#reminiscing about Ireland | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

paradiseprincesss · 1 month ago

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˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗ 𝑻𝑶𝑶 𝑪𝑳𝑶𝑺𝑬 | Cillian Murphy

𝑁𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑠 — Are y'all sick of my "ushy gushy" smut yet? LOL. Also ya'll fw this new layout? I fear it's kinda cute and slay...

𝑆𝑢𝑚𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑦 — Cillian's wife and kids are out of town, and your parents are in Italy for the next month, leaving you home alone. What's the harm in getting close and spending some time with your slightly awkward, DILF neighbour?

𝑊𝑜𝑟𝑑 𝐶𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡 — 3.3k

𝑾𝑨𝑹𝑵𝑰𝑵𝑮𝑺 -> 18+ ONLY smut, age gap (unspecified but reader is in college, Cillian is late 40's), cheating on both ends lol, Cillian is married with kids but reader dont give a fuck like ok baddie

𝑴𝑨𝑺𝑻𝑬𝑹𝑳𝑰𝑺𝑻

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

Cillian watched you in your window from his window, in his home, across from yours. Curiosity gets the best of everyone; sometimes you just wonder what your neighbours get up to.

That’s what Cillian was doing — he was just curious about what the young, beautiful, sweet college student next door was up to. His house faced yours, which meant if you left your curtains open, he could see into your home…but in the year you’ve lived across from him, it’s not like he’d ever seen you do anything except the most mundane things.

Flipping through the pages of your textbook and taking notes, calling your friends on the phone and giggling at something they said, posing adorably for some selfies in your kitchen to send to god knows who or post to god knows where. He didn’t understand it, but it was cute, reminding him of the years so far behind him now.

It was innocent…until it wasn’t.

You moved from your hometown with your parents to Dublin, Ireland a year ago, leaving your life behind and attending college here instead. Cillian talked quite a bit with your parents, hence the whole “neighbours” thing, but he always found you to be sweet…and his wife and kids seemed to think so too.

Last week, you’d mentioned to his wife that your parents were going to Italy for the next month to travel, and he couldn’t help but find himself wondering what you’d do when you were home alone. Probably studying, she seems pretty invested in school, he thought.

It was almost time for his kids to go to sleep, and he could hear his wife talking to them as she got them ready for bed, but he stood in his living room and watched you through your bedroom window. You were giggling on the phone with who he assumed were your friends, and he sighed to himself as he saw your youthful smile. He was reminiscent of his younger years as he watched you.

He observed as you threw your phone down for a second on your bed, before getting up and—

His jaw went slack as he did a double take. You casually started to take your clothes off and tossed them onto the floor of your bedroom, but that’s not what caused him to lose his composure.

His eyes widened and his heart rate accelerated as his blue eyes wandered all over your figure, watching you from the window and unable to look away as he took in the lacy, intricate and extremely sexy lingerie you were wearing under that baggy sweater you had on not even a minute ago.

The see-through lace hugged your body beautifully, and the material allowed him to see your perky breasts through the sheerness of it. He almost choked when you bent over to grab your phone from your bed again, as the lingerie left pretty much nothing to the imagination.

“Fuck,” he mumbled aloud to himself, feeling his cock starting to strain against his pants. This was wrong. Oh, it was so wrong — but he couldn’t bring himself to look away.

He watched with a clear hard-on now as you held your phone up, giggling to yourself as you started to pose and take pictures in the lingerie, presumably sending them to some very lucky guy. Who were you sending them to? Who was getting to see your body up close like that? Who—

“Honey?” His wife’s voice cut through his thoughts, and he turned around as she came into the kitchen. He leaned against the island in the middle of his kitchen to hide how hard he was. God bless this kitchen counter, he thought. “What are you looking at? I kept calling you upstairs.”

“Right, erm,” he coughed, clearing his throat and turning around to your window to see you were no longer in your room. It was just an empty, dimly lit bedroom in his view now. “Nothing. Thought I saw a deer or somethin’ in the yard.”

His wife hummed in acknowledgment, clearly unaware that he was just basically participating in some form of voyeurism with the girl next door who was young enough to be his daughter.

“Don’t forget to drop the dog off next door tomorrow at noon,” his wife reminded him, and Cillian’s breath hitched at the reminder.

Fuck. He forgot that his wife and kids were going to visit his wife’s side of the family for the week. He couldn’t go due to a conflict in his work schedule, but he was going to drive them there and pick them up the following week. He also forgot that his wife asked you to watch Scout, the dog, for the day while he drove them up there.

“Cillian?” His wife asked as she looked at him with a raised brow. “Did you hear what I said?”

“Yeah, I heard you,” he said as he swallowed the lump in his throat. “I’ll bring Scout over at noon tomorrow.”

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

You’d just tossed on your most cozy oversized sweater and some short-shorts as you headed downstairs, hearing knocking at your front door. As you swung the front door open, you saw Cillian standing there with Scout, who started to wag his tail happily.

“Hey,” you smiled at him before you started petting Scout. “And hello to you too, Scout!”

As you took the leash from Cillian, he looked flustered as he swallowed, giving you a small smile. “Thank you again for watching him.”

“Oh, it’s really no issue!” You assured him with a friendly smile. “I’m home all day studying anyways, and my parents are out of town for the next month. I could use the company — plus, me and Scout are best buds anyways.”

Scout barked happily, and you continued to give him a few more pats. Cillian couldn’t help but let his thoughts wander back to last night; the image of you in your sexy, lace lingerie was still fresh in his mind. He cleared his throat, “Well, I’ll come and swing by around 6 to pick him up. Not too late, is it?”

“Gosh, not at all,” you giggled, letting Scout roam through your home as you started to close the door slightly. “I’ll be up late studying so…”

“Thanks again,” Cillian said, waving goodbye to you as you shut the door softly.

Later on that day, once Cillian returned home after dropping his wife and kids off at his mother-in-law's house, he knocked on your front door once more to pick Scout up.

You opened the door and smiled sweetly as soon as you saw him, “Hi, Cillian! How was the drive?” Your voice gave him butterflies, and he knew it was wrong, but after seeing you and what you got up to after dark, he couldn’t help it.

“Ah, it was good — boring,” he joked, his smooth, Irish accent making you blush a bit as you handed him Scout’s leash, to which he handed you something as well.

He handed you an iced coffee with a warm smile, “Here — just a little thank you for watching Scout. I remember you saying iced coffee was your favourite a while back, plus you mentioned you’d be studying all night…”

“You didn’t have to do that!” You said sweetly, returning his warm smile, and taking the coffee from him. “But thank you, I could definitely use the caffeine.”

You waved him off as he left with Scout and closed the front door behind you. As you got back to your kitchen, you felt yourself getting giddy for some reason after your interaction with him, though you tried to push it aside. He was just your much older, super attractive, neighbour — oh, and he was married with kids.

You shook the thoughts out of your head as you placed the coffee down on your kitchen counter, suddenly noticing some scribbled letters on the side of the clear, plastic coffee cup. When you spun it around, you saw a handwritten message on it, and your heart stopped for a split second.

Thank you, pretty girl :)

You blinked a few times as you stared at it. Your eyes lingered on the handwriting, momentarily caught off guard. Was he just being friendly or was there an ulterior motive behind it?

The following day, you returned home from your classes, and as you got out of your car, you noticed Cillian coincidentally unlocking the front door to his house with some grocery bags in hand. He glanced up as he pushed open his front door and saw you, a friendly smile crossed his expression.

“Following me home?” He teased, and you giggled whilst you shook your head, textbooks in hand.

“I mean, if I was following you, I’d definitely be trying to sneak a peek at what you’re cooking for dinner.”

Seizing the moment, he decided to just be bold with it. “Yeah? Why don’t you come over then?”

“…What, like right now?”

“You can tell me all about your classes while I cook dinner,” he replied innocently as you walked over to his front door. His words made you feel awfully juvenile…and excruciatingly hot and bothered.

As you got comfortable in his kitchen, he unpacked the groceries and you sat on a barstool against his counter, watching the way his t-shirt was ever so slightly too tight against his arms and chest, showing his muscles off.

“Make yourself comfortable. How does pasta sound?”

“My favourite,” you giggled. “...So, do you always invite your neighbours over to help with dinner or am I just special?”

Cillian glanced over his shoulder as he prepped the ingredients. “You’re definitely special. I’m not usually this straightforward, but something about you…” He trailed off and the unspoken tension lingered in the air.

“Speaking of being ‘straightforward’ — I have to ask about that coffee from yesterday.”

“Oh? What about it?” He feigned innocence.

“Well, I couldn’t help but notice the cute note on the cup. ‘Thank you, pretty girl’? It definitely caught my attention...”

“I’m glad it did,” he chuckled before pausing for a moment. “…I meant it, though. You’re very pretty.”

You looked at him with wide eyes, and he turned back to look at you again, his blue eyes making your breath hitch. “I– well, thanks,” you laughed thinly with a blush. “Sorry–I just didn’t expect you to think…I just…”

His gaze continued to linger on you as his expression softened. “I hardly think you find this surprising considering you must get guys chasing after you all the time,” he said as he took a step closer to you. “You know, this isn’t the first time I’ve…noticed you.”

