#in my humble opinion you can simply never have too many 'that's my wife!' concepts in the world

[searidings]

this is what happens when @ekingston and i get our hands on the prompt “that's my wife!” and agree that she'll draw my idea for it and i'll write hers (aka hearing kara call it out as she watches lena being wheeled down a hospital corridor)

“Excuse me, you can't go through there!”

Kara growls. The woman blocking her path is short and gently rounded, the kind lines of her face drooping in disapproval above her nurse's scrubs. “No visitor access beyond this point, dear. Immediate family only.”

“Immediate— you're joking, right?” Kara cranes her head, peering through the closing doors to catch a last glimpse of Lena's gurney as it rounds the corner at the end of the hall. “That's my wife!”

The nurse gapes at her. “Your—?”

Kara growls again, louder. It's a good thing she'd blown out her powers twenty minutes ago, or she would not be held responsible for the Kryptonian-shaped hole in NC Memorial Hospital's expensive surgery doors. “Yes, my wi—”

Her snarl is cut off by a hand clamping down firmly over her mouth from behind. Kara's first instinct is to bite it. She resists, narrowly, as the familiar scent of shea butter moisturiser registers in her adrenaline-fogged brain.

“You sure about that?” Alex squeaks around a nervous laugh, voice pitched a half-octave too high. She removes her hand from Kara's mouth, wiping her damp palm on her pants with a wrinkled nose. “Get hit on the head during that fight, did you?”

Kara whirls on her sister, eyes blazing. “Am I sure?” she parrots incredulously. Alex cowers a little beneath the force of her stare. “Unless you're trying to tell me I hallucinated my entire wedding—”

“Supergirl isn't married,” Alex stage-whispers loud enough to be heard in Florida, glancing pointedly down at Kara's ash-caked body and oh yeah, she's still wearing her supersuit.

Right, right.

The nurse – Rosemary, her badge reads – finally picks her jaw up off the floor long enough to speak. Her eyes are wide, sparkling with sudden glee. “So Lena Luthor and Su—”

Kara's hackles rise at the suggestion in her tone. “Lena Luthor and Kara Danvers are happily married,” she interrupts sternly. “You might have seen the wedding photos in last month's Vogue.”

The nurse smirks. At her elbow, Alex drops her head into her hands.

“Kara Danvers, hm? Amazing what a pair of glasses do for you, dear.” Rosemary's brow quirks with impish satisfaction and, oh. Whoops. It would appear that in her haste to quash any potential rumours of Lena's infidelity behind the back of her very recent, very publicly human wife, she'd forgotten about the other delicate matter at hand.

Alex sighs so long and so heavy Kara legitimately marvels that she doesn't pass out from the strain. “I knew keeping a spare NDA in my back pocket would pay off,” her sister groans, thrusting an official-looking, if crumpled, contract beneath the nurse's nose.

“Sorry,” Kara murmurs sheepishly as Rosemary signs away page after page of her right to ever disclose Supergirl's identity in any capacity. “I wasn't thinking, I can't— Alex, it's Lena.”  

“I know, I know,” her sister soothes, frustration dissipating as she reaches out to pull Kara into her side, ignoring the soot and grit that smear across her jacket at the contact. “She's gonna be okay.”

“But what if she's not?” Kara asks and the sobs arrive then, the last remnants of the fight or flight response that had propelled her this far dissipating beneath the weight of her terror. “She stepped right in front of that bullet, Alex! Of all the stupid, reckless—”

“If I recall, she was pushing you back after you shoved her out of the way in the first place,” Alex hums thoughtfully. Kara's tear-filled eyes snap to her face, incredulous, and her sister grimaces. “Right, right. Not the time.”

“She has to be okay,” she gasps, clutching hard at her sister's jacket as her knees threaten to give out beneath her. “She has to, I can't— I feel like I can't breathe. Like my heart's been ripped out.”

Alex clicks her tongue in sympathy, wrapping a firm arm round Kara's waist and guiding her to a nearby row of chairs. Rosemary deposits the signed NDA wordlessly on the hard plastic beside them, reaching into her scrubs to produce a pack of tissues.

Alex accepts, extracting one to dab at Kara's snotty, tear-stained face with her free hand. “Welcome to married life, kid,” she chuckles, pressing a kiss to Kara's matted hair. “It can be a real bitch.”

-

It's a long night.  

It's a long night, a night of anxious waiting and barely-restrained nausea and vending machine coffee so bad even Nia won't drink it. Her family, their family, crowd the waiting room, dozing across the rows of seats as the hours drag on and on.

