#maximus is the only man who gives me these kinds of thoughts

[wildsaltair]

thinking about how wonderful it would be to have a son with Maximus. like imagine having a little boy who looks like the man you love 🥹

[vivwritesfics]

No Need To Ask

Chapter Twenty-Three - Without Him

The Norris' were a notorious crime family in the UK. One of many. With Norris, the head of the family, running operations with his son, Lando, they work to keep Y/N Norris, Norris' daughter protected. Life in a crime family wasn't something they wanted for her.

But with tension with one of the Spanish crime families rise, Norris and his now deceased wife come up with only one plan, offer their daughter to the Sainz's or risk an all out war.

2.1K words

Series Masterlist

Recap from a previous chapter:

Carlos's phone vibrated against his chest. He picked it up, reading the text. "What is it?" Y/N asked softly, gently. Carlos wasn't hiding the screen from her or anything, but the text was in Spanish and she couldn't yet read it.

"My mother," he answered as he replied to the message. She was okay, had been in contact with Carlos ever since she'd made it to Alonsos safehouse.

As much as the Sainz family and the Alonso family hated each other, they had an agreement in place. If anything happened to the Sainz, those who could get out were to get to Alonsos territory if they could. It worked both way, with the Sainz offering sanctuary for Alonso and his men if needs be.

Señora Sainz had made it to Alonsos territory. By the time she'd gotten there, the attackers had left Alonsos. It was in a state, everything broken, documents missing, just like Carlos's house.

Alonso hadn't escaped like the Sainz family had. He had a bookcase that he could hide behind. Once he was behind it, the bookcase looked bolted to the wall, unmovable. Nobody thought to look for Alonso in there.

When Señora Sainz arrived at the Alonso house, he took her and her daughters to his own safehouse.

While she was in the Verstappen Stronghold, Max was the only person Y/N spoke to. He was the only person who would speak back to her.

She'd heard the rumours growing up, that Max Verstappen was as ruthless and terrifying as his father. But she didn't see that. To her, Max was sweet and kind and definitely not terrifying.

He loved joking, loved making her laugh. Actually, he was the best company she could have asked for while she was waiting for her husband to return.

Max gave her the tour of the Verstappen stronghold. He showed her the library, the home cinema, Max's very own game room. That game room wasn't Y/N's sort of game room. There were screens and monitors on every wall, with every type of gaming console known to man. There was a cabinet full of board games, Monopoly, cluedo, battleships, and chess.

The two of them spent a lot of time in the games room, playing chess with him. Well, it was more like Y/N playing a game of chess alone while Max playing his racing games on his xbox and tried his best to talk to her at the same time.

It wasn't like last time, when Y/N was the newcomer in Carlos's house. She wasn't going to rot away in her room while she waited for her husband to return. Time would pass by quicker if she kept herself busy.

"So, you're pregnant?" Asked Max as he drove around the corner. His set up had a proper steering wheel with the foot pedals and everything.

Y/N looked up from her game of chess. "Did Carlos give it away?"

Nodding his head, Max concentrated on the game. But the bots he was playing against were all colliding into the back of him, causing him to retire from the race. "Actually, he said you guys are gonna name the baby after me."

She couldn't stop herself from laughing at him. "Somehow, I really doubt that, Max."

"Yeah, but think about," he said, turning in his gaming chair. "You could name it Maximus Sainz, which is probably the most bad ass name for a head of family, ever."

Y/N rolled her eyes. She and Max continued chatting casually in this fashion as he played his racing simulator and she played her game of chess. Day after day went like this, but she didn't get bored. Not while she was waiting for Carlos to return.

Max was her solace in this time.

***

When Carlos returned to Spain, he was incredibly scared for his own life, although he'd never admit it. He had a wife who he loved, a wife who loved him, and a baby on the way. It wasn't like when he was a kid and he could throw himself into the line of fire without a second thought. There were people who counted on him. People he wanted to be there for.

When he landed back in Spain, from what was hopefully his last ever commercial flight, he rented a car. His car was too recognisable now.

His driving was still smooth as he headed back to his house. Their house. The house they were going to raise their baby in.

As he drove, his phone buzzed. Carlos easily answered it as he continued towards the house, holding the phone up to his ear as he steered. "Hamilton," he said into the phone.

"Sainz. I am sorry to hear about your father," said Lewis. "I've heard from almost everybody but you that they have managed to recover. How are you doing?"

Carlos sucked in a breath. "They found us in the safehouse," he said. "I've had to send my wife away but I won't be saying where, if it's okay with you," he said and Lewis agreed. So, Carlos continued. "I am heading back to my house to rebuild," he said.

"Keep us informed," said Lewis.

Carlos hesitated before hanging up. He had just one question left for the head of all of the families. "Norris, is he okay?" He asked him.

"Yes," Lewis answered quickly. "He's tightened his security, just as all of us have."

Carlos hung up the phone. There was no goodbyes in the mafia family, they just stopped the call. Carlos pulled over to dial one more number.

"Y/N?" Said the person on the other side as soon as they picked up.

Carlos pulled back onto the road, driving towards the house. "No, Lando. It's her husband," he said flatly.

The noise Lando made was unrecognisable. "Where is Y/N? Is she okay?" He asked quickly, urgency in his voice. Clearly, he was panicked.

"Yes, Lando, she's fine. I've gotten her somewhere safe," Carlos answered. "But I need you to do me a favour and call Max," he said.

"He's right next to me."

For a moment, Carlos frowned. He'd just left Max in the Netherlands. What on earth did Lando mean? But then it clicked. He always seemed to forget about Lando's best friend Max. "No, the other Max," he said. "Verstappen. Give Max Verstappen a call," He said and put down the phone.

Carlos drove the rest of his way to the house in silence, just praying that Lando did what he asked.

He pulled up to the house, the gates shutting behind him. They'd have to go, he thought as he imagined a few more rows of wall and gates. It would all have to be completely fortified.

He abandoned his car and walked into the house. The doors were already being replaced by metal ones, ones that bolted shut and required a retinal scan to get in.

Carlos made his way up to his office. That was where all the controls would be. It had been cleaned up by his men since the last time he'd been there, his papers put back into order. There was a stack of receipts, the costs of fortifying the house.

He wanted guard dogs, too. They weren't his usual sort of dog, with Carlos preferring something small. But he'd get the biggest dog around if it meant keeping his wife and unborn child safe.

He checked his weapons, all of them still where he had left them. Aside from the few papers, the thieves hadn't stolen anything. It was so confusing, what they actually wanted from him. They hadn't stolen anything of value, just paperwork.

The thieves had only seemed to attack every other family once. But Carlos had been targeted twice. Why? What did they want with him?

He signed some papers, allowing construction to start.

***

"You!" Shouted Señora Sainz as she stared at Oscar. She grabbed a hold of Alonso's gun and pointed it straight at Oscars chest. "What do you think you're doing here!?"

Suddenly, Alonso grabbed a hold of the gun, taking it away from Señora Sainz. "Now, now," he said, placing it in one of the many desk drawers. "There is no need to resort to violence."

Señora Sainz grumbled and crossed her hands over her chest, glaring daggers at Oscar. "I'm sorry to barge in like this," he said, although his tone suggested anything but apology. "But I've got nowhere else to go. Y/N and Carlos have gone and I can't get back to Australia," he said.

"As Webber's boy, you're allowed sanctuary here," said Alonso as he stood up to shake Oscar's hand.

Oscar visibly deflated, like he was a balloon that had lost all of it's air. He suddenly realised just how exhausted and hungry and thirsty he was.

But, before he could ask Alonso for some food, Señora Sainz cut in. "What of my son and his wife?" She asked suddenly.

Unable to hold himself up anymore, Oscar sank into the nearest seat. "They got away," he said. "While we were being ambushed, Carlos managed to get her out. I'm not sure where they are now."

"What ambush?" Asked Alonso.

"Those thieves, the ones that broke into every house. They came for us in the safehouse."

Alonso frowned. He shouted something in Spanish and two of his men strode forward. Oscar recognised one of them to be Lance, on loan from Stroll in Canada. Lando grabbed a hold of Oscar and walked him through the house, promising him food.

Oscar allowed himself to be dragged along. If he didn't get something to eat soon, there was no way he was making it through the night.

***

Max's phone rang. He looked at the caller I.D, a smile gracing his features. He held a finger up to Y/N and ducked out of the home theatre, walking out to the hall to answer the call. "Little Lando Norris," he said, wearing a smile.

"You can't call me that now, Maximillian," Lando responded with a slight grumble. "I'm a head of family now."

Max rolled his eyes. It really was easy to forget that Lando now had as much power as his father did. It wasn't fair, wasn't fair that someone younger than him had to deal with such a burden. "What do you wan?" He asked, his voice still chipper as he leaned against the wall.

"Carlos said I should call you," Lando said, jumping straight to the point.

Max shrugged his shoulders. "Probably because I've got your sister here," he said.

Lando made another one of those unintelligible noises. "What?!" He cried. "What do you mean? Is Y/N in the Netherlands? Are you in Spain? Can I speak to her?"

Unsure just quite how to answer that many questions at once, Max walked back into the theatre and passed the phone to his house guest. She looked at her host in confusion as she took the phone and lifted it to her ear. "Hello?" She called, her voice unsure.

"Y/N?" Came the startled voice of her brother. "Is that actually you?"

"Holy shit, Lando!" She stood, walking into the hall as Max went back to watching the movie. "You're safe," she said. "You're safe, you're safe, you're safe!"

"I've been so worried about you! Why're you with Max? Where is Carlos?"

Their conversation was a jumble of voices, the both of them trying to talk over the top of each other. Y/N needed Lando to shut up and listen and he was rambling, clearly stressed. Y/N could picture him now, his tie knotted too tight, his curls a mess, sticking up in every direction from where he had been pulling them.

"I'm pregnant!" She blurted out when he wouldn't shut up.

That did the trick. Lando fell silent. "Lan, you're going to be an uncle."

"Well, that's great and all, but you haven't actually answered any of my questions," Lando answered.

It wasn't the answer Y/N had been hoping for, but at least he wasn't stressing anymore. So, she calmly and collectedly took him through the events that had ended with her in the Netherlands and Carlos back in Spain.

Lando had only interrupted her once, with a little cry of 'they ambushed you twice?!' but he quickly let her get back to her story.

"That's it," he said as soon as she had finished speaking. "I'm bringing you home right now."

Taglist (CLOSED): @multi-universe21 @formulas-bitch @gills-lounge @weasleyswizarding-wheezes @carlossainzwho @f1lov3r @samaib11 @charli123456789 @queenofmanydreams @ironmaiden1313 @vellicora @glitterf1 @80sloverry @lightdragonrayne @moonayu @bellsalabanccini @topguncultleader @handsupforamiracle @cmleitora @jenniferrvsesi @barcelonaloverf1life @sbella13 @nicolettecallednikki @darleneslane @thehufflepuffavenger1 @champagneproblems17 @aespie @yukheizcigarettes @rewmuslupin @hollie911 @ashy-kit @ririgy @stqrgir1 @zaynzierulez @minkyungseokie @rafaaoli @carolinesainz @ashies-ln4op81aa22 @measimp @mizelophsun11 @eviethetheatrefreak @andydrysdalerogers @formulaal @graciewrote @biancathecool @evans-dejong @sparklyperfectionstranger @venusesworld @goldenharrysworld @cassie0sstuff @gracielukey @watermelonworries @celesteblack08 @shobaes @chonkybonky

[wubblesred]

Ghoulcy week day 2 NSFW

Hi everyone, it's time for the NSFW prompt of the second day of the ghoulcy week. So Minor DNI 18+. The prompt was Blindfold. I hope you will like it. Have a great day. Sorry for the weird phrases or misspelling, English is not my first language. This will also be post in French.

Despite her eyes wide open, Lucy saw only darkness. Fear won her over, she had fallen asleep in Cooper’s arms as usual since their relationship had changed a few days ago. Fuck... They had finally found a house they thought was empty where they could sleep in a bed and especially not sleep outside for once. Apparently, she couldn’t have been that empty. She felt a weight on her which pushed her again to struggle to get out of this situation and find where the ghoul was.

"Calm down doll, it’s just me." She immediately recognized the voice of the man who had conquered her heart.

"Coop? What’s going on, what are you doing?" Her sentence ended with a moan while the man on top of her sprinkled her neck with kisses. His senses seemed to have increased tenfold compared to the last few times, was it because Cooper had blindfolded her?

“We have a incredible opportunity to satisfy our fantasies in this house where there is only you and me. I thought that not seeing my rotten face will bring you more pleasure.” He laughed at the end of his sentence but it had the effect of a cold shower for the young woman. His face was one of her favorite things about the ghoul, his smirk and his deep blue eyes. She didn’t care if the man was irradiated. Her husband turned out to be a raider who wanted her dead and Maximus saw in her only a very kind and innocent girl. The ghoul was the first to not trust her angelic appearance and to appreciate her in her entirety and not the image he might have had of her.

“I like to see your face, it gives me a lot of pleasure.” She tried to struggle to reach what obstructed her sight but it was without counting her lover who stopped any attempt.

“No no no no. You know well who is in charge little killer and I decided that for today you are deprived of your beautiful eyes.”

Despite the authoritarian tone of his voice, Lucy knew in his attitude that the man was in a playful mood and that no matter what she said he would only do what he wanted. Actually no, she had her magic word, the one that would make it stop if she felt bad or if she was uncomfortable. But the young woman did not want to use it, she had complete confidence in the man. He had never made her suffer since she joined him to go after her father. And every time they had made love, Cooper had been nothing but tenderness and caress, as if Lucy’s pleasure were to be greater than his. This time seemed no different, the ghoul had made it his mission to bring his sweetheart to the peak of her pleasure.

Focusing more on her senses now that she knew she was not in danger, Lucy realized that the man had undressed her before she woke up. Each of his caresses left a burning trail on her skin. A sensation she wanted more and more, which she even needed. The fingers of the man reached the young woman's crotch, her thighs naturally widened to leave him as much room as he would need. He didn’t even need to talk, she knew what he needed with a simple touch. His index finger slipped inside, it was so wet that he had no trouble passing. Cooper’s other hand did not stand still and went up to the woman’s chest, pinching and playing with one of her nipples while his mouth came to take care of the other. All those different sensations at the same time made the vault dweller lose her mind. Her lover had experience and she felt that whenever they were one.

One after the other, his fingers came to join the first to prepare Lucy to receive Cooper in her. A preparation that the man never skimped, since they became close, he refused to mistreat the young woman again. As a sort of excuse each time for the way he treated her at the beginning of their meeting.

Suddenly everything stopped and panic returned in her in an instant, her body suddenly froze, the tension having taken possession of her. However, the young woman calmed down quickly when she felt on her cheek her lover's hand who brought her to him in order to kiss her. Kiss that she cut by a gasp of pleasure when the man entered her with a thrust of his pelvis. Cooper’s mouth descends on her neck, even biting it snatching a cry from Lucy. As he showed his possessiveness on the young woman's neck, his movements became faster and more intense. The warmth of his lover was the most delicious, almost as much as the taste of her skin, everything she was made him lose control. He had to make her reach orgasm as soon as possible because he was not going to last long, her body gave him immense pleasure no matter how many times he got lost in it. One of his hands came on her thigh raising her leg while the other landed on her clitoris performing movements that he knew would cause his little killer to lose her mind. To see her melt with pleasure while she could not predict the next move since she was blindfolded for the moment, was worth not to see her teary doe eyes. Absorbed into each other, they reached orgasm together.

Slowly catching their breath, lying next to each other, Lucy was finally able to remove her blindfold.

"It was intense." Her breath was still jerky, her body still trembling from all these sensations. "But I still prefer to see your face." This line made the ghoul laugh, who then took his partner in his arms.

“You’re right. There’s nothing better than watching your eyes darken because of pleasure.”

Lucy had no time to respond, Cooper’s mouth coming to rest on hers as he laid his cloak on them. They could afford to rest one last time before returning to the road.

[haveaclock]

(this was in my drafts, have it)

"Is the kind of person": Total Drama: Reboot edition yayyyy

I'll try to be versatile with characters but ranyebow man.. (platonic..of course)

btw..I haven't even watched the reboot (currently waiting for it to come in the u.s as of may 12th wait it's mother's day)

• Raj and Wayne are the kind of persons to be hooked on to Odetari, 6arelyhuman, Asteria, Lumi Athena , you name them (I'm still living on the 2000's cartoons.. 😞).. oh yea

creds: @goldfishontheceiling

-Raj: WAYNER!! ODETARI CAME OUT WITH A NEW SONG!!!

Wayne: DICE AND ROLL??

Raj: YEA.....

Julia: shut up

• Julia and Bowie are the kind of people to be enemies because if Fresh TV made them friends they'll be so unstoppable they'll cross dimensions maybe Amphibia's dimension

-oh and btw I'm very delusional about them

• Scary Girl is the kind of gal to not say "you'll never find the body"

it's "It's bold of you to assume that there even is a body to be found."

- aw man that's the only one I got for her

•Raj is the kind of person to be at one school since kindergarten it's one of those K-12 schools, and so he's like probably in the school band or something

-Raj is a trombone player fight me

Raj: Bowie you're holding the trombone wrong

Bowie: Sorry *adjusts*

Raj: you're holding it wrong

Bowie: sorry

Raj: try again

Bowie: ...okay

Raj: mmm try again

Bowie: Raj..

Raj: mm.. try again

Bowie: Raj I will stuff this trombone into your mouth if you ask me to try again 😃

-did anyone get the SpongeBob references..did anyone get the SpongeBob references..

• Wayne might be the kind of person Raj is in the previous one but I need to decide whether it is or it isn't

Hanukkah Dance is stuck in my head sorry

• Julia is the kind of person to believe in aura and in auras still

- I think she substitutes for the word ass because this is a kid show y'know..

- Julia: Bowie get your aura together..

Bowie: I thought you were already exposed

Julia: yea I know

Wayne and Raj are the kind of people to recognize 2018 YouTubers because when they were little tiny people they would watch "DRIVING TO [so and so] AT 3 AM"

- I bet they would have recognized Chase but they couldn't really do anything because they were on different teams belhh

Raj: bro..what if they drink the potion and then they become gay..

Wayne: crazy man..

*ding dong*

Raj: why did someone send me a package at 3 am

Wayne: what if it's a gay potion..

Raj: what 😰

Wayne: whatever you do don't drink it..

Raj: ...WAYNER..IT SMELLS LIKE CHAKOTRA..

Wayne: RAJIE NO DONT GIVE IN..

Raj: WAYNER.. IT'S CHAKOTRA..

Wayne: NO RAJ..

Raj: DAWG I'M GONNA OPEN IT

Wayne: NO-

-9 year olds..knee slappers.

-oh..and btw..I got chakotra off of google correct me if I'm wrong

•Raj is the kind of person to say "Gluteus Maximus" instead of ass Raj be normal

- Raj: Bowie did I ever tell you this one hockey team before Total Drama?

Bowie: No? But now I want to know :)

*I don't know anything hockey (YET) so pretend hes speaking okay okay*

Bowie: And you guys still won?

Raj: Yea! The Snow Owls are the best!! Go Snow Owls!!

Bowie: I wouldn't like that team if they played basketball..

Raj: yea..they were a real pain in the gluteus maximus..

Bowie: Raj what

• Priya is the kind of person to go to med school and go "yea no that term is wrong" or "y'know that's a symptom for cancer"

Raj: people who cheat are just one big pain in the gluteus maximus..

Priya: if you're saying that to substitute for ass btw your wrong

Raj: what..😦

•I feel like...I feel..I feel like Axel would be the kind of person to swear someone out in Spanish but either

1. Know perfect Spanish

2. Bring out random Spanish

Ripper is the kind of person to actually act old and ..older but was born in like 2013

-not that I'm saying he was

*1996 nostalgia*

"ah.ah..ah man! The nostalgia!!"

-okay you guys can jump on this

okay guess stay with me here..stay with me here..

Wayner..and the light skin stare..

okay I'm gone

🚪 🚶

[rightpastnowhere]

📓📓📓📓📓 FIVE PLS

this feels like that bit in animated shows where the teacher drops like a stack of books on the student's desk, you know what i'm talking about ??? maybe ?????? anyways

TIME FOR 5 FIC IDEAS I GUESS

send me a book emoji and i'll tell you a fic idea that i have thought about but haven't written anything for yet

1. okay so. stupid one first - tangled au. like the disney film. percy as rapunzel, which means that, yes, he has beautiful long and flowing hair. the flower is still some sorta sun flower, which makes sense with the de rolos being connected to pelor, but it makes his hair white instead of golden. delilah as mother gothel, who steals baby percy away from the de rolos, and is trying to use his magic hair to bring back sylas, as well as to keep herself young. vex & vax collectively as flynn ryder, the thieves who split from their band after a heist gone wrong and kind of fuck up a lot. (percy is initially attracted to both of them, but only falls in love with vex.) the rest of VM are the hooligans at the snuggly duckling. trinket is maximus. also?? you know the scene where flynn cuts rapunzel's hair??? same thing happens here, and it fades to the soft brown that matches his family.

2. kind of tentative about posting this one, since i do hope to write it, but maybe manifesting a little of it into the world will motivate me more to write it. so! i'll give you a little sneak peek. the bare bones of it is a modern au where percy and vex, newly engaged, have to deal with the sudden and unexplained fire that burns down percy's family's home, as well as some other things happening behind the scenes. it's a mix of a big hurt/comfort fic and a mystery fic, with a focus on percy learning to navigate non-rich boy life while he stays in vex & vax's apartment. i'm unsure on what happened to the rest of the de rolos as of right now, but i'm workshopping it!! anyway unlike the rest of the ideas on this list, this one is still something i'm holding onto, so pls don't steal it if you see this

3. i had this idea based on one of the cr q&a's from a while back, and i actually think this one might be right up your alley, aich: what if cass actually managed to slip away from the castle when the briarwoods attacked, and stayed in whitestone to lead the rebellion? it changes so much about canon - percy would likely meet her much sooner into the whitestone arc, he wouldn't have her name on the list, and the rebellion might actually have made more progress. i admit that i haven't watched much of the briarwood arc of the campaign, so i don't know the minor details surrounding cass' involvement, but it might be fun to play with!! i also have no idea if someone else has done this lol

4. this is an au i've spitballed with my friend to a point of pretty decent development, but i also know it would be a long fic, and i SUCK at writing long fics, or completing them if i do write them, so i'm tossing it into the crowds!!! for your consideration: siren vex. she and vax are both sirens, and they usually go after pirates (the like, nasty ones) or trade ships or military ships. vex specifically likes to go after the extravagant fancy rich people, luring private boats or larger ships to crash on the rocks. she's only had one exception so far, and that was this sad rich boy who was running away from harm - he all but collapsed into her arms sobbing after his boat had been wrecked, and she sees it's a dingy little escape boat, and this man is so pathetic she almost feels bad. this, by the way, is tary, and he eventually gets a lil shack by the shore, and becomes her gay human best friend and he hangs out on the rocks all the time.

the SECOND time she spares a sad lil rich boy's life is when she sees this beat up lifeboat, and sitting in it is the most haggard man she's ever seen. she was initially drawn to the crest on the boat (half-scrubbed away, unable to be tied to a name, but she's familiar with the style of the engravings), and then she noticed that the finely-made clothes are all but water-laden rags now, and the man looks like she hasn't eaten in days. she lures him over to the rocks if only so he won't drift out into the open seas, full of creatures that hunt and sirens who are much less merciful (all sirens are much less merciful, really; she's the outlier here), and hauls him up to a rock while he's in a trance so she can look at him. she calls to tary for him to help, and together they help the man - whose name they learn is "percy" - to get back on his feet. he moves in with tary, and becomes fast friends with the two (and vax as well), and it's all fine and dandy until they realize why he was out to sea with nothing but the clothes on his back: he's being hunted, and the hunters - the briarwoods - have just arrived in the nearby town, and are asking after a man named percival de rolo.

this au was initally inspired by art of mermaid!vex by @burr-ell (here's the art!!) and i would LOVE if someone wrote this, i'm happy to throw more ideas at people for it if they like!!

5. AND since you're also a fan of wanda maximoff, have one of my ideas from my marvel phase! this was an idea i cooked up for AU-gust 2021 but never ended up writing (in fact, i only ended up writing one prompt, whoopsie), and it's essentially a doomsday fic. the world is ending by meteor, the bunkers are full, and both wanda and vision have no place to go. neither has any family to speak of - wanda's parents died young, her brother in a car crash recently, and vision's adopted mother passed earlier that year - so they're some of the only people spending their last minutes outside, in the park, just looking at the sky. (it's a morbid picture.) they just... sit on a park bench and talk, getting to know each other, having a nice and normal conversation. it feels like any other day, for a few hours. i was thinking of a little parallel to tie the ending to earlier in the fic - maybe one of them mentioning they didn't have any regrets as an early icebreaker, except now they both regret they hadn't met each other sooner. not necessarily romantic, although knowing me i would have hinted at it, lol

if anyone wants to use any of these as prompts for writing (except number 2 of course) please feel free!!! and please tag me so i can read it, i'm trying to manifest these ideas lol

[lee-scribbles-and-doodles]

S3 ep5

Current emotional status: FEAR

Cthulu Max has been on the rampage for a whole week!?