Your breath caught in your throat as you sensed some weight behind his words. “Oh? Noticed me how?”

Cillian hesitated for a beat before he decided to push the boundaries, seeing how far this could go. How far you would allow him to take it. “I saw you the other night, through your window. Taking those pictures…”

You went wide-eyed as you let his words sink in. “You were watching me through my window?!” Your voice came out in a shocked whisper, and he bit his lip shamelessly.

“I didn’t mean to at first–” he choked out in an attempt to defend his behaviour. “But once I saw you I couldn’t look away…”

You paused, and the silence hung heavy in the air before you spoke up.

“Well, if you’re that curious, I could always show you the pictures. Or…” You swallowed as you looked at him, feeling your cheeks heat up. “I could just show what’s underneath my clothes right now...”

His eyes went wide and he got closer to you, hesitantly reaching his arm around your waist as he pulled you into him. His eyes darkened, breath catching on your words. He hesitated, clearly torn morally. “You know I’m married…” he whispered, but it seemed like he was attempting to remind himself that rather than telling you.

“Right…and I was sending those pictures to my boyfriend,” you casually replied.

Cillian’s eyes flashed with something dark, a mixture of surprise and unspoken jealousy. His resolve broke completely, unable to hold back anymore. There was no point in pretending to resist now, and he let out a sigh as he cupped your face.

“So, we’re both breaking a few rules then?”

Your eyes sparkled with mischief as you looked up at him far too innocently for what was happening right now. “You know what they say about rules,” you whispered. “They’re meant to be broken.”

Cillian suddenly closed the gap between you two, kissing you with a hunger that felt insatiable. His hands came to pull you right up against him, and you gasped into the kiss when you could feel how hard he was already. He’d barely even touched you.

You kissed him back with a hunger that surprised you both, and your hands came to clutch onto his shirt. He backed you into the countertop, which started to dig into your back, but that was the last thing on your mind — him fucking you being the first. You continued to kiss each other feverishly until neither of you could stand the build-up anymore.

Between sloppy, dirty, messy kisses and wandering hands all over one another’s bodies, he started to undress you right in the middle of his kitchen. You only hoped your other neighbours weren’t as “curious” as he was and god forbid they looked through his kitchen windows as he ran his warm hands all over you at this very moment.

“Shit,” he choked out when your clothes hit the floor, revealing some rather racy lingerie underneath. “Are you tryna’ kill me?”

“Am I getting you all worked up?” You teased, as you ran your hands against his chest. “You know I’m young enough to be your daughter, right?”

“C’mon, baby,” he groaned, tilting his head back as you cupped his cock through his jeans. “That shouldn’t turn me on but, fuck, you keep talkin’ like that and I’m not gonna last…”

“We haven’t even fucked yet,” you giggled, pulling him in for another kiss. “Do me a favour — try not to give yourself a heart attack when you put it in, okay old man?”

“Shut up,” he scoffed a laugh before kissing you passionately again. His hands snaked behind you, unclasping your sheer, lacy bra before it fell to the floor, leaving you in nothing but your matching panties. In retaliation, you got him out of his shirt before he turned you around and pressed you against the cold marble of his kitchen counter.

“Fuckin’ perfect,” he mumbled as he gave your ass a light slap, causing you to moan. He slowly pulled your panties down from behind you, letting out a groan as he took in the sight of your drooling cunt, all soaked and ready for him to fuck.

He hoisted one of your legs up onto the kitchen counter and placed one of his hands on your hips. You heard his belt being unbuckled and his jeans being unzipped as he pulled his throbbing cock out, the tip flushed and leaking. He inhaled sharply as he pumped his cock a few times with his hand, before running his fingers through your dripping folds.

“Look at that,” he cooed by your ear, sending a shiver down your spine. “All soaked and ready for this cock, yeah?”

“Fuck,” you sighed, feeling him poke your entrance with the tip of his cock. “Need you inside of me, please.”

“Yeah, I bet, baby,” he said softly before pushing himself into you fully with one swift, long thrust. You let out a strangled noise at how he stretched the walls of your cunt and he moaned as his hands found purchase on your hips. Cillian wasted no time as he started to rock his hips back and forth, his thick cock going in and out of your wet, warm hole with ease.

He watched in awe as he looked down at his cock disappearing into your pussy, all warm, tight, and wet for him. “You’re so– fuck, baby. God, you’re so much tighter than my wife.”

“Oh my god,” you whined, his words only making you wetter as you heard your pussy making those squelching sounds. “A-am I?”

“Fuck, yeah you are,” he agreed, ramming into you faster now. You let out choked moans as you felt him pound his thick cock into your cunt, the tip of him reaching the deepest places inside of you. “Takin’ my cock like a good little girl, aren’t ya honey?”

“M–hmmm,” you mindlessly babbled, cock-drunk on his thickness. “Your good little girl…”

“That’s right,” he purred, slamming himself as hard as he possibly could into you. “You’re my fuckin’ girl.”

“Yeah…” You sighed, your body going slack as you tightened up around him. You hadn’t realized how close you were, and his arms came to wrap around your chest, pulling you against him as he rammed himself up into you deeper. Your head went slack too as you let it fall back against his shoulders.

“Gonna come?” He cooed softly as he noticed how fucked out you were starting to get. “Can you be a good girl and come on my cock for me?”

“Mmm,” you groaned as you saw stars, creaming his thick cock as you shut your eyes and continued to let him pound you senseless through your orgasm. “I’m…I–”

“And what was that earlier about me being old?” He joked as you failed to formulate a proper sentence, feeling himself about to come with you as he watched your mind go blank from his cock in your dripping, slick cunt. “Yeah, fuck — tightest fuckin’ pussy I’ve ever felt.”

Cillian felt himself pour his warm cum into your worn-out cunt, and he rested his head on your shoulder as he gave you a few more lazy thrusts from behind, still holding onto you tightly. The two of you were silent as you caught your breath in his kitchen, your body continuously being pressed up against his as he stayed buried deep inside of your hole.

After a solid few minutes, he finally pulled out gently, making you whine. “Hang on, honey,” he said softly, placing a gentle kiss behind your ear. “Let me get a cloth.” He grabbed a towel from a kitchen drawer as his cum ran down your leg and dripped out of your cunt, before wiping it up gently.

As he cleaned you up, he turned you around and you got lost in his hypnotizing blue eyes again. He laughed under his breath, cupping your face with his hands. “You’re so pretty,” he breathed, taking in your youth, your beauty and…you. All of you. “Just…beautiful.”

You blushed, smiling up at him dopily with a sigh as you leaned into his touch. For a moment, the silence between you was comfortable, but there was an undeniable weight to it. His eyes said something…unspoken.

He let out a shaky breath, his thumb brushing against your cheek. “I’ll…I’ll figure something out,” he murmured, voice steady with emotion. “About my marriage. About us. About everything”

“Cillian,” you blinked, caught off guard by the sudden seriousness in his tone. “You don’t have to–”

He shook his head, his thumb still brushing against your cheek. “I do because we’re already too close,” he murmured, voice low and steady. “Too close to go back, too close to pretend this doesn’t matter.”

You felt your breath hitch in your throat at his words, your heart beating much faster now. He softly bumped his nose against yours as he left a soft, lingering kiss on your lips. “We’ve already crossed the line, crossed every boundary,” he whispered.

“But your family—” You started, the weight of reality pressing in. You could easily break things off with your boyfriend, but he had much more at stake than you did.

He cut you off gently, his gaze soft but unwavering. “I know what I’m risking, but I can’t pretend this doesn’t matter. You matter to me,” he paused in thought before he pulled you in again, tangling his hands in your tussled hair. “Like you said; rules are meant to be broken. If we’ve already broken every rule, then what else do we have to lose?”

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

𝑇𝐴𝐺𝐿𝐼𝑆𝑇

@girlinterrupted505 @ciriceimpera @jordyn-yeager @thevelvetvampyre @galactict3a

@xanaxiii @psylrd @bloodandglitter207 @humbuginmybones

@oceanstem @futurefamousdeadmusician @jonathancraneslittlepet @esotericdoe

@kpopgirlbtssvt

@ll4n4 @ilovetoxicfictionalmen @the-buddy-things @ellebellebarnes @wiseyouthinfluencer

@abprill @minedofmoria @strangeobsessed @5tud10-54r4h @franzine-xii

@stsrfujid @psylrd @eyraaaaaae @nyxxie-pooh @momoewn

@fauxcongenialite @ceruleanrainblues @o0laura @fiona-my-love @cranecat

@hfidnnf @strangeions @randomcreator-09

#cillian murphy #cillian x reader #cillian fic #cillian murphy x reader #cillian murphy imagine #cillian x fem!reader #cillian murphy fanfic #cillian fanfic #cillian murphy fic #cillian murphy fanfiction #cillian murphy smut #cillian murphy x you #cillian murphy x y/n #cillian murphy x fem!reader #cillian murphy x oc #cillian murphy fluff

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yourdearestlover · 2 months ago

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Dearest, lovers

Hello Tumblr World! I am that creator who has been working on Nicola & Luke Press Documentary for the past few weeks.