Alex tries her best, at varying intervals, to force her back to the Tower for a stint under the sun lamps. Every time without fail, Kara sets her jaw, then sets her feet in the middle of the surgical wing waiting room and refuses to budge.

This leads to several arguments, and a lot of impassioned shoving.  

“What if she needs me?” Kara laments tearily, pout activated and puppy dog eyes firmly in place. Alex, mid-football tackle with her arms and right shoulder braced against Kara's torso as she attempts to use her entire bodyweight to force her sister toward the exit, only grunts with exertion. Behind them, J’onn dozes in the corner. Brainy and Kelly and Nia continue their conversation without batting an eyelid.

“No, scratch that, she does need me,” Kara corrects, unaffected by her sister's NFL-worthy body slam. “She's been shot. I'm not going anywhere.”

Alex, perhaps finally sensing defeat after her fourth unsuccessful attempt, gives one final shove with all her strength. Kara doesn't so much as wobble, and her sister releases her with a huff. “Fine. But for the love of God, change your clothes before you start shouting about your wife again,” she pants, red-faced and sweating as she collapses into a nearby chair. “That was my last NDA.”

That's a compromise she can make. Kara accepts the bundle of clothes Nia presents her with, stripping out of her dirt-caked suit and re-donning her glasses. Thankfully, the only person around to witness Kara entering the bathroom as a superhero and re-emerging as a Catco reporter is Rosemary.  

The updates on Lena's condition are sporadic at best. By the time the first surgeon emerges to say the bullet has been removed from Lena's chest cavity Kara's accidentally cracked three plastic chairs, advanced all the way to Lollipop Land on Alex's Candy Crush, and worn a groove into the waiting room linoleum with her nervous pacing.

When another doctor emerges three hours later to tell them Lena had developed a tension pneumothorax and needs additional treatment, Kara's made it to Rainbow Reef and chewed her bottom lip bloody.

When, at five in the morning, yet another doctor appears to inform them that Lena is being placed on anti-radiation medication to counter the Kryptonite that had coated the bullet, Kara's finished all nine thousand nine hundred and thirty-five levels of the damn game. The doctor leaves, promising to be back with more news soon, and Kara squeezes her sister's hand so hard poor Nurse Rosemary has to be called to administer an ice pack for the bruising, solar flare be damned.

Dawn breaks to find Kara scratchy-eyed and grumpy, worn ragged with worry. The waiting room begins to fill up around them, new patients and their relatives coming and going, and still there's nothing new on Lena. Every time another scrub-clad surgeon pushes through the doors Kara's heart skips a beat, all of them sitting up straighter in their seats, but every time the doctor passes them by.

Kara's just wolfed down six cold breakfast sandwiches procured by Brainy on his sojourn to the hospital cafeteria and is debating the relative merits of starting Candy Crush over from scratch when another young doctor appears. Her scrub cap has avocados on it. Kara likes her already.

“Family of Ms Luthor?” she calls, looking around, and Kara pushes up hard from her chair to the resounding snap of cracking plastic. Whoops.

“It's Luthor-Danvers,” she gabbles as she bounds over to the surgeon, palms sweating. No matter how many times she hears it, it never loses its thrill. “I'm, I'm her wife.”

The young doctor's features soften. “Of course. I've come to let you know that it looks like Ms Luthor-Danvers is out of the woods. She's sedated and still on an anti-radiation drip, but she's through the worst of it.” She appraises Kara, gaze lingering on her chewed-raw lips and clenching fingers, then leans closer conspiratorially. “It's not general visiting hours yet, but you can see her, if you'd like.”

“Yes!” Kara's shouting almost before the surgeon has finished speaking. “Yes, please, yes.”

She hugs them all, Alex and Brainy and Nia and Kelly and J’onn, and leaves them in the waiting room as she follows the doctor's sunshine-yellow crocs down the hall.

They round corner after corner, an interminable maze. Powerless as she is, she can't hear Lena’s heartbeat, and the absence of the steady beat that has become the soundtrack to her existence sets her even more on edge.  

But at last they turn a corner, and there she is. She's pale and bandaged and her eyes are closed, creamy skin streaked with dirt and bruises, but she's there, she's alive, she's Lena.  

The surgeon holds the door open for her with a smile and Kara's across the room in a heartbeat, smoothing a hand over Lena's warm cheek and pressing kiss after kiss to her forehead and hair.  