Ew, the narrator

Oh man, are they sending the airforce after him?

I really like Cthulu Max's design

Momma Bosco 💗

Oh hey, Norrington and Papierwaite are alive.

Superball are you saying you tried to send the Maimtrons up Max's--

Also he's acting president while Max is... deposed of.

Superball is only giving Sam until 6am :(

Featherly!

"Wandering around the moleman tunnels is no fun without Max."

"You got it all wrong, we're trying to help Max." "We will help him... to a generous serving of ass whooping."

"That is one rabbit who will be multiplied... into 2,000 smoldering pieces."

Carol ran off with Blustet

"I only want her to be happy, is all." Aw, Curt

Superball just admitted to having separation anxiety from Max

Ok Momma can't come but Papierwaite and Norringron can.

I like Norrington :)

GASP

Is it?

It is!

SYBIL!!!!

RETURN OF THE QUEEN

Oh, she is very pregnant

She was a wizard at one point?

She's gonna help!

Superball there's no such thing as acceptable losses

Abe has his body back

"Four score and seven tons of raw power"

HE CAN FLY NOW!?

Sybil, I love you, but why did you mod someone else's car???

Grandpa Stinky I love you

Oh, he just handed us the recipe for once.

Asdfff the spore maxes swarming Grandpa

They stole Grandpa's hotdogs

"We must feed the host! Piglets and sphinkters make us stronger!" "We regret nothing!"

Grandpa hasn't slept in three years

Sam just casually taking the last of Grandpa's corndogs

The spores are trying to get it

Lol Sam slapped them

Sal's alive!

He's hiding from Sam :(

Lol we can control Cthulu Max with Corndogs

Ew, the cornstarch got mixed in with the giant puddle 🤢 Looks gross

Love how Sybil completely ignores the Flaming Max head

Also the look of disappointment on the spore's face made me laugh

Fifth trimester???

The way the one Max spore by Grandpa's truck is bobbing in circles with his mouth open is making me laugh.

Sam showing concern for Sybil because she’s preggers 🥺

Her being pregnant with Abe's child implies that statues have working genital in this universe

She put a weiner scented airfreshener in the desoto

At least Sam and a Max spore seem to like that (of course they do)

"Sybil you're the best!" Hell yeah she is!

Sam's mind went to the color bar codes to prevent being traumatized by Sybil's oversharing

We drowned the desoto

Asdfgh Sam just botched slapped one of the spores for trying to say "that's none of your damn buisness."

Ew, Max's spine is pointing out

Oh hey, Satan and Jurgen

Why is Jurgen wearing his old fashioned clothes instead of his emo clothes?

Lol Sam snuck into frame to shout "Go Mets! New York rules!"

"--besides it's just a good and noble thing to do." "You're not familiar with my previous work, are you?"

"Sam, what happened to you to make you so cynical?" Gee, Jurgen, I wonder what could have possibly happened.

Oh so the water tower counts as vegetable oil because Momma did something to it

Pfft we can replace Satan's microphone with a corndog

Omg they jumped off the building to avoid Max

Oh, they're fine, and the oil is in the giant puddle.

I'm thankful to Featherly for giving us an egg but I'd have preferred not to watch him lay it. Granted it was just in a cartoon way but he still made weird noises

Also TRANS FEATHERLY 2021

"I desperately wanted to see that, sir. Ask him if he'll lay another one."

Oh hey, the Flaming Max heads helped heat up the giant desoto corndog

Since I'm playing this in 2021 the Maimtron's song references are super dated, which defeats Superball's efforts

Oooh! A unique opening sequence???

Oh this music is jazzy af

Sam really doesn't like the Max spores

Sam how do you already know what Max's insides look like???

"Even when he's not a collasal monster Max's food comas can last for weeks."

Ok we wake Max up with the coffee beans, right?

Yup!

The gi Max spore is so sad he doesn't get to come 😢

"But I'm a horrible monster!"

"I suppose Max's brain always looks like a living room?" "Well, Max is host to all kinds of weird parasites, and he likes to he a good host!" WHAT

No really, this brings up so many questions about lagomorphs. Are they some kind of Symbiote or something?

And a previous episode confirmed Max is amphibious

Max has tumors!!!

It shocked Sam!

"Eugh! Get away fake Max!" "Do you find my warmth... alarming, Sam?"

"What do nightmares taste like, anyway?" "Pepsi"

Max wants to be author 💗

He also writes fanfiction about Flint 🤣

I'd unironically read his books.

Tina Belcher voice: Friend fiction

Max has an experimental fusion jazz band???

"He just killed a great white shark--"

Max being completely unable to describe a woman is very gay of him. Good for him.

Max's brain teleported everyone to different parts of the body.

Found Sybil in the gym/legs

The brain is broadcasting Sam's thoughts???

Sam couldn't think of a joke for the medicine balls :(

"Wow Max is looking pretty buff. Would it be too weird if I asked him to turn around?"

Sam! Stop thinking bad things about Sybil's pregnancy she can hear you you putz!

She's upset with him now

"Can you believe this guy?" "I find the entire situation to be very contrived and misogynistic." Same spore Max, same.

Sam stop being so mean omg!

"I changed Sybil, I totally get the whole parenthood thing now." "Really now?" "Tax deductions."

In Max's inventory now

Y'know, I never really thought about it as a storage house

Hit The Road reference :3

Baby roach hatched in

"Pa..papa?" "Now I am little champion, now I am!"

Max has a Maximus shrine

Sam turned into a roomba!

Aw, he named it Sam Jr 🥺

We won Sybil back through his love of Sam Jr

Found the conjoined twins

Huh, Max lost as eye. Does that mean he has a glass one, or do lagomorphs have regenerative abilities?

Pfft we have to play twister to control his arma

The brain is messing with things again

Oh, we need a roach to operate the game because of radiation

Well, let's kidnap Sal

Oh, poor Girl Stinky. She's really going through it

Aw, Sal feels bad

Sal?

Honey, are alright?

He's dying???

He's not immune to irradiation!?

Oh no, he's gone

I'm so sad 😞

Gotta pick up Sam Jr. Before I control Max

They mad Max do a magical girl pose

Ugh the narrator is back

Wait, what?

He's Max's brain??? SUPEREGO???

WHAT

"I was always ignored" Yo if my super ego was as pretentious as you I 'd ignore it too 😤

He wants to kill himself and Max???

I know Max had a self loathing complex but holy shit

The super ego is perfectly fine with destroying half the east coast what a jerk

Just noticed Sam's tie is red. Had no idea about this while drawing PI!Sam lol

We have to help Max get his memories back to use the ASTRO projector

Skunkapes has three Sam clones imprisoned

Sam had canon ocd?

Gasp Gordon???

No, it's Sammun Mak

I love him, little child tyrant

Just make him a mobile brain in a jar and let Sam and Max adopt him

Why is Grandpa here?

He isn't talking like Stinky

Too polite

Sam sees it too

He's a space gorilla

They switched brains?

Found the cloning g chamber

Let's go to Momma's first

CONE OF SHAME CONE OF SHAME CONE OF SHAME

Superball is "wracked with guilt"

"Keep it together Superball. Sam will be able to save the day. He always does."

Ok, let's go to the cloning facility

I'm still thinking about poor Sal yo

FLIIIIIINT!

He's punching space apes!

Girl Stinky really playing up the evil Mistress role

The doggleganger has a bomb on him!!!

Wait so Girl really is a mermaid??? I thought that was just her aestetic

God I love Flint

Haha we tricked Skunkape with scooby doo villain tactics

Got the robot

Her water broke... and it was pennies

Max wants to save Sybil! 😭🥺💕

Super Ego is here

Oh now he wants to save Max

The only thing here are those records

Super Ego waved goodbye

Cthulu Max is cute when he cries

Wait What?

His head is on fire!

The maimtron hit him!

He waved goodbye... and teleported away.

He exploaded!!!!

He promised he'd take Sam with him and he didn't!!!!

AAAAAAH

I thought the dead Max thing was popular angst fanon fic thingy!

We're cloning Max?

It didn't work 😭😭😭😭😭

Superball ran off crying

Oh God the credits are just Sam walking sadly what the hell

He's not even stopping to fight any crime 😢

💔💔💔

God the way he's clinging to himself

What?

The elevator???

MAAAAX

he's back???

Past Max???

He blew his Sam up???

Wait hold on I'm glad they're together again but this doesn't fix anything

There's so much trauma from this season

All the horrible things that happened during 301-304 happened in like 3 days tops, then Sam had to deal with Max being a monster for a week before watching him die!

And the new (?) Max had BLOW HIS SAM UP!!!

And they left the franchise like that for a decade????

What the hell?

I want to be happy but this shit is going to consume my brain for the next week at least what the hell

Aaaaaaah!

Like maybe they really do just brush it off but it feels unlikely

I know Max has a connection with his other selves so it'll be easier for him to adjust but certainly Sam is going to notice the discrepancies since he doesn't get the same deal

Someone told me there were multiple endings hold on

Aw, they walked off into the sunrise together

But still

AAAAAAAAH

[fitzs-trained-monkey]

Chapter Three: If We Have Each Other.

~When the world's not perfect When the world's not kind If we have each other then we'll both be fine. I will be your brother and I'll hold your hand. You should know I'll be there for you. I will always be there for you~

"Dude, we are in some serious jelly," I proclaimed as I paced around the small perimeter of the tree house.

"And that jam!" Isaac added from where he remained sitting at the table.

"Tight spot."

"Indeed!"

"Up a tree!" I supplied.

"Lost in the grass!" He offered. I swung around, shaking my finger at him.

"I'll tell ya what's grass, our- AAH FRACKLES!"  I had stepped on a stray nail in one of the floorboards. Hobbling my way back into my chair, I thunked my head against the table.

"But look at the bright side." Isaac leaned back in his chair. "Seeing as how our grand-theft-hairbrush is going viral and all, there is still a chance that me flipping the camera off could become a meme!" He pointed out. Slowly, I raised my head to stare at him.

"Are you kidding me right now?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.

"Consider it, Marty! All it took was five years being dead and now I'm finally fulfilling my life-long dream! If I'd known it was this easy, I would have killed myself a long time ago and spared me all that drama and emotional damage," Isaac smirked. I shook my head, my gaze drifted back to the Vader figure and snow globe sitting side-by-side on the shelf.

"Please don't talk like that Isaac," I sighed. Isaac's face fell.

"Sorry, I-I wasn't thinking," He apologized. I nodded.

"It's okay." It wasn't, but what more could be said when you didn't want to speak?

"Hey," Isaac spoke softly, ducking his head to get me to look at him, "Even if things go sour, I'm gonna be here for you. Just like I promised. Through thick and thin, remember?"

"Through thick and thin."

Smiling weakly, I repeated our life long mantra. I took a deep breath and focused back in on the problem.

"Alright, man. We gotta figure out a game plan. That video is gonna bring every hunter and their mom up here to ice our, or my, gluteus maximus. And if they know about the minimart then they know about the hospital. So, what's our play?"

"Well, I say you use your Sweet-Talkin' thing and talk any o'those alcoholic weirdos out of it," Isaac suggested. I shook my head.

"Isaac, you know how much I hate doing that."

Although it was a tempting idea, that wasn't something I wanted to mess with. If you start playing with the dark things, the dark things start playing with you. That wasn't a concept I liked, but Isaac would never understand that.

"I'm just saying it’s an option! And an easy one at that," Isaac pushed. I glared at him.

"I'm not doing that."

"It might come to it, Marty. I'm just saying as a plan C it-"

"The answer is no! Moving on." My tone killed and buried the subject. Isaac raised his hands in surrender.

"Fine. But misinformation is still our strongest tool. We should use it. Tell anybody who asks that it was all done on a computer," He conceded.

"Alright, that's plan A. What's plan B?"  Isaac's face twisted in thought. I let him do any and all planning when it came to telling a lie because he was so much better at making it convincing than I was. Isaac was the king of spouting believable bull crap. In fact, he would have made and excellent demon. That guy could probably get an angel to sell its soul for a box of holy doughnuts. When the idea hit Isaac's brain, I could almost see a light bulb light up above his head. He leaned forward, exited.

"Okay, I got it. We make up some BS story about a gay black dude who got chopped up by the ferry or something and the hospital wouldn't help him because all the doctors were racist homophobes, and it was the 50's." He nodded at me very seriously. Like I said, Isaac was king.

"That's is the worst, most ridiculous and stupid story I have ever heard," I told him. Isaac's nodding grew more excited. "It's perfect. They'll buy every word. Just one thing though, what about the mini-mart?" I pointed out.

Isaac opened his mouth before closing it again. Then he opened it. Then he closed it. Open. Closed. Open. Closed. This happened several more times before he finally came up with something good.

"So, our gay black guy was also a nice hobo dude and after he died he started stealing crap to give to his hobo buddies." Isaac gave me a thumbs up. I nodded.

"Okay, sounds good, sounds good. How do we explain me?" I splayed my hands. Isaac huffed and rolled his eyes, leaning back again and tucking his hands behind his head.

"Well, that’s easy. The camera never even caught a glimpse of your face, so you're his anonymous theft buddy slash item distributer!" He explained. I grinned at my fantastic phantasmal co-conspirator.

"Excellent, and of course nobody knows who the thief is. Especially not, innocent little me!" I chuckled at his brilliance.

"Exactly!" Isaac smirked.

"It's perfect! Except one last thing. We're gonna need some eyes and ears in on this. Someone to alert us when someone fishy comes lurking about," I said. Isaac nodded seriously.

"You're right. But who can we trust around here?" He asked. I could feel the smile split across my face.

"I can think of only one man for this job. A man as trustworthy as he is slimy. A man scrubbed clean by his own filth. A man so wonderful, words do him no justice!" I declared dramatically. Isaac was confused for a moment before realization dawned. His face fell.

"Please tell me you're not thinking what I think you're thinking."

"I think I am." I grinned. Isaac just sighed.

"Marty, no."

"Marty, yes!"

- 45 minutes later-

"Yo! Danny, my man! How's life?" I called out. Dan-the-Dope-Man looked up from...whatever it was he was doing outside Copper Harbor's one and only pharmacy. The pharmacy which he, in fact, owned. Honestly, I didn't want to know exactly what he had been doing behind the pile of cardboard boxes that were stacked up against the moldy brick. I figured it was better if I didn't. Dan smiled a grin that was missing two teeth.

"Marty! My worst customer and only friend! Life's good!" He greeted me, kicking a few of the boxes over to hide whatever suspicious activity it was that he had been up to. He winked and walked over to me, pushing his absolutely disgusting blond hair out of his face. "But, you know, business is betta'," He concluded.

I could never tell how tall Dan was, in this form especially. See, Dan-the-Dope-Man was a shapeshifter, though of course, no one else in the town knew that. That's how he was the owner of the pharmacy as well as a drug dealer. His other form, Jonathan De’ Santos, was the tall, 40-year-old, honest-looking Hawaiian man that ran the pharmacy. In this form, however, Dan was a somewhere-in-the-upper-five-foot-range Caucasian guy from Brooklyn with a thing against bathing. He said that the grungy, sewer-rat look was better for his side business. I wasn't sure how much of that I bought, but then again, who's gonna buy drugs from the guy who's supposed to make sure you don't destroy yourself with them.

"I bet it is!" I said, taking a step back when he reached me because, like I said, the guy had a thing against hygiene.

"This is a terrible, terrible idea," Isaac muttered, leaning on the wall to my left. I couldn't reply to him because although Dan knew what I was he didn't know about Isaac. So all I could do was give him a rude gesture behind my back. He saw it and stuck his tongue out at me.

"What can I do fo' ya, Marty?" Dan always pronounced my name as 'Mawty' at least in this form as it had a Brooklyn accent.

"Well, o' Danny boy, I have some rather bad news to deliver," I continued, "There might be some hunters coming to town soon."

Dan frowned; his eyes narrowed at me as he folded his arms over his chest.

"Well, that ain't good. Whatt'id ya do, Marty?" He asked. Sometimes Dan could be like my older brother, even if he didn't realize it.

"Woah, woah, woah! Who said I did anything?!" I defended. Dan just raised an eyebrow.

"You're always showin' off and ya know it," He said simply.

"He's right, you know," Isaac interjected. I wished I could tell him to shut his eidolic cake hole. It wouldn't have made much of a difference if I could, as he would still have continued talking, but the principle remained the same. Isaac was annoying. He needed to shut his mouth now and again. But I couldn't say that right now because he was a flipping ghost and ghosts are invisible. Mostly.

Ignoring Isaac, I opened my mouth to try to argue with Dan but quickly closed it again when found that I couldn't, because he was absolutely right. Now, I couldn’t admit that to him because Isaac was right here and that would be saying that he was right about something, and that was a thing I would never hear the end of.

"In regards," I started again.

"You'd just say 'regardless'," Isaac chimed in. I had to physically bite my tongue to keep from screaming at him to shut up.

"Regardless," I corrected. Isaac chuckled. I really needed to get myself some iron gauntlets or something so I could give his apparitional arse an involuntary appendectomy. Or just an iron ring so I could punch him in the face.

"Regardless, it wasn't me. This time. It was some attention seeking moron with a computer. That combined with my little hospital trips and you get something fishy looking." I finally managed to finish my sentence without Isaac chiming in.

"Well then ya betta' keep ya head down, Marty. I don' wan' ya gettin hurt." A dark look crossed over Dan's usually upbeat face. "Or worse," He finished.

"I know Danny, which is why I need you to do something for me," I said. Isaac sighed and face palmed but I ignored it.

"What?" Dan asked.

"I need you to watch out for any newcomers asking weird questions. I've got a plan if any hunters get too close to us, I just need to know who and where they are," I told him.

See, the pharmacy, the mini-mart, the bar, and the barber shop all sat across from each other at a four way intersection. Thus, Dan would have an excellent view of any hunter's first two targets. The origin of the supernatural activity, in this case the mini-mart, and the bar. He would be the perfect spy. Dan looked at me strangely.

"Say, Marty, you ain't plannin' on gankin' any a' dose' suckas' now are ya?" He asked, caution evident in his voice. I sighed, shaking my head internally. This was just another downside of being what I was. Everybody thinks you're a murderer. Though I knew I was far from innocent, I had never killed anyone. At least, anyone who didn't deserve it.

"Come on, Danny. In all the time you've known me, have I ever, er, ganked anyone?" I asked him, spreading my hands as if to catch the obvious answer.

"Well, no. But people can change," Dan pointed out. I rolled my eyes.

"Dan, I'm not gonna kill anyone. There, ya happy?" I said, only mildly aggravated. Isaac decided it was time to speak up again.

"You may not. But I will. If it comes to that. I won't let anybody hurt you, Marty. Not again. Not when I can do something about it."

I knew he was saying this now so I wouldn't be able to argue with him. Then I would forget and if he did kill someone Isaac would say he'd said he would. I ground my teeth together and reminded myself that it wasn't going to come to that. I wouldn't let it.

Meanwhile, Dan thought about what I'd spoken aloud.

"Yeah okay, but if anybody comes sniffin' I'm skippin', kay?" He agreed. I nodded.

"Okay, take care of yourself, Danny."

"You too, Marty." I smiled at him and began to walk away. Isaac pushed himself off the wall and trudged behind me, complaining loudly.

"Make sure you take care of yourself too, Issac! I'd hate myself if anything happened to you, Isaac! I wouldn't be able to survive without you, Isaac! Thanks Marty, your friendship means everything to me!" He said, sarcasm dripping from his voice. "Ugh! Why do I even bother?"

I smirked giving him the sign for 'I love you' behind my back.

"Aw shut up!"

But I knew he was smiling.

~So, I'm thankful for my sister even though sometimes we fight When high school wasn't easy, she's the reason I survived. I know she'd never leave me and I hate to see her cry. I just wanna tell her that I'm always by her side. I just wanna tell her that...

The worlds not perfect, but it’s not that bad. If we've got each other and that’s all we have I will be your brother and I'll hold your hand You should know I'll be there for you When the world's not perfect When the world's not kind If we have each other then we'll both be fine I will be your brother and I'll hold your hand You should know I'll be there for you.

I will always be there for you.~

Lyrics from: If We Have Each Other by Alec Benjamin

[thelordstears]

Writing totally isn’t a passion of mine *Wink, wink*

"Fools, always think they're the smartest one in the room, as is the same with saints, it would seem." - Moores Thomas

"The crow must have a very watchful eye; for even his flock is called a murder." - Valkronin Sambridge

"Sometimes what others do to obtain peace leaves you in pieces." - Bentley Harlem

"He is the enemy screams my ragged bone mind; again and again the shouts of my father echo in the night of my darkness, and again and again I let the lie envelop like blood in my chest." - Alastair Sambridge

"This wicked heart doth not beat lovely." - Valkronin Sambridge

"We're pawns in a game that doesn't fucking care; the King and Queen have left the brooks and knights bleeding on the edge of the board. All that's left of us is the way we move across a checkered board, wondering why black, white and red is the only color we can see through these loyalty blinded eyes." - Flitz Haktoll

"We're all lookin' for glory at the end of a faded bullet; grins echoing in the decaying lights of justice and heroism." - Benjamin Scotsfire

"Glory is not found in the pursuit of death. It's often found in the pursuit of something greater." - Henry Onlark

”Lies fall slick from the tongue of the foolish.” - Cross Smykens

"I left the war; but it never left me." - Jay Foster

"Ya know; a man once told me to turn my rage inta power. Let it be the kick of my bloodied rifle, but as I turned that rage to power, as I let that bloodied rifle bruise my shoulder; I learned that power's name was corruption all along." - Maximus Bates

"When everything is ripped decadent from your veins you find a substitute for that abyss in your heart; and I've filled it with cracks of who I'm not." - Terminus Hydra

"People like us don't get third chances. We just get ta live the rest of our lives in this flat circle, we're doomed ta try and run on these hand me down shoes; but we'll just get right back where we started. Standin' stagnant in our cruelty." - Scottenmire Travol

"You haunt many a folk 'round here and you don't even know the names of the graves carved into the stone of your heart; everyone's nameless too ya. But everyone's got a name and a couple thousand stories to tell, what merry little tale do you think I plan on orchestrating tonight?" - Monte Pelamo

"I thought I was raising a rifle to fate; but then I bled as my finger curled around the trigger." - Alastair Sambridge

"Glory and death often go hand in hand; interlocking bloodstained fingers within one another's as to best watch humanity flitter and fade away into dust and ashes. Have you ever noticed how cruel people get when life fucks 'em over? How evil seeps through the good man's heart all because he had a bad fucking day? I'm the seed of evil planted into the good man's ribcage, blossoming like a black rose of thorns and shadow in the heart of kindness." - Diablo Bohnsello

"I already walked that path brother. I already have a coffin fitted for a man that ain't me; it's why I'm so fucking dangerous." - Hectorvallo Bloodwain

"If you can't fucking get something out of doing what's right, than what's the point of being the good guy?" - Trent Aval

"Oi'm just a stumblin' deer, wonderin' where these breadcrumbs will lead me." - McKady Cornwall

"Some men call me a mad man. But I imagine you'll call me a monster, or karma, in some wicked sense. Who I am is usually defined differently for every man I come across. They all have their own little tale. Some weep as they read the poetry scribed like scars in their heart, some rejoice in the wicked man's tale. But you, little one shall die, in some strange and peculiar way. Not in the sense that I'll bury you, but in the sense that I'll wipe your slate clean and scribe little pieces of my darkness onto your blackened pages." - Westell Gramstein

"Crazy and misunderstood is a very thin line many walk." - Westell Gramstein

"I was stuck in a shadow like trance, dancing with the light of my very own moon. It was under the decadent and decaying lights of that pale light cast from the sky that I was stricken by a very sudden madness. A very quiet, madness." - Shackelstan Puppeteer

"Any man can become a shadow wisped secret of himself. How do ya think the darkest of creatures are made, brother? They start off as good people doin' good things. But sumthin' comes along the line and rips them from their shadow, leavin' them defenseless against the dark." - Valterren

"In all madness, my friend, there is what created it. Dare you tread in the black waters of my mind?" - Westell Gramstein

"When it's your life or mine I tend to get a little selfish, a little cowardly. And these days, the bullet is my only saving grace." - Kyro Bellford

"I stand stagnant in a pool of others blood, wishing it was my own." - Alwine Hickory

