#i need to find that post so i can inflict emotional damage on everyone who checks the tags of that post

[lvllns]

"seasons & narcissus" by bastille is a solas and lavellan song send tweet

[drk-mnd-fds]

Hello can you give us more facts on fallen dreamswap

Of course, no problem!

In fact, I would like to create just 1 large document with all the information, but I think I would edit it many more times, since I am constantly trying to find my own non-logical solutions in the canon and correct them.

It's useless enough for me to talk: "Tell me anything," because I get lost, I want to tell you everything at once, I keep repeating myself and so on, it's better to ask something specific. I have already told you the basics, but you still need to look for it in my posts below...

Well... I'll start the story, I'll tell you a few facts per character. I will try not to repeat myself with the last post, I will write facts that I did not mention somewhere other than my discord server, but rather that I did not post them on my discord server at all.

Nightmare.

– In fact, Nightmare won't be much stronger than Dream. Dream gained strength by eating 198 positive apples, the strength of Nightmare is equal if he ate somewhere around 90-100 negative apples. They both take out battles only at the expense of their skills. Nightmare is lower, faster and more agile, so he manages to dodge, he can't inflict any special injuries on Dream.

Dream changed negative energy to positive energy in Nightmare, since the nature of Nightmare is not used to and is not able to carry positive energy, so the negative began to absorb the positive, we can say that the negative returned in greater volume. The nature of Nightmare decided to make the negativity bigger and worse, just so that a similar situation would not happen again. It's just a defensive reaction of nature and the balance of the universe.

– Sometimes Nightmare experiences pain in the bones, but for this it must be surrounded by a lot of positivity. During the negative incident, the bones of Nightmare broke in some places, so that not only the back was damaged, but also the rest of the bones. In a couple of days, Nightmare has grown by 5 cm, so he is 170 cm tall.

– Nightmare sometimes experiences panic attacks at night, he wakes up from a strong feeling of heat in his body, anxiety makes it difficult for him to breathe and collect his thoughts. This state brings him back to the day of the negative incident, as these are the emotions he experienced when negativity filled his body again.

– There is a possibility that if you change negative energy to positive energy in Nightmare again, then Nightmare's body will not stand up and he will die.

– Nightmare is like a mother hen for Kevin, he began to protect him more. If Cross or Error accidentally offend Kevin, then Nightmare will start threatening them, but it won't come to action, he won't kill his friends.

– Yes, I make Nightmare look like a complete bastard, but in fact he won't leave any of his friends in trouble. Negativity gives him strength, but he will rather help his friends get rid of negative emotions so that they do not suffer.

– He feels that something is wrong with Error still can't figure out what it is.

– kinn song –  Robbie Williams - Party Like A Russian

Cross.

– Cross regrets what he did to Chara. During one of his rages, Cross was able to completely get rid of Chara.

– A kleptomaniac of 100500 level will not hold him, even if the thing is tightly glued to the place.

What? A new wardrobe and sofa in the BHS house? Nothing new.... WAIT, CROSS STOLE IT FROM SOMEONE AGAIN!

Cross, okay, you stole the vase... WHERE DID YOU TAKE THE CLOSET?! PUT THE CLOSET BACK IN PLACE!

– Cross will always be on the side of Nightmare. Yes, they sometimes have light fights, from which Cross leaves the loser, but still Cross does not know what must happen for him to betray Nightmare.

Cross was very angry with Dream when he saw what happened to Nightmare after the negative incident, Cross was ready to immediately go to JR Castle to deal with everyone there. Cross was not allowed anywhere by Error, who simply tied him to a chair.

– If we talk about strength, then Cross will be stronger than Nightmare, but still Cross will never fight Nightmare in full force.

– An idiot who can sometimes just fight with Nightmare.

– TURN BACK THE INSTINCT OF SELF-PRESERVATION TO CROSS!

– Cross sleeps with a stuffed penguin.

– kinn song –  GHOST - Honey I'm Home

Error.

– If you suddenly realize that coffee has disappeared all over the world, then know that Error bought it all.

– The mom of the band

is the very person who always stops Cross and Nightmare from making hasty decisions.

– Sometimes he can spend the whole night knitting, so in the morning there may be few things that can be taken to the shelter.

–  If the Error is on the verge of hysteria, then he will run away from the BHS house deeper into the forest so as not to disturb others and not feed the negative energy of the Nightmare once again. An Error can run away even in what he walked around the house in. At such moments, it is better not to touch him, he reacts very sharply even to touches from friends

– Error can often go to OuterTale, he bought himself a small house there a long time ago, just to take a break from everything, I can compare it to a sleeping cat in his favorite cot.

– When no one is at home, Error can do baking

– On missions, he often takes a secretive position and stays somewhere in the bushes, just to watch and be alert, although sometimes he can take an active part in the battle, even if he does not like it.

– He will sit quietly in an armchair with Kevin on his head and drink coffee, sometimes giving Kevin seeds, watching how Cross and Nightmare argue over small things.

– kinn song –  Set It Off - Horrible Kids

Dream.

– Dream is very sorry for what he did to Nightmare. Dream did not think that the negativity would return, he just hoped that the positive energy would simply replace the negative one and they could continue to live peacefully.

– Dream reviews all his notes on energy replacement several times a month, but he still cannot find a mistake in them.

– Dream keeps a photo of Nightmare on his desktop before the negative incident. Nightmare photo stands next to Anya's photo.

– There is a rumor that Dream adds a little cognac to his coffee or tea.

– Who knows when and how long he slept? Why did he manage to spend a couple of hours a day reviewing his notes, as well as filling out documents, being at a meeting at the shelter, helping Ink and much more?!

In fact, Dream just needs 5-6 hours of sleep to get enough sleep, and of course, the positive will give him energy

– Now he I want to swear much more often, but he restrains himself, still he does not like obscene language.

– Dream SAW how Error took things to the shelter, but he would never bring up this topic in front of anyone.

– kinn song –  Vundabar - Alien Blues

Ink.

– Sometimes he experiences phantom pains in his arm.

– The Ink was offered to make several more types of prostheses, but he refuses, saying that one is enough for him, which he wears on a regular basis.

By the way, the attachment of the prosthesis can be compared to the anime "Fullmetal Alchemist", before that the prosthesis moved exclusively on magic, but after watching the anime, I decided to change the device of the prosthesis.

– Dream is almost the only one who can help Ink with the prosthesis. Dream can remove the prosthesis so as not to hurt the Ink. Ink is regularly examined by doctors once a month, so Dream's help always helps out.

There are also a couple of scientists and a mechanic, but they specialize more if the prosthesis needs to be repaired somehow or slightly modified for further more convenient use. Doctors simply examine the body to identify any problems in connection with wearing a prosthesis.

– Do you see Ink sitting hugging his knees in huge shock? Nightmare and Dream are influencing him with their aura again.

MOREOVER, NIGHTMARE UNDERSTANDS PERFECTLY WELL WHAT INK IS DRIVING AT AND CONTINUES TO DO IT!

– He decided not to meet with Error anymore just to talk, because I completely distrust the BHS team.

– kinn song –  Сavetown – Devil Town

Blue. (I do not know what new things can be written about him, so I will duplicate my post)

— Blue only comes to JR Castle when Dream calls him, or if Blue suddenly gets bored. Often he just sits in the OuterTale and admires the stars

— If Blue comes because of boredom, he will start flirting with Dream, although he does this out of habit, in fact, he does not care deeply, he is paid for his work, and this is the main thing.

— From now on, Blue takes the position of searching for information. Dream only gives a task, so Blue goes to the anti-void to look for information from there, although he often calls Error to help him finish the search as quickly as possible and in greater volume.

— Due to all the drastic rearrangements of plans and frequent attacks by BHS after the negative incident, Blue experienced severe stress, after which he began to suffer from insomnia.

— Blue and Error made a deal, as Error also didn't like the whole situation with the negative incident, and they decided to work together to try to minimize the battles and damage as much as possible.

— During work, he always has a liter mug of coffee next to him, by the way, Blue likes how Error makes coffee, Error does it best.

"Sweet cake and sugar–free coffee is the best combination! What? Error, don't you agree? Well, swallow your empty coffee, and I'll have a cake!"

— Funny fact, Blue feeds street cats.

— Blue always carries bandages in his pockets to quickly wrap up wounds and not see blood, because of stress, his hemophobia has only gotten worse.

— During one of the battles, Cross severely injured Blue's cheek, feeling pain and seeing blood, Blue almost experienced a panic attack, fortunately Dream was nearby and was able to seal the wound with a plaster. The whole situation was too stressful, only Nightmare was happy about all this negativity. Since then, Blue has a scar on his right cheek, sometimes Cross can tease Blue that he mows under the Ink, although this scar remains because of Cross!

– kinn song – Guchiry feat. Flower - Abnormality Dancin' Girl

I FINISHED WRITING THIS A WEEK LATER!

I regularly reread the DreamSwap canon to be aware of where I've made mistakes. I could just forget about my own principles and continue with exactly the trash that I created in 2020, but it's a blessing that I was able to stumble upon Poison!DreamSwap, which pushed me to completely change the canon of Fallen!DreamSwap. I could have left Nightmare just a parody of the original Nightmare, but still I rewrote his canon several times.

Fan fact: I wanted to add songs in my native language to Kinn Songs, but I understand that my playlist is too cruel and in which case it would not be convenient for you to get into the translation of songs, given that it is very difficult to find adequate translations from my native language, if I need it, then I'm translating manually!

[parked-on-the-prairie]

Environmental Justice

Which person's words resonated with you? Explain.

I felt most affected by Kandi Mosset-White's words. She very deftly points out that the issues we are collectively facing are not actually new in any way; they are simply extenuations and consequences of the issues that have plagued indigenous communities world-wide. The driving influences of capitalism and colonialism are directly responsible for so much of the damage inflict on earth, and the values that undergird these systems must be dismantled if we are ever going to actually heal our relationship with the land and with each other.

What connections did you find in this article with the information that we are learning about in class?

Every single one of the folks interviewed for this article discuss how industrial waste and pollution has harmed people. Understanding the ways that water pollution and air pollution occur, from a scientific perspective, helps me better understand how these issues can be addressed.

The article states that environmental justice is "alongside global heating and the extinction crisis, it is one of the most pressing issues of our time." Do you believe this to be true? Explain your thoughts about this.

Absolutely! There can be no real understanding of the climate crisis without engaging with the uneven consequences of this crisis. This inequity has been in place for many, many, many generations, and only through understanding how the most defenseless communities on our earth have been harmed can we actually create solutions that address the collective needs of everyone who calls earth home.

Include the citation or where the article was printed/posted.

https://www.illinois.gov/news/press-release.18165.html

Briefly explain the situation and how it is an example of environmental injustice. Why did you choose this particular article? Does the issue have special meaning for you?

This is an article about a citation issued to a Champaign business for open dumping and open burning. I chose this article because I wanted to find an example of how ubiquitously our communities are harmed by pollution in ways both large and small. In so many ways, the global climate change issues we are facing feel overwhelming in their enormity, but in actuality they are simply the sum of how individual choices and their consequences.

What are your emotions and/or thoughts about this situation?

I feel sadness and anger. This article is about an example SO small, but it displays how even with good laws in place, individuals can still choose the path of least resistance, which is often at the cost of harming the local environment. This is a symptom of system of values that fundamentally ignores how our actions affect the very land we depend on.

Are there potential solutions proposed? If so, do the potential solutions reflect Rawls’ Principles of Social Justice explained above?

There are no potential solutions proposed, beyond reiterating that these violations can and will result in fines. This is a great example of the fact that fining really only creates a barrier to those without financial resources. If you DO have the financial resources, fines are simply the fee you pay to do what you want.

What feasible solutions would you propose? What obstacles do you anticipate to your proposed solutions?

A feasible solution would include a mandatory series of classes about how pollution directly affects the environment and community. Obstacles include critics who believe this educational effort would be a waste of time, and that it would be easier for everyone to leave just a monetary fine system in place.

[thekinkyleopard]

A lot of people don’t make any money off of their art, and just spend their free time pouring into it. That doesn’t make it okay. I also disagree that people rightfully being upset about their work being used and stolen without permission isn’t “hate.” It’s simply criticism of a very valid emotion.

I’ll address this to clarify my previous statement made because it seems some of you are twisting my words and opinion on this particular subject.

My friend made a mistake, it was indeed a bad mistake. We ALL agree what she did, wasn’t excusable. The point of my post wasn’t to excuse or minimize what she did. The point of my post was THE FACT my friend made a mistake, one that hadn’t inflicted any real damages upon the original artist (if they’d like to come forth and express it did, now there I couldn’t speak, but I don’t think all of snzblr wants to contact two artists that are most likely vanillas and would find this whole thing fucking weird in the first place and bring attention to a small community just tryna vibe.) garnished so much hate in her inbox, and amongst the tags, I found it absolutely REPULSIVE. People were attacking her PERSONALLY. Not just gently expressing what she did wrong. You can be mad, upset, disappointed, cheated, whatever big feeling you have, you are entitled to it. But you’re not entitled to lash out and attack someone personally who is WILLING to fix their mistakes, because you’re unhealed. My point was also to state that ANYONE who has ISSUES with Geez, is NOT welcome to bully, harass or be an all around cock-sandwich to me or my friend because of your own feelings. Did you know suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death amongst people 10-34? Did you know that cyber bullying increases attempts by 8%? Or Sewerslidal thoughts by 15%? No one considers those things when they’re up in arms over something so small compared to an entire life in their hands. There’s a way to approach situations like these where everyone can properly learn from their mistakes and move forward.

That’s my FRIEND. I do not CARE how mad you are at her she doesn’t deserve to have people bash her and pick at her mental health. She also doesn’t need a bunch of chronically online people telling her to “get help” as if we all aren’t aware of how shitty not only the insurance system is but the mental health system in general. It’s classist and ableist.

As for the crime discussed;

Intentionally stealing or copying someone’s work without credit and source is illegal and downright gross. However, IN MY OPINION, if someone makes a post and clearly points out “hey this is just a remake of my OCs of this OG person’s post, please go show them love and follow them and support their original piece it’s awesome! Here’s my redesign!” Posts it, I don’t see anything wrong with that. That’s the risk you run when you share your content online. You can be mad, but it’s still Fair Use and was properly credited and sourced. I DO NOT DRAW. I CAN NOT DRAW. I can vote. And I will always vote to protect people’s rights to their original ideas and concepts. My opinion on this general example, can be taken with a grain of salt because I’m not a visual artist or apart of the drawing/painting communities. I can not even point out a traced piece unless I’ve already seen the original. But as the example given previously, I do not see it as theft if you do credit and source the original and bring attention to the original piece that you’re tracing in the first place. Especially if the post does wind up bringing them more traffic.

If you still don’t understand, idk what to tell you except maybe read it until you do. Or unfollow me and call it a day. I do not hold my own personal value in myself or my craft, based off how many people interact with my fics or followers I have. It doesn’t hurt my feelings if you no longer wish to support my blog or my writings, or even my friend Geez. Do what you need to, and I will do the same.

[eru-duma-blog]

I don’t really know who needs to hear this but it’s here for when you do.

Basically, it’s important to recognise the very simple fact that there will be people out there, lots of people, who will hate or strongly dislike something that makes you happy.

There are people who will hate your favourite show and your favourite characters. Even if most of the fandom love that character - especially if most of the fandom love that character - there will be a group that, because of this, will despise and criticise them. I see it in every fandom and it’s very sad.

The personality quirks and the depth of the character that interests you WILL be hated by someone else and there’s nothing worse than seeing someone verbally attack the character(s) that you not only love but that you rely on for emotional and mental wellbeing. It might even be such a danger that you have to remove yourself from the fandom altogether and miss out on good things because you can’t run the risk of finding another hateful comment.

You are not alone!

Sometimes, the people who hate your favourite are only doing so because they are trolls and they know it will spark a retaliation. Others will be of the opinion that the character you love legitimately does not deserve any appreciation and they will be adamantly defending that opinion as the RIGHT opinion. It might even be brought upon by jealously that their own favourite is not being shown the love they believe is due or because they feel a sense of superiority in proudly declaring that they aren’t a ‘sheep’ by blindly loving the fan-favourite character as “all the commoners do”, going so far as to nit-pick at all the faults they can find.

