#of oaths and promises

[noturusualpotato]

Chapters: 49/49 Fandom: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars - All Media Types Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Jango Fett/Obi-Wan Kenobi, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker, Boba Fett & Jango Fett, Boba Fett & Obi-Wan Kenobi, Dooku & Obi-Wan Kenobi Characters: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jango Fett, Anakin Skywalker, Boba Fett, Rako Hardeen, Dooku | Darth Tyranus, Sheev Palpatine | Darth Sidious, Satine Kryze, Shmi Skywalker, Bib Fortuna, Hondo Ohnaka, Quinlan Vos, Mij Gilamar, CC-2224 | Cody, A myriad of other characters Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Post-Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Enemies to Lovers, or like One - Night - Stand to Enemies to Lovers, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Depression, Self-Destructive Obi-Wan Kenobi, Obi-Wan Kenobi Needs Therapy, Hurt Obi-Wan Kenobi, Bad Parent Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi Leaves the Jedi Order, Jango Fett has Issues, Jango Fett Being an Asshole, but an asshole who needs a hug, Young Anakin Skywalker, Anakin Skywalker Has Issues, they all be a bit dysfunctional and in need of a hug basically, apart from Boba, Boba is a cute toddler so, Single Parent Jango Fett, Jango Fett is a Sore Looser, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, kind of a, Kid Fic, i guess?, Torture, Aftermath of Torture, Slavery, Shmi Skywalker Lives, Families of Choice, Past Obi-Wan Kenobi/Satine Kryze, Past Obi-Wan Kenobi/Quinlan Vos, Dooku Redemption (Star Wars), Gray Jedi (Star Wars), I guess he does a few decent things if you can call that redemption, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Obi-Wan Kenobi Needs a Hug, Obi-Wan Kenobi Has Self-Esteem Issues, Suicidal Thoughts, Baby Clones (Star Wars), Clone Troopers Deserve Better (Star Wars), Somehow this still ended up being slow burny, Slow Burn, Panic Attacks, Minor Character Death, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse Summary:

After the Council refuses to train Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi leaves the Jedi Order and everything he ever wanted to follow his Master’s dying wishes. Together, Obi-Wan and his new… student? brother? son? friend? (He still hasn’t quite figured that one yet), return to Tatooine to free Shmi Skywalker (because what else could they do?). It… Doesn’t go exactly to plan (per usual). Things escalate quickly and, well, Jabba the Hutt is dead and Obi-Wan is now the most wanted man in the Hutt-controlled part of the Galaxy.

[...]

Jango Fett didn’t really need money, so exorbitant and rising price on the Jabba murderer’s head was not what drawn him to the contract. It was the rumours that the rouge Jetti was responsible and if Jango hated anything, it was the Jetisse. If he was getting payed to drag one to the Hutts, to die a slow, honorouless death on the top of a generous payment, even better. In hindsight though, he probably should have left Boba on Kamino. In hindsight, he should have thought twice before having one night stands with hot, red-headed strangers right before the start of a hunt. His life would have been much easier that way.

[midorikawawas]

Zosan was such a hard sell for me even when I agree it has mad chemistry but y'know what just did it for me??? Their Oath in Wano.

Like I get it already, I did get the hints since Thriller Bark but this just cemented it.

[raayllum]

It's about keeping your promises.

[victorie552]

Kind of a weird AU but hear me out:

Finwe marries Indis, right? Most controversial thing Finwe ever done and that includes leading elves from their ancestral home to a new continent to live with gods. Silmarillion says that it happened because he fell in love and I believe it BUT what Silmarillion doesn't tell you is WHEN Finwe marries Indis. I saw posts that say the canon is inconclusive and Tolkien probably changed his mind a lot, and half of what of what Tolkien wrote is thrown from the window by fandom, so.

Anyway, one of the versions said Feanor was at least a teenager when Finwe/Indis happens (I think). What Silmarillion states is that Feanor married VERY young by elven standards, and that Nerdanel was below his station (classism? in elven society? apparently!).

Last thing before I get to the main point: Fingolfin marries Anaire, a Noldo lady, who I saw often enough written as a noble or a court lady, perfectly fine that, no idea if that's canon. And Finarfin very much marries Teleri princess.

...I don't know guys, it feels very convienient. For princes to fall in love with exactly the kind of women who would be approved by royal court and strenghten political ties with other elven factions. If it was anything else than silm, I would call political marriages.