"I looked for who I am in all the wrong places. Like the way a boys hurt tasted on my heart, or the way a cigarette burnt my tongue. It's as if I never really found me. As if I never will. Because in all honesty, I feel as though I was never someone that could truthfully be called Inazo Lizomann." - Inazo Liomann

"I'm licking fate off of the barrel of temptation's revolver, my heart splintered and weary. Once you get a taste of the things that damn you, like the way cruelty tastes on your tongue, you begin to fall away from yourself. I swore up and down I'd survive. But I didn't. I never had." - Huntsdale Klizollo

"Unity with control is like putting a cat in water. You think it won't resist, you'll think that peace can be found within the feral animal you've dropped into the waters of unified revolution. But eventually, claws start to fly and the once unified civilization becomes nothing but the ashes it once started as." - Hex Sweeney

"I'm cursing you with the thought of life in the midst of the death of those you called friend." - Sevelsworth Hickory

"They always say, oh go ahead, open up. Let those scars bleed so you can reach the light everyone's always preaching about. And then you let your emotions come running from your lip like a river, and they put a dam in your mind and tell ya no one gives a fuck about the kid of trouble and bone. So you pick up a few bad habits, you throw another fist against a kid in your same situation and make due with what ya've fucking got. As if the dam built in your mind keeps all but the rage in." - Flizo Thompson

"I'm old bones buried beneath the rubble of identity. Don't matter how much I struggle, how much I try to survive. Because I'm already dead, and at this point, bein' a walking grave don't sound so appealing. So I burn up my lungs and pray I drift away with the smoke." - Ramo Bonewitz

"No one cares about you Ramo, you're already a ghost. All I have to do is give that little extra push into the unknown." - Quentin Satchel

"You won't make it out of this alive. You'll try. You'll walk mile after mile. But you're just a tombstone with legs." - Quentin Satchel

"My thirst for blood started young. The first day I saw the driblets of crimson drop to the tile floor was when a kid brought a razor blade to school and drew blood against his bully. An act of defense. And gradually my thirst for this kind of behavior grew. It started with rooster fights, watching the little fuckers claw at each other with those sharp nailed talons of theirs. But that gets boring quick. So I moved onto dogs. And that evolved into watching wolves fight in my father's barnyard. But eventually you get sick and tired of fur and fangs, so you settle for something more dangerous. Something more rewarding. My father taught me the game of gladiatorial fighting. Civil. Just. Merciful. And as I watched that man cut his brother down in the blink of an eye, oh I knew I could never go back. And I never would. I became a master of the arena, sitting on my throne of gladiator and gladiatrix's corpses." - Sevelsworth Hickory

"The blood of my father's victims sits on my hands, as if it was me pullin' the trigger. As if all along, I were pullin' the strings. Sometimes, when all ya can do is watch tragedy unravel, you get this funny lil idea that it's all your fault." - Alwine Hickory

"I was raised on the Devil's backbone of sin, standin' like the snarl of a rifle. Don't you come ta wonder what makes monsters like me? Brother, life has always been what makes monsters outta human men." - Cavowit Hickory

"We're all just thieves and bastards lickin' up the pieces 'a fate we got left. So why you gon' go damnin' me for preventin' the crooked bitch from comin' for me sooner? Son, I'm just doin' what it takes ta survive this Devil's country." - Stalkman Hickory

"I got a tattoo runnin' below my eye that tells the truth, as if the grim reaper has put her eternal mark on me." - Henio Bonstook

"You'll become a reflection, of sorts. You won't exactly, look like me. You won't exactly, look like my gunmetal stained past. But it'll be there, lurking in the corners of the mirror. Waitin'. Watchin'. Readyin' itself to pounce on the little gunslinger who thought he could, and that my friend. Is the day you'll die." - Ulfrich Diggory

"It's not about, who you are in the now. It's about who you're gonna be after I start carving little pieces of you off with the edge of my gunslinger malice." - Ulfrich Diggory

"Truthfully, I killed someone for that woman. I carved little pieces from off my heart, begging her to love them, but she was a Devil wrapped in gossamer, silk and roses, telling me that our little secret was nothing more then a flickering streetlight, providing little protection to the darkness of the night. And I suppose, my streetlight flickered out, leaving me with nothing but the sparks of a cigarette and the warmth of a revolver." - Grant Filepen

"Where once faith swung like curtains behind my ribcage, now it feels more like a couple of nooses, whispering my fate into the winds of my feeble, decaying sense of self." - Amaziah Bokenmay

"To the circus you shall go, to lose your mind and find a darker soul." - Moores Thomas

"Truthfully we're all heroes in some capacity. But some cast that away, they tear it screaming from their heart, our heroism often begs when faced with greedy fingers, but the cruel don't care. And to all the heroes who invited the kindness in, I hope it didn't take too many pieces away from you, to let the fact that cruelty exists despite the bravery in you break you." - Kirsten Hezofrein

"The cruel call peace a revolution just so they have an excuse to kill the protestors." - Sebastian Dovens

"The blood ran black from my wrist, dripping down like candle wax damnation." - Joey Alderson

"Skinny and starvin' I died, sittin' on the edge of my frozen over revolver. I shivered, I shook. And mate, I didn't make it ta the end of the tunnel, I was caught by the traffic of beasts, but 'ow peculiar is it, that they stared at me with eyes I recognized? As if pe'raps, friends can become enemies within the span of a god damn blink." - Arv Harknizia

"Darkness has to blot out the sun for light to shine later on." - Gustave X. Van Velk

"Those in power are often the weakest man kind's got to offer." - Garth Yeager

"I saw life flash before my eyes in the banging of a rifle, sins sitting cruel on a masked man's sleeve. It was in that moment of death that I cut humanity from out my heart, becoming something unfamiliar. But these cackles of insanity start to feel beautiful." - Tahasha Moonlight

"Life keeps forcing me down, these shadows start to whisper into my mind that the light is just outta reach. And those damned shadows rip at the threads of the sun's golden rays, ripping into the warmth of Summer forevermore. I'm telling you man, you think Summer memories will always be goofing off under the hot sun, playing videogames with your best friend as your mom brings you cookies and lemonade. But all I can hear now is the gunfire melody of the hunt, sickening cackles ringing in my ears like poppers goin' off to damn early." - Scottie Bloodvallo

"Death is something we can not avoid. It catches all souls who live, it lingers in the cold mountains and in the hot springs, hiding in the shadows and the light. Wherever we go it is hiding, always hiding. But I find it so,  innately cruel that sometimes, death catches up to men and women who still have miles to walk. People who from then on out have to walk mile by begrudged mile in death's wicked boots." - Caesar Cagelstan

"Men like me, men of the mountains and cold harsh winds of Antarctica don't really fuckin' live. Sure, we breathe. But as an old friend said there's such an ugly difference in that, cause as I puff another hazed, stale old cigarette, smoke drifting towards the Heavens, I come ta realize these angels wear smoke wings and ember halos, praying that this warmth is enough ta melt the ice in their hearts." - Daryl Fate

"People think that because they've walked comfortable miles, they know what it means, to truly be alive. But breathing and living are a very thin line many cling too, as if it was the lit fuse of a pact of dynamite, praying that it doesn't cover them in shrapnel truths and war bound horrors. I no longer live. I breathe. And there is such an ugly difference in that." - Mankar Hagmallio

"You don't know this city like I do kid. There's sharks swimmin' in the waters of these secrets, boy, and you're starting to smell a helluva lot like blood." - Roman Ustolgio

"I'm a Diablo, friend, and you're here for a handshake." - Abundio Garciel

"They called me a fucking misfit, as if who I am wasn't enough for society. And so as I washed myself in the blood of my innocence, draped in the crimson shawl of my identity, I came to realize no one, and I mean no one at fucking all, can add up to the expectations of a civilization ruled under the boot of the Heavens. And so we call ourselves angels, as if that made us holy in any sense of the fucking word." - Nicolla Bravajin

“ These skyscrapers stand like dead goliaths of faith and virtue, reminding us that New York city is where identities go to die and justice comes to wither and writhe underneath the heat of another darkened day. “ - Bartley Exodus

“ There comes a time when every man must choose who he wishes to be. He can walk the road seldom traveled or walk amongst the villains, slipping a mask of fangs over his face as to hide the bravery flickering in them golden eyes of his.” - Bartley Exodus

“ I pick up my old, rusted revolver and carve a couple dead men's names into the bullets and shove 'em into this chamber. Did I say dead men? Sorry. I've got a tendency to talk future tense." - Bartley Exodus

“ There's a locked room in my head where all the thoughts used to go.” - Bardem Lazolla

“ You know, all my life I've had to be tough, had to be just a bit stronger than the last guy; but I'm tired of the act. This mask is beginning to slip and I fear who I'll be once it falls. I've been someone else for so long that I don't know who I'll be once I'm me. “ - Bardem Lazolla

“ Isn't it strange how some people choose to be stuck in a nightmare while everyone else is living the dream? They can say we're all crazy, nutcases who belong in the looney bin. But in the end I'd rather be crazy than normal. I'd rather be me than someone I never was.” - Axelo Hayware

“ We've gotta be accepting, because humanity is built on love; but some people think power and hate is what gets you a name remembered. Yeah sure, names like Adolf Hitler and Julius Caesar are prevalent in the history books; but who do you look up to? Martin Luther King Jr or the fool who let power get to his head?” - Axelo Hayware

“ Humanity isn't doomed, we're just a little stuck is all." - Axelo Hayware

“ You know how when you're just a kid you dream of one day changing the world? Well look at you! Look! You did it; I promise. We're all changing the world daily with our actions, wondering if we ever meant a damn thing in the end; and I'll admit, I stumbled a few times. This path had a couple of roots along the way that felt like a noose wrapping around my dreams, forcing me to sputter and choke on nightmares.” - Tom Hanson

“ I refuse to let the gunshot melody become my song. “ - Tom Hanson

“ Look, there's a time and place to be a hero. And that's everywhere and all across the clock.” - Spencer Vokeswagon

“ I'm just the civilian who watched in wonder as the sky burned with glory bound promises, smelling the way they broke in the air.” - Spencer Vokeswagon

“ I'm falling inch by inch; wondering why the fall is such a slow descent, it has taken years for me to reach the atmosphere, and I have been burning ever since I first touched a broken star with human fingers that never should've found those old secrets dusted in the corner of a shelf in her son's bedroom.” - Valentine Valks

“ I shall never discover for I fear taking a step forward.” - Valentine Valks

“ Was that taut leather in his eyes or love?” - Valentine Valks

“ He is cruel and unjust, claiming himself an angel as he rips the wings from other's backs if only to stitch them onto his own. Is it such a sin to give life to the devil whom would steal it? I didn't know, I plead to the Heavens. But in my skull I hear the booming voice of God fracturing my pieces, and he tells me, "It matters not. He is your blood; and so you shall bleed in his place." And like a fool I accept my punishment as Jesus once did. I am bleeding on a crucifix of my son's sins, crown of thorns wrapped around my head as all the color bleeds from me. Black and white blend to a warped sense of grey; and all I know becomes fogged and misty. “ - Valentine Valks

“ I was raised a warrior, fighting battles of mind and blade, because in a world where evil lurks in every corner; everyone needs to be a hero or have the capability to be one. “ - Kadlin Paulson

“ The true warrior fights for what she loves and what she knows to be true.” - Kadlin Paulson

“ I'm an old tree trunk covered in the scars of the hatchet; and I know they dare not remember my name. For if the hatchet were to remember the name of every tree it cut its handle would begin to rot. Because to cut and cut and cut; the hatchet must have slain a couple of once sturdy trees. But I will stand sturdy forevermore. “ - Kadlin Paulson

“ I was young when I learned to keep a watchful eye on all that one loves; for everything has a darkness waiting inside of them, prowling in the depths of all saint's bones, waiting to pounce on the weary hearted followers of God. Dare not let this darkness prevent you from stepping into the light; for this is how the shadows in your ribcage win, how the demons start cackling with a strength they didn't once possess. “ - Nial Moorannan

“ My hands are stained with the blood of every man I've ever been.” - Nial Moorannan

“ I have watched the sun set one too many times; aiming the scope of this fox hound's rifle a thousand and three times, always me in my sights. Always me I watch go down in a howling scream of blood lit confessions and regret cackling at the midnight sky ever burning.” - Nial Moorannan

“A serpent followed us into our perfect little garden of Eden and stood watchful at our forbidden trees; eyes beady and forever burning with an emptiness that was never quite human. And he stripped the roses from Heaven; he tore the angels from a once clear sky and cackled as fire erupted through the clouds. And so all the angels of Eden fell; forever fell. On that day I died a death like no other, dreaming of beauty as I fell from Heaven, grasping the burning clouds wondering why death tasted like a memory on its way." - Nial Moorannan

“ There's a black serpent slitherin' in me ribcage; darin' me ta take a step forward in this dance with me shadow, and I dance, and I dance, and I bloody dance. A pirouette in the soddin' dark of me own bloody moon. “ - Arnold Schull

“ First time I died was when I were covered in da blood of boys sent howlin' ta an early grave, dagger drippin' crimson wif' regret. Second time I died was when I shook da hand of a masked devil, anarchy and violence howlin' just behind me. And mate; I've died many more times. “ - Arnold Schull

“ I've neva' seen 'is face. But those eyes dance wif' somethin' sinister. “ - Arnold Schull

“ Sometimes we hit the clouds before we make it to Heaven.” - Armellos Crescendo

“ Feather by feather who you are will be restored. “ - Armellos Crescendo

“ Rejoice, my friend; the sun of humanity has yet to sink. “ - Armellos Crescendo

“ I got fight left in my old bones and people to protect with all I got, so I roll up my sleeves and stick a cigarette between my teeth, letting the smoke be a warning of the fire that roars inside of me. “ - Armellos Crescendo

“ My father once told me that we have a choice when faced with the edge of a bullet; we either run from it or let it dig into our hearts. We're either the shield or the one that's behind it. And my mother once said that the world is a sorrowed plain of darkness; we're just the stars living in the blanket of shadow. And these words echo in my mind as I try to push back against the life I've been living, the sorrow ached life I've been given. “ - Ariel

"There's a storm in me heart. It rumbles and cackles with lightning and thunder; red rain pouring down on me cracked and broken ribcage, and as I try ta rest I feel the storm brew like death in this weary little fool. “ - Annabelle Courtney

“ I didn't pull the trigger, but I din'it stop anyone from lettin' the bullet soar neither. “ - Annabelle Courtney

“ I was a good woman once. But ever since I met that woman underneath the streetlights, I knew that I was a goner; she wore her nails red as blood, leather jacket draped over her shoulders as she snarled at the sky and all who made her the way she is. And as I fell through the ever lit skies of her rage I became something much less than who I am. She once dug sharp nails into my cheeks and snarled at me to paint the walls the color of my namesake, and with mournful regret I watched the white walls become a ruby red. “ - Ruby Vollstale

“ She's just a wild dog that doesn't know how to calm herself down.” - Ruby Vollstale

“ I once told myself that the fall is a long way down; but as I started to trip, the fall felt like only a few begrudged seconds. “ - Ruby Vollstale

“ Before one can fall head first into death he must go through the echo of life.” - Zecheriah Holyton

“ We are dropping like flies swatted by the electric swatter; dying as flashes of light in the nebula abyss of earth.” - Zecheriah Holyton

“ I was born curious, my friend. So I dug into the truths of philosophy and secrets, tearing my measly little claws into the greatest poets man kind ever knew trying to find the purpose of a life so obsolete. And I discovered that in truth; life is what we make it. But it also happens to be heavily influenced by our surroundings. “ - Zecheriah Holyton

“ I look into the stars of Heaven and often wonder if it's angels or graves in the sky or if that perhaps the sun is a culmination of all the burning wings set ablaze to give humanity warmth on event the harshest of winters. “ - Zecheriah Holyton

“ We are dualities of what we've done; wondering if what we didn't do condemns us in the end. “ - Zecheriah Holyton

“ Humanity is a vessel; of what I can never tell. All I know is that we're Babushka dolls." - Zecheriah Holyton

“ It's funny, how people will look at the unwell man with such fucking disgust; they say, "Look at the battered whore of a man! Sipping on the delusion that he is something other then his madness!" But don't they understand I'm trying to stuff myself so full of placebos that this fucked up thing I've become finally passes me by? “ - Arthur Wellburn

“ These emotions whir around my mind like cannons and gunfire, always hitting me down to rock bottom. But then I soar! Oh how I fucking soar. But I'm always falling within a month; laughing at the thought of splatting bloodied against rock bottom once again. “ - Arthur Wellburn

“ They always say you're strong for fighting the mental illness, but if they could see my heart they'd recoil and ask me to be put in a mental ward for all the thoughts that swim like death in this black watered river of my fucked up mind. “ - Arthur Wellburn

“ I'm just a nobody looking at the world through the eyes of Arthur Wellburn, wondering why I can never see a reflection of my mania. I'm stuck in this little corner nowadays, as if I'm just this little monster in a cage of his mind; and I'm always thinking the cure to my disease is a revolver shoved in my mouth and a wildly loud BANG! BANG! BANG! It'd be so much easier to die than to live, you know? So much easier to let the weight of my burdens fall onto my families shoulder like a ghost that lingers on the other side of death. But I never do it, I never do! And I get to wondering, "Why?" Because as life guns me down; I cackle in the red rain." - Arthur Wellburn

“ Look, I was just a kid hiding his truths behind dorky smiles and girls I didn't even have a crush on. But my brother, my sister, they were always gonna accept me as I am; there were never strings attached to our bonds; never scissors waiting to slice. “ - Tony Ikelfur

“ I am nothing more then a messiah of the broken and condemned; come one come all, safety is found in the comforting embrace of the shadow mistress. “ - Antonio Sharp

“ I walk within the light if only to watch it fade; striding beneath the sun if only to watch it sink one last time. “ - Antonio Sharp

“ I was born under the shadows of pinewood trees and howling wolves.” - Antonio Sharp

“ As the world comes to a grueling close who do you think will walk into paradise? The holy; or the heretics of life? Who do you think will be praised by the oh so holy creator of darkness but they who embraced it? We are beasts and bastards in these shadows my brother; so become one with the edging blade of destiny. Let it cut pieces of your identity from off your skin, let it call to you with the silver shadow of a soon to be crimson soaked dagger. We are children of the shadows; messiahs of the night. Dare the hero walk into the night with his rifle and bravery he will be shown as an example as to why the darkness is superior. “ - Antonio Sharp

“ I'm cheap smoke rising from the New York sky.” - Ambrose Walsh

“ Ever since the day I dug a grave I ain't been who I am. The lantern shed a pale yellow light across my face, cigarette stuck between my gritted teeth as I huffed and puffed, shovel working hard as the soil dug up beneath me. The moon was cast sorrowful on this broken man's soul, the reflection of a wolf dancing in the stream right by the old cemetery that knows too many forgotten names. You really don't wanna meet who I became that cold, Sundeh night. Because not even I can face the bastard in the reflection. “ - Ambrose Walsh

“ You can't trust the dogs who kept on a diggin' despite the way the soil reeked of death.” - Ambrose Walsh

“ You know how you try and be who you are after tragedy? You cling to the memory of the smile in your mirror and convince yourself that you're still that person? Because I tried real damn hard to be that person after the fire. But I know that boy is gone; buried underneath the secrets he found in a town he thought knew peace. “ - Alex Devonwood

“ I hate to break it to ya, but angels don't fucking exist. We're all just people living our sorrowful little lives selling ourselves to the dream that it gets better one day. But it doesn't, it really doesn't. I've been trying to find that happily ever after for a long time, but the man that haunts my memory? He sits in the recesses of darkness like a leather draped beast always waiting to drag the hopeful into his devious maw. Truth is life wasn't made to be lived. Life's only purpose is to serve us to death on a silver platter and I don't wanna stand for that. I wanna live but know it's impossible. “ - Alex Devonwood

“ I tried to tell my story; but no one roots for the underdog who never bit back, the dog who never barked his truths to the sky. People prefer tales of perseverance over the tale of the boy who never won. It gives them false hope, that they can be like the boy who won. But the boy who lost eats their dust." - Alex Devonwood

“ I used to be full of this joy that you couldn't really kill; but that man, he tore it from me. Sorrow leeched at the edges of his eyes; a dogs bark snarling somewhere in his throat, and he told me that we all live our lives confined in a locked room. And that the wrong person had found my key. And into my locked room he walked, ripping my heart from out the walls, digging into the wallpaper to discover the secrets I hid like confessions in my chest. And it was on that day that I was left as barebones of who I was. “ - Alec Bonehoff

“ I was just a fucking kid, man, I shouldn't have had to bare the weight of my brother's unguilted conscience. “ - Desmondo Dreadful

“ Sometimes ve chase our dreams. Sometimes zey chase us. “ - Luka Schiefer

“ People are always gonna hate even though it don't get no one anywhere, so when faced with this rage, when faced with this hatred ever seething. Take a few deep breaths and remember emotions often lie; and given the chance they'll shoot ya down with pellets of doubt and fear.” - Gary Heartlock

“ I was just a kid enjoying the company of himself, always told he just weren't a good influence. “ - Gary Heartlock

“ When you let the armor of lies shed from off your skin you start to grow a tougher skin of truth; don't you know that's why Icarus laughed as he fell? “ - Gary Heartlock

“ Be so authentically you that the hateful use you as an example of what's wrong with humanity; be so yourself that you set the bricks for the next man's path. “ - Gary Heartlock

“ You know how it is, right? You try and do the right thing but get caught up in all the bad of this world, wishing you had just stayed the fuck put.” - Dominiqua Claytor

“ Somedays I look back at the bridges I burned; memory of my eyes watering stinging my mind, the idea that I once smelled the smoke killing me from the inside. But I learn my lesson and move on. “ - Dominiqua Claytor

“ My brother and I are just two cold cases no one cares to look into; because who the hell cares about the death of identity? Who cares about the cigarette that never sparked up? “ - Adella Furrow

“ With my tattered boots and old leather jacket I walked into the unknown, and from whence I never returned. “ - Abel Romiro

“ Everyone stared me down, blaming me for the way fate unraveled, and I started to wonder if that town was home or just another house of too many damn walls. “ - Abel Romiro

“ That town was just too filled with devils for a single angel to do a damn thing.” - Abel Romiro

“ I've been both Cain and Abel truthfully; both Judas and the apostles who followed faithfully. But in the end I betrayed my own namesake, blood of a brother staining my once pure hands; and on that day I killed the hero inside of me. On that day the vultures flocked around my heart; pecking at what was soon to be dead. “ - Abel Romiro

“ That man locked me in a cage of the mind and told me to flay these pieces of identity from off my skin layer by layer. I bled for hours on the meat hook. A starving and skinny crow I became; yearning for a day where death didn't seem like a dream. And I found it in the hearts of my shield sisters. “ - Aadab Zivell

“ They say good fortune comes to he who raises a pistol in the name of peace; but often the man who slings bullets and sins ain't the man who finds the stairway to Heaven. “ - Aristead Solace

“ I've spent my life huntin' the cruel, finding them in different states and dead end alleyways. But still that one case sends shivers like death up my spine. Think of a lion; blood covered maw snarling inside of a cage it called the world, now take this lion and put him in a field full of gazelle. What will you get but a slaughter? That's what that man was to the world. Just a lion in a field of waiting gazelle. “ - Aristead Solace

“ Sometimes the heroes, they think their villains because ya gotta break a few commandments to stop the sinnin' man, and we call ourselves regretful devils. But we're just human, huh? And that's what made all the difference." - Aristead Solace

"Humanity. Kind one moment. Cruel the next. “ - Varkens Willowbrook

“ I have come to learn that there is an evil plaguing this world, it's wrapped in barbed wire and gunfire violence, the rage within sitting heavy in the open chest. And it goes by the wicked name of humanity. But simply because humanity is wicked does not mean that all of humanity is wicked. You'll find the kind ones somewhere waiting for you; but you are sure to find the wicked man often in a world that operates on kill or be killed. “ - Varkens Willowbrook

“ I believe that this world is kind despite the bad apples in the barrel; though those few bad apples started to rot the rest of the seeds within; the water roaring with the infection that came with the sin. Unfortunately just one bad apple effects the whole barrel. So one bad man effects the whole population. “ - Varkens Willowbrook

“ Somedays, the wolf; he wins. He trots around my ribcage victorious as can be, but that's when he gets cocky, when he begins to get careless. So the half-winged angels in me swoop down like a reaper's scythe and banishes the wolf to the locked door in my mind; where all the horrors go to starve. “ - Salvatore Graham

“ Ever since my father first laid a fist against my mother's cheek justice breathed through me as if I were a vessel in which it could see. And I told justice that I would dare not go blind. “ - Salvatore Graham

“ I pick up this blade; knowing one day I must turn it on thyself. “ - Salvatore Graham