“I love you, I love you,” she whisper-cries against Lena's temple, tucking her matted curls behind her ears. The smell of blood and dirt and antiseptic is almost overwhelming, but beneath the dust and debris caught up in her hair Lena's scalp smells the same as always. Kara presses her face to the crown of her head and inhales deeply, soaking it in.  

“Why'd you have to be so damn brave?” she whispers, nuzzling her cheek against silky softness. “I love you so much. Please don't step in front of any more bullets. Please learn to be a coward, occasionally.”

The singular relief of having Lena living and breathing and in her arms again is so complete, so compounded by the fear and the adrenaline and the sleepless night and the solar flare, that she feels suddenly that she may crumple to the ground from the force of it all.

Unwilling to relinquish her hold for even a second she appraises the bandages covering Lena's right side, then crawls onto the hospital bed on her left, careful to avoid her many wires and monitors. She tucks herself in beside her on the wide mattress, chin hooked over Lena's shoulder and face pressed to the side of her neck, and lets the tears that haven't really stopped falling since that bullet had left its chamber fall for just a little longer.

Nothing matters outside of the two of them, outside of the warmth of Lena's body and the softness of her skin beneath Kara's lips and the steady thud of her heart beneath Kara's palm. Nothing else in the world exists, so when an unfamiliar male voice sounds from the doorway it takes her a moment to register the intrusion.

“Excuse me, ma’am, you really can't be on the bed with her,” the strange, disembodied voice calls from behind her and Kara frowns tiredly, unable and unwilling to acknowledge anything outside of the woman in her arms.

But before she's even managed to raise her head another voice sounds, the soft tones of a young surgeon in an avocado scrub cap.  

“Oh, honestly, Peter,” the kindly doctor says with gentle reproach, a quiet calm washing over the room as the door is pulled closed and she and Lena are left alone. “Leave them be. That's her wife.”

[seyaryminamoto]

Who do you think are the most overrated characters in ATLA?

What a controversial question xD Well, probably under the cut, for the best.

DISCLAIMER: if you adore any of the characters on this list, this is NOT an attempt to attack you or your peers, merely criticism on how the fandom behaves regarding certain characters.

Undeniably, the #1 overrated character is Iroh. A lot of people give him much more credit than he’s due, and he’s much more problematic than he seems on first sight. No doubt he has his fair share of good points, but he is far from perfect and he definitely isn’t the soul of the show for me, despite it seems he is for a lot of people. Proof of how overrated he is? His mere reappearance in LOK made people who had dropped the show return to it just because of him. Because SOMEHOW Iroh being there makes it all better.Truth is, no, it doesn’t make LOK all better. But how to argue with people who adore Iroh and refuse to see his faults?Iroh is not all wisdom, and he’s definitely not infallible. He’s also not the strongest firebender ever, sorry not sorry to burst that bubble but it’s a fact. Iroh was very questionable at many points in the show, and his relationship with his family is very complicated to say the least. Assuming he’s the only pure and good person in the Fire Nation Royal Family just because he was nice to Zuko is one of the fandom’s biggest mistakes and one of my biggest gripes with this character’s interpretations. Not because Bryke decided to sanctify him in LOK, and make him the franchise’s most enlightened character of all, does it mean he really was that perfect. A genuine analysis of who he is and what he did during ATLA can prove as much. So… Iroh is very overrated. Very. I’m certainly interested in hearing about his past, as any fan would be, but I do think there are far more important things the show and comics should deal with than expanding on Iroh’s life. People who would rather hear about his past than about the grown-up lives of the Gaang (… or about Azula’s uncertain future) really baffle me as Iroh’s endgame is clearly what the show gave us. Do we really need to know more about his past than we need to know about everyone else’s futures? I’d like to know more about his past, as I said, but it is far from a priority for me compared to every other main character on the show. 