Time for crack: based on what I wrote above I propose an AU where it was FEANOR who was supposed to marry Indis. For politics! Vanyar are the most important faction in Aman! Let's marry into that!

But the MOMENT Feanor became an adult and they could process with courting without making it creppier than it already is, Feanor runs off to elope with his coworker and there's nothing they can do. Well, that's what Finwe tells Ingwe when Ingwe rages about it to him.

Finwe loves Feanor, he wants him to marry for love, and that's exactly what happens. But, uh, all Vanyar are pissed that there's no political marriage when they were promised one (they mad cause they look stupid now), and, well. Finwe decides to bite the bullet. For his son.

It's not true of course. But imagine family dinners after that.

[wardensantoineandevka]

I should get an award for my restraint in not automatically blocking people who say things like "I hate paladins, they suck so much, they're the worst class bc their vibes are so bad" on my posts that even just mention paladins.

RIP that you and most people do not understand paladins as a class and do not understand that their narrative is not just "stick in the mud who loves being a cop", but I'm different and I think they're incredible and they're one of the classes with the best inherent narrative

[angevinyaoiz]

Glad it's the season where everyone gets to experience The Lion in Winter (1968) and lose their minds at the tapestry scene and the Richard/Philip + Henry stuff but what I love to tell the movie onlies is that All That stuff happens, and then

They're literally back in bed together 4 years later (famous anecdote that started the whole assumption lmfao)

And then they go to war again

Richard dramatically leaves Henry to do a public homage to Philip

Henry dies and they fall out again

And THEN get back together to go on crusade

Fall out finally and for real during the crusade

this but like for 15 years.

i think TLIW is great bc it doesn't rely on all this later knowledge of the characters to tell the story, and while the relationship details are invented for the drama I think it still reflects the whiplash u get when reading about the source and events pretty well

[wangxianficrecs]

Follower Recs

~*~

one of the more interesting canon divergence post wwx's death I've encountered. what if ayuan didn't survive, and what if lwj was pushed, through just a very slightly different configuration of events, out of the path of mourning that he did follow in canon? it's always fascinating to me to consider what possible circumstances might push lwj to demonic cultivation, and this fic posits a plausible reason that extends beyond revenge and rage, which imo feels quite true to lwj. a note that though the fic is tagged for both mdzs/untamed, characterisation specifically reads much more in line with untamed canon. if that's sth you enjoy I'd rec giving this fic a try! - Anon

break me like a promise, keep you like an oath

by Eevee (ChaosBitch) and gayjeris

M, 19k, Wangxian

Part of MDZS Reverse Big Bang: 2022

Summary: Lan Wangji, do you want revenge? He wants Wei Ying. He wants A-Yuan. He wants to go back to that day in the market and he wants to stay for dinner. He wants to stay forever. I want justice. Wei Ying had wished to stand with justice and live without regrets. I want justice for Wei Ying and A-Yuan. Lan Wangji, we do not deal in justice. Do you want revenge? Wangji is too late. His world shatters. Then he rebuilds it.

~*~

(Please REBLOG as a signal boost for this hard-working author if you like – or think others might like – this story.)

[chironshorseass]

a secret, an oath, and a promise

an AU where Annabeth runs away with Luke, like he asked her to before the events of BOTL.

slowly, percy’s heart went back to its steady, rhythmic beating. 

rachel straightened, looking at him. “gods, percy, i’m sorry—” 

“sorry for what? i’m the one who got you into this mess in the first place.”

she shook her head. “but i’m the one who led you to that arena.” she blinked rapidly, as if fighting back tears. “i really thought you were about to die.”

“we were going to find the titan army one way or another, hey”—he placed his hand on her shoulder, giving it a squeeze; he tried for a smile—“don’t feel bad. i’m usually about to die.”

rachel returned his smile, until she seemed to remember their newest company; she glanced over at the aphrodite girl, who was still lounging against the wall, but now her eyes were open, regarding them. aphrodite girl. percy didn’t even know her name. he felt guilty, for some reason. he hadn’t thought to ask.

rachel seemed to be thinking the same exact thing, because she said, “hey, i’m rachel. what’s your name?”

