#my life is inherently lonely without this

[mqueerlife]

PLATONIC CUDDLES

i want more platonic cuddling--sitting on your lap, leaning my head on your shoulder, just overall being close with you--without the expectation of romance or dating or 'more'

i want platonic hand-holding and platonic besties going and doing things together maybe going to lunch, the movies, hanging out in a library together

i want this kind of connection, a person who is special who i can buy or make random little gifts for and who i just exist with

[about-faces]

Saw a post from a Nightwing fan that was like “oh my god there’s someone out there who seriously would like to see Two-Face in the BatFam, WTF?! After what he did to Dick?! What the hell is wrong with you?!”

….

…

… Anyway, here’s why I think Harvey Dent should be in the BatFam.

For starters, I think it would be a wonderful way to incorporate Bruce’s long-standing love for Harvey in a situation where he gets to interact with a variety of young people who either have personal beefs with Harvey and/or have little sympathy/reason to care about him. We’ve already seen the potential of Harvey and Jason interacting and how fantastic that was for both characters.

I want to see Harvey (specifically a Harvey whose good side gets to be present and distinct, if not in complete control for the time being) interact with Dick, who hates him and—like some of his fans—completely disregards Harvey’s history of mental illness and internal struggles to overcome Scarvey. Extra points if they incorporate the Robin: Year One origin with Dick being beaten by Two-Face (which is not currently canon, btw), something that Harvey would never have done if he was in his right mind or even in control at the time. He was subsumed by his worst side to the point that Two-Face outright genuinely considered Harvey “dead,” but Dick neither knows nor cares about that, and I’d like to see that explored outside of a typical hero/villain environment.

I want to see Harvey interact with Damian and Cass, who each might have his own opinions about Bruce’s ongoing belief in someone’s inherent goodness, heroism, and worth, no matter how much blood is on one’s hands or how they were raised.

I want to see Cass and Steph both reckon with Harvey’s own history of abuse at a father’s hands, and how one tries to struggle against the cycles of violence. Is Harvey a victim of how he was raised, or is he a monster for not overcoming his trauma like they did? I want know if the compassion Cass extended to Clayface could also apply to Harvey. I want to know if either woman would have any empathy for Harvey, or condemn him as being reprehensible and irredeemable.

I want Babs to have a backstory where she, as a kid, knew and liked Harvey, and the two bonded over having alcoholic fathers, something which no one can understand if they haven’t experienced it.

I want to see if Duke has any feelings about a once-good man who was transformed into something he does not want to be, much in the way his own parents were victims of Gotham’s monsters.

I want Tim to better understand Harvey’s psyche, to see if he still thinks that Harvey is someone who “chooses” to become Two-Face again after every redemption attempt.

I want more interactions between Harvey and Jason, acknowledging them as twin symbols of Bruce’s failure who both became murderous mob bosses. How many orphans has Jason created? Why is Jason welcomed back in but not Harvey? Is it because Harvey nearly beat a Robin to death, just like Damian did with Tim? Is it okay to excuse/forgive a brainwashed child but not a severely mentally ill adult who had no control over his worst side? Why or why not?

I want to know which BatFam members would even notice all the ways that Bruce and Harvey are so similar, mirrors to each other with Harvey being the one who lost everything, including his own identity and sanity. I want to know what their takeaways would be, or if they’d even care. I want to know if any of them would realize that Bruce could easily fall like Harvey without the love and support they provide as a family, which Harvey lacks?

Remember A Lonely Place of Dying? Harvey without Gilda and Batman without Robin, both evenly matched in a mutually-suicidal death spiral, broken only when Tim emerged in Bruce’s life? Would Tim draw those parallels? Would any of them? Would it even matter?

Because not all of the BatFam can or should have empathy for Harvey. No family, not even the BatFam, should end every disagreement with Full-House-style hugs and apologies. Sometimes you just hate or don’t even care about other family members, and that’s fine! But I still want to see those relationships explored and hashed out within the context of family.

On top of it all, I want some acknowledgement that Harvey was Bruce’s first and only ally back in Batman: Year One before Gordon came around to Bruce’s side. That Harvey was the ONLY person in Gotham trying to fight against the forces of the mob and cops alike before Bruce returned and Jim rolled into town. That he, as Batman’s ally and the youngest DA in Gotham history, was the original Boy Wonder of Gotham City. That Bruce’s failure to save Harvey has hung over each and every one of his relationships and connections in the BatFam.

Finally, I want to see Harvey in the BatFam because I want to know that, no matter what you’ve done or become, there will still be some people out there who are holding out for you to come back. That you may not be forgiven by all or even most of them, but you’re still worthy of love. And even if/when Harvey loses his battle with himself again, I want some of the BatFam to react with sympathy, some having changed their perceptions about the man they only knew as Two-Face. That maybe, occasionally, the criminals they fight aren’t monsters but just broken people, lost to some combination of circumstance, upbringing, mental illness, and personal choices. I want to see them reckon with that. I think that would be important.

And okay yeah sure I’d also like to see Harvey take them all out for pizza and games at Chuck E Cheese’s or something like that. I just think that’d be neat.

Anyway. I hope that all makes more sense now for anyone still wondering. I’ll finish up with proof that Harvey being in the BatFam has actually been touched on in comics, from the gatefold cover of Hush (that’s Harvey, not Hush, with the bandages), DC Future State, and DC Bombsells.

So there’s a fuzzy sort of precedent for Harvey fitting in with the BatFam. I just hope someone at DC will eventually share my vision, even if some BatFam fans never will.

[darkbluekies]

Everytime I think about the wholesome moments for Kry and darling it makes me super sad. Idk why, But for me he is the worst situation to imagine myself in, the pure anguish I feel everytime I'm like "Well that's cute, but a secon later hed probably berate me for laughing too hard in case it hurt my throat or soemthing"

With all the others, there is a constant fear in the back of the mind, with key I think you could forget it as soon as you do soemthing mundane together... It's strange and I don't know how to explane it

I think I get what you mean, because Kry isn't inherently bad. None of the ocs are purely evil. But there's something different about him. Their life is so quiet, not like the others were there are a thousand things going on at the same time, always people around. Danger, etc. Dr Kry is just calm and quiet. And that might just be worse.

Because he's lonely. Always has been. He's been overlooked, not listened to (not actually listening) and now he has someone. But he hurts them, because a part of him doesn't believe that they would want him if they had the chance to decide. So these wholesome moments are always laced with a "if you had the choice ... would you still do this with me?"

And Kry knows what he's done. He knows what it'll result in. That's why he's so careful, and always tries to draw it out. Delay the inevitable. Don't cough too harsh, don't move on your own. Be safe for as long as you can.

Both darling and Kry are suffering. But he would not want to suffer without them.

[physalian]

“Likable” vs “Compelling” Protagonists

Protagonist does not mean “good guy” it means “the person the story is about”.

Antagonist does not mean “bad guy” it means “person in opposition to the protagonist”.

We know this, yes?

So when I’m talking about “likable” protagonists I do not mean that your MC has to be witty, funny, charming, etc—they have to be compelling.

I didn’t much care for Death Note, I thought Light got away with way too much without consequences for his actions, but he was very much the villain and the protagonist. He was an arrogant narcissist with a god complex and you watched the show not to see him win, but to see how badly he would eventually lose.

This was because, despite my dislike of his story, Light was a compelling character. You don’t necessarily agree with his motivations, but you do understand why he does what he does and why he believes what he does about himself and his world.

In contrast, one of my favorite anime is Code Geass. Lelouch (who is often compared to Light) is *constantly* getting kicked in the ass by his own hubris. He's arrogant as well, but he makes mistakes everywhere and suffers if not immediate comeuppance, then drastic consequences later down the line. Which, to me, made a far more compelling character than someone like Light playing with cheat codes.

Most of the time, “likable” and “compelling” go hand in hand, because your protagonist is the “good guy” that we’re supposed to root for.

So one of the worst mistakes I think you can make is writing a hero who just doesn’t want to be here.