Zuko would be my #2, of course, only because Iroh’s fans tend to be louder and more annoying when you get them going. But the constant praise to Zuko’s development, and ESPECIALLY the praise to his extremely flawed redemption that still leaves a ton of room for him to improve, and that also made him worse in many ways, makes me roll my eyes more often than not. That recent viral tweet about him getting the best redemption arc in the history of TV makes me wonder how much TV did that person watch at all. If Zuko’s the best redemption TV can do, I guess we’re really facing a terrible time for television shows.Mainly, Zuko is overrated because, just as Iroh, he’s credited for a ton of things that aren’t true. There’s a lot of problems with his character that go unaddressed, and a lot of people are happy to describe him with a lot of praising adjectives that I have no idea what relation they could possibly have with his character. Proof of the messed-up understanding fans have of Zuko can be found easily in fanfiction: have you ever wondered why Zuko’s characterization varies so drastically from fic to fic? Whether fics trying to portray him in a good light or in a bad one, more often than not it feels like people are portraying him as who they think he should be, and not who he really is. Having a grasp on his character is difficult, way more difficult than many people believe, but it’s on great measure because of how hard so many people have it to actually see his flaws for what they are.I am not saying loving Zuko is a terrible thing, it isn’t, but some people love and praise the idea of him, and not who he really is. Careful, less biased inspection of his character can reveal he leaves a lot to be desired for a man who changed his ways and became the ruler that would bring peace to a nation he hardly knows or understands. His character development is a rollercoaster, and that’s mainly because of how deeply flawed he is: but you ask the fandom and he’s a cinnamon roll who never did anything wrong, or at least, whose every misdeed can and should be blamed on everyone but him. Because he is perfect, and so is his character arc. So, overrated, or misunderstood character? Hell knows, but the fandom really has turned me off Zuko’s character altogether.

The third most overrated character would be Toph, who, for all her great traits, often gets praised as a fully rounded character when, uh… to put it bluntly, out of the five top-billed Gaang members, Toph is the one who evolved the least. Her growth was exclusively about developing more bending skills, about becoming a stronger fighter, but she has some serious personality flaws that are never explored the way they should be. She barely ever faces consequences for her wrongdoings, which are often framed as funny, and when she’s in the middle of serious conflicts, she is absolutely never in the wrong, just as it is with her every conflict with Katara. In the end… she barely grows in anything but power level. Yet you look around and find a ton of people praising her as the greatest character of the franchise. While I see the appeal, and in her case I like her a lot better as a character than either Iroh or Zuko, I also think she’s not given a chance by the story to actually grow, and that stunted her as a character. Which doesn’t seem to bother anyone because she’s praised for anything and everything to no end. I appreciate her comic relief moments, the message she gives in regards of disabilities, but the show could have made better use of her character and didn’t, and nobody really seems to notice or care.

This one’s going to get me stoned I’m sure (if the first ones didn’t already :’DDDD) but my #4 goes to Kyoshi. Yep. You read that right.Kyoshi is no doubt a hardass, I’ve seen a ton of people praising her as the greatest Avatar of all. There’s a million Chuck Norris-esque memes with her, presenting her as the most unstoppable force in the Avatarverse, and you see people everywhere dissing Avatars like Kuruk, for being so lazy, or Roku, for not being decisive, blah blah blah, and saying she’s awesome for being 100% the opposite of that.What these funny people fail to notice, or maybe they simply don’t know the Avatarverse’s timeline, is that Kyoshi allowed Chin the Conqueror to take over the entire Earth Kingdom and only made a move against him to save HER island. She didn’t act until then, allowing Chin to take over whatever the hell he wanted to take during his rebellion, which, as far as I know, was practically the entire continent, with only Kyoshi Island and Ba Sing Se as exceptions.And the whole thing to help the Earth King to deal with the Earth Kingdom’s problems, by creating the Dai Li for his protection? It happened AFTER Chin died, she didn’t even do this to save Ba Sing Se from him because this is posterior to Chin’s mad quest. She did NOT act to protect the Earth Kingdom from a raving, rising tyrant until it affected herdirectly, and didn’t involve herself with the politics of HER OWN NATION until after they had boiled over and the Earth King had a peasant revolt in his hands. If she couldn’t be bothered to move to save her own people until the last moment, what guarantees that she did anything to help anyone else? How is she that great an Avatar?Sure, people think that, since she actually got involved in worldly events no matter how late she did, she was better than Roku or Kuruk. But in Kuruk’s favor he apparently had no war to deal with, and his wife’s loss is an unexpected tragedy for him. Roku actually kept Sozin at bay for years, and Sozin only dared act openly with his conquest of the world once Roku was out of the way. Kyoshi had a major war brewing in her nation and her best idea to deal with it was to split off her island so she wouldn’t have anything more to do with it. Because a separatist mentality is the best way to handle your Avatar duties (the greatest illusion is the illusion of separation, anyone?). Seriously, if Chin had been standing just a bit futher back? If he hadn’t fallen to his death? He probably would have taken Ba Sing Se later anyways and Kyoshi would’ve been chilling in her village until she noticed that the Earth King was dead. Oops.Long story short, Kyoshi is considered way too great for the reality of her actions and decisions. The fandom’s concept on her duty as an Avatar is absurdly messed up, and as cool as her character design is, as great as her displays of power were, she was actually a pretty bad Avatar if you get objective about what she allowed Chin to do for so long. So in my very humble opinion, the fandom’s circlejerk around her is more than undeserved.