And when you see a hate comment, you find it hard to get rid of. The memory of it floats in your head and, especially for those who rely on fictional characters for their mental happiness or escapism, it physically hurts. There’s an ache in your chest or your stomach and it can take several minutes and some heavy distractions to pull you out of that funk long enough to shrug the hate comment away. Some find it difficult to even do that!

Again, you are not alone!

Even if the entire fandom hates your favourite, you continue loving them. Don’t give in to their pressure and try and move on from a free source of happiness! They have no right to take that from you!

Just remember that haters feel more confident when they’re sat behind a screen and are letting their fingers do all the talking. They are just ‘other fans’ and they DO NOT speak for the actors and actresses, the writers, the creators or anyone responsible in providing you with content. Would they say all those criticisms if your favourite character’s actor was stood in earshot? Probably not. Because then their opinion wouldn’t be treated as valid, it wouldn’t matter to you, and it would be ignored and forgotten. Haters don’t like to be ignored and they definitely don’t like to be forgotten.

So, my advice is this: for every hate comment you see, remember that there are hundreds of people who are on YOUR side. Who love your favourite as much as you do and will only treat YOUR opinions as valid ones.

People will hate your favourite but that’s totally normal and okay.

Also (and this is going to be the most shocking piece of advice), don’t post hate comments.

If you feel the urge to completely belittle and shout at a character/team/show, do so in a private sector of the fandom with those that share your opinion by using separate hashtags. Don’t post it where anyone can see it because you have no idea of the untold damage your clever little put-down can inflict on someone you can’t see.

“It’s not like people will lose sleep over it.” No, you’re right, most don’t. But some do! Some have very complex mental health problems and something you say can cut very deeply.

“I’m entitled to my opinion!” You certainly are! Freedom of voice and all that. But becoming aggressive and refusing to respect another person’s feelings is not an opinion. It’s hate. And you are NOT entitled to hate.

“But that character is literally the worst.” I might agree with you. I too might hate that character. But we do not get to decide that everyone else must join us in hating them. When it’s just the two of us, then maybe. The character we hate is beloved to someone else and if I knew I was responsible for unintentionally hurting someone, the last thing I’d feel is proud.

It is possible to give your opinion without being hurtful.

There will always be varying reasons as to why a character is a favourite of someone’s.

Whether it is a very shallow reason (because they like their aesthetic or they like a certain personality type) or whether it’s because of very deep or very personal reasons (because that character reminds them of a deceased family member or shares flaws that they too are struggling with), leave people to love the characters you hate and leave people to hate the characters you love.

Remember that every time you do post hate, you’ve done the equivalent of slapping someone in the face.

Would you appreciate your comment, if it was directed at your favourite character?

(Please feel free to repost your own fandoms if you know of someone who needs this. And if you don’t, then you don’t have to worry at all.)

[comfortwriting]

Unbreak My Heart - F.W

Fred Weasley X Reader Part 2 of ‘Call Out My Name’, inspired by the song ‘Unbreak My Heart’ by Toni Braxton.

Part 1 , Part 3

About: Fred realises he has everything wrong. His heart aching for the reader after pushing her aside for someone else, he searches for her to apologise for what he’s done and to admit his true feelings for her.

Theme: Heartache, sadness, moving on, relationships, rumours.

Warnings: mentions of raw emotions, *incredibly light* smut, depression, body image issues and swearing.

Don't leave me in all this pain Don't leave me out in the rain Come back and bring back my smile Come and take these tears away I need your arms to hold me now The nights are so unkind Bring back those nights when I held you beside me

The first thirteen months without Fred were the worst. You couldn’t face visiting Weasleys Wizard Wheezes no matter how many times George asked in his letters which you ignored. You couldn’t go into Diagon Alley without hearing news about The Weasleys - more importantly, the news about Fred and his darling; they were now engaged.

You kept to your bedroom, crying to sleep every night, looking through all the pictures you had taken of and with Fred over the years that you were with him. Letters you had written to him laid scrunched up all over your floor like an author going mad over a sticky, confusing, part of the story - but that was exactly what this was. 

Everywhere you went as you entered Diagon Alley, you were forced to listen to the news over and over again that the shop was a success. You wanted to congratulate George, but after ignoring him for so long you couldn’t bring yourself to pick up a pen to reach out to him.

Too afraid to let anyone in after the damage Fred inflicted on you, you didn’t bother meeting anyone new.

Plenty of people offered and even your sister tried to match you up with a friend of hers from work, but you declined and allowed Fred’s damage to take over you.

You only left the house for work which was torture enough as you worked with Percy at the Ministry. You ate one meal a day which was an apple on your lunch break. You didn’t dream of moving out despite your parents encouragement and you simply just collapsed in on yourself whilst your family constantly complained about Fred, swearing that you chose the wrong twin.

Although you hated Fred - or at least convinced yourself that you did - you still thought about him every single day, and at bedtime you would envision yourself back on his sofa in his arms underneath that scratchy patchwork blanket you shared many memories under. 

Laying awake staring at the ceiling, you took a deep breath. It had been over a year. You couldn’t go on like this. You needed to claim your life back, one step at a time. Sitting up in your bed, you grabbed the last of your parchment and leaned it against an old book. Dipping your feather quill into your ink pot that rested beside your bed next to the framed picture of you and Fred, you wrote to George.

You began apologising for not replying and for not visiting the shop, explaining why, and asked how everything was going - you missed your friend and it became suffocating to ignore him reaching out.

Un-break my heart Say you'll love me again Undo this hurt you caused When you walked out the door And walked out of my life Un-cry these tears I cried so many nights Un-break my heart My heart

It had been another five months since you wrote your letter to George and you were still waiting for a reply. You told yourself that perhaps he got too busy with the shop or he just didn’t want to mend things after you ignored him for so long. Either way, you didn’t ponder on it, sprayed yourself with some perfume, and got ready to leave for your third date this week.

George wasn’t ignoring you on purpose. He truly was too busy with not just everything at the shop, but also helping Fred plan out this so-called wedding and engagement party that came out of nowhere. He planned to write back but time got the better of him, he knew you wouldn’t take it personally.

“Oh look at you!” your sister grinned, “Same guy?” she asked enthusiastically. 

“No,” you shook your head and grabbed your coat, putting it on, “I don’t see the same guy twice if the spark isn’t there.”

Your sister smiled to herself and told you to have a good time. You enjoyed yourself temporarily until you remembered Fred Weasley and what he did. He was the reason why you decided against seeing the same person twice. If there was no chemistry during intimacy you moved on. Speed dating was the perfect temporary aid you needed at the moment.  

And just like Fred and his fiancé, word got out about you and how desirable you were. Instead of wallowing in self-pity, you started looking after yourself and forced yourself into the limelight. Even if it didn’t result in finding your true love, you still wanted to have fun along the way.

Your parents went to The Leaky Cauldron, and just as they were leaving, they bumped into Molly and Arthur Weasley. Your parents flinched at first sight, but swallowed the anger they had towards their son Fred.

“Oh Mr and Mrs Y/LN! what a lovely surprise to see you!” Molly chirped up. George turned his head and stood up to greet your parents. Unlike Fred, they loved George.

“And you.” Your father replied, his voice monotone.

“We haven’t seen your daughter for ages. We missed her last summer, please ask her to come and see us. George misses her and it’s our Freddie's engagement party tonight!” Molly babbled on, pointing to George when she mentioned him and Fred.

Molly and Arthur loved you coming over to the burrow. They loved you even more seeing how happy you made their son. In their eyes you brought out the best in him. On the other hand, they weren’t keen on the girl Fred decided to marry, she was inconsiderate, selfish and didn’t know what hard work was - she was handed everything she ever wanted, the exact opposite to you.

Your fathers face flushed with frustration. Didn’t they know why you never came around anymore? Were they not aware that Fred was the reason she screamed and cried every night for over a year?

Your mother hesitated but decided against holding back. She liked the Weasley family, but she couldn’t allow Fred to get away with what he had done. 

“Maybe you should ask your darling boy, Fred. Or maybe George will tell you, he’s the decent one of the two.” 

Your mother said no more and stormed out of the packed pub, your father trailing behind nodding a goodbye to George. Molly and Arthur stood there speechless and looked over at George, demanding that he tells them what happened as soon as they arrive home when everyone has gone to bed.

Fred felt strange throughout the whole party. He didn’t feel happy like he thought he would - he hadn’t been feeling happy for the past five months. Something in his life just didn’t feel right and he couldn’t put his finger on what was wrong -waking up next to his girlfriend made him feel sick and he realised how stupid he was thinking that getting engaged would make everything better.

Molly, Arthur and George sat at the dining table when everyone else was in bed. “George you better tell me what happened, now!” Molly hissed in a low whisper.

George spilled absolutely everything, from beginning to end. As much as he loved his twin, he didn’t shy away from any details even if they showed Fred for exactly who he was, and the awful things he did. Molly and Arthur were outraged at their child's behaviour. Molly had to restrain herself at the table whilst she sobbed into her hands.

Far away, you panted heavily as you came down from your high with your date. Unmounting him, you laid beside him in his bed. He took off his condom and breathlessly offered taking a shower with him. You accepted his offer knowing that you could go home straight after, you wouldn’t need to stress about hurrying in the morning to get to work on time. 

Take back that sad word goodbye Bring back the joy to my life Don't leave me here with these tears Come and kiss this pain away I can't forget the day you left Time is so unkind And life is so cruel without you here beside me

Work at the ministry became more tolerable over the next six months. Percy smiled at you more often and you couldn’t understand why. You didn’t look into it and simply smiled back. You flourished even more within the same time - you had got into a relationship with the one night stand you shared a shower with. The curly haired bookshop assistant grew on you and you didn’t mind, he often made you laugh so hard you burst into tears.

Whilst you were finding yourself, running with the wind, Fred had fallen apart completely. He overheard George spilling his guts, and finally realised why everything felt so wrong, why he wasn’t happy. You were the missing piece. His guilt and mistakes were eating him alive. He broke off the engagement - to his parents delight - and vowed on finding you and making everything right. George felt relieved that he had his own room because Fred’s cries were enough to make anyone feel ill.

Fred slept with the Irish scarf he bought you from the world cup, and he kept the patchwork blanket on his bedroom, refusing to bring it back downstairs.

Memories flashed back to him, the two of you in the tent, “Oh Fred are you sure?” you asked him as he put the scarf around your neck.

He chuckled and kissed your head, “Anything for you, my love!”

Then memories from the sofa flooded in, hurting him even more. 

“I’m so in love with you,” you moaned, cupping his face while he made love to you. 

He shook his head and came to his senses, angry that he put such a lovely girl in the firing line.

“Percy, Y/N works with you doesn’t she? Can you tell her I need to see her.” He later begged.

Percy refused, “That would be an incredibly inappropriate thing to do in the work place!” 

Fred wrote you letters, but you never got them. The family refused to lend him their owl and Fred couldn’t understand muggle post. Getting desperate, he would stay in Diagon Alley trying to see where you were lurking after work, asking strangers if they had seen you, showing them the only picture he had of you.

“It’s going to be perfect here!” Your mum smiled looking around your large half unpacked apartment, “When will he be moving in?” She winked.

You finally saved up enough money to move out and you were planning on asking your boyfriend to move in if things continued to run smoothly. You had got your furniture, all you needed were the items left in the big green box from your bedroom. “I’ll collect them next week.” 

Feeling brave with your partner, arms linked, the two of you visited George’s shop. He had sent you a letter letting you know when Fred wasn’t working and you felt confident that you wouldn’t bump into him.

“I’m so proud of you!” You cheered for George, giving him a hug.

After paying for your bits and bobs you previously saw in the design stages, you walked out of the shop and bumped into someone. Looking up to apologise, you realised it was Fred. He stared at you - both of you mirroring each other looking like a deer caught in the headlights. 

You shook yourself out of the immediate shock Fred was still stuck in. 

“Sorry,” you muttered, walking away, your boyfriend asking what his problem was.

Un-break my heart Say you'll love me again Undo this hurt you caused When you walked out the door And walked out of my life Un-cry these tears I cried so many nights Un-break my heart

Another week went by and Fred was going stir crazy. Customers in his shop who knew you both were whispering about how happy you were now. Him and George argued when he discovered the letter between you two.

Fred rifled through the stacks of letters and found your parents address where you no longer lived. He got on his broom, not caring if muggles saw him, and landed on the roof. He crawled down to your window and gave it a tap with his wand with a soft “Alohomora”.

Expecting to find you asleep, he discovered only disappointment that your room laid bare and empty. The bedside table had nothing but a folded photo lying face down on it, the bin on the floor full of parchment balls.

He unfolded the photo and put a hand over his mouth, seeing you and him moving during your morning walks. He bent down and grabbed a ball from the bin, unravelling the parchment. He cried reading the letters you had written him but never sent. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted the green box on your bed and he went through it, more tears spilling down his face.

“I’ll just grab my box!” He heard you yell, walking upstairs. 

Without giving him time to hide, you opened the door, revealing him standing in front of you. You held back a scream of shock and took a deep breath shaking your head, “Fred please - you can’t be here.” 

Fred shook his head and cried, “I’m so sorry, for everything,” he made his way closer to you, “I got everything wrong, her, everything.”

Not wanting your parents to see him, you closed your bedroom door and locked it, your heart pounding. Tears fell from your eyes, the walls you put up against him crashing down, your hate for him melting away and your love for him surging inside.

“Why are you here?” you questioned him through your cries.

Fred walked over to you slowly not wanting to scare you off. This was the closest you had been to him since you bumped into him at the shop. The young man you fell in love with wrapped his arms around you, tangling his hands in your hair. You stayed still with your hands by your side.

“I’m in love with you.” Fred choked out between sobs. He pulled away and gently put your hands in his, your tear filled eyes getting lost in his.

“Fred- I can’t!” you shook your head crying, feeling weak at the words he said and the ones you replied with. 

“Please,” Fred begged getting onto his knees, staring up at you, “please let me make things right.”

Don't leave me in all this pain Don't leave me out in the rain Bring back the nights when I held you beside me

“I think you look stunning,” Fred complimented you, soot spread out all over your nose.

You chuckled and sneaked a kiss on his lips, only to hear a loud thud on the desk in front of you.

“One weeks’ detention for the two of you,” Professor Snape snarled, “and fifty points will be deducted from your house.”

Un-break my heart Say you'll love me again Undo this hurt you caused When you walked out the door And walked out of my life Un-cry these tears I cried so many, many nights Oh, un-break my

“What do you mean you’re taking her instead of me!” you freaked out, throwing your earrings at the mirror. 

“It’s just a bloody Yule Ball. Y/N. It doesn’t mean anything.” Fred argued.

“Well it does to me!” you argued back, “I’m guessing I was just your back up plan if she said no.” 

Un-break my heart, oh baby Come back and say you love me Un-break my heart, sweet darlin' Without you I just can't go on

Fred held you in his arms, the two of you watching the muggle horror movie in amazement. You nuzzled your head into his neck, planting kisses on it softly. Fred let out a soft shaky moan, his hand making its way up your thigh. “We’ll need to be quiet,” he whispered, pulling your underwear off.

Can't go on (Say that you love me, say that you love me) (Tell me you love me, un-break my) (Say that you love me, say that you love me) (Tell me you love me, un-break my)

You stared at Fred, still trying to process what he said. You pursed your lips and stayed quiet getting lost in your thoughts. Fred noticed you were in shock and lost for words. He pulled out the scarf from his coat pocket and walked over to you, wrapping it around you.

You stared up at him, getting lost in those gorgeous eyes that you missed so much. You looked down at his lips and kissed him impulsively.

He kissed back.

[yabai-korra]

Eris getting some of Nesta's powers and his importance in the future

Y'all I'm 90% sure some of Nesta's power has been transferred to Eris, at first it occurred to me in a sort of "ha, could be" way but I'm pretty certain, hear me out! Also going to touch on the subject of Nesta not losing her powers completely.

