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scribephoenixwriting · 2 months ago

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Bob Reynolds Character analysis: Ever The Void, once more The Sentry.

After Thunderbolts* I read every major Sentry comic to get a better feel for the character and to see what aspects were adapted well. He's cool. He's terrifying, tragic, and beautiful. But also, he's never written consistently, which means he's always changing.

I'm going to run through all his major appearances here and piece together a picture of his psyche, back to front. This will include some very polarized characterization that I intend to make sense of, so a bit of it is headcanon, but MOST of it is textual.

We are introduced to Bob Reynolds in Sentry Volume 1 from 2000. There was some marketing stuff regarding him being a Stan Lee character but I'm not going to get into that right now.

As a young man, Bob Reynolds discovers the professors formula and becomes the Sentry! With the power of a million exploding suns, he'll stop evil when he sees it and protect the innocent. Bob is introduced as an ideal hero who has been forgotten by the modern age. He knew the x-men, spider-man, and could pacify the hulk. Sentry #1-6, his crossovers, and Sentry Vs The Void make up this original arc, its a mystery. Robert must find out why the world forgot one of their greatest heroes before the void returns and destroys them all.

This mini-series establishes a lot of key concepts. Rob is an addict struggling with his mental health. The void is a part of him. He knows everybody. He is the best of them. I think the most important thing here is the fact that he was forgotten. Sentry and Void's dynamics are explored further much later.

Sentry, a hero that always swoops in at the nick of time, someone that we can all rely on, is showing cracks. He's slipping, his sanity is questioned all throughout. The serum is synonymous with drug abuse, the sentry is the high, and the void are the lows. There is intervention imagery present, where the avengers tell him to stop being the sentry, and in some ways, Bob feels betrayed by this.

Bob has been positioned as a kind of linchpin for other heroes, someone they can always rely on. When the truth comes out; The void IS the sentry, they don't comfort or help him. The void is simply too dangerous, so they must simply forget him.

I think this is the tragedy that gets less attention. Yes, its sad that you must be forgotten by everyone, even yourself, but to me, the sadder thing is why.

It is far easier for the world to forget about Bob than it is for the world to fight his darkness. The void's rampage could kill millions, so its not like you can exactly fault Reed for it, but ultimately, being forgotten is synonymous with deeming Bob a lost cause, no matter the good he's done. In order for the memory loss to work, the avengers must brand him as a traitor to the public, so they want to forget him. Even if the truth is different, even if people remember him, they'll only see him as a junkie who betrayed the side of good.

The Sentry has done unquantifiable good for the world, he always saved the heroes in the nick of time, but when it comes time for someone to save Bob, to help him with his issues, they abandon him once more. Its worth noting that Bob, Sentry, and Void are all the same person, so the feelings of one can be seen in some ways as the subconscious feelings of the other. Even though it was necessary, on some levels, Bob did see this as a kind of betrayal.

In order to stop the Void, he agrees to go away again, to be forgotten by the public once more and go back to his life as Bob the nut. He woke up in the middle of the night, certain that The void would return, he gathered his friends together, and they couldn't fight it with him.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to come back,"

A man struggling with his mental health has reached out to his friends after a long time of substance abuse. He asks them to help him fight the darkness within, but they can't. They just can't. So he has to go away. Bob has burdened them. His burdens are far too great for them to bear. He's sorry for coming back into their lives as if it was his fault.

It isn't your fault, Bob.

New Avengers 2004! A group of super-heroes are caught amidst a super-villain prison break. In this prison, tucked away in a solitary cell, is none other than the Sentry himself. (Notice that he's still in costume?)

They fight off all they can, but when attacked by Carnage, they start losing. Suddenly, Sentry leaves his cell and defends our heroes.

In a moment of weakness, Bob pulls the "Tear him in half" gambit to great success. To Bob, this might as well be a relapse, so immediately after, he runs away.

Since his wife's death, he's sworn to never become the Sentry again. He's happy to punish himself forever if it means keeping people safe. However, the avengers find him and finally they HELP HIM!!!!!. Emma Frost helps him past his mental block and helps him regain control of his own psyche. No more forgetting, not anymore.

Bob still has issues, but previously he'd been stuck in a loop of returning, then forcing the world to forget him with his own psychic powers. Breaking this loop is like Bob finally reaching out for real. He's trying to stay in other peoples lives again. As such, the real return of the sentry isn't an enigmatic figure flying into space and tearing someone to pieces. Its heroic and beautiful.

At this point, Iron man is in Bobs corner quite consistently. He lets Bob set up on top of avengers tower, he supports him, he advocates for him. This makes sense given Tony's history as an alcoholic.

Finally, things are looking up for Bob. The avengers are helping him, and Lindy is alive!

Poor Lindy. Turns out she's not dead. She won't be. Not ever. For now, its a mystery why she's alive, presumed to have died either during the original mini series or sometime after. Eventually we'll find out.

Lindy and Tony act as (as far as I can tell) Bob and Sentry's main friends. Lindy is Bob's wife, she keeps him human. Iron man is Sentry's colleague, he keeps him good. I wonder what would happen if either of these two were removed from the picture. Hmm. Anyway.

After New Avengers 1-10 (2004), Bob gets his own Mini: Sentry Vol. 2 (2005).

Sentry Vol. 2 is all about Sentry and the Void. Bob is working around the clock, second to second, to save as many lives as he physically can at all times. He has little time for Lindy. He has only minutes a day for therapy, and he has the Void locked in his basement.

Except... he doesn't. The Sentry isn't in control. In fact, we learn towards the end of this Mini that these personas Bob has are essentially reactions to himself. When he drank the Golden Serum to get high, he became the void first. This is his self-hatred, his disappointment, and his anger at the world given the power of a million exploding suns.

The Void is the "Real" Bob, and the Sentry is his guilt, an unstoppable force that will make up for the Void's evil and fight him back at every turn. Bob goes into his basement every night to berate himself (The Void) in the mirror to make himself feel better. The most powerful superhero on the planet is a coping mechanism for Bob's self-disgust.

And this tracks. C.L.O.C., his personal assistant computer... thing... is programmed to always tell him who he needs to save next. Every second of every day is spent flying to disasters and swooping in, just like he used to. This is heroic, sure, but its also a punishment. No life. No wife. No fun. Go to the other side of the planet or people die. No breaks.

Sentry must spend every second of his existence making up for Bob's failure as a human being. Bob wants to be a better man, but he doesn't believe he's a good person, and he especially doesn't believe he's worthy of the power he has. When Bob realizes that Sentry is essentially just a reaction to his own guilt, he tries to kill the void.

And yeah. Big gay kiss. The Void is all of Bob's ugliness personified, and Bob knows that the Sentry is a high he's constantly chasing. He loves that power, but he knows how pathetic that is, so the Void adores the Sentry.

And here, the Void is making a good point. Bob can't stand himself. His addictions, his flaws, his schizophrenia, his agoraphobia. He hates them, despite being part of him, so he tries to kill them over and over and over again to no avail. His guilt prevents him from ever forgiving himself. The Sentry will always fight the Void and Bob will never have the chance to heal.

I'll continue this analysis in another post. I've got a lot more, but there's a limit on images I can attach.

Next up: Civil War, The Mighty Avengers, and World War Hulk.

#sentry #bob reynolds #robert reynolds #the void #the sentry #marvel #marvel comics #the avengers #thunderbolts #the new avengers #new avengers #The void is gay thoughts lowkey

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kkongdakz · 2 years ago

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“ WE'RE SO CLICHÉ. ” ft. ot9

in which : i associate love tropes with members.

ot9 x gn!reader, genre : mostly fluff, warning : alcohol consumption in jiwoong's, bullying in hao's, swearing and blood in gunwook's, a little bit of jealousy in yujin's, word count : 3,164

kim jiwoong ♡⃗ exes to lovers

i feel like you and jiwoong had a little love story when you were younger, at the beginning of high school for example

so when you finished your high school studies, you lost touch and kind of.. break up

to meet up again later by chance, through a mutual friend you had and organized a "school memories" party where all former students gathered

and coming face to face with jiwoong brought back old feelings — he still looks the same, but in a more manly and mature way

and your heart suddenly raced, because seeing the love of your youth has made you all things again

and vice versa

just imagine ... ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀« oh y/n ! i'm happy you're here ! » says your childhood friend as she welcomes you into her home with open arms. a smile on your lips, you embraced her, checking on her, recalling fond memories of the past. but as your eyes drifted over the other people in the room, they focused on one particular figure : your ex-boyfriend from highschool. apologizing to her, you walked away to gently approach jiwoong, who in turn laid eyes on you. he was always the same, but taller, more masculine, more mature, but always with the same deep gaze and prince charming smile. grabbing two glasses of champagne, he finally approached you, handing you one with a smirk that caused your heart to miss a beat. « hi y/n, it's been a long time.. » you nodded gently, watching him for a long minute, trying to understand why your heart was suddenly racing so fast. old memories resurfaced in your head as the evening progressed, until it was time to leave, finding the two of you in the entrance to the building. and when he placed a warm kiss on your cheek, innocently slipping a piece of paper into the palm of your hand, you thought that maybe, just maybe, the flame of your love wasn't totally extinguished.

other members under the cut !

zhang hao ♡⃗ rivals to lovers

listen, he's number one in everything he do

he's so so so so so competitive

so of course, when you're as good as him in everything, he understands he has competition

and oh boy, he is so determined to destroy you and so are you

so for many years, your relationship is based on arguments and repeated bickering — a competition the whole school knows about, even forming “team hao” and “team y/n”

but one thing's for sure : hao is the only one who can compete with you and make fun of your grades. so when someone decides to attack you, right in front of his eyes, he's the first to defend you

which surprises everyone

and create a new sensation in your heart

just imagine ... ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀« who do you think you are, talking to them like that? » hao said suddenly, drawing the attention of the other students in the class. your eyes opened wide, observing his silhouette with his back to you, who had just slid in front of you — as if to protect you. the girl who had been trying to belittle you earlier suddenly found herself caught in the middle, with only one way out : to runaway. as she slipped away with a sigh, the other students around you commented in low voices, which didn't stop hao from turning to you, gently knocking the top of your skull. « don't let people put you down, okay? you know what you're worth. » — coming from the person who beats you all day long, it meant a lot. so you simply nodded, trying to ignore your heart pounding in your chest, but his hand grabbed your wrist, forcing you to get up and leave the classroom with him. which led you to end up in the library, studying in the company of the man you consider your rival. but well.. a cute one.

sung hanbin ♡⃗ soulmate

the invisible red string between you and hanbin is so real

ever since you were little, you've always felt that the love of your life, your soulmate, was not far from you

you pushed away every person who approached you in a loving way, to wait for the precise moment when you would meet the only one person who would be number one in your heart

and one day, as you entered the new cute and cosy café near your house

you saw it in the eyes of the pretty barista — the little spark that appeared when your eyes meet each other's for the first time

and instantly, your heart knew it, he knew hanbin (you still had the time to read his name on the nametag hanging on his apron) was the love of your life

your one and only soulmate

just imagine ... ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀you were frozen, facing the cash register, your eyes completely hypnotized and stuck on the boy in front of you. he was pretty, handsome, he looked as soft as cotton, radiant as the sun, cute as a puppy. and he was watching you in exactly the same way : as if two wires had touched in your heads and you'd short-circuited. his eyes seemed like two deep wells, into which you suddenly lost yourself — your heart was pounding as you suddenly found yourself at a loss for words. this boy seemed to be the one you'd been waiting for all your life. but you were snapped out of your trance when the person behind you suddenly cleared his throat, leaving the cute barista to finally speak. « uh, mh, hi- welcome. i'm hanbin, what can we do for you? » after coming to your senses, looking everywhere but into his eyes, you gave him your order, paid, and waited patiently on the side. you couldn't help but observe him, the slightest of his delicate gestures and the smile that clung to his lips over and over again. until you received your order, and noticed a phone number on your cup. “ i'm hanbin, call me when you want :)xx ”

seok matthew ♡⃗ boy next door

he's the perfect cliché of the cute-hot boy who's just moved in next door to you

look at him, his smile, almost every morning when you're out to pick up your mails

and you just.. freeze, looking at him and his honey voice when he told you ��hello neighbor”

and you just runaway — slightly embarrassed at having remained frozen in place without saying anything

and after that, every time you hear a noise near your door, you sneak a peek to catch a glimpse of him, watching him taking care of the plants around your shared balcony

until one day, when you suddenly need a carton of milk, and you have no choice but to ask your beloved next-door neighbor for help

..ending up cooking pancakes with him

just imagine ... ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀you didn't know what to say, when he was standing in front of you, and you didn't look at all presentable. flour on your apron, and a spatula in your hands, you'd suddenly forgotten that you needed milk to make pancakes. « need help, neighbor? » he said suddenly, a chuckle escaping his lips, which brought you back down to earth. « hey, sorry, do you have milk? i want to make pancakes but i forgot the milk. » — nodding positively, he walked away for a few moments before returning with a carton of milk. but as you reached out to retrieve it, he gently pushed you as he closed the door to his apartment, pulling you into yours. « i'll help you, you seem to be having a hard time. » he announced, with a drop-dead smile that you didn't dare to refuse. following him to the kitchen, he helped you prepare the recipe, even taking the time to get to know you and make you laugh. finally, something interesting was happening between you.

kim taerae ♡⃗ first love

listen. taerae is so first love coded and you can't change my mind

he's the boy everyone secretly dreams about

the one you watch dreamily in class and who never fails to make your heart skip a beat every time he smiles

and when you finally get to date him, oh boi- you're in heaven

he's literally so sweet : always here for you, fingers that never miss an opportunity to tuck a lock of your hair behind your ear, take you home after school, help you study, ect ect..

he's the one who makes you discover love : the butterflies in your stomach, the scenarios in your head that become real, the sweetness of a first kiss, the soft warmth that settles in your chest when he tells you you're beautiful

a smile and you're won over. taerae is and will always be your first love

just imagine ... ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀it was a pretty warm afternoon, cherry blossom petals dancing in the air and the sun streaming through the classroom windows. you watched the clouds sail across the sky, tapping your fingers against the wood of your school table, when he entered the room. a gentle smile tugging at his lips as he caught sight of you, dreaming in your corner. then he moved towards you, settling into the chair opposite you before placing a light kiss on your cheek to bring you out of your reverie. taken aback by his action, millions of butterflies flew into your stomach, while your stunned eyes finally found the face of taerae. « i was looking for you, » he says, placing a carton of chocolate milk in front of you, « would you like to go for a walk with me after school? » — of course, you weren't going to turn down the chance to spend a special moment with the boy who was introducing you to all the emotions of first love. with your heart pounding in your chest, you nodded positively at the same time as his fingers clasped yours.

shen ricky ♡⃗ forbidden love

honestly i was thinking about a secretly rich trope but i feel like ricky really likes to tell people he actually is rich.. so naur

so my other option is. i can imagine him as a fake bad boy.

like he hates everyone but you..

so when you noticed him at school, he had already noticed you — but he played the unapproachable guy until you needed a hand with another guy who was getting a little too close to you

and suddenly you saw him from a different angle, and that menacing yet nonchalant look he had on his face made your heart miss a beat — pushing you closer and closer to the forbidden

obviously, the people around you don't approve of your relationship with him at all

but it's not like you care

he may be mean to others, but he's always been upright, courteous and gentle to you

just imagine ... ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀midnight had just passed, as the clock on your bedroom wall told you, and yet you were still working on your homework for the next day. a sigh left your lips as you rubbed your eyes, and suddenly your peace was disturbed by a few almost inaudible knocks against your bedroom window. frowning, you approached it, hesitantly shifting your curtain to finally catch a glimpse of ricky's face. hurrying to open your window, the young boy entered your room in no time, before hooking his arms around your hips to press you against him. « what are you doing here? » you asked, whispering so as not to alert your parents about the intruder who was currently in your room at such a late hour. slipping your arms around your neck, ricky simply smiled, « i missed you. » he affirmed, placing a kiss on your cheek before deviating to your lips. even if you loved the fact that he'd show up at any hours just because he missed you, you still had to be careful and make sure you could continue to see him despite your parents' prohibition. « you know my parents are here? » — ricky shook his head, shrugged his shoulders and lifted you off the ground, kissing you passionately while telling you how much he didn't care.

kim gyuvin ♡⃗ fake dating

he can't be serious but trust me, he's the most perfect fake boyfriend you could ask for

just imagine that you've promised to bring someone to your sister's wedding — but unfortunately you are completely alone

your only option is to ask someone you trust to take on this role for the duration of a ceremony : and that's where gyuvin comes in

and he's perfect : his hand on your hip and his eyes attentive to your every word, having fun with your younger cousins and talking to your parents about anything and everything

he's charming, polite and gallant — the perfect son-in-law according to your mother and the hot jackpot according to your sister

and when you finally have a little moment alone together, and you're about to thank him for the perfect fulfillment of his role, you meet the gleam in his eyes and that silly little smile that hangs on his lips

and suddenly nothing exists around you anymore — all that's left is him, you, and the sun shining on his caramel skin.

just imagine ... ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀the sun passing through the leaves gently settles on gyuvin's face, who looks at you in the most tender way possible. his hand is naturally hooked on yours — which suddenly makes you realize that he doesn't have to put on an act when it's just the two of you. « you can stop pretending, you know? » you say softly, but his pupils don't move from yours. on the contrary, his free hand moves towards your face, grazing your skin, touching your cheeks with his fingertips, as if there were only the two of you left on earth. you thought your heart was going to escape from your chest, because he was no longer pretending — his hand gently tugged on yours, pulling you closer to him, spinning slowly to the rhythm of the background music. « i think we should be careful and always act like a couple so as not to arouse suspicion, don't you think? » he whispered in your ear, and you just love the way he makes you feel at that very moment. as if you two weren't just fake.

park gunwook ♡⃗ enemies to lovers

okay this is from a personal experience because my boys planet' story with gunwook is enemies to lovers

since you met him, your relationship with gunwook has been very complicated — he don't really like you, and you don't really like him either

he tends to play the big guy to show off his superiority and that's what annoyed you about him in the first place

so ever since, you've despised him and given him death glares at every opportunity — and he can't help but prank or scare you at every opportunity

until the day you get paired together for a school project.

and, even though you'd have liked to do the job yourself from start to finish, your teacher didn't agree with you at all, which forced you to tolerate him a little

and introduced you to a new side of gunwook that you'd never seen before — a cute and silly kitty

just imagine ... ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀sitting on the floor of your living room, your work books covering every nook and cranny of the coffee table, not a word had left your lips or gunwook's since the start of the afternoon. but the atmosphere seemed heavy, this silence more distressing than relaxing, in the end. sighing as you got up to go to the kitchen, you tiptoed over to grab a glass from the top of the cupboard. but not everything went according to plan : and the next thing you know, the glass was on the floor, broken, and your finger was bleeding. « shit. » you say, running to the sink to put your wounded finger under the water, juggling from one foot to the other while holding back from swearing at how much it hurt. and suddenly gunwook was at your side, one hand on your shoulder and his eyes riveted on your wound, « do you have a first aid kit somewhere? » — nodding as you indicated where it was, you watched him grab the object and return to you, wrapping your finger in a clean cloth before guiding you into the living room. here, gunwook tended to your wound delicately, meticulously, asking you repeatedly if you weren't in pain. he was much gentler than most people you knew — he who tended to act tough in front of others, was actually an adorable kitten. with a smile on his lips, he lifted your hand and placed a magic kiss on top of the bandage he'd made, and that's probably when your heart decided to make room for him inside.

han yujin ♡⃗ childhood friends to lovers

he's still a child okay

so i can easily imagine yujin as a childhood friend

playing cards and video games as kids, right up to entering high school hand in hand

nevertheless, i imagine that you have different groups of friends, even if you remain each other's number one

and you meet up every day after class to go home together and tell each other about your day

obviously, you don't notice it, but yujin always keeps an eye on you — without showing the slight jealousy growing in his heart every time he sees you getting a little too close to your other friends

he's never shy about reminding you that he's right there and that he's still your favorite

just imagine ... ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀waiting patiently in front of the school gate, yujin kicked a pebble before suddenly hearing your voice ring out. looking away from the road to observe you, he watched you walk up to him after you had greeted your new friends. as you reached your best friend, you planted yourself in front of him, a grandiose smile hanging on your lips, creating a slight reddish tinge at the tip of yujin's ears. squinting as you started to move forward, you hurried over to him and slipped your hands around his arm, pulling him closer to you, « yah. you walk too fast with your long legs. » — slowing down to walk at the same speed as you, he was content to listen attentively as you told him about your day, nodding from time to time and speaking up when necessary. but you could see that something was on his mind, so you stopped walking, forcing him to stop and turn to face you with a questioning expression. « what's on your mind, han yujin? » you say, your sun-filled eyes dazzling his. clearing his throat while looking away, rubbing the back of his neck nervously, you tilted your head slightly to one side, watching yujin with a small smile on your lips. « i'm still your favorite, mh? » he asked, daring to look deep into your eyes, « because you'll always be mine. » — you couldn't explain, but it was like in the romance books, with butterflies in your stomach and your heart beating wildly.