I was planning on making this a top 5, but tbh I don’t think anyone else gets acclaim to the extreme in the way these four do. Everyone else seems to have a more moderate fanbase, or at least enough detractors that the people who praise them don’t come off as loud and annoying as they do for these four. 

I’m not saying loving any of them is wrong, but there’s such abundance of praise for them, often for things they never even did, let alone for values they never represented, and yet they get interpreted by the fandom in whichever way the fans decide they like best. And somehow, the fanon interpretations grow more popular than what’s really there… which is truly annoying because these characters are fine the way the show actually portrayed them. They’re flawed, they make mistakes, their actions can be judged, they’re far from perfect: yet the fandom would have you believe otherwise.

[cursivesugg]

Grammy || Jack Maynard

Requests are currently [ CLOSED ]

Masterlist can be found [ HERE ]

Word Count: 1.8k+

Summary: You’ve been friends with Jack since you were kids, and he’s always supported every single one of your dreams. When you win a Grammy, he makes the night even more memorable when he proposes to you at the afterparty. 

Dedicated too: The anon who requested this; I apologise about getting a little too caught up in writing this but I honestly loved the concept and included Conor quite alot (it felt appropriate)xo

When you were six, you entered a dance competition at your school and came last. When you were nine, you ran a half marathon and dropped out mid-way through. When you were twelve, you took part in a drawing competition, and came fourth.

By that point, you were so done with competing in subjects in which you had absolutely no talent. If it wasn't for your bestfriend, Jack Maynard, and his older brother Conor, you would've given up and never entered another contest again. But when you were sixteen, and your school was holding yet another talent show, they encouraged you to enter; and were adamant that you did the one thing they knew you excelled at. They wanted you to sing.

That night was the first night you ever sang infront of anyone but your family and the Maynards', and it was exhilarating. Your stage presence was electrifying and the feeling that ran through your blood made you feel something you'd never felt before.

That was when you knew what you were destined to do. You entered tons of competitions and just two years later you were picked out by a management team and offered a once in a life time record deal. At first you'd hesitated; it was a huge deal and wasn't a decision that a nineteen year old could make alone. And so you found comfort in the one person who's opinion you truly valued with everything you had.

Yourself and Jack spent hours sat in the old treehouse, duvets thrown over you and fairy lights illuminating the space - the vibe simply too magical to recreate. You talked and talked for hours, about the pros and the cons and the changes that would come. By the end of the night, your decision had been made, and even Conor, who'd released his debut single a year earlier and peaked on the UK charts - was ecstatic when you told him.

It was then that you knew you'd made the right decision. You called up the number of the management company, and accepted their offer - and your life took off. Before you knew it you were in the studio, recording songs and releasing singles and albums and everything you'd ever dreamed of. You collaborated with Conor on a song which reached number one in the charts, you toured with Jack by your side, and he managed to vlog the entire thing.

Your best friends Youtube channel was taking off, he was making so many friends who were all apart of the same thing that he was, and you were so caught up in your responsibilities that you would've imagined that the two would've parted ways. But you never did. You stuck by his side through thick and thin, and he supported your every decision. He was still your bestfriend; but after spending so much time together and being mistaken as a couple in several magazines and news articles, the two of you began to consider that maybe, you were destined to become more than just that.

You fell in love under the sun, whilst taking a stroll across a beach in California with his oversized hoodie drowning your petite figure and your hand connected between you. You'd managed to not be noticed yet, all thanks to Jack, and that was the day you realised that you didn't just want to be bestfriends anymore. And so you made a split second decision, and wrapped your arms around this neck - pulling him down and brushing your soft lips against his slightly chapped ones.

This year was the year of The Grammy's. You'd been nominated for six awards and were so humbly grateful for that. You invited the whole buttercream squad, who thanked you over and over and promised to be on their best behaviour. You rolled your eyes, and hugged them all, which was almost a foreign feeling seeing as none of them were screaming or fingerling over you like the majority of your fans did. These guys were your friends, and they knew who you were beneath the fame and the music, and you'd always treasure that.