“ Oh you know me; just a child of the old night sky, singing the blues as sorrow passes me by with a mournful sort of smile, knowing I'll come back around to her place in a day or two. “ - Franco Jonwitz

“ I'm just cigarette smoke chasing trouble.” - Franco Jonwitz

“ I take this old hat from off my head and read the poems that've been scribed in my ribcage, sadness following the words and prose I speak to the empty night sky. I've been a boy of sorrow ever since ma and pa became graves, moving along to an old orphanage with the scent of sadness wafting from off my papa's old, white suit jacket, hands and tears hiding somewhere in the fabric of that coat. I hold pieces of him inside of my heart, pieces of my mother hidden inside of my smile; and I guess there's sumthin' beautiful about that, huh? “ - Franco Jonwitz

“ I must confess, I've named a few of the stars after the ghosts that follow me, praying that they can fly up to the sky and find Heaven. But here they remain in my mind; reminding me that with sorrow comes trouble, and with Franco Jonwitz comes the inevitable idea that death kills before ya die." - Franco Jonwitz

“ War rains heavy over the weary soldiers who didn't make it past the gunfire; the ones who survived selling themselves to this ideology that their sins were for some greater good. But trouble etches its way into the bones of all whom pulled a trigger in the name of glory, sin or their own self gain. “ - Terminus Hydra

“ I lost everything, my friend, so a sin I became. “ - Terminus Hydra

“ Random acts of violence are often the ones that drive a man halfway to insanity, and the acts of violence he chooses to commit are the ones that drive him the full mile. “ - Terminus Hydra

“ I am a bad man. Dare not let my past tell you otherwise. If the people I knew where to speak of who I was they'd say he was a loving man who didn't let his tragedy define him; but speak to my enemies and they'll spit my name like venom on their breath. Two men tell two very different stories. My father would say I am a man of honor, but an old friend would call me the serpent to his corrupted and decaying garden of Eden." - Terminus Hydra

“ These scars on my legs tell the tale of a girl who lost herself too early; and it seems I can't hide my history from peering and bloodshot eyes. “ - Mayell Da Ville

“ My son tells me that one day, when I realize that who I am is beautiful despite the scars I'll find the wings had always been in my mind rather then on my back. But these scars, these horrific scars; they prevent the wings from growing ever again. “ - Mayell Da Ville

“ Here lies Mayell Da Ville; the ghost who found life too late. “ - Mayell Da Ville

“ There's a wolf on my shoulder; snarlin' at the frontlines and tellin' me ta stain my rifle in the blood of the innocent, and with a grin dancin' with moonlight I head inta the shadows and play myself a little game of huntsman and the lion. “ - Dekiah Doorvenstail

“ My father raised me ta be a killer. You should expect nothing but the bang of my rifle. “ - Dekiah Doorvenstail

“ Once you get blood on your hands it begins ta grow like a garden in your chest. But there's sumthin' different about this haunted little flowerbed. You begin ta realize that your ribcage was once Eden, but slowly, as the blood trickled down your fingers, Adam and Eve started fleein', the angel of flamin' blade nothing more then your heart that slowly faded ta black and grey. And as the serpent slithers onta your shoulder, you begin ta realize temptation lives in the hearts of all man kind. And only a special few accept their primal urges ta become nuthin' but a slaughterhouse on a cold Sunday afternoon. “ - Dekiah Doorvenstail

“ We were never wolves, my friend. But fragile people with hearts that can break and minds that can scar easy, but dare not turn to the shadows for comfort. They hold a dagger in one hand; and they hide it in the crevices of their darkness.” - Sabu Thorn

“ I think that if one is to find peace within themselves, they must first find peace within their scars. “ - Sabu Thorn

“ Eons ago I lost my mind.” - God

“ They say that dead men tell no tales; so who will whisper the tale of humanity once I'm done with it? “ - God

“ Everyone's always saying God's not dead. He's with us he's with us! But as I come down from my heavenly throne; the blood of humanity staining my shawl of lies and secrets; you'll pray that I am. But all your prayers have fallen on listening ears friend; and yet they never come to fruition, do they? “ - God

“ In the face of evil; silence is compliance.” - Gustave X. Van Velk

“ They don't tell you that the fall is so easy. They don't tell ya that we're all one crooked grin away from violence; so I take a steady step forward and throw a fist or two towards the evil that sits violent in this town of unwelcome shadows. “ - Gustave X. Van Velk

“ I've always tried to understand the enemy; walk a mile or two in their shoes, but Milos' boots are just too damn heavy and stuck in the muck of his powerful identity. “ - Gustave X. Van Velk

“ My sanity peels away in whispers and shadows.” - Cartniza Harvester

“ The word safe is such a fucking lie; no one ever is. “ - Cartniza Harvester

“ I don't know why this heart beats like a slowly rotting flower.” - Mackton Stoneshire

“ They say this Queen of madness is a revolver's shadow standing above peace; and she is. Because as she walks down these halls my bones shiver with shadows and things you could never dream of. Because she's a nightmare in the head of the weary; grinning deviously before she sins another deadly sin. And as my eyes shift to the checkered floors of this old mental ward; I know she can sense my fear. “ - Mackton Stoneshire

“ I'm still stuck under these shadows that fog my mind; heart roaring empty in the ribcage of a coffin. “ - Rupen Schello

“ I can still remember the night flames erupted inside my home; they now flash like colored lights in my memory, my parents' smiles becoming nothing but a shadow I can no longer follow. “ - Rupen Schello

“ A man with a memory can never be free of his torment.” - Rupen Schello

“ Every choice I ever made led to the death of who I am.” - Mervin Gavinwood

“ I never meant to fall; but I was born with the belief that I had wings, and so I leapt from blinding heights expecting to soar. “ - Mervin Gavinwood

“ The day I killed a man is the day I died. As his skull cracked against the bar stool; groaning and dying in the most grotesque way who I am started bleeding from the corners of my eyes as those two devils beside me laughed and laughed and laughed. “ - Mervin Gavinwood

“ He sits in the edges of my memory like a crow just waiting for his murder to come on along.” - Mervin Gavinwood

“ I've just been trying to cope with this loss of who I am for a long time; clinging to memories of him like a blanket that keeps me warm. But there's holes in this wool blanket; letting the cold settle into my bones. “ - Carol Corin

“ I weep for a life never lived; a death already fated. “ - Hexi Moorenfowl

“ Every detective has got her case, right? The one that drives her halfway to insanity because things just aren't adding up. I tried so hard to find those girls, I tried so hard to find that man's wife. But in the end it was a cold case that never went warm. “ - Maryland Fainrick

“ Mysteries often end in tragedy.” - Maryland Fainrick

“ I woke up in a foreign bed wondering why a stranger looked at me in the mirror; that was when I died an unfamiliar death. Falling from the heights of a Heaven I never deserved. “ - Kiddy Wendellburn

“ I choked on who I am a long time ago. And I don't think I can ever swallow my truths; because they taste so fucking vile. “ - Kiddy Wendellburn

“ "When you realize who you are, it's your job to become that person. “ - Adrella Soderit

“ We're all dreamers trying to find our happily ever after despite the nightmares that find us in the light; but don't you think it's the way we react to this darkness that defines who we are? “ - Adrella Soderit

“ So do me a favor and accept yourself won'tcha? Even when everyone around you condemns who you are. Even if you gotta keep that acceptance a secret in a little jar until one day, you can let those torch bugs fly into the open air." - Adrella Soderit 

“ I don't know what one would call him. But he feasts on the sacrilege of identity and flesh, sinking his teeth into innocence as if it were a divine, juicy, blood dripping steak. I'm just the remnants of the girl I used to be, and as I remember his parched tongue against my skin a shive runs cold down my spine and my fighting instincts kick in. As if my mind is a clock forever running backwards. Minutes and hours mixed into a relived past. “ - Marlia Ferotosia

“ I remember his smile. Filled with teeth and unkempt flesh. “ - Marlia Ferotosia

“ I listened to her sorrows. Her troubles. Her secrets and confessions. But she was torn from this world much too early. And that is a sin a man like me can never forgive. “ - Zack Mordell

“ The old soul is supposed to fade before the young one. But fate is a very cruel mistress; dancing with those who don't know the rules to the deadly tango. “ - Zack Mordell

“ I'm a fading symphony wondering when my last notes will play out into the wind, but I keep singing. “ - Zack Mordell

“ Healing will come after the scars stop bleeding, so a little word of advice, don't stab those dagger like thoughts into your skin. “ - Cordemlia Munstwain

“ Some people say they aren't themselves, and I get that; sometimes it's difficult to admit that we're changing. Difficult to admit growth feels uncomfortable in the hurting mind. But eventually you'll grow into this new you. You'll find that it's often like a scab. It only forms to protect ya from the infection a wound leaves. “ - Cordemlia Munstwain

“ Some people say love at first sight don'it exist. And, I don't fink' it were love at first sight. But love at first spoken word. Love developed inside da poetry we spoke underneath da dyin' lights of the street. He's a broken man, but I built 'im new pieces and told 'im ta shimmer and shine like a star in the night sky; and it feels as though when I put a lovin' finger on 'is cheek dat he's started ta feel more human. As if 'e's no longer a whiskey stained ghost. “ - Daubellia O’Snair

“ Fate twists in some awfully strange ways, huh? You could be a normal, everyday girl, fighting hardly noticeable battles and then in the blink of an eye tragedy rips through the air like a bullet in your fucking teeth. “ - Alexia Hathorn

“ Sometimes you gotta make a choice. Live or die. And sometimes you'll do both.” - Alexia Hathorn

“ We're the scar ridden angels of Heaven, soaring on wings stitched with different pieces; like a quilt of many colors. We're not heroes, just people who got caught in the crossfire of a world roaring with evil. “ - Alexia Hathorn

“ Often people in pain's mind is fogged up from the hurt, and so they don't really know what they're doing, ya know? “ - Hispania Hopva

“ Death I've learned, stalks the living. “ - Hannisada Gravewit

“ You can't really cure addiction. It walks beside he or she who used. Like a ghost that doesn't know when or how to move on. Is it really that much to ask for a halfway decent mind? One that doesn't taunt me with the idea of one more fucking high? But I suppose it was my choice to accept that little baggie at a party, right? It was my idea to get addicted, right? That's what they always tell ya. They call the junkies and ghosts monsters of society, but damn it man, we've been victims all along. “ - Hannisada Gravewit

“ I tried to hide my scars under thick coats and heavy blankets, but I bled and soaked through those. So now here I stand. Naked and awfully vulnerable to my demons and ghosts." - Hannisada Gravewit

“ His insanity ripped me from my backbone when I was only a child. I can still remember the violence shattered between his knuckles, the anger on his cigarette snarl. I still remember the screams. The God awful screams. I've been trying to dream for a long time man, but these nightmares always plague the boy who never lived. The boy who never had the chance, to live. “ - Jonathan Enders

“ I just, I don't know how to escape these nightmares, man. Because that man's cruelty echoes in my mind; his smoke whispered anger booming through my thoughts. I was just a kid, man. But he stole that option from me when he put a bloodied finger to my lip and whispered that he was never here. Or when that old, boney skeleton beside him clasped two hands around my shoulder and whispered in a low, harsh voice that they were the boogeymen. And I believe that. Because the boogeyman is what goes bump in the night, right? And if there's anything that could be considered monster, I'd give the definition to them.” - Jonathan Enders

“ I take a fragile breath, hoping it doesn't rip through my throat like a bullet. “ - Jonathan Enders

“ I fought myself for such a long time only to realize the reflection had always been a friend. “ - Baila Von Cascia

“ Ya know how fate works, right? Ya meet one or two people and your whole world unravels. Sure. They're good people. You learn that they've become family somewhere along the road. But the villains you met alongside them just isn't worth it. “ - Joshua Houstella

“ I have fallen down this rabbit hole of oneself, gripping the roots of madness.” - Ingretta Shazowlla

“ I am nothing short of a sin. Nothing short of a monster masquerading as a woman. “ - Ingretta Shazowlla

“ This heart of mine has whispered in sin and death ever since my mother told me all of her secrets, the closet looking like a welcoming home where Narnia and all the lions would protect me. But fantasy has never been as cruel, and unpredictable as reality. For reality hides until the right moment. Waiting. Forever waiting. And one day it snatches you so unaware and drags you through the nightmares. Oh you may kick. You may scream. But you'll most certainly succumb. “ - Ingretta Shazowlla

“ Forever my friend, can last only a second as the white rabbit once said. And forever, has lasted too long for my angel." - Ingretta Shazowlla 

“ I speak my truths in barely audible whispers, screaming my lies at glass shattered levels. “ - Molly Chain

“ My lonely little mind is slathered in grey and blue paint, memories glossed over with thick layers of dark color. I've tried to peal away that wallpaper. But there's endless layers in this house, and I just don't know how much strength I've got left. “ - Molly Chain

“ There's blisters on my strength, and I fear I'm about to slip. “ - Molly Chain

“ All my life I've been afraid. Of myself. Of my father. Of the shadows that hid like monsters in my closet. And as I come to the realization that I will never escape my mind, I know that this is who I am. And she's such a broken girl. A wisped shadow of something great. “ - Clarice Sanchez

“ I honestly believe God started typing me up, but he left to work on something greater and left me an unfinished piece of poetry, as if my prose bleed into the way fate unravels and twists. “ - Clarice Sanchez

“ My peace of mind bleeds from the holes in my heart. “ - Clarice Sanchez

“ From what I know cruelty is the last guillotine, and we're just whittlin' down the rope, wonderin' when it'll snap and fall down on humanities head. “ - Leone Kassophic

“ God's voice is echoed through violence.” - Leone Kassophic

“ If my sins were tangible, would I bleed upon contact? “ - Darkin Vagabond

“ Truthfully I am not me. Just a graveyard symphony ringing like the funeral bell, revolver held in one hand, regrets held feebly in the other.” - Darkin Vagabond

“ I look to the star painted sky and wonder what prayers he's been answering, which whispers screamed the loudest. “ - Zelene Clifforde

“ I am a lover at heart, wishing poetry and words spoken could heal the damage of war. And truthfully, that is the only way to stop a war. You speak to the enemy with a certain understanding. You try to discover who they are past the violence shattered between their bruised and bloodstained knuckles." - Zelene Clifforde

“ I am a gentle soul at heart, but alas, I sharpen my claws and go to war like a sinner who doesn't know when to quit, like an old, tattered wolf who wishes to quit all the bloodshed. “ - Yngvir Alvisson

“ Often I wonder if this heart should just quit feeling. Quit letting the blood stain it like a memory that shalt not be forgotten. But I pick up my heart, and I shove it fragile and broken back inside my ribcage. For to become a beast, my friend, is the loneliest achievement of all. “ - Yngvir Alvisson

“ Way I see it. Hate is a revolver. These men and women fill their chamber with all the good pieces of themselves, firing off for a cause that never mattered, something that shouldn't even exist. “ - Jaspello Crosshair

“ In every sense of the word I'm the hero I needed when I was a kid. “ - Jaspello Crosshair

“ Take life one step at a time, second by second, minute by minute. Eventually the storm will pass you by. Sometimes it feels as though you're not gonna make it, but that's the kind of thing tragedy whispers, it tells you lies in an attempt to weaken your resolve. “ - Chris Shaw

“ Debby and I treat life like a workout. We breathe in. We breathe out. We face it head on and don't let the idea of pain stop us. “ - Chris Shaw

“ I was just a farm girl lookin' for a happily ever after, but that wicked and damned man stole the light from me layer by layer. It's as if he carved pieces 'a me off 'a my skin, whisper by whisper, sin by unnatural sin. “ - Ellen Duster

“ There's so many pieces 'a me missin' nowadays. “ - Ellen Duster

“ Redemption is a sunset, and it jus' don' ever rise." - Ellen Duster

“ I tried to build a paper boat and drift away from my prison cell, but the storm started howling in my mind and I fell off the side, clutching the paper rafts and oars, wondering why this is how life drowned me. Some men drown in whiskey. Others drown in sorrow. But all I ever drowned in was the tragedy of being someone I'm not. “ - Isaac Abernathy

“ If a lie fits the powerful man's agenda, he'll do anything he can to make that lie a truth, or at least make it appear as such. “ - Jacob Abernathy

“ I can still remember how that man told me that we'd save the world together, that as the bombs started going off, we'd be the men history looked at and said, "Well done, heroes, you did it." But as I watched the world fall asunder, my heroes heart fading into a broken one, I knew that all the man did was lie to my good nature, and it was on that day, unaware, I bit into the sacrilege of false revolution. “ - Jacob Abernathy

“ I was just a girl without shadows in her mind until I stumbled into a rabbit hole of Godhood and the way blood spills on the arena floor. And as I fell, little pieces of me being carved off by the blade of a malicious God, I knew that I must have more of this undying pleasure. “ - Sonata Vickowinter

“ I'm just a broken bottle angel who forgot his wings on the downward descent.” - Ash Caesar

“ Often I say I'm better off dead, because this man I am is hardly worth a damn, let alone two cents and a nickel, so I glug down another bottle of whiskey and let my little sister down one more fucking time. “ - Ash Caesar

“ I always say I'll change, but everyone else is running a marathon, and here I am, standing stagnant at the starting line. I dare not cross that line in the sand. Because I'm scared of the regret, the shadows, the way my mother's words echo in the ones I scream. “ - Ash Caesar

“ Truth is, I can still remember the way my mother's open palm felt against my cheek, or how her wine glass felt shattered against my noggin. But those glass pieces of her addiction bleed into me. “ - Ash Caesar

“ All I see in the mirror is a man who fell so cruelly away from himself, and as my sister reached for my hand, I let it slip. And all she could do was watch as this regretful Icarus laughed in the flames." - Ash Caesar

“ I have found, that I am the single black rose in the garden, sitting idle like a warning of what will come if you step towards this black petaled beast, this decaying flower of cruelty. “ - Madam Stephanie Rose

“ I am a tired beast. “ - Madam Stephanie Rose

“ I was once in an empty room. Love knocked, oh how she knocked gently, so softly. As if it were a song that whispered into my ear. But hate drove her away. He knocked, he knocked, oh how rage filled his fist boomed against the door. With tears rolling down my cheeks I let him in. He stole the blankets from off the bed and wrapped them around my throat, choking me with the violence inside of my heart. And ever so cruelly, I became a black, withered, and deadly rose." - Madam Stephanie Rose

“ I sink ever familiar into this garden of decay, praying that someone will save me from the blood on my hands I speak of like darkened poetry. But death, was never a story. Only a harsh sin ridden reality I've given to so many others. How strange is it, that death is the end of reality, but also one in of itself? “ - Mike Duster

“ I'm a man of many sins. “ - Mike Duster

“ I slowly flay myself from my own skin, screaming, forever screaming. I carve another layer of me from off my skin. I subject myself to the meat hook and try so desperately to bleed all the darkness from the crevices of me, but alas, to bleed myself from the darkness would be to bleed all of me away. For all that runs through me is dark, twisted and unfamiliar. “ - Mike Duster

“ The truth, does not whisper, my friend. It screams.” - Ava Callenwillow

“ Secrets stick to me, and more often than not they take over my identity, pulling me into the depths of another shadow, another mystery with my name written all over it. I've been running from fate for a long time, finding ways to avoid this noose around my neck for years, but one day the stable ground beneath me will collapse. And I'll be nothing but history. “ - Ava Callenwillow

“ Wherever I go, death tends to follow like a loyal wolf whom sits at my bedside, howling to the blood red moon that is my wicked and decaying heart. “ - Tezilda Vaxweed

[five-miles-over]

‘Aftermath’ Chapter 11: All I Ask of You (Commodus x OC)

Summary: Hoping to prove his own fears wrong, Commodus demands something more of his Pink Fairy. Meanwhile, Philomenus is determined not to back away from his plot to kill the emperor. 

Warning: Another incestuous kiss, and a little smut towards the end

Word Count: 3,694 (a bit longer than most chapters - please forgive me)

Read Part 1: The Impossible Dream here

Read Part 2: Proud of Your Boy here

Read Part 3: Point of No Return here

Read Part 4: Look Down here

Read Part 5: Beneath a Moonless Sky here

Read Part 6: These Palace Walls here

Read Part 7: Wait For It here

Read Part 8: Something There here

Read Part 9: Be Prepared here

Read Part 10: Twisted Every Way here

“What is it? Tell me,” Commodus demanded the guard.  

“The girl, Sire. She’s unconscious.” 

Almost immediately, the emperor of Rome blinked in surprise while his limbs went numb. The guard couldn’t possibly be talking about the girl….his girl that he saw this morning. “Why…why have I been called?”

“She is under your penal custody, Sire. The physician can only administer medicine if you approve.”

Good heavens, Commodus cursed to himself as he strode towards the infirmary. He couldn’t let her die, not like this. Lucius almost jogged behind his uncle’s large footsteps, trying to keep up. 

When he reached the entrance of the infirmary, Commodus almost felt his heart stop for a moment as he tried to process the sight before him. Caesonia was lying down motionless on one of the white, unembellished beds. The physician’s assistant pressed a soaked rag to her forehead, while the physician observed. Much to the emperor’s surprise, the he chuckled when he looked at the doorway. “What amuses you, Galen?” Commodus asked, his lower lip twitching in anger.

“Forgive me, Highness. I merely remembered the day you were brought here after your battle. Unconscious, you lay on a bed in the infirmary while the girl watched physicians tend to you. And now here you are when she’s on the bed!”

Galen’s observation did nothing to alleviate Commodus’s spirits. Rather, it upset him even further to know it was his Pink Fairy who was being tended to. The emperor gazed at her with trembling hands as he sat on the edge of her bed. 

“What happened to her?” He asked Galen in a surprisingly quiet voice. The physician explained to him that Caesonia seemingly fainted from hunger and dehydration, a common condition among prisoners. However, due to her being in the palace instead of the dungeons, the guards must’ve believed it appropriate to bring her to the physician. 

Nodding slowly, Commodus rose from the bed without taking his eyes off of her for a moment. Trying to hide his fear of losing her, he hastily told Galen to administer her proper medication and to have her brought back to her chamber when she was sentient. 

“I wish to see her again tonight.”

“It shall be so, Highness.”

The emperor wasted no time in going to his study and pulling out a blank piece of parchment . Maximus, Lucilla, the late Caesar…he was going to prove them all wrong tonight. He was going to prove that Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus was truly capable of fulfilling the duty of a moral man, the duty of a loyal, courageous man. He would reveal everything to the object of his devotion- even if written words were all he had to offer her.

On the empty parchment, he began scribbling things that he wished that he could tell his rose, intimate things that he had only kept to himself until now, and even the clandestine things he would not even dare to acknowledge himself. Commodus’s hand clenched tightly around the quill as he purged his thoughts with ink. 

What if she laughs at me? No…she would not. She did not look one bit afraid when I came to her last night. She willingly took me in her arms and slept in my company. I knew the look in her eyes. Unlike everyone else, she saw me as a man instead of merely a ruler. No, she will not turn me away. She will be mine, and only mine.

——————————————————————————————————————- 

A few hours and several discarded pieces of parchment later, Emperor Commodus found himself standing at the doorway of her chamber. “Have her awoken and tell her I wish to see her,” he muttered to a guard after giving a small reward to the Praetorian for having brought Caesonia to Galen. There was truly no need for such formality - the emperor could see his prisoners whenever and however he wanted to - but she was no ordinary prisoner. Holding the letter, Commodus hoped that she would know just that. 

“Ave Caesar.” She attempted to stand, only to have him place her back on the bed. Reaching for his hand, Caesonia silently kissed his ring. Her eyelashes fluttered as she let go and hugged her knees close. Had she angered him? Was he expecting her to call him by name, just like she’d done this morning?

The two of them sat before each other in silence for a few moments before Commodus attempted to make small talk. He was crestfallen when she told him that she had no recollection of fainting, claiming only to remember walking around for a while before everything went black. Instead of trying to explain to her what happened, the emperor crumpled up the letter in his hand and kept a serious expression.

“I’m going to release you. You will no longer be my prisoner, Lady Caesonia.”

“You…you’re going to release me, Highness? To Antioch?”

“No.”

Caesonia blinked back tears at his callous declaration, unsure of what he could be implying. “As…as…as you wish, Caesar.” Just when she had begun to like the man talking to her, instead of fearing the emperor, he wanted her gone. If it weren’t for the stories about his temper and his cruelty, she would’ve fought to stay, begging and pleading for him not to send a lonely girl into a harsh city. If she were sent to Antioch, she’d at least have her father…assuming the emperor didn’t have him killed. But Caesonia felt too upset with herself to argue or even ask.

