwards, hiding behind her tree.

“Who are you?” she asks quickly. “What do you want?”

“You are a fairy”, Edmund says, still in disbelief.

“Yes … what do you want?”

“Have you seen any rabbits around here?”

She peeks out from behind the tree.

“What do you want them?” she asks and seems to notice the rifles hanging over their shoulders. “I'm not assisting you in killing harmless creatures.”

Edmund meets her dark eyes. They're hypnotic.

“You humans are despicable sometimes”, she says. “Killing innocent creatures who haven't done anything to you.”

“If I wouldn't, someone else would — man or animal.”

“I want you to leave.”

“Yeah, we should move on. We have rabbits to hunt.”

He can feel her eyes burn through his back as he walks back over the field of white flowers. He hopes that she will watch him until he disappears into the forest.

“Did you have a good hunt, your majesty?” his secretary asks as Edmund and his ten men come back to the castle.

“Caught a few rabbits”, he answers and smiles, thinking of the memory. “We encountered a fairy.”

They start to walk inside. 

“A fairy?” the secretary asks and holds the door into the castle open for the young king.

“What do you know about fairies?” Edmund asks. 

They walk down the large hall.

“I know that, like humans, there are different types of fairies”, the secretary says. “You found her in the woods, you said?”

Edmund nods. 

“She’s probably a tree fairy”, the secretary continues. 

“Yeah, she was sitting by a tree … almost like it was holding her”, Edmund says, furrowing his dark brows as he thinks about it. 

He holds out his arms as if he was carrying a woman, imagining her knees bending over his right arm and her back supported by his left … her head resting on his shoulder — like she had done to the tree bark. 

They walk into Edmund’s office, closing the door behind them. 

“What do you know about tree fairies?” Edmund asks and throws himself in his chair. 

“I know that they live in the woods and that they are connected to a particular tree. They feed off of sap from the tree and flower nectar — and if their tree bears fruit they eat that too.”

“What happens if they eat something else? Like meat? Or potatoes?”

“I don’t know, your majesty.”

“Would it kill them, do you think?”

“Perhaps. What I do know kills a tree fairy is killing their tree.”

Edmund looks up at him. “What?” 

“Their life source is connected to their tree. They live as long as their tree does.”

“So you’re saying that a fairy can become hundreds of years? Thousands even?”

“Could be.”

“Interesting.” He sighs and throws his head back. “You should have seen that thing. Before she noticed us she looked so … peaceful. She was resting and humming a tune. When she realized that we were there she flew up and hid behind her tree. All of that seemed so young and naive. Her tree wasn’t that large either. I think I’ve found myself a young fairy.”

“The fairy seems to interest you.”

“I’ve always wanted to meet a fairy. I didn’t believe that they actually existed. But now, I’ve found one. I think that I’m going to make her my wife.”

The next day, he returns with his ten men and his secretary, dressed in his autumn coat. On the way to the glade, Edmund picks a few flowers with the biggest nectars he can find, hoping that they will be a good enough gift. He is going to ask her to marry him. 

She is walking around the white flowers, picking up a few and putting them in her flower crown. She looks up as they come. This time she doesn’t look as startled, but there’s something wary in her eyes. 

She’s beautiful and delicate, there’s no denying. Edmund needs her. Every fiber of his body needs her. She needs to be his wife, to be the mother to his children. He refuses to leave without her. 

“What brings you back?” she asks as Edmund gets close enough, but doesn’t sound like she wants to know. 

He can tell that she wants to get back to her tree. She gives it quick glimpses and takes small steps back towards it. 

Edmund holds out the flowers towards her. She hesitates before taking them out of his hand. Her fingertips barely graces his skin. Her touch is humanlike, kind and delicate. 

“Thank you”, she says and smells them softly. 

He smiles. He wants nothing more than to hug her, to hold what belongs to him in his arms, but he has to ask the question first.

“I want you to marry me”, Edmund says. 

The fairy drops the flowers in shock. They disappear underneath the small, white ones. Edmund furrows his brows.

“Marry you?” the fairy repeats, shocked. “How could I possibly-? No, no, I shall not.”