The guys all gathered in your hotel room after you'd argued your way out of having your own makeup artist and lady who dressed you. You didn't need that, you were a human being who could dress herself; and you had Zoe, who always managed to create the most stunning makeup looks on you. You had all of the boys to help you get dressed and make sure you had no one strand of hair out of place, you had Josh, who was tall enough to make sure your cleavage didn't look wonky in your dress.

They were everything you could've needed.

The whole three hours of prepping was spent laughing, and the nerves that'd been building in the pit of your stomach completely diminished. By the time you got the call that your car was ready downstairs, you were ready to leave and were simply waiting on the boys, who were performing last minute checks on their hair. You and Zoe were smirking to eachother as you heard them arguing over who got to use the mirror, but eventually they all started to emerge from the bathroom - each in a different style of suit which implemented them perfectly.

You immediately looked toward the Maynard brothers, who were staring at you with tears in their eyes. You frowned and pursed your lips, pushing back the tears as you pulled them both into a group hug, whispering 'thank you' over and over again. Every single one of your friends meant the world to you, but the brothers had been there for you since the very beginning - and they were the reason that you were where you were.

That evening, your whole group broke every rule in the book and walked the red carpet as a group, your hand tightly in Jack's as she smile at all of the cameras and do silly poses together. You made sure your whole group got atleast twenty photographs together before leading them off of the carpet and into the venue. Your eyes were wide in awe and the chandeliers simply took your breath away.

You were seated with all of your friends, Jack and Conor on both of your sides with their hands entwined with yours. You spent the evening cheering for your fellow friends in the industry and screaming in excitement whenever one of your favourite artists won an award. When it finally came to the categories that you'd been nominated for, you stopped breathing for a moment, and almost fainted when you heard your name being shouted through the microphone in excitement.

Your eyes widen and your heart speeds up, but after a few seconds everyone stood up and began to cheer for you, and offered you the confidence you needed to stand up and pick up your dress; beginning the walk toward the stage. A few tears of emotion were running down your cheeks by the time you took the trophy from the presenter and hugged him tightly. You approached the podium, and smiled at the extremely large crowd of hugely powerful artists, such as Beyonce and Taylor Swift.

You smile and wipe your tears, laughing a little into the mic when people begin to sit down and hush, patiently awaiting your speech. "I- I honestly wasn't prepared for this." She takes a deep breath and composes herself silently. "I wrote a there page speech two days ago in the middle of the night because I couldn't sleep. But, if I'm honest, I thanked way too many people who really didn't alter my path into this industry." A few people laugh, and she smiled and glances down at the award in her hands. "There are two boys who I wouldn't be here today without. They stuck by me when I came last in every competition until they finally convinced me to sing. And I came first, and that started my journey." She pulls her lips between her teeth and inhales softly. "This is for you. For Conor, who proved to be a better brother to me than my actual brother ever was. You encouraged me to follow my dream and together we made a beautiful child," she winks playfully, obviously referring to their song. "And Jack, god, I don't know where I'd be without you. I love you, with everything I have. Thank you, to you boys, and the rest of our little squad, and to my beautiful bestfriend, Zoe, who made sure I looked up to standard tonight. You guys are my whole word, and I love each and every one of you. Thank for you making all of this possible." She takes a step back and lifts the award with a wide smile, closing her eyes and listening as everyone stands up and cheers for her; that familiar feeling running through her veins.

That night, after winning two more awards, one of which was for your song with Conor, you were all at the after party, high from the thrill and unable to stop smiling. You didn't know how, but after two hours you'd managed to loose Jack. You tried to go and find him, but Zoe insisted that he'd only got to the loo and would be back in a while. And you believed her, until you heard him cough into the microphone on the stage and everyone fell silent. Your eyes widen and you stare at him in shock.

"First of all, I want to congratulate everyone who was nominated for an award tonight, and those who managed to win those awards. They're so well deserved." He raises his glass and everyone claps loudly, though you simply stared at your boyfriend, completely baffled. "But there's one girl here tonight, who means everything to me. She is my bestfriend, my partner in crime, and my soulmate - but there's one thing she isn't yet." He pauses and smiles at you through the crowd. "(Y/N), I love you. And I want you to be my wife."

You gasp and bring your hand up to cover your mouth as everyone else screams in excitement and pull out their phones and cameras: that was when you understood why every single one of the boys had begun to vlog the moment he stepped onto the stage.

You begin to walk through the crowds of people until you were directly in-front of him and he knelt down on one knew, opening the red belted box and revealing the absolutely stunning ring to you. "Marry me?"