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azrielstaylorsversion · 1 year ago

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To remember

Azriel x reader

Warnings: death, grieve, murder

When Feyre asks Azriel about a certain ring around his finger, the whole room turns quiet. But none of his family members expect him to reply to the question.

Coming home to my family gathered in the living room of the River House was always going to be my favorite thing.

The last week hadn't been a particular easy one, but I had managed to live through it, like I always would.

Cassian passed me a glass of wine, telling me that I needed it. I knew he meant it as a joke, but his sympathetic smile told me enough.

We didn't really speak about it anymore, since it had been decades. None of us did. But the weight of the ring around my finger of my left hand weighed more than usual this week.

I felt Feyre's eyes on me. When I looked at her she smiled, but I soon noticed that her eyes weren't on my face. No, they were on my hand. My left hand.

She was probably just looking at my scars. Most people did. It did bother me a bit, but with my family it was different.

"Azriel, can I ask you something?" Feyre asked. The entire room turned quiet, everyone's attention on me and Feyre.

"Of course." I answered, even though I was not sure I wanted to answer it.

"I keep noticing the ring on your left hand. You seem to play with it a lot. What does it stand for?"

If the room could've turned even more quiet than before, it would.

Feyre looked around in confusion. "Oh sorry, I-..." Rhys put a hand on her arm.

"Feyre, I don't think-"

"No, it's okay." I cut him off. Rhys looked at me.

You don't have to talk about it. He spoke into my mind.

I gave him a tight mouthed smile. I would rather tell her the story myself. She deserves to know about her.

I knew that I wasn't the only one having a hard time with telling this story. Mor had lost her best friend. Cassian and Rhys had lost their best friend. Even Amren had lost a friend that day, if she could even have friends.

And I lost a mate that day.

Feyre looked at me with curiosity, waiting for me to start talking.

"It belongs-.. belonged to my mate." I told her, my eyes on the beautiful ring.

It was gold with a blue stone inside of it. The color of my siphons, like she had requested.

"I'm sorry." Feyre said quietly.

I gave her a sad smile. "I had it altered so it would fit around my finger. I have my own matching one in my room."

Feyre hesitated before speaking. "When did she... pass away?"

"Around 50 years ago." I answered. "51 years to be exact. Just a few weeks before Rhys went Under the Mountain."

"How long were you two together for?" she asked.

I twisted the ring around my finger, smiling to myself. "For a long time. Close to a century." I thought I might go crazy at some point after losing her while having been together for such a long time. But I didn't eventually.

The first few years were super hard. Even harder since I had lost my mate and brother within the span of a few weeks. I remember Cassian and Mor being helpless all the time, not knowing how to help me from going mad.

I blocked everyone out. I didn't talk or sleep for months.

Eventually I got the courage to go into our old room in the Town House, where we would stay most of the time. I found her ring there. The ring she had purposely left there the day she was killed. She had left it there for me along with a note, telling me that she knew she was going to die. That she wanted me to live a happy life.

Something changed after that day. I immediately took the ring to a jeweler who made it fit my finger so I was able to carry a piece of her with me at all time.

I was able to talk again. To sleep, even though the nightmares haunted me.

"What was she like?" Feyre questioned softly.

I had to keep myself from smiling again. "She was the best. She was kind, smart, hardworking, and always selfless." I told her, adding a sad smile at the end.

The rest of my family smiled at the memory of her.

"The selfless part was one of her best qualities, but also the one that..." I hesitated before speaking. But I wanted to tell Feyre. "That got her killed."

Everyone around the room stiffened, but I decided to continue. Maybe it was time I would say something about it. To tell her story.

"She volunteered to go on a mission for us. To check out the next plans of Hybern. Of Amarantha. She knew that there was going to be a possibility of dying from the moment she volunteered, but decided it was best to not tell us." I started. "She knew that if I knew about it, if Rhys knew about it, we would offer to go ourselfs. But still she decided to go. When the bond closed off I got so worried. At one point I stopped feeling her."

"We got a message from the Hewn City the next day that there had been a body found on their doorsteps. We immediately went to look." I swallowed hard. "I will never forget what I saw." I decided to spare Feyre the details.

I had to blink back the tears at remembering the memories of all those yours ago.

"I'm sorry that happened to you Azriel." Feyre spoke softly.

I sniffed. "Not only to me. She was important to all of us. To many people in this court." I said. "She would've loved you." I smiled at Feyre.

Feyre's face lit up at my words.

Rhys raised his glass. "To our beloved friend." Everyone raised their glasses.

The rest of the night was spent talking about her. Everyone shared their favorite stories about her.

It was late when I finally retreated to my room again. My mind kept wandering to her. I kept twisting the ring around my finger until the weight of sleep took over.

I could've sworn I saw a star shine extra brightly into my room.

#acotar #azriel acotar #azriel #azriel x reader #azriel x reader angst

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colourstreakgryffin · 2 years ago

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Hello! I'm new to this blog so you won't mind me make my first request right? I won't request the same alot of time I promise!

So, a yandere Yoriichi X Demon! Reader?

Reader is.. a good demon. They basically somehow already got out of Muzan's control when they just became demon (like gaining control over themself, remebering their human memories, doesn't have the need to eat human flesh or just hungry all the time.)

And.. they force themself to have a bamboo muzzle (like Nezuko), they just cut a piece of bamboo, use a red ribbon (they got from a corpse) and boom, bamboo in mouth and have to get used to it themself. They sleep to regain energy and eat normal humans food to maintain hunger.

They want to die to reunite with their family. But is afraid to. They like quicker deaths than painful death. Like basically not just conquering the sun but let a demon slayer or anyone decapitate them (sometimes)

They hide from humans and demons, sometimes helping humans who wander to their place to get out peacefully.

Their strength is as strong as Akaza.

(Yoriichi and reader used to be childhood friends.)

Hope you can do it! And i'm not forcing <𝟹 ✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧

My lord. This is very long, my dear. But I suppose I’ll try my best to add everything you mentioned here! Hope all my glass angels enjoy this

Yandere! Tsugikuni Yoriichi

Yoriichi remembers a time where you were just like him. A human, running around in the sun, eating amazing food. But now, he found nothing of your presence but a puddle of blood

And his world cracked. He loved you dearly, he almost felt nothing for his assigned wife Uta. She is wonderful but she doesn’t compare to you in Yoriichi’s mind

He thought you were gone for good and he bared sharp grieving pain in silence. That was until he found you again, scratching at a tall bamboo stick to carve it. A piece of bundled up fabric stuffed in your mouth

You’re a demon? No… you couldn’t have become a demon. You can fight too, how did you get caught off guard? Yoriichi approaches you and lowers his katana to try show you that he won’t hurt you

He suspected you’d attack him but you don’t. You mumble out joyous noises and hug him. His broken heart beats again as he is so relieved, cuddling you like you hold his life in your hands

Neither of you know how you managed to break free of Muzan’s curse, you only remember waking up and retaining a small piece of your memories, mainly revolving around the Tsugikuni Twins. Yoriichi is just so thankful he has you back

Yoriichi helps make you your bamboo muzzle as you gesture at him to the bamboo stick you were carving with your claws. Anything you want is what you get, as Yoriichi will do anything he must for the one he truly loves

Yoriichi uses his own clothing to make a protective bag for you and straps you to his back so he can traverse whilst you fall asleep to gather energy. It’s the only thing you can do and he is fine with bending to your needs

Yoriichi is aware of your occasional suicidal tendencies and he is afraid of it. He can’t lose you, he already lost his family and his older twin brother, Michikatsu. So he begins following you around everywhere you go and guards you from other Samurai, so they can’t hurt you in any form

Yoriichi helps hide you away from any conscious bean, other than him, since you prefer to be away from humans and demons. He spends lots of time making you a basket or a box to keep you inside. The fact you want him to help you has his delusional mind jumping to conclusions

Yoriichi is very obsessive and possessive. As you sleep in your protective box/basket, he just lays his head on the top of it and takes in your presence, he remembers everything of you well and he just indulges in you when he isn’t travelling so he can feed his twisted desires

Yoriichi isn’t above murdering any demon that lays a hand on you but humans are a different story, he still has a trace of humanity in his rotten mindset, so he emptily threatens his human rivals with death. That way everybody will leave you alone

Yoriichi loves you so much, he’d tear through the seven forests for you, all to get you what you want. As long as it doesn’t include your death or harm, he will do anything for you. In his head, every slave-like favour he does makes you love him so much more

Yoriichi has a habit of going through your belongings and sniffs your beautiful kimono as he cleans it for you. He may breach your privacy for his sick love but he wouldn’t steal anything, he respects you to the moon and back

Yoriichi is the sun but his rays deflect you from the sun. You need constant protection and when you’re isolated from all humanity and demon-kind, you are preserved as his and only his. He doesn’t care how horrible he is become, he just needs you

His beloved significant other. He will “work” hard to find a cure for you, so he can live the rest of his life with you. In your current state, you’re too mindless to find anything he does weird or scary so he truly doesn’t want you to change. You’re his now, he can’t let that go

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arsonsara · 3 months ago

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[The phone rings four times, and just before it can ring for a fifth, the phone is answered.] "Hellosie posies, you've reached the home of one Arso-" "...ahem." "This is Vivian speaking, can I help you?" [Silence.] "...H-hello?…" [Silence.] "...O-oh...oh my stars. Is...is that you? Goodness gracious, it has to be! I mean I don't remember anyone else who wasn't as...talkative. And nobody ever really called me like this except…" "You..." "Hahah...oh god, how long has it been since we last talked? Years now? It feels like only yesterday I got that call from you and just...let my gourd pop open! Hehe! I had a lot on my mind back then. To be honest I uh...still do." "Things are...better than they were. At least in a lot of the places that count but, the world keeps spinnin' y'know! It's enough to make you dizzy sometimes, hehe! And sometimes I get...pretty dizzy." "...I'm really glad you called. I've been really dizzy lately, a lot of memories are coming back to me that are a bit...rough to organize. Like a jigsaw puzzle and the pieces just sorta...change shape every-time you try to place a piece. Heck I don't know what i'm even building at this point! I don't think any of us are! Hahaha! Ahahaha!…" "But...i'm worried. About...someone I care about. They're a friend of mine that means a lot to me and...from what I could gather she's not doing as great as I thought she was. I mean i've...never met her. Is it weird to consider someone a friend if you've never met? I mean one of her friends has been trying to talk to me lately...does that count?" [Silence.] "...Are you here to lend an ear, stranger? That friend of a friend i'm referring to he's...talking about stuff like that lately. Lending an ear. Are you trying to do the same for me again?…" "...Thank you…" "...I guess I should...just get started."

On July 3rd, 2023, posted exactly at 5:44 PM Eastern Standard time, I wrote my personal review of my thoughts regarding the Anti-Fiction ARG Story Project, Welcome Home. I don't quite remember specifically when I came across the Welcome Home Website, but it was during its earliest incarnation, and I've been around since its inception on the internet. And ever since, it has captivated me and only continues to grow and reach towards loftier, dreamier heights and crawl into darker, isolating caverns. I don't wear my fandom seniority as a badge of pride, but can't help but fawn over it the same way someone does a hand-made gift. That's what Welcome Home is to me, in a lot of ways: A gift. It's a beautiful and haunting story, a complex and enrapturing puzzle, and a stunning, awe-inspiring work of art and despite how small the present box it came in was it just keeps getting bigger. There is a lot I could say about Welcome Home now that we're further into its story. When I wrote my review of it back in 2023 it was practically just getting started, and there are a lot of discussions I could have regarding all we've seen from the two Halloween Updates and the absolutely insane knockout that was The Homewarming Update… But i'm not here to talk about that. At least not now, because I want to zoom in on not just a particular update, but a particular character within Welcome Home's cast. The one that caught my attention the most, stole my heart, and as of the recent update, spoke more to me than anyone else on the cast. And I can't think of a better way to start than here:

For context, I always love playing into a scene or story even if it's just in small ways. When I wrote this signature in the Guestbook I thought it'd be fun to play in the space of Welcome Home being a real piece of lost media, whilst also sharing my love for the character that made my heart flutter like a butterfly and couldn't help but make me giggle. At this point in time, when I wrote that message, we didn't know a lot about Julie Joyful. We didn't have as much media surrounding Welcome Home aside from the biography pages that gave us descriptions for everyone in the cast. We didn't even have proper voices for the characters yet! And somehow Julie Joyful was the one out of everyone in the cast where I picker her out from the crowd and said: She was my favorite. Not just that she was my favorite, but that I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, without even a smidgen of hesitation: If Welcome Home was in fact a real show that I grew up with as a child, that Julie Joyful would be the one I loved the most out of everyone. And as days turned to weeks, weeks to months, months to a year, year to years, and as Welcome Home has grown and flourished we've only come to learn more and more about this delightful as a daffodil Rainbow Monster. Can you tell that she's even rubbed off on me? This most recent update, April 12th's 2025 Springtime Salutations update, gave us a lot to learn about Julie Joyful. Not only did we see her at her brightest, her peppiest, her singingest, her skip-hop-and-jumpiest...but we also saw her at her darkest. Julie has quickly become one of my favorite characters in media ever. The more we saw of her the more my heart was captivated, and now that we've reached such a primal boiling point for her character, I felt like now was the time for me to give her the proper celebration she deserved. Like a hand-written letter in a pink envelope, covered with stickers, full to bursting with confetti and game pieces and little knick-knacks and doo-dads...and in the card i've written a deeply earnest and sympathetic thank you. Because out of a lot of the characters i've grown attached to, there are few like Julie who equally embody the person I want to be, remind me of the person I am, and make me feel truly seen. I think that's enough pre-amble ramblin'. Let's get started, shall we?

---

One of the big things that captivated me about Julie Joyful, once more updates began to roll on and we got to see more of the scamperingly sweet Rainbow Monster in action was just how utterly, reverently silly she was. She speaks in such a squeaky, chipper, bouncy lilting voice and is constantly talking a mile a minute, throwing out mounds for pounds of alliteration, spoonerisms, rhymes and a gargantuan greenhouse worth of flower names and funny games. Out of everyone in the cast, she's the one who is the most childlike in demeanor, and it seems no matter the reason or the season she finds some way to make a simple occasion into an all out affair! At least, when it comes to her appearance on screen. Within Welcome Home, there is something of a divide between the cast: How they appear in media made for the Welcome Home TV Show, through merchandise and other second-hand findings, and how they appear when the cameras are "off" so to speak. Throughout the website's history there have been hidden videos and audio logs where we seemingly see the neighbors of Home interacting with each-other on a far more casual, day to day basis. Almost as if the world of Welcome Home is real, that that little clearing in the forest with cutesy houses surrounded by a phantasmagorical cornucopia of brightly colored trees is somewhere out in our real world, and the merchandise surrounding the show is only a representation of the real thing. Almost like learning about someone through a game of telephone. Welcome Home has already played with a lot of themes regarding the restrictions of television for the time period of when Welcome Home supposedly aired, and art created for the sake of a corporate end-goal. Think about it, all of the things we learn about Welcome Home aren't from the show itself, we as an audience have never even seen an episode, let alone a clip or screenshot from the actual puppet show.

All of it is secondhand merchandise or advertisements, at least with regards to the physical remnants we have of the Welcome Home TV Show. And as the story continues, we keep seeing characters drift away from their television personas and show us more of who they really are, and the more that time passes things start to weigh on their minds more and more, become heavier and heavier, and the seams at the edges of their existences, their realities, start to fray… But it started out very subtle, and gives us a lot to think about regarding how the cast actually feels about eachother outside of the "show". One of the differences from her Show Persona and how she truly interacted with the rest of the cast, didn't have anything to do with her character herself, but rather how another person reacted to her. In "The Show", Frank Frankly is constantly seen as a grumpy grump and a sourpuss when it comes to dealing with Julie's constant shenanigans. Crossing his arms, rolling his eyes, saying thinks like "Not again" and "Julie, we've talked about this." This isn't to say Frank's Show Persona dislikes Julie, even in spite of his apparent frustration with her allyoop antics, where Julie is Frank is never far behind and there's always something of a begrudging fondness for her. A very "Yup, this is my circus, and that is most certainly my monkey." kind of attitude.