To tell you the truth, those weeks have been quite exhausting. I had to combine my job and private life to be able to work on, as how my followers had called it, N&L Press Doc. BUT! Enough about me, let's talk about the project.

For the whole plan to make sense, I had to collect material; starting from London and ending it on Ireland, that included over seventeen Google Doc pages of interviews from various social media platforms. In the meantime, I was posting surveys on X regarding certain details, because I wanted people to have a chance to choose. The most time-consuming task was searching for a good quality videos and photos, downloading needed files, neatening them into correct order, to then montaging into 4 parts. Several interviews were edited by me, splitted, resized, which only made the steps to finish line take longer than I had initially expected. Entire process from making decision to actually starting "new project", to rendering each part took about a month. With that being said, I was happy to finally announce the release date.

So here they are! PART ONE

youtube

PART TWO

youtube

PART THREE

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PART FOUR

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From here, I'd like to say BIG thank you for those who were with me the entire time, for those who helped me out with gathering the materials on X / TikTok, for those close to my heart that cheered me up, when things weren't going my way. And most importantly, but not least, thank you for each comment, each like and each viewing. I've spend days on this project, I've put my heart into it. And I'd love you guys to enjoy it, as much as I did, while making it.

I'd want to clarify one more thing. This documentary was put together to express my love towards both Nicola and Luke, to be able to give the fandom a space to reminisce the tour, to fill up the small puzzle of missing them. Absolutely NO negativity will be allowed. Yours truly,

Em <3

#nicola coughlan #luke newton #bridgerton #nicluke #bridgerton season 3 #polin #polin bridgerton #penelope bridgerton #colin bridgerton

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breitzbachbea · 7 months ago

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My Ireland OC, who I made ten years ago and use mainly in Human AUs these days, is called Harry :)

USA: Aren't you going to come out from under the umbrella, aunt Molly?

Ireland: Alfred, pet, i'm Irish. I take one step into the Florida sun and I'll burst into flames like a sinner in church.

#in the Hetaverse I'd call him Liam but old habits die hard #and IP is short for Irish Problems which is the hws AU Fanfic I've been rewriting for the past two years #so as the post talks about another hws Ireland OC I was reminiscing about my own bc true. any Ireland would burst into flames.

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sgiandubh · 10 months ago

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@outlanderskin :"For those who have doubts: just research a little about Caitríona's dating history. See how she treated Dave and James and how she talked about them in interviews. See how she wrote about the Irish boyfriend she had in Paris in that article. Compare all of this to the impersonal way she treats or talks about Tony. Bingo🙃"

Good point 👌

Dear Good Point Anon,

You know, it's really serendipitous, as I have just finished a weeklong deep dive in very, very old press articles on (or at least mentioning) S and C, who clearly had a life before OL, thinking it would be nice to put some of my archive work skills to good service.

I think @outlanderskin was referring to C's New York Times article I reviewed and analyzed last summer, but I just found way better: a very long report in the Irish Independent's Sunday issue of July 11, 2004, focused on the next generation of Irish supermodels. Of which there could be only one, at that time: C, who dominates Roxanne Parker's 'Through Thick and Thin".

I am sorry, there is no link available to my knowledge, so we'll have to work with these very poor xerox scans:

I took the liberty of generously using my dreaded highlighter and, for the people who need to translate this post with Google, I am now taking my time to type what I find damn interesting in this almost twenty-year old article:

'If Ireland ever has a hope of having its own supermodel, then Caitriona Balfe is it. Sitting in the Pink Pony Café on Ludlow Street in New York, Caitriona swirls a wad of bread into her carrot and coriander soup while informing me that her musician boyfriend just brought her a breakfast-in-bed of cream eclairs and coffee a little over an hour ago. But that doesn't stop Caitriona from finishing her lunch and chasing it with a large cocoa-dusted cappuccino. Ebony-tressed and ivory-skinned, Caitriona clip-clops down the cobbled street after we leave the cafe, heading towards her apartment in Chinatown with Dave Mailone (sic!), the boyfriend, in tow.'

This reads, in 2024, like an interview with a more benevolent C clone from a totally different planet, indeed. A young, carefree, in love and hysterically funny C, who apparently had no problem heavily dishing out happy tidbits of her private life to her home country's press. A C also very much reminiscing anyone with a brain of the 2013-2018 bantering C, as this quote shows:

Again, you'll have to indulge me retyping it, Anon (tedious, I know - but helpful). She is remembering her real breakthrough, in November 2002, at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, in New York:

That was the most I've ever been paid for a show. I've got 18,000 euros for one day's work! They made me get a spray tan before the show, and I was still the whitest and the least well-endowed girl in the entire show! So what did she have to wear on the big day? `Not a whole lot! I think I described my outfit on the day as something Wilma Flintstone would wear on her honeymoon night. There wasn't a whole lot to it and it had bits of fur hanging off it.'

And, for good measure, we even have a (admittedly, awful) picture with the season's fiancé, with whom things did not end well:

I know, it looks like a Pravda pic, circa 1957 and I am honestly sorry. But it's still very clear. And, which is more important, very eloquent.

Anon and reader, you draw your own conclusions on this. I know where I stand. The only guy C has similar pics taken with and released in the press or on social media is the peasant some love to bash every single day in here. Their problem, not mine.

Yes, of course Mordor will yell and hiss. Of course they will throw rotten tomatoes at the blunt knife and scream THIS IS OLD. But hey, do you have any better than this poor (but oh, so endearingly authentic) picture or than any given S&C pic before the fucking EFH and IFH, when she gradually started to turn into today's Reclusive, Restrained and Rarefied Greta Garbo wannabe?

Oh, and please: don't give me the 'he's shy' or the paperwork crap again. Her public persona has drastically changed, and not for the better. It's plain to see and there are reasons for this.

Who's to blame? This question is so wrong, in so many ways.

The question should be 'what's to blame?'

I'll stop here, Anon and I hope it was somewhat useful. Thank you for dropping by.

#anon #fandom #shitshow

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sierrawitch · 14 days ago

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Celtic Customs: Death

by autumn sierra

In honor of my friend who just recently lost a loved one, and my sister who witnessed a tragic death that she was helpless to prevent, I thought it the proper moment to reflect and write on some Celtic death customs and traditions of remembering passed loved ones.

Scotland

Before burial, the body of recently passed relatives were kept in the home, dressed and in their own beds. Family and friends would throw a celebration in honor of their lives. The Scots view death as an opportunity to both mourn the loss of a soul, but to laugh and be merry in their memory to find balance in contrary. All the furniture in the departed’s home—especially mirrors—would be covered with white linens and everyone would play music, dance, sing, and share stories around the hearth to keep memories alive.

A traditional custom practiced by the older members of the family and community include a plate of salt and a plate of soil laid on the chest of the deceased person. The soil represents the body as a physical vessel, and the salt represent the purity of the soul. It was thought that without this ritual, the ghost would not be able to rest, and would haunt their family.

Another custom was to stay up at night and watch the body, also known as a lykewake. This is now seen as a sign of respect for the deceased, but in olden times people believed that the devil would steal the body of their loved one unless they kept safe watch over it. The youth of the family were given whiskey at the beginning of the night and some tea or beer with bread at some point in the middle of the night, and would take on this responsibility for the family. The watchers would tell stories, reminisce, and sometimes recite verses from the Bible.

It was also considered bad luck to see the body of the recently deceased without touching it. A week of bad dreams would follow unless this superstition was taken seriously.

Our perception of death in the modern world is one of detachment and taboo. Many people are squeamish about even seeing a dead body, much less watching or touching one in the night. But to the Celtic people, death was not a taboo thing which had to be hidden, as it is a natural, inevitable part of being alive.

The pivotal connecting moments of birth and death link the physical and metaphysical worlds to each other. Similar to the thinning of the veil during Samhain, we each witness a thinning of the veil when we are born, and when we die. In death, the spirit of the deceased moves across the veil and into the Otherworld, the lands of gods, sìth (spirits), and the deceased.

Ireland

The Irish are no strangers to pain and loss, having experienced famine, colonization, and poverty over its long history. There are many customs that have been cultivated over generations to venerate and remember the dead which are unique to their culture, but the Irish Wake is one of the most well known funeral traditions around the world.

Most likely giving root to Scottish customs, the tone of an Irish Wake is a time of mourning and celebration. It’s an opportunity to grieve and and honor life as a treasured miracle. Those attending an Irish Wake will participate and music making, singing, and drinking, especially if the deceased was an elderly member of the community, or ill long term. However, in the instance of a young person’s or child’s death, the wakes are much more solemn and respectful of the tragedy. Family and friends meet in the home of the deceased to recount memories together, grieve, and celebrate the life lost.