Edmund stares at her, eyes darkening, unable to understand how anyone could turn down his proposal. Women would travel far and wide to hear those words come from his mouth, and this fairy — who does she think she is — doesn’t even think twice before rejecting him. It should crush him, but instead it has the opposite effect. He will not leave without his fairy. 

He looks over his shoulder, at his ten men. “Seize her.”

Just as the ten men are about to grab the fleeing girl, his secretary grabs his shoulder. 

“Your majesty, don’t”, he says quickly. “That won’t be possible. She can’t leave the glade.”

“What do you mean?” Edmund scoffs.

“She’s connected to that tree.” He nods towards the tree in the middle of the field. “She can’t leave it.”

Edmund glares at the tree. That damn tree. The woman runs through the flowers towards her tree, hugging it tightly. Edmund finds it humorous how she thinks a simple tree could protect her. He could do it a hundred times better, will do it a hundred times better. 

He sees how she sinks down by the tree, huddled up by the tree bark, crying. Soon, she will search for comfort in him, not a damn tree. 

“We can’t take her”, the secretary says. “I don’t know what would happen if we tried, but as long as that tree is there, we can’t remove her.”

Edmund doesn’t answer as he walks back into the forest. The ten men follow him. His secretary keeps a distance. Edmund feels like he could explode with anger. He had pictured himself leaving the forest with his new fiance hand in hand. But he will not give up. He will get his fairy. 

He returns a third time the next day. This time he’s by himself … and this time, he’s brought an ax. Determined to take her with him. She will be his wife. This time, he’s not taking ‘no’ for an answer. He will not walk away empty handed. The thought consumes him as he marches through the forest, towards the glade. 

He can see her lying in the same spot he had seen her the first time. This time, she’s not humming. She opens her eyes as he gets nearer and jumps to her feet as her eyes fall on the sharp edge of the ax. 

“No!” she screams in pure panic. “No, what are you doing?! Don’t!”

Edmund lifts his hands and lands a blow on the bark, cutting away a piece. To his right, the fairy screams in agonizing pain and clutches her heart. He continues to hit the tree. The woman continues to scream. She cries in pain. 

It takes longer than he expects. He takes his eyes off the deep cut in the tree and turns them towards her. She’s lying between the roots, curled up with her hands pressed against her heart, crying and screaming. 

“Please stop!” she screams and sobs so that her entire body trembles. “Y-You’ll kill me! Please s-stop, please! I’m begging y-you!”

If he continues to hit the tree, she will die. 

Edmund will have to bring a piece of the tree with him and replant it in his castle’s garden so that it doesn’t die — so that she doesn’t die. He continues to chop. She continues to scream, cry and plead for him to stop. 

A loud creaking echoes through the air. He watches as the tree bends in half and falls. The fairy stumbles upon weak legs and hugs her fallen tree, sobbing. 

With the ax, Edmund manages to dig up root systems of the tree. He holds it in his left hand and grabs the fairy’s wrist tightly with his right. He yanks her up on her feet. 

“You belong to me now”, he says. 

She only sobs for an answer. She tries reaching out for her tree, but Edmund pulls her with him. She stumbles. He drags her into the forest. 

“Please …”, she sobs. “Please …”

He doesn’t know what she begs for. The tree is fallen, he can’t undo what he has done. 

“Please, I’m in so much pain”, she pants. 

He doesn’t listen, doesn’t have time for it. He has to get her to the castle, where he can lock her in, so that she can’t escape out to the forest again. 

He can feel her collapse. Edmund gasps and watches her lie lifeless on the ground. He shoves the tree roots in his pocket and hurries to check her pulse. She’s still living, for now. Edmund stresses to pick her up. Her limp body rests in his arms as he runs out of the forest, towards the castle. 

He runs into the castle yard, into the hallways and out to the garden. He lays the fairy down on the grass and hurried to dig a hole with his hands. Oh, how he hates the feeling of dirt under his nails. He can’t think about that now. 

He places the root in the hole and covers it with the soil. Edmund runs over to the fountain, cups his hands and fills it with water. He runs back and forth until enough water has been poured over it. He feels for a pulse on the fairy’s neck. There’s still a faint pulsation underneath his fingers. He removes his coat and places it on the ground beside the tree root before lifting the fairy onto it. He caresses her face. 