—

I recently read a story where MC needed to win a competition, baseline unsponsored underdog story, and everyone loves an underdog. The problem was the MC’s attitude. Nothing pleased them and in their internal monologue, nothing was good enough and everyone else was the problem. They actually hate competitions and can’t wait for this to be over…even though no one forced them into it with a gun to their head. They hate all their competitors for behavior they themself exhibit. They hate their lone sponsor for being a sleezeball, and yet, chose to enter a voluntary competition, knowing this sponsor’s behavior, and still blaming the sponsor for their problems.

The entire time I was reading all I kept thinking was, “Then go home, bitch!”

This was not a high-stakes competition, and the MC didn’t have dire enough circumstances for the reader to believe this was a "life-or-death, even if it sucks, MC has to win," type situation. Not like Hunger Games. This was all completely voluntary.

So I started wondering if the author meant the MC to be the villain with all these personality flaws, but they’re still the underdog with no wins under their belt to support their level of entitled arrogance and no notable skills that make them inherently better than the competition.

So I was rooting for the MC to lose, and I don’t think I was supposed to. Even if I was, the mixup between “underdog hero” and “catty bitchy villain” was too confusing for too much of the story. MC didn't have to be here, didn't want to be here, so... why was MC here?

—

Some suggestions for compelling motivations for your protagonist boils down to this:

Define as quickly as you can these three things for your protagonist of any walk:

What the protagonist wants

How the protagonist plans to get it

And what’s in their way

Specify the stakes, if not physical, then personal. It doesn’t have to be life-or-death, but if they’re entering a risky situation, whatever it is has to be extremely important to them. Luca doesn’t have as high stakes as, say, Toy Story 3 but the moped race is important to the heroes, thus a compelling motivation.

Make this a journey they actually want to be on. Even if it’s grimdark or horror, if your hero is complaining the entire time and wanting to go home, yet plowing forward anyway because the plot’s dragging them on a leash, your audience will be as invested in the story as that character. If they don’t actually have the commitment to see their quest through, why should the audience care?

Alternatively, make this a journey they cannot afford to walk away from. Whether that be pressure from without or within. Frodo didn’t have to take the One Ring to Mordor. He chose to, because it was, in his mind, the right thing to do. He suffered his entire journey with the Ring and got homesick and depressed and discouraged, but he never called his own journey stupid and dumb. He could have put the Ring down and walked away or given it to somebody else, but he chose to carry on, because that’s who he is.

Even reluctant chosen ones have an ulterior reason for remaining in the story. Your long-lost princess might not want the throne being thrust upon her, but she’s chasing something else that accepting the throne and going along with the plot will give her. Maybe it’s power, respect, vengeance, money, protection, connections. So she’ll tolerate the nonsense so long as it still gets her what she wants and her struggle might be trying to not let herself get corrupted by the allure of politics and “the game”. Or, she's playing along merely to stay alive and actively trying to escape and return to her simpler life.

Popular example: Percy Jackson is a reluctant chosen one throughout his entire story in every book, even Last Olympian where he insists that he's the unknown prophecy child. In The Lightning Thief he doesn’t give a damn about the quest for the Master Bolt, he’s there to get his mom back, and cooperating with the quest will give him the means to achieve his goal, and along the way, finds that he doesn’t quite hate it as much as he thought he would.

—

So. Yeah. In no way, shape, or form does your protagonist have to be “likable”. If someone tells you they aren’t, they probably mean that your protagonist is contradictory, or lacks compelling motivation and drive, and lacks a clear goal or aspiration that will define their story. Or, they lack drive to even participate in the story at all.

Or they simply mean that your charcater, who you intend to be likeable, has a nasty flaw that would turn readers off, but a beta should be able to tell you that one easily. If they can't come up with a solid reason why your charcater is unlikable, it's probably a motivation issue.

The earliest draft of a WIP that shall never see the light of day had my protagonist sent on a glorified space field trip by her parents, and wasn’t happy to be there. This not only made her unlikable, but also uncompelling. She didn’t want to participate in the plot and only did it to hold up her end of the deal, she wasn’t excited about the actual trip nor making friends, and eventually grew into it far too late in the story.

I then changed it to have the trip be her idea, and she ran away from home to chase this dream she had. Doing so gave her much more agency as an MC and gave her an immediate motive and goal so you wanted to see her succeed right from the get go.

Even villain protagonists have a goal, and generally they very much enthusiastically want to be in this story. You don’t have to like them, but you do have to want to root for them, if not for their success, then their eventual downfall in a blaze of glory.

—

Interested in a fantasy novel without a "chosen one" protagonist? Eternal Night of the Northern Sky is up for preorder in ebook, paperback on sale 8/25/24. Subscribe for updates if you'd like~

[cherry-flavoured-thot]

hey so how do you think Solomon would deal with a s/o who knows his immortal and one day they get to talking with him about extending their life somehow with magic cuz they’re worried about him getting lonely when they die at 80-100 and also they would like to spend more time with him than they actually can too?

☽ ◦ ◦ ◦ ✩ ❤ ✩ ◦ ◦ ◦ ☾

Solomon:

✩Solomon out living you is like an elephant in the room. It lingers around in the back of his thoughts like a ghost haunting a home. You'll make his heart soar to new heights and then the fear of what he will do in your absence intrudes itself into the moment similar to a dagger being thrusted at his chest.

✩But he won't force you to find a way to be immortal if it's against your wishes. He's not selfish enough to do it, even though he's sweared a hundred times over he dreams of having you all to himself for an eternity.

✩He notices an unusual change with how many magical texts you seem to be reading. "I didn't realise my apprentice was so dutiful." He jokes one day walking in seeing magical books and scrolls of all kinds surrounding you. A book of notes beside you as you scan through the latest text in your hands.

✩"I'm looking to find a way to become immortal or at least extending my life." He's surprised. Overjoyed to hear the inherent interest, and even more so when he realises you've turned to magic instead of the gaggle of demons that would trip over themselves to help you. But curious. Why the change?

✩When you confess you're worried about him being lonely, he could almost clutch his chest from how much love overwhelms him in that moment. You're doing this for him? How fortunate he is to have someone that frets over him. And you're right he would be lonely as much as it pains him to admit.

✩ "We can find a way together, you don't need to look alone. After all I would be lonely without you. I just can't picture it a world without you in it. How strange right?"

☽ ◦ ◦ ◦ ✩ ❤ ✩ ◦ ◦ ◦ ☾

[methylholicbm]

CHAPTER 3 | FIXATION | BRIAN MOSER

Description: There’s blood on the beach. Not a crime of passion, but something arranged—deliberate. You clean the scene while Dexter stares like he's been here before. Then you find a paper buried in the sand, one word etched on it: Angel. It's the second time this week. The word follows you all the way to Debra’s house, clinging to you. And in the morning, something new is waiting. Taunting. Word Count: 1.5k

༺♱༻

The beach air stings my nose. The salt, the children laughing, the ocean crashing against shore. I step out of the car and take in the scene.

Debra’s already ten paces ahead, barking at a patrol officer while sipping the last of her lukewarm coffee. She’s recently been promoted, I’m happy for her. She flips her hair over her shoulder and curses out another officer as they’re snickering behind her back. I hang back, trailing behind.

It’s early, too early. Miami hasn’t woken up yet. But the beach is already awake. As usual. Tourists are usually out exactly at 9 am, taking over the beach in swarms and won’t leave until it rains or sundown.

There’s a body—or rather, a piece of it. It was arranged. Posed. A hand stood delicately upright on a towel, blood staining the light blue cloth. The photos haven’t started yet. Forensics is still whispering about angles and lighting. I spot Dexter nearby and walk beside him and Batista. 

“So, how long you think it’s been there?” Batistia asks, the sun forcing his face to scrunch.

“This feels familiar.” Dexter looks off into the distance, his eyes scanning the beach and its entirety.

“Okay. So, how long has it been there?” Batista asks again, this time without the jokiness in his voice.

“Blood stopped pooling, still wet… couple hours at the most.” Dexter says. I zone him out, there’s blood and the hand is male. They’ve been tailing the ITK for a while now and this doesn’t seem anything like them.

I walk away and wait until Dexter is done with Batista. “What do you mean familiar?” I say to him.  

He turns to look and me and raises and eyebrow. “This looks like Rand Beach.” He says. 

“Uh, it used to be. They renamed it Petrie Beach.” I see him replaying something in his head, whatever it is I back away, slowly, and find myself bumping into Batista. “Oops I’m so sorry.”