The exact origins of the Irish Wake are unknown, but it’s believed that it was heavily influenced by elements of Paganism and may have originated with the Ancient Celts. The Celts believed in life after death and thought that when a person died, they then moved onto a better life in the Otherworld. The Ancient Celts saw death only as a means for a new beginning, which is where the festivities come into play.

The Irish Wake incorporates the tradition of watching over the bodies of the deceased, and some say that the term ‘wake’ originates from the Irish tradition. Lit candles were placed closely around the body and tobacco was smoked by male attendees as they stood guard against the potential of the devil seizing the deceased. It was believed that the smoke would help keep malicious spirits at bay and stop the devil from stealing the soul. Clocks were also often stopped at the time of death and mirrors covered to further protect the body, as mirrors can act as portals to other—maybe not so friendly—worlds.

The Afterlife

In ancient Celtic religion, there was a belief in an afterlife in the Otherworld (as mentioned earlier), which is considered almost like a mirror of life on Earth but without disease, pain, and sorrow. This eliminated the aspect of fear when it came to passing on since the soul continues to live following its leaving the head (where it was believed to reside). Prayers were made to the Celtic gods, and sacrifices—both animal and human—food, weapons, and precious items were ritually offered to them to bless and allow safe passage of the deceased to the Otherworld.

The gods played a fairly significant role in the lives of the Ancient Celts as evidenced by their religious practices and the existence of protective amulets and talismans within their tombs. Alongside these, Celtic tombs and burial sites contained a wide range of objects, from tools to jewellery, which prepared the soul for the journey to the Otherworld (similarly to how the Egyptians prepared their deceased for the journey in the Duat).

Cremations & Burials

The Ancient Celts buried the deceased in tombs, and alternatively cremated their bodies, a practice beginning in the early second century. Excarnation was also not uncommon, during which the body was left exposed to the elements for a period and the bones were then either buried or kept for religious ceremony.

Burials of warriors and rulers were often rife with personal belongings and other treasures including weapons, armour, gold jewellery, and even large objects like chariots and waggons. Other common items included tools, extra clothing, grooming equipment, oil lamps, food, drink, eating utensils, and gaming counters, again, in preparation for their journey through the veil.

How do these customs compare to the ones of your culture, and your family?

What is your perception of death in relation to life, and how does it mentally or emotionally affect you?

Are you afraid of death? Why?

If you could personify who or what death is, what would that look like?

I urge everyone to challenge their instilled views of what death is and what it means not only for the people witnessing it, but also for those who go through its process. Many people fear that unknown reality, but it’s something we all share and experience eventually in life. You’re never truly alone. And isn’t that thought a bit comforting?

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slightlyhozy · 2 months ago

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“Through the Cold, I’ll Find my Way Back to You” || Chapter One - “Honey, Don’t Feed it, it Will Come Back.”

Characters - Púca! Andrew Hozier-Byrne x Original Female Character

Summary - Maisie Quinn, after inheriting a home in Ireland from her late grandmother, slowly learns a dark past about the land in which it was built on.

Word Count - 2,184

Warnings - Nothing for this chapter other than light animal death!

A/N - SO EXCITED FOR THIS!! I will try to be consistent and write interesting chapters, we will get a real introduction to Andrew in the next chapter, I just wanted to introduce Maisie first and the setting. Please leave thoughts!

If you don’t know, a púca is a monster across European mythology that tends to be a shapeshifter, commonly taking form as a horse, goat, dog, cat, ect. They also take forms of humans which tend to have animalistic traits. They are known to play tricks on humans but never truly harm them. There’s a lot on them, so if you’re interested, I recommend looking into it. I am pretty consistent with the traditional idea of them but I will add my own elements as well. I will also explain any important information or facts if I feel is needed, feel free to ask as well!

“What’re you doing now?” I can hear Elsie snacking on carrots through the phone.

I sigh, hauling another box off of another, using my earbuds, we had been able to call all day despite the time difference. “Right now,” I grunt, setting the box on the ground, moving to search for my box cutter. “I am unpacking everything for the studio…” The room in question was a beautiful conservatory with beautiful glass windows curving upward. Outside, bushes with thorns and small berries could be seen, desperately in need of a trim.

“How different is it over there? I mean, you must’ve noticed something by now.”

“Well,” I huff, stepping back to appreciate the natural light coming into the room. “I live 40 minutes from Wicklow, which is nice…But I do miss the city already; it feels all so stretched out now.” It was terribly ironic of me to complain about Europe being big in comparison to America, but after being raised in downtown Seattle all my life, to be thrown into a village where I have to drive to get my groceries was different.

“We miss you.” Elsie pouted. “Who’s going to bring disgusting vegan dishes to every game night?”

I let out a laugh straight from my chest. “Sorry, babe, you just need to find another pretentious vegetarian then.”

Carefully, I pulled out my easels and canvases I hadn’t used yet. The room was mostly boxes, with only two work benches being built and a random spinny chair thrown out. Making this house look like the ones on Pinterest was going to be a process.

“Say, are you and Lydia going to be able to make up here for Christmas?" I ask, fighting the wooden easel to unfold.

I can hear her hiss, disappointment sinking in. “I… I don’t know, May…It’s just…busy right now. You know, if we can’t this time, we just will come up for our anniversary! We’ve always wanted to go to Ireland.”

“Oh, that’s alright.” My voice came out a bit more upset than I hoped, and I could feel the burning in my eyes, a small sniffle escaping me.

“Maisie..” Elsie said sweetly, making me butt in immediately.

“No! No, it’s ok. I get it. You two are working…married, busy, have all your friends there, it’s fine.” I hated how I reacted—so reminiscent of a child, I didn’t even notice the tears on my face.

“Maisie, I…” She paused, seemingly looking for the right words. “It’s going to be hard for a while, ok? But you’ll make lots of friends! And we will still talk every day, ok? Don't feel bad because you’re upset; it’s okay to be upset.”

“I know, thank you.”

I had moved from Seattle to New Castle, County Wicklow, a few weeks ago. A year before that, my grandma had died, who, other than Elsie, had been my best friend. The loss still hurt, but hopefully something good was coming out of it. In her will, I was left to this beautiful property near Greystones. The house itself was pretty humble but charming and well kept. The garden was very large yet outgrown. After living in the hustle and bustle of a city like Seattle, I needed this, something different, it was like she knew.

My grandma inherited the house from her grandmother, who’s grandmother owned the home before the "famine." My Irish family had left Ireland some time in the 1840s to New York, where we eventually found ourselves in Washington. Thinking back on how hard it had to have been to just be Irish in either country made me a bit proud to find myself back at this house, just like how the women before me wanted.

While modest, the home was well built and was a good distance from the beach, which I had been utilizing for walking Lenny. Since the 80s, our richer part of the family had used it for a vacation home, but as my grandmother got older, the only thing she made sure of the home was keeping it clean, despite the fact it was empty now.

——————————————————————

A while later, still unpacking, now in the kitchen, Lenny began doing circles around the kitchen, licking at my leg. “Shit, you’re out of dog food.” I whispered to myself, leaning down to pat his head. Now that I had actual utensils, pots, and dishes, I could finally move on from adapting to their version of Chinese takeout and cook myself a proper meal.

At the grocery store, I spent a lengthy time deciding which shape of pasta was the most appealing.

In my pasta-induced haze, a voice broke me out of it. “Gosh, you look just like her, all grown up.” I turn my head to see an older woman, around 70 or so, smiling up at me.

“Oh, did you…”

“Know Evelyn? Of course, I met you when you were just a wain.” Heat rose to my cheeks, It was always embarrassing to meet someone who knew you from your family in public. All I could think about was getting out of it. “I saw your…pictures on Facebook, and I mean, it was identical until…”

My hand instinctively went up to my head. “Oh? My hair? Yeah, uh, I mean, at least it’s going to a good place.” A few months ago, I had completely cut off the long hair I had growing down near my waist into a pixie cut; liking how it’s growing out, I plan to keep it.

“Such a shame what happened.” The older woman shook her head. “She was a good woman, ye grandmother.”

Awkwardly, I nodded along.

“Nice to see the property put to use, I hope the stories don’t get to you though.” That caught my attention.

“Stories?”

“Oh? You don’t know? There’s a saying that hundreds of years ago, when your family bought the land, it belonged to a monster…called a púca…Something about it torments the humans who lived on the land in an attempt to scare them off.” A small giggle escaped me; I was no stranger to legends and myths.

“It’s all coincidences though; lots of dead animals are found near the property; I’ve never heard of any real trouble happening.” She smiled sweetly. “God is on your side.” Obviously, being a devote atheist for over 10 years, I had no real fear of any monsters.

“Oh!” The woman beamed, reaching into her purse for a pen and notepad. “Here’s my number if you need anything, love, just a call away.” I watched as her shaky hands scribbled down her home phone, pressing it into my hands. Mary.

“Thank you, Mary; I’ll be sure to get in touch.” I smile as we part, my mind drifting back to the word. Púca… It sounded like puta. I stifled back a laugh.