“piper.” she held her hand out, and rachel shook it. 

read chapter 5 here.

read from the beggining

[hurlingdown]

dragon anon, i never regretted the day i married you

ah, i would love go impregnate original form sukuna. doesnt matter if he aborts the baby 100 times or somehow eats the fetus, god he'd be beautiful pregnant

- oath anon

i was thinking about heian form sukuna but it doesn't fit the premise of the fic so i backed out :(

[aintgonnatellyouwhy]

Xiao Zhan (肖戰)

[deadsince1973]

Poll Below

So, I saw someone say yesterday that "most people skim watch Chinese dramas", and that honestly blew my mind. If it has subtitles, I have to watch it and focus on it.

But then several thoughts occurred to me. You see, right now, my friend and I are watching The Longest Promise and The Screen Foxes. To us, The Longest Promise is painfully slow. We thought it was a little slower than most Chinese dramas, but most Chinese dramas are a little bit slow, and The Longest Promise actually feels much slower to us because we hate the main character and, like, half the story decisions so much, we thought. (Sorry, no offense to Longest Promise fans.) We thought that if we actually liked the main character and were invested in her story, the way the show dilly-dallied on every one of her scenes - having her say the same things over and over again, showing a dozen different angles on some magical moment in her life, having her express feelings about something that happened in a previous episode that she had made very clear at the time - would be enjoyable. Meanwhile, before we started The Screen Foxes, I read three different reviews that said the plot moved lightning-fast, bounced all over the place, and didn't make any sense. And ... none of that is true (so far). The plot moves at a normal pace. A thing happens, and then, something else happens as a consequence. There ARE several different interconnected story threads, and we do bounce back and forth between them, but it all makes sense. And last night, it hit me that maybe The Longest Promise is so slow because you're supposed to "skim watch" it. Certainly, if you dip in and out, you can follow the plot very easily. Scenes are long enough that it's hard to miss a whole one if you're checking back in frequently, repetitive enough that you can understand the point of the scene even if you miss three-quarters of it, and the same points are repeated in multiple scenes, so there are very few details you can miss even if you don't watch it too closely. (Plus, the plot is predictable enough that it's easy to follow.) Meanwhile, because The Screen Foxes doesn't dawdle on any points, if you're not actually sitting down and watching, it must seem chaotic and nonsensical. Why are they fighting this green monster now? Wasn't the show about painting a minute ago? The green monster is being used by a Taoist to body-guard a rich family. The Taoist is actually the one who made the family rich. Why? That's the mystery we need to find out. In the meantime, this family used its wealth to cheat in the painting contest from the last episode, so fighting their body guard is advancing that painting plotline too. But if you looked away from the screen during the two minutes where they were explaining all that, then yeah, it would be super confusing why this show just went from a painting contest to a demon fight.

If Chinese dramas are MEANT to be watched in the background, and that's the reason so many of them are so long and slow, then, honestly, my whole worldview has been changed.

So, TLDR: I have to know now: DO most people actually "skim watch" Chinese dramas????

[teabutmakeitazure]

as someone who was doing a countdown for next year and the next year is tomorrow, this is not very cash money

[baejax-the-great]

Hello! For Patrochilles please?

Favorite line/scene you wrote this year

And

Most memorable comment/review

Most memorable comment:

I'm not going to say which fic because it's still a WIP, but I had one comment guess pretty accurately exactly how a fic was going to end, and I had no idea how to reply. Can't just tell someone "yep, you're right," because that's spoilers, but couldn't lie to them and imply that wasn't going to happen... And generally it's good if some people can feel where the fic is heading, because it means you are setting it up correctly, but still really struggled to find a response, lmao.

And favorite scene is from Our Numbered Days:

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Achilles can feel a dull, thudding headache coming on. “About what?”

“You know what. You sleep with guys now?”

He doesn’t know what to say. He wasn’t keeping it from him. He never had to make some big declaration about fucking girls back in high school when he started dating Deidamia. Patroclus has never once asked what he got up to with his partners. Why the fuck should he care now? Why has this part of their lives been off-limits until right this minute?

“Are you planning on living with Iphis after graduation?” he asks, more venom in his voice than he meant.

Patroclus freezes. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Were you planning on ever telling me? Or was I just going to come home one day to find your stuff gone?”

“You know I would never do that.”

He doesn’t know that. He doesn’t know anything. “I started sleeping with guys three years ago. That meet in California. I slept with the number three seed. I didn’t really think it mattered.”