He just smiles at me and shakes his hand. “Don’t worry about it. Look at this though.” He points to the sand near the crime scene. A paper is crumpled up and hidden underneath, I take it out and it has a simple word on it.

‘Angel.’

“Oooh maybe it’s meant for youuuuuuu Batista.” He shrugs and laughs at me.

“Yeah right. I was thinking some lonely guy had a bad confession. I don’t think our killer is the ‘hide the clues and leave’ type, clearly.” He says. I agree with him but I just smile and leave him with the paper. 

‘Angel… where does that keep coming from?…’ I think to myself. I walk off the scene and get into my car, time to get my actual job over with.

Eventually after everything has cleared out, the cop crew long gone, and now it’s just the help, I sit in my car. Do I leave the beach or do I stay here and thinking about life or something. I start the engine and pull off. Straight to Debra’s house.

When I get there she’s half in pajama bottoms and her other half in just her bra. She leans on the doorframe. “How’d you know I wasn’t at work.” She asks.

“LaGuerta has Doakes there. I figured you’d go home.” She allows me inside, I slide my shoes off at her door and catch myself yawning in the middle of it. Cleaning the crime scene took me out, not because it was inherently a mess but because passerby’s screaming at the sight of blood and complaining about a quarter of the beach being sectioned off takes a toll on you after 2 hours or so.

Debra disappears into the kitchen without saying much. I follow the faint sound of a cupboard slamming shut and glass against the counter.

“You want tequila or whiskey?” she calls over her shoulder.

“Vodka,” I say, easing onto her couch.

She snorts. “Figures, but that wasn’t an option.”

The living room is dim—just the flicker of a muted TV casting shapes on the wall. I stare at them for a second, my mind comes up with nothing. When Debra hands me a mug, it smells like whiskey and something else. I don’t ask.

She plops down beside me, one leg tucked under the other, a cigarette already between her fingers. “So what’s up?”

“I feel like I’m being stalked. I know it sounds crazy but I can’t help but feel like there’s an overwhelming presence around me. At all times.” Debra peers over my shoulder and fights a laugh. “Do you not believe me?” I say, a little shocked at her laughter.

“No, I do. Whatever it is though, I’d rather it stay the fuck away from my house.” I smile with her and we begin to giggle together. “In all seriousness, you’re free to stay over tonight if staying home is uncomfortable.”

I lock eyes with her. Thankful. My smile falters and falls into a questioning look. “You are closer to Miami Metro….” I pause, “As long as I get to steal from your clothes, then I’m down.” She rolls her eyes at me.

“Fine.” Debra nudges my shoulder with hers and stands. “C’mon. I’ll grab you something to sleep in.”

I follow her down the hallway, watching the way she walks in confident strides. She disappears into her bedroom and rustles around in a drawer. A soft T-shirt gets tossed my way. It smells like detergent and maybe a little like her. I change in the bathroom, wipe my makeup off with a hand towel, and take my hair out of its updo and run my fingers through it.

The tile is cold against my feet, the AC is on bitingly cold conditions. When I finally decide to step out of the bathroom, it’s quiet, and the house is still. The only sound is the TV running on some sitcom on the lowest volume and wind slightly blowing into the house from a cracked out window.

I shuffle over to the couch and wrap myself in the spare blanket Debra left out. She’s on the end of the couch, already fast asleep and I sprawl out slightly on the opposite end of her. 

I lie and stare at the ceiling. I observe the way the fan rotates and use it as some type of method to lull me to sleep. Eventually my eyes grow heavy and the last thing on my mind buries itself there as an ever-growing thought.

‘Angel.’

When I wake again the sky outside is a hazy blue, darks mix with brights to create the streamlined light coming through the window. My eyes pan over across from me and Debra is nowhere to be seen. The pipes under the house groan and running water can be heard down the hall. 

I rub my eyes as I sit upright, my head spinning possibly from thinking too much all night. I feel the tingling anxiety crawl up my arms as memories of yesterday threaten to overwhelm me. Nonetheless, I push it down when I hear the bathroom door open and wet-haired Debra steps out in just her underwear. “Oh you’re awake. Are you coming to the station today? Guerta’s on my fucking ass so I have to be there 3 hours earlier than my shift for some bullshit reports.” She pauses to grab a brush from inside the bathroom before she comes out to continue.

“If you want to stay I don’t mind that either, I can just give you my spare—“ 

“No it’s fine, thanks Deb. I think I’ll head home, I don’t wanna feel like I’m intruding.” I say getting up and picking up my bag and walking to the front door. She looks at me like I’m crazy and then walks into her bedroom. When she finally comes back out there’s a small folded stack in her hands.

“Here, wear this next time you come to the department. It’s an upgrade from whatever the fuck you’re always wearing.” She says. I scoff at her and she just smiles at me and nudges her hands out once more.

I take the clothes from her and slide on my shoes. “We’ll see what happens. Thanks though. See you soon.” With that I walk out the door and start towards my car, I throw my things on the passenger side and sidle into the drivers side. I catch glimpse of Debra waving at me through the door and then she closes it.

The ride home is feels like a few seconds even though it was 20 minutes or more. I kill the engine in my car and grab my stuff out the passengers seat. As I walk up the stairs, the feeling of dread feels like it’s only 3 steps behind me, and it only gets worse when I reach my front door.

When I step inside my home it feels like the energy has shifted. Everything is in the place I left it but something still feels like it doesn’t belong. I cautiously look around, hand on an imaginary gun holster and eyes scanning the walls. 

I lower my defensive stance when I  walk into the kitchen and make eyes with a pink sticky note on my fridge. I didn’t leave it here.

“I missed you last night.”

༺♱༻

✦ ⛧ Masterlist ⛧ ✦

[4syluml4dy]

On the question of whether Carmilla intended to keep Laura or kill her, I propose it's Both. But I don't think I can fit the reasoning in one reply so sending it here haha

Laura is raised by her father to be sheltered from the outside world, is incredibly lonely, and longs for a girl her age. Carmilla is undead, stuck at almost 20, life is denied to her, and she is even more lonely. She has Mama/La Comtessa, but we see hints of a strained relationship ("She did not look up"), her immortality lonely; it's like how Laura has her father and governesses, but they're not what she desires. She needs someone, and who better than her gothic double?

Carmilla was ''murdered'', attacked in her bed, followed by an illness that she never recovered from ("Doctors never did me any good"). The one who did it turned her into a vampire. And it looks like she's repeating the same process with Laura, for love ("Love will have its sacrifices. No sacrifice without blood.")

Carmilla's under oath not to speak fully, but her wording heavily implies that Laura will become a vampire, also seeking to feed on others, by the end of this: "In the rapture of my enormous humiliation I live in your warm life, and you shall die—die, sweetly die—into mine. I cannot help it; as I draw near to you, you, in your turn, will draw near to others". I suppose she's planning on them sharing bloody meals...

Carmilla tells Laura that she must follow her beyond death. In love or in hate, she wants Laura to join her: "You must come with me, loving me, to death; or else hate me and still come with me. and hating me through death and after." Laura doesn't understand yet that she means as a vampire.

That's what I've got! You could argue about more passages too, like "To die as lovers may, to die together, so they can live together" being another allusion to Laura joining Carmilla in death (so to live on together).

ily. leave it to the carmilla fandom to pull out the supporting quotes. we 2 lit. also i completely agree, their individual loneliness and longing combined with the fact that (i believe) they genuinely love each other is like the perfect storm. I WAS GONNA WAIT TIL AFTER THE POLL TO SAY THIS but ok to me it’s so clear that carmilla would have turned her and they would’ve been together for eternity as vampires. considering the backstory we get from the general it’s obvious carmilla is a repeat offender lol but i think it’s so clear that with laura it wouldn’t been different. u could argue that all the passionate lines from carmilla towards laura were just derived from her vampirism and the inherent passion and eroticism that is killing someone slowly by literally feeding off of them but to me it’s so obvious she had different intentions. “but to die as lovers may- to die together, so that we may live together.” COME ONNNNN!! not to say that i think the entirety of their relationship is 100% innocent, it is after all a gothic romance- “you will think me cruel, very selfish, but love is always selfish; the more ardent the more selfish.” and carmilla describing the moment she herself was turned- “a cruel love, a strange love, that would have taken my life.” what implications does this have in her love for laura?BUT that’s a whole other conversation lollll(which i would love to discuss). and i love ur mention of the sacrifices quote. it represents such a classic theme of gothic vampire romance which, it having come from carmilla, makes sense!!