——————————————————————

Later that night, while Lenny was eating out of his dog bowl in the kitchen, I guarded my large bowl of pasta on the makeshift pillow-blanket couch I had crafted for myself. I sighed softly, checking my phone every minute in case someone wanted to ask me how I was or send me a funny video. Instead, I sat alone in the room, rewatching episodes of Gilmore Girls until there was nothing left in my bowl.

As I washed out my bowl, laying it on the rack, Lenny ran around my legs with a toy, eagerly waiting for me to throw it across the house for him. I smiled fondly down at my boy, the only thing keeping me from losing my mind. “Hey boy, want me to throw it?” I cooed at him, kneeling down to his level, excited by my tone. He wagged his tail and did circles, coming back to me with the small rope. Taking it, I tossed it across the floor, enjoying his nails scraping the tiles as he ran towards it, prompting returning it.

After a few rounds of this, a scratch on the door caught my attention, causing my brow to raise and my anxiety to heighten. It’s fine. I thought to myself, tossing the toy again, watching him retrieve it. It could be anything. Anything? Like a…no. Stop. Wiping my face, I waited for Lenny to come back. As he trotted to me, the scratching was louder, more aggressive.

Setting him off, the small retriever began to bark at the door, his little body jumping back each time. Shushing him, I walked to the window, looking out; there was nothing I could see. Púca. I scoffed, shaking my head; it was just my brain. I took a deep breath, opening the door slowly, unreasonably anxious about what I might see.

As I did, my leg instinctively went to barricade the door, Lenny barking at the small creature in front of me. I didn’t know how to react to the fox in front of me; it stepped back slowly, looking at me, making sad chirp-like sounds. My brows furrowed at the sight. “Ok…” I drifted off; my initial thought was that the animal was hurt, but the way it walked around my patio indicated otherwise. Perhaps whoever took care of the house before fed it, but it hadn’t come before.

Being a natural animal lover and suck up, I close only the glass door, letting me see him still. The fox pranced around still before sitting down in front of the door, clearly with no intention of leaving. Lenny stood, his tail high on alert. “Lenny!” I called out disapprovingly as I heard his familiar low growls. In a small bowl, I scooped some of his food with a few pieces of left-over pasta on top.

Laying the bowl down, I went back inside; even if it wasn’t aggressive, I didn’t want to invade its space, even if I was guilty of interfering with nature in the first place. My eyes drifted over the animal’s fur; it was a warm brown all around, and the ears and feet were black. Under the jaw and belly of the fox, the fur was white, as was the tip of its tail. Mostly, I was looking for signs of mange—anything to indicate it was sick. On cue, it looked up; the way its green eyes flashed at me caused my face to stiffen as I saw the reflection of light in it’s eyes. I looked back; there was no light to cause the eye to shine, and as I looked back, it was gone. The house was silent except for the low growling of my dog and the crunching of the fox’s feast.

——————————————————————

“It was so weird!” I complained to Elsie over the phone, clutching my colorful robe, tea in the other hand.

“Maisie, usually you make amazing choices, but this was dumb.” She said it matter-of-factly.

I shake my head, pacing around the cold floor. “How? It was hungry, Elsie; what was I supposed to do? Let it starve.”

“No, you’re supposed to call the Irish Animal Control, obviously. It could have had rabies.”

“Rabies? I don’t think so.” I chuckled, so sure of myself. “It wasn’t like…foaming at the mouth or aggressive.”

“Maisie, when animals have like…early rabies or something, they act oddly tolerant to humans, was there mange? Was it dehydrated or anything?”

“No… It looked really healthy, actually. It just wanted food; no one got bit, no one got hurt. Elsie, It isn’t that big of a deal; it’s a one-time thing.”

I heard a deep, disappointed sigh escape her. “Maybe you should’ve been raised in the mountains…Look, when you feed animals, they expect that you will give them food; they’ll come back. When I was little, growing in Bend, I accidentally fed a raccoon once, and she brought generations of baby raccoons for years.”

Walking to my porch, wanting to enjoy my tea with the cool air, I open the door. “If it comes back, I just won’t feed it; I learned my lesson, ok.” My eyes immediately drifted down in front of me.

“Maisie?”

“Uh, sorry…” Carefully, I set my tea on the railing. On the concrete, I stared at a small rodent in front of me, absolutely gutted. “There is a mutilated mouse on my porch.” I said breathlessly, always hurt by any dead animals.

“Oh, see! Now it’s rewarding you!” She complained over the phone as I stayed silent.

“Do you think they’re like cats? Like, they’ll bring you dead stuff because they think you stink at hunting or something…” I wasn’t too sure what to do with the body.

“I don’t know,” Elsie said flatly. “What I do know is that you should stop feeding it; just for your and Lenny’s sake, I don’t want you calling me at 3 am because you have to get rabie shots in your ass, ok?” On my side of the phone, I nodded, immediately looking for a reason to hang up. “Oh shit, it’s already so late, ok, Maisie, I love you; I’ll call you later, ok?” Thank god. Is all I could think.

After using a poop bag to toss the animal into the outside bins, I went to pull out my laptop, pulling up my laptop and searching: What is a Púca?

#andrew hozier byrne #hozier x reader #hozier smut #rpf #hozier fanfiction #hozier #irish mythology #hozier songs #it will come back #Spotify

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ninyard · 7 months ago

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i have to ask, do you have any kevin hcs from his childhood in ireland?

yes :) yes I do :) depending on how long he grew up there some of these might be irrelevant but here’s some baby kev in Ireland (these are kind of stupid but regardless here they are)

- While Kayleigh had him playing no-contact kid safe Exy, he also played hurling. It’s an Irish team sport that is played using a stick and a small hard ball and a lot of Irish kids play it. It’s a pretty big sport in Ireland, it’s really fast paced, and the only protection players wear is a helmet with a grate/face guard thing. You can “check” other player with your shoulder so long as the other person has the ball and you have one foot on the ground and tbh if you read the rules it wouldn’t surprise me if it inspired Kayleigh to invent Exy in some manner

- he went to a gaelscoil (Irish speaking school) for his first two years or so in school. This means they only speak in Irish and learn all of their subjects through Irish. Because of this Kevin can count and knows colours in Irish but doesn’t really know a whole lot else

- Kevin is naturally unbothered by cold weather because he spent those early years of his life in Ireland. He’ll wear shorts when the sun is barely peeking out of the sky and it’s only like 15 degrees Celsius outside because that’s just what Irish people do. We savour the sun in the tiny bits we see of it.

- Irish people love famous Irish people, so I bet Kayleigh would’ve been on local TV quite a lot. There’s a couple of interviews and videos of Kevin as a tiny Kevin playing baby Exy out there that he keeps hidden from the foxes. NOBODY knows they exist. Also as a tween he probably did some more interviews from the US for Irish TV. If somebody found them he would die on the spot.

- Kayleigh lived in Dublin before she had Kevin, and her family were from much more rural areas on the other side of the country, so Kevin doesn’t remember meeting her family at all. He would’ve met his grandparents a handful of times, but because he was so young, he doesn’t remember it. They were fluent Irish speakers, though, so Kayleigh always spoke in Irish around her family.

- Kayleigh’s funeral was in Ireland, and that was the first time Kevin had been back in Ireland since they moved to the US full time. It was really overwhelming for him, because so many memories kept coming back to him, memories he’d forgotten because he’d been so young.

- his grandparents call him by his Irish name, not Kevin. He doesn’t like it, but it’s their native language so he just accepts it. If any one of the foxes thought of calling him Caoimhín he’d kill them.

- (Kayleigh’s family make fun of his American accent. Irish people love making fun of Americans)

Kevin doesn’t remember a lot about living in Ireland but what he does remember is a lot of fond memories of his mom, and if he wants to feel close to her, he reminisces on it a lot. He has as many old interviews of her as he could possibly find, videos of her in university, and as much as it pains him to watch his mother beside Tetsuji as business partners, he watches those too. One interview is his favourite, one that Kayleigh did for the Irish language news, and it’s an interview where she’s talking about Exy as gaeilge/in Irish. She doesn’t falter, or trip over her words, or have to think at all about what she’s saying. It’s her first language, and she falls into it so easily. It makes him sad to think of how different his life would be if they’d stayed, but he would never go back in time and ask her to. She achieved her dream, she represented Ireland at their first Olympics, and the USA once she’d gotten her citizenship. He would do anything to have her back, but he wouldn’t change that.

#Ireland makes Kevin think of home even though it wasn’t his home for very long #idk this is silly but #I’m claiming him #the only valid Irish-American #kevin day #I’m currently reading a news article about a referee who is currently in hospital because he broke a bunch of bones in his face #because he got hit in the face by a sliotar #and like….thats NEWS here

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couchez-vous · 5 months ago

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Supercorp "The Wedding Planner" AU!!