The power in the dagger

Nesta Made the dagger and put some of her own power into it, and then Eris got that dagger as a present by Inner Circle, which wasn't really a necessary scene nor plot point unless you read between the lines.

KINGDOM OF ASH SPOILERS AHEAD!

We have seen the exact same thing in Kingdom Ash, Aelin lost all of her power but an ember, but beforehand put it in her sword Goldryn and whooped Maeve's ass, actually head lol, with it. Having power shoot out of her hands and her sword felt pretty much the same so I'm sure Nesta will be equally powerful in the next book! Not only does she have a bit of her power left, three weapons filled with her power, and the Dread Trove. Nesta is still the most powerful character 😎

If Nesta can put some of her power into a weapon, it doesn't seem like a stretch at all for the power in the weapon to get out and into a person.

Eris only pretended to be influenced by Koschei

This one was kinda obvious to me from the moment I read it, no psychoanalyzing needed.

Nesta and her weapons were said to "probably" grant immunity from Koschei's power because they were both Made, and Eris had the dagger while he when he was captured.

Every person that has been possessed by Koschei has been said to have glassy eyes, EVERYONE except Eris!

Eris's soldiers had glassy eyes.

Bellius had glassy eyes.

Cassian had glassy eyes.

Eris is the only "possessed" person to get "accidentally" caught.

Eri's soldiers said nothing, and it was Briallyn who reveal that Bellius and Cassian were possessed.

Out of Cassian, Bellius, Eris, and his soldiers, Eris is undoubtedly the slickest and most cunning one. Comparison between him and Cassian has been dragged throughout the whole book, while Cassin is the muscle, Eris plays mind games and politics.

ERIS IS THE MASTER AT WORD GAMES! How did Cass and Az realize he was possessed and therefore Koschei being there? THROUGH ERIS USING A WORD GAME he knew only Cass and Az will pick up on.

Are y'all trying to tell me that Eris, who supposedly had immunity from the Koschei's power, didn't show the only sign of being possessed which is glassy eyes, had accidentally said something that will let Cass and Az know he's "possessed"?

Golden flames

The word "flame" has been used in 4 different contexts throughout the book

a) actual fire in the fireplace

b) silver flames in Nesta's eyes

c) flames in Lucien's eyes

d) flames in Eris's eyes

We know that Autumn Court's power is fire, both Lucien and Eris were described to have red flames in their eyes, which is completely expected right?

Eris was said to have flame/red flame multiple times, but I'm only allowed ten pics per post, and obviously not gonna put quotes of Nesta's silver flames cause it's literally the title lol.

Then, when Eris was "possessed" and held a dagger to Cassian's chest, it was said that flame rippled from it, and Cass didn't know if it came from the dagger itself or from Eris.

My guess? Both or combined! When Eris received the dagger, he said that it has flame in it, and Eris is said to have had flames in his eyes previously.

Last but not least, AFTER Eris had been "possessed" and AFTER the dagger was returned to the Night Court, ERIS NOT LONGER HAS RED FLAME IN HIS EYES, BUT GOLD.

This was in the penultimate chapter! Aka the chapter before the last. SJM always takes great care to put something important or foreshadowish at the end of each book. The last chapter was obviously Nessian and Archeron sisters, since it was the Nessian book and the three sisters are all finally happy together (plus announcing the next book as Elain's) but chapter before that... about Eris? Interesting.

There was so much about him there I for a second thought the next book is going to be about him lol. So much to unpack in that chapter:

Eris was tortured by his father for information (which I think is the hint for Eris not being possessed).

Eris still insists there are some things about him and Mor that Mor hasn't told the Inner Circle.

He wants to explain something to Mor.

He obviously just wants to be friends with the Inner Circle (but that's a discussion for another post).

Cassian, who hates Eris with burning passion throughout the whole book, says he thinks Eris is a good guy, but is too much of a coward to act like it.

It was hinted that Beron did much worse things to Eris during his life, "The male had been raised with every luxury and privilege - on paper. But who knew what terrors Beron had inflicted upon him? Cassin knew Beron had murdered Lucien's lover. If the High Lord of Autumn had been willing to do that, what wouldn't he do?" If you ever read any SJM serials you would know that this wasn't put here just because, it's always foreshadowing with her.

"Because it doesn't add up. You know what a monster your father is and want to usurp him; you act against him in the best interests of not only the Autumn Court but all of the faerie lands; you risk your life to ally with us... and yet you left her in the woods." - Cassian. Do you see all the material for the future book?

"Eris crossed his arms, then winced. As if whatever injuries lay beneath his immaculate clothes ached." I THINK THIS IS A DESCRIPTION OF NOT ONLY ERIS'S CURRENT SITUATION, BUT HIS WHOLE LIFE. As Cass said, born in luxury, raised by a monster.

Eris is generally very fucked up? Not only was it in this last chapter, but it was stated multiple times that his upbringing really damaged him. When Cassian was surprised by the fact Beron tortured him, Eris responded with: "Get that pitying look off your face. I know what sort of creature my father is. I don't need your sympathy." That is an extremely fucked up way to respond to being tortured by one's father, and implicates he was subjected to similar misery earlier in his life.

"Nesta could see he didn't believe them - that he was so used to twisted politics and scheming of his court that even when the simple, easy truth was offered, he could not see it." Again, very messed up mindset, which in the author's language means writing material.

The last line said to Eris in the book is: "Eris was still their ally. Was willing to be tortured to keep their secrets. And Cassian didn't need to be a courtier to know his next words would slice deep, but it would be a necessary wound. Perhaps it would be enough to push him in the right direction. "You know, Eris, I think you might be a decent male, deep down, trapped in a horrible situation." He looked over his shoulder to find Eris's gaze blazing again. But only pity stirred in his chest, pity for a male who has been born into riches, but had been destitute in every way that truly mattered. In every way Cassian had been blessed - blessings that were now overflowing. So Cassian said; "I grew up surrounded by monsters. I've spent my existence fighting them. And I see you, Eris. You're not one of them. Not even close. I think you might even be a good male. You're just too much of a coward to act like it." This was said by Cassian, whom Eris insulted every time they interacted, who hurt his sister, who wanted to steal his mate, whom Cassian said he wanted to kill or leave to die on so so many occasions, who made Cassian feel stupid and insecure every chance he had, and yet Cass of all people found it in his big good heart to see the good in Eris and try to push him to be good.

And now, his eyes burn with golden flames.

There is so so much to unpack and reveal about Eris's character, and SJM couldn't be more obvious with pointing it out. He is definitely going to play a huge role in the next book(s). With his possible new powers, overthrowing Beron, healing from all the emotional and physical trauma inflicted upon him, revealing a lot of secrets he's been keeping, and finding a way to show his true colors.

Also I think Nesta might be the one to help him with it because she at some point says that she deserves to marry him because "she is just like him", and not only in a way that they both insulted Cassian. They both had/had demanding parents which made them cold and unfeeling, preferring to appear as assholes because they don't want and don't know how to be their true kind selves. I think she would a great friend and the best person to help him deal with everything.

And the way Eris obviously likes her which we've seen when they were dancing. How he saw that she really liked spinning around so he went out of his way to spin her on multiple occasions even though it wasn't in the dance protocol. I'm pretty sure that was his way of getting closer to her because he obviously can't do it with words.

[forevercloudnine]

arkhamverse riddlebat ship meme

(Continuing with the questions that @heroes-etc​ picked out for me, this set being from this ship meme.)

3. who is more afraid about the other leaving them?

Edward, hands down. Arkhamverse Riddler is maybe the neediest take on the character I’ve ever seen. Which is saying something, because the panel from “Questions Multiply the Mystery” where he writhes around on the floor begging for attention is permanently burned into my mind. He also clearly doesn’t take rejection well, as evidenced by the graffiti in his cell shown in a promotional image for Arkham Asylum (2009). J'ai aimé, j'ai souffert, maintenant... je hais. “I loved, I suffered, now I hate.”

It didn’t make it into the game proper (too subtexty, maybe, given a general lack of non-Batman people this could be referring to), but from my perspective it might as well have, since I experienced all the games second hand by sitting on the couch next to my brother while he swore at the Riddler challenges. Anyway, if perceived rejection has you writing French poetry on your cell wall in what looks concerningly like bodily fluids, then you probably won’t deal well with the concept of actually being dumped.  

5. who is more likely to drunkenly confess?

Also Edward, given that he’s calling Bruce every five minutes. And if he’s not calling Bruce directly, he’s talking ABOUT Bruce in a public broadcast to all of Gotham. Eddie is the king of freudian slips sober, so one can only imagine what he would say in vino veritas. If he does get drunk, let’s hope for his sake that he opts to communicate through his private line to Batman rather than over every screen in Gotham.

6. who is more likely to push the other away (for any reason)?

Bruce, also hands down. Arkham Knight really goes out of its way to hammer in that Batman’s callous treatment of Riddler has wreaked havoc on Edward’s psyche, even if arguably Eddie had it coming. Riddler’s mole in the GCPD talks about this:

JT Walker: It used to be funny, you know [...] And then one day, it just wasn't funny anymore. It was pathetic. He stopped taking care of himself, got that crazy look in his eyes. I swear man, he's broken. You broke him.

Bruce’s subconscious gets a dig in on this topic via Joker hallucination. 

“Joker”: Good for you, Bats! Eddie doesn’t need help. No, no, no. Beat ‘em up. Lock ‘em up. That’s the best medicine. 

Even my brother, who would attempt to stab Arkhamverse Edward in the face War-of-Jokes-and-Riddles style if the games let him, felt guilty on Bruce’s behalf when Eddie started ranting about his photographic memory. 

Riddler: I can summon your sneering features at will. That is, when they don't burst unbidden into my brain [...] I can remember every time you've hurt me. Sometimes I wake up, Dark Knight, to the feel of your hands around my neck, your carbon fiber created fists smashing my solar plexus. 

I think because of this trait, one of the only ways this ship would work in Arkhamverse is if they came to an agreement during Arkham Origins (since Edward is... more or less... a vigilante in that game, albeit one that Bruce considers distasteful), well before their relationship gets to where it is in Arkham Asylum. The other way is if Bruce actually took the lesson Arkham Knight hammered over his head and tried to fix the damage done after faking his death. (In my mind there exists a many chaptered fanfic where after Batman “disappears” he moves to the second Batcave the games put under Arkham Asylum and takes on Joker’s “Eric Border” persona from the comics to become an orderly there. Whether it’s scarebat or riddlebat varies depending on my mood, but what’s consistent no matter what is that I have five WIPs on ao3 and I can’t write it until I finish at least one of them).  

7. who picks fights more often?

Obviously Arkhamverse Edward is the most irritating person who has ever lived, so he kind of wins by default. But Bruce definitely holds his own in instigating unnecessary conflict with loved ones in this continuity. I’ll cut him some slack during Arkham Knight because one could argue that he spends most of the game half-possessed by an evil clown ghost, but it’s not like he’s much better in ANY of the other games. The bit in Arkham City where he lies to Talia’s face about being willing to spend the rest of his life with her so that she’ll give him access to the Lazarus Pit — even though if he was just honest and asked for it she probably would have helped him anyway, given that she DIES protecting him in the climax — is probably the best example of how he will infuriate people who love him for no logical reason. It’s a symptom of the post traumatic hyper vigilance, probably.

So if Edward did get the closeness to Bruce that his subconsciousness seems to be gunning for, he could look forward to the physical violence and public humiliation being replaced with the same well-intentioned gaslighting and emotional manipulation Bruce gives everyone but Alfred in these games. Actually, is Alfred the only one who’s even aware that he’s alive after Arkham Knight? Bruce, please tell your kids that you aren’t a pile of ash in the crater that used to be Wayne Manor.

9. who is more likely to withhold their feelings for the other?

The obvious answer is Bruce, because he keeps his emotions locked in a lead box buried like twenty feet beneath the floor of the Batcave (probably along with a bunch of kryptonite, since Superman is flying around the Arkhamverse somewhere). But honestly Bruce doesn’t seem to have a problem getting it on with supervillains in this continuity. He and Talia chat pretty casually about a recent romantic rendezvous in Metropolis when they meet in Arkham City. His emotional distance from Selina in Arkham Knight seems less like him withholding his feelings from her, and more like him not being over Talia’s death (or Joker’s, which... the narrative certainly focuses on more than Talia’s...). 

So I think Edward would actually be more likely to withhold his feelings for Bruce. Even if Bruce approached him first, he’s too obsessed with the possibility of Bruce humiliating him to take any positive interaction (especially a romantic overture) at face value. 

Riddler: You left me battered and demeaned in Arkham City. I am the Riddler, Batman. I don't suffer humiliation. I pay it back.

He’s not really wrong, either. Batman does humiliate him in Arkham City (by misleading Edward into thinking he’d let him die, no less); it’s the same embarrassment Edward inflicts on his own victims, so it’s not like he doesn’t deserve it per se, but it’s definitely not Bruce taking the higher ground.

Sticking him in his own trap is pretty vindictive, and Riddler’s weird commentary about not letting Batman have bathroom breaks during his revenge trials in Arkham Knight hints that Cash and the other guards might have made his (clearly unlawful!) punishment even more humiliating than we see on screen.

Riddler: Rule the seventh. Bathroom breaks will be administered on a discretionary basis. Should we find ourselves at a pivotal moment in your arduous journey to self-realization and defeat, I expect you to hold it in. Rule the eighth. Any accidents resulting from my strict enforcement of the seventh rule are to be considered your fault entirely. 

So would Edward withhold his feelings for Batman? Yeah, probably. And it would probably take a lot of time and effort for Bruce to convince Edward that any feelings on his part weren’t just an attempt to humiliate Riddler further.     

[miraculousbelladonna]

The Edict

This is a little something salty I wrote that was inspired by @musicfeedsmysoul12’s Judgement au. This is my first time putting any of my ML writings out into the world! I will also maybe be posting this on ao3 depending on how it’s received here! So ... if you don’t like salt, don’t interact. 

Summary: The Miraculous Ladybug cure can heal people from any wound inflicted by an akuma, even revive the dead, but if even one of the holders are not the true holders (Marinette is, Adrien isn’t) the weight of the damage done will be inflicted upon the holder of the ladybug miraculous.

Marinette thinks nothing of it, discounts the bruises, soreness, and headaches after every fight as the obligatory battle wounds. She’s clumsy, and not as in shape as a superhero should be, maybe she should drink more water. Make an effort to get some more sleep. She doesn’t think about it.

Until Syren. People drowned. People died. People who were all brought back.

At a cost.

That she paid. That she’s paying.

It starts with coughing. Something is stuck in her chest and it feels like if she coughs hard enough, she can get it out. She doesn’t.

It gets kind of hard to breathe.

It gets worse and becomes pneumonia.

It gets worse.

Her lungs are constantly filling with fluid faster than they can drain it.

She’s drowning. She’s always drowning.

They don’t know why.

They call it “dry drowning,” the body is stuck as the mind moves on, but as far as they know, Marinette wasn’t one of the ones killed in the attack. She is the only one still exhibiting symptoms of drowning, as far as they know, Ladybug had fixed everything, just like she always does. As far as they know.

The science doesn’t add up, it doesn’t make sense. They call in specialists, try to track Ladybug down to ask her what happened, to ask for clarification, for help, but she’s disappeared.

Ladybug is gone.

Marinette is laying in the hospital sick and dying for no discernible reason, no cause that anyone can find, and Tikki is furious.

She knows the cause. She knows the syren body count. She knows exactly how many people were brought back, and she knows why Marinette’s lungs are constantly filling. It won’t stop until she has drowned 1833 times. One for every person she brought back.

She will not survive it.

All because Chat Noir is not the true holder of the miraculous of destruction.

This has only ever happened to her once. She’s lost many chosen, of course, she is as old as life itself, but she has only ever lost one like this, because she went to great pains to ensure it would never happen again.

A grave mistake has been made. At the cost of her chosen. At the cost of the only true creation soul on the earth in this era. Tikki took her time crafting it. She poured in passion, ebullience, excitement, zest for life in its many forms, creativity, determination, loyalty, strength, a dash of luck, sat back to let it coalesce, and let it go. Just being near the girl makes them both more powerful, and Ladybug seems so invincible because she might as well be. She cannot he bested by a mere man or flimsy akuma.