Yet when the cameras are off, it's almost the complete opposite. In one of the hidden-videos from the first big update, we hear Frank bringing Julie to his freshly grown tomatoes so he can get advice on how to deal with the beetles that have been eating them. It's odd to think about isn't it, Frankly coming to Julie for advice? By this point we knew a little bit about Julie regarding her affinity for plants and flowers, but it's still a bit odd isn't it? And before we know it, Julie breaks out into her usual serendipitous self, with her absitovely posituley silly observations and suggestions, but instead of the usual exasperation we're used to from Frank Frankly, he reacts far more warmly. Even joining in on Julie's little games and bursting with laughter when she says his nose looks like a Banana! It feels like it's almost a completely different dynamic, the two sharing in a very small, sweet, domestic moment of silliness, and both of them feeling like true best friends. Not only that but in another one of these secret videos, we see Julie trying to convince Barnaby that she's capable of telling a good joke, only for the big blue dog to heckle her to no end! And for the first time we see Julie actually get frustrated at being belittled, trying her best to be seen as funny only for Barnaby to keep pulling at her leg and steaming her. We get to see a little more regarding Julie's thoughts on Barnaby in this most recent update, so we'll put a pin in it for later. For now, let's dig into the fertile discussion regarding Julie's siblings, Franny, Jonsie and Bea. The Springtime Salutations update gave us a LOT regarding Julie's family, lore about Rainbow Monsters, and us actually getting to see The Joyful Family interacting with other members of the cast, and their sister! While we don't know the precise age of anyone in the cast, it's safe to say just based off of interactions that Julie is the youngest of the Joyful's, as there's a certain level of fraternal responsibility the three have over Julie, or at least they behave as such. Afterall, the story is functionally about Julie going to her siblings for help, only for everyone to eventually realize Julie's made a mistake and accidentally having made a mountain out of a molehill. And during the family talk amongst each other in "A Darling Broadcast", the Joyfuls ask why it is that Julie hasn't joined their band, and that they want their "Dynamite Drummer." But...Julie doesn't play the drums. At least we've never seen that! She sings, talks and kisses the flowers and that's what makes them bloom, as we learn in the storybooklet "What Makes The Flowers Bloom." Not only that but in Julie's biography and implied elsewhere on the site, she moved out of her home with her siblings in the cave so she could move to the neighborhood of home! But...why? From what we know about Rainbow Monsters and their culture, they seem to all be cohesive family units! And when Julie is asked about when she'll join the band, she avoids the question by pretending that the connection is breaking and hangs up. And even afterwards, we hear Bea talk about how she hopes that one day Julie will join the band. But for as much as she seems to love her siblings, she doesn't seem to want to be in the band with them. Maybe their constant insistence on her joining the band, of her being a drummer was what made her move away? A feeling of being constrained by the views of her peers? Not only that but we don't get to hear any interaction with Julie and her family when the cameras are "off". As time goes on the line between the show, the world of the show, and our world continue to blend, but we haven't seen any interactions from the Joyfuls that would explain what exactly happened between them…

This next part is going to get into heavy spoiler territory regarding a lot of the secrets in this most recent update, so if you don't want to be spoiled, I recommend finding them on your own and coming back afterwards. But later we learn something very important: Julie is terrified of the idea of being a "bad" rainbow monster, and being unable to live up to the example of her siblings. Over the course of the secret videos in this update, we see Julie; who is sometimes accompanied by Frank, attempting to get a black tulip made of felt, with an odd looking eye in the center of its bud that looks similar to the Marlo Logo, Marlo being a corporation tied with the creation of Welcome Home. It seems that out of all the flowers in the neighborhood, Julie can't get this single flower to blossom, and what once starts as apprehension soon grows into outright terror at the idea of failure. She starts to fear whether or not this is "just the start", that she'll loose her ability to make plants grow and blossom and that Home will be full of nothing but wilting flowers and dead fields. She agonizes over the idea of if her siblings found out, that she can't let them find out, that nobody can know.

Now, up to this point we've seen another Welcome Home resident behave in a similar manner: Eddie Dear. In the Homewarming Update, we see him start to grow stressed over not being able to do his job of delivering presents for Homewarming to everyone in the neighborhood, cooped up in his post-office and growing frustrated that he can't do anything, even saying "Who’s ever heard of folks gettin’ recognition for nothin'? No one, that’s who!" Eventually, he goes outside to learn that the Neighbors have already done all the delivering for him, and that he doesn't need to do his job, he can simply enjoy the festivities!… But when he tries, he starts seeing things nobody else can. Things that feel like aren't meant to be seen. Things he doesn't want to see.

It seems that the "Roles" of the characters within Welcome Home almost act as an anchoring point for them. That if they aren't able to be who they are, they start to slip, they start to see things, and the world around them begins to twist and shift. Julie herself, the more stressed she gets, starts to speak differently. Her voice is lower, her tone is more quiet, reserved, far more human and less cartoony. Almost like she's becoming a completely different person. But unlike Eddie, whose anxieties seem to stem from recognition or the knowledge that he's doing a public service for the people he cares about, Julie's seem to come from a deep seeded fear of failure. Earlier in the videos we hear her talk about how sometimes she worries about what Barnaby and Howdy think of her, that she thinks she isn't funny, and she tries brushing it off as friendly ribbing, but the tone in her voice clearly lets us know that ribbing or not that it still hurts her sometimes. Not only that but we already have the expectations she feels she has from her siblings. Were these fears she imparted unto herself for feeling like the odd one out of her family, or was there some form of long-form confrontation within the Joyful family from a young age that left her feeling like she not only lived in their shadow, but needed to live up to their example. There are a lot of things we can speculate about Julie's relationship and feelings towards her family and her friends, but one thing is certain: Julie believes that she can't let anyone see her slip. They can't see her when she's unhappy, and they most certainly can never, ever, ever know that she did something wrong. It almost puts her kind of playtime into perspective: You don't need to worry about loosing if the rules to a game are so loosey goosey, or even if loosing is the fun part, as we see in the video where Eddie and Julie play pretend as corporate business workers. Hell, maybe Julie's exaggerated break down of Everything Inc. going "Out of Business" was foreshadowing for Julie's actual fears of failure. But the point is, it doesn't matter if you loose if the rules are made up to be nonsense and a winner can simply be picked at random, or if the purpose of the game is simply to have fun and have no proper goal. But once there are rules? There are stakes. And there's a punishment if you loose.

Now here's a question that seems to be floating around the fan communities of Welcome Home: Is Julie's pollyanna attitude genuine, or a front? When we see her break down in front of the Black Tulip, is this us finally seeing her true colors, mask off? I think the answer is more nuanced than a simple yes or no, but what I do believe is that Julie's demeanor comes from a genuine place. We've seen her behave all serendipitous and silly when "the cameras are off" and I don't think she's secretly a constant bundle of anxiety on the inside. I think her being so joyful is what she does to quell her anxiety. It is what makes her happy, it's what makes life worth living, but it is a coping mechanism and up until this point, a pretty effective one! Not only that, but Welcome Home is always constantly playing with our perception of where the boundaries lie between our world and that of Welcome Home's.

I'm not the only one to have come to this conclusion, but I believe when we hear Julie's voice break we're hearing what her original voice-actress sounded like when she was out-of-character, and potentially Julie's fears are mirroring that of the original actress. So, are we seeing Julie, or her actress? I think it's both. I think we're getting both an in-depth read on Julie's character and starting to see behind the curtain of what the production crew was dealing with, to a certain extent. To what extent, we don't know, but with how often Welcome Home blends the lines of reality, I think we're witnessing a co-existing truth and not something that contradicts itself. There is another thing I am absolutely certain of regarding Julie's reaction to the Black Tulip not blooming: This is a trauma response. Julie isn't just being traumatized in the moment from the Black Tulip not blooming, something had to have happened to her in the past to make her react in such a way.

It gets to the point that, for the first time in the series, we hear one of the characters swear! JULIE SAYS "SHIT!" And by the end of it all we start to hear her threatening the Black Tulip, saying that by Homewarming when Winter comes that they'll never be seen again, that nobody will know it's there! She's threatening the Black Tulip, and in the same breadth convincing herself that this is something she can bury and that no one will know of her shame... ...Say… Remember when Julie was the one who played the main character in Sally's rendition of The Telltale Heart? Almost like it was foreshadowing this very moment, and that Julie feels the same amount of guilt and shame over not being able to bloom a flower as much as the main-character in The Telltale Heart feels about killing another person? Safe to say, these emotions can't be coming from nowhere. Something happened to Julie Joyful. And if that isn't enough, the last secret page we find for the update is Frank, seemingly exploring the Forests of the Outskirts of Home, the sun is starting to set, and he's looking with a thousand yard stare at something we can't see. And the image's name is called "uhoh."

Remember in the Halloween Update, when Sally told the story of why you don't leave your home after dark? Did Julie stay in that forest, berating the Black Tulip until the sun came down, and Frank has found the aftermath? Or is this before the sun goes down, and Frank is seeing something else… Either way, from what we can tell, it can't be good. And I am dreading the next update. I hope above anything else that Julie will be okay. But at this point, it's hard to say. --- Julie has always been an important character to me, ever since Welcome Home started. I was recently transitioning, voice training, and when I finally got to see Julie in action proper, the first thought I had is that I wanted to be just like her. Exuberant, goofy, caring, silly, reverent, colorful, joyful, she was the embodiment of everything I so deeply, deeply wanted to be. And in this update, I wasn't just thinking about how much I wanted to be like her. Julie reminded me of myself. Of fears i've had, of struggles i've gone through, of the terror that grips your heart when you think you are on the verge of a failure you can't come back from, a failure that will make you worthless. I don't say this to garner sympathy, and whilst we all go through our own struggles, i'm happy to say that i'm in a better place than I was when Welcome Home came out, and that the future looks even brighter. But i've never had a character both embody the sort of person I wanted to be, and the sort of struggles that gripped my heart. In a weird way, it made me feel more like Julie than I ever did before, over something I never thought the two of us would share. There's a lot more I could talk about regarding Julie, and as deep as I go I feel like I am only ever going to scratch the surface. There's the discussion of the queer theming in Welcome Home regarding the Show seemingly forcing Julie and Frank into a relationship, and the potential romance between Frank Frankly and Eddie Dear. I could talk about what is essentially the "Beta" of Welcome Home before all of its details were canonized, where Julie looked far more wonky and had the name Julie B and the seperate story that tells. (which I personally believe is referenced when Jonesy calls her by the affectionate nickname of Julie Bean.) I could talk about how before we even met The Joyful Family, I made a Self-Insert OC of a Rainbow Monster named Vivi Vacilate, how she'd interact with the rest of her cast, wrote up her own theoretical "It's-For-You Talking Telephone" script and even what-if scenarios of how she'd be incorporated into the ARG itself, playing with themes of fan-creations for works like this and the strange nature of how things manifest through Welcome Home as a show, with there being a question of whether or not Vivi was an actual character or a fan-creation that somehow manifested itself alongside the show. I can talk about what I think the future holds for her character, for the story as a whole, and what it'll mean. And I more than likely will, in the future, whether between friends or in errant posts or maybe even another analysis like this. Only time will tell what form it takes, but there's one thing I do know for certain: I love Julie Joyful. Never has there been a character that has brought me such happiness into my life and made me feel so known. Never has there been a character that represents everything I want to be in life, how far i've come, and the lengths i've yet to go. I don't know how Welcome Home will end, whether it'll be happy, sad, scary, or all if it at once. But no matter what happens, Julie Joyful will always have a very, very special place in my heart. I commend Clown for planting this little seed, all of the artists and writers for giving it some good soil and watering it with their love, and to Cyberscraps for letting its voice bloom into something beautiful and inspiring. And i'll always cherish it. ...Oh, no wait, there is one second thing I know for certain. ...I really want that Julie Plushie... ---

"Thank you again for listening to me again, Stranger. I needed that more than I thought I did. Sometimes you have thoughts that just keep bubbling up inside you until it POPS like an overstuffed grape and just gets messy and all over the place but...now I feel better...at least a little…" "...I guess all there is left to do is wait. I mean i'm used to that now and i'm a patient girl but...it's...really all I can do right now, isn't it?" [Silence] "At least I can say I did all I could! I had some help of course, I don't know if I could'a done it all by my lonesome! So here's hoping that when things happen again that maybe...they'll be better?…" [Silence] "...Is it silly of me to think that way?…" [Silence] "...I guess so. But...maybe that's not all that bad. Stranger, I feel like it's my time to go, and i'm sure you have places to be but...can you do me a favor? If you can?" [Slience.] "...If you..."

"Happen to come across her…" "Can you let me know if she's okay?" "That I hope she's okay?" [Silence.] "...Well...it's worth a shot." "...Goodbye and uh...g-goodness what is that thing he says…" "...Don't forget to wave up high." [Vivian hangs up the phone.]

#Welcome Home #Welcome Home ARG #Welcome Home Spoilers #Julie Joyful #Wally Darling #Frank Frankly #Barnaby B. Beagle #Howdy Pillar #Eddie Dear #Hey look i'm talking

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psychopomp-namine · 5 months ago

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thinking out loud. idk if this was ever confirmed in canon or not. but does liu xiao know about li tianxi's (now qiao ling's) ability?

I assume he knows about li tianchen's possession ability. but how much did li tianchen tell him? would he have told liu xiao everything, or would he hide li tianxi's involvement?

like, let's do a quick check. who actually knows about li tianxi's ability before S2? qian jin and li tianchen both knew about it. did liu min know? I don't think li tianxi joined any of the meetings with liu min iirc, so maybe li tianchen never told liu min (and why would he, anyway? all liu min needed was someone to do the work for him, and for all he knows, li tianchen is enough to do it). so maybe liu min doesn't know.

more importantly, does liu xiao know? would li tianchen tell him, pre or post S2? or is this something liu xiao just kinda figures out on his own?

'cause I'm thinking about if he knew li tianxi's ability... would yingdu even happen? li tianxi's ability is probably the most useful to liu xiao while he's in his "getting the necessary items" phase right? (his goal each season was to possess a key item like liu min's phone and cheng weimin's notebook). guess it depends on how easy it would be to get a good photograph though. 'cause for yingdu, for example, it's either they bait cheng xiaoshi to bridon, or they find a photograph and then get li tianxi to use her ability to search wang qing's memories so they can figure out where the notebook is. I guess that still requires them learning about who survived the fire (learning about wang qing), which is the info that cheng xiaoshi unknowingly uncovered for them.

of course the simplest answer would be that, "not using li tianxi makes for a more interesting story" which is real and valid.

but if we're just looking at the story from a watsonian perspective, I feel like a lot of liu xiao's plots would just be less messy if he had roped li tianxi into his plans (which involves a lot of information gathering). so since he never uses li tianxi, I'm assuming he doesn't know about her ability. which has interesting implications imo. because if liu xiao knew about li tianxi's ability, would he have let such a valuable chess piece die in the first place? (perhaps not "let die" but more of... "ensured her safety" -- which is also a viable method for gaining li tianchen's trust). but he must not have known, because if he did, then is li tianxi's death (and the perceived loss of her ability) a valuable enough trade in his eyes to ensure li tianchen's descent in darkness ("those lost in the darkness are my friends") and subsequent loyalty to liu xiao?

moreover, if liu xiao never knew, what does that say about li tianchen? like I think li tianchen would have told liu xiao about his possession ability. but although he clearly idolizes liu xiao, perhaps he still prioritized li tianxi's safety over him. because it would still be safer for li tianxi if nobody knew what she could do. but at the same time, do you think li tianchen would have trusted liu xiao that he'd tell him?

like I guess I'm just wondering what liu xiao ever thought of or knew about li tianxi, since he seems to have always targeted li tianchen, but li tianchen is way more "useful" when he can link his ability with his sister, you know?

#mine musings #liveblogging link click #link click #i am once again thinking this in the context of fic writing lol. not really about canon but it could be about canon #'cause in my draft ql cooperates with lx and ltc right (it makes sense in the fic i promise)#and i was thinking like okay now hold on. how much does lx actually know #anyway i think we should have ltc & ql moments in S3. they have soooo much potential #ql as the last remnant of ltx who has her ability and more importantly her memories #for all that ltc wants to pretend to move on... wouldn't he have questions to ask?#such as “did my sister regret asking me to run?” (“was i right to run during her last moments?”)#conversely in a situation where ql feels it's necessary to cooperate with ltc there's the tension of like #linking their abilities and letting him possess her again #vs her need to feel useful and actually do something with the burden of knowledge she carries now #lx notes

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xoxmatilda · 3 months ago

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chapter twenty three

word count: 4.3k

December 2016 — after the recording studio with Oliver and Harry

"Why doesn't he like his picture taken?"

The car is quiet. No radio playing, the only sound between us being the quiet drone of the car's wheels on the highway. I looked up from my fidgeting hands in my lap to Oliver's side profile in the driver's seat.

"What?" It was clear he was deep in through himself. Probably stressing about if the work they did tonight would be good enough.

"In the studio, you said he didn't like his picture being taken. Said he would have your career if he saw me taking pictures. Why?"

Oliver shrugged trying to think of something without giving away too much, "The man just likes his privacy, is all."

My shoulders collapse into the passenger seat a bit, and to my surprise he notices. Noticed my reaction when I didn't get the details I had been hoping for. I wasn't exactly sure what I was looking for, but surely a little more than 'the man just likes his privacy.'

Don't we all?

"Look, one thing about this industry that you don't know – and I hope you never do – is that it's brutal. It can suck the life right out of you if you let it. Sometimes, it happens without you even knowing," Oliver's grip on the steering wheel tightens, as if he's seeing a distant memory, "It happened to Harry once and he's just now starting to bounce back from it. I just don't want to see all the progress he's made fly out the window."

"The industry's caused him to not like having his picture taken?"

"In summary, yes. He's had his privacy invaded since he was a teenager, Tils. He went from being a normal teenager to being somebody that everyone in the world wanted a piece of in a matter of months and it's never been the same for him since," Oliver turns the car down the street toward his apartment after merging off the highway, "Being out in public is nerve wracking for him because paparazzi could be anywhere. Waiting around a corner for him to make one wrong move. He's constantly looking over his shoulder and around at his surroundings. Having his picture taken is a trigger."

"A trigger?" My eyes look over at him again confused by his words.

"He shuts down. We're this close to an album release...," He pinches his fingers together with the smallest gap of space, "We just can't afford the time that would be lost if something like that happened."

"How do you know so much about it? You're not being followed around like he is," I challenge, knowing full well he has freedom in public to do what he wants.

"Fair, I'm not. But being tied to Harry – whether it be professionally, or something else – will give you some form of attention, whether it be good or bad, warranted or unwarranted."

"Something else?"

Oliver takes a deep breath and releases a sigh that he wasn't aware he was holding in, "Any form of relationship with someone of his status will bring intrusiveness in your life that you've never seen before. You thought Mom and Dad were bad when we were kids before the divorce? This is at least twenty times worse."

"Dating someone like him, Til, won't get you anywhere in life besides heart broken and caught up in the public eye for the wrong reasons. He's a great guy, and if it wasn't for his job, his personality would be one on someone that I would be okay with you being with; dating, bringing 'home' to meet me. Due to his profession, I know things will only end badly. Someone like him isn't worth your time."

—

The wind suddenly blowing rain into my dry safe haven under the door covering of my apartment knocks me back into reality. I look around at my surroundings trying to gather where I am again. My front door, keys still in hand and my clutch still tucked under my arm. I look to the parking lot.

Harry.

At least his car. Still parked in its parking space from before, his tail lights glowing red and the engine running. It causes my head to flood with the memories of the night, like a fast paced movie trailer flashing behind my eyes in a matter of seconds. The stolen glances, the banter and conversation, the gentle touches, the small acts of affection he showed me throughout the night, the butterflies that are still lingering despite –

'I think I'm falling in love with you, Tilly Florence.'

He slipped it in so effortlessly as if it wasn't going to bring my entire world to a blinding halt with ten simple words. He didn't want me to respond. He told me not to say anything. How was I supposed to feel after hearing those words coming from his mouth? When just days ago he hinted we were more than friends but didn't add any other label.

I shake my head in an attempt to rid my mind of the memories, turning my attention to the door now. I turn the key, unlocking it, and step inside. I turn back before shutting the door completely and finally see his car flip on the reverse lights and start backing out of the spot seeing that I'm now inside the apartment.