He dropped the crumpled parchment onto the floor. “Look at me.” Commodus grasped her chin and turned her towards him. “Caesonia…” he murmured, softly caressing her cheek. Gods, he hadn’t expected her to look so stone-like; it didn’t seem like she appreciated his gesture one bit. “You are going to be my wife. That is what I meant when I said you were no longer going to be my prisoner. I meant you were going to be my wife.”

Sensing her emotionless state, he straightened himself. “An emperor needs an heir,” Commodus continued, pacing the floor while he told her about the importance of an emperor’s marriage. He did not tell her about how he longed for her, and how he envied her ability to sleep so peacefully. And he certainly did not let a word slip about how he cherished her innocence and took great pleasure in her touch.

Caesonia reluctantly accepted his reasoning, despite her skepticism at his sudden proposal. She would never wish to get in the way of his duty as an emperor.

“Highness…” 

“Commodus,” he quickly cut her off. “I cannot waste our marriage telling you to call me that.”

“You dropped something on the floor, Commodus.” She calmly tried to explain, reaching for the parchment. 

Like a little boy caught doing mischief, Commodus reluctantly placed his hands in his lap while he watched her smooth the creases of the crumpled paper. His heart was in his throat yet again when her eyes examined the messily-written words.

Dearest Caesonia,

I wanted to make you mine since the moment our eyes met.

You were the reason I became a father to the people of Rome again. 

I couldn’t bear to send you away, and so I kept you for myself.

With every kiss and every glance that we shared, I felt your devotion and your kindness in each one. 

Yet I have given you coldness, when you deserved the warmth of a blanket on a frigid night.

I want to end this darkness, for I have enjoyed a glimpse of summertime. She stands before me, with a laugh like music and eyes of azure.

I long to be the sunlight that touches your perfect cheeks and caresses your soft skin every morning.

I want you to lead me from this painful solitude, my rose. And tell me that you want me as I want you.

 Indeed the pangs of love can make one very greedy, my rose.

 If you knew all of the desires that I feel for you…you would purse your delicate lips and compare me to a miser hungering for jewels.

And if you touched me again and looked into my eyes, they would tell you that I am yours…and that I want to be only yours.

The letter was somewhat disorganized, nothing like the eloquent speeches that he delivered before citizens or Senators. Caesonia’s heart softened as she underlined each word with her finger. Blinking again, she nervously smiled at Commodus and dared herself to place her hand on top of his. 

“Thank you…I do not know what to say.”

The emperor once again felt a mixture of surprise and courage, expecting her to be repulsed by his written confession. “Then kiss me.”

She gently pecked his lips, having never taken the lead before. 

“That was very nice, Caesonia,” he murmured darkly. “But…I’m afraid that kiss would only satisfy a boy, my rose. Do you think of me as a boy?”

“No,” her voice faltered as her fingertips traced his arm. “You…you’re an emperor.”

“And?” he chuckled. “Is that all I am to you?”

“You’re a man,” Caesonia conceded. 

“Yes I am,” he boldly tucked a hair behind her ear. “The people of Rome cannot see that, but you do.” Gods, she took his breath away without even trying to. If he could take her in his arms and hold her to his chest right now, he would never want to leave the bed.  Yet, he did not wish to have to bring her back to Galen. “Would you like to dine with me tonight?”

He continued, “I am asking as a man, not as an emperor, my rose. I will not punish you if you do not wish to accompany me.” But you must eat, he did not add. 

Caesonia accepted his pleasant-sounding proposal, much to Commodus’s jubilance. He would be thrilled to celebrate his impending marriage to a lovely woman of unwavering loyalty.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

“The emperor will be furious when he finds this out.” 

Livid, Claudia was trying her best to not scream at her brother in front of their younger siblings. He was too proud about his plan to assassinate the emperor tomorrow at the Games.

Philomenus brought one of the twins into his lap. “Commodus will be dead before he can scream for the bitch that gave birth to him.”

“Don’t say that in front of the twins,” she scolded him. “And the emperor you love so much, loved his wife too.” In response to his sister, Philomenus remarked that Marcus Aurelius’s love didn’t stop his wife from having an affair with a gladiator. 

“Why are you defending him so much?” He fumed when she accused him of believing slander, watching her clean the kitchen.

Shoving a plate into the cupboard, Claudia huffed, “I’m defending him because he is the reason we are able to fill our bellies everyday. Otherwise I would be at a brothel at night, selling myself to buy bread the next morning.”

“Don’t give me that talk,” he angrily ordered. “As the man of the house, I would never let you do such a thing, not even if we were destitute.”

“Such will be our state if you dare bite the hand that feeds us!” 

Philomenus cornered her in the kitchen, blocking her so that she couldn’t escape. “Why don’t you understand?” He hissed, gritting his teeth. “We cannot survive for long under Commodus’s rule. All he cares about are the games! He’s killed his own father, stabbed General Maximus, murdered Senator Gracchus, banished his sister, and dissolved the entire Senate! Claudia, this man is not worthy of being the protector of Rome!”

His words did nothing to change her opinion. “Please, Philomenus…” Tears were rolling down Claudia’s cheeks as she quivered with terror. “Please don’t go through with this…I cannot lose you…think of the twins, if not of me.”

“I am thinking about them,” he cupped her cheeks. “I am thinking about their future in a republic, where the power will lie with the people of Rome. Don’t cry, sweet sister.” Philomenus brushed his lips against hers, hurt by her sobs. “Pray to the gods that Commodus will fall and Rome will finally regain her true self.”

—————————————————————————————————————

Figs and goat cheese had never tasted better. Commodus grinned as Caesonia fed him from the platter of food. Given faith and a little encouragement, she quickly blossomed from a fearful maiden into an affectionate betrothed. 

“Now let me feed you too,” he cooed, bringing a piece of bread dipped in olive oil to her mouth. She giggled while she chewed, placing a hand over her mouth out of modesty.  Unbeknownst to any of the servants, the two of them had been playing a flirtatious game under the table with their shoes. 

There was something about being with Caesonia that brought Commodus into a playful mood. He fondly thought about how they splashed each other in the baths like children this morning, and how he held her in his arms. If it hadn’t been for that impudent guard, he would’ve ravished her in those pools until they were tired.

She would be a good wife to him…perhaps even a good adoptive mother to Lucius as well. And in return, Commodus swore to himself that he would prove Maximus and Lucilla wrong and be a faithful, adoring husband. 

He continued to make small talk with Caesonia while they ate, occasionally exchanging a witty remark about Romans. She was impressed with his stories, her smile growing wider as he dramatically narrated about his favorite gladiatorial games. 

By the end of the meal, Caesonia was innocently interlacing her fingers in his. She turned her head towards window, having never seen such a spell-binding view in such a long time. Under a veil of darkness, the city of Rome looked very much alive, almost picturesque. 

“I wish I could see more,” Caesonia gushed. “The nighttime is so beautiful, wouldn’t you agree?” 

“It certainly is. Would you like to come to the terrace with me? Perhaps the view would be better.”

Accepting his invitation, she followed Commodus to the terrace. Bringing the emperor’s hands to her waist, Caesonia nuzzled into his chest and occasionally pressed her lips to his armor as she watched the stars. She hadn’t seen such a view in months, having been locked up in a tiny room with a window almost as big as her head. And even though Caesonia knew she was in the arms of the man responsible for her imprisonment, it didn’t feel as if she were dancing in the lion’s den. It felt like the comfort that she didn’t know that she craved for.

Stolen kisses bloomed into little signs of endearment, culiminating in a liplock that left the two of them breathless. 

“I would very much like to make love to you,” Commodus murmured out of nowhere, not paying one bit of attention to the sky anymore. The mood was too perfect for him to stifle his amorous desires. 

“But…but I have never done it before,” Caesonia faltered, “I’m a virgin. It…I…I wouldn’t be good.” Her jaw slightly dropped when the emperor confessed to her that he too had never laid with anyone before. Given the myriad of concubines and courtesans presented before him, she would’ve thought of him to be…experienced.

Of course, Commodus had actually been with a concubine once, two years ago in Germania. But given the lingering ominous atmosphere after his father’s death, not even two bottles of wine could make him impassioned. It only made him cry. 

Moreover, the young emperor secretly wished to save himself for someone who loved him, as he loved them. 

“But it is your choice, my rose,” he promised her. “If you do not wish for this, then I shall wait.”

“No, I would like to do this,” Caesonia persuaded him. It would truly do nothing for her to refuse him. If she was going to become his wife, then perhaps it would be a prelude to their life together. And if he didn’t want to marry her…then at least she could spend the night with someone who had pleased her with a love letter and an intimate dinner. “I would like to do this, Commodus.”

Nodding furiously, the emperor felt like he would explode trying to maintain his regal posture while hurrying his beloved to his bedroom. No sooner had the doors closed, Commodus crashed his lips into hers and sighed lustfully. 

He traced the curve of her shoulders, looking up and down at his beautiful girl. The emperor couldn’t wait to take her - it had been his fantasy for several nights. And yet it intimidated him, to be standing before her now; should he be rough with her or be gentle and enjoy each moment? It was a thought that had never crossed his mind before tonight. 

Commodus watched her body tremble. Her blue eyes followed his finger as he brushed it along her collarbone. He saw how the fine hairs on her arms stood on their ends as he held her. No, tonight would not be for merely satiating his fantasy. It would be a new beginning for them - one built upon intimacy, not upon trepidation.

The emperor kissed her again, sighing when he felt her hands in his hair again. As they deepened the kiss, Caesonia whimpered and Commodus slyly slid his tongue into her, which only strengthened her desires.

“I’d like to take your armor off,” she told him in a low voice. When he agreed, Caesonia began untying each part and placing it aside. The emperor found himself laughing under his breath at how delicately she was handling his protective garb. It wasn’t her fault that he wore so many layers. 

Finally, she pulled his tunic over his arms and let her hands linger against his chest, running a thumb over his male nipple. Caesonia admired the way his body resembled that of a Roman Adonis - well-built indeed, but it was not too muscular that it detracted from his natural good looks. She swallowed hard, returning to meet his eyes again. “You look handsome without it.”

“Thank you,” Commodus replied with the same tone. She knew nothing about the paranoia in his mind that made him wear armor all the time. Blessed was her innocence, he silently praised as his lips brushed against her neck. “Your dress…”

“You can take it off,” she consented. Soon, her pink stola became a heap of fabric on the floor and was joined by her coarse undergarments. Every other day, the emperor had a new rosy-hued dress brought for her to change into. Perhaps it was the similarity to the garments she’d chosen to wear to his infamous duel that cemented the association between her and the color pink. 

Commodus guided Caesonia to his bed, and gently laid her onto the mattress. Pushing her hair back, he admired her face and tried to memorize every detail. He did not wish to forget a single thing about tonight. Bringing his lips back to her neck, he climbed on top of her and slowly kissed his way down her naked body.

Having never felt so much pleasure, Caesonia threw her head back and sinfully moaned. While she loved his lips against her skin, she begged and pleaded for him to stop teasing so much.

Boyishly smiling, the emperor exhaled sharply as Caesonia peppered his neck and shoulder with soft kisses. It felt a bit clumsy at first, but as his groans of pleasure grew needier, she felt bolder with passionate devotion.

“I want you inside me, Commodus. Please.”

His cock entered between her legs and ,with one last kiss to her lips, Commodus began to slowly move within her. “Am I hurting you?” “No…” Caesonia assured him quickly before sighing in pleasure, rolling her hips to meet his.

In moments, the two of them were moaning with ecstasy while they rode each other. With her legs locked around his waist to pull him deeper inside, Caesonia screamed his name as if it were the only word she knew. And Commodus accelerated his thrusts until the two of them reached their orgasm. He smeared his cum all over her slit and her inner thighs, grunting in satisfaction. 

Feeling chills down her spine, Caesonia ran her fingers through Commodus’s hair and shoulders as he peppered her chest with dulcet kisses. She enjoyed the feeling of his unblemished skin and silky hair; it helped her recover from the surge of adrenaline.

He slowly rolled off her and spoke in a hushed voice, for her ears only. “I think I’ve fallen in love with you, dear Caesonia.”

“The life-giving breath in my lungs, the crimson blood coursing through my veins…the beating of my heart,” the emperor continued. “They all speak your name.” He took her hand in his and placed it against his chest, hoping that she would find even an ounce of truth within his honeyed words.

“I think I can love you as well, Commodus.” She carefully draped an arm around his waist, praying that their tender exchanges of love would not be gone with the sunrise. That his affections for her were true, and not part of a scheme to toy with her fragile state. Or that she wasn’t part of some lust-driven game to invite her into his bed and then dispose of her in the morning. 

Interrupting her line of thought, Commodus whispered to Caesonia that she was trembling. Shaking her head in response, she lied to him that she was merely cold. 

“Sleep with me, my beauty,” he brought her closer in his arms, relishing the warmth of his skin against hers. Nuzzling into his neck, Caesonia lulled herself into slumber by idly tracing patterns on his shoulder. Right now, veiled by the protection of Nyx - the Goddess of the Night - they were only two people who’d given themselves to each other in complete surrender. Nothing more, and nothing less.

[neednothavehappenedtobetrue]

okay. this is a post about a new character, who is a person in the same 'verse as the main one for Robert and Isabelle, sci-fi and spaceships. she is a pastor in the one specific "limits on technology" religion I made up, but also, she is very cool. she does not live on their main terraformed colony, she lives in another colony with some definite cultural differences.

I am mostly posting this for my own future reference. there are definitely people who will enjoy Gwendolyn a lot, even with the extensive trigger tag situation here, but I think "a short story that has space for more nuance" would be a better venue for her than "my thoughts from Skype at 4AM"

if you do decide to read this, check the tags first, please

shoutout to @anonymus-maximus-er for being my thought partner on this.

but as I understand it now, there are, like , degrees of Intensity in Church Of Man

like, even their chillest followers are kind of intense about it because it's hard to be real, real chill about "god said we were only allowed to use these specific fifteen technologies" or whatever the exact rules are

but as far as incubators go, Aimee's community, the one you saw, would definitely have been like "well, too bad God wants that baby to die" and there are some other communities which would be more like "okay, probably make sure your baby does not die, do what you've gotta do there, but don't come back and talk to us afterwards"

and also for sure there are communities like "do literally whatever you have to do to make sure your baby does not die, we will be here with whole-made casseroles when you're home again"

and like, could some of those kids have benefitted from subsequent quality-of-life stuff they didn't get? probably, yes

to varying degrees

but hopefully Aimee finds a nice community where she can be like "this is so important to me but my babies and I experienced a bunch of technology in order to not die and we got excommunicated."

and they're like "wow that sounds like a lot of Not Your Fault would you like some whole-made casseroles and toddler clothes?"

and she's like "I got excommunicated" and they're like "did you know, perhaps you didn't, that there is no Central Authority for every Church Of Man church in the galaxy? there for sure is not! the people from New Maryland often pretend they are, but we didn't vote for them! your old pastor is just not at all the boss of us, is the thing"

that is the future epilogue I want for Aimee

I feel like the Tau Ceti Church of Man community is small and some people think they're weird, but they're nice neighbors. their pastor is a woman named Gwendolyn or something who is just constantly mad about Richard Brinton That Fucking Asshole

she has never called him any of those words because of decorum, she has just spent a lot of time talking to new people like "wow you seem very traumatized did you know he is not the boss of us?"

"we don't have a pope!"

"we've tried to have a council a few times, but it's logistically complicated"

"every church is supposed to make its own rules in accordance with the texts"

"yes, I have read every single one of his missives to the world, I know which bits of the Texts you probably have memorized, here are some bits I like a lot"

Gwendolyn has some opinions

like, churches are supposed to set their own rules about "necessary" technologies and she has quietly labeled almost all life-saving medical technology "necessary"

meanwhile, Brinton thinks it's necessary for him to have access to telecommunications equipment to he can send his editorials all over the galaxy, so people can be Educated

huh

of course, he does not actually physically touch the telecommunications equipment, he keeps like four people who know how to use it around so they can spread his word, but also, huh

the thing about Gwendolyn is that she has spent a long time watching traumatized New Marylanders join her community, many of them quite young and quite traumatized

also, she was never a New Marylander, she is fourth-generation Tau Ceti, which, crucially

means that her first set of principles is "Church Stuff, Misc" and her second set of principles, right there after the first is "you're not the boss of me"

even if somebody could point to actual scripture that said they were the boss of her, she would have some trouble with it, but some dude! who cannot point to anything at all! no justification whatsoever! nothing in the texts even a little bit! keeps trying to be the boss of her! and also keeps traumatizing all of the people in his community pretty badly! and making everyone else look like jerks!

"I'm more conservative than you, therefore, I am the boss of you"

NOPE

not for Gwendolyn

Gwendolyn votes in every local election and votes for her Senator, who she has met and quite likes. she occasionally goes to protests when the local government does some dipshit thing, but the Tau Ceti local government is pretty well-behaved because if it's not the citizenry will absolutely be like "fuck you, you're not the boss of me" at its government

she has some Very Big Opinions about debtor employment. she's not thrilled about the like, severity of the gang situation in her city, but she doesn't have a lot of optimism that the Government is gonna fix it, so she does community groups instead

also, in recognition of the fact that she can't just throw these traumatized New Marylanders right off into the personal autonomy deep end she is like "okay, if you need someone to tell you what to do sometimes, I will be the temporary boss of you until you are ready to be the boss of you"

she does not Love that aspect of her job, but sometimes you gotta

you can't bring people from "obedience all the time" to "you must make every choice in your life with no backup" overnight, they'll just collapse in on themselves or become targets for worse people

so she does the thing

she and Brinton have a <very> passive aggressive correspondence going as church leaders

there are many many long letters back and forth

they are very polite and also, if any of them are preserved, historians will find them fascinating

"wow these people just fucking loathed each other"

Anonymus, 5:05 AM

your obedient servant, A. Burr

5:05 AM

if they did not live on separate planets, legitimately maybe

like, if she could get to Brinton's house on a horse to yell at him in person, she would have by now

she didn't swear a lot in real life, but sometimes she wanted to

she got real good at saying "that man" or "sugar" or "nonsense" in A Tone, but you could tell

I can't decide if she has a husband or a wife

Aimee's church definitely thinks gay people are Modern and therefore Wrong, but like

I feel like probably their specific religious texts don't even have that much on being nice to people? like, there's definitely a few pages on like "kindness is an ancient value, we hold fast to ancient values, these are them"

but it's like 70% Rules Minutiae

it's also not a super long book

so everybody has very different opinions about how to interpret the Rules Minutiae in light of the 30% of the book that's like "here are our actual values"

"modesty" and "fidelity" are both in the Ancient Values bits for sure

and I feel like different denominations went in different directions on the "modesty" and "fidelity" implications of "gay people"

no, I've decided, Gwendolyn definitely has a wife

show her in the actual rules where she can't have a wife

yes, fidelity, that thing she has with her wife

Anonymus, 5:13 AM

can the wife be a very proper rebbetzin?

organises all the casserole chains

5:14 AM

yes, she can definitely organize all of the casserole chains

5:18 AM

right

Gwendolyn's wife's name is Tara and she came from an Earth Church of Man community where they were like "technically it's not illegal for you to be gay, but, like, ehhhh? we'd rather you didn't and also you definitely cannot have children if you're gay"

5:20 AM

and she got to Tau Ceti and met Gwendolyn who even in college was like "show me in the texts where it says I cannot have a wife."

"show me."

Anonymus, 5:21 AM

sounds like excellent breeding ground for Very Textually and Theologically Conversant, but not actually a religious authority

5:21 AM

the thing is, Tau Ceti is Bad At Authority

if they had a motto on their coins it would just be "you're not the boss of me" but maybe in Latin

but maybe not even in Latin because people who know Latin often think they are the boss of you

Anonymus, 5:22 AM

WHO MADE U KING

5:22 AM

for real

I think there is a dude who is technically the "boss" of Gwendolyn and they take turns giving the sermons and calibrating which parishoners they support based on like, communication styles in a way that often ends up with just all of the women and queer folks being Gwendolyn's people

she is smarter than him, he handles all of the Local Politics things that require you not to go "EXCUSE me, where is the LAW ABOUT THAT"

Anonymus, 5:24 AM

different type of smart

5:24 AM

if he ever tried to pull rank on her, she would either be so startled that it would work or she would unhinge her jaw and eat him

so he's never tried

he doesn't want to! very few people on Tau Ceti even want to be in charge, both because it's like herding cats who will hate you if they catch you herding them and because the finely honed distrust of authority doesn't go away when you become authority

Anonymus, 5:26 AM

"I'm pretty sure I'm up to some bullshit"

5:27 AM

yeah, Gwendolyn spends a lot of time with these sad transplants from other communities, nearly all of them women (because for SOME REASON women tend to get excommunicated WAY MORE OFTEN. HUH. are there ADDITIONAL RULES for WOMEN? I DON'T SEE ANY)

and they're like "please I am so sad and scared just tell me what to do"

and she wants to be like "I am not the boss of you, you have to be the boss of you" but they often are not ready for that, so she just tries to get a sense of what they want to do or what might be healthiest for them and tells them her strong recommendation is that they do that thing

everyone in her community knows she is passionate and can get fired up about some of this stuff, she doesn't hide that, but also, there are some conversations she (a only has with her wife and also (b has had with her wife a number of times

they are basically "our community is like 55% traumatized exiles from other communities and like 30% traumatized people from This One Dude's Community specifically. he traumatizes women and girls and girls he calls women and gay people and parents with sick babies!"

"we have so so many people we take care of now who are so so shaken and traumatized and sad"

"and we only get the people who don't leave the faith entirely!"

"it's not fair! it's not fair that he gets to do that! it's not fair!"

because when you carry the faces of like twenty good people all traumatized by the same garbage person and all you can do is try to take care of them and send passive-aggressive letters, sometimes it sucks!

if they lived on the same planet and she could get there on a horse, she would have done something ill-advised by now. yelled, certainly

but then again, if she had been born on New Maryland she would be a super different person and if he had been born on Tau Ceti there would have been a hard upper limit on how much he could get anyone to listen to him

like, bad bullshit happens on Tau Ceti, but the first time he married a fourteen-year-old girl off to her rapist, his neighbors would have set him on fire

church of man neighbors, regular neighbors, possibly neighbors who are criminals, just all the neighbors

5:37 AM

so her wife listens to her cry and reads over her letters to Brinton to make sure she doesn't actually say anything Too Impolitic (I think her boss also reads them, but he's less invested)

and her wife has these new folks over for dinner and helps them find clothes for their kids and adapt their modesty rules to the thing where it's like, as hot as it is possible to be in Tau Ceti

5:38 AM

like, most of the summer it's like 120 degrees, on a brisk day in December it drops into like, the low nineties

5:39 AM

sometimes people from other communities are like "we do modesty more modestly than they do" and they have to be like "okay, your choices are us dressing this way or us using air conditioning, because people do die in real life of heatstroke sometimes, that is a thing that can kill you"

also, even before Gwendolyn came along, her previous pastor was definitely like "we're gonna make electric fans permissible. we're just... heatstroke sure does kill you in real life"

"particularly in Modest Dress"

she liked him. they had meetings like twice a month when she was young because she had A Lot of questions and her parents were less invested in the answers than she was

when she was like twelve, he was like "maybe they'll give you my job one day" and she was like "I don't want your job! you're the boss of people!" and he was like "they very much would not give you my job if you wanted my job, kiddo"

(even 50% of the organized crime leaders on Tau Ceti are like "hey, I'm not the boss of anybody, I'm just a guy you don't want to fuck with because of all of the friends that I have got"

"I am not the boss of you, but I do have this gun")

5:49 AM

final thought on Gwendolyn: she had a real hard time when Robert Thompson died, because that dude thought her faith was a good reason to murder a husband and father.

and like, that dude is a fucking asshole, obviously, but it's hard

and then Brinton puts out an editorial about it and it is the only time Gwendolyn and Tara's children ever hear one of their mothers swear

because she is usually super meticulous about that

but also, sometimes

there is a limit

she makes several attempts before she writes him her next letter and the subtext of the entire letter is just "fuck you SO much, I do not generally believe in Hell, however, I will make an exception"

there is a limit! a man is dead and his wife and daughter are grieving and then a dude who everyone thinks is, like, the pope of her puts out some bullshit like "of course we don't do hate crimes but also that dude who got murdered deserved it" bullshit

there is a limit she is past it!

5:53 AM

also, they have seven adopted kids

[kingreywrites]

In For The Haul

Fandom: Tangled

Word Count: 3964

Summary: What if Rapunzel didn't go with Cassandra after Eugene's first failed proposal, and instead waited enough to hear what he had to say?

"Rapunzel didn't know how long she stayed on her bed feeling sorry for herself, but a knock interrupted her swirling thoughts. She was ready to tell Stan or Pete that she didn't need them tonight, when Eugene's unmistakable voice echoed from behind her door."