Marinette may not be aware of how powerful she is, but she has time. She has more than enough time to grow and discover herself.

Or rather, she should.

No. She will. Tikki will correct this grievous error.

Marinette will not die. Not like this.

*****

Tikki flew out of the hospital with a purpose. She was glowing faintly because of her anger, it was so overwhelming it was almost too much to contain. She hasn’t been this angry in a millennia, so she didn’t realize that her power was leaking out of her, she didn’t see the flowers blooming and trees flowering as she flew by. She didn’t see the three pregnant ladies sitting in a cafe across the street, nor did she see that each of their waters broke simultaneously.

She needed to see Master Fu. She needed to correct this mistake by whatever means necessary.

She pauses outside of the door to collect herself. She takes a moment to leash her power, and when she sees that the glow around her has dimmed, she goes inside.

Wayzz is floating at attention in the middle of the room, waiting for her. He looks extremely nervous, and it’s bordering on fear. Good. She may be the embodiment of creation, but that in itself doesn’t make her good. She is benevolent, yes, and it’s much easier to be nice than needlessly cruel, but people so often forget how monsters came to be. They forget that she is creation. They forget that she created all of the bad things on Earth just like she created the good. Plagg may be the only living being in existence who truly understands what she’s capable of, although by the looks of him, it seems that Wayzz is remembering.

Remembering who she is. What she is. What she is capable of.

“Tikki,” he starts nervously, bowing his head in respect. “I felt your power unleash all the way across the city. I felt ... your anger. What - what happened?”

“Wayzz,” she inclines her head in acknowledgement of his deference and he relaxes. She knows this isn’t his fault. Her anger is not for him. “I am here to speak with the Guardian.”

Wayzz’s eyes widen, and she knows that he took note of how she addressed Fu, and what it means. He knows that she is here in a professional capacity. She is not here for platitudes and niceties. It takes everything in him not to tremble as he bows his head again, says, “Of course. I will go retrieve him immediately,” and rushes out of the room.

She sighs after Wayzz leaves. She didn’t mean to scare him, and she didn’t mean to get so angry, but mistakes were made and Marinette is suffering. Marinette is fighting for her life and for the lives of everyone who died during Syren, because if she dies so does everyone she brought back, and the least Tikki can do is rectify this error. Make sure it never happens again.

She feels herself beginning to glow again as she remembers the last time this happened. Her anger rises as she remembers that she thought she had already ensured this would never happen again. She doesn’t try to reign in her emotions or her power this time. Fu needs to remember exactly who and what he’s dealing with. It’s time for her to remind him.

Fu looks surprised as he walks into the room. Every potted plant in the room has grown at least five inches taller than they were when he saw them last. He sees Tikki in the middle of the room, glowing with anger that he doesn’t seem to recognize.

If he were smarter, he’d be afraid.

“Tikki, what brings you here at this time of night? Morning? Wayzz, what time is it?”

Wayzz, floating behind him, is quiet and unobtrusive when he replies, “It is currently 6:15 in the morning, Master.”

“6 in the morning? Tikki, surely whatever it was could’ve waited until a more appropriate time.”

Her anger spikes and all the plants in the room grow another three inches. She is shaking with anger. It takes everything in her, will she hasn’t exerted in millennia, to hold her power back. To hold it in.

“My chosen is dying in the hospital right now, there is no more appropriate time. Do you even know why?”

Fu’s face crumples in shock and worry, and he opens his mouth to speak but she cuts him off with a sharp wave of her arm.

“No. Do not speak. For once, you are going to listen. Marinette, as I'm sure you know, is a true creation soul. She is the true creation soul. The only one. And she is currently dying in the hospital because you have made a mistake. A grievous error. I want you to tell me what you think that error might be. I want you to think about why Marinette, a young healthy 15 year old girl, is currently in the hospital dying.” She narrows her eyes at him as he opens his mouth only to shut it again. She gestures for him to speak, and says, “Go ahead.”

“I don’t- I don’t know why she would be in the hospital. Was there an accident?”

Tikki shuts her eyes and breathes in deeply, letting it out in a big sigh. When she opens her eyes again they are tinged with red, glowing just like the rest of her is.

“No. Wrong answer.”

Wayzz moves out from behind Fu and goes to hide behind one of the plants that are steadily growing taller by the minute.

“You see, I could have forgiven this if it were only as a result of your lack of training. I could have given you some leeway. Maybe you misread Adrien’s soul, it happens. True destruction souls are marginally more common than true creation ones. Maybe you didn’t know what would happen when you gave him that ring, that’s understandable. That’s something we might have been able to move past. But, what I cannot, will not forgive, is the fact that you let his behavior go unchecked. You enabled and coddled him and encouraged, no, manipulated Marinette to do the same. It’s been going well enough so far, or I’m sure that’s what you’ve been telling yourself, but today, people died. People died and because Adrien is not a true soul of destruction, because the balance is uneven, Marinette is bearing the weight of the lives of every person she brought back with the cure. She is dying all of their deaths, and it will not stop until she has experienced all 1833 of them.”

Wayzz gasps audibly at the revelation, flying out from behind the plant and going to hover next to Tikki. “Master, please. You didn’t. You couldn’t have. Tell me you didn’t.”

Fu looks away guiltily, unable to answer, and Tikki’s composure snaps.

She’s seething. Her entire body is practically vibrating, and the glow around her gets brighter and brighter until it’s blinding them all. The plants continue to grow even faster, their leaves are all filling the room, clogging it, and it doesn’t stop. She can’t reign her anger back in. She doesn’t want to.

“You have thoughtlessly endangered the lives of not only my chosen, but everyone in Paris time and time again. Did you think you’d get away with it? That Marinette was too young, too naive to speak up? Too nice to complain about what Chat has been doing to her? Did you think that nothing like this would ever happen? That I’d never find out? If so, you are as ignorant as you are stupid, Wang Fu, but regardless, your time is up. You will pay for what you have done to Marinette, and for what you’ve allowed to happen to Paris.”

Fu looks chastened and guilty, but it’s not enough. It will never be enough. Marinette has already died 5 times between when she was admitted last night and now. She’s been brought back every time due to the tireless efforts of the hospital staff, but sometime soon it will not be enough.

“I, Tikki, Kwami of Creation, hereby revoke guardianship of Wang Fu. Every miraculous that you have distributed except for mine will be returned to the miracle box, including yours. You will never again hold or wield a miraculous. You will never be able to speak of this to anyone. You will spend the next month aging to however old you’d be without Wayzz’s interference. You will die alone with nothing to accompany you except for the weight of your own mistakes. Wayzz, will you be my witness?”

Wayzz swallows hard, eyes watering as he looks at Fu, who looks about a step away from getting on his knees and begging. He thinks of Marinette, of what it means to be a true creation soul, and how her soul is on the verge of being snuffed out because of a mistake his Master made, a mistake that has only ever been made once before, and nods. “I, Wayzz, Kwami of Protection, am witness to the revocation of Wang Fu’s guardianship. I concur with everything that Tikki, Kwami of Creation, has decided. The judgement will be enacted whenever she so chooses.”

Tikki speaks in a language as old as time, a tongue that is only known to the Kwami and the Guardian, “The judgement is passed.”

Fu hears the first sentence and drops to the ground in shock. Tikki isn’t done, but whatever she’s saying now, he can’t understand it. He looks up at her and opens his mouth, and finds that he can’t speak to her either. He can’t speak to either of the Kwami. His vision swims the longer he looks at them, and his head starts to throb. He has to turn away. The miraculous is a physical weight on his arm, dragging him down until his arm hits the floor and the bracelet snaps open.

A sort of shock goes through the room, emanating from the both of them out through the building, through the city, and the miracle box opens. Every drawer and shelf in the box opens in unison, and as the turtle miraculous flies into its spot, all of the Kwami fly out of their Miraculi to see what’s happening. They haven’t had a summoning like this in millennia. Something is very, very wrong.

The miraculous of destruction flies into the miracle box, and as soon as it lands Plagg immediately floats out of it. He’s frantic, growing even more so as he sees Tikki glowing with power. “Tikki, I didn’t know. I swear to you that I didn’t know. His soul was already corrupted when he got my miraculous, I didn’t know he wasn’t mine, you know true destruction souls aren’t as rare as creation ones, I couldn’t tell. I know that’s not good enough but sugar cube, I am sorry. I am so truly sorry.”

Tikki looks at him and nods, but doesn’t interrupt her speech. It takes him a moment to realize she’s speaking in the old tongue, and as he listens to what she’s saying, as he turns and sees the wreckage of the overgrown plants, as he sees all the Kwami floating around them, staring at the man who is on the floor crying with his eyes covered and face turned away from them, he realizes what’s happening, and feels his heart turn to stone in his chest.

“Guardianship of the Miraculi will be transferred to Marinette Dupain-Cheng, my current chosen and the acting Ladybug, hero of Paris. Myself and my Kwami brethren will teach her our ways, and teach her how to be a proper Guardian. We will protect her as she has chosen to protect us and all the people of Paris. She will never again be overlooked. She will never again be belittled or made to feel insignificant. She will go down in history as the most powerful Ladybug and the best Guardian the world has ever seen. Who will be witness to this edict?”

Wayzz finds it much easier to speak up this time, and is the first to agree. “I, Wayzz, Kwami of Protection, am witness to this edict.”

Plagg is glaring daggers at the pathetic scrap of a man still crying on the floor. “I, Plagg, Kwami of Destruction, am witness to this edict.”

Another shock goes through the room, the building, the city, at his declaration. The Kwami all glow for a moment with the release of power, and then grow wary at what has had to happen for such power to be released. What happened that meant this power needed to be released?

Either way, they trust Tikki, and they know her. She is Creation, she is life. She is their mother in the sense that she blinked them into existence. She has never steered them wrong. The fact that she is asking for witnesses, even now, instead of just exerting her will as the Goddess of Creation, as is her right, speaks volumes. They have never had a reason to doubt her, for she has never even thought of giving them one.

Tikki is staring at all of them in turn, still glowing with power. The Kwami all inhale collectively, exhale in unison, close their eyes, inhale again to connect to each other, and when their eyes are open they are each glowing in accordance to their power.

“We, the Kwami of the Miracle Box of Paris, are witness to this edict. We accept Marinette Dupain-Cheng as the new Guardian. We will protect her as she has chosen to protect us and the city of Paris. She will never again be overlooked. She will never again be belittled or made to feel insignificant. We concur.”

Tikki takes a deep breath, and as she finishes the summoning, she releases her power in a third and final shockwave that has the lights in the entire city flickering.

“It is done.”

***

Miles away, attached to machines and tubes in a hospital bed, Marinette opens her eyes.

[wordsablaze]

hardest of hearts

A fix-it songfic inspired by a request for something post-mountain where Geralt feels guilty for hurting his bard and Jaskier struggles with low self-esteem...

A/N: @holisticfansstuff hey, i finally wrote this for your ask !! sorry it took a while and i’m not quite sure this is what you wanted but i hope it’s alright !! the song is hardest of hearts by florence + the machine x

-

“If life could give me one blessing, it would be to take you off my hands!”

And with that one sentence, Jaskier shatters.

And everything changes.

there is love in your body but you can’t hold it in

Meletite knows Jaskier has had enough practice picking up the broken pieces of himself, whether it’s literally pulling his skin back together after being too troublesome or reassembling the shards of his heart after someone carelessly, unknowingly damages it.

He’s broken and been broken countless times before and really, it should be nothing new to witness himself do so once more. Because Jaskier has always loved freely and deeply, but it had been different this time.

And yes, he’s long since lost track of how many windows he’s leaped out of before the sun has risen or how many hushed promises have turned into hazy tavern memories. But this time, it was Geralt.

It was his livelihood and his muse and his very reason for making it through winter, and it was different to any other love he’d nurtured - it was the only one he’d offered slowly and steadily, the only one that had been so sharply spat back at him.

Never has he struggled so much to even breathe right as he turns away.

it pours from your eyes and spills from your skin

Geralt is so, so fiercely angry that he forgets how to be guilty.

That is, until he sees Jaskier’s expression, because Jaskier should be angry or upset or amused but he’s simply a brave face, a faux smile, a testament to Geralt’s mistakes.

An excuse is made about collecting the rest of the story but they both know there’ll never be an accurate song sung about a dragon hunt. And if Jaskier’s expression isn’t enough, the bitter sorrow and sharp pain that radiates from him even after Geralt has turned around is evidence enough.

He’s messed up and he’s messed up horribly and he’s frozen in place as he hears Jaskier’s footsteps fade until they’re too far to follow.

Part of him hopes Jaskier will stay so things can go back to normal but by the time he remembers to move, the only trace left of him is a lingering floral scent that does nothing to fill the sudden void in Geralt’s world.

tenderest touch leaves the darkest of marks

Jaskier walks until his feet hurt and then he carries on walking because that’s what he always does when his heart breaks. Only this time he’s certain the blisters on his feet will heal long before his heart does, if it ever does.

He’s no stranger to this sort of pain, he’s travelled a path paved with the disdain of people he’s loved, but Geralt’s blow seems to have hit the hardest of them all despite never truly touching him.

And worst of all, he doesn’t dare sing about it lest anyone get the wrong idea about witchers, for that would unravel decades of effort and he couldn’t bear to see their kind suffer just because it turns out he has a weak heart.

“Toss a coin to your witcher…” he sings, tempted to toss and lose the coin that’s been nestled in his pockets since Posada.

He’s a fool for keeping it, he knows he is, but he can’t bear to part with it, can’t bear to admit that he’s been cast aside by yet another love.

and the kindest of kisses break the hardest of hearts

It’s no secret that Geralt is a quiet person by nature.

He’s never pretended otherwise, which is why it was such a shock when Jaskier slots into his life as if he were born to do so.

Because Jaskier talks enough for the both of them and he becomes an expert in knowing what Geralt is feeling, even when he himself hasn’t figured it out. And Geralt hates it at first, hates the way Jaskier knows when he needs help with bargaining or when he just wants to get away from people and shelter in the forests.

He knows he doesn’t express his gratitude enough, he knows that Jaskier deserves someone who can match his love, who can hold his hand in broad daylight instead of curling up with him in the dead of night under the pretence of necessity.

It doesn’t bother Jaskier though, and all the bard asks for in return is tales of heroics and heartbreak for his songs - Geralt hates himself for so harshly providing the latter.

there is love in your body but you can’t get it out

Sometimes, just sometimes, Jaskier regrets building up his career on Geralt’s adventures.

He’d never imagined that they’d part ways - or rather, he’d let his guard down and forgotten to remember that most people leave him eventually - so he’s wholly unprepared for how much it hurts to sing about witchers when he’s no longer travelling with one.

But he does it anyway because he’s loved Geralt from the start and he doesn’t think he’s capable of ever not loving Geralt and he doesn’t know what else to do with himself.

So he keeps going.

On and on.

He travels as far as he can so that he can stay out of Geralt’s way, taking his broken heart with him and ignoring the way he feels like its shards are tearing into his insides a little more with each passing day.

it gets stuck in your head, won’t come out of your mouth

There is more than one town in which Geralt wants to murder a bard.

His bard - for that is what everyone knows Jaskier as - has created masterpieces and they are being butchered by men with far lesser voices, by men who don’t deserve to sing them in the first place.

And Geralt yearns to hear the original versions but it seems he is fated to hear Jaskier’s pain second-hand. He asks around, of course he does, for where to find Jaskier, but nobody knows what to tell him and he has never been good at bargaining for information.

He wishes he knew how to say more than please and thank you but Jaskier was his communication and without him, he can only really achieve the minimum required from him.

Regret pools in his gut every time Jaskier’s trail fizzles out.

sticks to your tongue and it shows on your face

Performance has always been Jaskier’s area of expertise but gods is it difficult to pretend he isn’t drowning in the love he was never meant to keep for himself.

He doesn’t know what to do with his compliments and his teasing and his fond exasperation because all of it was for Geralt and if Geralt doesn’t want it, doesn’t want him, he doesn’t know what to do with it, with himself.