[mediumgayitalian]

fic rec friday 13

hi!! welcome to fic rec friday. every week, i pick five fics i have bookmarked and rec them with a little review. check them out!

I Need A Hero by @theroyalsavage

The "Nico is a superhero, Will is a med student" AU nobody asked for or wanted.

OBSESSED WITH THIS AU OBSESSED WITH THIS AU OBSESSED WITH THIS AU. I AM LOSING MY MIND AND HAVE READ IT SO MANY DOZENS OF TIMES. genuinely one of my top faces like its so fucking GOOD!!! the romcom romance of it all!! makes me lose it!!! the angst of loving someone who is constantly putting himself on the front lines!! the fear of not knowing if he's coming home!! being his healer, holding his life in your hands because he doesn't trust it with anyone else!!!! what if i rioted!!! what if i chewed clean through my ceiling!!!!! what if i swallowed my phone!!!!!!!!!!!!!! what if i clawed my way out of the pit of despair!!!! i am!! gonna!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!

2. As If His Hands Were Enough (to Hold an Avalanche Off) by @theroyalsavage

Nico di Angelo has been through enough to know life doesn't always work out the way you plan. But fate is a funny thing, and, in Nico's junior year of college, it hands him salvation in the form of freckled cheeks and a smile like the sun.

OH dude this author is actually everything to me. prepare for an onslaught of their stuff bc i am OBSESSED, but this one especially....oh it's special man. this had me LOSING MY MIND. seph’s acceptance made its way into my devotion scrapbook. never be ashamed of loving anybody….what a fucking thesis. i also ADORED how a) story didn’t end with them getting together, went thru them learning each other too and b) nico didn’t get fixed by dating will. he got fixed by loving himself, something he learned to do by loving will. crying.

3. Of Gods and Men by @theroyalsavage

There is something profoundly strange about the forest behind Will Solace’s new house. The trees, it seems, breathe magic. The truth is this: there are things that the forest hides that humans cannot understand. Nico di Angelo is one of them.

I LOVE PARTICULAR AUS!!!!!! AND I LOVE YOU ROYAL SAVAGE!!!!! dude god nico and mortal will is always gonna knock me flat bc its so canon, you know? will is going to be a consort of a god one day. and to read it in fic has me HOWLING but this one in particular....OH the ending is gonna knock yall flat fr!!! if you like percy refusing immortality for annabeth youre gonna LOVE this!!

4. Kitchen Nightmares by @theroyalsavage

Nico is the owner and head chef of an upscale restaurant in Hell's Kitchen, New York City. There's nothing easy about running a business, especially when you have to juggle an overprotective father, a college-age sister, and a staff about as under control as a stampede. The last thing Nico needs is a rival in the form of the ugliest food truck on the face of the planet. And yet, that's exactly what he gets. Of food fights, fledgling friendships, and Nico di Angelo's stupid little soft spot for Will Solace.

i know ive literally said it like five times now but NO ONE does an au like theroyalsavage idc. dude romeo & juliet but food truck and fancy restaurant?? hello!!!! omg!! i literally sat my ass down and devoured this i could not stop myself. and then i hit the end and started it right back up again. the love without having the space to establish anything….inherent homoeroticism of rivalry…..my heart!!

5. don't wanna be lonely, just wanna be yours by @theroyalsavage

Will Solace, café manager extraordinaire, just wants to coast through their monthly open mic night in peace. He definitely is not banking on meeting a handsome stranger with the voice of the gods and the death glare of a high-ranking member of the KGB. And yet, that's exactly what he gets.

telling someone you’re not even dating you’re in love with them after like five months is insane behaviour will solace i get you 😭😭 he is so real in every scenario all the time like he is genuinely perfect for nico who is equally as insane and deserves someone who is fully obsessed with him. god.

thank you for joining me this friday!! happy reading!!

[wizards-and-tea]

its time. lets classpect some of the deltarune characters.

disclaimer: I do not have the best grasp/understanding of classpecting so YMMV in regards to accurate this seems, and im sure canon will blow me out of the water later but as of chapter 4 these are my reads (also big thanks to @birdhand-arts-extra-chaos for helping with this I would've gotten so stuck otherwise)

Susie: Maid of Rage

Rage is an obvious choice for Susie's aspect, as its all about breaking down rules, walls, and bullshit. Susies not afraid to challenge authority or irrationality which highlights the very best of the rage aspect. Her class was harder but I wanted to make sure she had an active one, and as maid is an active class about creating with/through a persons aspect I figured it fit pretty well. She's quite literally creating new ways of thinking and being for herself and the people around her. I don't believe maids exactly the class the prophecy wouldve given her but it dovetails nicely into the already present friction between Susie and the feminine role given to her. (Plus I think the "made of" pun fits well here)

Ralsei: Heir of Light

Light was another obvious choice, especially after the reveal of Ralsei's burden of knowledge. I like how encompassing it is for him though, as his own knowledge of the prophecy and his nature as a darkner has to be for him. This is where his class helps to show more of his personality, as heir is a passive class focused on changing with/through an aspect. Ralsei isn't seeking to destroy the prophecy, but instead to change it, through action and sheer force of will. Using his knowledge to change the ending.

Kris: Page of Breath

Kris was quite difficult to classpect, as we still don't know much about them or their own inclinations. However, from the little moments we see them without their soul, we see Kris is very much a free spirit or strives toward that ideal. They chafe under other peoples wants and expectations. Kris is so heavily restricted, but I think the best interpretation for them is that they literally cannot use/follow their classpect right now because of what is imposed on them, rather than as someone who is inherently doomed or is a rule follower. I'm still not completely sure on page, but I like it for highlighting Kris' weird connection with the knight, and for it's growth factor, as Kris slowly starts to exercise more agency as they get stronger (weird route not withstanding)

Berdly: Thief of Heart

I thought about giving Berdly mind, but it seemed far too easy. Besides, his problem isn't being concerned with his own intelligence so much as proving his intelligence to other people and wanting the perception that comes with that. Which is much more fitting for a heart player struggling with identity, in my opinion. His concerns with romance also fit nicely with this aspect, as they are a major factor in the heart aspect and in how Berdly shapes himself in relation to other people. His class, thief comes from how he is inclined to 'steal' his personality and the way he presents himself from how other people see him or how he thinks he should act.

Noelle: Knight of Void

I had a very hard time classpecting Noelle. It's easy to jump to aspects like space or life for her, since those tend to be the lonely girl aspects in homestuck proper and call it a day. But I wanted to make sure that Noelle's classpect fit her specifically and wasn't just following impressions based on characters similar to her. I thought about giving her time, because of her nostalgia and connection to the past but Noelle is more inclined to move on from the past than many other characters in deltarune (cough cough her mother) and she doesn't possess the same apathy or pessimism that is often associated with time. However she is still very heavily associated with the past, with things abandonded or forgotten, that we the player are still very ignorant of. All of this I believe makes her a prime candidate for the void aspect. She's so important to the story but is absent for so much of it, and she's one of the only characters to understand these spots that are still dark for us (being one of the only characters thats noticed kris' weird behavior, being involved with dess' disapperance, her whole creepypasta adventure in the sweepstakes and even in snowgrave being associated with things that are uncomfortable and repressed like dragon blazers weird route) I'm still not very confident on her class but I didn't feel that the other passive ones fit (note that I'm using the interpretation that puts page as active and knight as passive) but I like how it contrasts her with Kris as her class' inverse, and puts in conversation with the roaring knight. I'd say this also works with the interpretation that knights exploit their given aspect which is what she is made to do in snowgrave.