I shut the door gently trying not to wake Lily before locking it and turning back around. I'm met with the image of Willow jumping down off the couch and running to me and Lily parked in the middle of the couch, face lit up by the movie she's watching on the television, her hand in the middle of guiding a handful of popcorn to her open mouth that's waiting for the bite.

She stops in her tracks and looks at me, taking a second to process my appearance in the living room. She puts the popcorn down and stops her movie before turning to me with her eyebrows cinched together in confusion, "Why are you home? Do I need to get my baseball bat?"

Her question causes me to snort while I move to the kitchen island to put my clutch down and lean against it for support in taking off my heels. I shake my head, "No."

Her eyebrows only draw in closer together, "Then the hell are you home?"

"The date ended?"

"Okay... let me rephrase... Why aren't you at his house right now, doing 'after-date' activities?"

I roll my eyes, slipping off one of my heels and finding sweet relief the moment my flat foot hits the floor after walking around in them all night.

I shrug before removing the other heel, "He said he wasn't interested in sleeping with me on the first date. That tonight was about spending time with me."

Lily stares blankly at me, blinking in total bewilderment, "You've got to be kidding me."

I raise an eyebrow at her, planting my other flat foot on the ground while waiting for her to continue, "You've been spending time together since you started working for him. He's had all the time he wants to get to know you, why does he need a date to do it?"

My mind flashes once again to the night he showed up at the bar and lectured me about standing up for the treatment I deserve. A portion of me is screaming to explain to her why he wouldn't spend the night tonight. Another portion of me is telling me that maybe some things are best to be kept a secret; just between him and I. I'm silent a moment as I place my shoes I've just removed by the door and remove my bracelet and watch from my wrist.

"I think we need to start from the beginning because from what it sounds like, it was a shit date, but you didn't give off that vibe when you walked in the door, the way you carried yourself."

"Start from the beginning?" I ask her. Lily nods.

"Lil, I need a shower. I'm dripping wet, and I'm freezing. I just want to get out of this dress."

"Alright."

I move down the hall to my bedroom, finding underwear and his t-shirt from earlier today. I return to the bathroom and go to shut the door. I turn the water hotter than I usually do. Wanting to rid my body of the feeling of the cold water that had been clinging to it for the past forty minutes from the rain.

Not even two minutes into my shower, the door to the bathroom barges open and I peek my head out of the shower curtain to gain a better view. Lily is sitting criss crossed on the closed toilet seat, her popcorn in hand, looking in my direction as if she's a child waiting for their favorite movie to start.

"Do you mind?" I ask her, gesturing to me naked behind the shower curtain.

"No," she shoves a bite of popcorn in her mouth, "Do you mind? I'm just here for the details."

She reaches to the counter of the sink next to her and takes a sip out of a wine glass that I hadn't noticed was there before. She holds it out to me, offering me some and I immediately shook my head before closing myself back up into the shower.

"Okay, I'm ready. Start from the beginning." Lily urges me and my mind rakes through the events of the evening, sorting through what I should tell her and what would be better left unsaid.

"Well, you'll probably see a picture of me tomorrow on that website you read. BuzzFeed? There were cameras everywhere when we got there, and even more after we left the restaurant," I gathered some shampoo into my hand and slowly lather it into my scalp.

"He did tell me that was going to happen. How did that go?"

"It was nerve wracking. He was very sweet throughout the whole thing. Covered the door when I was getting in and out of the car from the cameras so I wouldn't flash them with my dress at the angle I was sitting in. He was comforting and reassuring, all around the perfect gentleman." A smile creeps across my lips remembering the simple little details he did throughout the night that made it so sweet.

"Jesus, you're going to make me puke," she mutters sarcastically under her breath; without a doubt in my mind that I wasn't supposed to hear it over the running shower, "Did he kiss you?"

Did he kiss me? My fingers absentmindedly trace over my lips as the moments come rushing back to me, "Yes, a few times." I added.

Lily groans from outside the shower curtain, "I need more details, Tils. You're giving me breadcrumbs and I want the whole damn loaf."

I turn around, my back facing the water and rinse the shampoo from my hair before moving to conditioner and body wash as I give her the details that she's asking for, "Okay, okay. We had dinner outside on the beach. Food was good, the wine was even better. After we left, I thought we were going to come back here and watch tv or something but he took me to the museum. We spent some time there; talking, dancing."

I turn off the water and reach out of the shower searching for my towel, "Dancing?"

I dried my body with the towel before grabbing Harry's t-shirt from the floor and pulling it over my head and stepping out of the shower, I nodded my head, "He played a song on his phone and we swayed to it. After that, we stayed like that just talking. Eventually it started raining and I tried to go back to the car, but he stopped me. Pulled me to him and spun me around in the pouring rain. Kissed me like he's never kissed me before; slow, unrushed."

I shimmy my underwear over my hips under the shirt. Out of my peripheral vision I can see Lily narrowing her eyes at me, studying me as I lotioned my legs, "Why do I feel like there's something you're not telling me?"

Her question is borderline accusing and I know she can see right through me. I've never been able to keep things from her. Not easily anyway. Within a few weeks of knowing her, she knew all about my family and my life story. It's actually a miracle I didn't scare her off since we were so new to each other.

I sigh, releasing the tension in my shoulders knowing it was no use keeping it in. I moved the shower curtain over, sitting on the side of the tub and leaning on my knees, closing the space between us as if someone could find out the secret in our tiny apartment.

I look down at my clasped hands, trying to find the way I want to word my next bit of news I have for her. She takes a sip of wine before shoving more popcorn in her mouth in high anticipation for what was about to roll off my tongue.

"He told me he's falling in love with me, Lil." Her eyes go wide, bulging out of her head, to the point that I was afraid they would pop out onto the bathroom floor. Her mouth hangs open, thankfully right after she chewed her bite of popcorn so we don't run the risk of her choking. She's frozen, speechless, flabbergasted, much like I was in the moment under the lights hours before this.

"I'm sorry, he did what now?"

I bite my lip trying to hide my laugh from her shocked state,"You heard me right."

"Falling in love with you?" It's a question, but she says it more as a statement, almost needing to hear the words again to make sure she's not hearing things. She takes a gulp of her wine and then hands me the glass despite me declining it earlier.

"I know you said no, but I'm spiraling, so I know you are too, you're just hiding it better than I am. If you're not now, I know you will be soon, so drink." Just as I'm about to shake my head again, declining her offer, she shoves the drink in my face further, forcing me to oblige. I throw back the rest of the drink and set it on the counter before leaning my weight on it, looking myself over in the mirror.

She sets her empty popcorn on the counter and leans her elbows on her knees, running her hands through her hair, one of her legs bouncing. She exhales heavily. She looks stressed and I can't quite tell why. Just a few days ago she was freaking out when I told her about the first time he kissed me, and labeled us more than friends. This was not the reaction I was expecting, unless this was her processing everything beforehand.

Her head shoots up from her hands suddenly, "Shots. I need a shot."

I follow her out to the kitchen and watch as she pours us tequila, "I don't need one Lily. I've had enough to drink."

"Tilly, humor me for a second, please. You just told me Harry Styles admitted to falling in love with you, and I'm the only one freaking out about this. I can't be the only one freaking. Not this. If there was ever anything for you to freak out about; if there was ever anything to send you into a blinding panic attack, this would be acceptable."

I humor her, and take the shot of tequila she pours, feeling the burn as it travels down to my stomach. She throws back two before putting the bottle away. She leans against the kitchen island as if leaning the weight of Harry's words into it because it was too much to carry on her own.

"Lily, if this is how you react about someone telling me they're falling in love, how are you going to react when you hear someone tell you for the first time?"

She shoots me a glare and shakes her head vigorously, "I can't think about that right now. All I can think about is how you must've felt when you heard him say it? I mean this happened so fast, I don't understand how we got here."

I lean back on the barstool I'm sitting in across from her and cross my arms, shrugging slightly, "I don't think it hit me until he walked away from the front door to go back to the car. To be honest it might not have fully hit me yet."

"Well, what do you think you feel?"

I shrug again, looking at my leg that was bouncing on the foot rest of the stool, "I'm not sure. After he said it he told me I didn't have to say or do anything. Just that it was on his mind and he wanted me to know."

"So you didn't say it back?"

I shook my head and look at her just as she runs her hands through her hair again, tugging at her roots gently, "How did he seem? Angry? Sad? Off?"

I shook my head, "He seemed his usual self before he walked away. He didn't seem upset at all."

She shook her head this time, placing her head in her hands and rubbing her eyes with her fingers as if this story physically pained her to hear, "Somewhere in life, someone went wrong in teaching both of you how to be in a relationship."

I raised an eyebrow at her, "People say they love you or they're in love with you to hear it back, Tilly. That's just what you do when someone says it; you say it back."

I shook my head, looking down again before looking at her and biting my lip to keep my smile at bay, "I don't know, Lily. This felt different. It always feels different with him."

And for the first time since coming home, I see a smile form across her lips, "Different?"

I nod my head, unable to stop my smile from growing from the sight of hers, "He feels like a safe space. I mean, he's gotten me to open up about things in a matter of two months. You are the only other person that's been able to do that with me. That should say something."

She nods her head slowly, soaking up my realization that's hanging in the air between us.

I push off the back of my chair and lean against the island to be closer to her, leaning my elbows down and clasping my hands into a fist, "Look, I think this could be good for me. I think he could be good for me. I don't necessarily know how I feel or know what it means, but I do know that he brings out a new side of me that I like. I like the way I feel around him."

Lily smiles wider and moves her hands to clasp over mind, "If that's the case, then I'll swallow what I said about it being too soon. I'm happy for you, Tilly. You are different since you met him, and I like the new and improved version. Just make sure you don't get too wrapped up in him too fast, okay?"

'Dating someone like him, Til, won't get you anywhere except heart broken.'

I smile a close-lipped smile at her and squeeze her hands as a thank you before releasing. I say my goodnights to her, only just now realizing that it was almost one thirty in the morning.

I grab my phone and clutch off the counter before taking Willow into my room for bed. Lying down with the lights off, I unlock my phone for the first time in a couple hours and see I have a missed call.

Harry. Fifteen minutes ago.

I press the notification and immediately starts ringing into a new phone call.

"Hi, sunshine," his voice rings through the speaker after only ringing three times. His voice is riddled with fatigue as it cracks when it lowers.

I immediately smile at the swarm of butterflies it releases in my stomach, "Hi."

"Missed me too much, you just needed to hear my voice one more time before going to sleep?"

I shake my head, still smiling like an idiot, "You called me first, remember?"

He takes a pause thinking on my words, "Oh, yeah. I think I fell asleep after I called you. I don't know, it's a little bit of a blur."

I stay quiet, not sure what to say because it seemed like he didn't have a true reason to call me. My head starts to feel light from the added alcohol in my system, the wine and tequila doing a dance; fighting over their control on me.

"Erm, I called to see if you would be free to come to the studio tomorrow? Jeff is wigging that we haven't had a studio session with the whole team in a while, and he wants pictures taken. He also wants to be there and the only time that he has available tomorrow is eight in the morning. I know it's short notice," He apologizes.

"No, no. It's fine. I don't have to work tomorrow," I peel back my phone from ear a moment to look at the time before putting it back up to it, "I'm just going to be running on fumes tomorrow, if that's the case and it's almost two."

"I'm sorry, love," he exhales a sigh through the phone and then I hear him adjust in bed on the other end of the phone, "He has strong opinions about getting this album done and he thinks I've been wasting time."

"It's not fair to you. You and the whole team are going through your first time writing without Oliver and processing the feelings all over again as you navigate trying to find yourself after losing him." He's quiet on the other end of the phone for a few seconds.

"Sometimes I get inexplicably angry at Jeff for no reason because of how fast it seemed like he moved on from him dying. I know the world continues to move after you lose someone, but it just felt like his should have been paused for a little while longer before we tried to pick up the pieces and move on with the next project," I feel my heart melt into the phone at his words. Maybe it's the time of night, maybe it's the fact that he had been asleep when I called him back, but it seemed like he was talking absentmindedly to me. Not trying to filter his words around me, just speaking the first thing that comes to his mind and gives me a little window into who he is and what he's feeling.

I smile into the phone, unable to find the words to say to him. I don't say anything. I just let the silence fill the space in the phone between us, until—

"I had a good time tonight, Tilly," He breaks me away from my train of thought. His sentence is short, simple; but the words don't sound rehearsed or practiced. He sounds sincere.

"Me too," I tell him, fighting my giddy laugh from surfacing, shoving it back down into my throat.

All too fast, my mind lingers on the memory of my brother and I in the car after his studio session with Harry and Mitch before his first album came out.

'Due to his profession, I know things will end badly. He's not worth your time.'

My breath lingers in my throat, choking me and preventing me from continuing the conversation. Almost as if he could sense the shift in my demeanor over the phone, he speaks up. His voice soft with a slight rasp to it from the late night, "What's the matter, love?"

I don't answer right away; how could I? I never planned on telling him the doubts that I had about us and whatever we are. I also know that he'll see through any facade I put up in front of him because I accidentally let him know me too well.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath, physically preparing myself for the words that were about to come out of my mouth.

"I'm scared," My words come out barely a breath, and I'm surprised he could even hear them through the phone speaker.

"About what, Tils?" There's pure curiosity behind his voice and a little bit of concern mixing in as he waits.

My eyes flutter shut at the sound of the name coming off his lips unexpectedly and I try to will the butterflies to calm in my stomach. I'm quiet for too long. Long enough for him to start speculating and he nails it right on the head.

"About us? About what I said earlier?"

I purse my lips together in a straight line and nod my head, forgetting he wasn't here and couldn't see me, "Yeah."

My voice comes out breath-like and shaky. A whisper getting lost in a gust of wind. The silence on his end of the phone rings in my ears too loudly and I search for something to say to break it, but come up empty.

"Is this why you were nervous last night? Telling me you wouldn't tell me unless it became a problem?" I've been caught.

"Yeah," is all I can muster out again, afraid of his impending reaction.

"Do you want to talk about it tomorrow? We can meet at the studio early before everyone gets there? Seven?" I smile at the thought of being able to see him before seeing the entire group for the first time in weeks, almost months despite the circumstances of us meeting.

"I'm going to need coffee if we're meeting that early." I smile faintly into the phone.

"Deal, I'll be at the studio at seven with your iced coffee in hand," His smile rings through his voice as he speaks, enough to make me melt into my mattress and pillows, "Get some sleep, love. I'll see you tomorrow. It'll be okay."

We say our goodnights and I put my phone on the charger, unable to sleep but trying to force it to happen with the fact that I'll for sure be hungover tomorrow and the start of my day keeps getting pushed earlier and earlier.

—

thank you so much for being here if you're still reading <3 you're amazing and the reason that i haven't given up on this story yet

i hope life is kind to you this week xoxo

masterlist chapter twenty-four

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silentglassbreak · 1 year ago

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Anonymous

Noah Sebastian x OFC

Here we go.

Warnings: Alcohol abuse, overall abuse, mild violence (ie. bar fights), smut, swearing, and altogether just a lot of fuckery.

+It goes without saying. This is a work of fiction. My words are mine. Plagiarism is a crime.

Taglist: @flowery-mess @lma1986 @myownthoughts12

Part 10 - The Fountain

My hands shook, as I paced back and forth in front of the building, Nick standing with his head hanging.

"Leena I-"

I put a hand up. "Don't."

Nick huffed. "I was going to tell you."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah? When? Back at the house?" I threw my hands up. "Fat lot of good that did us, huh?!"

He shrugged. "Leena, he's my best friend. I couldn't just betray his trust like that."

"You're his fucking sponsor, Nick!" I glared at him, my voice at a level I would usually be embarrassed to scream at. Right now, however, I could not give even a half of a fuck less. "You are supposed to keep him straight!"

"Jesus, fuck, Leena! I tried!" I stopped, staring at him. "He was sneaking the fucking drinks! I didn't catch him until I tracked him down at a bar last weekend!"

"What?"

He was standing, his arms held up in defense. "He disappeared one night after a show, and I had to check his location. He was at a bar, kicking back shots. The only reason he agreed to leave was because you called him!"

I thought back. "When was this?"

"Thursday night."

The pieces started forming in my mind. His muffled words, his confrontational attitude. Not calling me as often…

I raised an eyebrow. "He told me you guys were out celebrating someone's birthday."

He shook his head. "He never went with us to those anymore. Him and I would just go back to the hotel." He sighed hard, putting his hands in his sweater pockets. "He admitted to me that he started having a few drinks when he was alone in his room each night, after we left again on tour."

My eyes bulged. "Did he say why?"

He only shook his head. "Said he had it under control, and it wouldn't be like last time."

"Last time?"

Nick sighed. "Look, you should talk to him."

I scoffed. "Oh yeah, cause he's obviously very honest with me!"

Nick looked down. "It's not my story to tell, Leena."

"It is now."

He walked over to the bench, taking a seat and looking up at me. I followed suit.

"He just...he was bad before." He stared off in another direction, looking lost in his head. "Performing drunk, forgetting lyrics, it was getting out of hand. It was getting harder to hide."

I kept quiet, giving him room to speak.

"Then, the pandemic hit, and it only got worse." He looked at me, then. "Noah's got a lot of demons, Leena. And he's been through some shit in his life. His way of coping was drowning it out in a bottle."

"Nick, what happened? What made him finally want to stop?"

He sighed, looking away from me again and staring at his shoes.

"We picked up a gig. Well, he picked up a gig. He didn't tell us until the night of. Me, Jolly, and Folio all tried to talk him out of it. He had been on a 2-week bender, and we figured it couldn't go well."

I stared at him, watching his face change while he recalled the memory.

"He insisted. It was a small venue, small show, what could happen?" He paused, biting his lip. "After the show, we went out to celebrate, as we always did. And Noah, he just, he wouldn't let the fuck up. Shot after shot, beers in between."

He raised an eyebrow at me. "I'm not sure if you know this, but the guy's a real jackass when he drinks."

I nodded. "I've gathered that."

"He's like a whole different dude. Well, there was this guy at the bar. He was shit talking, trying to hit on Lily. Noah snapped, started a brawl. He wasn't going to back out, so we all had to get involved, try to break it up."

"The bartender came over to help break up the fight. She was probably as tall as you."

My heart sunk. This wasn't going anywhere good.

"I'm sure he didn't mean to do it, he was blacked out." He looked straight at me. "She ended up in the hospital, bad concussion, fractured wrist, pretty rough shit."

"He hit her?"

Nick shook his head. "Not intentionally. She just kind of got in the way. He wasn't paying attention. Knocked her out in the process."

I was staring at Nick, seeing the pain on his face.

"I don't want this for him, Leena. I want him to quit drinking. But Noah, he's a different animal entirely. I don't know if I can handle sponsoring him."

I nodded. "I understand, Nick. I'm sorry."

"Hey."

The rasped voice made us both whip our heads around. An absolutely hellish looking Noah stood about fifteen feet away, hood over his head, hands in his pockets. He looked nearly asleep still, eyes squinted in the sunlight.

We both stood, Nick walking over to him first.

“Man, what the fuck did you do?”