Lena as the wedding planner who gave up on love- those who can't wed, plan, and she's the best at what she does. She wears power suits and controls every aspect of a wedding down to the best man's speech. She's still carrying the hurt of being cheated on, and that betrayal is echoed in Andrea bursting into her life and trying to cheat/leave her fiancee for Lena. When she meets Kara she pushes her away because she doesn't believe that her love is genuine. They haven't known each other long enough to get married, why would Kara want to? Lena doesn't offer the option to date because she's so thrown off, Kara's gorgeous and kind she can't really mean that she wants to be with Lena Luthor, right?

Kara as the hopeless romantic sweetheart who wants to marry Lena immediately upon their first meeting since they were children. Earnest, sweet, good with her hands (makes a replica bird nest as a gift!). A Kara who thinks Lena is the most beautiful woman she's ever seen and is accustomed to Kryptonian arranged marriages, so she assumes Lena wants her too because the Luthors arranged it. Kara fries up potstickers for their friend-date and gives her good advice and reminisces with her about Lena's birth mom. Lena realizes she's developed a crush on Kara but keeps it to herself. Then Kara makes a big romantic gesture to propose and promises to take care of her "you will make me the happiest woman on earth" Lena accepts, but still has her doubts

Andrea as Lena's charming unfaithful soon-to-be-wed What If? Lena is drawn to her because she's a sweet-talking doctor who saved her life, but they constantly bicker. Their push and pull rollercoaster interactions feel normal because that's how Lena's relationship with Siobhan was, but she doesn't want that kind of love anymore. She needs someone stable and understanding

Lucy Lane as Andrea's fiancee

Jess as Lena's wingwoman

Siobhan as Lena's happily married cheating ex

Andrea leaves Lucy in a mutual breakup and runs to Lena before she gets married. She wants to run away together. Lena sees the situation for what it is: Andrea trying to hop from one serious relationship to another. She tells Andrea a firm no and marries Kara in the courthouse

Kara dips and kisses her softly and Lena's heart is warmed. they honeymoon in Ireland <3

I want Lena to have the self-awareness to recognize her pattern of wanting unavailable people, the self-respect to say no to the toxicity, and enough hope in her heart to take a leap of faith with Kara and then being more in love than she ever thought possible

#supercorp #kara danvers #lena luthor #the wedding planner #my wife (gf) of 7 years (6.5) left me (mutual breakup but now i want her back she's ignoring me AND she got a boyfriend ((our manager)) )#let me yearn for rom com

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stevenblueniverse · 3 months ago

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Finally after you voted for it chapter 14 of the selkie au is here!

Warning!: NSFW

Chapter 14: love

"So....", blue said, looking at the very embarrassed yellow, "what are you doing here?", she repeated. "Oh nothing! Nothing", yellow said, moving away from the icons and to the door blue was standing in front of. "You sure?" She asked, raising an eyebrow, "I thought it would be something about bats", yellow's eyes widened and she took some steps back, trembling, "I-I said those things...out loud? And you, you heard them!?", she yelped, blue looked at her clulessly. "Huh? I was talking about this!", blue said, taking a wet piece of paper from her coat, it was a photo of two bats yellow had drew, blue had found them the day she left.

"I thought you'd be praying to get your art recognised you're very good", blue said, giving her the drawing, yellow took a deep breath and relaxed, she was terrfied she has said all that out loud and blue had heard every bit of it. "Thanks", yellow said, still a bit nervous, "it was just a little doodle of some flying foxes, I saw a lot of them back when i was traveling near Oceania", the drawing was of two flying foxes hanging upside down and kissing, just as yellow had mentioned in her prayer, one fox was drawn exclusively with yellow pens, the other only in blue.

Blue walked over to the holy icons, yellow watched her closely, wondering if blue even knew what they where. Blue stuck out her right hand and pointed to one icon, she laughed, "weird seeing him so far away from home!", yellow looked over and saw blue was pointing to an icon of Saint Patrick of Ireland. "Oh, you know him?", yellow asked, blue laughed some more, "I'm suprised you do!", she told her, pointing the icons again, and looking at the other ones to see who else she could recognise. "Eventhough I'm not from Ireland I know about him quite a lot, I had to do some weird study about him and saints from there for some project back in school, the priests loved it!", yellow reminisced, her mother was very proud of her then, the proudest she had ever been.

"Now, it's best we get out of here, the walls are very thin and people can probably hear us", yellow said, approaching blue and guiding her away from the icons, blue smirked, "you want me to take you off this ship? To escape?", she asked, yellow shook her head, "N-NO!", she loudly shut her down, "I thought you said be quiet", blue laughed, making yellow embarrassed, "Ugh, sorry", yellow huffed "let's just get away from here before people hear us".

Yellow blew out the single small candle lighting up the entire prayer room and slowly opened the door, it creaked loudly, her room wasn't far, and the ship was in complete darkness so no one would be able to spot them. Yellow took blue to her room and closed the door behind, her room was just a bed with a desk in the corner, yellow lay down and looked up to blue who was trying to make out the place but couldn't as it was so dark and had to be guided by yellow to the bed. "Do selkies come from Ireland? You sound Irish and since you where familar with Irish saints I think you are", yellow asked her, blue nodded, "I am but not all selkies, as long as they are seals, there is selkies, and they're everywhere!".

Blue sat on the bed and looked down to yellow, they both could barely fit on it, it was much smaller than the bed they shared at the small hotel. "I thought people all stayed in one room on ships like these", blue said, still trying to look around in the dark, "I'm one of the few people with a room of their own, most do share rooms, I used to share this with someone else but he got kicked off here a while back, I used to have a bunk bed with him but some idiot named eleazer stole it from me", she huffed, her old bunk bed was much better too, this single bed had no space at all. "If I still had that bed I couldve let you stay with me", yellow rolled over, facing the wall, blue looked at the bed and tried her best to analyse the remaining space, "why can't I just share this one with you?", she asked, trying to lay down, barely fitting, "see! I'm able to fit!"

Yellow turned around and looked at blue, she blushed heavily, "a-are you sure!?", she studdered, "there is absolutely no space now! You can't move without touching me!", blue hugged yellow, catching her off guard "that's fine by me", blue said, resting her head on yellows chest, definitely being able to feel how quick her heart was beating right now, "you're very soft yellow", she wrapped her arms around her, if felt like she was basically laying on top of yellow now, she couldn't move at all, she was starting to panic, she couldn't tell if this was the best of most awkward experience of her entire life.

The door next to the one leading to yellow's room opened and out stepped melchizedek, he yawned and stretched, then froze, he could hear talking coming from yellow's room, and it didn't sound like her. Her approached the room, the wooden floor squeaking as he moved, and put his ear to the door, someone was definitely in there with her, but he couldn't tell who. Before he could open the door, a voice asked him, "what are you doing up so early?", it was jasper, the only other woman on the ship.

Jasper was tall and very muscular, she was a well decorated army veteran and her body was covered in scars, her skin was originally very pale but from her years of exploring she was always very tan, she looked down to melchizedek who was half her height and very skinny, he was pale and sickly looking compared to her, she could probably crush him with her bare hands. "I heard someone talking to yellow in her room", he squeaked, jasper raised an eyebrow, "and how does that concern you?", she asked, making him take some steps back from the room. "B-because we don't know who that is! It could be anyone!", he told her, "still, it doesn't involve you so why do you care", her voice became more menacing and melchizedek finally gave up. "....I guess you're right", he admitted, "good, you finally grew a brain, now get back to bed, no one cares enough to hunt you down anymore", she told him, before walking away and leaving him awkwardly standing outside his room.

Melchizedek was the son of a Italian diplomat and a high ranking member of the Thai Royal Court, as soon as he was born the Thai king himself exiled his mother and threatened his diplomat father. Throughout his childhood he was told the Thai army was after him and wanted him dead, it was one of the reasons he stayed in the sea, barely touching land. He had become very paranoid over the years and suspected spies where all around him, even kicking off suspected spies off the ship or trying to Kill them. To him, hearing blue's voice meant yellow had been speaking with a spy out to kill him and he needed to act fast before it was too late.

"Yellow?", blue asked, looking up to her, "y-yeah?", she awkwardly replied, "are you okay? You seem very nervous", she sat up and looked at her very flustered face, the moon was shining in through the small window, finally giving the room some light. "It's just I...", yellow looked away from her, she knew it was Impossible to hide it from her anymore, if she kept lying to herself it would be torture, "i- I need to tell you something", she started studdering, struggling to get the proper words out that she needed to say, instead dragging it out and making it even more torturous. Blue leaned in closer, making it worse, "what is it? You can tell me anything", she smiled, her soft voice was like heaven to yellow's ears and slightly calming her, "I...I am...", yellow took a deep breath, "I AM IN LOVE WITH YOU BLUE!", she finally spat it out, blue didnt seem to react much, she just stared.

"Oh..." was all blue said, she didn't move, she stayed right next to yellow, holding her even tighter. "Do you want to escape from this place?", blue asked her, lowering her face, nearly touching yellow's, "it seems like an awful place here", she whispered, before lightly kissing yellow on the lips. "No I can't leave here", yellow said, trying to process what was happening and praying she wasn't dreaming, "where would I go?", she looked over to blue who was taking off her coat, unsurprisingly she was wearing nothing underneath. "I can take you somewhere no would be able to find you", blue told her, neatly folding the coat and putting it on the ground next to the bed, she crawled on top of yellow, yellow still wasn't really prepared for this and started breathing very heavily and squirming.