Read on ao3

Note: This is a pretty self-indulgent rewrite of BEA... Thanks to the Fitzfam for reawakening this headcanon in me!

Rapunzel could still feel her heart beating loudly inside of her chest, unable to calm down since she fled the ballroom- since she fled Eugene, kind, loving, incredible Eugene, with his terrifying ring and heartbroken expression.

"It's not that I don't want to marry him," she rambled to Cassandra, "I want to! At some point, for sure, but- I don't know Cass, it felt so- he was talking and I felt so scared and-"

Rapunzel stopped and took a deep breath, still not looking at Cassandra. Her mind kept circling back to Eugene and his eyes, and how she had made them go from sparkling and hopeful to confused and sad. She never made Eugene sad before, how was she supposed to deal with that? What would he say, when they finally talked about it together? What would she say, how could she explain her actions?

"I- I love him so much, Cass," she sighed, turning toward her friend just in time to see her roll her eyes.

Right. Cassandra hated Eugene.

Suddenly, Rapunzel felt like an idiot - she wouldn't usually complain so much, but it was all so confusing and she thought that Cassandra would… understand. How much had she been talking again? Self-consciously tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, Rapunzel smiled, hoping it was convincing.

"I should- I should sleep," she tried uncertainly, and her friend finally raised her head.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I mean, tomorrow's a better day, right?" Rapunzel made finger guns, but she wasn't sure Cassandra believed her. She closed her eyes. "I… I just want to be alone, Cass."

"Okay," Cassandra smiled, putting a hand on Rapunzel's shoulder, "but I'm here if you need me."

Rapunzel smiled as her lady-in-waiting closed the door behind her, but it fell off her lips quickly after. She sat on her bed, before simply falling back to lie down on it. Pascal's sad squeak made her pet his head for a moment, but her focus was elsewhere and he could feel it, laying down next to her to hopefully bring her comfort.

She didn't know what to think anymore. Talking about it out loud had helped a little, but she didn't even notice how bored poor Cassandra was when she did, so she wasn't sure it was the right thing to do. Her thoughts were so tangled together that she sincerely wanted to go outside and clear her head out, without guards or duty getting in her way, but she knew she wasn't allowed to do that - and she knew she shouldn't want to escape her problems anyway… Right?

Rapunzel didn't know how long she stayed on her bed feeling sorry for herself, but a knock interrupted her swirling thoughts. She was ready to tell Stan or Pete that she didn't need them tonight, when Eugene's unmistakable voice echoed from behind her door.

"Rapunzel?"

Her eyes popped open and she sat up swiftly, giving herself a bout of vertigo with the too quick movement. Which is why she didn't answer immediately, causing Eugene to call her again, this time sounding even more worried.

"Rapunzel?" Her door clicked at the same time she got up, worriedly fiddling with her hands. "There you are," Eugene smiled shyly, before hesitating.

She didn't say anything, every half formed sentences seemingly caught in her throat. She never fought with Eugene - well, she wasn't sure this was a fight, but still, they were both upset and she didn't… She didn't know how to deal with that. Eugene was only looking at her for now, brown eyes duller than usual, and she saw his shoulders sag as he turned back to close the door. Rapunzel wondered if she was supposed to say something first, but Eugene turned back toward her quickly.

"Um... look, Rapunzel, I am sorry," he said in a breath, sounding as anxious as she was. "I am so sorry, I should never have put you on the spot like that. But I want you to know, I-I- I meant it. I want to marry you, I love you!"

"Oh, Eugene, I love you too," Rapunzel said, feeling like a weight had disappeared from her shoulders. Of course she loved him - and of course he loved her, no matter what. "I- I'm sorry for running out like that-"

"No, Rapunzel," Eugene interrupted, walking until he was right before her. He softly took her hands in his. "I'm sorry I left you with no other options."

Before she could think about it, she threw her arms around him and hugged him, so relieved that, whatever the state of her thoughts, she knew they could solve it together. He squeezed back tightly enough for her to know he must feel the same and, together, they went to sit on the bed, still in each other's arms.

"Can I- Can I explain what I was thinking? And then you could explain to me what you are thinking?" Eugene asked in a whisper, sounding scared.

She nodded against his chest. One of the things she loved about Eugene was that they could always talk. She wasn't used to communicating - Gothel had rarely wanted to hear what she had to say - but she knew Eugene would always give her the opportunity to speak, even when she forgot herself it was an option.

"Okay," he said, taking a deep breath. "Look, I know there's still a ton of details we need to figure out... and I may have jumped the gun a little, it's just that... Growing up poor and alone, I got used to having nothing." His hand stroked her cheek and she raised her head. Their eyes met, and she could see clearly the emotion in his as he gently put a strand of her hair behind her ear. "But now, with you, I finally have something you know, we have something, something that is amazing... and I guess tonight, I was just trying to keep it that way. And I thought that's what you wanted too…"

"I do want that," Rapunzel said, her own hand going to Eugene's face, trying to make him look in her eyes again. "Eugene, if there's one thing I'm sure about, it's that I want to spend the rest of my life with you- I can't imagine my future without you. But…"

She opened her mouth, but the words still wouldn't come to her. Eugene, whose eyes were suspiciously shiny after her declaration, patiently waited for her to talk.

"I'm sorry," she said again, "I don't know why I'm so confused. I think… I think I'm scared. My life has changed so much since I met you, and it has been so amazing, but there's still- I-"

"Hey," Eugene said, "you know you can tell me anything, right? If something is bothering you, I want to know about it, even if it's me."

"It's not you," Rapunzel laughed, mulling over her answer. There was so many things she was grateful for - it still felt incredible to suddenly become a Princess, to have everything she could ever want and more, but… But she wasn't as happy as she thought she'd be, and she felt guilty about it. "I'm terrified of being a prisoner again," she blurted out, squeezing his hands in hers. "I want to see the world, I want to go on adventures, I want- I wish- I know my Dad wants to protect me, and I'm not ungrateful, but I wish I could go outside without being followed by an army, I wish… I wish I could just be me, for once."

"So, when I proposed to you…" Eugene breathed out, understanding in his eyes.

"At first, I was overjoyed, because I want to spend my life with you Eugene. But then, you were talking about staying in the castle forever and suddenly all my other issues felt so much more real and- I guess it was my fault, because I bottled everything up but-"

"Hey, none of that," Eugene interrupted as Rapunzel felt herself choking up again. "I'm glad you're telling me now. Yes, communication could have avoided this, but communication could have come from both of us. I should have talked to you about the proposal…"

"... and I should have told you that I wasn't as happy as I pretended," Rapunzel finished with a small smile.

They lapsed into silence for a moment, and Rapunzel snuggled into Eugene's side contentedly, feeling better with his arm around her waist.

"You know," he said, breaking the silence, "we could sneak out tonight."

"What?"

"You said you feel trapped and, of course, this isn't going to fix everything but… we could sneak out, together, with no guards to trail you," Eugene explained, his free hand waving in the hair to add to his point. "We'll go take a walk through the forest, or whatever you want to do really, and no one has to know about it!"

Rapunzel thought back to earlier, when she wished she could go outside to clear her head, and she couldn't help but smile at the fact that Eugene had guessed exactly what she needed. "I'd like that," she said, "but how are we going to get past the guards?"

"Oh, Blondie, you forget who you're talking to," Eugene exclaimed, raising his eyebrows. Rapunzel laughed and took his collar to kiss him, overwhelmed by how much she loved this man.

------

All in all, sneaking out was only made difficult by their constant chattering - with Eugene's skills and Pascal's help, it was still child play but they nearly got caught because Rapunzel laughed at one of Eugene's jokes.

"How do you know the guards' rounds so well?" Rapunzel asked in a whisper as Eugene made her stick to a wall to escape being seen.

"Would you believe me if I told you they nearly didn't change a thing since I first came to Corona?" Eugene laughed. "Plus, I'm used to noticing their new patterns, you know, being a thief and all."

"You'd teach me?"

"And possibly get killed by your dad for being an awful influence? Yeah," Eugene grinned, his hand warm on her arm contrasting sharply with the cold wall she was leaning on, "of course I'll teach you."

They fetched Maximus and Fidella, who seemed more than happy to accompany them on their little outing - Max didn't even protest about breaking the rules, since Rapunzel was the one asking. Eugene did joke about that, but Max simply kicked his shins and decided to be rode by Rapunzel, while Fidella accepted Eugene on her back with good grace.

Of course, any complaint he might have had died on his tongue as soon as they reached the forest.

Rapunzel was beautiful. She always was, of course, but seeing her being so happy and carefree, running around radiating pure joy… It did things to Eugene's heart. He had always been a very practical and down to Earth man, but the love Rapunzel held for everything made him melt. She jumped into a river with her always bare feet, dancing and glowing as the droplets reflected the moonlight - and Eugene fell in love all over again. He didn't think it was possible.

"Eugene!" she called, eyes shining, "you should get your boots off and come here!"

He didn't even think about saying no. The water was cold under him but he didn't care, joining Rapunzel in the middle as she twirled on herself.

"Look, it's so beautiful," she breathed, "it looks like we're walking on the sky!"

Eugene did look around him, but no matter how amazing the sight, he knew that the brightest star tonight was the one laughing in front of him, freed from the weight from earlier. He was still beating himself for not noticing how stifled Rapunzel had felt - but he knew now, and he wouldn't let it happen again. Tonight, she would have as much fun as she wanted, and tomorrow, they'll find a way to convince the King of letting go a little. After eighteen years as a prisoner, Rapunzel deserved to enjoy the world and her freedom however she saw fit, even if she was a princess.

They tiptoed around the fishes a little longer, until Eugene gently suggested exploring more, worried they would catch a cold if they stayed in the water too long. Thankfully, Rapunzel was more than happy to do that, racing to the next place with a whoop as Eugene scrambled to get his boots back on. Pascal climbed up in one of his pocket and, thankfully, Fidella was up to the challenge, catching up to Max and Rapunzel in no time so Eugene could admire her some more.

The wind was whipping through her hair and her cape, making it seems like she was flying as she opened her arms wide. Despite the fresh evening air, his love for her was keeping Eugene warm, as he kept watching her hair undulating with the wind.

They made a lot of different pit stops, letting their hearts guide them without trying to follow a particular trail. Rapunzel gushed over the flowers and the insects, she ran along the water and climbed trees, trying to enjoy everything nature had to offer. And for each step she made, Eugene was right behind her, only helping if she asked to be helped. Well, he did get his dagger out when they met that wolf, but he had no reason to be scared, after all, since Rapunzel befriended it in five seconds tops. Eugene shook his head, bemused, but Maximus snorted and he suddenly remembered that she was able to calm this horse in his murderous -if righteous- rampage as he was trying to catch him… A wolf was nothing.

"Eugene, look!" Rapunzel whispered excitedly as she pointed toward a illuminated part of the forest.

They smiled at each other before creeping quietly toward the light source. Eugene pushed part of the bushes open cautiously, and peered closer at the scattered fireflies. He could feel Rapunzel above him, and he thought she would be careful too, but she pushed the vegetation away in a grand movement that woke every firefly up, illuminating the pond fully. Eugene had to admit it was even more beautiful that way, especially when he could see the light bounce of Rapunzel's skin, making her shine even more in the night. She ran again, and Eugene ran at her side, but this time the fireflies were following them, marking the way behind them. This was such a beautiful sight that Pascal didn't even eat one.

As they rode Max and Fidella again, Eugene couldn't help but notice how much these little creatures seemed to dance and wave like Rapunzel's hair, but she said his name again while laughing, and the remark was forgotten.

The wind and the laughs and the adventure - all of that was exhilarating, and Eugene himself hadn't felt quite that good in a long time. He knew his happiness laid with Rapunzel but maybe, what he hadn't understood in his proposal, was that he didn't need to make it permanent - it already was. Marriage, if it came, shouldn't be about securing their love, it should be about celebrating it - and he was glad she said no, in the end, because she deserved the best proposal ever, and this one wasn't it. No matter - they were each other's dream, it could all wait.

They arrived to the Corona walls without even meaning to. Rapunzel jumped to the top without breaking a sweat, still surrounded by the tiny floating lights provided by the fireflies. It seemed like she was dressed with sunlight in this instant, and Eugene was awed enough to lag behind for a bit. When he climbed next to her, he saw her look to the other side, yearning clear in her eyes. He wondered how he had missed it earlier, when it was clear as day now that she wished to go further - to explore the world.

"I- I guess that's enough for one night of sneaking… out?" she finished, losing her sentence as he handed her the rope he had packed.

"After you, Princess," he said, and her wide smile was enough to make his cheek heat up - thankfully, the night hid it well. She didn't even hesitate as she placed the rope and jumped, soaring through the air again.

It was more of a pickle to get the horses over, but together, they were good problem solvers. Rapunzel kept exploring these new sights, going from one tree to the next excitedly. She described to him the different types of plant they were seeing, rambling their names and common usages while Eugene added his expertise from time to time - he knew a lot about how to survive the wild, and plants were a huge part of that knowledge.

"Wow," he cringed after they walked for a while, "I do not like the look of this bridge."

Indeed, the bridge seemed old and crumbling, a fact that was made all the more obvious when Maximus stepped on it. Pascal squeaked anxiously and Eugene was ready to turn back, when he caught a glimpse of Rapunzel's eyes. She seemed deep in thought as she stared beyond the bridge.

"Sunshine?"

"I don't know why, but I want to go there," she said, before biting her lips. "That's irresponsible, isn't it? There's plenty to explore here."

Her heart wasn't followed her words, though, and he could see the disappointment in her gestures. He might not know why she wanted to go there, but he had promised that tonight, she would be free to do whatever she wanted - it didn't matter to him what it was.

"Let's cross the bridge then, shall we?"

"Really?" Rapunzel brightened. "Oh, Max, Fidella, I'm sorry but you'll have to stay there." Pascal made a worried sound from Eugene's pocket, and Rapunzel extended her hand toward him, nodding as he squeaked. "Yes of course, you can stay here too Pascal. "Keep an eye on the horses," she joked, winking at Maximus' affronted expression.

Pascal took it seriously, even doing a little mock salute as Rapunzel and Eugene made their ways across the bridge. Eugene wasn't that comfortable with the rubbles falling under their feet but, overall, the thing seemed to hold well enough. It was strange, though - Rapunzel was still exploring, but her feet seemed to guide her in a specific direction. Eugene didn't comment on it, but he kept a close eye on her.

Especially when she led them straight to a cliff.

"What is that…?" he muttered, seeing a weird structure down there, surrounded by just as weird pointy black rocks.

"I don't know, but I'm gonna check," Rapunzel laughed, making her way down as Eugene gingerly followed her.

"Is that..."

"... the place where the found the sundrop?" she breathed out, awed.

Eugene went closer, a little spooked by the rocks. He put his hand on its smooth and cold surface, surprised to see it wasn't really black but a deep blue, revealed by the moonlight. It seemed incredibly solid, which he said to Rapunzel, but she didn't answer and, when he turned back toward her, he saw that she was approaching the rocks, hand outstretched.

"Sunshine?" he called her worriedly, but she didn't seem to hear him.

As she grew closer, the weird rocks started emitting a pale blue light, brightening up with each seconds. Before he could try to grab Rapunzel, she touched a rock with her finger, and a wave an energy exploded from within it, making both of them topple down.

"Rapunzel!" Eugene exclaimed, getting back up only to see her look at… one shining strip of hair…? "Wha-"

Next to him, a rock surged from the ground, making them jump to their feet. Then, another made them back off a little more; then another, then another and, freaked out, Eugene tried to strike it with his dagger.

The blade broke immediately.

"Uh-oh," Rapunzel breathed, right as Eugene yelled that they should run.

They climbed up again in a hurry, the rocks following them, unrelenting. Eugene yelled at her again to keep moving forward as an idea popped up in his head, telling her he would be right behind to quell her protests. She took the lead and he managed to bring a tree down in the rocks' path, hoping to slow them down a little.

"Eugene?" Rapunzel called, her voice a little far away.

"Keep running Rapunzel," he answered, arriving on the same clearing where she had stopped, "we have to get to the hor-oh-oh holy... hair?"

Hair. Blond hair strewn everywhere, and his eyes could clearly see that it was connected to her head, and his memory told him that it was exactly as it had been before but- but his brain refused that information.

"Don't freak out!" Rapunzel exclaimed worriedly when it seemed like he had stopped breathing for a moment. "I don't know how this happened, but we need to get away from here!"

Eugene nodded dumbly, and they started running again, Rapunzel's hair like a trail behind her. Because she now had seventy feet of hair. Again. Because she touched some weird murderous rocks which were now chasing them through the woods?

Oh, magic. How Eugene hadn't missed it.

They arrived to the bridge just in time for him to remember how brittle it was, which it seemed to take as a challenge as it started crumbling around them. They should have been able to make it, but Rapunzel was yanked backwards by her own hair, stuck in one of the bridge's many cracks. Eugene thought about cutting it, but his dagger was gone and they had no time, between the rocks and the clearly unstable bridge. He ran to the place it was stuck, jumping above the cracks because he wouldn't let Rapunzel get hurt because of this.

"Eugene!" Rapunzel screamed as he nearly fell, but he caught himself and slid in front of the stuck hair. With one sharp movement, he yanked it out, glancing in time to see Maximus grab Rapunzel as she nearly fell herself.

Heart in his throat, he started running again, in the good direction this time as he tried to ignore the threatening sound of the rocks popping up behind him. Or the unstable surface he was walking on. The bridge was giving out under him and, with one last jump, Eugene realised that he wouldn't make it across. Gasping, he closed his eyes as he felt himself fall, before something tight around his waist stopped his fall short.

Hair. Of course. Eugene raised his head and saw Rapunzel smile, before she and the horses dragged him up. He scrambled for the rest of the way, happy to feel solid ground under him, before Rapunzel scooped him up in a kiss. If he was surprised, he didn't take long before Eugene melted into it, pushing his hands through her long hair - he'd miss her short haircut, but he did love this one too. Actually, he loved Rapunzel, no matter what weird magical things happened around her. He could handle a heart attack or two.

"I- I guess our outing won't be as secret as I'd hoped," he muttered as they were still hugging, feeling some kind of dread flaring up again - which only heightened by Rapunzel's gasp as she pushed him away.

"Oh no, my father is going to kill me!"

Eugene cringed, feeling like they might both be in big trouble for it. And, Cassandra will probably gloat forever about his mistake.

"It's okay," he still said, "we'll face everything together, won't we?"

Pascal squeaked, Maximus and Fidella neighed, and Rapunzel smiled and kissed him again - and just like this, they knew it would all be okay.

[talietikasero]

Stability

Random prompt from 8/11 [finished 8/16]: rewrite the Strive ending / create an alternate epilogue [to line up with my story project]. I may or may not rewrite the whole thing for fun lmao.

[Main story preview here (contains 6 scenes)] // [Chapter 1 now on AO3]

"I guess... that's what they meant..." She let out between huffs. Both the voice in her head and the former Sanctus Maximus Populi said the same thing regarding her potential ability.

“When the time comes, with your seed, you hold the power to save or destroy the world.”

“You can prevent the end of it all.”

Energy drained, she fought off the sluggish pace her body was moving. Looking over to her partner, she noticed he was barely hanging on to his life, staying incredibly still, and trying to regulate his breathing while facing down. While her body contained the [Scales of Juno], he had the [Flame of Corruption] ripped out from his, reverting him to a human. "On second thought, don't move." Once she closed the distance between them, she knelt and put her arms around him. Face against the scuffed leather sleeve, and she struggled to hold her emotions in. "H-hey..." Voice cracking, she lowly muttered between sniffles, "please, don't go..."

"..."

"You... you stayed true to... your word about... a-about..."

"..."

"Fighting to... s-save the world..."

"If the world was going to disappear tomorrow... What would you do today?"

"What kind of a question is that? Stop whatever's ending the world or die trying."

Her embrace tightened as tears ran down her face. "Human, Gear, or neither. The world still needs you."

With drooped ears and saddened eyes, the wolf spirit whined. Its host and companion soothed it by scratching behind its ears and reassuring the worst had come to pass. "(It's okay, Rei. We're still alive.)." She whispered to the spirit in her native tongue. Another whine followed by a lick to the side of her face, Giovanna patted Rei's forehead. "What? Are you worried about me? I'm okay, I swear." She winced as another sharp pain ran through her body. "Ouch..." Her superior, the President, placed a hand on her shoulder. Half-expecting him to say she's no longer needed, she began, "I'm sorry-..."

"None of that." Vernon's voice was firm; however, it sounded... fatherly. He may have his doubts about the agent, but he knew she was more than capable of the job. Facing off against an unstoppable force, she did prove she's worth giving a higher position. "I can tell what you were thinking, but you're not being let go. You take as much time as you need off, Gio. Goldlewis, Erica, and I will await your return."

Saddened at the loss of someone he could consider a friend, the time traveler meekly looked down at the minty green and white guitar he held in his hands. This entire time he was unaware of her true identity. If he had to lose someone like her, it didn't have to be this way. Regardless of if she recalled who he was and why he was important to her in the first place, false memory or not. He threw away his chance to return home a while ago, and now he felt that it would've been for nothing had he gone through with it. "It shouldn't have ended like this... Megumi." Axl softly said under his breath.

After regaining control over his body and revealing the wicked goddess's weak point, the vampiric samurai pierced the ground a few centimeters with his sword. He kneeled to show his appreciation for defeating the evil force that used him as a puppet. Now, he could see why his master was fascinated by the will of a single person. This same person was stripped of his powers and still faced death head-on. "May you rest for now. The next time we meet, it won't be as enemies, but acquaintances." Drawing his blade from the ground, Nagoriyuki sheathed it and took his leave.

The King of Illyria – his lifelong rival and their son-in-law – made his way over to them, stopping a few feet short to maintain distance. "It's finally over. They're gone. We can... we can go home now." Part of him wanted to hold a hand out to help him stand, yet he held back and deemed that action unnecessary. Ky's spirits rose once he noticed the man in front of him was taking steady deep breaths -- body slowly moving to show signs of life.

Right hand maintaining its grip on the Outrage's handle, his free hand lightly grasped one of hers. Face still downward, a weak smile formed. "...You think so?"

She couldn't believe it. He's hanging by a thread and using what energy he should be saving to answer her with a question of his own.

"I know so."

The past three weeks were a blur. From the day she woke up and adjusted to this new world to the present, where she aided in bringing down a god. She never would've guessed that any of these events could've transpired. In the days leading up to September 2016, she was a terminally ill scientist who refused any life-saving alternative to live past what little time she had left, insisting she spent it with her significant other. Fast forward to December 2187, and she was brought back to life and became the partner of humanity's savior -- the very same person, albeit for the last time.

_____

The next day, another patient was checked into the hospital. This time there wasn’t a commotion caused by bringing his unconscious form bursting through the front doors. She wasn’t strong enough to carry him in her arms like he held her – that’s what the gurney from the airship’s infirmary wing was for.

“I have a request. May I stay here until he recovers? I… I don’t want to leave him.”

Three days later, word had reached his family that he's – miraculously and defying all odds – alive. His refusal to follow the light after what had happened was attributed to his stubborn nature. The Grim Reaper knocked at his door, and he slammed it shut in their face. Occupying the same bed, in the same patient room as her around a month ago, the now de-powered hero lay hooked up to the vitals system.

"Is he going to be alright?"

"Hard to say, but he'll pull through. He did wake up this morning, so there's something, yeah?"

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but has anyone seen my mother? About my height, short red hair with white underneath, and wearing a blue leather jacket? She hasn't been seen since everyone returned."

"She's in the room and hasn't left at all. I had someone stop by the house and bring her spare clothes since she spent the last four days here."

"Oh, thank god." The queen was relieved to know her mother's whereabouts. She respected her parents' privacy by not asking if she was able to go in.

---

Ring-ring. Ring-ring. Ring-ring-ring.

Sighing in aggravation, she answered her phone. There was only one person she kept in contact with these past few days. "What do you want now? He's still not up, so stop cal-..."

"I was going to ask something else. I'm going to regret this, but are you still angry?"

"You're a smart man to keep your distance from me, but a dumbass to ask that. Of course, I am! You ruined our lives with your 'self-righteousness' and nearly brought another apocalypse."

"...Aria, I understand your rage. If only I could rewind time and prevent your illness. I shouldn't have forcibly converted him and disappeared with your sleep capsule. It wasn't my intention to have our research weaponized, but I was figuratively and literally held at gunpoint to hand it over to the US Government. I should've known better and anticipated that Chaos -- erm, the Original's creation would sabotage your activation. Your screams still haunt me... and... I'm... I'm sorry."

"Asuka."

"I can't fix this by excessively apologizing and listing off my crimes, but I hope everything goes well for you and Frederick."

"Whatever. Enjoy the moon, or don't." She ended the call before her former friend could reply. "Asshole." Aria slumped back in the chair and opened her book to the page she left off. "We should've launched you into the sun."