He wastes some of his unwanted love on drunken adventures and always regrets it when he’s asked to stay and give up his travels or asked to leave and flee before a betrothed returns - both demands are knives that sink into his chest and add to the cracks in his heart.

It seems that nobody can truly understand what pleases him but he cannot fault them for he has forgotten how to be honest, whether it’s with others or himself.

Jaskier is tired of loving and hurting as if they are one and the same.

that the sweetest of words have the bitterest taste

“I care for you,” Geralt tells Ciri.

“I want you to be safe,” he adds sincerely.

“I’m sorry,” he repeats, because he is.

But all he’s doing is repeating what Jaskier had done, what Jaskier had taught him, and the words sometimes refuse to leave his lips because even they know someone else should have had the right to hear them first.

And all Geralt can do is hope Ciri understands that he means well, he really does. She does, of course, because she is far smarter than she seems and because she too has learned from Jaskier - another fact that sends wave after wave of sour guilt through his mind.

With no way to cure it, his guilt only festers.

darling heart, i have loved you from the start

Jaskier was a mere infant the first time he was abandoned, not that he truly remembers the woman who had decided she didn’t want to take care of him anymore. He only knows because his parents had held it against him, as well as every other heart he failed to win over, right from the start.

Geralt hadn’t abandoned him, Jaskier reminds himself every time he feels anger rise inside of him, he was the one who had abandoned Geralt. And he feels terrible, especially after hearing about Cintra, about Nilfgaard, about everything.

A part of him firmly believes that Geralt is safe because he refuses to think that the love of his life could die without him feeling it, but a part of him is too scared to hold onto that faith.

“I’m weak, my love, and I am wanting…” he sings, because he is.

But only ever for his white wolf.

but you’ll never know what a fool i’ve been

Geralt takes Ciri to Kaer Morhen and feels sick when his brothers tell him how soldiers have been none too gently questioning any bards they come across.

He feels stupid when he realises that all this time, he’s been endangering Jaskier by not trying hard enough to find him, to make sure he’s okay, to apologise for his cruel words on the mountain.

And he feels even worse when he thinks of what little Jaskier has told him about his past, of how he had never spoken of his parents, of how his touch had lingered as if waiting for permission that he hadn’t thought to grant.

Oh, how ungrateful he had been of the first person to teach him the true meaning of emotions.

“You have to find him,” everyone says, and he can’t bring himself to argue.

there is love in our bodies and it holds us together

Funny how one can never be prepared for the sting of a whip, Jaskier thinks.

A brief flirt with fame had inflated his ego but no matter because bleeding out in a stone cell is the perfect way to remember that he is nothing and means nothing to anyone.

He lives, of course he does, but only because he hangs onto the possibility of once more meeting a golden gaze the same way he hangs from the ceiling and ruins his wrists, which is to say he does so every day.

And he’s okay with all the superficial agony inflicted upon him because although nobody learns anything from him, he learns from them that they’re still searching, that Geralt is safe, and that he has no true reason to be upset.

He doesn’t even care that there’s not a single person he can think of who would bother trying to save him.

but pulls us apart when we’re holding each other

Witchers cannot travel in time but Geralt so dearly wishes they could.

He doesn’t find Jaskier before snow starts to fall and travel becomes impossible.

He fails and it’s his fault that Jaskier is out there somewhere - possibly hurt, possibly dead, and possibly worse - when he is given warmth and love and everything his bard deserves more than him.

A deep chill settles into his very bones and although he is offered blankets, he knows it cannot be averted except by Jaskier’s touch. Oh, how he craves the warmth of sharing a bedroll and waking up at ungodly hours so Jaskier can learn about the constellations for his newest ballad.

He wants nothing more than to take back his words and keep Jaskier in his life, in his arms.

we all want something to hold in the night

A noble lineage meant that Jaskier was taught independence before anything else.

It meant he was always “a big boy who needs to stop wasting time” and “not a child anymore, for goodness sake” and “such a pathetic excuse of a noble, you should know better than that by now” but he was never truly loved.

And he never learned that he was meant to be loved, never learned that the affection he gave was supposed to be returned in equal.

So as Jaskier wobbles and stumbles through his escape, collapsing into the forest floor when his legs refuse to support his weight any longer, he just closes his eyes and pretends that he’s not in his own arms, that he’s in the arms of someone who cares enough to look for him.

But of course, he’s not.

And he wakes up alone.

Over and over again.

we don’t care if it hurts or we’re holding too tight

Geralt leaves at the first sight of spring.

He couldn’t possibly wait a day longer when he’s made Jaskier wait so long, even though he can’t be sure if Jaskier is even still waiting for him or if he’s moved on, which he had every right to do.

He forgets how to plan and finds that his resources run out before he’s crossed even two towns, but he makes do from under the cover of shadows and night because he couldn’t bear to give up, not on Jaskier.

With the bounty on his head, he finds himself fighting monsters just to survive rather than for coin. And with the bounty on his head, he finds himself having to treat his own injuries because he can’t ask a healer and he doesn’t have his best friend to help him.

Nothing hurts as much as Jaskier’s absence.

darling heart, i have loved you from the start

The only reason Jaskier survives past winter is because he heads to the coast.

He’s lucky that despite his reputation for trading secrets, he’s never traded all of his own. He’s always kept his love of the open water to himself and that’s the only reason he makes it there at all.

It still hurts to curl up inside his secret little coastal home though, because he’d spent so long imagining what it would be like to bring his- to bring Geralt with him. But he knows that can’t happen because Geralt had grown tired of him and wants nothing to do with him.

He doesn’t have a lot of food and he knows he should be concerned about that but he can’t bring himself to care because for the first time in over two decades, he doesn’t have anything - note, anyone - to live for.

but that’s no excuse for the state i’m in

It’s harder than it had seemed to travel without being seen.

Geralt knows how to hunt. He knows when to hide and when to begin travelling but for some reason, getting to Jaskier is far more difficult than any contract he’s ever taken.

He’s never been one for Destiny but he finds himself practically praying to her for a way to reach his- for a way to reach who he so dearly wants to make his again. His bard, his friend, his Jaskier.

Roach jerks to a halt every time he almost falls asleep whilst still on the saddle but he doesn’t learn from it, he can’t afford to when he so desperately needs to make amends, so desperately needs to figure out how much damage he’s caused and then fix it before he loses the best part of his life.

Desperation has never been his colour but then again, he's never cared for being fashionable.

my heart swells like a water at work

There’s a knock at the door but Jaskier doesn’t have the energy to move.

He stays where he is, huddled by a fire that’s long since run out of fuel to burn, and hopes that if it’s another mage, they kill him quickly this time. But it’s not.

“Jaskier, please!”

He blinks.

It can’t possibly be who he thinks it is, who he wants it to be, can it?

It can.

“Jaskier?” Quieter this time, as if he’s worried.

And then a crashing thud echoes, followed by his favourite set of footsteps and a hand on his shoulder.

He flinches without meaning to, not sure if he wants to laugh or cry. Geralt offers him a small smile and he promptly decides to do both.

can’t stop myself before it’s too late

“I’m sorry, Jaskier, I’m so sorry.”

It’s an apology long overdue, Geralt knows that, but he has to try, he can’t stop himself from trying, not this time, not when it comes to Jaskier.

And he looks so awfully small wrapped in blankets that Geralt can feel his heart clench. He feels even smaller when he melts into Geralt’s touch as if he’s never been granted the luxury of being held as he cries.

“I know,” Jaskier replies between sobs.

There’s so much more that Geralt needs to say but it’s a start and it’s more than enough because Jaskier is alive.

“Come to Kaer Morhen with me,” Geralt says, not sure if he’s asking or demanding or begging. But it doesn’t really matter which because Jaskier agrees all the same and he’s just glad he has another chance.

hold on to your heart

Jaskier doesn’t want to get comfortable again.

Well, he does. More than anything. But he doesn’t want to risk the consequences again, he doesn’t think he can live through another heartbreak because there’s so little of his heart left intact and he’s scared to lose himself entirely.

So he goes to the school of the wolves and he gets help for his injuries - and scars, but he doesn’t want to think about that any time soon - but he can’t bring himself to relax, not entirely.

He’s sure they can smell his constant worrying and he feels awful for being such a pain but he doesn’t know what he’s meant to do and his fingers itch for a lute but he doesn’t want to annoy anyone by asking for one.

“I’m okay,” he promises, knowing that it’s a broken one even as it leaves his lips.

‘cause i’m coming to take you

It’s a month before Geralt clocks on to the problem and risks leaving, returning just before dawn with a lute that he places on the table beside Jaskier’s bed.

It’s another week before music fills the building.

It's two more everyone finds themselves humming or singing along every time they hear the lute being played. And another before Geralt finds Jaskier waiting for him where he usually trains, a hesitant smile on his face. “Thank you.”

Geralt nods. “It was the least I could do.”

Jaskier frowns, slowly shaking his head and shuffling his feet. “It’s far more than that. Music, it- it’s almost everything to me, I can't explain it...”

Geralt exhales softly. “But I can understand it because, Jaskier, you’re almost everything to me.”

hold on to your heart

A childhood filled with recklessly throwing around his heart meant that Jaskier became more careful with who he truly trusted over time.

Not careful enough, but still too careful to forgive and forget.

But Geralt is patient and kind and more affectionate than Jaskier has ever seen him and he can’t help falling in love all over again, not that he’d climbed out of it in the first place.

He wants to let go of the dragon hunt, he really does, but Geralt’s words still sting and they, along with his mother’s and father’s and countless fleeting lovers’, flash in his mind every time he thinks about surrendering his heart once again.

And he’s scared, he’s oh so scared that Geralt will get bored of him, sick of him, fed up with him again.

‘cause i’m coming to break you

Geralt waits until summer is waving goodbye before telling Jaskier.

He can feel Jaskier’s doubt rising, he can feel the way he’s not sure whether he’ll be invited to stay for winter or not - he will, of course, because he has become one of their own and it would be foolish if he wasn’t.

But when a week goes by without even the faintest echo of a lute, he and Ciri gather up the prettiest flowers they can find and after their evening meal, he offers them to Jaskier.

“I love you,” he admits softly.

Jaskier is still for all of a few seconds before he starts crying.

And Geralt’s whole body is telling him to run because he hates to see tears in his favourite blue eyes but he resists that urge and slowly, carefully wraps his arms around the bard instead.

“I think I’ve loved you for a long time, Jaskier, and I don’t think I could ever not.”

Jaskier doesn’t reply, but he falls asleep in Geralt’s embrace and finally lets his guard down, and that’s answer enough for anyone.

hold on

The war rages on but Jaskier finally finds peace.

Nothing about their life is particularly easy but he has never been more at ease because as much as Geralt had hurt him, he’d also helped him to heal far more than anybody else ever has.

“You have my heart,” he confesses one morning, after waking up to Geralt’s rare but increasingly more common smiles.

“You can keep it to yourself, your love is enough for me,” Geralt murmurs.

Jaskier blinks slowly, suddenly overcome with the urge to cry. He doesn’t, but he does curse softly. “When did you become so poetic, my dear witcher?”

Geralt chuckles, pulling him impossibly close and leaning right beside his ear to reply, “When you taught me how, my dear bard.”

It takes a matter of seconds for Jaskier to decide that he wants to get married.

hold on

Geralt says very little the day they lawfully commit to spending the rest of their lives together.

He says very little as Yennefer and Ciri craft their rings and loop them into matching chains. He says very little as Eskel and Lambert place their bets on who’s going to cry first - they’re both idiots, it’s obviously Jaskier - or who’s going to remain dry-eyed. And he says very little as Vesemir gives them his blessing.

But when they return to their room, Jaskier places his hands on either side of Geralt’s face and smiles softly. “Geralt, my love, will you tell me what’s wrong? You’ve barely said a word.”

And finally, Geralt cracks. “We vowed to stay with each other until we die, right?”

Jaskier raises an eyebrow. “Of course, but I would have done that with or without the ceremony, you know that.”

“Witchers live for a long time, Jaskier. I-”

Jaskier places a finger on Geralt’s lips, grinning. “You beautiful fool of a witcher, do I look like the kind of bard that’s going to die any time soon?”

When Geralt really looks, it’s obvious that he doesn’t.

And so, with that one sentence, everything changes again.

For the better this time.

-

it's not particularly original, i know, but i really love this song and kind of let this write itself, and i have too many WIPs to have spent any longer trying to make this better :p hope it was okay anyway <3

-

thanks for reading! masterlist | witcher sideblog: @itsjaskier

[gohyuck]

Love and War Act I - LDH

theater kid! hyuck with some enemies to lovers realness

word count: 3.2k

warnings: a lot of swearing and a lot of hatred, possible nsfw in future chapters

notes: in part based on this post

part of a series: yes, this is part 1

in which you really, really, really can’t stand lee donghyuck

Act I, Scene I: An Introduction of the Situation

You’ve never hated a musical more. 

In an effort to ‘generate student interest in the arts’, Neo Culture Tech’s very own Mr. Taeil Moon, head of the fine arts department at what can only be described as a STEM college preparatory school, had put word out that this year’s fall theater show would be an entirely student-produced musical. Whether it was to elevate NCT’s arts up to the level at which they’d have to get the same funding as the robotics team or whether it was to truly cultivate creativity, nobody was sure. Still, the play persisted. From the actual dialogue, to the songs and their composition, to the dances choreography, everything was to be a bona fide effort from students across the school, not just in the theater department. Before anyone could say anything, the band and orchestra students were forced to create and compose scores and songs while the choir kids had to write lyrics for their semester project. The dance team had to choreograph everything and the art students were told they’d be making the posters for the show.

All of this, of course, was to come after the actual play had been written by the students in the Theater IV: Theater Productions class. 

If only you’d stayed in Theater III. 

Regardless, every good story starts from the beginning. And at the start of this one, there was a group of 13 potential starring roles in the tragedy? Comedy? Romance? Of Mr. Moon’s Theater IV musical production.

The official Theater IV roster was - and is - as follows:

(Name) - (Nickname)

Julia Choi - (Lia)

Renjun Huang

Lucy Hwang - (Yeji)

Somi Jeon

Chaeryeong Lee

Donghyuck Lee - (Haechan)

Jeno Lee

Jaemin Na - (Nana)

Jisung Park

Joanne Shin - (Ryujin)

Hussey Shin - (Yuna)

Chenle Zhong

13 is a decent amount of people able to give input on a play - from characterization, to plot, to underlying themes, there’s a place for everyone. If all of you worked on it, it could’ve been done at the speed of light, with ample time for revision and practice. Playwrighting wouldn’t have been harrowing. In fact, the project seemed fun at the beginning, and it was something you were genuinely looking forward to. After all, you genuinely liked everyone in your class… or, at least, almost everyone. Still, with 11 other people besides you and him, you would have ample buffer for the brain damage you were sure he would inflict upon you simply due to proximity. 

You forgot entirely about Murphy’s Law.

Jeno, Renjun, Somi, and Chaeryeong were the first to opt out of writing the play, gently reminding Mr. Moon that they were tech theater students, and would much rather design and build the set. It didn’t take long after that for Jaemin, Ryujin, Jisung, and Yeji to choose choreographing with their dance teammates over being playwrights. Yuna was quick to state that she’d rather make the posters in her art classes, and both Lia and Chenle decided that writing lyrics in choir would take up enough of their time as it was. 

At the start there were 13. 

You were happy, looking forward to talking about settings with Somi and comedic effect necessities with Jaemin. You weren’t only in theater to act - you were in the program in order to satisfy your need to create. Creating an entire play from nothing made you more eager than anything.

That is, until 13 dwindled down to 2 with alarming speed. 

Act I, Scene II: The Devil Incarnate

“Her royal highness is finally here!” Donghyuck faux cheers as you walk into your English Literature class right before the bell rings. The smirk in his tone is not lost on you, though you do mentally revel in the fact that nobody laughs at his stupid declaration. His seat is to the right of yours, but that doesn’t keep him from angling away from the board just to prop his feet up onto your desk. You don’t grace him with a response, only rolling your eyes before shoving his sneaker-laden feet off your desk none too ceremoniously and dropping your backpack onto the floor beside you as you slide into your seat. 