"Would you take me to some selkie place underwater? I'd drown!", yellow laughed, trying to keep her composure as blue unbuttoned her shirt, "we'll see", blue told her, taking of yellows shirt and looking down at her body, she was very muscular compared to blue and had much smaller breasts but what caught blue's attention the most was the large scar in the middle of her chest. "What's this?", blue asked, running her finger over the scar, "i-its nothing", yellow studdered, feeling shivers run down her body as blue touched it, blue looked back at her, "you sure?", she asked, before continuing and grabbing yellow's shoulders and kissing her, this time a much longer and passionate one than last time.

"Hey melkie! You forgot your boots!", a man named eleazer yelled from outside the room next to yellow. He stepped outside and looked for melchizedek, his roommate. "where could that idiot be now!", he thought to himself, "Hey! Melchizedek! I know you don't like my nickname but where are ya?", he called one more time, walking past yellows room and to the stairs, when he walked past her room her could hear something, he listened in and giggled, "melchizedek can't be in there right?", he joked, "with that weirdo? No one would want to go near her!", he laughed to himself, probably looking quite insane.

Eleazer went to the top of the ship, it was still night but the sun would be rising soon, there was melchizedek he was talking to another man named methuselah, he was much older than the two and had been on the ship for much longer than them, the three of them had become very close. "Jasper is just like that with everyone, I don't think she was targeting you", methuselah told the very paranoid melchizedek, "shes not like that with that diamond girl! I suspect she's paying her, yellow diamond is the daughter of that designer white diamond!", melchizedek told him. "Hey you two!", eleazer ran to them, giggling, "you're awake?", Melchizedek asked, "I heard your snoring not too long ago!".

"That doesn't matter! Guess what I heard!", eleazer laughed, "what?", methuselah asked, looking behind him to make sure it wasn't involving jasper and she wasn't about to kill them all. "I heard yellow diamond...", he laughed, melchizedek's eyes widened, he was right, she was doing something ,"....GETTING FUCKED!", he laughed, methuselah refused to believe this, "no way, she thinks she's better than us all! Shed never do that with one of us", eleazer laughed some more, "come with me! You'll be able to hear it all!", he lead them to just outside her room and they listened in all night.

#steven universe #blue diamond #yellow diamond #bellow diamond #bellow diamond au #steven universe au #selkie au #fanfic #steven universe fanfic #blue diamond steven universe #steven universe blue diamond #yellow diamond steven universe #Steven universe yellow diamond

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starry-nights-17 · 3 months ago

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Thank you @bawlbrayker for the tag. Let's give this a go!

rules: post the first lines of your last 10 fics/chapters posted on AO3 (if you have less than 10 fics posted, post the first lines of all your fics) and try to draw some conclusions.

1: It wasn’t that Mickey was still in the closest, he wasn’t. While it might have taken some time, he was now in a place in his life where he had fully accepted his sexuality. It’s just that he didn’t see the point of shouting it from the rooftops, of dressing up in rainbow coloured shit or painting glitter all over yourself or waving flags like a kid on St. Patrick’s Day. The drunken assholes he had to deal with on that day were bad enough but today the streets were even louder and more colourful and unreasonably fucking happy. (Lost....or found?)

“You can’t stop me from going dad,” Ian shouted, as he tossed clothes and toiletries into a large back pack.

“I’m about to be announced as the candidate Ian, you need to be here, where I…”

His father, Governor Clayton Gallagher, trailed off and his eyes darted away. Ian snorted because he knew why, “Where you can keep an eye on me, huh”

His father sighed wearily and stepped closer, “It’s not like that Ian, that’s not fair. I worry about you, we all do and this is a crucial time for me, for the whole family. Vice President, you know how much it means to me Ian and how long I’ve wanted this”. (The Secret of Art)

“Jesus Mandy, you look poured into that shit,” Mickey teased, as he took in his younger sister’s outfit for the evening, a skin tight black leather jumpsuit. Unsurprisingly she had left the zip opened, daringly low, exposing her cleavage.

“Least I’m wearing an actual costume shithead; you look pretty much like you do every day”.

He snorted and finished styling his hair before adding the final part of his outfit (he refused to call it a costume).

“Huh, not bad right,” Mickey suggested confidently, as he cocked an eyebrow at her.

Mandy begrudgingly smiled and nodded, “Fine, looks better, least it’s more obvious now”.

“Fuck you bitch, I look badass and you know it. Told you I wasn’t gonna wear fucking gay ass tights or a cape or whatever” (Not All Heroes Were Capes)

“TJ, c’mon, you’re gonna be late for school”

He groaned into his pillow, upon hearing his Dad’s voice grow even louder, as he shouted down the hallway for a second time. TJ knew he was pissed by his tone but his Dad didn’t get it, no one did. School was like his own living hell. His Dad had probably been popular and had fit in, not like TJ. He was the school outcast apparently which made him a prime target for the resident bullies. Not only was he the only kid he knew with a single gay Dad for a parent but he didn’t belong to any of the cliques at school. (Circles)

“Listen up!”

Mickey raised his voice to his students, who had started to pack up upon hearing the bell to indicate the end of class. “Your latest assignment, which is due by the end of next week, is to outline three themes found in Pride & Prejudice and describe how they apply today, if they still do”.

He chuckled as the entire room erupted into a loud groan before they started exiting one by one. “Yeah yeah, I’m an asshole for giving you homework on a Friday, tell someone who cares”. (Parachutes)

Ian gripped the phone tightly in his hand as he sat on the edge of his temporary bed in the dingy roadside motel.

“Mam died, thought you should know” the text read simply. No emotion, no greeting, nothing but the bare minimum, six basic words.

He sniffed back a few tears as he reminisced about the only person he ever truly missed back home in Ireland, his grandmother Margaret or Mags as she preferred to be called. His own mother or at least the woman who had given birth to him had sent him a message for the first time in about a year to inform him of his grandmother’s passing and he supposed it was better than nothing. He felt helpless and paralysed in his grief, however, knowing that he couldn’t do anything about the situation. He couldn’t return home, he couldn’t attend her funeral, if her ungrateful children even bothered to organise one of course. (Growing On Me)

7: Ian marveled as it occurred to him that this was about to be their second Valentine’s Day spent together as husbands. The first one occurred only weeks after they had moved into their first real home together, a place free of Gallagher siblings and run away Milkovich cousins. It was the first place which offered complete privacy and a sense of pride considering it was a real nice apartment on the West Side which they paid for with legally earned wages. They had struggled for a few months upon moving in as their security business was only taking off and they had to spend whatever extra cash they had on furniture and essentials but now they felt stable and so Ian wanted to do something extra special this year for Mickey. (These Little Things)

“Assholes” Mickey muttered to himself as he slammed his front door shut and tossed his jacket on the couch.

He grabbed a cold beer from the fridge and gulped down half of its contents immediately. He shook his head knowing that his sister Mandy was going to give him yet another irritating and unwelcome earful. But she had just struck it lucky, she actually liked her job, whereas Mickey wasn’t sure he could ever like any job enough to stick it out. Mostly he figured he just hated people, most people anyway so that instantly ruled out an awful lot of jobs. Customer service, cashier, retail, hospitality, you name it, Mickey had tried it. (Footprints In The Snow)

Ian was giving serious thought to murdering his younger brother Carl and dumping his body in Lake Michigan but he had sworn never to set foot inside a prison cell ever again, luckily for Carl.

For Christmas he had gifted Ian and Mickey a couple’s card game, whereby you could pull out a card at any given moment to use against your partner. Ironically Mickey wasn’t even interested at first, said card games were only worthwhile if there was money involved. But as soon as he opened the packet and started reading through the descriptions on the cards his face had lit up with that typical mischievous smirk of his. (You've Been Served!)

10:

“Jesus Christ Mick” Ian moaned as he pounded into Mickey relentlessly from behind.

His husband was on all fours in front of him on their bed, as Ian dragged his perfectly round and ample ass back towards his hips, over and over. They didn’t always fuck hard and fast but when they did Ian sometimes got completely lost in the act, lost in his husband’s glorious body, almost to a level where he became feral and animalistic. It was as though he couldn’t get enough of him, could never get deep enough, he wanted to consume the man entirely from the inside out. (12 Days of Sexmas)

Conclusion: So I still cringe hard at my grammar, especially on my earlier fics, but given I literally never wrote anything until about a year and half ago I wont sweat it too much. I prefer the dual pov style but that doesn't mean I'm restricted to that format either. And as the last one shows, I clearly love writing smut lol. I honestly find it hard (no pun intended) to write completely smut free works because to me sex is such a big part of their relationship and I particularly enjoy writing flirtatious banter. If I was to be very critical I worry that my style wont evolve much and I really do want to try and push myself out of my comfort zone. Becoming predictable or boring is my worst nightmare!