Noah was staring at me, eyes boring into my head. I returned with a glare of my own.

“What I had to.”

Pulling into the driveway of their home, I heard Noah groan from the back seat.

“I think my fucking truck got towed.”

Noah had slept the entire ride back to Calabasas. This was the first time we heard his voice since we left OCDC. I had been sitting, stewing, planning all the ways I was going to lash out at him.

Once the wheels came to a stop, however, I lost my nerve and opened the door. I hopped out onto the pavement, and beelined for my own truck. I heard a car door slam behind me, and footsteps chasing.

“Leena, wait!”

I spun on my heel, letting any rage I had come through my eyes, blazing into him. He visibly flinched backward, still at least six feet behind me.

“Don’t you fucking dare, Noah Sebastian!” I pressed my key fob to unlock the doors.

“I did it for you, you know!” This made me freeze, car door half open. I grit my teeth and slammed the it closed.

My feet marched directly in front of him, staring up at his insanely tall form.

“Are you kidding me?! You were arrested, Noah! You got fucking wasted, and beat Sam to a bloody pulp for…what? To save me?!” I threw my hands up, a demented smile twisting my face. I let my hands come together, slow clapping.

“Well! My fucking hero!” I took another step toward him, pressing a finger into his chest. He took a step back in response.

"No, let me tell you what you actually fucking did. You started drinking again, behind Nick's back!" Poke in the chest.

"You fucking drank yourself belligerent and took out some bravado-ass vigilante justice on some dirtbag piece of shit who isn't even fucking worth it!" Poke.

"You got arrested, jeopardized not only your own reputation, but your friends' as well." Poke.

"And on top of all of that, you fucking lied to me about all of it!" That last statement earned him a good, old-fashioned shove to the gut.

"God damn it Noah! I warned you not to fucking lie to me!"

He stood there, absolutely motionless, his face hard but his eyes pleading. He fucked up. And now, thanks to my outburst, he fucking knew it.

I took a hard breath, closing my eyes to re-center my thoughts. I looked back at him, seeing he was trying to take a step forward.

I put my hand up, stopping him. "Noah," I felt the familiar sting in my eyes. "this is over."

That's when I saw the panic flood his face. "No, Leena, wait-"

I shook my head. "I can't, Noah. I just can't."

He reached out, snatching one of my hands, too quick for me to pull away. "Please, Leena. Please, don't do this."

I saw his eyes welling up, making it harder for me to hold back the tears now threatening to spill out of my own.

"I have to go." I looked down, unable to hold back anymore. My voice cracked. "I can't do this."

"Leena, baby, I'm sorry. I don't know what else to say. Tell me what to say? Please, baby." His hand pulled mine, and I caught a glimpse of his knuckles. On top of his tattoos, his skin was broken, bloodied, and mangled. Dried blood covered the skin, and his fingernails were filthy.

I squeezed my eyes closed. "Noah, there's no fixing this."

"Leena," His voice was a whisper. "please. I can't lose you."

I wiped at my face, slipping my hand out of his grasp.

"You already did."

3 Months Later

The packing tape made such an awful sound when it screeched over the top of the box. I sighed, pushing the box to the side and used my Sharpie to label it. 'Bedroom'.

Angel sat next to me, eyeing the men walking in and out of the room.

"Guys, this is the last box." I pushed it toward them and smiled as one of them came over and picked it up.

I stood off the floor, surveying the room. Laura skipped in from the hallway.

"Okay, so all of the furniture, and half the boxes are loaded. I talked to Enzo, and we are right on schedule to have the truck take off by 2PM. After that, I think we should grab lunch?" I nodded at her.

"We can drop Angel at your place first?"

She walked over, petting the top of his head. "Of course."

I grabbed my purse off of the bathroom counter, making sure I had everything I needed.

"You're staying with me until when, again?"

I had to think for a moment. Days were easy to lose track of.

"Sunday. Then I fly out to Seattle."

She nodded. "You sure you can't just move in with me? I don't think I can handle you being away for so long."

I chuckled. "It's only six months, babe. I'll be back before you know it."

"I know, but renting out your house seems a little extreme."

I waved her off, stepping through the threshold, Angel in tow.

"Nah, I'll get an apartment when I get back."

After breaking off my relationship, I had to take a step back and make some changes. Life was just too stressful the way it was. I needed something different.

I promptly drafted my resignation to Kline Home Lending, effective immediately. I then called my Dad, giving him the entire rundown of the prior weeks, telling him I needed to find a way to get away. He told me to take some time off, and go stay with him for a while.

That was about as much convincing as I needed.

Noah had tried to reach out many times, but that feathered out after about a month, my message evidently coming through pretty clearly. I kept in decently close contact with Nick, however. I broke up with him, but I would be lying to myself if I said I didn't still think about him every single day. I worried about Noah.

Nick had told me that thankfully, Sam didn't press charges, and he was given probation for a year, which included required anger management, therapy, and regular sobriety tests. I was glad to hear that. He was complying, and I knew from speaking with Abel, that he was once again attending AA. He had already earned a new 60-day coin. My heart swelled when I heard.

"Leena?" Laura caught my attention, making me realize I hadn't responded to something she said as she drove to the restaurant.

"Sorry, what?"

She shook her head. "Where are you right now?"

I chuckled. "Sorry, my mind was on something else. What did you say?"

She peered at me from the side of her eyes. "I asked if it was okay if Nick joined us for lunch? He mentioned that he wanted see you before you left."

I smiled. "Oh, yeah of course. I haven't seen him in...a while."

I hadn't seen Nick since that day. The last time I saw Noah.

We pulled in to the restaurant about twenty-minutes later, Nick standing outside of his truck, waving at us as we pulled in.

"Hey!" I jumped out of Laura's car, and Nick wrapped me in a hug. I squeezed him tight, genuinely happy to see him.

"How are you doing?"

I sighed, a weak smile on my face. "I'm managing. How about you?"

He nodded and looked to Laura, who rounded the corner. "No complaints."

Laura hugged Nick, and we entered the small cafe.

Lunch was easy, comfortable. I put down a BLT sandwich quickly, chatting with Nick about their upcoming European tour dates.

"Where are you most excited to play?"

He smiled, munching on a fry. "Definitely Germany. The crowds out there are the best!"

"Oooh, I would die to see Paris!" I cooed, sipping my sweet tea.

"We'll be there in February!"

"So jealous." I tossed a straw paper at him, earning a fry tossed back at me in return.

Nick took a bite of his burger, and promptly wiped his face with his napkin. "Mm, Laura?"

She turned her attention to him between bites of salad.

"You're coming to the show tomorrow night, right?"

I eyed her suspiciously. She looked caught, a sheepish grin on her face. "Uhm..."

I raised an eyebrow. "Are you?"

She nodded slowly, and I scoffed. "Uh, did you think about mentioning that, maybe?"

She turned to Nick for help, who averted his eyes.

"I was going to mention it...today?" She smiled, guilty.

I gave her an annoyed whine. "Laura!"

"What? Leena, it's free Bad Omens tickets! Whenever I want! How am I supposed to say no?!"

I shrugged. "Fucking fangirl."

This caused her and Nick to both chuckle.

"Leena, why don't you come?"

I stopped mid-drink and deadpanned at him. "Uh...let me count the reasons?"

He rolled his eyes. "Noah doesn't have to know. You can sit in VIP, where he won't bother to look?"

I shook my head. "Thanks, but no thanks. This has been hard enough without listening to him serenade me." I feigned awe. "Voice of an angel, and all."

Nick snickered. "Alright, well let me know if you change your mind."

Laura had driven us back to her house, where I promptly got into my own vehicle and headed to AA. It would be my last meeting until I got back in July, so I wanted to get my goodbyes in now.

I was running late, five minutes past 6PM, and shuffled quickly into the building. When I entered the door, an explosion of voices hollered at me, causing me to stop, stunned.

"Bon Voyage!" Everyone's voices unanimously cheered. The room was decorated with balloons, banners, streamers, and random party decor. The table was covered in treats ranging from cookies, brownies, donuts, and a massive cake in the middle with 'We'll Miss You' scripted on the top.

"Guys! Oh my gosh! You didn't need to do all of this!"

One by one, all of my group members came up for hugs. Abel, then Roger. Seth and Jackson. Syd squeezed me the tightest, looking a little misty and claiming she would come find me if I wasn't back here the day I promised to be.

It was the last person who made me stop dead in my tracks. Noah stood, tall and clean. His hair was combed, freshly cut. He wore a black hoodie, black jeans, and bright red Vans. His hands were in his pants pockets, and he looked nervous.

His smile was big, his eyes bright and clear. It was the best I had seen Noah since I met him. He looked straight, sober. I couldn't help but crack and grin when he held his arms out, inviting a hug.

"I guess you can pass, if you want. I just figured-" But I couldn't help it, I walked over and pressed into him with more force than I intended.

His arms wrapped me tightly, and I inhaled the scent of his cologne, woodsy and fresh. He held me longer than we should've, but the warmth that burst in my chest gave me some of the only solace I felt in months.

He finally released me, pulling back.

I beamed brightly at him. "You look amazing, Noah!"

He rubbed the back of his neck, his nerves obvious. "Yeah, well, I've been working on a lot."

I nodded at him, my hands still holding his arms. "It shows. Good for you, I'm proud."

He locked eyes with me, his dark irises piercing me. He didn't speak, he just smiled, and I felt my feet threatening to melt right into the floor.

Group was informal today, mostly just everyone asking me what my plans were. What I planned to do up in Washington for six months, what my plans were when I got back, etc. I spent the entire hour in one of the best moods I had been in for so long. It was exhilerating.

Noah didn't say much, just watching me intently, listening to everything I said.

It wasn't until after, when Abel insisted I let him clean up, and I was walking the remaining desserts out to my car, that he caught up with me.

"Leena?" I turned around, and smiled at him again. "Hey, I uh," He kicked at the ground, clearly struggling to speak. "I was wondering..."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Yes?"

"Were you going to be at the show tomorrow, by chance?" He couldn't quite look at me. I leaned back against my truck.

"Yeah, Nick mentioned that." He looked up at me then. "I don't think I can make it, though. I'm sorry."

His face fell. "Oh." He nodded. "Right, yeah, I'm sure you're busy, with the move and everything."

I sighed. "Well, the move is mostly finished. I just," I looked away from him. "I don't think I can."

"What do you mean?"

I laughed then, disbelieving that he didn't understand. "Noah, it hasn't been easy for me."

He just held his lips together in a tight line.

"I..." I trailed off, not quite sure how far I wanted to go with this. "I fucking miss you, Noah. That's kind of the problem. I need to get some distance."

His eyes held something in them I didn't recognize. Hope, maybe? I couldn't let my mind go there.

"I miss you too, Leena. So much."

I bit my lip. My brain was firing on all cylinders. I was making a fucking mistake somewhere, I could feel it.

"Look," He looked back up at me. "let me think on it, okay?"

He smiled then, a small, innocent thing. "Okay."

I left him with that, fear that I may do something I regret if I didn't leave now.

I hopped into my truck and drove down the road toward Laura's, Noah's face flashing in my brain over and over. His words.

'I miss you, too, Leena.'

'So much.'

I was parked in her driveway, running it through my head over and over. The warmth of his hug, the smell of his shirt, the look in his eyes.

God damn it.

I pulled out my phone, opening my thread with Nick.

Me: Still got that ticket?

I sat back on the lounger, trying not to seem too obviously drinking in the show around me. Laura stood up at the rail, singing every word. I watched Noah dance around the stage, sauntering with all the confidence in the world. My mouth was dry. My heart was heavy.

That was my guy. Once.

After Death of Peace of Mind, Noah began his usual monologuing, which signaled to me that Just Pretend was coming. I wasn't sure if I could handle that. I intended to head to the bathroom when they performed that one, if only for my own sanity.

However, Noah's speech was a little different this time, making me sit forward on the couch, paying better attention.

"Alright Los Angeles. We appreciate you guys coming out here tonight." The crowd applauded heavily. He walked up onto the riser, and sat down, legs hanging off the stage.

"I wanted to chat with you guys for a moment, and get some stuff off my chest, if I could?" He was met with an explosion of cheering.

"Thank you, I appreciate it." He waved the crowd down.

"Now listen, there's something I need you all to know." He went silent, his head staring down at his microphone. He lifted it, and looked directly into the crowd. "I'm an alcoholic."

For the first time in the entire night, the crowd was dead silent. Pins dropping everywhere.

In his nervous state, Noah stood up. He laughed lightly, and walked back over to the mic stand. "Yeah, heavy, I know."

"Here's the thing, I made a decision a while ago that I needed to get sober. And if you have an addiction, you know that getting well is the hardest God damn thing you'll ever do." This was met with applause.

"Today, I re-earned my 90-day sobriety chip." He held his hand in the air, the blue coin twinkling under the lights.

The crowd erupted. I was mesmerized.

He put the coin back in his pocket, and turned his attention back to the crowd.

"Now, the reason I tell you this, is because this journey for me has been anything but easy. 91 days ago, I had fallen off the wagon so bad, I concussed myself." His eyes then peered up into our booth. I saw his eyes look dead into mine. "And in doing so, I lost the love of my life."

The crowd 'awed' and 'oohed', but he didn't take his eyes off of me.

"So this next song I want to play, isn't what I'm supposed to play next."

He sighed heavily. "I wrote this song, a very long time ago."

Folio began a slow, heavy bass drum beat. Woodwind sounds came though the speakers.

"At the time that I wrote it, it didn't have as much meaning, but today, as I stand here before you, it means everything to me."

He finally tore away his stare. "If you know the words, sing it with me. If it means something to you."

I gripped the railing, watching him replace his mic on the stand, and swallowing hard.

"This is The Fountain."

The crowd cheered. Noah's voice rang out, an utterly sad sound.

"What will I have left, when even the hurt is gone? And I can't feel a thing?"

I was frozen.

"Would you had been there, when I came home? Could you hold on another day?"

"I wish I had not held, held on to you so long, but I was just so damn afraid."

"I wish I hadn't used you to pull me out of this dark and lonely place."

The song paused, only the sound of synthetic rhythms coming through.

"I had the whole damn world, and I gave it all away. What did I think I would save?"

"For better or for worse, this is my burden to take. Cause I'm the only one to blame."

"You're so much better off with nothing but memories of, memories of my face."

"Because I have no use, now that you're gone. And now I'm running out of faith."

His voice was stronger. The feeling beating through my chest.

"Together we will live forever."

"I'm not afraid anymore."

All of them sang now.

"Forever."

"I'm not afraid anymore."

"We will live forever."

I was tearing through the crowd at an alarming pace. Laura was barely keeping up with me, calling after me. I couldn't stop. I was electric, the feeling under my skin absolutely boiling.

When I reached the security guards, I lifted my VIP badge and waited for them to open the door. I burst through, pacing down the long hallway toward the green room.

"Leena, where are you going?!"

"I've got to find that bastard!"

I burst through the door, startling the few people on the other side. My eyes scanned the room, locking on Nick and Jolly, Folio nearby.

I stomped over to them, absolutely raging. "Where is he?!"

Nick looked absolutely terrified. "He's, uh..."

"Looking for me?" I spun, seeing him standing with his hands kneading together, gloves still in place.

"You!" I walked up to him, his hands coming up in defense. "Who do you think you are?!"

He furrowed his brow.

"Excuse me?"

I took a few steps toward him. This time, he didn't step back. He only broadened his shoulders and stared me down.

"You go out there, and dedicate a God damn song to me? To us?!"

He smirked. Actually fucking smirked.

"I did."

"Ugh! Who do you think you are?!"

"You already asked me that."

"And you didn't answer!"

Everyone was staring at us now.

"I think that I'm the guy who wanted to make a God damn statement!" This made me roll my eyes, to which he scoffed, unamused. "Jesus, Leena. What do you think? I'd embarrass myself like that, admitting I'm a fucking drunk, just for fun?!"

This made me pause. He did do that. That was huge. That was life-changing.

"So yeah, you can be fucking mad if you want to. But I fucking love you, and I was tired of you not hearing me. So I sang you a God damn song." He narrowed his eyes. "Sorry if you didn't fucking like it."

I laughed, loudly. "Didn't like it?" My eyes stared at him wide. "I fucking loved it!" I threw my hands up in defeat. "That's the problem, Noah."

"The problem?"

I sighed, staring right at him. "I love you."

The words fell out before I could stop them. I didn't intend to say it quite that blatantly, with an audience.

"You do?" His voice was hard, still.

"I do. And I don't know what the fuck to do about that."

His face changed, softening around the edges, and he stepped toward me, a smile playing on the corners of his lips.

"You don't know what to do?"

He invaded my space, making the air impossible to breathe.

I shook my head. "No."

He smiled wider, bringing an arm behind me, pulling me close to him. I couldn't react. I was jelly, completely under the spell.

"Well, for starters,"

He pulled me up to him, dipping his head down, and crashing his lips onto mine. It took me a second to react, but after my brain processed what was happening, my hands reached up to grip the sides of his face, pressing into the kiss.

A few hollers were heard behind us, but we tuned it out. This was us. We were back to us. Where we felt right, where we fit.

My chest exploded, my arms wrapping around his neck. He pulled me close, breaking our kiss, and pressing his forehead against mine.

"Fucking love you, Leena."

"Love you so fucking much, Noah."

A/N: There's only one part left, then the epilogue. Thank you for joining me on this journey! Tempted to write a sequel. I love these characters so much. Let me know if you think we should see what life after this looks like for Leena & Noah?

#noah sebastian fic #noah sebastian #bad omens fanfiction #bad omens #fanfic

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bobbile-blog · 11 months ago

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Arknights Lore Recap - August 2024

Sorry I'm late on this one - it ended up being way longer than I expected, and rounded out at over six thousand words. PLEASE do skip around and just read what's important to you, I know I certainly couldn't stomach reading all this in one sitting. Also, this isn't gonna include a lot of IS4 stuff, not even because it isn't important but because I haven't actually gotten most of the endings yet :(

Anyway, regardless of all that, here's your biannual Arknights lore recap! The usual disclaimers apply - while this will technically be spoilers for everything up to the current state of the Global server (Post-Here a People Sows, Pre-Lucent Arrowhead and Babel), I've done my best to avoid individual spoilers whenever possible. The idea is to summarize the game's current plotlines in a way that can get new players up to speed and refresh the memory for folks who've just lost track of all the nonsense going on at the moment. All this and more, under the cut!

Side Plots:

Okay first of all, I'm changing the way I organize things. I've realized it's somewhat silly to have the big spoilers right at the top, so the main story is now at the bottom.

In addition, to just quickly define what I consider an "active plotline", I'm including plots that have had more than one continuous event and haven't had a major resolution to its story.

Sui Siblings

Ancient Forge(?) / Who is Real / Invitation to Wine / Where Vernal Winds will Never Blow / A Death in Chunfen(?) / Here a People Sows

Nian / Dusk / Ling / Chongyue / Shu / Ji / Wang / Lava / Zou Le / Lee / Lin Yusha / Waai Fu / Basically every major Yanese government figure

Long ago, in the pre-history of Yan, the land was ruled by ancient gods called Feranmuts. In the founding myth of of the country, a leader named Yan united the disparate tribes of humans and then waged war on them. Despite the god-like powers of these Feranmuts, Yan was able to subdue them with the aid of a traitor - a young and haughty Feranmut named Sui who sought to be the only one with the powers of a god. In the "Great Hunt", all of the old Yanese Feranmuts were killed or subjugated, and then Yan turned on Sui, binding and sealing It forever. With the Feranmuts gone, the nation of Yan lived in peace and prosperity, free from their shadow forevermore.