“You actually got her.”

He looks over his shoulder at his secretary. He stands there, looking at them in disbelief and horror. 

“Is she dead?” he asks. 

“No, not yet”, Edmund replies  breathlessly. “I brought a piece of the tree here and I have replanted it. She should survive. But we need flowers — lots of flowers. And anything else a fairy might eat. We need to nurture her back to life.”

“I’ll prepare some honey water, I think that should be drinkable.”

Edmund sits by the fairy, waiting patiently. 

Hours go by. She doesn’t move. Barely breathing. Edmund wonders if he she has fallen into some kind of limbo, where the tree is barely alive, and so is she. If the tree doesn’t survive, neither will she. He has to nurture both. 

He feeds the tree water and nutrient dense soil and tries to pour droplets of honey water into the fairy’s mouth. Sometimes she responds by swallowing softly, and sometimes let it drip out of her mouth. 

Hours turn to days. Days to weeks. As the tree slowly grows roots in Edmund’s soil and become stronger, so does the fairy. Edmund doubts that she will ever become as strong as she was before. The tree will never be in its full glory again, and neither will she. She can’t walk, her body is too weak to move more than a few minutes. He lets her rest by her short stub. When he can’t stay with her, he watches from afar, from one of the windows. She’s always curled up, hugging her stomach as if she’s got cramps. The poor thing never smiles anymore. 

He holds a glass of warm honey water in his hands as he walks out to the petty excuse of a tree. It'll take years to become as big as it originally was, but it will never be the original tree.

“Hi”, Edmund says softly and sits down beside the fairy, holding the cup to her dry lips.

She doesn't seem to care what she gets fed anymore. Maybe she hopes that it will kill her.

In a sense, Edmund has killed the fairy.

She drinks slowly.

“I don't know what to feed you when winter comes”, he says. “I have harvested a lot of nectar and sap, but I don't know how long that will be good for.”

A tear runs down her cheek. Edmund wipes it carefully.

“My fairy, don't worry”, he whispers reassuringly. “I will figure it out.”

He wishes that she could respond, but he hasn't heard her voice since that day she screams in pain — when he killed her.

He stands up, gives her forehead one last kiss before walking back inside. In the beginning, he used to have guards watch over the garden to make sure that she wouldn't run off, but he realized that as long as that tree is there, she isn't going anywhere.

[simp4katsuki]

Headcanon that even though Toshinori is weak, he’s fast. That razor sharp gaze never slowed, his reflexes haven’t dulled with age or illness.

Everyone forgets this, of course. How could they not? He’s a different person nowadays, even though he really, actually isn’t. people know that he’s All Might, but they look at him and honestly see a completely unrelated person. He’s separate. He’s not the same.

So it’s only natural that sometimes they kind of, sorta, almost forget. Forget that he was the strongest hero of his time, that he could and did change the weather with only a swing of his powerful fist. That his mere existence kept crime and violence at a historical low, ushering in the longest era of peace since quirks dawned.

Oh sometimes though, sometimes, they’ll get a reminder. Bakugou will throw a pen at the back of his head in class when the man is turned around lecturing and Toshinori, without pausing for breath, without even a hitch in his perfect script, will snatch it out of the air and have it hurdling back even faster and so, so much harder before they know what happened. The class notices, and takes turns testing it on occasion. They forget the least of all, and Midoriya, he never does.

He’s sturdy, too. Toshinori may pay a higher tribute to a willow tree than his own youth nowadays, but he doesn’t get knocked on the ground. It’s something in his unbreakable stance, how he still holds himself like a 300 lb immovable object, like he forgets that his body has changed. The other teachers see this and realize that in his prime, All Might wasn’t always standing due to strength, but sheer insurmountable skill.

I like to think that rarely, during administrative meetings, Toshinori will begin speaking in his thundering voice like a leader again, slipping into that persona when he needs to be firm, and the other pros will go cold with the reminder. Subconsciously they will bend their opinions under that voice, instinctually following it like they did in times past.

Kind hearted, cold blooded Toshinori Yagi.

[19burstraat]

Random SOC Trivia I Gathered On My Reread

I'll be using this for fics, but it's fun just to read!