[pendragonsclotpole]

help, i just got slapped in the face with the existence of WILL. be still my beating heart as i write an essay on this man, will of ealdor

firstly, i adore the silent and implicit trust hidden in the first joke that introduces will’s character. like merlin’s been aware his whole life that if his secret is ever found out, he will be hunted down and persecuted, but here comes will with a jab that they both inherently understand is a joke in the macabre style only true friends can lovingly master. the smile they share almost immediately gives me ned stark and robert baratheon meeting again in the courtyard of winterfell in season one of got. there’s also something so normal in their interaction that speaks of a familiarity borne from their equal status and years of friendship. i know merlin’s friends in camelot tend to skew to the non-royal/non-noble, but when you tally it up, those closest to merlin often hold some title that’s greater than merlin’s role as arthur’s servant. gwaine is a knight implied to be of noble blood; lancelot, percival, and elyan are also knighted and esteemed members of arthur’s court; gwen is the lady morgana’s maid and close companion long before she is ever queen; gaius is a physician and long time member of camelot’s court; morgana before her betrayal is literally uther’s ward. i feel like when placed among them all, merlin has a tendency to fade into the background offscreen. obviously the audience knows how important merlin is to the overall story given how much of the storyline focuses on him, and the characters regularly acknowledge merlin’s importance to them or arthur, but all of them still regard merlin as merlin the servant from camelot and few of them are privy to the plots we as the audience see firsthand. and even when they acknowledge him for his merits, his role as arthur’s close friend and confidante takes precedence. look at leon’s reaction in the later seasons when merlin is bewitched by morgana. merlin literally makes a comment about plotting to kill arthur and leon barely even blinks before quipping back, “driving you mad isn’t he?” or something along those lines. except for a few instances with even fewer characters, they never get a chance to know him as merlin the sorcerer from ealdor.

will does! and more than that, he got to know merlin as he is without arthur. we all hype up their status as magical soulmates but damn if i wasnt living for how jealous of arthur will seemed to be in this episode. call me crazy, but it makes me desperately headcanon a realistic past in ealdor for merlin, full of hardship and strife, but never without it’s moments of happiness. furthermore, will’s lone appearance in season one shines some real light on the unfairness of the fate that has been bestowed on meelin. the moment that will points out why he’s been so obstinate with arthur really strikes a deep chord. sure it could be just jealousy, but more compellingly, i choose to read it as a deep sense of care for merlin. everyone merlin has met within camelot, (or reunited with in the case of his own mother) has continually pushed him closer and closer to arthur. will presents a crucial exception. he knows exactly who merlin was before camelot, and who merlin is completely separate from arthur.

will is staunchly in merlin’s corner, and that position allows him to identify a key characteristic of merlin’s series’ long arc: his complete devotion to arthur. will even points it out himself: merlin could singlehandedly defend their home if he just used the full extent of his power. merlin doesn’t, and actively chooses not to because of his desire to stay close to arthur. it’s such a small moment, but i think it demonstrates how much of merlin’s decisions become motivated by his desire to stay close to arthur and to always put arthur first, even at a detrimental cost to himself. merlin understands and readily accepts arthur as his destiny, but this acceptance does not come about independently, instantly, or of merlin’s own volition. it does so eventually, but initially merlin sticks by arthur’s side because of the encouragement of everyone around him. “arthur needs you, merlin” or “arthur is your destiny, merlin” or “arthur is a good man, merlin. he has the potential to be a great king, he just needs the right people, merlin.” its codependent as hell.

sure, merlin originally does not tell arthur about his magic because they do not know each other and as far as merlin knows revealing his magic would lead to his death, but eventually the reasoning changes and becomes so focused on doing what’s best for arthur. merlin can’t tell arthur because then arthur would have to kill him and then who would look after arthur or ensure his fate? merlin can’t tell arthur because if arthur chooses to defy uther’s law, merlin is then forcing arthur to turn against his father and how could he look after arthur then? merlin can’t tell arthur because another betrayal from magic would ruin everything and truthfully, he wonders how would arthur react? merlin comes to fear what his magic might do to arthur and what it’s reveal might mean for his place in camelot more than the laws of camelot and their verdicts.

by this logic, merlin is a magical solar system orbiting entirely around the celestial body known as arthur pendragon. eventually merlin cared more about his relationship with arthur and what arthur thought about him than his own life. in retrospect, it’s so sad that will died so early on, because it strips merlin of a person solely in his corner. will’s death is the first in the series’ long pattern of loss that merlin endures and that eventually comes to define him because people either find out about his magic and their knowledge is directly tested against his loyalty to arthur, or he cannot allow them to know about his magic because it will unravel his relationship with arthur.

will, freya, balinor, morgana, mordred, arthur.

also the fact that will covered for merlin’s use of magic in his last moments just adds to the tragedy AND the growing pile of moments merlin could have told arthur about his magic but didnt. and also the fact that will literally died to save arthur. like tell me that just doesn’t prove my point. tell me. will never stood a chance. tell me every aspect of merlin’s life does not get consumed by arthur pendragon.

i’m all for merthur being soulmates, but god the original series is rife with the unbalanced mess of merlin being wholeheartedly aware of arthur’s great potential and destiny leading to some intense devotion and faith that yes, arthur earns and pays back in full measure but can never fully reciprocate because he just does not know anything. by the triple goddess, it can get so toxic. i wish will had lived if just for that. and like the jealousy arthur gets whenever merlin has other people. because i 100% live for possessive arthur and protective merlin dynamics.

[disregardcanon]

yellowjackets pjo au thoughts. it IS still set in 1996, so there's no children of the big three, they don't know about the romans, and there aren't cabins for the minor gods.

laura lee- a VERY christian daughter of hecate. even after she finds out that the greek gods are real, she believes that the trinity is A Little Higher More Important Than Them and Also Real. her best friend from school gets future visions and can ALSO see the weird things around them, so they both assume when a satyr comes to get laura lee that they're both demigods that should go.

lottie- a clear-sighted mortal who also gets visions. when they get to halfblood hill, they have to do something special to let lottie in because laura lee will NOT come without her.

tai- she's at camp halfblood and seen as a daughter of athena, but... it's more complicated than that? a really interesting part of heroes of olympus for me was athena's roman form, minerva, who viewed becoming the less warlike roman goddess as a violation. it's implied that this is why she doesn't have children the same way that athena does... i think that's a little dumb though. minerva claims that her children will avenge her, and the way that she's written as having this intense back and forth and self-hatred BECAUSE of the back and forth makes me think that tai as a daughter of minerva that gets sent to the wrong camp would work really well. it could also explain a lot of the duality inherent in her personality and how much she wANTS to be a leader, wANTS to be the person who can make the hard decisions, but really... isn't.

shauna- daughter of ares. she wants to be more than just her father's rage. she wants to be kindness and battle strategy and mercy. that's why her closest relationships are tai (daughter of.. athena?) and jackie.

until jackie dies, and she becomes more and more her father's rage. after that happens, she REALLY likes using her dad's Control the Ghosts of Fallen Soldiers on a Losing Side of a War power. she uses it a LOT. a really fucked up amount if we're honest

jackie- i considered making jackie a daughter of aphrodite, but i decided against it. i think the idea of hera giving her blessing to infertile heterosexual couples that live up to her standards to help them conceive is very in character for her. hera in pjo is very much about The Good of the Family as a concept. the optics of it. screw the individuals, focus only on the group and it's Perfect Image. very white diamond! and with jackie... that always seems like part of what's weighing down on her is that she's so well suited to society's standards and then she tries so hard to fulfill them too. as someone who's technically the daughter of the queen of the gods, jackie is powerful, but she's held to a VERY high level of scrutiny by everyone around her.