"Oh my. And I thought 'Sol' was a hothead. You're pretty harsh, you know that? It's more frightening than I-No on a good day." Jack-O's voice rang through. Capable of feeling and expressing emotions herself, the Valentine was taken aback at what she heard during their calls. "If possible, can we listen to his show sometime? Please?"

"...Okay."

"Thank you. ~"

---

Forty minutes after the heated conversation, a groggy voice broke the silence.

"Is the... afterlife a sterile... hospital room?" Frederick's eyes were half-open, staring directly at the ceiling.

Aria closed what she was reading and placed it on the counter. Ignoring the monitors that once kept track of her, she looked over his body to see minimal damage sustained. "Looks like you've still got some of that healing factor. Or you're just too hardheaded to die."

He slightly turned his head to face her. "Heh. Probably both."

Running a hand through his now short hair, her lips curved into an unsure smile. "Welcome back to the land of the living?"

"This doesn't look like heaven. If you're my welcome guide, then I'll stay." His body was still sore, but he extended his arm out for her to hold his hand. The warmth from the fire magic still dwelling within them made their contact feel safer.

"I should've worn that jumpsuit and halo." Her inner voice's reaction was an exaggerated throat clear. "But if I did," she held a finger to her temple, "I don't think she would've appreciated that."

"I would've been mildly annoyed at best. Mildly annoyed yet honored that you'd wear it because of what you did."

"You're really pissed off at Asuka, aren't you?"

"How much did you hear?"

"All of it. Didn't know you were capable of that."

"I felt like you after the second day." He took that as a friendly poke at his history. "Since you've saved the world for the last time, are you still up for that 'alternate life' you mentioned the other night? We don't have to stay at Ky and Dizzy's. They can arrange something for us."

His ears perked up at the suggestion. Did she remind him about his statement regarding them settling down? Having survived an act of God, living a quiet life together a few minutes out from the capital didn't sound like a terrible idea. "What did you have in mind?"

"A fair-sized home, nothing too big or small, probably just down the way from their place. I don't want to throw everything away and live in seclusion. We're way out of our own time, but we finally have a family, people who care about us, and we care about them in return. Unless you have a better idea?"

"I'm fine with anything. Can't imagine I'd be able to go out much or at all because I'm officially a dead man."

"Not too long ago, I was a dead woman walking. Besides, the world thinks that Sol Badguy is dead, not Frederick Bulsara."

"Point there. You know, now that I think about it, this situation is just like a month ago."

"With you in my place, but I didn't have to be dragged in? This is the same room where I spent my time recovering. It was also -..."

"Where you got your new start."

"Y-yeah. That's exactly it. This is where I woke up to my new life! Not as Justice, or Jack-O, but as myself. That same day, I met our daughter and her husband, and then I saw you again. Just this time... I've been here since you were checked in. Everyone tried to get me to leave, but I refused."

He noticed the duffel bag placed near the door. There was a pant leg hanging over one side of the unzipped bag, and next to it were two pairs of footwear. "Way to tug at the old heartstrings. Stubborn as always, aren't you?" If he were honest with himself, he wanted to do the same when she was still unconscious. He had the feeling that the IRMC staff wouldn't have thought about asking him to leave the premises, even though he almost kicked the doors clean off the first time.

"One of my best qualities." She winked at him, giggling at her remark.

"Hey, Aria."

"Hm?"

He slowly sat up despite the mild pain, leaning over to bring her in for a hug. "Thank you."

Aria returned the motion, both holding onto each other, not wanting to let go. She had felt incomplete up until this moment. Preventing the end was a combined effort, and she couldn’t be any happier to have been a part of that team.

A sense of déjà vu, the song playing on the radio had neared its end.

You are all I long for All I worship and adore In other words, please be true In other words...

"I love you."

[thanksjro]

More Than Meets the Eye #16- All the Greatest Love Songs are Secretly About Heroin

Dang, been a minute since we got into the series proper. What all happened again?

Oh. Right. That.

…So anyway, let’s brush up on our Ultra Magnus history!

There was a massive fight on top of a spaceship. Swoop was there, Impactor was there, Overlord was there, Heretech was there, Killmaster was there- shit was lit. Ultra Magnus was doing his thing, though it looks like this was before he got LASIK done, because he’s got a visor on.

Then Ultra Magnus got shot in the gut and fell off the spaceship. It was so scary his hand started spasming.

Later on, we return to a place we’ve seen before, albeit from the Decepticon side.

Magnus, your badge isn’t up to code, my guy! Better get that sorted, before your current self comes out of his medically induced coma, invents time travel, and comes to beat you up.

Also, Pious Maximus? What is your friggin’ DEAL, bro? What the actual hell is your deal?

All the K-Cons start falling out of the sky, and Magnus orders everyone to take cover, as a familiar-looking bomb that literally has his name written on it lands bang on target. It’s such an intense experience, his hands start spasming.

Later still, Magnus is in the middle of dealing with the Simanzi Massacre, and it looks like his visor’s seen better days. Hopefully it was a reading pair, and not something he actually needed to see. Rotorstorm is also there, because his character apparently only exists to suffer. Magnus and his team rise from the muck and the mire, coming ashore right on top of a Cybernought, which promptly fries Magnus with its hand lasers. He gets so crispy, his hands start spasming.

For anyone having trouble parsing the scraps of rended metal that used to be Rewind of Lower Petrohex here, allow me a moment to break him down. That cylinder in the lower left corner is his camera, the wire coming off of it is where it plugged into his head, and that squarish chunk with the clean, round hole in it is probably part of his helmet. The other chunky bits I couldn’t tell you what they are, but I think it’s pretty safe to say that Chromedome absolutely put the dog to sleep with that blast last issue.

Inside the Lost Light, Swerve’s trying to be a nice guy by putting on some tunes for Ultra Magnus, who got his spark shot by Overlord last issue, but all it’s really done is make Ratchet get distracted.

Magnus is in a bad way, as was established by First Aid last issue, and it doesn’t seem like Ratchet’s having any more luck than had been predicted. Swerve’s here for emotional support, and also because he’s got medical training. Tailgate’s here for cleanup duty. Drift’s off in the corner making snide remarks about the medical equipment, probably because he’s mad his legs are still off.

Drift looks like he’s been chiseled out of stone here, and I kind of love it. Forget softboi uwu Dwift, I want more of this guy who’ll bite into a teddybear cactus and not even flinch.

Agustin Padilla’s back on the scene for this issue, and he’s decided that everyone’s going to be elongated in as many ways as he can manage in 20 pages. Tailgate and Swerve? Tallest they’ll ever be in the series. They’re as tall as Cyclonus, and he’s a fucking space jet. Someone’s got a chevron? You better believe that thing’s scraping the gotdang ceiling. Drift’s kitty-cat ears almost never fit into the panel, because those suckers are LONG today. It’s like they’ve all been put through a taffy-puller. There are a lot of little quirks with this art, but this is one I can kind of get behind, if only because it’s so distinctive.

Getting back to the story, Drift’s talking about the Death Clock here- no, not the animated band from Adult Swim, but an actual medical device that can calculate the moment a shrinking spark will give out, down to the second. It only measures the lifespans of the terminally ill, so Swerve hasn’t accidentally given himself even more depression by sticking his little hands in the shiny light without a thought as to what the device he’s messing with might do.

Ultra Magnus has about ten days to live. This makes Tailgate incredibly upset, because he, unlike everyone else on the ship, hasn’t experienced the horrors of war and death.

Ratchet’s right, though. There’s certainly a chance that Tailgate, who’s been shown to react to stressful situations by having panic attacks to the point of blacking out, could have a very severe response to what is his first major catastrophe. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder usually isn’t an immediate development, but being proactive about your mental health is never a bad thing if you can swing it. Hell, with how bad the Overlord situation was, I wouldn’t be surprised if Rung was booked solid long enough for Tailgate to actually have time to develop PTSD.

Rodimus is on the intercom to address the situation that just took place, because man oh man, was it a doozy. He intends to hold an inquiry to figure out just what the hell happened and how Overlord got on the Lost Light to begin with. As he tells everyone what’s going to happen, our focus shifts to Chromedome, who’s standing on the outside of the ship, staring off into space.

Man, I hope Chromedome’s on the front half, because this is a fucking grim scene to witness.

Skids comes out, having been looking for Chromedome. Trailcutter of all people pointed him in the right direction- which I suppose makes sense, given that he was on the Ethics Committee on Kimia. He probably would know Chromedome and Rewind decently well by this point.

Chromedome turns around to show off his mourning black Autobot badge, freshly photoshopped onto his chest for our viewing pleasure. It’s especially blatant when contrasting with Padilla’s rougher linework style.

Skids asks our brand-new widower how he’s holding up, and Chromedome says he’s fine, which is funny, because the other day he was all:

Chromedome has a moment of reminiscing, playing connect-the-dots with the stars like he and Rewind used to do all the time.

Skids, they were married for 250,000 years.

Skids might actually have been one of the worse people to have found Chromedome, if this is what he’s going to say, and then immediately leave. He’s so awkward and clearly uncomfortable and doesn’t want to be there. Does he feel weird about Chromedome knowing more about him than he himself does? Does Skids not have access to any of his memories related to mourning? Geez, I hope nobody needs him to help them through a difficult emotional time for a good while, because this was painful to watch.

Back inside the ship, Rung’s come over to Rodimus’ room to see what all the crashing and banging is about. It would seem our dear captain’s upset, and has decided to work through his frustrations by destroying his private quarters, perhaps in an attempt to summon the wrath of Ultra Magnus, thus saving him through the power of his own mess-induced rage. Rung comes to sit with Rodimus, I guess giving up his search for Chromedome, and the two of them discuss Magnus. Specifically, they discuss Magnus’ memos, and how much Rodimus despises receiving them, because they make him feel like he’s not doing his job right. He stopped even opening them, they made him feel so bad.

If you subscribe to the headcanon of Rodimus having ADHD, you could potentially read this as being a manifestation of Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria. As it is within the story proper, Rung’s decided to ignore this tidbit of information to get at the more pressing issues, like why exactly Rodimus felt the need to wreck his room.

This is about the point where the art for Rodimus becomes roughly 90% spot blacks, and it’s highly suggested that Rung get out while the getting’s good.

Oh, well this is going to be awkward.

Later on, we’re at the funeral. There’s five coffins, though not all of them actually contain a body. Everyone’s here to see their friends off, even Cyclonus, who was invited to the wake by Chromedome himself. Awful nice of him to do that, given their history.

The lineup in the front row is a bunch of chatterboxes, and they prove that very quickly as Swerve, Skids, and Whirl theorize on the contents of Brainstorm’s mysterious briefcase, which is also here at the funeral. Swerve swears himself to the duty of finding out what’s inside, on threat of death should he fail.

A short time skip is had, and Rodimus is revealed to be wearing his ceremonial funeral cape and terrifying vampire arm spikes to this shindig, as he sends Tripodeca, who is surely the most beloved of all Autobots, off with as many kind words as he can muster in the time they have. Everyone says goodbye, and we get to Rewind’s turn. Rodimus has a moment of pause, as Rung gives him the most withering look I believe he will ever produce in the entirety of the run of MTMTE/Lost Light.

Rodimus concedes to giving Rewind the credit for saving everyone from Overlord posthumously, as well as Fortress Maximus and Chromedome, labelling himself as a failure on that front. Chromedome comes up to the podium for a few words on the love of his life.

…well, it’s been a long day for everyone, I suppose.

Chromedome sits back down, right next to Brainstorm because they’re besties, as Brainstorm stares him down like he knows something Chromedome doesn’t.

Probably because he does.

After the funeral, Brainstorm pays Chromedome a visit, finding him in the middle of spring cleaning. He’s taking all of Rewind’s stuff and shoving it in a box to be destroyed.

Does it count as foreshadowing if it’s like a page before the reveal? I guess so.

Chromedome is trying to ease Brainstorm’s mind about the inquiry Rodimus is conducting, saying that the guy ought to talk to Drift before he gets TOO antsy about spilling the beans- perhaps a touch too late there, Domey- but Brainstorm isn’t here for any of that.

So you’re saying Chromedome/Dominus isn’t going to be endgame.

Turns out Chromedome’s been collecting dead spouses, and he wasn’t even aware of it. When faced with this inherent truth about his personal relationship with grief, Chromedome only has this to say:

Time for a pop quiz!

When the burden of life is too much to bear, what is an addict most likely to do? Is it:

A) Quit cold turkey

B) Seek help for their addiction

C) Relapse

If you answered C, you get a gold star, and a harsh reminder that addiction is a fucking monster that will devour your life and meaningful relationships, leaving you with nothing but itself for company.

Chromedome has had a problem with injecting since he got good enough at it to get his own set of finger needles, and he’s been completely dependent on other people to get himself to even close to stopping the habit. His character bio on the crew roster page has, up until this point, outright claimed this.

Now Rewind’s gone, and there’s really nothing stopping him from just taking that pain away. Brainstorm certainly can’t do it, though not for lack of trying.

Chromedome says that he won’t go through with his plan, but Brainstorm knows he’s lying, because they’ve done this song and dance before. At this point, asking Chromedome to not inject is just a courtesy to the deceased.

No wonder Chromedome invited Cyclonus to the funeral- probably figured why the hell not, since he wouldn’t remember it anyway.

Brainstorm gives Chromedome a data slug- the last one Rewind ever made, shot through the door just before it sliced Chromedome’s arm off, and found by Fort Max. Brainstorm leaves, probably to go prepare himself for that awful, hollow feeling he’ll be getting the next time he sees Chromedome.

Over in the shuttle bay, Rodimus is addressing the crew, Chromedome is retconned into being Toxin because he’s not supposed to be in this scene, and Drift is named as the sole conspirator in the Overlord debacle. Rodimus just starts tearing into Drift, and while he does, we cut over to the medibay, where some zombie nonsense is going on.

Golly, seems like there’s some flavor of undead on the Lost Light every other week, doesn’t it?

Rodimus strips Drift of his Autobot badge and tells him to get the fuck out.

Back at Chromedome’s room, he’s decided to take a gander at what Rewind left behind, plugging the data slug into the computer.

Man, this part always makes me a little weepy.

I can’t do Rewind’s final message justice, not in the choppy format I present here- which is perhaps a bit ironic, given the nature of how it’s presented. In the final moments he had, Rewind pieced together a plea for Chromedome to love himself, and to remember that he was- and still is- loved. He shared his own fears of them being apart, and how he knows how hard the coming days will be. He begged Chromedome to be kind to himself, because he- whether he believes it or not- has grown from the person he was in the New Institute.

As this message plays out, we see Drift swarmed by furious Autobots, who get violent as he makes his way off the Lost Light, only to be helped back to his feet by none other than Ratchet, before climbing into a shuttle, surely never to be seen again.

Shane McCarthy slipped Roberts a twenty to set up a slowburn between his OC and Ratchet all the way back in MTMTE #4. This is the start of the pining portion of their relationship.

God, just- there’s a reason Roberts has claimed this issue as one of his best, and it’s this fucking message. Please, if you somehow have gotten to this post without reading the comics- well, first, how, and second- go and READ THEM. I promise it’s worth it, they’re beautiful and funny and full of heart, even when everyone’s being a dick to each other.

Rewind leaves Chromedome with one final piece, which probably didn’t feel like enough, but was all he could manage in the time he had left.

I’m basically legally obligated to post this panel.

Let’s take a moment to consider Rewind as a character. He’s an archivist, and one who’s gotten very good at his job over the millennia. The guy’s OBSESSED with history, and recording as much of it as possible.

Which stands to reason that he knew about Chromedome’s past conjunx endurae. I mean, why wouldn’t he? It would be public record- even if you don’t necessarily get a marriage license on Cybertron, Chromedome would have been on the paperwork with these other guys somewhere, and the fact that he wouldn’t be able to answer the question of “Who’s this guy you lived with for several thousand years?” Would imply some… rather unfortunate things.

Rewind also has a hard time letting go of things- he gets jealous of Chromedome’s past relationship with Prowl any time it’s brought up, and he’s still looking for his ex-husband after what’s probably been at least a million years. That, combined with the way Rewind lives his life- you know, recording every single moment of it- gives me the impression that he really, really wouldn’t enjoy the idea of being forgotten. He wants Chromedome to stop injecting because it’ll kill him, of course he does, but he also wouldn’t want to be erased.

The video cuts off, leaving Chromedome alone. It’s all up to him now, whether Rewind gets to stay in his heart now.

Chromedome/Dominus is still on the table.

With THAT crisis of love dealt with, we move back on to that weird zombie nonsense we saw a little bit ago. Ultra Magnus is missing. Odd, that.

Ratchet, how many times are your patients going to have to disappear from your medibay before it’s less of a “them” problem, and more of a “you” problem?

As Ratchet goes off to search the rest of the ward, Tailgate accidentally bumps into the death clock, which gives him a nasty little surprise: apparently he’s only got three days to live.

Yeah, this is the point where the comic kicks into overdrive, plotwise- there are no brakes on this train anymore.

[collectsfallenstars]

Gravity: A Summary of the Development of Jeong TaeEul’s Feelings for Lee Gon in “The King: Eternal Monarch (Part 1 of 3)

*spoiler warnings for episodes 1-8*

I’m responding to a specific point that critics have raised about “The King: Eternal Monarch having a slow pace while the romance between the leads have happened at an extremely fast pace.  That, or there has been no development whatsoever.  In the K-drama world, yes it was fast, but in my humble opinion, just because it was fast doesn’t mean it was underdeveloped.  I think it had to be that way because of the kind of characters they were created to be.  And I am going to try and prove this by tracing the development of Jeong Tae-eul’s feelings from the first episode to the 8th only.  I’m leaving Lee Gon out because his emotional journey is different from Jeong Tae-eul’s and he comes into the series with his feelings almost fully developed.  The one that needs to catch up is Jeong Tae-eul so I will follow her.

Now, let’s look at these two characters.

Lee Gon is a mathematician and well versed in scientific matters.  He is a man of logic, relentless in the pursuit of a final answer to any equation. He comes into the series already half in love with Jeong Tae-eul.  Upon seeing that she exists, he pursues her.  His character’s conflict now is how to convince Jeong Tae-eul that what he feels for her is real.  But before he even gets there, he first has to prove that his identity as the King of Corea is also real.  Aside from this, he also has his own emotional journey to take on but that’s another discussion.

This one is about Jeong Tae-eul because it might seem baffling that she spent 6 episodes seemingly annoyed and exasperated with Lee Gon’s crazy declarations of King-ness and her utmost importance in his life, and then suddenly came running into his arms by the 7th episode and ended up confessing to him by the 8th.   It’s not that baffling if you take a closer look at her character.

Jeong Tae-eul is a taekwondo master, detective, not very good in math and science, but well versed in chicken and beer.  What with her being a detective, one would think that she would be as logical as Lee Gon.  She is.

But she and Lee Gon do not have the same kind of logic.  Lee Gon can grasp non-material knowledge like theorems and possibilities of other worlds from a theoretical point of view and only cancel them out when they are proven incorrect.  Like a mathematical equation.  It’s also why, between the two of them, he’s the more romantic one.  But Jeong Tae-eul’s logic is that of a flat-earther. I’m not sure if that brand carries the same stigma in South Korea as it does in the west, but I’m sure that the writer, Kim Eun-sook, did not mean to make her look like a nutter by branding her a flat-earther.  It just means that she’s one of those people who need to see something first before they believe it.  It’s also why she speaks so bluntly.  She says what she needs to say as honestly as possible because she demands the same kind of transparency in order for her to believe someone else.

She was also never really good in school, particularly in math. (Okay, science too.) Even Kang Shin-jae knows it as shown by his tired expression during the time they went on a stakeout.  This means abstract concepts like square roots, quantum mechanics, and parallel worlds fly over her head.  She relies on physicality to navigate the world. That’s what Taekwondo, a contact sport, gives her.  She perceives the world through her senses.  Eating fried chicken and drinking beer satisfy her body, her sense of taste and smell. They’re real to her and so she likes doing it. But if she can’t hold them, see them, smell them, taste them, and hear them, then they do not exist.  

And this is why, when Lee Gon couldn’t produce his identification papers when they first met at Gwanghwamun Square, refused to tell her his name, and told her he lived in a parallel world, it drove her up the wall.  

“IF YOU KNEW I WOULDN’T BELIEVE YOU, WHY SAY SUCH BULLSHIT? SHOW ME YOUR ID”

“I DON’T HAVE AN ID BECAUSE I AM WHO I AM”

If she can’t believe that he’s the unnameable King of Corea, how else is she going to believe that she is as important to him as he says she is?

In Episode 2, she gets his money, fingerprints, and DNA tested – methods she knows will work, and trust to do so. In Episodes 3 – 4, the fingerprints and DNA turn up with nothing.  The money, despite appearances, is proved to be genuine by Forensics by the 4th episode. But her first clue that Lee Gon might actually be telling the truth was his diamond button.  A legitimate jeweler accepted it in exchange for cash in the 2nd episode.

But it wasn’t until the 4th episode that the pieces of evidence began to stack up to support Lee Gon’s claims.  When he left to go home and Jeong Tae-eul saw that Maximus was gone from her yard, she actually searched for Lee Gon’s  movements through CCTV footage.  She found him disappearing into the bamboo forest and that was it. Although she couldn’t confirm that he had an actual home, the fact that he had disappeared into somewhere told her that he must have one.  It was also on the 4thepisode when she lost her ID card and it was reissued to her exactly on the date that Lee Gon told her it would be—Nov. 11, 2019.  This shakes her to the core because her flat world just wavered. And when Lee Gon reappears at the end of episode 4, she tests him about her ID picture and asked if it her hair was up or down and what she was wearing.  He answers correctly and seeing that he was finally getting through to her, he asks the very thing a flat-earther, taekwondo master, detective would want to hear,

“DO YOU WANT TO SEE FOR YOURSELF? COME WITH ME TO MY WORLD.”

She says yes and when she crosses over that barrier, all the flat-earthing walls she put up to protect herself came crashing down.  And when she lands in the Kingdom of Corea to the tune of his guards calling him, “Your Highness,” she finally gets the two things she had asked of him back in episode 2.

“I AM THE KING OF THE KINGDOM OF COREA.  AND MY NAME, WHICH YOU CANNOT SAY, IS LEE GON.”

He does have a home. He does have a name. He is a king.  This means that everything he ever said was true – including the way he feels for her.

Now, I know what you’re going to say.  She can’t have fallen in love with him in one day just because he’s got a home and a name. Honestly though, I’m pretty sure most of us have fallen in love with undeserving men for less than that.

Episode 5 may have been very significant when it came to a shift in her feelings but, things have been brewing beneath the surface since their first meeting.  She just put a lid on it because she couldn’t properly identify him and what he was.  Now that she has no excuse anymore, standing on his kingdom and even brazenly saying his name aloud, she’s now forced to confront this strange pull that this man has on her. It took her 8 episodes to explore this gravitational pull she has with this man and it is developed in an uneven pace.  

Episodes 1 – 4 are slow paced but with a huge amount of screen time.  By the 5th episode, their interactions become fast and heavy, but they begin to share less screen time together, making all their moments even more bittersweet up up until the 8th episode when Jeong Tae-eul properly tells him that she loves him.

EPISODE 1

On their first meeting, he hugs her with his eyes wide open.  He has pined after her for 25 years. What started out as deep gratitude for his savior had grown into a balm for his lonely existence as a young monarch. He wanted to find her and he did.  This is probably why he couldn’t even close his eyes when he embraced her—someone he had searched for for so long was finally in his arms and he didn’t want to miss a minute of it.

EPISODE 2

In the precinct, Jeong Tae-eul continues to interrogate him much to her annoyance but didn’t miss the fact that he said, “I have finally met you.”  Her brain tells her this is strange, but obviously, not enough to make her fall.  Nevertheless, it got her attention. And his answer will continue to boggle her mind.

“I WAS CURIOUS ABOUT YOU AND I THOUGHT ABOUT YOU A LOT. YOU ALSO LOOK BETTER IN REAL LIFE”

She gets a weird answer, and then a compliment. Her brain latches on to the weird answer and sets aside the compliment.  However, the weird answer also suggests the pre-existence of a connection between them that she knows nothing about. This draws her into his mad world.  

“THE PROOF IS RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU.  I CAME FROM THE OTHER WORLD.”

He fixes his steady gaze on her after saying this.  The subtext here is, “I came from the other world to find you. I exist now, because of you. And now you’re questioning my existence when you’re at the root of it all.” But of course, all this is lost on JTE. However, she does notice that something more is bubbling beneath his words and his very still form because she then asks,

“WHY DO YOU LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT?”

“HOW ELSE SHOULD I LOOK AT YOU?”