At least, that's what was supposed to happen, but Feranmuts aren't quite so easy to contain. Over time, Sui's consciousness began to slip out of its bonds piece by piece. These fragments each wandered the world without real form until they were able to answer the question "Who am I", at which point they gained personality and ego distinct from Sui. The Yanese government isn't exactly happy about these fragments wandering around, but there isn't really a whole lot they can do about it - the Sui fragments have godlike powers, after all. They've established a secret branch of the government called the "Sui Regulator" to keep an eye on them, and have mostly left them alone.

The events featuring the Sui Siblings actually take place a few years after where we are in the main story - Zwillingstürme im Herbst takes place around the fall of 1100, while Who is Real takes place in the fall of 1101 and Here a People Sows is in the early Summer of 1102. These events follow a series of plots surrounding the revival of Sui - that is, if all of the Sui siblings gather together in one place, they will re-combine into Sui again and It will be freed from its prison. This is promoted by some factions of the government, who presumably want to take advantage of the Feranmut's power once more, as well as some of the Sui siblings - to our current knowledge, these are Wang and Ji. Most of the Yanese government opposes this for obvious reasons, and has instead taken a stance hostile to the Sui siblings. We've even run into other Feranmuts who have gotten involved with the conflict - Ya, an ancient peer of Sui, is roaming Yan seeking retribution from Sui, and wants to reform It so It may finally answer for its betrayal. Finally, a growing portion of the Sui siblings are gathering to try to figure out a way to escape their fate. The exact details of this plan aren't totally clear yet, but it seems to involve using some sort of magical proxy of Sui to grant them independence.

A last note should be given to the subject of Jie, the Sui Sibling with the domain of writing. She's been alluded to in previous events, but we only really got details in Here a People Sows, and it's implied she'll be important going forwards. Jie was a kind and benevolent figure who wanted to spread literacy and writing among the people of Yan. She was successful - she appears to have birthed the modern Yanese education system - but in doing so, she gave up herself. Around 60 years ago, she either disappeared or was murdered. Whatever the case, she appears to have disappeared from the memories of everyone but her siblings (without spoiling Here a People Sows, that's an important clue). Her disappearance seems to have affected all the siblings, but Wang most of all, and he cites her as a major reason behind his actions to reform Sui.

Seaborn Struggles

Grani and the Knight's Treasure / Under Tides / Stultifera Navis / Mizuki and Caerula Arbor

Skadi / Specter / Gladiia / Kal'tsit / Irene / Lumen / Ulpanius / Mizuki / The Last Knight / I guess we can count Ishar'mla as a character here too.

Of the many dangers facing modern Terra, none are quite as terrifying as the Seaborn. Armies can be reasoned with, superweapons can be commanded, Originium can be cleaned, but the Seaborn alone present a constantly growing and evolving threat to all life on Terra. The Seaborn are probably best described as an organized group of convergently evolved sea creatures working together under a single will, with an animalistic drive to absorb and assimilate all life into itself. It spreads and consumes across the ocean floor, becoming more powerful with each new creature it eats.

The nations of Terra are no strangers to the seaborn. Iberia used to be one of the most prosperous nations on Terra. During the nation's golden age, they quite literally spanned the continent and established colonies across Terra. Their navies spread their power across the world and made them almost unarguably the most powerful nation on Terra - but all that fell apart when the seaborn finally set their sights on Iberia in a period known as the First Great Silence. Iberia's international empire collapsed, their grand ships fell into ruin, and the people became insular and distrustful of outsiders, guided by an inquisition tasked with burning out the alien with the little fire they had left.

Besides Iberia, the Seaborn are also an enemy of the isolated underwater nation of Aegir. Aegir is much more technologically advanced than the rest of Terra, but they've also been alone against the Seaborn for decades if not centuries. While we haven't been there yet, they're apparently not doing very well. They've struggled to match the Seaborn's strength, adaptability, or unending numbers - which led them to some desperate places. In a last bid for survival, they created a small group of super-soldiers by putting Seaborn blood into a select group of Aegir people who would be able to resist its call. This elite force of soldiers struck back against the Seaborn and, in a desperate final battle, slew the "god" of the Seaborn, Ishar'mla, a single entity that commanded the collective Seaborn will.

However, as is often the case in Arknights, gods don't die all in one go. The will of Ishar'mla was preserved in the mind of one of the Abyssal hunters that killed it, a young woman named Skadi. She and the scattered remnants of the Hunters were cast ashore and eventually gathered in Rhodes Island. Now, the Abyssal hunters fight a twofold battle against the Seaborn and themselves. They must use the strength in their blood to push back the Seaborn and protect the land, but they must also keep an understanding of who they are, or else Ishar'mla will awaken and all will be lost once more.

A special addendum should be added here to explain Integrated Strategies 3, which is (kind of) canon. Ending 1, in which Mizuki meets Highmore and brings her to Rhodes Island, did actually happen. On that mission, though, they find the Stele featured in the "Wander into Wonderland" node and the furniture rewards. Through a mixture of ancient technology and Seaborn-ness, this object allows Mizuki to read the memories of the Seaborn in alternate timelines, and play those potential futures out for the Doctor. We as the Doctor have seen pieces of these futures, but they do not exist as of yet.

Angels and Apostates

Guide Ahead / Hortus de Escapismo / Zwillingstürme im Herbst

Mostima / Fiametta / Executor / Enforcer / Cecelia / Andoain / Pope Yvangelista XI / Oren / Arturia / lots more people but I think those are the important ones

The city of Laterano is something that should not exist on the face of Terra - a paradise. The city of the angelic Sankta people is peaceful, calm, and harmonious - a rare oasis set apart from the suffering of the rest of Terra. The Sankta share an innate ability called "empathy" which allows them to share their emotions with each other, allowing for a uniquely peaceful society almost alien to Terra. Laterano is a city without conflict and without pain, and yet it is still wrong.

As much as I would love to get deep into the philosophy of the Laterano plotline, the first draft of this section ended up being like a thousand words on its own and I'm not going to put you through that. To be extremely brief, the plotline centers around the exceptions that are made to the supposedly absolute Law of Laterano. The first event follows a mixed-race Sankta and Sarkaz child, who shouldn't be able to exist according to the scriptures. Sankta and Sarkaz are ancient enemies and considered to be anathema to each other, and Sarkaz are not allowed into Laterano. Her very existence raises questions about the nature of the Sankta and the faith's rules, and not everyone is eager to have these questions answered.

This is followed up by Hortus de Escapismo, which is one of the most dense and critically complex events in the game. In short, Federico Giallo, known to Rhodes Island as Operator Executor, is canonized as a Saint of Laterano and given all the authority that comes along with it. He is then sent out on a mission to a lost monastery that was stranded for the last ten years, in order to return it to Laterano. Over this time the Sankta in the monastery have built a settlement with other people of Terra in order to survive, and that includes Sarkaz - who cannot be allowed in the city of Laterano. Bringing the monastery back and helping the people there will require breaking the community and leaving the Sarkaz behind. As a Saint, it is now thrust on Federico to navigate this conflict between the doctrines of the Lateran faith and the real, practical world before him.

Moving forward, though, it looks like this storyline will become part of the next big act of the main story, particularly in its role in fighting the coming calamity. Pulling back the curtain a bit, Laterano is secretly ruled by a god-like supercomputer called The Law. This computer gives the Sankta their abilities and writes the laws that they must follow. In observing all of the disasters occurring across Terra, notably the Collapsals and the Seaborn, It predicts an even greater calamity on the horizon that It is now acting to stop. Because of this, It is canonizing a group of new Saints of Laterano, something that hasn't happened since the founding of the holy city itself. Supposedly, it's calculated that this is best chance Terra has at success - but judging by the people it's choosing, things look desperate indeed.

Colonial Kjerag

Break the Ice / The Ride to Lake Silberneherze

Silverash / Pramanix / Kjera / Cliffheart / Gnosis / Degenbrecher / Ratatos / Sicurius / Monch / Arctosz / Harold

Nestled in a valley surrounding Mount Karlan is a rare sanctuary. Kjerag, though harsh and cold, is a land that has never known Catastrophes. For all of Kjerag's history it has been protected by the hand of the goddess Kjeragandr and has thus developed in relative safety compared to the rest of Terra. However, in part because of this, Kjerag is an insular nation which comes across as more of a pre-industrial nation than the rest of Terra. They're still very much an agrarian society, and despite recent modernization projects like railroads and mining operations the country remains small and isolated.

These modernization projects are the brainchild of Enciodes Silverash, CEO of Kjerag's largest international corporation and patriarch of the Silverash clan. Enciodes grew up in Kjerag but left to pursue higher education in Victoria, and had a front-row seat to not only their modern industrial world but also to their aggressive colonial ambitions. He came to the understanding that for Kjerag to survive, it would need to become a modern nation like its neighbors, and he resolved to see this happen by any means necessary.

Not everyone agrees with him, though. Kjerag's government has traditionally been formed of the leaders of the three largest clans - the Silverashes, the Browntails, and the Paleroches. Unfortunately for Enciodes, the leaders of both the Browntails and the Paleroches are just short of hostile. Ratatos Browntail is interested in the economic benefits but trusts Enciodes about as far as she could throw him, and Arctosz Paleroche is a staunch traditionalist and trusts Enciodes significantly less than he could throw him - both totally fair opinions considering his sizeable private army and the attempted coup he did a few years back. However, after said coup, all three of these figures ceded most of their authority to the Saintess Enya Silverash, Enciodes' estranged sister and the voice of the goddess Kjeragandr. While she acknowledges that Enciodes has a point, she seeks to modernize Kjerag in unity with its people rather than in opposition to them - rather than making a modern nation, she wants to make a modern Kjerag. It's a small distinction, but an important one, and her popular support and religious authority is one of the few things that can actually keep Enciodes in check.

At the moment, Kjerag is in the process of exiting their centuries of international isolation. It's a slow process but they've made significant steps forward - the country has entered scientific collaborations with Rhine Lab and signed important trade agreements with their neighbors that will ensure the country can keep developing. They've even fought off some intimidation from the Victorian army, stating firmly that they are an equal nation and not a subordinate. Despite this, though, there's a great deal of work still to be done if Kjerag wants to step onto the world stage with its identity intact.

Contemporary Columbia

Mansfield Break / Dorothy's Vision / Come Catastrophes or Wakes of Vultures

Mountain / Robin / Domma / Astigenne / Dorothy / Jessica / Coldshot / Woodrow / Clip Cliff / Liskarm / Franka / Tila

This one isn't really a cohesive plotline per se, but we can be reasonably sure that the game is going to keep going down this road, so it's worth a mention. In the background of the Rhine Lab plotline, we've gotten lots of backstory on what life is like in Columbia. Now that that story is finished, Arknights seems interested in exploring more lower-class Columbian experiences and stories, and putting the people we've seen in the B-plots of the Rhine Lab events in the spotlight.

Life in Columbia might seem glamorous and high-tech from the top, but for most people in the country it isn't nearly as pleasant. Arknights is heavily inspired by the world of the early 20th century, and if you know anything about American history in that period, you'll know that it was kind of a terrible time. Columbia takes a lot of the worst of it, everything from loan sharks to company stores to price gouging on vital goods like medicine. Life in Columbia tends to mean being trapped in a cycle of debts, keeping you just afloat enough to keep working while maximizing the boss' bottom line. But despite all that, Columbia doggedly looks forward instead of inward, spurred onward by a myth of the frontier that promises a brighter future ahead, no matter how you get there.

This plotline has been in the shadow of the Rhine Lab storyline for a while, but has since developed into its own storyline. The roots of this story were laid in Mansfield Break, our first event in Columbia proper. The background world-building told us a fair bit about life in Columbia and especially the outsize impact corporations have on Columbian society. We wouldn't see the full picture, though, until Dorothy's Vision. The DV B-plot showed us the vicious downward spiral of infection in Columbia - Oripathy medication is both prohibitively expensive and practically ineffective, and the debt they take on usually puts them out of house and home. Without the money to keep themselves from going under or the means to change the system beating them down, most infected are forced into brutal frontier work as pioneers, treated little better than beasts of burden. Finally, Come Catastrophes or Wakes of Vultures showed a similar process happening to the people of Davistown even without any infection - the exploitative cycle works no matter who it's working on. Anything is permissible as long as it serves a larger bottom line, no matter how many people it crushes underfoot. In the future, we're likely to follow the mercenary organization Blacksteel as Columbia contracts them to support its growth, but it's hard to say more than that. We really don't know much about where this story is going, just inferences from the rest of the game's stories.

In addition to these plots, we have a few honorable mentions which don't really have enough plot to be included in the main list but I want to throw in anyway:

Slumbering Sami

The Black Forest Wills a Dream / Expeditioner's Joklumarkar / I would argue Fire within the Sand and Zwillingstürme im Herbst belong here too.

Typhon / Magellan / Santalla / Muelsyse?

Life on Terra doesn't suck enough, so you know what we need? Eldritch horrors! The Collapsals are extraterrestrial entities that we're barely able to understand, let alone fight. They appear to exert some sort of corrupting power on reality around them, and are heavily implied to come from outside our reality somehow. We don't know what they are, what they want, or what to do about them. We barely even know where they come from or how to fight them.

The good news is that for the moment the Collapsals are mostly contained. They've only shown up in very remote regions of Terra - namely in the Sami Icefields in the far north and the Foehn Hotlands in the far south - I think? I know the portal was supposedly closed during the Khaganquest but I remember seeing somewhere that they've started to show up again and I can't put a source to it. Someone back me up in the notes if you remember where that's from. Anyway, a lot of very hard work is put in by the Sami people and the Empire of Ursus to make sure that the average person on Terra doesn't even know what a Collapsal is. If you've gotten far enough to know what the Emperor's Blades are, know that we've only seen two or three throughout the main story because all the rest are up North fighting off the Collapsals. Let's kindly thank them for their service, and the fact that we're not going to have to worry about them at all. Definitely. Don't watch PV-4 just trust me.

Fangs of the Feraerus

Main Story excerpts / Il Siracusano

Texas / Lapland / Don Bernardo / Vigil / Crownslayer / Projekt Red / Lunacub I guess

The Feraerus, also known as the Beast Lords, have been hinted at with a couple of characters for a while now. They are powerful creatures similar to but distinct from the Feranmuts who look like animals from our world, instead of the new creatures Terra has in their stead. Some examples are Emperor, the High Priest from Acahualla, or Siege's lions. They are powerful creatures with inherent magic and some apparent responsibility to protect their associated creatures, though the relationship between the beast lords and the races of Terra, human or otherwise, is still unclear.

Regardless, a particular group of Beast Lords is notable for their threat - the Signori Dei Lupi. These are a pack of wolves that live in what is now Siracusa. Because they're wolves in a fictional work, they go by debunked wolf science rules, and are in a power struggle to determine the pack's alpha. Unfortunately, fighting amongst themselves isn't very effective when every member of the pack is an immortal being, so they've instead chosen to settle things by a competition. Every wolf in the pack has picked a human to serve as their champion, teaching them to hunt the others and letting them loose in a sort of battle-royale-style death game. As far as we're aware, Don Bernardo was a fang but has been replaced by Lappland, Projekt Red and Lunacub are both fangs of different wolves, and Crownslayer's mentor, killed by Red in between Chapter 6 and Il Siracusano, was not just a fang but "the first true wolf". We don't know much else about this competition, but we're definitely going back to Siracusa in the future, so this competition is only just getting started.

I don't have an alliteration for Team Rainbow :(

Originium Dust

Ash / Blitz / Frost / Tachanka

Team Rainbow isn't remotely plot-relevant, but with a sequel event coming up I thought I'd quickly recap the original event for those who couldn't read it. Team Rainbow is a special forces from our Earth, or if not something very close to it. A segment of Team Rainbow is sent on an operation to capture the rogue Russian scientist Levi Klitschko. Klitschko has, unbeknownst to everyone, been experimenting with Originium, and right before he's captured he activates a device that sends the entire bunker to Terra.

The team arrives in Sargon and is quickly drawn into a local power struggle. The local lord made a deal with Klitschko, giving him protection and resources in exchange for the scientist creating him an army of Originium-infused mutants. Team Rainbow, on the other hand, ends up helping the local infected when the lord's men come to push them around. Things go south pretty quickly, but Team Rainbow runs into a Rhodes Island squad and they're able to mount a unified assault on the Lord. They break through his mercenaries and reach Klitschko just in time to watch him sacrifice himself to unleash a massive mutant creature, which they eventually bury in the rubble of the bunker.

In the aftermath, Team Rainbow is rescued by Rhodes Island reinforcements and brought to the landship. They don't have a way to return home, but Terra can always find room for another squad of mercenaries, so they decide to make the most of things and set off to explore this new world.

Finished Plotlines:

These are mostly copy/pasted from my last post, because they haven't really changed much. Same deal as before - these plots have basically wrapped up, so I'll give as spoiler-free a review as possible. They're good plots, go back and read them, but until you can this is just a quick summary of where the world stands now that they're completed.

Fear Neither Hardship Nor Darkness

Maria Nearl / Pinus Sylvesteis / Near Light / An Obscure Wanderer

Maria Nearl / Zofia Nearl / Margret Nearl / Młynar Nearl / Dikaiopolis / All of Pinus Sylvestris / Platinum / Roy and Monica / The Doctor / Gravel / basically all the major political figures of Kazimierz

Kazimierz, and the infected living within it, lived without hope. They lived in a dark world, where an oppressive hyper-capitalist system suffocated them, leaving them not just without the means to survive but without any chance of changing the system or fighting the world around them. Pinus Sylvestris knew how to fight the Chamber of Commerce, Dikaiopolis knew how to open up paths for the infected, and Rhodes Island knew how to get medicine to people in need - but none of that could save Kazimierz, because Kazimierz lived in a world without the hope that the system could be changed. Kazimierz needed a Knight - a Knight of honor and virtue, a Knight taken directly from the pages of the storybooks, a Knight that could be the noble light that illuminates the land. They needed brilliant, blinding hope, hope that could not be hidden and could not be denied, to descend from the heavens in their hour of need. The only person who could have saved Kazimierz was Margaret Nearl.

Margaret Nearl won the 24th Major and became the Grand Knight, and has since stayed in Kazimierz to improve living conditions for the infected and push back against the General Chamber of Commerce. The Armorless Union has mostly been decapitated - the Platinum defected, the Lazurites have disappeared and taken on new identities, and the Darksteel has promised to stay away from Margaret and Rhodes Island. Finally, Pinus Sylvestris and most of the rest of the Nearls are now on the landship, working for Rhodes Island.