misty- this girl is a centaur. like. she came into the world a lonely little intellectual daughter of a pair of party ponies and chiron talked them into sending her to camp. surely she'll have a better chance of making friends with demigods? she tries so hard, but she just... she's misty. people don't like her, no matter what she does. it's also off putting how the moment she starts to talk to someone she offers to give them a ride around on her back

crystal- a daughter of iris and a TOTAL horse girl. so she actually takes misty up on that Ride on My Back offer IMMEDIATELY. the hermes kids hate having her around and keep trying to pawn her off on the apollo cabin because she's a theater kid, but the apollo cabin doesn't want her either. the only one who likes her is misty. two peas in an unliked pod <3

natalie- daughter of hebe. her father attracted her attention when he was a young man in love with life and parties. then he was given a baby that he didn't want and found himself a woman that he didn't love that didn't love him OR baby natalie to try to get her taken care of. he was the same shades of awful here as in canon. natalie ends up spending most of her time at camp, only sneaking off to steal cigarettes and booze from the convenience store a few miles away. she's just a kid who doesn't even know who her godly mother is and can't be fucked to find out. it's not like her life is going anywhere anyway

van- an actual daughter of hermes in the hermes cabin. he's the god of orators and the jack of all trades. the crooked look all the hermes kids are supposed to have? tell me that doesn't SCREAM van. she's the leader of the hermes cabin and she has a huuuugeee crush on taissa over in the athena cabin who just doesn't quite fit in there

akilah- daughter of demeter <3 she's been doing so well with the nature stuff i want to let her keep it

bill martinez- one of the few adults to stick around. as a son of ares, he wanted to stick around to train the next generation of demigods. their mom is a dryad. they're both more dryad than human, but TRAVIS is the one that gets the most shit from his dad for not being more of a "man". cut the kid some slack he literally just wants to go be a tree for a while

ben- a satyr that loves the kids he protects but by all the gods he also wants to do SOMETHING ELSE SOMETIMES! he just wants some time to hang out with his boyfriend, paul the cloud nymph

gen- daughter of nemesis, also stuck in the hermes cabin

melissa- daughter of tyche, goddess of luck. again, stuck in the hermes cabin. she and gen are the most Pro Get Crystal Out of Here, but it doesn't work out. melissa has a huuugee crush on shauna. we're not sure if it will be good or bad luck if shauna notices her

[gynandromorph]

Hey! Question about Idletry. Even with the most bare bones critical analysis of fiction, as a socially isolated, lonely, heavily theripized lesbian, its hard not to idolize Jessies, even more vile actions. Or even see a bit, if not a lot of myself in her actions. Do you get this often? I know with the political climate, isolation is gonna get even worse for folks.

do i get this often as in do i get people who relate to her and idolize her? not frequently, but not unheard of. most people do not find jessie relatable and if they did i don't think she would be an accurately written outcast.

do i see myself in her often? she has a lot of feelings i used to have. i think i'm just tired now. people are pathetic, selfish animals, and i cannot blame them for my social suffering in the same way i can't blame my dog for eating something off of the counter when i left her alone with it. sometimes a particularly unsavory, visceral hatred will boil up in me towards, ironically, other lesbians, for having what i've been deprived of by nothing more than luck. i didn't stay in one home for my entire life, so i never really formed strong attachments to friends like jessie did. it is really the people you expect to care about you that don't, though -- in her case, friends she had, in my case, community i am inherently a part of. you can see the threads cross briefly to reach a similar endpoint here

i can't feel that hatred without knowing that there are people out there with an equally justified hatred for me as well, because i have at least gotten to be in a relationship before. at least i haven't ALWAYS been alone. that cognitive dissonance interests me, but also neatly puts a bow on the irrationality of the thought. for jessie, even after she does have a romantic partner, i think she'd take offense to the notion, because it isn't really about the unfairness as much as punishment for causing her perceived pain. and i think that's where we differ so drastically that i don't often relate to what she's saying even though i objectively know what the feelings she's having are like. i don't really care to punish people for hurting me because it won't undo the pain. we can see throughout the story that jessie remains unhappy no matter what she does and who she punishes because it doesn't *undo* the pain and isolation. it still hurts that it happened and it doesn't bring her closer to anyone else (or them closer to her). i also just have a much stronger empathy and people pleasing response. that anger just becomes nothing to me once i have to actually interact with someone and i generally have to look away from even fictional pain because it is so distressing to me. i would hate to imply that jessie is like simply due to an empathy or lack thereof; we see that she has much more empathy as a child and does care about fairness and hurting other people's feelings. she has practiced non-empathy mentally for an extended length of time with very little actual interaction to erode that. the actual biggest difference between her and myself is probably merely her lack of a fractured personality that can rebel against her if she steps too far out of line. and a massive skill issue.

[theeoriginals]

ok but what about werewolf!reader who is protective over tyler lockwood since mason died, and she's at senior prank night when klaus turns tyler. i imagine klaus being curious about her bc he hasn't seen or met her since she doesn't hang around elena & co. bc of what they did to mason. love u and thank you for blessing us with all these requests!!

i think i want you | klaus mikaelson

klaus mikaelson x reader (no y/n!)

author's notes; sorry this took a while!! holidays got the best of me and i've been so busy. i hope u like this!! go check out my klaus fic on wattpad for more content :) link on my masterlist

warnings; mentioned violence & death but nothing explicit. this is genuinely just a lot of fluff, and only a tiny bit of angst. I like writing klaus being straight up infatuated so enjoy

She’s heard of him. Klaus Mikaelson. Not only is he an Original, but he’s the worst of them. He’s a mystery, a myth of a man. The hybrid. The only one of his kind, and he’s trying to make more. He’s trying to become a god of his own making. He’s a terrifying beast, even in their world of monsters. He is the monster beneath your bed, he is the boogeyman that you see in the shadows of alleyways and glimpses out of the corner of your eye.

When she meets him for the first time, she expects something out of a fairytale, she supposes. It was unintentional, the image of him she had in her head, but she’s heard of this fabled man her whole life as a warning of what can happen if you grow lonely in this life. 

She figured if she ever met Klaus Mikaelson, it’d be the first and only time. There weren’t many stories based on people’s personal interactions with him for a reason. If he bothered to pay you a personal visit and not just send one of his cronies out to deal with you, it probably meant you wouldn’t be seeing another day. 

But instead of that, instead of meeting her demise at the hand of the infamous man for some offense she most likely didn’t even mean to do, she meets him in the high school gym in Mystic Falls, Virginia. 

She meets him, and he’s just a man. 

He’s a terrible man, no doubt, but just a man. She is perhaps wrongfully unafraid of him because of this. It most likely doesn’t bode well for her, because even though he looks just as human as the rest of them, she doesn’t doubt those stories about him are all real, and likely worse than the retellings. 

But she was raised with a pack that taught her to be unafraid in the face of death, and even though she doesn’t have that pack anymore because of men just like Klaus Mikaelson, she wants Tyler to know the security and safety of it just as she had. 

She does not flinch when he looks her way, and resists the urge to rip his head off of his shoulders when he snaps Tyler’s neck and puts Bonnie on a timer for finding a way to bring him back to life as a hybrid. 

She knows she can’t win a fight against him, so she doesn’t fight back, not even as he forces Tyler to drink the doppelgänger’s blood and turns him into a hybrid. A half-dead, half-wolf thing that her pack would likely call him an abomination for. It’s a very dark, comforting thought to her that they aren’t around to condemn Tyler to the ends of the earth for something that was entirely out of his control. 

She knows Tyler is frightened of her doing that, just by the way he looks at her. He learned from Mason and herself that there’s a sense of loyalty to their kind, and that vampires are an inherent enemy. Even his relationship with Caroline would be enough to get him shunned from most werewolf communities at this point. Though, even Mason himself didn’t take that into consideration considering his relationship with one of the doppelgängers. 

After everything is said and done that night, she takes Tyler home without saying a single word to Klaus. Anything she wants to say will get her killed, and Tyler needs her more than ever now, so she can’t get ahead of herself. 

Tyler sheds rare tears in the privacy of his home. He tells her he’s terrified right now because of the fact that a part of him is technically dead now, and that he’s never felt like a monster about being a werewolf until now. 

She does her best to comfort him, but it doesn’t help much. She doesn’t know what he’s feeling right now and they both know it. If the circumstances were any different, she’d probably think he was the new enemy. 

He falls asleep eventually and she leaves him be, heading to her temporary room in the Lockwood mansion. She falls asleep looking at the moon just outside her window, thinking about how she was just a little disappointed in the fact that Klaus Mikaelson is just a man. 

The next time she sees Klaus Mikaelson, it’s in the tea room in the Lockwood house. He somehow looks even more underwhelming in this place, despite its grandiosity. She doesn’t know why or when she’s going to stop feeling so disappointed in the fact that if she didn’t know any better, she could’ve walked past him on the street without even looking his way. 

He’s there for Tyler, she knows, but Carol’s playing her role of oblivious hostess, and now she’s left to entertain him while Carol goes and handles a small, mayoral emergency. 