Judging by Patroclus’s face, it matters a lot. “I don’t even fucking know you right now.”

He’s ready for the stupid door slam this time, jumping up and following Patroclus, bracing his hand on the door so he can’t.

“What’s there to know?” Achilles demands. “I sleep with people. You knew that. If you wanted me to document their names and genders and favorite positions, you should have told me. I would have kept a journal.”

Patroclus shoves uselessly at his door before giving up and throwing his hands in the air. “Yeah, well, Iphis doesn’t want me to move in with her after graduation; she wants me to move in with her next semester, and given everything maybe I should. That way you can fuck every guy in school in privacy instead of having to do it in the library.”

Achilles thinks he might throw up. “Great. Do it. Then I won’t have to worry about hearing you two going at it all the time.”

He turns away from Patroclus’s open-mouth expression and closes the door behind him.

He tries to push the tears out of his eyes with the heels of his hands, but he can see in startling clarity the future he’s been avoiding for months. He fails his classes, he joins the tour whether or not he’s even bothered with his finals, Patroclus moves out, and that’s it. That’s the end of “them.” And then, because Briseis was right about everything, Achilles never rises in the rankings. He hangs around the four hundreds for years never breaking through until he realizes everyone around him is younger and more talented than he is, and with no savings, no degree, and nobody back home waiting for him, he gives up. Maybe he’ll coach kids. Maybe he’ll be found dead in a ditch.

He reaches into his pocket, thinking he’ll call Briseis. Might as well tell her how right she was. His hand is shaking. Before he can pull up her number, his phone slips out of his hand, thumping to the carpeted floor.

Patroclus’s door swings open again. He glares down at the fallen phone, as if the noise had offended him, then back up at Achilles.

Achilles wipes the tears from his face, but it’s no good. Even standing there, furious at him for reasons that are unfair, threatening to end their friendship over sex and a girl or a guy or Achilles doesn’t even know what, Patroclus is the most important thing in the world to him, the only thing that matters, and Achilles would remake himself to keep him in his life.

“I’ll, um—” The words stick in his throat, coming out garbled, and he sniffs and tries again. “I’ll stop. I don’t need to…” He shrugs. “I won’t sleep with guys, I won’t sleep with anyone—”

Patroclus cuts him off. “God, that’s not—you don’t get it. You just… don’t fucking get it.”

fanfic end of the year asks

[swordmaid]

THINKING in the ascended astarion x reformed oath shri'iia (unsure abt that name will workshop it but she basically gets her oath back) route that she does not love him exactly. she's simply pouring her previous worship and reverence for lolth onto him, and he's now the subject of her devotion but it's not exactly love. she does not love him the same way oathbreaker shri'iia loves spawn astarion where it's something personal and selfless, and loving him is a choice she is actively making. in this route she thinks there is no other choice but to worship him and with lolth gone she wants to feel that devotion again since it's her safety net. she thinks that's all she's made for, and in a route where she reforms her oath and rejects pursuing self freedom i think that idea will get validated over and over at the course of her journey hence why she comes into that conclusion. and i think that's where the resentment starts too, considering how ascended astarion is so insecure of himself that he's basically overcompensating his whole existence. like the subject of his affection not actually loving him despite the fact that they're bound together by blood, and that he's giving her himself and the entire world if she wanted but that in itself is not enough because she doesn't know how to love in a way that he wants her to. she doesn't know how to love him in a genuine way because she's never known such a thing, and he would not know how to love her in a selfless manner either when the basis of their relationship as spawn and master stems from his own selfishness of wanting to keep her forever. but i do think they'll enjoy each other for some time like maybe for a good amount of centuries, but it'll inevitably go up in flames once he starts getting bored of her and the insecurity of the fact that she doesn't love him will eat him inside. for shri'iia's part, she wants him to stay the way he is forever (and for their relationship to stay the same) but the moment that he changes, or look for someone new will inevitably set her off because that's not what he promised her, and she can't lose her source of devotion again because she's nothing without it. there's no room for change or growth for the both of them bc of the circumstances of their relationship and their vampiric selves (how they're in a permanent stasis as immortal beings) reflects that too

[iniziare]

Verse: Absolution (Present Timeline)

"And so I wield my blade to the very end, until the stars have been cut down from the sky. This oath I will never forsake."