You nod, and a sob escapes from your lips as he slides the ring onto your finger, the whole party cheering and creaming and throwing confetti at you both as you throw yourself into his arms and hug him tightly, your heart beating in your chest faster than it ever had before.

This was where you needed to be, in the arms of your one true love. Awards and ceremonies didn't matter in that moment, it was simply you and Jack, in love - and it was beautiful.

[fear-god-shun-evil]

By Yang En

My cousin and two sisters spread the gospel of the kingdom of Almighty God to my wife and me. My wife accepted it. However, as a denominational leader reading the Bible much more than them, I didn’t think anything of them at all, nor did I want to hear their fellowship and testimony. Later, whenever they came to have a meeting with my wife, they would invite me to join them, but I made excuses to refuse. Once, I really couldn’t wriggle out of it, and thereby attended the meeting. However, when they said, “Only by keeping pace with God’s work of the last days, can we obtain everlasting life,” I couldn’t accept it. I thought: The Bible is the way of eternal life bestowed by God. As long as I hold on to the Bible, I then will obtain eternal life. From then on, I listened to their fellowship no more.

One day at noon, my wife advised me to catch up with God’s work of the last days early, lest I should be forsaken by the Lord. I said, “If you wanna listen to and believe what they said, I won’t object to it. But I remind you; it is certainly right for us to hold on to the Bible and the Lord’s way. Believing like this, we will certainly gain eternal life. When they come here next time, don’t open the door for them. Locked outside, they will go away naturally.” My wife said, “Is it proper?” I said, “We should have faith in the Lord. We shouldn’t blindly obey them without discernment, otherwise our own life will be harmed. It is most important to receive life by believing in the Lord. We’d better think carefully before we do.” My wife was affected by my words, and accepted my opinion. She agreed not to open the door for them next time. I gave a nod of approval.

The next evening, the northwest wind blew strongly. It was very cold. My wife and I had supper early and went into bedroom. Soon afterward, hearing a knocking on the door, I knew it was my cousin and the others who came to spread the gospel of the kingdom to us again. So I said to my wife, “It is our cousin and the others knocking on the door. Don’t open it for them.” As my wife sank into a dilemma, I beckoned her not to open the door. We quietly lent an ear to what was going on outside of the door. After half an hour or so, they went away. Then I took a seat and saw the Bible peacefully. After a while, I felt bad and lay in bed. But my uncomfortable feeling got more and more serious, and moreover, I began to have a headache. Even though I wanted to pray to the Lord, I couldn’t get up. I said to my wife feebly, “I got a bad headache, and feel unwell. But I didn’t have a cold. Why does my head ache?” She said quickly, “Tonight, we didn’t open the door for our cousin and the others. What we have done must be wrong. We’ve offended the Lord.” I touched my head and reflected on myself: Did I really offend the Lord as to my closing the door on them? Could what they spread truly be the return of the Lord Jesus? Does the Lord really do a new work beyond the Bible? On such a cold day, I shut them outside the door—this couldn’t be done by an unbeliever, let alone a believer in the Lord. I simply had no humanity in doing like that. I have read the Bible for years, and often preach the Lord’s words. I, however, failed to live out His words and didn’t have love toward the brothers and sisters. Didn’t I shame the Lord’s name? Thinking about all of this, I came to regret, and felt guilty within my heart. I said to my wife miserably, “Maybe we are wrong. Well, we really shouldn’t have treated them that way.” She said, “After observing them these days, I have never found they had ulterior motives. What they talked about was in accordance with the Bible. They invited you to attend, but you were always reluctant to do that. The Lord Jesus said, ‘Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled’ (Matthew 5:6). We now cannot feel the presence of the Lord. We are hungry in our spirit, but we don’t actively investigate. The Lord sent them to preach us the gospel of kingdom. This was the love of the Lord falling upon us. We should seek and investigate. Next time, we must listen to them carefully.” I agreed with her. After that, I prayed to the Lord silently in my heart, “O Lord! Tonight, it is so cold. I shut the brothers and sisters believing in Almighty God outside. I was so lacking in humanity. They repeatedly invited me to communicate with them together, but I refused all along. And I always looked down on them and thought myself higher above them, without holding a heart of humble seeking. O Lord, my heart is too hardened. You let me fall ill and endure sufferings. This is out of Your discipline, and also is Your love to me. Thanks for Your grace. I am willing to repent. Next time, when the brothers and sisters come again, I will humble myself and seek Your work. May You lead me to be able to discern Your voice….” The next day, before I knew it,Ｉcompletely had recovered from my illness. Thanks be to the Lord.