Carol leaves them with a charming smile, winking her direction, and she ignores the older woman pointedly. 

“I don’t think I got your name the other night at the school,” Klaus says, tilting his head as he looks at her. “I’m not usually so rude, but the stakes were high and I ran out of patience. You know how it is.” 

She narrows her eyes, shaking her head a bit. “A thousand years old and you haven’t worked on your patience? Maybe your priorities are a little skewed,” 

Klaus’s eyes flash with danger, but she swears she sees amusement in the smirk that pulls at his lips. It sparks that flint inside of her that likes to push and push, just to see the breaking point. She’d tried to deny it, but it only takes the smallest moment for that desire to set its sights on Klaus Mikaelson, even though pushing him could mean death. Her curiosity was a fatal flaw in itself, she knows.

“My only goal in life has been to break this curse,” He says, leaning forward to sit the cup of tea Carol had brought him on the table in between them, the only obstacle stopping him from lunging for her and snapping her neck before she could even blink. She wonders if he’s even aware of all the ways he could kill her, just by looking at her in this mundane setting. She doesn’t know if she actually wants an answer to that, though. “And now I’ve done that. I think a thousand years of this has proven I have nothing but patience.” 

She hums, acknowledging the fact that he was right. She couldn’t imagine being in his shoes, waiting a thousand years to break a curse that kept you from being who you are. Even now, knowing that the Sun and the Moon curse was fabricated in order to help Klaus break the only curse– his curse– when it comes down to it, she can’t blame him for his insistence. 

But she thinks about Tyler and how frightened he was, and she can’t stop the annoyance that builds in her all over again, so any bit of understanding washes away like sand beneath the rising tides. 

She shrugs, unwilling to vocalize the depth of her understanding, as miniscule as it may be. “Still, choosing a hormonal teenage boy as your first hybrid probably wasn’t the smartest decision, wouldn’t you say?” 

Klaus narrows his eyes at her and she stubbornly sits still, unwavering beneath his prolonged, burning stare. “You’re protective of him. I understand why you wouldn’t like me. But I’ve just made him the strongest creature he could ever be. He won’t need you, or any other pack he might have been clinging to before this.” 

And this, she thinks, is the biggest indicator to why she’s not properly afraid of this man before her. It’s not just because he looks unfortunately normal, spare his admittedly beautiful face, or that he’s yet to truly focus any of his true capabilities of danger in her direction. It’s that, at the end of the day, Klaus Mikaelson is just as human as the rest of them are. Because no matter how long you live, or what kind of creature you are, everyone gets lonely. 

“On the contrary,” She says, blinking slowly as she scans his face. “Tyler needs me now more than ever. And any pack would be lucky to have him around. That’s the whole point of a pack. You know that you’re never alone, no matter what happens.” 

To a degree, she knows that’s a lie. There are plenty of packs out there that will banish Tyler and any other hybrid that is made in the coming months because of the rivalry between the creatures that the hybrids are made of. But she also knows that for every pack that will turn them away, there’s one that won’t. There’s always someone, even if it’s just one person, and she’s willing to be that person for Tyler, or for any other hybrid that goes through the loss of their pack. 

“It’s a shame you’ve never known what that’s like,” She says, leaning forward to set her own cup of tea down, a mirror of his actions a moment ago. “Unwavering loyalty and trust, and a sense of family that never goes away. You may think that Tyler has no one, but I will always be here for him, just as I was his uncle.” 

Something defensive passes through his face and he stands abruptly, making her tilt her head back to maintain eye contact with him. 

Klaus leans down into her space, and they glare at each other with a surprising amount of vitriol that neither one of them feels is even genuine. 

“You can cling to your idea of family all you want, but it won’t change the fact that Tyler isn’t just a werewolf anymore. And as much as you may want to deny it, you can’t help him anymore just like you couldn’t help his poor uncle,”

He stands upright again, looking at her almost accusingly. “But since it’s causing no harm to me, I suppose there’s no real reason to make you give up this desperate mission. I wish you the best of luck, dear, truly,” 

He doesn’t wait for a response from her before he leaves, and after her initial anger and embarrassment wears off, she realizes he never even talked to Tyler like she assumed he came here to do in the first place. 

Mystic Falls has never felt like a smaller town. She’s never run into someone so many times when all she wants to do is avoid them. 

It’s like all of the sudden, since that very first night she saw Klaus Mikaelson, he’s everywhere. He’s in Tyler’s house, because the newly-made hybrid suddenly worships him. He’s in her dreams. She can’t escape him. 

Even now, sitting in a corner booth at the Mystic Grill, he’s suddenly there, sitting across from her like an old friend catching up for lunch. 

Immediately, her face twists in disgust. “Klaus.” 

He smiles in the face of her adversity, and says her name with a fondness of unknown origins. She almost feels insane, looking at him with any degree of civility. 

“What do I owe this visit to?” 

“I’m curious about something and I’m hoping you’ll humor me,” 

“Interesting start,” She huffs, taking a sip of her drink beside her. “What on earth could you possibly be curious enough about that you have to ask me?” 

“You, of course,” 

She swallows roughly, nearly choking as she looks at him in surprise. “Me?” 

The hybrid nods, smirking at her reaction. 

“What… What do you want to know about me?” 

He leans forward on the table, looking at her as she suddenly avoids his eyes, unwilling to admit that she’s feeling heat rise in her chest. “Why is it you aren’t banding together with those bumbling idiots to get rid of me, hm?” 

“Oh,” She breathes out, face turning solemn for a moment as she looks down at the tabletop. “I don’t– I don’t have any reason to want to get rid of you, really. I don’t necessarily like you, but you haven’t hurt Tyler in any permanent way so… I guess I’m just not really worried about it.” 

When she finally meets Klaus’s gaze again, there’s something shocked and unexpectedly warm in his blue eyes that makes her own soften. 

“Is it really that simple?” 

She falls silent for another moment, picking nonsensically at her nails. “They killed my friend.” 

She looks back up at him, sighing. “Mason Lockwood. Tyler’s uncle. He came here because of Katherine– she was looking for the moonstone so she could break that stupid curse that you made up. And they killed him for it,” She shakes her head, anger seeping into her voice. “They’re irrational. And if I’ve learned anything about this life, it’s that being irrational gets people killed.” 

Klaus hums lowly. “You are right about that.” 

Heaving a heavy sigh, she looks up at him, eyes wide and pleading. “What do you want from me, Klaus? I’m not picking sides here– I’m going to protect Tyler until it kills me, and that’s all. So what do you want from me?” 

He observes her for a moment and she doesn’t falter beneath his stare, if only out of spite. 

“Perhaps,” He starts. “I just want to know you.” 

Something fragile breaks on her face and she shows just a little bit more of that vulnerability to him in this new space between them. “What’s so interesting about me that Klaus Mikaelson wants to know me?” 

His eyes search her face, lost. “I don’t know yet. I’m hoping you’ll let me find out,” 

She lets out a breath, quiet, and admittedly flattered. 

A smile pulls at her lips, bashful in a way she isn’t used to. She allows it to spread across her face and beneath Klaus’s gaze, she feels like a blooming rose being adored. It makes her feel things she’s nowhere near ready to admit to herself, or anyone else. “I think we can work something out.” 

Klaus’s returning smile takes her breath away. It feels new, and wonderful. 

[agentrouka-blog]

Hi there! I was wondering if you think Lady’s death could symbolize Sansa’s own version of “kill the boy and let the man be born”—except for her, it would be “kill the lady and let the queen be born.”

I don't think this idea works well in the context and timing of Lady's death.

She is still new in Sansa's life and has seamlessly fit into it but she doesn't represent innocence or immaturity or carelessness. Lady's death is hugely traumatic to Sansa and it doesn't make her "grow up".

"Kill the boy and let the man be born" is a (deeply misguided) piece of advice given by maester Aemon in an attempt to steer Jon to embrace his adult responsibilities as Lord Commander without letting supposedly childish personal sentiments interfere.