Jesper does not hold alcohol well (though this is according to Kaz, who is not exactly impartial)

Wijnstraat, Nemstraat, Havenstraat, Ammberstraat are all street names if you want em

Van Eck has been involved in trying to clean up the Barrel; pious. (Allegedly pious, I doubt he really is)

1/5 Van Eck (or general Kerch trading?) vessels are lost at sea

Kaz arrested three times at ten, twice at eleven, once at fourteen. Does stints in jail but it does not say prison (ppl assume he's been to Hellgate / another prison but I don't think so. He'd never have shut the fuck up about it if he had; I assume the Stadhall Jail)

Kaz's cane is lead-lined. I wasn't sure if this was canon or fanon

Kaz runs book on prize fights, horses, and chance games. Floor boss at crow club since fifteen-ish. Youngest to run a betting shop and has doubled the profits.

Gambling halls: Treasure Chest, Golden Bend, Weddell's Riverboat, Silver Garter

West Stave brothels: The Blue Iris, The Forge, The Obscura, the Willow Switch, the House of Snow

Van Aakster is the widow mercher who sees Nina to ease his grief

Inej likes orange cakes in white paper

Black Tips tattoo is a hand with first and second fingers cut at the knuckle, Razorgulls is 5 birds in wedge formation

Nina Jesper and Kaz definitely all have the crow and cup; the others don't

Jordie seems to like books

ridderspel and spijker are arcade games

Bilge, clams, and wet stone smell in the Barrel (per Retvenko)

Kaz definitely is partial to dogs; Smeet's hounds and the grey dog the Hertzoon household had, the windup dogs, the metaphors. He loves a dog metaphor sorry ur not real babycakes you'd have loved thematic web weaving posts

Geldspin is the cotton mill in Zierfoort, Firma Allerbest is a cannery. Both in Alys' name

Wylan was 8 when Marya 'died'

the black veil tomb is carved like an ancient cargo ship

3 flying fish on a grave: government. Palm trees and snakes: spices.

Inej's mother braids her hair with orange ribbons (colour of persimmons)

University a series of buildings built around the Boekcanal and joined by Speaker's Bridge (where people debate and/or drink). Boeksplein four libraries built around a central courtyard and the Scholar's Fountain

Shipping container at third harbour is a Liddie hideout; Jam Tart House is an old hotel near the slat that the Razorgulls use

Long scar across Kaz's right knuckle

Violating contracts and interfering with the market can get you hanged in Kerch; same sentences as for murder (this is. Insane)

Haskell holds court with his mates at the Fair Weather Inn every week

Belendt is the second oldest Kerch city and sits on the Droombeld River

Jesper was 7 when Aditi died

Inej has an uncle (who seems to have some sort of ringmaster role) and cousins; Hanzi and Asha

Kaz convinced a locksmith in Klokstraat that he was the son of a wealthy merchant who highly valued his collection of priceless snuffboxes, and that's how he knows what locks the rich are using

Hubrecht Mohren, Master Thief of Pijl, who Kaz doesn't appear to think much of; one of Haskell's old cronies

Martin Van Eck, Wylan's great great grandfather, was a ship's captain, brought back a big shipment of spices from Eames Chin and started the Van Eck fortune

Kaz and Jesper (+ other Dregs boys) taught Inej to fight

Kaz and Jordie are from a town near Lij, as per the 'Johannus Rietveld' exposition, but Lij is seemingly the closest major city/county so it's easier to just say they're from Lij lol

The last time the Council of Tides appeared in public was 25 years prior to CK

Kaz found Filip running a monte game on Kelstraat; he also got the clerks who turned over fake info, the fake attorney, the man who gave them free hot chocolate

The spelling of Zentzbridge lapses to Zentsbridge, not sure which is right or if they're actually separate bridges or if there's a lot of wrong quotes floating around lol

Dryden house symbol is the golden wheat sheaf bound with a blue ribbon; Van Eck is the red laurel but we knew that

Kaz taught himself finance and gambling hall rules

Church of Barter roof is copper and long has turned green

Church of Barter built around the First Forge / The Mortar, which is a flat lump of rock that's supposedly Ghezen's altar

Ghezendaal Hospital is. Idk. a hospital. Just thought ppl might want the name