A New Age is Upon Us

Rhine Lab Manhua / Mansfield Break / Dorothy's Vision / Lonetrail

Silence / Saria / Ifrit / Muelsyse / Ptilopsis / Ahrens Parvis / Kristen Wright / Dorothy / Ferdinand Clooney / Ho'olheyak / Tin Man / Trevor Friston / Mark Max

6,152 meters above sea level, there exists a mysterious barrier called the Starpod. It disrupts arts, tears apart solid matter, and even warps the light that travels through it, rendering space travel or even any sort of medium-altitude flight impossible. It has not always existed, but has covered Terra for almost all recorded memory, and was a simple fact of the world - until Kristen Wright tore it open and flung a spacecraft through.

On November 21, 1099, the world of Terra fundamentally changed. It didn't change in a particularly perceptible way - everyone still got up and went about their day the same day afterwards, and you'll be hard-pressed to actually link anything that will follow to the actions of Kristen Wright. But despite that seeming insignificance, Kristen Wright has left her mark on every living being in Terra, from the magistrates of Yan to the farmers of Sargon to the seaborn crawling amidst the oceans. There is a little something that never existed before - a little fragment of possibility that comes from seeing the world behind the curtain, even if for just a moment. It's impossible to tell where that spark will go. But one thing is for sure - "if, in a century or a millennium, our descendants walk among the stars, the masses will sing her praises."

In more concrete effects, Saria is now the Control of Rhine Lab. She heads the company, and Silence now serves as a senior ethical consultant and head of a burgeoning movement for scientific ethics in Columbia - using the sudden momentum generated by the Trimounts project to push for greater oversight and consideration in the scientific world. Both her and Saria now split their time between Trimounts and Rhodes Island, and Ifrit once again has two moms to spend her time with :)

Finally, Ho'olheyak has joined Rhodes Island with the piece(?) of Trevor Friston that she captured with her arts. The Tin Man and the Maylander Society now have their eyes on Rhodes Island, but more importantly, The Doctor is coming to understand more and more about their past. They're starting to understand their identity, and like Kal'tsit has said, they may not be able to stop.

A Tune, Lingering in my Head

Lingering Echoes / Zwillingstürme im Herbst

Ebonholz / Kreide / The Witch-King / Czerny / Hibiscus / Lessing / Fremont / Hildegarde and Grimmacht

The Witch-King of Leithanien was one of the most powerful casters in Terran History, and even after his death, ripples of his presence still echo through Leithanien and beyond. The events of the Stimmverlust had two main consequences - the Güldensgesatz being weakened, and the Sarkaz Liches departing from Leithanien, as well as the longer-term effect of making Leithanien aware of the presence of the oncoming collapsal crisis.

All of these are significant in their own way - these events were extraordinary important for world-building and writing magic lore and setting up later plots, but none of that really lends itself particularly well to a brief summary, about the closest I can get is "powerful magic leaves ripples, and fundamentally changes the world around it in a way that can be difficult or impossible to undo". It's the sort of plot which can either be explained in bare bones or in extreme detail, but it's too tightly wound around other plots and world-building that there's nothing in between the two. This storyline is likely going to get wound into the Laterano plotlines in the future, so where necessary I'll include explanations with them.

The Main Story:

Main story chapters / Vigilo / What the Firelight Casts

Not a whole lot has changed since our last plot recap, which feels a little weird because of how big chapter 13 was. It's hard to list everything that happened, so I think I'll keep to a shorthand list of all the factions at play in Victoria and what each of them wants, as of the end of Chapter 13.

Rhodes Island

Amiya / Kal'tsit / Doctor / Logos / Ascalon / Closure / Dazmati / etc.

Rhodes Island's goals aren't really set in stone, but they are generally interested in pushing the Sarkaz out of Victoria and ending the suffering caused by the occupation. Amiya has embraced her role as the lord of fiends - she understands that to bring peace to the Sarkaz, she must first shoulder all of the pain they feel, and she pushes on regardless. Towards that goal, Kal'tsit has started to reveal more of the history of the Sarkaz, and Logos and Ascalon are becoming more important. As Amiya becomes more powerful and more sure of herself, the Sarkaz courts are finding her harder and harder to deny.

Darknights+

W / Innes / Hoderer / Paprika / Ulšulah / Ermengarde? I guess?

The Darknights trio has finally made friends! I'm so proud of them. You could make the argument that these folks belong in the Rhodes Island section, but their aims are different enough that I think they ought to get their own brief. This group, but mostly Hoderer and W, are exploring the idea of a new Kazdel - that is, what does Kazdel without the constant cycle of hatred even look like? This has mostly taken the form of rebellion from inside Kazdel's military forces, and actually communicating with people on the other side to ask questions like "Hey do we have a plan beyond constant occupation" and "This kinda sucks, are we sure this is how we want to live". They're the other half of Rhodes Island's philosophical strategy - Amiya can free the Sarkaz of the cycle of hatred, and W and Hoderer can find a way for them to live afterwards.

The Exemplars

Siege / Glasgow Gang / Delphine / Self-Salvation Corps / Horn / Misery

The Exemplars were, originally, an elite unit within the Victorian Military. They were considered heroes, renowned for legendary deeds in service of Victoria. But, in one of their many wars with Gaul, the Exemplars were sacrificed in a political move by the Dukes - the unit was wiped out, the name wasn't revived, and what was left of the unit eventually became the Tempest Platoon we met in chapter 9.

It wasn't Siege's intention to fight a war. Her intent was always to protect its people - the real people, like her gang and the people of Norport. As they've travelled through a war-torn Victoria, though, she's realized that she will not be able to bring peace to her people without the power to end the war. And so, she brings together the people she has saved under the banner of the Exemplars, revived once more - an army free from the Dukes and the Sarkaz, who can bring peace to the people, if Siege can live up to the symbol she represents.

Reunion

Nine / Talulah / Guard / Redblade / Percival / Norwell

I nearly forgot Reunion was here too. Reunion has been going through an identity crisis ever since capturing Talulah. Not only have they lost faith in their strong figurehead, but that figurehead has lost a lot of her own spark, leaving the identity and direction of the movement in question.

That's not quite a bad thing, though - Nine is a much more thoughtful leader than Kashchey/Talulah ever was, Red has always been more of a good guy than a villain, and Guard brought a lot of the philosophy of Rhodes Island with him when he joined up. They now have a chance to not just rebuild Reunion, but to remake it into something better. The trick will be getting it right, because in war-torn Victoria, they'll find plenty of lost infected with nothing to lose.

The Dukes

Caster / Windmere / Wellington / Gododdin / Probably more that I'm forgetting / Eblana and Dublinn

The Dukes of Victoria have been the ruling power in the country for the last few decades or so, and they aren't interested in leaving the country to the Sarkaz. While they've been too busy with their power plays and politicking to oust the Sarkaz before now, they've finally come together enough to begin a united offensive against the Sarkaz, putting the whole of Victoria's might on the field against the invaders.

However, it hasn't been going great for them. The Sarkaz fight differently from the formal armies that Victoria is used to fighting. They field massive revenant constructs, use strange witchcraft, and wield oripathy as a weapon like any other against the Victorian army, and the Dukes have been slow to adapt. The exact state of the war is unknown, but it doesn't seem likely the Dukes will be able to win the war on their own, especially while the Sarkaz control Londinum's catastrophe-causing superweapon.

Even if the Dukes don't win the war, though, they'll still be a threat to everyone else in Victoria. No matter how the Sarkaz are removed, the moment they're gone the Dukes will hold a near-monopoly on military force in the country and will probably try to seize power again, to say nothing of potential retaliation against Kazdel or the Sarkaz diaspora. The Dukes aren't an immediate problem, but they also aren't going away any time soon.

The Confessarius

Shining / Nightingale / Amiya arguably / Qui'sartuštaj / Salus

To be totally honest, I barely understand the Confessarius plotline. As far as I understand it, they want the power of the Lord of Fiends. This is possible because the first Confessarius, thousands of years ago, was a Lord of Fiends and they've kept his soul alive through magic eugenics? I think? Qui'sartuštaj currently holds that soul, but when he dies, it'll go to Shining and she'll be taken over by it. Nightingale was also artificially designed as a vessel for that soul, and because of that, Qui'sartuštaj wants to recover her and use her to reincarnate(?) the original Confessarius Lord of Fiends. I think. If someone else knows this plot better than I do, please correct me and I'll update this because I haven't been paying enough attention and I'm kinda lost.

The Sarkaz Court/ Kazdel Military Commission

Theresis / Theresa / Sanguinarch / Qui'sartuštaj / Dazmati / Manfred / Lettou

The Kazdel Military Comission, acting under the supervision of King Theresis, is the current ruling power of the Sarkaz and the acting government in control of Londinum. A few years ago, a group of nobles called for the help of the KMC in restoring order in Londinum, and once they occupied it they chose not to leave and instead took over both the city and the catastrophe-causing superweapon, The Shard, located within it. Ever since, they've been carefully trying to preserve their control over both Kazdel and Victoria.

With the introduction of Rhodes Island and the Dukes closing in, this has gotten a lot harder. Theresis now needs to pacify and manage every individual subgroup of Sarkaz, keeping them satisfied enough to stay under the banner. While doing this, he needs to fight both a war outside the walls, against the Dukes, and inside, against Rhodes Island and various rebellious Sarkaz elements like the Darknights trio and whatever is going on with the Dazmati.

The one reason he's been able to hold on this long is the authority of his sister, Theresa. I'm not gonna go over the entire Theresis/Theresa plotline, because it's difficult to summarize and tied into nearly every other plot in the game, but the really short version is that Theresis represents the traditional Sarkaz rule by fear and Theresa represents a new future, a hope for a future without conflict. When taking Londinum, Theresis ceded to the strong suggestions of the Confessarius and used some unknown ritual to return the late Theresa to life, and presumably render her somehow compliant to him. She now serves as a figurehead of the KMC, and the hope she sparks in the Sarkaz is a big reason why Theresis' ambitions haven't collapsed around him.

And, I think that's most everything! Sweet sassy molassey, that took a while. I may skip the next anniversary's recap, since it'll only be main story stuff anyway. Anyway, as usual, if there's something relevant I've missed, let me know, and if not, I hope this helped! Enjoy your life and practice your art, Doctors!

#arknights #arknights story #arknights thoughts #arknights plot recap #arknights spoilers #rhodes island #here a people sows #integrated strategies #zwillingstürme im herbst #come catastrophes or wakes of vultures #The black forest wills a dream #lone trail #Near Light #the whirlpool that is passion

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blueisquitetired · 1 year ago

Text

Astral Shards AU

TLDR: The Boys are in space and they have a Bad Time. (Lady Sneasler is there too)

(This is technically a No Man's Sky AU, but you don't need to know anything about the game to follow along just fine)

Welcome to the pitch! All art for this AU will get their own posts, so everything here will be in game screenshots. There's also a lot more to this story then just what's written here (As this is, you know, the pitch) so please leave any questions, thoughts, or ideas in my inbox. This bad boy isn't getting a fic anytime soon, so it's tumblr only for now!

(In game models of the boys. I'll post a drawing of their actual designs sometime in the future)

Post proper under ReadMore!

This is honestly half fic if I'm being honest.

Length: ~3,000 words or so. Sorry not sorry.

Disclaimer: I don’t know every single No Man’s Sky lore detail, and I’m not going to scour the wiki for every piece of information and spoil the whole game for myself, so not everything will be 100% lore accurate. And I’ll be ignoring the giant late game twist (if you know you know) because, as cool as it is, it’s very much a twist that consumes all narratives set in this universe, and I’d rather not make my story *also* about that. (Also, as with all AUs not currently written down in fic form, details are subject to change)

Anyway did you know the No Man’s Sky protagonist suffers from amnesia?

Picture this- Ingo wakes up on a frozen planet next to a crashed starship. He's a bit confused and lost- but his space suit is damaged and that kinda takes priority. Because of that, it takes him a hot minute to figure out he has no memories- but as he’s gathering the materials needed to not die he figures it out

The starship recognizes him as its owner and he feels relatively confident in his ability to fix all of this jazz, so he did exist before... but besides that he’s kinda stumped

But this place sucks- he’s constantly freezing to death, stuck either recharging his hazard protection with sodium or siting in his (still wrecked) starship until he warms up enough to go mine stuff with his handy dandy laser again.

And he’s alone

It’s very lonely

(He’s not supposed to be alone)

So the tentative plan is this: fix the starship enough for space flight, launch into space, and then fly to this solar system's space station. (which he has a gut feeling exists. “Every solar system has one” he mutters to himself. He’s not sure how he knows that)

It’s….. slow going. But it’s going

There’s a lot of mining involved, a lot of looting crashed space junk, a lot of mind numbing boredom as he goes to the same spaces over and over and-

And then he sees something weird in the distance.

(This is a monolith. In game it’s used to learn space language words and history and to get l o r e. I’m taking advantage of it)

It’s kinda a hike over there, and it uses up a lot of his sodium reserves, but eventually he comes face to face with….. whatever this is

So he walks around it, trying to figure out what it is, before eventually finding a platform he can interact with.

Stepping up to it, he’s filled with strange sensations and knowledge, a story of an alien race that is familiar yet he hasn’t actually seen yet-

And then the world shatters in front of him

He steps back in shock as a tear in reality forms, a crack in the cosmos widening and fracturing, the sound of breaking glass as everything s h a t t e r s-

And then everything is fine

He stands there, dumbly for a moment, mind reeling….

Until he notices something that wasn’t there before

A shard of purple glass

Carefully, he picks it up, holding it up to his visor-

It whispers

It’s faint, too faint. He can’t hear it well- but it’s important. The whispers are familiar and he needs to know what they’re saying.

So he treks back to his ship, filled with a purpose he hasn’t had in his entire remembered life.

It takes a bit to wire his radio receiver to accept strange reality shards as a valid form of input, but eventually he figures it out. Connecting the last few wires and attaching the shard to it-

“Ingo, where are you? Please respond.”

That’s- that’s- that’s his brother!!!! His TWIN!!! Ingo doesn’t know much but he knows that’s his brother and he’s not supposed to be alone and what happened, why did he crash and why is his twin not here, where did he go? What happened?? He needs to find him!! He needs to find him NOW!

This lights a fire under him

Suddenly it isn’t “hey let’s fix my ship because I have nothing better to do” it’s “I have to fix my ship so I can find my brother” he’s working in overtime

He visits the monolith once or twice too, hoping to get another hint, another clue, maybe even respond- but it has no more answers. Reality is stable, and there are no more shards of glass

It takes forever and the fixed spaceship is…… not great- but at least it flies.

It works well enough, and Ingo has enough oxygen for his life support and enough fuel for his ship to get to the space station- even if it’s on the other end of the solar system.

Ingo…. reeeeaally wishes it was better put together, but this is the best he can do for a previously totaled starship.

So, he lifts off.

And things go great at first!

His radar manages to locate the space station without much trouble, and his pulse engine should get him there fairly quickly.

He charts a course and gets going, little purple shard tucked into his suit. (He’d listened to the message on repeat hundreds of times. Over and over “Ingo, where are you? Please respond.” He’d combed through his ships logs as well, but they were almost all corrupted, left with nothing but fragments of his brother’s voice. This was his only true connection)

And then the engine dies

The engine dies and Ingo is in the middle of nowhere, ages away from any planet, stuck in the middle of empty space with no hope of getting anywhere.

No debris, no friendly ships, no nothing.

He’s going to die out here.

He's going to die out here and his brother will never know, will never see him again, will think he just forgot him-

He has a nice panic, looking at his limited supply of oxygen and mildly freaking out

(Majorly freaking out)

But at least he has his radio.

He doesn’t…. know any frequencies or anything, doesn’t know what to tune it too, but he has to try something.

So he just, turns it on and hopes for the best.

“Hello this is Ingo. I am stranded in deep space and require assistance.” No response. Tune the frequency one more decimal point “Hello this is Ingo. I am stranded in deep space and require assistance.” No response. Turn the dial-

And so on and so forth.

Eventually, his wordy message turns to just a hoarse plea of “help”, and he’s started switching the stations willy nilly, no longer one decimal at a time.

He’s going to die out here.

Hours of this, hours of desperately pleading into the vast depths of space-

The frequency changes without his input.

“….help?” He asks hesitantly, staring blankly at the radio transceiver. How did it do that? Why did it do that? Why was the display filled with random symbols instead of numbers-

“With what?”

Ingo jolts upright in his seat, adrenaline rushing through his veins and his heartbeat in his throat “I am stranded in deep space and require rescue.” He wheezes out, his throat sore and dry

“Oh yeah that’s no good. You sound awful- you must have been stuck there a while.” There’s the sounds of buttons beeping and fingers tapping before- “Ah found you. We’ll open a pocket near your location. Sit tight.”

And then reality warps and-

That’s new

It’s uh…. A bit too far from his ship though. It’s a nice, rational distance away, but his ship can’t move.

But it’s close enough he could probably jet pack over there.

Making sure his shard is close to his chest and firmly secured, he opens up his cockpit and leaps, propelling himself into the docking bay-

And oh

Artificial gravity kicks in, and he falls to the floor in a crumpled heap right by the entrance.

Impossibly, a ship flies in a mere moment later, even though there had been no ships anywhere nearby Ingo before. Several more soar in and out as he ungracefully shuffles to the station proper. Somehow.

And by the stars, is it loud.

(Please imagine this area being far more busy than it is. I took this photo on a weekday, but even on its busiest days it’s still a game that probably maxes out at lobbies of thirty or something. Since, you know, it’s an indie game)

After weeks of total isolation, the sheer hustle and bustle of hundreds of people is far too much to handle, the echoing reverb of ships landing and taking off sending spikes through his skull.

But, as uncomfortable as it is, it’s still people- and Ingo is so so glad to have company

“You okay?” A young voice asks as he clambers up to the parking space nearest to the entrance. “You took quite a tumble there.”

There's a short being on the platform, one that helps Ingo up. It's a youth, maybe female- and she almost seems to be the same species as Ingo. (Ingo has the feeling that he doesn't meet members of his own species much... or ever)

“Everything is operational.” he reassures, standing at full height and towering over the girl. He hunches down slightly, as to not seem intimidating. “I am just relieved that I am no longer trapped out there.”

The girl nods and gestures him forward, walking towards the station proper and expecting him to follow. He does

“Yeah I bet! If your ship wasn’t even working well enough to fly in….” She shakes her head. “Well enough of that. I’m iteration Akari! What’s your name?”

“Ingo.” He replies, a little more directly then he prefers. His voice is still hoarse. “What is this place?”

“The anomaly!” Akari replies, as they get closer to the crowd proper. “I guess this is your first time then?”

“Yes it is.” What in the world is this place? And where are all these people coming from??

“Then you should meet with iteration Adaman and Irida!”

Akari begins leading him past the crowds and towards a curving ramp.

“Iteration?” He asks, noticing the pattern in their titles.

“Oh yeah uhhhh… I’ll let one of them explain that.”

Akari chatters to him as they walk along, pointing out different landmarks and explaining their purpose

Eventually they reach a wide room that seems to overlook the entire station, just as bright and colorful as everything else.

“Hello!” A voice calls, and an alien decked in dark blue greets him. “You took quite the fall there! Are you alright?”

He is iteration Adaman apparently, and iteration Irida stands nearby. She waves when Ingo and Akari approach.

They are the leaders of this place- the founders of the anomaly. A place between dimensions, a safe haven for people like them- one's who are alone in the worlds they inhabit.