"Allow me to give my lord one last piece of counsel," the old man had said, "the same counsel that I once gave my brother when we parted for the last time. He was three-and-thirty when the Great Council chose him to mount the Iron Throne. A man grown with sons of his own, yet in some ways still a boy. Egg had an innocence to him, a sweetness we all loved. Kill the boy within you, I told him the day I took ship for the Wall. It takes a man to rule. An Aegon, not an Egg. Kill the boy and let the man be born." The old man felt Jon's face. "You are half the age that Egg was, and your own burden is a crueler one, I fear. You will have little joy of your command, but I think you have the strength in you to do the things that must be done. Kill the boy, Jon Snow. Winter is almost upon us. Kill the boy and let the man be born." (ADWD, Jon II)

In effect it pushes Jon to close himself off emotionally, isolate himself from his friends and reduce effective communication and accountability to the people around him. He becomes a lone wolf. (We know what happens to the lone wolf.) He recalls this advice in the process of bullying Gilly into a traumatic loss. Jon is not a better leader for following Aemon's advice. The boy had done pretty well for himself and didn't deserve to be killed for this idea of what a man is.

In a similar vein, Lady's death is is not a "necessary sacrifice" on Sansa's way to queenship. She does not benefit from it, and all it signifies is Ned's willingness to sacrifice his daughter to his larger goals, which has a deeply negative impact on her and their relationship.

A queen is not inherently different from a lady. A lady is not a child to a queen's adult. Sansa did need to learn how to embrace the agency and power and responsibility inherent in the title of a lady. But murdering her wolf did not teach her that. Ned's example in this moment did not teach her that. Her determination to hold on to her identity and ideals in adversity will be what help her learn how to be a queen.

[nightcolorz]

ok armand's backstory is super tragic in the books but the show makes it even more devastating with The Implications. imagine marius leaving armand (his slave who he abused ever since he was a child) for the Evil Satan Cult and instead turning bianca (white rich woman)and choosing her as his new companion. makes me sick insane etc

OH MY GOD YES IM ALWAYS THINKING ABOUT THIS!!! In the books Armand is also technically Marius’s slave, but the way it’s portrayed from Armand’s perspective encourages u to forget about that. But the way the show highlights how Armand was a slave and shows how it influences the way Marius treated him annnndddd made Armand a person of color adds such a disturbing layer to an already disturbing dynamic. (Which i love lol)

I loooveee that u brought up Bianca bcus the whole dynamic with Bianca is sooo fucked up and no one ever talks about it. In blood and gold Marius explains that he was lonely and wanted a vampire companion, who he originally wanted to be Bianca, but he felt super mf guilty about this bcus Bianca is a young well off bright white girl and by turning her into a vampire and taking her for himself he’d be depriving her of her chance at a prosperous life and humanity. And the way Marius gets over angsting about how badly he wants Bianca but how he can’t take her cuz it’d be fucked is by BUYING ARMAND!! Marius buys Armand bcus he considers him *less of a person* than Bianca and therefor someone he can use and abuse without any guilt. So now that Armand is a person of color, that dynamic It’s basically like, “I can’t harm this sweet white girl even tho i want to so bad, that would be horrible!!! Wait, Oh my god yay!!! A brown boy <3 I can do as many terrible things that I want to him because he isn’t human to me <3” like holy shit that is sickening. And it’s such a nail on the coffin how once Marius decides to discard Armand bcus he’s not worth saving to him he immediately turns Bianca and decides that she’s his companion now, like oh my god.

making Armand a person of color was honestly one of my favorite (if not my fav) change that amc made with the characters. In the books Armand is always portrayed as having this ambiguous social oppressor that causes him to be seen as less then human or less worthy of inherent respect + dignity as other ppl, especially in his human lifetime, and it is so prevailing throughout his life that Armand is used to being treated like he’s nothing, so Armand being a person of color just makes sense to me. Not only that, but his entire backstory where there is so much emotional weight put on how Armand was stripped of his cultural identity and his birth name and his connection to religion by being sold into slavery so he’s lost the ability to understand who he is ?!?!? Like it’s kind of insane to me sometimes that all of the aspects of Armand’s backstory in the show that are very much racial trauma happened the exact same way in the books ��. It makes a little too much sense lol

thank u sm for the ask I love angsting about Armand’s backstory more then anything!!!! ❤️❤️

[littleplantfreak]

Currently Seeking: A Soul Connection

Grim Reaper Hiragi x Reader Cw: mentions of death and...stomach issues? that's pretty much it Word Count: 800ish Hiragi's having a tough time getting your soul, but in the end neither of you really mind that. Kinda based on the game A Date with Death because I kept thinking about Ragi's halloween costume.

“We can’t keep doing this.” The voice grumbles from inside the bathroom. You’re sitting back against the door as you listen to him writhe in anxious agony. The pills you always give him work, just not immediately. 

“I keep winning fair and square,” and the smile in your voice doesn’t go unnoticed by him. Sweat drips down his brow as he wonders how you could’ve won a game he rigged against you in the first place, though this certainly isn’t the first time you’ve sweet talked your way into him letting you play for your life. “I even let you choose the game this time, Toma!”

He doesn’t really have a choice, does he? Your ability to keep yourself alive is inherent and nebulous, marring his perfect track record as a grim reaper. It hurts both his stomach and his pride that you’re still on earth and not where your soul should be, at least according to the paperwork. 

“As much as I enjoy our chats, please shut up. You aren’t helping my nerves.”

“You like my voice,” and he hears that little amused scoff you do sometimes. “In fact, I bet you’re totally soothed listening to me right now.”

“Yeah, every time I think you’re done talking it does tend to get better.”

“Rude bastards don’t get the porridge I’m cooking on the stove,” you call back, getting up to check on it. The only reason you make it is because he can’t stomach anything else when he gets like this, though why you’re going along with him and playing friends is beyond you. He grumbles and complains about how much he’d prefer you just give your soul up, but in about two minutes he’ll be out of the bathroom and sitting on your couch while you cue up whatever’s next in your watchlist on the TV. 

Maybe it’s because he cares without saying it, or maybe you’re just lonely and this is the easiest relationship you’ve ever had to put effort into, but regardless you’re really starting to enjoy him being here. 

Sometimes you’ll fall asleep watching a movie with him only to find yourself in your bed, no recollection of being carried. Other times when his stomach is at its worst, you’ll be swaddled on the couch, your favorite stuffed animal sitting next to you as if to comfort you in your now quiet house. 

“Why don’t you just…take it?” You asked the question one day, curious since as far as you know he can just reap you whenever he wants.

“You’re not willing to give it up. It’d be worse for your soul in the long run if it was taken against your will. It’d be different if your body died, but to just take it as you are now could tear it in a way that’d make you unable to pass on, or worse.” His matter of fact tone recited it as if it’d been ingrained in him from birth, which according to him it has. 

Now, the bathroom door opens, Toma’s face slightly less pale. His bowl sits on the side table with extra pills on a napkin next to it and a glass of water that he never asked for but takes gratefully. He’d never say it out loud, but maybe he’s not as bothered as he should be that you’re still alive, despite the constant stomach issues the stress brings.

The movie nights, the way you stretch your legs over his lap while you tell him about your day and the shitty people at work…even the way you tease him for slacking on the job after he loses yet another round of checkers or when the car that was supposed to hit you ends up braking right at the last minute. Even those moments seem to fill him with feelings he’s not used to. Bewilderment, slight concern, and something else that someone who wasn’t in his position would describe as fondness end up bubbling to the surface of his chest. 

Your soul needs to move on eventually, but for now he’ll secretly enjoy these small respites where you both forget that fact. No one but him knows about the small smile that makes its way to his face when your head slumps on his shoulder yet again. Your warmth soaks into his skin reminding him of the warmth of the porridge from earlier. 

It’s only polite for him to make sure you get to your bed. In fact, he could go so far as to say it’s necessary for the eventual completion of collecting your soul. Not because he’s concerned about your sore muscles, and definitely not because he loves the way your cheek rubs against his chest when he’s carrying you. 

Of course not. 

Later he’ll put in an extension on the paperwork for collecting you, citing various vague reasons for the delay and then he’ll wonder what’s going to happen on the next episode of Succession. He can only guess at how you’ll try to psychoanalyze the characters and how you’ll react to the spoiler he read on his phone earlier. Until then he sits on the edge of your bed while your cat kneads against his thigh, your soft breaths filling the room with a kind of warmth only you can bring.