“What,” He starts, evidently hellbent on annoying you at 8 in the morning. You don’t turn to look at him, though you can distinctly see his shit-eating grin out of the corner of your right eye. Donghyuck leans towards you, his face coming far too close to you for your own comfort. You hope he’ll get the hint from your silence and leave you alone, but he continues speaking, much to your chagrin. “No snarky response from our resident ice queen today? Is your tongue frozen solid, princess?”

“Call me princess one more time, and you won’t even have a tongue left,” You threaten, still facing forward in your adamant refusal to look Donghyuck Lee in the eyes. He lets out a short laugh and leans back, finally properly settling into his own seat, pleased at his success at pissing you off. Before either of you can try to insult the other again, Mr. Suh rushes into the room, his Staff ID askew around his neck and his glasses sliding down his nose. The door flies shut behind him, and you straighten your back. 

Class has officially started. 

“You were only three minutes late today, Johnny,” Beomgyu calls from the back as your teacher is getting himself settled, and you turn to see your classmate holding up his watch, mirth in his eyes. “It’s a new personal record.” 

As if cued, the rest of the class bursts into a round of applause, with Donghyuck whistling with his fingers beside you. Mr. Suh - better known simply as Johnny to his students, due to him being fresh out of his undergrad - can’t help but chuckle at your class’ antics, doing nothing but shaking his head and pushing his glasses up onto his face. 

“Alright, before I get called down to the front office again, let me fill out attendance,” Johnny says eventually, finally sitting down at his computer. While he starts calling out everyone’s names you rifle around in your backpack, searching for your copy of The Taming of the Shrew, the book you’re all currently reading in class. Though it has some… questionable moments and themes, you can’t help but love it - you daresay it’s your favorite required reading book yet. Just as you find it, Johnny says your name. 

“(Name),” He says, and you straighten yourself out, your copy of the Shakespearean play gripped firmly in your hand. “I’m h-” 

“She’s here. Didn’t you feel the frost when you came in?” Donghyuck beats you to it, and you finally whirl around to glare at him, raising the hand holding the book up high as if you’re about to beat him with it. 

“Donghyuck Lee, I fucking swear -”

“Alright, alright, alright,” Your teacher raises his voice, coming to stand between the two of your desks. “I’m going to ignore the swear word this time because Haechan’s being annoying -”

You lean back to meet Donghyuck’s eyes, sending him a smirk that directly contrasts his wince. 

“- But you know better than to let your emotions get the best of you on things like this.” Johnny finishes, his words now aimed at you. You sigh, lowering your book to rest on your desk and slouching back into your chair. 

“Now behave, you two, got it? Act like actual people for once.”

The snickers of your classmates behind you cause your face to go red, and your anger at Donghyuck flares up again alongside your urge to crawl into a hole and hibernate. Still, through a furrowed brow and clenched teeth, you nod your agreement.

“Yes, Johnny.” You say at the same time Donghyuck mutters a “Sorry, John.” Both of you slide down even further into your seats. 

Neither of you say anything to each other for the rest of class, though you make sure to send scathing glances his way whenever your eyes seem to meet. To his merit, he manages to flip you off effortlessly every time Johnny turns towards the board. By the time class ends and you’re packing up, the two of you are seething silently, anger emanating off of your persons. Donghyuck jostles you on purpose on your way out of the room, but before you can give him a piece of your mind out of Johnny’s earshot, he’s halfway down the hallway on the way to his next class. Still, you train all your angry thoughts in his general direction, praying he’ll trip and fall flat on his face, or something.

Jeno, who’s just walked out of the classroom next to yours, makes his way to fall into step beside you as he always does. He follows your red hot gaze towards Donghyuck, who’s currently leaning against a locker and talking to Renjun. 

“You shouldn’t let him bother you so much,” Jeno finally says, and you roll your eyes before looking up at your friend. “It gives you too much grief.”

“He shouldn’t be bothering me so much.” You counter, and a small smile crosses Jeno’s face as he shakes his head in both amusement and disbelief. 

“I guess you aren’t wrong.” He acquiesces as he pulls open the door to the chemistry classroom, letting you walk in before him. The two of you share a lab table and you pull his stool out along with your own as you orient yourself.  

“I still can’t believe you and him are friends,” You tell Jeno as he sits down beside you. “You’re so you and he’s so… him.”

“We have, like, 90% of our interests in common, (Name),” Jeno laughs, knocking your shoulder with him. “If the two of you stopped going at each others’ throats for even a moment, you might even learn to like each other.”

You can’t help the fake gagging noise you make at the suggestion, and your friend rolls his eyes at you, though not before laughing. As the rest of your classmates start filtering into the room, the two of you switch smoothly to another topic of conversation - “Can you believe Moon’s making us do all of the play stuff this year?” “I don’t know, Jeno, it seems kind of cool to me.” “I mean me too, but damn… imagine the hours I’ll be putting into set design this year.”-  all thoughts of the devil himself banished from your mind. 

Act I, Scene III: Murphy’s Law 

You’re almost at the door, deep in conversation with Hyunjin about a protest she’s planning when Mr. Jung calls your name, stopping you in your tracks. 

“Yes?” You ask after motioning for Hyunjin to go on to lunch without you. You haven’t done anything wrong that you can think of - not recently, you note, remembering the time you really had almost set Jeno on fire - so you can’t help but be confused about why he needs to talk to you. Before you can ask, your teacher holds out a slip of paper for you to take.

“The note Jaemin delivered earlier is for you. He said it isn’t urgent, so I figured I’d send you during lunch instead of during class.” 

You relax your shoulders almost instantly before taking the bright orange piece of cardstock from Mr. Jung’s grip. You head out of his room - though not before thanking him - and unfold the note immediately after walking into the hallway. 

Please come see me at your convenience! - Moon :)

♕ ♕ ♕

You get to the black box room before Mr. Moon does, causing you to lament not buying your lunch before coming to meet him. As you wait, you pull out your book, determined to at least do something with your time at the moment. Katherine and Petruchio are in the midst of hurling insults at each other when the sound of footsteps startles you out of your book, and you lay it down beside you just in time for Donghyuck to walk in and drop his backpack onto the floor by the door, his eyes trained on the phone in his hand. 

Wait.

Donghyuck?

“What the hell are you doing here?” Your tone is biting at best. He looks up from his screen in surprise, though his expression quickly morphs into one of clear disdain once he sees that it’s you who’s speaking. 

“Got a message from Moonie. What the fuck are you doing here?”

You hold up your orange slip, only just noticing the identical one hanging between two of his fingers. His eyes dart down to his own again before back up at you, seemingly still waiting for a response. 

“Same here.” You respond, and he sneers at you. Donghyuck looks like he’s about to say something - likely hurl an insult that’s completely unrelated to the situation - but, with spectacular timing, Mr. Moon walks in through the door, a large soda in one hand and a fast food bag in the other. Donghyuck finally sits down, his backpack still by the door. 

Your theatre director places his food on the desk in the corner of the room before leaning against it, placing his hands against the edge of the table for balance. He surveys the two of you, both of you on different sides of the room, for a moment.

“I guess you’re wondering why I’ve called you here,” Moon finally says, his words directed at you both. You nod while Donghyuck says a quiet “Yep.”, neither of you looking at one another. Moon nods himself before pushing himself off of his desk, reaching over to grab ahold of his rolling chair. 

“Come,” He looks at both of you, nodding towards the center of the room. “Bring your chairs in.”

You stare at your director for a moment before sighing, careful not to let Mr. Moon see you rolling your eyes. Reluctantly, you stand up, grabbing your chair and moving to sit in front of him. Donghyuck follows suit, managing to put as much distance as humanly possible between you while staying close enough that Mr. Moon won’t reprimand him. 

“You both know how your Theatre IV class is meant to be the ones writing the musical itself, right?” 

The two of you nod, and you can’t help but wonder what direction Moon might be going in. There’s thirteen people in your class - why is it just you two he’s called in?

“Out of everyone in the class, you two are the only ones that aren’t either tech theatre students or double dipping when it comes to fine arts.” Your director continues, his words coming out slower than usual. It almost feels as if he’s trying to force the two of you towards the conclusion rather than telling you what he means to himself. Still, you know your expression is one of confusion. Mr. Moon winces almost imperceptibly before sighing and leaning back, rolling back-and-forth ever so slightly with his chair. 

“When it comes to this year’s musical, students can only work with one of the departments, because having anyone work on two parts of it would be way too much work,” He finally says, leaning towards you and Donghyuck again. Silence falls over you as you furrow your brow, trying to figure out what Mr. Moon might mean. 

It hits both you and Donghyuck at the same time. 

“There’s no way I’m working with just him -”

“Moonie, c’mon, do you really hate me this much -”

“Stop.” Moon says, his voice rising easily in volume. He puts both of his hands up in emphasis, and you realize you’ve leaned further forward than you’d realize. You settle back into your seat, though not without returning the scowl Donghyuck is sending you. 

“If I didn’t think the two of you could do it together, I would’ve just written the damn thing myself,” Your director says, glancing sharply at both of you before continuing. “You’re my two best students - you both know this. I’ve seen you put your differences aside to act together on stage. This shouldn’t be any different than that.”

You stare at Mr. Moon for a long moment, weighing your options. You can say no, you know you can - though he’ll advise strongly against it, Moon will ultimately let you back out of the musical’s production if you ask - but your ego refuses to let you. That, and you’d been genuinely excited to work on it before, and you’d rather die than let Donghyuck, of all people, take something you care about from you. That, and you don’t trust him to write a good play worth performing. You’ll be damned if the fine arts department has to count on him in the end. Hell, you’ll write it by yourself if you have to.

“Fine,” You say, raising a hand up to rub your temples out. “But I’ll only play nice if he does, too.”

“You act like I’m the one who finds it difficult to interact normally with other people.” Donghyuck scoffs, and you shoot him a sharp glare. He returns it evenly for a beat too long before finally tearing his eyes away and hanging his head. You watch as he runs a hand through his hair and throws his head back, groaning loudly as he does so, almost as if it pains him to say his next words. When he finally looks forward at Moon again, he sighs before speaking.

“I’m in,” He declares, throwing you an unreadable look. “Let’s get this over with.”

Moon’s face lights up immediately, and, for a moment, you don’t regret what you’ve just agreed to.

“Brilliant!” He claps, standing up from his chair. “We can discuss it together as a group during our next class, but I’m glad we have this sorted out. Now,” He says, moving his chair back over to his desk before settling back down in it. “I have to eat lunch, and I’m guessing you both do too. Scram.”

You get up, placing your chair back from where you got it before gathering your things. Donghyuck avoids looking at you, and you return the courtesy. He gets to the door right before you do, stooping down to pick up his back. Both of you wave goodbye to your director before stepping out into the hallway. 

“When should we meet to talk about the planning and shit?” You ask, keeping your tone as steady as possible, though you know your eyes tell your feelings. Donghyuck rolls his eyes outright. 

“How about we figure that out in class? I’ve talked to you enough for the time being.”

You make a sound of disbelief, flipping him off as he turns to walk away from you. 

“You’re a grade A dickwad!” You call, staring at his back. 

“Whatever, you frigid bitch!” He yells back, not bothering to turn around and look at you. 

You sigh once he’s out of sight, dropping your head into one of your hands.

This is going to be a lot harder than Mr. Moon thinks it’ll be.

[mysteira6]

FukaFlower AU #2

Another angsty FukaFlower AU coming right up!!

(I promise that I have fluffier stuff for them, just lemme post these few first-)

Warning: mentions of hospitals, accidents, trauma patient, dissociation, physical rehabilitation, self-harm and mental trauma)

This one is kinda related to Fukase and Flower’s designs as well, so it might get a little meta.

So! It’s no surprise that Fukase’s got a really messed up face, right? (Hell, he’s the only Vocaloid with any kind of body horror in his default design like that-)

A lot of fans in the Vocaloid community speculate that these scars could be a ton of things, like cybernetic parts, burn scars, protruding veins, scales, etc. In this AU, they’re the remnants of burn scars but... their origins are a little gruesome.

________________________________________________________________

In this world, Fukase got into a freak accident that causes his face, neck and arms to receive nasty third-degree burns. The accident killed the nerves in those specific areas, making him contract hypoesthesia (aka numbness).’

Med-talk: Hypoesthesia is a medial term for partial or COMPLETE loss of sensation in certain parts of your body. It’s kind of like when you get pins and needles in you arms and legs, except that it lasts for a prolonged period of time.

In other words, Fukase had lost all sense of touch, temperature, pain and vibration in his hands, face and neck. Moreover, the most dangerous aspect of his accident is that his ENTIRE body was burnt (though his neck, face and hands received the brunt of the trauma). He needed a lot of time to heal or else he’d risk losing his sense of touch in all the other parts of his body.

Unfortunately... he didn’t really listen.

Instead of trying to heal, Fukase went berserk; losing physical sensation in his face and hands downright TERRIFIED him, adding on to the trauma from the accident. In his desperate attempt to deny what was going on, he tried to cut his arms and face multiple times just to FEEL something.

But no matter how many times he damaged his own skin, he couldn’t feel any kind of pain in those areas. Blood would keep gushing out of his wounds but he couldn’t feel ANY of it. To make matters worse, because he kept trying to hurt himself (and despite how the hospital staff tried to stop him), Fukase ended up damaging the rest of his body, badly. Since he didn’t let his body heal, the nerves in those areas started to collapse too, this time, due to self-inflicted trauma.

So at this point, a bunch of nasty stuff has happened to Fukase:

He’s been in a traumatic accident.

He has suicide-like tendencies since he won’t stop cutting himself to prove that it’s all a ‘dream’.

He can’t physically feel anything ANYWHERE.

________________________________________________________________

Now... Let’s talk about Flower... :’D

As a Vocaloid, Flower is canonically a kuudere. In many fan interpretations, she is still portrayed as such, though she is also perceived to be a deadpanned, sarcastic girl. In this AU, though, there is a reason for why she is possess such a persona.

Because she literally can’t FEEL anything.

The general idea is that Flower can’t feel emotions too well. For her, she finds it difficult to truly experience emotions in a genuine or deep way. More often than not, she just fakes them so that no one will notice her being weird, staring blankly into space while everyone else is visibly happy, or sad, or angry...

I’m not gonna go into why she feels this way but... Let’s just say that SOME form of severe psychological trauma caused her to start dissociating from her emotions.

The end result is that she is an often blank-faced girl who can’t express herself wholeheartedly without faking it. A girl who is completely incapable of feeling her emotions to a deep level.

________________________________________________________________

So how do they meet?

As I’ve mentioned earlier, Fukase is still in the hospital, more specifically the rehabilitation ward, trying to mentally recover from his accident. And it just so happens that Flower herself is working at that ward as an intern. She had been persuaded to get this job so that she can (hopefully) learn how to empathize with trauma patients and slowly regain her touch on her emotions.

Though... the progress is slow; even though she’s been there for a long time, there has been no changes to her receptiveness to emotions and feelings. And with her doing poorly at her job, Flower was starting to give up in her attempts to make herself ‘feel’ something.

At the same time, Fukase was beginning to lose hope that he would ever live a normal life again. As the day pass by and his suicidal tendencies go rampant, he had begun to resort to the fact that he will forever ‘feel’ nothing.

That is... until they meet each other.

A boy who can’t feel anything physically and a girl who can’t feel anything emotionally.

I wonder... how would it be like for them to interact with each other...?

[scripttorture]

I'm writing a human character in sci-fi setting who has been betrayed by his friend and is then kidnapped and phycologically tortured by the friend to the point after he escapes he has severe PTSD. I'm struggling to write it though as I'm not sure what kind of mental torture he could be put through without going over the top. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks

I’m going to start off with a possibly obvious point: kidnapping is traumatic. If the main thing you want from this sub-plot is to give a character PTSD you don’t need to go any further then that. Not everyone who is kidnapped will develop PTSD but it’s a realistic outcome.