He answers maddeningly. He says this in a teasing manner, breaking his intense eye contact.  But even if the manner is meant to irritate her, it also carries another layer of meaning known only to Lee Gon and the audience, “I don’t know any other way to look at you except with awe and love given that I’ve spent the last 25 years searching for your shadow.”

All throughout this episode he drops heart bombs on her one after another, including a proposal/command to marry.

“ARE YOU LEAVING? WHY? DON’T GO. IT TOOK 25 YEARS FOR ME TO MEET YOU.  I HOPE TODAY WILL BE A LONG DAY.”

“I HAVEN’T DECIDED YET. I SHOULD HAVE, BUT I POSTPONED IT FOR LATER. I LIKE BEING HERE WITH YOU LIKE THIS.”

“JTE I TAKE YOU TO BE MY WIFE, THE QUEEN.  YOU JUST BECAME THE REASON WHY I SHOULD STAY IN THIS WORLD.”

However, she ignores all this, ridicules him, or changes the subject. Also, she behaves this way because she doesn’t seem to have any romantic bone in her body.  However, only this one incident seems to have visibly affected her. He plays up the entire issue of tasting food for poison before he eats their chicken dinner and uses it to tell her this:

“THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING. BECAUSE YOU EXISTED SOMEWHERE, I WAS LESS LONELY FOR THE PAST 25 YEARS.”

For one, imagine being someone’s salvation from a lonely life for 25 years.  It was a declaration too heavy and too earnest to dismiss and Jeong Tae-eul stares at him, almost frozen. You can see her lips move so minutely, it would be easy to miss, as if she’s trying to say something, respond or change the subject as she usually does when she’s made uncomfortable by his sudden declarations of affections.  But for the first time, she can’t.  It is Lee Gon who changes the subject by advertising the chicken he’s eating.  

Her inability to dismiss this shows that she listened to him this time.   She doesn’t believe his words yet at this point, but something in the way he said them made it hard for her to respond in her usual brusque manner. This stays with her.

Towards the end of the episode, she left Lee Gon standing alone in the middle of her yard, possibly cold and hungry, to grab some chicken and beer with Sin-jae and Eun-sop.  However, upon remembering what Lee Gon told her last night, about being the the reason why he hadn’t been too lonely and trying to find a reason to stay in this world, she went back for him.  She actually gives up chicken and beer for Lee Gon.

EPISODE 3

Lee Gon’s geeky comparison of Jeong Tae-eul to Zero was beautiful but I’m pretty sure she understood none of it. I understood only half.  Having understood none of it, she remains unaffected. His DNA results haven’t been out at this point in time yet so she remains doubtful and issues a challenge for him to take her to his parallel world.

Their walk through the bamboo forest, fruitless of course, irritated her. But three things of significance happened that time. She found out from him that his parents died and that his first duty as king at 8 years old was to bury his father.  Just like before, she couldn’t respond to this and it is Lee Gon who changed the subject when her face started showing signs of distress.  He doesn’t know it yet, but Jeong Tae-eul’s mother passed away when she was very young so she knew a thing or two about losing a parent.  And she just realized that Lee Gon lost both of his.

Being able to put herself in his shoes makes him real person for her, a scary thought for someone who still doesn’t believe anything he says.  And because Lee Gon allowed himself to be vulnerable, to be open, with her, it became easy for her to do the same for him.

When he asked her a personal question about why she chose to be a cop, she had actually answered honestly.  This event is the 2nd significant event for this episode.

“WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO BECOME A COP? IT’S A DANGEROUS JOB.”

“NOT EVERYONE IN THE WORLD CAN BE BRAVE.  SO I DECIDED TO BECOME BRAVE.”

This was probably the first real connection they ever made.  It will be later revealed in one of those extended flashback scenes in Episode 4 how they had this actual conversation in the bamboo forest.  But as of Episode 3, this detail about one of her most important life choices is revealed by showcasing Jeong Tae-eul and Kang Shin Jae fighting a pack of goons while at work, while the voices of Lee Gon and Jeong Tae-eul having this short conversation are played on screen throughout the fight, as Lee Gon observed them from a distance.  This might make him look like a ponce, like a King who would never dirty himself with a street fight. But what this scene shows is how Lee Gon respects her as a soldier, a warrior even.  

Now, given that Lee Gon knows why she became a cop and how important it was to her, he had respected her enough to not intrude in her fight, in her work.  This is Lee Gon recognizing how capable she was to fight and defend herself, and trusting in her abilities enough to not intervene.  And for a woman who prides herself in her strength, this would register in her mind, despite Lee Gon still being a source of annoyance to her at that point.

And lastly, on their way back, he put his coat over her shoulders because in the middle of her frustrated rant earlier about following him on this foolish errand, she said she was cold.  This appeared to have touched her quite a bit.  She has been helpful to him, yes.  But she had also been mocking him, ridiculing him, and doubted him every step of the way.  And yet here he was, still being very considerate of her. This also means, he listens to her.  How can that not be attractive for any woman? A man who actually listens.

EPISODE 4

“SO THAT’S MY STORY. TELL ME WHAT KIND OF KING YOU ARE. A YOUNG, HANDSOME, AND RICH KING?”

More of their conversation in the bamboo forest is revealed in this episode.  This line is significant for both Lee Gon and Jeong Tae-eul. By asking him this question, sincerely, without any trace of sarcasm or ridicule, she opens herself up to the possibility that he has been telling the truth about who he is all this time. She openly acknowledges his identity as a king, for the first time.  And if you look at her eyes, they are a little softer now, not as sharp as when they bicker. (Of course, the bickering can be considered foreplay or unresolved sexual tension.) Anyway, this goes without saying that her question was sincere too, in response to his earlier sincerity.  She genuinely wanted to know what kind of king he was. Furthermore, she also openly acknowledges his handsomeness.  She has eyes, of course she knows.  She stated it as an observation. Now, it’s supposed to be a compliment, but she cleverly sandwiched it inside a question, so it doesn’t look she gave it at all.  This could very well be a very very mild case, of Jeong Tae-eul flirting. But just a mild one.

Deeper into the episode, we see her in the library, reading up on the existence of a parallel universe.  So now, she’s also acknowledging the possibility that he could have been telling the truth about where he lived.  So she sits there, trying to learn his world.  An episode ago, he sat in the same library, on a chair opposite hers, trying to learn about her world.  And then we are treated to a beautiful split screen of Lee Gon, sitting in the same library, but in his world, missing her, not knowing that across the universe, she was doing the same thing.  She’s not exactly missing him with the same fervor as he is with her.  But she is making leaps in bounds in the romance department here because she is essentially trying to learn more about him.  You know when you have a crush on someone who likes Star Trek, and you’ve never seen an episode, you start to look up stuff about it, trying to learn something that is of interest to him so you can have common ground? That’s kind of what she’s doing here. She is trying to understand him. It is ironically at this point where they are farthest from each other, that they were actually becoming closer.

By this time though, all the evidence Jeong Tae-eul has of Lee Gon all point to the fact that he was telling the truth (button, DNA, fingerprint, money bill, disappearing into the bamboo forest from the CCTV).  Then the last piece of the puzzle came to her in this episode – her ID card issued on Nov. 11, 2019. So by the time Lee Gon showed up at the end of this episode, she had no excuses left. Everything he told her had been proven true, and all pointed towards an existence beyond her world.  She tried to test him one more time by asking what she wore and how her hair looked in her new ID picture.  HE answered both correctly in the most tender way possible, because he wasn’t just answering her question. He was reliving every day he had spent staring at her picture for the last 25 years!) Anyway, when he answered both questions correctly, the flat-earther in her was left with no more questions except for the first two that she had ever asked of him.  His name. His home.  And because he had waited until he had gotten rid of all her other questions save for those two, the moment he asked her,

“DO YOU WANT TO SEE FOR YOURSELF? COME WITH ME TO MY WORLD.”

there really was nothing left to do but to give in to whatever was pulling her to Lee Gon and his world.  She wanted to know those answers.  She wanted to know him. And of course, the start playing Kim Jong Wan’s “Gravity” in the background. A song about surrendering to an undeniably pull you feel towards someone who is destined for you.

[imaginesmai]

Peter Parker - See the light (7)

Is it a bit shorter? Yes. Is it a bit more sentimental? Of course. Be prepared! If you know the film, this goes a little bit different, becuase Peter deserves some love!

Small sneak peek 

First part

Second part

Third part

Fourth part

Fifth part

Sixth part 

Plot: after all this years, you’re finally going to fulfill your dream. Having Peter by your side is surely the best way to do it.

You had some expectations for the kingdom, but that didn’t help your jaw form dropping when you finally caught sight of it. You were completely speechless. You didn’t bother to pick up your hair as you bounced as quickly as you could across the stone bridge and towards the kingdom. The sun beamed down, and distantly, you could hear the sounds of music drifting through the air.

Peter, who had been holding your hand the whole trip there, let his smile drop. He wasn’t fond of the city, where all of his dreams and hopes had been crushed. Still, he let himself be pulled along by you.

When you entered the kingdom limits, you were immediately surrounded by people. The city seemed to be throwing some magnificent festival. A child ran by you, and you watched as he knelt in front of a huge mural on a wall close by. A man and a woman were depicted in the painting – both standing tall and regal. Both also incredibly beautiful.

In the woman’s arms, was a tiny baby. She had long, curly hair, big bright eyes and looked happy; with a piece of jewellery on her head that looked far too big. The kid placed a small flower in front of the mural.

“For the lost princess” he mumbled.

You were about to go over and ask what he was doing, when a particularly hard tug on your scalp made you lose Peter’s grip and reel back, yelping. Looking back, you saw people stepping all over your hair, and soon you lost Peter trying to avoid all that tugging. The boy immediately lunged forward and started picking it all up, his arms quickly filling.

Peter looked around for a split of second before smiling. He moved your hair and you walked with him, rubbing the back of your head painfully.

“Hey kids!” Peter called out, catching the attention of a group of small girls. He didn’t say anything, just showed them his hands full of hair. He raised his brows, and the girls shouted in excitement.

Soon enough, you were sitting on the cobblestone while five girls ran around you, braiding your hair and lessening the weight. Peter sat besides you all the time, talking about everything and nothing. He told you about the memories he had there, facts about some places and explained some things you still didn’t understand.

When you were finished, you span around. Your hair was collected in one big braid, formed with smaller ones that had pretty flowers and ornaments in between. It almost reached the floor, but it wasn’t long enough for people to step on it. Peter babbled all the way while he payed the girls and tried to tell you how pretty you were. After some embarrassing tries, he gave up.

“I could show you what this festival is really about” Peter offered you his arm, blushing. “Y-you’re, well, you… you’re already the prettiest girl here. W-would be, uh, a shame if I d-didn’t show you o-off?”

That time, Pascal wasn’t close to stick his tongue on his ear, and Maximus was busy trying to watch out for crime. To Peter, you had always had some kind of special beauty; but there, morning sun just shinning for you and curious big eyes looking up to him, you looked ravishing.

Maybe, it was his chance to kiss you. He had never been too good with women, apart from the girl he had dated back then; MJ, threatening and self-sufficient. Peter had been the one guidable in that relationship; but now, he knew you knew nothing about them. Kissing you felt suddenly wrong, taking that from you, your first kiss.

So, swallowing down the urge of pressing his lips against yours, he took your hand back and starter walking towards the group of people who were dancing.

For the next hours, you danced. Peter taught you the main steps to the popular dance, and was by your side the whole time; holding you closer, spinning you around, laughing with you when you stepped on him. The sun slowly came down, as you learned more about the city. Peter bought you a small flag from a traditional post, and let you try every food you found on your way.

Maximus and Pascal appeared long into the day, when you were hanging from Peter’s arm. To end the night, the boy had decided to surprise you. You were laughing with him when suddenly you stopped. The sun was setting and you were in front of the water.

“What is this, Pete?” you asked.

“Best day of your life. Thought I might give you something to remember your birthday.”

Peter gestured to a rowboat tied close by. Maximus huffed behind you, and Pascal frowned. Together, you climbed inside the boat and watched as Peter showed you how it moved. The animals emitted some noises.

“Here, fetch” Peter said with a grin. He threw an apple onto the dock, landing at the horse’s feet. When it didn’t make a move to eat it, Peter continued. “If you’re worried  about if being stolen, don’t be!”

Maximus still glared at Peter, but ate it anyway.

“Besides” Peter said, leaning in so only you could hear him. “He already ate all the stolen ones”

You laughed, and Peter smiled. It was silent for a while, only interrupted by your occasional offer to take the paddles. He used that time to think that, if there was a thing that he could do until he died, it would be spending every minute and second by your side. The girl that had managed to steal his broken heart and fix it.

When Peter stopped the boat, it was dark. The moon and the starts were being reflected on the water, and the lights of the kingdom could be seen in the distance; besides that, you were barely able to see his face. You had your doubts about the final ‘surprise’, and were a bit nervous about not being able to see the flying lanterns because of it. Yet you trusted Peter, and if by any chance you lost the opportunity to see them, but got to watch him talk excitedly for another hour, it was okay. You weren’t going to ask for a better birthday present.

“I – uh, it’s a bit soon” Peter scratched the back of his neck. “I’m sorry, I didn’t really measure the time. I thought –“

“It’s okay” you leaned forward and took his hand in yours. “We can wait”

“Mh” Peter didn’t say anything else, but stared at your hands.

In comparison, yours were much more soft, and perfect. His were full of scars – at least one of them – and bruises. You watched him fight with his mind for a while.

“I had fun today. A lot” you smiled, even if he wasn’t looking at you. “The dancing was – wow, I didn’t know something so wonderful existed. I want to repeat that again.”

Peter’s head rose up at your words, and he looked surprised. Against what you thought, Peter hadn’t forget about the deal; you watching the flying lanterns, and him getting his crown back. But, against what your mother thought, it wasn’t his only intention. Everytime he thought about you, he thought about the possibility of staying. Of actually staying with you for the long run.

He could see how much your mother had hurt you over the years, and secretly hated the idea of you going back to the tower. Peter wondered that, maybe, if he could keep you away with the money he got from the crown. Selling it would be difficult, but worthy if it gave him the chance of having a future with you.

His interests, his dreams, had changed; he no longer wanted the sunny island with loads of money. In his opinion, a crazy chameleon and a girl with magic hair was enough, wherever that was.

You took his silence as something negative, so you frowned and your shoulders slumped.

“Not that I could” you looked down. “Mother will be worried, and tonight are the flying lanterns. So tomorrow morning I –“

“You could stay with me” Peter blurted out. He worried not being enough for you, but a future with your mother could only be worse. He shifted towards you. “I know – I don’t have much, but it’s better than being locked in a tower”

You blinked surprised at his confession, and gaped. The world seemed more illuminated, or maybe it was just your eyes being used to the dark. But you could see every detail on Peter’s face; from his little, almost invisible, mole under his left eye, to the way his thin brows couldn’t stay neat. He had his jaw clenched hard, lips pressed in a thin line. And his brown eyes, burning with hope and determination, were boring into you.

Peter didn’t let you talk.

“Don’t answer me now” he rushed, and brought his hand to his lips. He was blushing, yet held a confidence that made you blush. “Just – think about it”

You were going to ask him how were you supposed to sit in an unmoving boat, with him and no other distraction, and say nothing about it. But soon, the first two lanterns appeared floating through the air, and your breath caught in your throat.

You knew what came next.

The air is suddenly flooded with hundreds upon hundreds of lights, all of them much bigger and brighter from the ones you saw from your window. The world glowed, and you felt content. Happy, because it was everything you had hoped for; just as you thought so, you turned to look at Peter.

He was already looking at you with a half-smile, and two lanterns of his own. The boy moved so that you could also fit on his side of the boat, and you sat beside him. Your shoulders brushed and his warmth evolved you.

“For you” Peter said softly, and gave you one. It had beautiful and elaborated purple draws, only matching the beauty of the moment and Peter turned his head and talked close to you. “Sometimes – you know, uh, sometimes you h-have to let go. Freedom is about letting go, Y/N”

Everything that had been built for years, locked on the tower and dreaming of the lanterns, broke up that night. Maybe it was because of his words, because of the encouragement and the possibility of taking your on decision of them. Your fingers un-curled around the bottom of the lantern when Peter leaned forward, tilting his head so that your noses didn’t touch, but your lips did.

The lantern wasn’t being held down anymore, as your fingers lost strength when Peter kissed you. And Peter’s one flew away, because he used his hands to cup your cheek and search for your own. Both of the lights became one of the flying mass that commemorated the missing princess. To them, might had been only another year of flying lanterns.

To you, was letting go of the weight that had chained you to the tower for years. The pain, the fear, it all melted away as Peter pulled you close, and crashed his lips with yours once more.

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Lucid

Written by Janry Deoduco & Illustrated by Kiefer Tayawa

They say that family is the only joy you’ll ever need in life, and if there would be a perfect embodiment of that, the Santiago Family would be a good candidate. On a peaceful evening, the Santiagos decided to play a game of Monopoly as they waited for their pizza dinner--just like any normal happy family. “You landed on my property, Dad! Where’s my 200?” said the Santiagos’ only child, Lucy, lightly bossing her father out. “Okay, fine! But…” replied Daniel, “aha!” He exclaimed as he threw a card down looking very proud of himself. ‘Once you land on your opponent’s property, the fee will revert to the owner,’ the card said. “Come on, Dad!” dismayed, Lucy fell to a defeated kneel as she handed the 200 creds she owed her father. After a while, the doorbell interrupted their heated, exciting match of Monopoly. “Oh, finally! That must be the food,” almost jumping out of her seat, Daniel’s wife, Sandra Marie hurried towards the door to pay. The two left at the coffee table right in the middle of their living room looked relieved, both from the heat of the game and their rumbling stomachs. “Here, babe,” Sandra handed Lucy a slice of her favorite shrimp pizza from her favorite pizza place, Maximus’ Pizza. The child thanked her and retreated happily back to the coffee table, analyzing the board as if it were a chess match.

The night started with a warm and comforting vibe, but as it grew past its youth, an eerie gust of wind blew leaves from trees, as if devouring the harmony and peace the young night gave its inhabitants.

“Lucy! Time for bed baby girl,” said Sandra. Their game of Monopoly ended with Daniel losing. It had been a weekly tradition for the Santiagos, as they played Monopoly in their living room and ordered the same pizza from the same place at exactly 7:00 in the evening every Sunday. “Already? I’m not yet sleepy, Mom.” Lucy replied, though her tired eyes and relaxed gestures seemed to contradict that. “Did you forget? We’re going to the park tomorrow,” Sandra said as she carried the sleepy Lucy from the living room floor and started walking up a few steps. “Really? Yehey! Well, I guess it’s time for bed, Dumdum,” the young girl said to her stuffed animal, gently resting her head on her mother’s shoulder. As the night grew out of its youth, the cryptic whistles of the wind blew harder, that even the tree branches outside the Santiagos’ home lightly tapped onto their windows, almost as if the elements outside were luring them out. Though the circumstances did not stop the three from their slumber, something else seemed to stop Daniel’s.

He heard and saw people screaming and being tortured, and then he screamed of fear until he awoke at 3:07 am and walked downstairs to get a drink of cold water. After that, huge lightning flashes, and a strong wind blows while he felt something strange crawling on his body but couldn’t find out what it really is. Suddenly, he touches his body because of his weird feeling and then he finally notices that he can see everything differently. He noticed that something looked upside-down and the places started to change and change due to an unexplained situation so he finally realized that something weird was happening. He is questioning himself “Am I seeing these things normally?” “Are these things the things I saw yesterday?”

People being tortured, bloody scenes of utter violence, and complete chaos appeared in Daniel’s vision as he came slowly into a distorted state of consciousness. At the sight of these, he screamed and wailed, completely overwhelmed and terrified at the same time. Daniel tried to walk away, but his feet seemed to be glued onto the floor. A beastly being suddenly roared and broke from inside the ground to the surface, adding to the raging fear and panic Daniel was experiencing. “Help! Get me out of here, I can’t move!” He screamed repeatedly until he could barely speak. After all that took place, the hell he woke up to disappeared as if a switch had activated it. Shocked, he felt for his own skin, somehow examining the reality he’s in.

After so many questions that came to his mind, he finally realized that he was still dreaming and was thinking of everything that can make his house back to normal. “Oh my! I can control everything. What if I think of something interesting. How about some new shoes hmm. It worked!” He is finally getting interested in his dream called the Lucid Dream. “Dad, what are you doing late at night?” Lucy said while going downstairs. “Oh, you’re awake! I think Lucy will love this. Hey Lucy, come. Here’s your new plush toy.” “Wow! Dad, you have some awesome and cool superpowers.” Lucy ran upstairs and called Sandra to show Daniel’s new unexplained power. “Mom! Wake up, look at Dad, he is a superhero.” “What is it my darling?” said Sandra. “I was a masked magician and will give you some lovely roses. Give some three claps and the roses are yours.” Sandra clapped three times and then she suddenly noticed that she was already holding sweet-scented roses. “Unbelievable Daniel! I think this is very interesting.” said Sandra while smelling Daniel’s lovely roses. “Let’s see what more can I do.” Daniel thought of a big mansion. “Wow! My dreams came true. Can I fly?” Daniel started to fly together with his family having their fun while laughing. “Gimme a cape and a talking DUMDUM Dad!” Daniel gives all he can give to fulfill his family’s dream. After they enjoyed their fun Moments together, they started to rest while Daniel saw a huge dusty mirror and wiped it with his own hands. He saw nothing until he heard a huge scream from his family. Lucy is screaming of fear while Sandra is crying and then he saw the mirror again and suddenly saw a reflection of himself as an old man staring at him. “WAKE UP!!!” said the old man and suddenly pulled him inside the mirror. He lost his consciousness for a minute until he woke up in a blank space with a strange atmosphere and said, “Where am I?! Why did you bring me to this kind of worthless place?” He tried to run fast because he thought it was the only way to escape but nothing happened. He is like running out of nowhere and hoping for nothing. He tried to close his eyes but nothing new happened. It was like closing his eyes, but his eyes won’t really close. After a second, he stopped for a bit and heard some whispering uncleared voices and he said, “Who are you?” Different kinds of voices started to shout at him with random languages until it became so annoying and made Daniel suffer. “Stop! Why can't I control this thing?” said Daniel. The noise started to grow and grow until he finally heard his family screaming and crying of fear. “Dad! Help us! Please look for us. We’re scared Dad.” said Lucy while Sandra said, “Daniel, do something! Stop this kind of suffering!” After that, the whole place started to burn and Daniel heard all the suffering of every person he encountered. “IT HURTS!” said the woman. Daniel said, “Why can't I feel anything? Why can’t I do something about it?” After minutes of suffering, flashes of people suffering from torture went to Daniel's eyes. “Stop it! Don’t hurt us! We’re innocent people. We don’t deserve this kind of thing.” Daniel suddenly looked at the man crying until it looked at him with reddish creepy eyes and said, “It’s your fault! STOP THINKING ABOUT US!!!” “But I can’t control myself! I don’t know why but I can’t stop thinking about all of this.” The crying man started to move his feet up and tried to stab him; however, he suddenly pushed the guy very hard and felt the anger crawling at his back. “I can’t control my emotions! AM I CRAZY?! Is this really a Lucid Dream wherein I can make things I want to become a reality? Why do I can’t control myself thinking of this kind of image over and over? I just wanted to play with my family and have fun together seeing my daughter and wife’s smiles. I want to go back to our past wherein we are spending our time playing Monopoly and eating pizza together. I missed the time wherein I can kiss my wife over and over again like there is no tomorrow. I want to go back. I just wanted to get them back!”

“I missed them. I love them. I cared for them. Give me back my family...” The nurses were shocked and started looking at a 95-year-old guy who has suffered from critical mental illness complications for the past many years. He is one of those innocent victims who survived in a War whose families are tortured and killed by those heartless foreign soldiers. He suffered from a deep trauma since the death of his family which makes him unconscious and dream of his memorable pasts. “It is the first time that Mr. Santiago talked like that.” “I think It is a miracle for him to speak.“ “Wait, let me talk to him.” said the nurse while looking at Daniel cautiously. “What is it, sir? May we help you?” said the nurse. Daniel looked at the nurse directly into their eyes for the first time and said, “Sandra? Lucy? I finally realized that you’re all fine now.” He laughed quietly until he passed out smiling since he finally realized that the true peace in life is to accept reality and let go of the past.

____________________________________________________

ILLUSTRATION EXPLANATION:

The whole theme of the short story is about lucid dreaming and love for family. In this still image, the eyes directly looking at the family represent Daniel’s love for his family. The mood of this still image looks dreamy and dark, yet full of colors because it is about lucid dreaming in general which is very pensive. Ever since Daniel lost his family, he can never forget about the memories he and his family have shared, and that caused Daniel to reminisce it over and over again.