With the long elaboration of what (or rather 'who') I think Jingliu's deal is with (that you can find written up in this post), I think that it's a logical progression to talk about what I want to do with it. Simply because something like potentially being given a blessing that is able to restrain the mara... wouldn't be done without reason. I don't see the Aeons as 'kind' and 'benevolent', because canon has given me no reason to think that they are.

"... but whether it be you, me, the Cloud Knights, or the generals of the Reignbow Arbiter, we are all just pawns in a game of the gods. I am sick and tired of threading on a predetermined path."

Jingliu's case was as simple as it was serious, she eventually entirely succumbed to mara due to the sheer amount of trauma tied to her history (and at the time, her 'present'), and there was no return for her. So the fact that she did come back from it, and refers to it as a ‘deal’ is immense, as she wouldn’t have been lucid enough to seek it of her own accord as she was akin to a rabid animal— it had to have been offered to her. This is why I believe it’s ‘divine intervention’. On top of that, why restrain her from the mara as best as possible, if not done for a specific purpose? No one could stand toe to toe with Jingliu in combat, not a single enemy could ever best her— so is she then not the best adversary against Yaoshi, and all denizens of the Abundance? That’s the direction that I believe they are going. As she herself states to Jing Yuan: Jingliu is a pawn, along like many others, in a game of the gods. What encapsulates this better, than to have her be lucid because of one of these gods, to fight another? But it’s not even forced on her, for I fully believe that her hatred of the Plagues Author surpasses that of anyone else’s, except Lan's themselves. And with the 2.5 trailer, I feel even more strongly that this is the case. So let me note down the details of a present-day verse. This will get edited accordingly if canon itself plays into this more firmly

One final time, as stated above: Jingliu is kept lucid not by the Ten Lords Commission's 'wine' as is shown to have been the case with Hanya (and Xueyi), there is no tie as she fled the Xianzhou while succumbed, and fell to mara even further afterwards, when she ultimately fought Jing Yuan. The reason instead, is because of Lan, who is keeping her lucid as to serve as a soldier/pawn in the battle with the Abundance. The strongest soldier that the Luofu had in its ranks.

With the 2.5 trailer out, and the seeming further confirmation that Feixiao is inherently tied to Hoolay and the Borisin (and the direct note of the Moon Rage affliction, which is an innate Borison curse), and the continuous name-dropping of Jingliu, which was now followed up with a glimpse of her— I'm relatively certain in my assumption that this is a perfect example of what Jingliu would have been kept lucid for: the protection of the Xianzhou Luofu (and the Xianzhou Alliance as a whole).

There are multiple direct ways for Jingliu to either be kept out of jail, or have her sentence altered. One is given to me by the very heavy insinuation within the 2.5 trailer, which is Feixiao's apparent betrayal of the Alliance. This is one of the Arbiter Generals, whom were all bestowed with spirits by Lan, making them formidable enemies. Once observing Jingliu's lucidity for themselves (Hua, the Marshal, and Yaoguang, the Arbiter General presiding over the Yuque), Jingliu could be designated as the person to hunt down both Hoolay (who she was responsible for defeating the first time) and Feixiao, in exchange for a lesser sentence.

But the mara? It never goes away, it never leaves her. She is pulled back to lucidity, but that is seemingly (from what I can tell), the only 'reprieve' that she gets. For example, Jingliu is still plagued by an incredibly unreliable mind that still holds memories but the details slip through her fingers like sand. When she is caught within moments of participation in intense turbulence, there is something akin to a faint blood-lust that aches under the surface— but due to the deal's restraint, she's able to step away from it, though there will be physical evidence of the difficulty that I imagine could manifest similarly to incredibly intense withdrawal symptoms. There is a reduced appetite and thirst, and there is an intense cold to her touch when the mara grows a little in intensity.

Would she be able of reclaiming the title of Sword Champion? Unlikely, as Jingliu did commit one of the Xianzhou's sins, and was erased from its living records for having done so. And though this was committed outside of her own conscious mind, she is incredibly aware and intent on accepting and facing the consequences of said sin (one could see her having to live with the mara's symptoms as an eternal suffering). Besides, there is another who might one day claim it. But to her, what it represents for her (and not in general), is... merely a title, a position, something that she once was through and through— but is no longer. It is a tragedy, but it is is also life.

[little1005village]

🌹 Ethereal Beauty 🌹

Wearing Elie Saab Haute Couture Spring Summer 2023.

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