 So…. Phycology is the study of algae, I’m assuming that’s not what’s meant here. But if it is then please correct me and I will happily spend some time reading up on algae to help you out. (That is not sarcasm, teach me about algae.) :)

 I am guessing that this is a misspelling of ‘psychologically’ and this is someone new to the blog who hasn’t heard The Talk about ‘psychological torture’ yet.

 So going forward: Anon it’s OK to make mistakes. I’m here because I understand how hard it is to find good quality information on torture. And because I understand how much misinformation is popularised in both fictional and allegedly-factual media.

 I strongly advise that you don’t use the phrase ‘psychological torture’ in your writing.

 Torture isn’t psychological. There’s nothing clever or psychological about hitting someone’s feet with a stick.

 And the phrase ‘psychological torture’ has been used for years by torture apologists. They use it as a way to dismiss survivors and belittle their experience. They do that by declaring that some types of torture are ‘just’ psychological; using this term to suggest particular tortures don’t cause physical harm and that survivors are faking their responses.

 This is bullshit. Don’t buy into it. Don’t support it.

 Torture is physical abuse and physical harm. The lasting psychological symptoms and effects are due to underlying changes in the structure of the brain which happen in response to extreme pain and stress.

 O’Mara, the neuroscientist who wrote about torture, likened it to brain damage. He also went so far as to argue that it’s deliberately inflicted organ failure. And you know what, I’m not a neuroscientist, so I’m not gonna argue with that assessment.

 I don’t know what you’re picturing when you say ‘psychological torture’. You haven’t given me a time frame for how long this character is held or information on the kind of culture this fictional world has. Which makes it hard for me to suggest specific things.

 What I can do is give you an idea of what torture looks like now and what sort of effects you’d expect in survivors. You can then consider whether torture is right for your story.

 Most torture nowadays is ‘clean’. Now different researchers use different terms for this (I use Rejali’s term) but what it essentially means is: a form of physical abuse that is extremely unlikely to leave obvious physical marks on the victim’s body.

 Lest you get the idea that is represents ‘advancement’ most of the clean torture techniques currently used are hundreds of years old. Some of them are thousands of years old.

 There’s been quite a bit of debate in the field about why clean torture is currently so common and why so many organisations have abandoned scarring torture. You can read more about that over here. Or if you feel you have a wealth of time on your hands you can try tackling all 800 pages of Rejali’s Torture and Democracy (highly recommended, also very large).

 The theory Rejali puts forward is that the shift is about evidence. Obvious physical injuries make it easier to build up cases against torturers.

 And a lack of obvious physical injuries can be used to discredit survivors.

 These are the sort of torture techniques that get labelled ‘psychological’ as a way to dismiss them: the ones that are being used around the world today.

 If you’re wondering what sort of thing I’m talking about things like sleep deprivation, beatings (yes this can be done without leaving obvious marks), near-drowning, forcing someone to exercise until they collapse, Tasers.

 I have a post here on typical torture practices in different countries in the modern era.

 While the physical effects of clean tortures are hard to definitively prove we’re still taking about incredibly dangerous things.

 Tasers, used according to the instructions, leave no mark on the skin. They can also cause heart attacks, seizures (in vulnerable individuals) and often cause death by falling injuries. Forced exercise, beatings and stress positions all cause kidney failure. In the case of stress positions that’s after the swelling in extremities that gets to the point of popping the skin open in massive ulcers.

 Sleep deprivation causes a whole slew of interestingly awful physical and psychological effects before (according to studies in mice) leading to death from multiple organ failure as the microbes in the gut take over the entire body.

 What I’m trying to say here is that if you’re looking for something dignified, without the vomit and pus and shit, then torture probably doesn’t fit the bill.

 And clean tortures can still cause physically disabling injuries.

 Drowning and choking tortures (such as water boarding) can cause brain damage. Incorrectly applied restraints can lead to a limb needing to be amputated.

 On top of all this are the long term psychological effects which I have a post on here. Memory problems are discussed in more detail here.

 PTSD is a possible symptom but it’s not guaranteed. The truth is that while we know the possible symptoms different individual survivors develop different symptoms and we don’t know why.

 If you’ve thought about it and you want to use PTSD because it adds something to your story then by all means do so. But don’t feel that it is your only option.

 Survivors do recover. They are not ‘broken’ and unable to live or enjoy life. They’re mentally ill and often disabled and recovery is a process of learning to live with their conditions.

 Wrapping this up: think about what you’re writing.

 I am not saying that you shouldn’t write torture. I am not saying that you should. I’m asking that you, and every other writer who comes here, consider what you’re committing to.

 If you don’t want a character to be dealing with multiple complex mental health problems for the rest of every story you use them in, it’s probably not a good fit.

 If you want something that doesn’t have even a chance of causing lasting physical damage, torture is probably not a good fit.

 Picture where the story is going. If you think the narrative could be the same without torture then you’re probably not capturing the scale of the impact torture has.

 I have a post on common inaccurate tropes here. I have a post on researching torture here. I have a list of sources over here. I also have a lot of asks tagged as sci fi.

 Consider why you want to write torture in this story. What is it adding to your narrative? What is it doing?

 If the main thing you want is this character to have PTSD afterwards that is possible with kidnapping alone. Physical attacks make PTSD more likely but they’re not necessary for its development.

 Kidnap and imprisonment is betrayal enough. It is reason enough for all the big, powerful emotions you want to put into this relationship. Ask yourself if torture really does add any more to that.

 I hope that helps. :)

Available on Wordpress.

Disclaimer

[whimsicalwhespir]

As I've said before, I have a lot of aus! My friend @deuynndoodles said I should make a masterlist of all of them. So I did! I was so tempted to keep writing stuff about them because I'm horrible at writing short summaries while also getting thr basis of the story across so it was a bit of a challenge cause when I start it's hard to stop me.

Anywhoooo heres a list of all my aus at the moment! There are minor ones I have and ones I've tossed out or forgotten but these are the ones I like so I hope you like them! (And if you have any questions at all please feel free to ask! I love talking about my aus!)

MY HERO ACADEMIA:

Ratiocination (Indigo Jets)- Vigilante Izuku, he has a quirk called pause that allows him to stop time but he cannot move and the longer he stays paused the more of his memories get erased. He's childhood friends with Bakugou and Shinsou who both worry when he disappears from their lives. His vigilante name is Indigo Jets.

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Emerald Eyes (Manx)- Short Izuku with cat eye syndrome, he has a quirk that allows him to make bubble-like force fields similar to Steven universe. He's found by the Wild Wild Pussycats and they train him and later on becomes a part of the team. His hero name is Manx.

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House of Glass (Rose/Grim/Grimrose)- Izuku is raised by the League of Villains and they're his big happy family. He has a quirk that allows him to erase and manipulate people's memories as well as a telekinetic quirk given to him by All For One. He's sent to UA as a spy but he ends up making friends and enjoying himself. He has the hero name Rose and the villain name Grim.

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My Angel (Starlight)- Izuku has a quirk that gives him the powers of an Angel. He has wings and a halo and he's also an empath with healing abilities. He also has the power to visit the dead, his mom, and it's difficult not to fall in love with him when people meet him. His hero name is Starlight.

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Out Of Reach (Tapeti)- Izuku Midoriya is taken by the league after making a deal with Shigaraki on the roof where All Might leaves him. They turn him halfway into a nomu, experimenting with quirkless candidates. Meanwhile, Bakugou is trying to find his friend through his years at UA, only to find out Izuku doesn't remember him, having been brainwashed and taking up the villain name Tapeti.

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Green Thumb Garden- Izuku was sold to villains as a child because Inko couldn't afford to take care of him. He escapes a few years later and is shrugged off by a hero. He's taken in by a family who runs a garden shop and as they get older, he begins to run it. He believes he is quirkless but later on finds out he has a quirk that allows him to speed up the growth and healing of organisms like an enhanced fertilizer would.

_____

Cerulean Flames (Deku)- Izuku gets lost in the crowd during a villain attack and can't find his mother. Instead, he finds a runaway Touya Todoroki who leads him back to safety. Izuku visits him almost every day and Dabi teaches him how to fight, play dirty and is there like an older brother for Izuku. When getting one for all, he also participates in helping Izuku train with All Might.

_____

Glass Wings (Sterling)- Izuku is taken in by the Shie Hassaikai when he runs away from home. Over the years he learns that they're not all they seem, trying to unravel it from the inside out with his sister Eri and friend Rappa. They're about to run for it during the raid but are caught by heroes. Izuku, being so close to Eri and not having any recorded crimes, is put in a villain rehabilitation program at UA. His old villain name is Sterling, turned codename.

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All For You (Deku)- Older Izuku, he went to school with Aizawa, Nemuri, Yamada, Oboro and Tensei, he being the closest with Tensei. In an accident with Oboro, Izuku is blinded in his right eye. Both are injured but survive. They all grow up to be heroes, Izuku also acting as an older brother figure to Bakugou. Izuku is also a teacher at UA in the heroics department, he teaches the students how to be safe and reduce damage to their surroundings and self. 

_____

Ignite (Phoenix)- Vigilante Izuku, he loves to sing and perform at the hotel and karaoke bar his family owns. The hotel is open to heroes, villains, vigilantes, civilians, the poor, discriminated against and everyone in between. His father was in an accident when he was young which paralyzed him from the waist down because a hero failed to save him. 

Izuku becomes a vigilante to look for people to come to the hotel. People who need the safety and those who have no place to stay. He has a quirk that allows him to manipulate fire. He doesn't need to look for people to pay because so many patrons already donate. Later on, Phoenix stops being a vigilante and becomes a full time singer. His name is Phoenix.

_____

Circus Caliber (Ringleader)- Inspired by The Greatest Showman, it takes place when quirks are only beginning to appear. People believe them to be freaks and shun them from society. Izuku is quirkless but admires quirks and looks for people to join his quirked circus (everyone in 1a and thensome). He wants to show the world that quirks aren't bad or destructive. That they can be good if given the chance.

_____

Panacea Paradox- Post quirk era, Izuku is a scientist who is fascinated with quirks. He tries to bring them back through experimentation and tests the completed formula on volunteers (1a). The experiment goes wrong, they have quirks yes, but they're all painful and grotesque. (An example would be Bakugou's explosions burn his hands horribly, mutation quirks have dead limbs, much bleeding and injuries, etc).

Izuku panics and drinks the last of the liquid, he gains a quirk that allows him to temporarily remove other's pain by inflicting it on himself. He desperately tries to find a cure but people die in the time he isn't able to. He means well but he makes many mistakes. (It's a rather dark au)

_____

Fractured But Not Yet Broken (The Free Hero:Arrow)- Izuku has an incredibly self destructive quirk, it's called Fracture. It allows him to impact incredible telekinetic force to the point of breakage but in turn harms him immensely, broken bones, internal bleeding, lots of pain. The quirk gives him a slightly higher pain tolerance as well. 

Inko is immensely overprotective, sheltering him entirely from the outside world besides internet access. He goes to UA secretly while she's at work and becomes very close with his friends and the UA staff, Nezu especially. They take away inkos custody later on and he gets to live in the dorms. His hero name is Arrow.

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Send A Sign (Beetlejuice)- Izuku dies hundreds of years ago (he's the same age as All For One) by being struck by lightning. He wakes up in the current day with no memories of his past.  He can only remember the word "Beetlejuice" as it was the musical he and his mother were going to see before he died. He wanders around and begins following a 4 year old Bakugou and it stays that way. Izuku's like his guardian. 

One day Bakugou says "Beetlejuice" 3 times while listening to the song and Izuku is now visible to him (part of quirk). Izuku is his friend, teaching Bakugou lessons and acting like a big brother. Izuku goes to UA with Bakugou and after the blass says his name, they all see him and he spends time with them, trying to regain his memories and joining them through the ride of becoming heroes. (I'll explain all of his powers some other time, it's a long list)

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DANNY PHANTOM:

The Spectral Hero: Danny Phantom (Danny/Phantom)- Danny has a quirk that allows him to breathe and survive in space with no equipment but he doesn't know that since he's never been. The Fentons move to Japan from Amity. He's shocked by the portal and gains his normal ghostly abilities, telling people that is his quirk and not the result of a freak accident (he tells Aizawa later because he can't erase Danny's ghostliness). He has the persona of vigilante Phantom as well as Danny, the UA student. Aizawa knows it's him and they have a playful relationship, him acting as Danny's mentor. He later reveals to his class he is Phantom when moving into the dorms.

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Pink Slip- Danny is more affected by the portal accident, as Fenton it makes him weaker and more vulnerable but it feeds into his ghost half with more power. He misses school for a month after the accident and doctors take the ectoplasm in his blood as some disease. They give his school a pass so he can visit the nurse at any time. Since he has an excuse, he often leaves class with full permission of the teachers cause they think he's just going to the nurse's office. People don't question why he always looks tired and has bruises on his body, just thinking he's weaker due to the accident.

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Broken Watch- Danny is an ex a-list student who leaves when they start bullying kids. He takes a larger hit from the portal, giving him an electric core and powers that are more difficult to control but pack more of a punch. He gets taught about the ghost zone and other things by Clockwork after Dan and is given a defective pocket watch. Clockwork says by the time Danny fixes it, things should be alright. All or the numerals on it represent people in his life he must get closer to and those who will help him throughout his life to reach his full potential. 

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GRAVITY FALLS:

In A Black And White World- Dipper has the ability to see a dimension in between his and another, it's a dimension filled with magic. He is able to manipulate it but nobody else can see. He keeps it a secret until later on. It allows him to feel, see, taste, hear and smell others emotions and intentions. Their energies and feelings. He can see creatures that travel in the dimension, including Bill who teaches him about magic. He eventually manages to develop it enough so it becomes visible after seeing Bill use it in his body after his betrayal. 

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DUCKTALES: 

Operation Oversight- On an adventure, a bracelet with an intelligent sentient robot attaches itself to Louie when he examines it and through nightmares and threats convinces Louie to pursue Louie.Inc through any means necessary. This means forgetting his loved ones to reach his goal. His family finds out months after the adventure and they manage to break Louie out of the trance enough so he can destroy the bracelet. 

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Adroit- (similar to the concept of epithets) A small population of people in this world have superpowers and it just so happens everybody in the mcduck family gains powers. The story is basically all of them using their abilities and discovering different parts of them. (I'll get into all of their powers later on)

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EDDSWORLD:

Chaosworld- A scientist with a vendetta against Tom attempts to steal his monster abilities but instead manages to give harmful mutations and powers to the gang. They try to revert the mutations and find a cure before it's too late for them all.

(Also also, I'm very sorry to those who follow me solely because of Chaosworld. I probably wont be writing anything for it for a very long time if I ever do get back to it. It just dosent really inspire me anymore, I'm sorry qwq. )

[muthaz-rapapa]

HealPre Ep 2: Partners, Faith & Ability

Hwoo, boy. This is another long one.

Ok, I know mascots are not the most exciting things to talk about when it comes to Precure because while a handful of them are not quite two-dimensional (depending on the context), they rarely fully reach the three-dimensional field either since they are majorly there to support the main charas and...well, to look and be cute for the merchandising. Hence, why they’re soon shoved to the backseat in favor of the story focusing more on our heroines.

But as we are still in the early period of establishing relationships here, I think it’s noteworthy to discuss the return of fairy partnerships (which hasn’t happened since DokiDoki, can you believe that?) and why it’s significant to the story of HealPre.

Starting with the first one-sided “fight” (if you can really call it that) between Rabirin and Nodoka.

Prior to learning that Nodoka’s actually not athletic, Rabirin was immensely ecstatic to have found a human who shared their sentiments on wanting to protect the Earth. But because she was too thrilled about it, she ended up blinding herself with thoughts that Nodoka is the ideal partner she always wanted. A person who’s agile, graceful and possesses a robust physique.

So when the after school activities proved otherwise, Rabirin gets upset and disbands the partnership right then and there.

Which makes Rabirin look incredibly shallow and selfish but in reality...

It’s because she likes Nodoka so much that she can’t bear to put such a kind girl like her in danger.

True, Rabirin is still basing everything off a mindset that says “I can only accept a partner who’s physically capable” so for one part, she is still thinking too superficially.