They ask about his lack of spaceship and Ingo tells them of his plight, eventually explaining his goal.

“I need to find my twin.” He explains, pulling out his shard of glass. “I remember little, but I know we are not meant to be separated. I fear for his safety.”

“A twin???” Irida sounds completely shocked, the plants she was monitoring forgotten as she turns to the group. “That’s not possible.”

“It could be.” Adaman counters. “In the infinite reaches of spacetime anything is possible.”

“The odds of such a thing are so astronomically low. Do you mean a brother in arms? A family chosen by bond alone?”

“No?” Ingo responds. “He looks like me.” He saw his reflection in the ice, his brother whispering in his ears. They shared a face.

“Impossible. Mathematically impossible”

“Improbable Irida. Not impossible.”

“The odds are far too low-"

“Plenty of people have siblings. And plenty of twins exist.” Ingo interrupts, irritation coloring his voice. “It is not that rare.”

“But not travelers.” Akari pipes up, finally joining the conversation. “Travelers are always alone.”

“Traveler?”

“That’s what you are.” Irida explains. “A traveler. We all are actually- everyone here. A being cursed to wander the stars, one with no home of their own. They may stop and rest, may find a place to settle down- but there is no place that is theirs, no community for them. No sky they rest under calls them its own.”

“Only one can exist at once.” Adaman adds. “Every dimension can only host a single one.”

“Hang on.” Ingo shakes his head. “That does not track. You just said that everyone here is a traveler. Which contradicts your earlier statement.”

“We are in an in-between space.” Irida explains, her tone pitying. “We founded the anomaly so travelers could find each other. So that the iterations could finally interact.”

“So we wouldn’t always be alone.”

“I…. I need to sit down.”

Adaman pulls up a chair and Ingo slumps into it, his head and helmet falling into his hands

“You can stay as long as you need.” Adaman reassures, his tone soft. “Our home is open to all, a bastion of safety.”

“I cannot.” Ingo sighs, before straightening back up. “I must find my brother.”

He holds out his shard of glass, reflections of multicolored light gleaming off it.

“This is the only clue I have”

“May I?” Adaman holds out his hand and Ingo hands it over reluctantly, watching as he holds it up to the light. His face falls as he examines it.

“Oh dear. Irida is this….?”

“Yes.” Irida's tone is grave, somber and mourning. “A shard of the glass world.”

“Your brother is almost certainly gone.”

“No!” Ingo leaps to his feet, his hands clenched in fists. “He is not! He sent me that message-“

“There are many in between spaces.” Irida interrupts. “We are in one, a stable pocket that hides us from the world, from the gaze of the Atlas.”

She frowns.

“Larger ones are far less stable. Refractions, cracks. The-"

“-world of glass.” Adaman finishes for her. “Any living being unlucky enough to fall in there will cut themselves on its fragments, their very being torn to shreds. Your brother would not survive."

“Not necessarily.” Ingo counters, his voice tight. “If I could get him out-”

“He would be nothing like he was before, shattered beyond compare.”

“But he would be THERE!” His voice is loud and booming, his throat stinging in pain. “I refuse to let him suffer and die in there. I refuse to just…. give up on him! I will get him out!”

“It will be difficult.” Adaman hands him his glass back. “To find a way in will be tricky enough, but to find a way out….”

“How do I get in.” Ingo holds the shard to his chest. “How do I find him.”

“Well…."

Adaman frowns, drumming his fingers on his arm.

"Entering the world of glass shouldn't be much trouble. It's a vast space, and opening pockets in spacetime is our specialty."

"But finding him is the actual problem." Irida adds, her face grim.

"Yup. Which makes your encounter at the monolith even more strange." Expression contemplative, Adaman once again holds out his hand. "May I see your message again?"

Tentatively, Ingo places it back in his palm, still reluctant to part with something so precious. Adaman hardly seems to notice, casually turning it back and forth in his hands as he re-examines it- before eventually scanning it with a tool on his table. Data streams onto his screen, and he hands the shard back to Ingo before examining what he received.

The group is silent as he scrolls through the data, a tension in the air.

".... I think you could probably find more of these shards. Going off of your account of the event and the frequency of the shard itself..." He trails off, expression contemplative. "They seem to be... tuned to you somehow. Connected somehow. Maybe it's related to you two being 'twins'."

He hums.

"Maybe your predecessor was split into two. Maybe you are connected more than you know."

Ingo has... questions about that, but he keeps silent for now. Better not to interrupt him and break his train of thought.

"If you can find weak spots in your universe, places where the boundary between the world of the living and the world of glass is thin... Maybe you can find more of these."

"And then what?" Irida asks, her tone annoyed. "What good would more of those do?"

"Why, that's where you come in my dear friend!" Voice light and face playful, Adaman turns to his partner and grins. "With enough data points, I'm sure you can triangulate his location!"

"And send this man on a suicide mission?"

"I will find a way." Ingo interrupts the two before their argument to escalate, his determination swelling. "A way to travel there without losing myself. I will not go in unprepared."

"You heard the man!" Adaman claps his hands merrily and Irida groans. "He's already made up his mind! Better to help him where we can, hmm?"

Irida shakes her head.

“Fine. I’ll rig you up a scanner. A way to find unstable areas.”

"And then you can gather more of those shards!"

“But you’ll need to go all over.” Irida huffes.

“Not just yellow stars. Red, green, blue. You’d need to build an intensive warp drive, which is expensive and requires so much materials and nanites and you don’t even have a ship-”

“We surely have an extra we can spare.” Adaman interruptes, flashing Ingo an apologetic look. “And while the trials will be difficult, I’m sure your determination will see you through. Akari?”

“Yes?” Ingo startles as the girl speaks. He had forgotten she was there.

“Can you check the hangers for a ship we could gift our friend? I’m positive we have a few that have been abandoned.”

“Of course!” Grabbing Ingo’s hand, the girl leads him onward. “Let’s find you something good!”

Unfortunately, ‘something good’ was a tall ask when looking through old abandoned spaceships. Most had been left behind for good reason, old piles of junk that barely flew and would require extensive repairs. Certainly not anything close to the state of the art traveling ship Ingo would require.

“Okay this isn’t looking great,” Akari started, no doubt noticing Ingo’s discouragement. “But you could probably break one of these bad boys down for parts and then buy a better ship? Work your way up?”

“I suppose.” Ingo frowned as he brushed his hand over one of the ships, a part coming off under his hand.

“Or maybe….” The girl trailed off, and Ingo gave her an inquisitive look. “I mean it’s kind of a long shot- but I do know a ship that has all the required technology you’re looking for already.”

“Really?!” Hope bloomed in Ingo’s chest, his hands shaking in excitement.

“Yeah. But uh, don’t get your hopes up too high. She’s really picky.”

“…..she?”

‘She’ was a ship by the name of ‘Lady Sneasler’, a living breathing organism that happened to also be a spaceship. A marvel of biology that was like nothing Ingo had ever seen before, a pure wonder and the most beautiful thing Ingo had ever laid eyes on. And he told her as much.

(Living ships are a very canon thing in game and they are so cool! I'll post some art of Lady Sneasler later, but for right now, here's my personal in game living ship, Darling)

She was flattered, and was even more flattered when Ingo broke into an excited ramble as he examined her thoroughly, reverently running his hands up her flank when she gave him permission. She was a prideful one apparently, and had refused a pilot for centuries- but Ingo’s genuine wonder managed to easily win her over.

And so Ingo got himself a ship.

Thus, the two begin their cosmic journey together, traveling through the galaxy to gather all of Emmet’s messages and eventually save him.

It’s long and arduous, rife with danger and trials... but eventually they manage to force their way into the world of glass, and pull Emmet out.

And boy howdy is he messed up….. but that just means they get a healing arc lol.

But yeah, that’s the basics! Feel free to ask questions if you’re curious, (I have a lot more I haven’t shared yet) and I hope you enjoyed! There’s a very decent chance I might end up writing a fic about this in the future, but that’s so far off that you shouldn’t hold your breath.

Thank you for reading!

#Astral Shards AU #blue’s writing #submas #submas au #subway boss ingo #subway boss emmet

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hobiebrownismygod · 2 years ago

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Rising - 1610!Miles Morales x Fem!Reader

This is just a teaser of the fan fiction I have brewing in my drafts. Its probably going to be pretty long and maybe even end up becoming multiple parts, so lmk if thats something you're interested in or if I should continue this story, because its got a lot of lore and I'm not gonna get into it all if no one's interested

Synopsis: Miles knew he would have to battle with his guilt from his Uncle Aaron's death, but he never expected to get involved with the Prowler again. This time, the Prowler returns with a new face.

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10:36 A.M. Aaron Davis's Funeral - Miles' POV ________________________________________________________________

"Thank you for coming." Miles watched as his mom quietly whispered her thanks to the numerous family members approaching them with their kind words and back pats. He forced a smile as a woman he didn't even know cupped his face in her hands, her condolences barely audible over the loud murmurs of the rest of the funeral crowd. The cold Brooklyn breeze sent shivers down his spine, his thin suit coat doing little to prevent the goosebumps from rapidly spreading across his skin.

It was a gloomy day, dark clouds on the horizon blocking the sun, the inevitable chance of pouring rainfall growing closer and closer as the wind pushed the overcast towards the funeral service. It had been exactly one week and two days since his Uncle Aaron's sudden death. The cops, well Miles' dad Jeff, had done a good job covering up his uncle's involvement in the collider sequence that generated the tens of tiny earthquakes, shaking New York to its core and leading to thousands worth of property damage. It was as if the Prowler had never existed. They said that his uncle died during one of the earthquakes, trapped under the rubble while trying to help evacuate a neighborhood but Miles knew better.

He knew the truth. He knew that his uncle wasn't a good guy. He knew that he'd been working with Kingpin. He knew about the Sinister Six. But worse than all the rest, he knew that it was his fault his uncle was dead. Because if he hadn't been bit by that damn spider, Aaron Davis would still be alive.

"Dear friends and family, we gather here today in grief and love to remember the life of Aaron Davis and to support one another during this difficult time. As we come together, let us take a moment to offer a prayer of comfort, healing, and strength..."

It was starting. Miles quickly took a seat next to his mom who was silently dabbing the corner of her eye with a small, white napkin. She put her hand on top of Miles' squeezing gently and shooting him a slight smile before they both turned their heads to look back over at his father, who was approaching the podium to give his farewell speech. Miles watched as his father pulled out what looked like a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket, looked at it for a moment, and then shoved it back in with a sigh. He placed his hands on both sides of the microphone, eliciting a small, high-pitched screech, evoking subtle winces among the crowd.

His dad cleared his throat, and began to speak, his voice wavering slightly with every change in tone. It was hard for him, probably harder than it was for Miles. Miles couldn't help but feel a little proud of his dad for being able to stand up there and talk about the man that they'd lost, because he knew that if he himself tried to go up there, he'd break down and never be able to build himself back up again.

"Aaron was my baby brother. But more than that, he was my best friend." His dad chuckled slightly, memories flooding his mind as he continued, "I remember when we were young, how the two of us would go out causing trouble like we were invincible. Like nothing could break us..."

As Miles's focus slowly wavered, he felt his father's voice becoming more and more muffled. Miles' mind was overwhelmed by unwelcome thoughts, flooding his senses and making his swallowing sharper and his eyes heavier. If I hadn't been bit...would he still be here today? He closed his eyes quickly, to prevent himself from breaking down right there, swallowing back his tears before opening them again and looking back at his father. If I hadn't been followed...would he have survived?

If I'd shook him off my path that day, he would've never realized that I was going to Aunt May's house. And he wouldn't have caught me. And I wouldn't have taken my mask off. And he wouldn't have been shot.

Miles heard clapping and opened his eyes again, forcing a smile onto his face and clapping along with everyone else while his dad sat down in the seat next to him. Another person went up to the stand, someone Miles didn't know. As the person began to talk, Miles felt his mind wandering again, back to those horrible, horrible thoughts. But there was a hint of truth behind them, wasn't there? If I hadn't-

He felt a tingling sensation in his body, the hairs on his arms standing up and a weird, almost nauseating feeling entering the front of his forehead. His spider-sense. It was detecting something.

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If you'd like to be added to the taglist for this fanfic, there's a link to a form in my master list that you can fill out <3

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hc-geralt-23 · 2 years ago

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Broken Promises

Once upon a time, in a world ravaged by a deadly fungal infection, you found solace in the arms of a man named Joel Miller. He was your rock, your protector, and the one person you thought you could trust in this unforgiving post-apocalyptic world. You had made plans together, dreams of starting a new life, away from the horrors that surrounded you.

But fate had a cruel twist in store for you. One day, as you were scavenging for supplies, you stumbled upon a heart-wrenching sight. Joel, the man you loved, was locked in a passionate embrace with Tess, his long-time friend and companion. Your heart shattered into a million pieces, and the pain was unbearable.

Feeling betrayed and hurt, you made the difficult decision to leave Joel behind. With a heavy heart, you sought refuge in Jackson, where his brother Tommy resided. You hoped that being away from Joel would help heal the wounds he had inflicted upon you.

Days turned into weeks, and weeks into months. You tried to rebuild your life, but the memories of Joel haunted you. You wondered if he ever thought of you, if he regretted his actions. And then, one fateful day, Joel arrived in Jackson with a young girl named Ellie.

As you caught sight of Joel, your heart skipped a beat. He looked older, wearier, and there was a sadness in his eyes that mirrored your own. Ellie, the perceptive young girl, noticed the tension between you and Joel. She couldn't help but ask, "Who is she, Joel? Why do you look so sad when you see her?"

Joel hesitated, his gaze shifting between you and Ellie. The weight of his guilt was evident as he finally spoke, "Her name is (Y/N). She was... she was someone special to me. But I messed up, Ellie. I made a terrible mistake, and I lost her."

Ellie's eyes widened with understanding, and she turned to you, curiosity etched on her face. You took a deep breath, gathering the strength to face Joel once more. "Joel, why did you do it? We had plans, dreams together. You promised me a future, and then you shattered it all."

Joel's voice cracked as he replied, "I can't explain why I did what I did, (Y/N). I was scared, lost, and I made a terrible choice. But I never stopped loving you.

Tears welled up in your eyes as you listened to Joel's words. The pain of his betrayal was still fresh, but seeing the remorse in his eyes, you couldn't help but feel a glimmer of hope. "Joel, love isn't just about words. It's about trust and loyalty. You broke that trust, and it's going to take more than just words to mend it."

Joel nodded, his voice filled with sincerity. "I know, (Y/N). I understand that I hurt you deeply, and I don't expect you to forgive me right away. But I want you to know that I've regretted my actions every single day. Being with Tess was a mistake, and I lost sight of what truly mattered."

Ellie, who had been silently observing the exchange, spoke up. "Joel, if you love her, then fight for her. Show her that you're willing to change, to make amends. Actions speak louder than words, remember?"

Her words struck a chord within Joel, and he turned to you, determination etched on his face. "You're right, Ellie. (Y/N), I want to make things right. I want to earn back your trust, to prove to you that I'm committed to you and only you. I'll do whatever it takes."

You looked into Joel's eyes, searching for any signs of deceit. But all you saw was genuine remorse and a flicker of hope. Slowly, you nodded, your voice barely above a whisper. "Okay, Joel. But know that rebuilding trust won't be easy. It will take time, patience, and a lot of effort."

Joel reached out, his hand trembling slightly as he gently cupped your cheek. "I'll do whatever it takes, (Y/N). I'll spend the rest of my life making it up to you if I have to. I love you, and I'm so sorry for what I've done."

A mix of emotions swirled within you, but deep down, you still loved Joel. You wanted to believe in the possibility of forgiveness and a future together. With a shaky breath, you leaned into his touch, whispering, "I love you too, Joel. Let's take it one step at a time."

And so, in the midst of a broken world, you and Joel began the arduous journey of rebuilding what was lost. It wouldn't be easy, but with love, forgiveness, and a newfound determination, you hoped

that you could find a way to heal the wounds and create a stronger bond than ever before.

Days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months. Joel proved his commitment to you through his actions. He was there for you, supporting you in every way possible. He listened to your fears, your doubts, and never once dismissed them. He showed up every day, proving that he was willing to put in the effort to regain your trust.

As time went on, the pain began to fade, replaced by a cautious hope. You saw the changes in Joel, the way he had learned from his mistakes and grown as a person. The love you once shared began to rekindle, slowly but surely.

One evening, as you sat by the fire in Jackson, Joel approached you, a small smile playing on his lips. "I never thought I'd have a second chance with you, (Y/N). I'm grateful every day that you gave me that opportunity."

You looked up at him, a soft smile gracing your face. "It hasn't been easy, Joel, but I see the effort you've put in. I see the changes in you, and I believe in us."

Joel took your hand in his, his touch warm and comforting. "I promise you, (Y/N), I will spend the rest of my life making it up to you. I'll never let you down again."

And in that moment, as the flames danced before you, you knew that forgiveness had found its way into your heart. The scars of the past would always be there, a reminder of the pain you had endured, but together, you and Joel would face the challenges that lay ahead.

As the days turned into years, you and Joel built a life together in Jackson. The wounds of the past slowly faded, replaced by a love that had weathered the storm. And as you watched Joel interact with Ellie, the bond between them growing stronger, you couldn't help but feel a sense of gratitude. For it was through their journey that you had found your way back to each other, stronger and more resilient than ever before.

In this broken world, where trust was a rare commodity, you had managed to find solace in the arms of the man who had once shattered your heart. And together, you would face whatever challenges came your way, knowing that love and forgiveness had the power to heal even the deepest wounds.

And as the years went by, your love with Joel also blossomed and grew, and soon, your family expanded. Two beautiful children came into your lives, a testament to the love that had been rekindled between you.

Your daughter, Hope, had Joel's piercing blue eyes and your infectious laughter. She was a beacon of joy and innocence in this harsh world, reminding you of the beauty that still existed amidst the chaos. And your son, James, inherited Joel's strong build and your determination. He was a constant reminder of the resilience and strength that ran through your veins.

Joel embraced fatherhood with a newfound sense of purpose. He was there for every milestone, every scraped knee, and every bedtime story. He cherished his role as a father, making sure to instill in your children the values of love, loyalty, and compassion.

Together, you and Joel created a safe haven for your family within the walls of Jackson. You watched with pride as your children grew, their laughter filling the air and their smiles lighting up the darkest of days. They were a testament to the love that had endured, a symbol of hope in a world that often seemed devoid of it.

As you sat together as a family, sharing stories and laughter, you couldn't help but feel a sense of gratitude. Gratitude for the second chance you had given Joel, for the love that had been rebuilt, and for the beautiful family that had emerged from the ashes of the past.

In this broken world, where darkness loomed at every corner, your love and the bond you shared with your children became a beacon of light. Together, you faced the challenges that came your way, knowing that as long as you had each other, you could overcome anything.

And so, in the midst of a world ravaged by infection and despair, you found solace, love, and a family that would forever be a testament to the power of forgiveness and the strength of the human spirit.

#pedro pascal character #pedro pascal x reader #pedro pascal fanfiction #pedro pascal characters #pedro pascal #joel miller imagine #joel miller x reader #tlou joel #joel the last of us #the last of us x reader

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