On the third night, my cousin and the others came to my house in the rain. My wife hurried to find clothes for them to change into. After taking a seat, my cousin asked me, “Cousin, we came to your house the evening before last, and saw your door was closed. Did you not stay at home?” With my head bowed, I blushingly told them what had happened that evening. After that, I raised my head and said, “In the past, I stuck to the opinion that what is in the Bible is God’s word. Through your fellowship and my reading of Almighty God’s words, I have understood that in the Bible, only the words Jehovah personally said, the words Jehovah revealed to Moses, the words Jehovah let the prophets convey, the words Jesus said personally, and the prophecies the Holy Spirit enlightens are truly God’s words. Outside of these, other words came from man, Satan, or animals. In spite of this, I still think that no matter how many God’s words the Bible recorded, the Bible is the way of eternal life given by God. As long as we hold on to the Bible, we can get eternal life. Many people also think so. Therefore, I would like to know: Can I gain eternal life through holding on to the Bible and the Lord’s way?” Sister Jiang said patiently, “Brother, first we should understand who said the words, ‘The Bible is the way of eternal life given by God. As long as we hold on to the Bible, we can get eternal life.’ Jehovah God didn’t say these words, nor did the Lord Jesus or the Holy Spirit say. Only seeing things in accordance with God’s words is most accurate. Not based on God’s words, such an opinion is untenable. The Lord Jesus said, ‘Search the scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And you will not come to me, that you might have life’ (John 5:39-40). At that time, the Jewish people held on to the Old Testament. They thought there was eternal life in the Bible, and that as long as they held fast to the Bible, they would gain eternal life. However, the Lord Jesus told them the Bible just was a testimony of God’s work and there was no eternal life in the Bible. And they must come to Him if they wanted to gain eternal life. It was recorded in John 14:6: ‘Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me.’ The Lord Jesus said He is the way, the truth, and the life, and that man could come to the Father only by Him. But He didn’t say the Bible was the way, the truth, and the life, much less did He allow man to come to the Father by the Bible. It makes us see, God has life, but the Bible does not have life. Just as Almighty God says, ‘The way of life is not something that can be possessed by just anyone, nor is it easily obtainable by all. That is because life can only come from God, which is to say, only God Himself possesses the substance of life, there is no way of life without God Himself, and so only God is the source of life, and the ever-flowing wellspring of living water of life.’ ‘God Himself is life, and the truth, and His life and truth coexist. Those who are incapable of gaining the truth shall never gain life. Without the guidance, support, and provision of the truth, you shall only gain letters, doctrines, and, moreover, death. God’s life is ever-present, and His truth and life coexist. If you cannot find the source of truth, then you will not gain the nourishment of life; if you cannot gain the provision of life, then you will surely have no truth, and so apart from imaginations and conceptions, the entirety of your body shall be nothing but flesh, your stinking flesh. Know that the words of books do not count as life, the records of history cannot be feted as the truth, and the doctrines of the past cannot serve as an account of words presently spoken by God. Only that which is expressed by God when He comes to earth and lives among man is the truth, life, God’s will, and His current way of working. If you apply the records of words spoken by God during past ages to today, then you are an archaeologist, and the best way of describing you is as an expert on historical heritage. That is because you always believe in traces of the work that God did in times gone by, only believe in the shadow of God left from when He previously worked among man, and only believe in the way that God gave to His followers in former times. You do not believe in the direction of God’s work today, do not believe in the glorious countenance of God today, and do not believe in the way of truth presently expressed by God. And so you are undeniably a daydreamer who is completely out of touch with reality. If now you still cling to words that are incapable of bringing life to man, then you are a hopeless piece of deadwood, for you are too conservative, too intractable, too impervious to reason!’ (‘Only Christ of the Last Days Can Give Man the Way of Eternal Life’ in The Word Appears in the Flesh). From God’s words, we can see God is the source of life, the Expresser of the truth, and the source of eternal life, but the Bible is not the source of life, not the expression of the truth, let alone the source of eternal life. God is the ever-flowing wellspring of living water, while the Bible is just a historical record of God’s work, with too limited God’s words. Only the truth expressed by God in the last days can bring us eternal life. Holding on to the Bible is merely holding fast to lifeless letters and is delimiting God within the Bible, which can’t make people know God or God’s work. As believers in God, if we don’t seek His present work, but live in our own concepts and imaginations and think we can gain eternal life by rigidly sticking to the Bible, then we are in the clouds and will be eliminated by God’s work in the end.”