But for another, Rabirin also acknowledges that she is just a trainee, not a full-fledged doctor. She knows for a fact that she herself is not completely competent as she wants to be (yet) so if something bad happens, she might not be enough to protect Nodoka from the fall.

Nodoka has a handicap and Rabirin is inexperienced. These are not the best circumstances to go into battle with so to minimize the damage that can affect them (and the Earth), Rabirin decides to leave Nodoka.

It’s not that protecting the Earth takes priority over everything else.

It’s because protecting the Earth should not come at the expense of letting Nodoka get hurt in any way.

That’s the true reasoning behind Rabirin’s rejection.

Meanwhile, let’s go back to Nodoka.

Her noticeably calm reaction to Rabirin’s emotional outburst is also worth examining. Rather than becoming sad or disheartened at being dumped because she’s not “up to snuff”, she takes the time to reflect on what she’s able to do at the moment.

Nodoka’s not going to deny that she has trouble keeping up with those who are more athletically fit than she is. She knows that’s due to her having a weak constitution from illness but she’s not ashamed of it. It’s just a fact that she was sick, nothing more. 

It doesn’t mean she can’t do the same things healthy people are capable of doing. It just means she has to find ways to do them without straining herself. And if given the time, she’ll eventually be able to catch up with them that way.

Nodoka already has the motivation (hell yea she does, that’s mah gurl!) so all she needs to do is to find the best point for her to start from.

What’s more, Nodoka is not afraid of getting hurt to do what she feels she needs to do.

When Rabirin was not there to help her transform, Nodoka tried all sorts of things she can think off to fend off the Megapathogerm. Teaming up with Nyatora, donning armor before confronting the monster and tricking it into a trap.

Honestly, it’s remarkable how she faced the situation without letting the panic get the better of her.

She’s very stable as person, a trait I believe is something we’d like to see in anyone, especially a partner.

And “failure” doesn’t discourage her either.

When she proves no match for the Megapathogerm in her civilian form, the first thing she does after getting knocked off her feet was to try and chase after it.

The thought of people getting hurt by the villains is what drives her to act. Even when she’s in no condition to continue fighting, she musters whatever strength she has left to help others anyway.

Nodoka is brave, resilient and extremely compassionate.

But it’s also important to know she isn’t fearless.

And what she is most afraid of is not being able to do anything at all.

She’s not just afraid for other people. She’s also terrified that if she doesn’t act now, she’s going to have to relive those lonely, difficult days she spent bedridden in the hospital.

A life where she couldn’t move as she wanted, couldn’t live as she wanted to. And perhaps those feelings of helplessness made her despair.

She doesn’t want anyone else to feel that way. She doesn’t want herself to feel that way again because of not being able to do anything as she is now. Now when she can finally walk on her own two feet and start doing so many things she couldn’t do before.

Nodoka had received so much hope to get here.

From her parents, her doctors, her nurses.

It was thanks to them for being by her side through the hardships that Nodoka was able to make it here today.

They taught her to have faith in herself, to believe that she does have it in her to beat her illness.

And she did.

Nodoka values the hope given to her so strongly that if she were to step back and give up now, it would be an insult to all the support she received from her loved ones.

When she was in pain, no one abandoned her. So how can she possibly stand by when she sees someone else in trouble?

Therefore, whether she can still be Rabirin’s partner or not, whether Rabirin will allow her to be Precure or not is not the main concern here.

Nodoka just wants to do something.

She doesn’t want to sit on the sidelines like she used to. She wants to join clubs, do activities and run to her heart’s content.

And if someone’s hurting, she wants to help them. That’s all.

Doing nothing is more painful for Nodoka than failing.

That’s why when Rabirin gave her the powers to transform into Cure Grace, Nodoka was so grateful to her.

Becoming Precure helped Nodoka from drowning in despair again. She was able to do something, she was able to help the Earth beat the maladies the villains inflicted on it.

Similar to Nodoka’s parents and doctors giving her hope to overcome her own illness.

And in earnest, she sincerely swears to Rabirin that she’ll do her best to protect Earth with these powers she’s given.

Nodoka cannot promise she’ll become the strongest Cure ever. She knows how dangerous fighting these monsters can be and she’s fully aware of the limits of her own body.

But she still wants to at least try.

Not for herself. Becoming Precure is not for herself, but for the sake of others.

So she asks Rabirin to believe in her. Like with her illness, Nodoka is not that naive to think she can go at it alone. She beat her illness because she had her people by her side, supporting her every step of the way. 

And if Rabirin gives her another chance, then Nodoka knows from experience that they can overcome whatever comes their way. Not just Nodoka. Nodoka and Rabirin.

They can save the Earth if they fight together.

After a declaration like that, how can Rabirin even think of not wanting Nodoka as her partner?

More than finding a person who’s in tip-top shape, being able to find Nodoka, whose heart is just as strong if not even stronger than the average healthy person’s, is nothing short of a miracle.

What Rabirin was looking for was not the “perfect” partner but someone who resonated with her. That someone is Nodoka.

With that, she apologizes profusely for treating Nodoka so harshly before, judging her without knowing her story and not respecting Nodoka’s feelings like a doctor should.

Rabirin was right when she said it wasn’t she who helped Nodoka but the other way around. Meeting Nodoka helped Rabirin break free of the limits of her own thinking...

Which finally brings me to the topic of partnerships.

Y’know, it’s so easy to take the fairies for granted because though they play a pivotal role, they’re not the most important part of the story.

But the way the necessity of a partnership is portrayed here, as a very serious matter rather than the teasing banter comedy we usually see, tells something very profound that HealPre might be trying to convey.

It’s that no man is an island. No one can shoulder the world alone.

Just like how we can’t expect one individual to solve the climate crisis, you can’t assume that you’ll be okay bearing all the burdens on your own while fighting against your personal ailments, whatever they may be.

Everyone needs someone else to truly live healthily.

And not just any “someone” but a person you know you can truly trust to understand you and repay in kind as well.

That’s what makes a partnership.

Protecting the Earth is the biggest importance to Rabirin and Nodoka practically had to bare her entire soul to the rabbit to prove she’s up to the task. In turn, it wouldn’t be right to not answer those feelings which is why Rabirin tossed away what set her back to accept Nodoka as the one and only partner for her.

Rather than worrying about what someone’s not capable of, you should actually take a real look at what they are capable of doing. And in order to do that, you have to get to know each other, see what’s beyond the surface, reach the point where it’s become secure enough for you to be confident enough to say the faith you invested in each other is worth it.

Only then can something be born out of two people combining their efforts together.

Two.

二つ (“futatsu”)

Why does the post-transformation Cure phrase have this word in it? Because it’s not just Nodoka becoming Cure Grace to save the world. It’s Nodoka and Rabirin.

Rabirin who gives Nodoka the power to transform into Precure. Nodoka receiving that power to protect Earth alongside Rabirin.

Cure Grace is made up of the power of two, not one. Cure Grace is both Nodoka and Rabirin.

The power of two.

I’m not sure if this is how I wanted the post to turn out (I had to rewrite and re-edit it so many times because thinking on it drove my mind in circles @.@;;) or if I said everything I wanted to...

But if there’s one thing I’m certain of is that Rabirin will never doubt Nodoka again from this point on.

Even when Chiyu and Hinata, who have better stamina than Nodoka does, join the team, I’m certain Rabirin won’t compare her partner to them and instead say something along the lines of “Nodoka has the biggest heart out of anyone here! My partner’s the strongest of them all!” with immeasurable pride.

In short, Rabirin liked Nodoka before but she definitely loves Nodoka now.

(*＾v＾*)

[asgardianthot]

Flesh And Bones - part 1

Sam Wilson x Bucky Barnes

Soulmate AU

In a world where people bond with their soulmates through physical pain, living in the same compound makes the search much easier (or it should, if they weren’t so damn stubborn)

TW: self-inflicted injuries

words: 1742

A/N: this is my first time posting a series on the tumblrs but I’ve had the idea for months so here goes nothing

Series Masterlist

Pain is such human extravaganza.

For your body to react to certain dangers or stimulations that trigger specific nervous patterns, that’s something most living creatures are built with. We are but machines; when you lay your hand over fire and it hurts, your nervous system is alerting the rest of your body of harm and yelling at it to get away from said harm, similar to how old hair dryers would stop functioning when they overheated to prevent explosions.

That, we have a general idea of. Pain is natural and not a construct.

But suffering. Aching from love, or the lack of it… nobody does it better than humans. Super-humans included. Enhanced, hyper-trained, whatever. The pain parade of romance is something so deeply rooted into the dumbest parts of our brains, that that must be the reason behind soulmates.

The point is, it is only logical for such a cruel universe to bond love and pain so tightly.

It’s simple, really. Sometime in the speck of dust of time in which we live, a person will get injured. They’ll bump their toe on a kitchen counter, fall on their butts, cut their finger while chopping vegetables, or maybe get into a chaotic car accident. No matter the damage, when the universe decides that hurt idiot is your hurt idiot, you’ll feel their pain on your own skin. It also didn’t matter if you knew the person or not, only chances were your soulmate was a complete stranger.

At first it comes like a tingle, a small pinch or even the ghost sensation of a scratch. But if your soulmate is nearer than they should without you realizing who they are, the sensation becomes full and the closer they are the more vivid their pain feels on your own skin. It is extremely uncertain, however, if it has to do with spatial proximity, or emotional.

Sam Wilson would eventually sit on the park, after his morning jog, or afternoon jog, and contemplate people. He enjoyed the easiness, the memory of a time before the army, when his life was simple. No PTSD, no Avenging. To be fair, the Avenger life was the cure to the PTSD somehow, for Sam Wilson was a man of action and the more quiet his life was, the more his mind wandered. He loved the agitation, the missions, the feeling of helping people, yet every once in a while, or once a day even, he would simply sit and watch the futility of civilian’s walks around the park.

A woman sat next to him and didn’t offer any sign of kindness. She seemed busy -occupied- in the way that she moved and looked around, which is why he didn’t look at her any longer so she wouldn’t feel uncomfortable. However, he then began getting the feeling that she was keeping an eye on him, and when he glanced at her nervous hands, he noticed the poor woman holding a needle to her skin, poking her own hand a few times.

A desperate soul.

On one side of a binary coin, some people don’t believe in soulmates. They aren’t the easiest to spot, and when a couple like that is seen, there is no proof for a simple skeptical individual that they actually felt each other’s pain. There were studies proving the neuronal effects, and were those hard to execute, but not everyone fell for them. Some argued that it was psychological placebo, that the person forced themselves to feel their lover’s feelings, some accused the studies to be biased or false. Some were old and hadn’t found one so why would they believe soulmates were real? They’re not necessary. You don’t just love the person you’ll want to spend the rest of your life with, and them alone, there’s all kinds of love and affection. Then, well… some were simply bitter, covering up their fear of never finding one for themselves.

On the polar opposite, there were the desperate ones. They would inflict harm on themselves in public spaces, expecting a reaction from the passersby.

More than once had Sam seen a man stab their own leg or cut through their palm yelling ‘can anybody feel this?’ as if they feared this was their only shot, forcing the Falcon to run and make them stop hurting themselves along with other civilians. Some couldn’t wait. And Sam never understood why someone wouldn’t be able to enjoy life if they didn’t know their one and only; It made dating much more relaxed and fun and honest. Perhaps that person would eventually become your soulmate, and even though the probabilities of that happening were slim to none, it didn’t need to ruin every romantic relationship in your life.

Therefore with pain in his chest, he addressed the young woman whose eyes were directly analyzing Sam’s hand.

“Hey, lady?” he asked her, earning a big pair of hopeful eyes to find his; yet he had to give her a sad frown to let her know he wasn’t who she was looking for, thus gaining a mimicking disappointed look, “It’s not worth all this trouble.”

Her expression quickly turned into one of distance, like she was trying to protect herself from people who didn’t understand her. She sat back and allowed a smirk to take over her face as she stared into nothingness.

“You’re one of those people who think it’s all a hoax? A construct?” when obtaining no reply, she kept pressuring the Falcon, “Placebo effect? Self-conditioning?”

Sam didn’t give in. He simply took a big breath and sat up from the bench. When he turned to face her, her eyes weren’t as distant.

“No.” He said calmly, “I think yours will come when it’s time. Until then,” he raised his eyebrows a bit, “you’re just hurting yourself for no reason.”

Sam walked away before he could see the young woman’s lower lip tremble.

-

“I didn’t eat your cereal.” Bucky protested, plopped on the couch that faced a flat screen.

Sam, however, wasn’t buying it. He held his ground, one hand on his hip and the other agitating the skimpy remains inside the carton box, making it rattle.

“It’s empty.” He insisted, in a way that screamed paranoia over being accused of overreacting or being crazy.

Instead of acting in an opposite behavior, he gave Bucky all the more reason to treat him as if he were going insane.

“Well, it wasn’t me.” The soldier replied easily, not flipping through the channels anymore but surrendering to a local news one; after a sigh, he looked at the accusatory, “Maybe Steve did it.”

Sam pursed his lips before turning to Steve with a dead look on his face.

“Steve, did you eat my cereal?” he asked condescendingly, already knowing the answer to be no.

As a matter of fact, the blonde’s shirt had small dark spots where he sweat his morning jog on, his hair was still perfect for a regular person but a bit disheveled for Captain America’s inhuman standards, and he was focused on drinking from a water bottle.

He tilted his head to Sam, who nodded, more agreeing with himself than with Rogers.

“You’re the only one who stays on the couch all morning.” He braked back at Barnes.

He didn’t respond this time, perhaps because he was, once again, being accused of being lazy and not using his time nor his gifts wisely. Perhaps because he was just tired of saying he didn’t eat the cereals in question when he had undoubtedly and decisively eaten the cereals in question.

Paying attention to the random local news he’d landed on, he got the gist of what the reporter was saying. They were presenting a quirky story of a bitter man suing his soulmate. He claimed the only reason he got into a car accident was because he felt a sudden sharp pain in his foot and got distracted, and therefore, was asking for his soulmate to pay off the insurance money. Of course they had to find the soulmate who was allegedly responsible for the crash.

“That’s ridiculous.” Bucky mocked.

Sam sat next to him, already having dropped the subject of the missing cereals. He listened to the reporter interviewing the odd man and let an amused but very quickly evaporated smile.

“People have been pulling stunts like these for ages, you can’t be surprised.”

Barnes glanced at him for a second, then returning to the TV. He still thought it was the stupidest reason to sue he’d ever heard of.

“It’s insane.” He said anyways.

“I think it’s sad.” Sam derailed the commentary on an opposite direction, “Can’t be fun starting your lifelong love story through a lawsuit.”

Steve joined the conversation from behind the couch. “I’m pretty sure it’s just a way of getting their attention. You know, find them whatever it takes. It’s actually kind of romantic.”

Bucky scoffed. He couldn’t stop Steve from being such a hopeless romantic and blindly believe in fairy tales where there was none, but he could still be annoyed by the fact.

“A little convenient, isn’t it?” he raised an eyebrow in judgement, yet not turning around to face the blonde.

“What?” Sam shot defiantly, “You don’t believe in this stuff?”

They both knew he was referring to the soulmates paraphernalia. With his glum attitude and dark observations, Barnes did seem like the kind of people to discard the idea of a soulmate. Love that never changes, souls that bond… it did not sound like James Buchanan Barnes’ cup of tea.

“Not the whole part.” He admitted, “I think there’s a lot of bullshit to it.”

The smirk grew on Wilson’s face, “So you’re one of those wacko conspirationists?”

“What if I am?” Bucky shot back, just to mess with him.

He wasn’t though, or not when it came to soulmates, at least. NASA and the government, on the other hand? The man had seen too much inside Hydra to not believe any crazy theory to be possible. He dropped the subject and became more serious, shrugging a little.

“All I’m saying is there’s lots of rules and conditions, I mean, who makes the calls?” Bucky questioned, almost angry, “Who chooses everyone’s partners? And what if you hate your soulmate?”

“That’s the point.” Steve intervened with his bright optimism, “You won’t. They’re your other half.”

Bucky pursed his lips and picked up the remote to switch channels again.

“Sounds real dumb.”