Just want to end with saying I'm so eternally grateful to anyone who has read my stuff or sent kudos or left comments. It means the world. X

#shameless #gallavich #mickey milkovich #ian x mickey #ian gallagher #fanfic

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midnightsslut · 2 months ago

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i'm sorry to do this to everyone but I'm so vehemently a the black dog is about matty truther.

the black dog bar in ireland right down the road from where matty played a show in early June. (the black dog london is also very much a pub. i fear taylor is english enough by now to know that it would be very weird to call a pub, a bar).

the Irish 1975 show was also a week before we know she recorded the song, which was also ~6 weeks after they were last seen together. (6 weeks of breathing clean air. she recorded the song almost 4 months after joever).

her rain-soaked body in the shower could very well be after the crazy gilette stadium rain show, where he was in attendance

matty playing the starting line's song the same 'this is for you, I love you' show. it would be a craaazy coincidence for both of her relationships to have that band be a part of the magic fabric of it

all of the lyrics that are smallest man reminiscent of "how could you leave me?/how could you do this to me/were you making fun of me?"

"I pledged and I still mean it' 'my longings stay unspoken', she wants this person still, we know this was not the case with joe "I'm not the one, you'll find someone"

matty healy the smoker

very sorry for dumping in this manner and also paternity testing unnecessary etc etc

I just think most of this is either extremely circumstantial or flat out wrong lol.

- the pub/bar thing is entirely based on what sounds better imo.

- the cork show was on june 13th, 2023, which is… exactly two weeks after they were last seen together. really don’t know what you’re getting six weeks from this. we don’t know exactly when she recorded the song. some people theorize it was mid-may. neither are particularly convincing to me, but I don’t even see a candid appearance from july on taylorpictures lol. the candid pics in june don’t have the same outfit either.

- that’s not what the rain line is about imo. sure, could be, but that messes with the intimacy aspect a lot.

- I will give you the starting line thing, but this is the same woman who went to Big Sur with like three different people in her life. matty doesn’t own the starting line.

- the smallest man who ever lived literally says she doesn’t want him back. the only song that suggests otherwise is down bad, which was recorded in late june (same month as their breakup, not six weeks later)

- the prophecy and ilipw literally say she dreams of joe

- we literally don’t know if joe smokes

- this may sound silly, but i maintain that if the song was about a bar in Dublin, that is exactly where she would’ve played it first, not london lol.

#‘unnecessary paternity testing’ and it’s literally just lying #if anything the cork thing just proved my theory #the black dog

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orangerosebush · 2 years ago

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What tickles me about the first book in the AF series emphasizing Artemis' vampiric appearance is that you could argue that he is one, in a sense. Here is an excerpt from Nina Auerbach's Our Vampires, Ourselves:

Auerbach's musing that "[vampires] are disturbingly close to the morals they prey on [...] vampires are neither inhuman nor nonhuman nor all-too-human" is what strikes me here. In many ways, vampires are monsters that lurk within human bodies and under human faces -- which reflects how although Artemis may appear human (and is, uncontestably, human at the start of the series), his nature puts him at the most remote border of the category. The reaction that many human background characters have to Artemis (until ~TOC) is to shudder!

For example, in AF, you have the following:

“Nguyen had heard the name Fowl before—who hadn’t in the international underworld?—but he’d assumed he’d be dealing with Artemis senior, not this boy. Though the word “boy” hardly seemed to do this gaunt individual justice.”

Then, in TEC:

“The waitress scurried to the kitchen, relieved to escape from the pale youth [Artemis] at table six. She’d seen a vampire movie once. The undead creature had the very same hypnotic stare. ”

Artemis is equally ill-fitted to human society as he is to fairy society. It's true that in the first book, Artemis plays up what makes him unsettling to give off that impression of having something powerful and monstrous barely contained beneath a feeble human exterior. The only way for him to command respect as the current heir to the Fowl name is to imply through behavior that appearances are not what they seem; to imply that despite his age, he is of equal importance and power to his (presumed) late father. But Artemis' strangeness transcends performance. He is, by nature, uncanny to those who receive him.

This is what Sigmund Freud says of this quality in his essay The Uncanny (trans. David McLintock)

But Artemis' vampirism goes beyond character, it is also behavioral. If he is a vampire, what does he vampirize? Artemis is, to put it bluntly, skilled at being the heir to a criminal empire. The Fowls have sustained themselves by draining the world around them of wealth the second they came into existence. And how did they come into existence? By stepping onto the shores of Ireland during the Anglo-Norman invasion! We aren't given much in the way of lore for the Fowls, but they are implied to be old money. That historical power, in turn, implies at least some sort of relationship to British colonial activity in Ireland.

Further, the Fowls have maintained their power over the years by leeching off of the physical power and protection offered by the Butlers. Until Colfer starts allowing Butler's character to grow beyond his employment, his dynamic with Artemis is weirdly reminiscent of a vampire and familiar; the world that Butler gives Artemis access to isn't the day, but rather the adult world. When Artemis' parents are out of the picture in the first book, the only reason Artemis is able to "prey" upon the People is because Butler acts where and when Artemis cannot.

Not to mention -- and I say this with love -- Artemis can be a bit of an energy vampire. He delights in antagonizing, he relishes in drawing out a triumph over an enemy. For example, by the second book, Artemis has driven a handful of school-provided therapists to quit from how drained their interactions with Artemis left them; Artemis is remarkably good at teasing out what would get under one's skin the most.

There's also the matter of Artemis draining some of Holly's/No1's/Hybras' magic in TLC. Although there isn't a scene in the series of Artemis drinking blood, I think that theft of magic can invoke a similar effect in Auerbach's framework.

#artemis fowl

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pitchlag · 7 months ago

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Rvb19 thoughts in no particular order

Yeah so. I still think s13 is The capping point for me and all that comes after is hypothetical/simulations or whatever.

First of all. No, you fucking don't get to separate Grif and Simmons.

Having the groups act hostile towards each other (or just the Reds against Caboose again) right after Chorus was a a big enough of a crime already. But those two are a package deal.

So what the fuck even happened in the SoC fight? Why would they let Tucker just walk out in the aftermath? I guess Carolina booked it to go after him bc why else would she leave Wash alone again, after he was supposedly injured?? Also Doc dying, wow rude. Donut and his VA are free to enjoy their break but where' was heeeeeeee where'd he goooooo he was barely mentioned at aaaalllllllll >:(

Sarge's death speech was surprisingly long and clear even though his lungs were probably pierced, cauterized or no.

On one hand I have a hard time seeing Sarge dying peacefully in a bed instead of in battle but he didn't have to stay at that doorway after they got back. He didn't have to die there. I'm glad he went back for Caboose though cuz that is one his boys (even if he's a dirty Blue).

Grif and Simmons talking about him at his grave was pretty good scene and so was the campfire reminiscing one but again, Sarge didn't have to die and I refuse a world where Grif and Simmons would go their separate ways like that. No wonder Gus and Geoff were shocked to find out this was the last season.

I got so excited the second I recognized Tex's knuckle crack ;o;

So close to a proper Tex and Caro combo, though I do get that they wouldn't work well together because of their history and different fighting styles :( Still, even if AI boosted, Tucker shouldn't be anywhere near good enough to go against both.

Also they got Kathleen back for Tex, John Erler for North and Samantha Ireland for CT??? Couldn't have seen that coming. Also Miles was aight doing Elijah Wood's voice but I guess a lot of it was helped by the voice mods.

Beta may have been "a failure" and Sigma is a bitch but his speech at her felt really off. She was still a major part of Alpha and the memories of Allison were the reason the rest of the pieces came to be in the first place. The Meta collective tried to catch her both in cases of the og Tex and Epsi-Tex, so Sigma full on rejecting her and the rest not reacting at all was really weird.

"This time, I'm not based on his memories, I'm based on theirs. And I always kicked their asses." A nice change of pace re: Beta as Alpha's/Allison's "failure". ....

Chex has embedded itself deep into my brain, so of course I Felt Things seeing them interact one last time fr fr. Tex finally got to go out with some agency of her own, yet we've come a full circle, they're back together again as Leonard and Allison. At least one good ending. Easily the best part of the movie.

Security working from home extremely funny, but the bit went on for too long and video calls w/ technical issues bc haha relatable feels like an overdone trope already

Felix being included as a part of the Meta was kinda weird? He never really interacted with the armor or the AI to warrant it I think.

Niner and Sheila :)

No Junior :(

So uh. Tucker got no closure re:Epsilon's death and just kinda. Walks it off after the possession is over? After Wash and Memory!Doc had that talk about the things an AI in your head does to you??

Speaking of Wash:

I know he's always been linked to memory and I actually like how they handled his brain damage in the Shisno Paradox, but I just have a very different image of how he feels about the PFL folks in the aftermath. To me Carolina always seemed more like the type to feel regret over how things went with PFL; she was kind of in a leadership position, had her tragic relationship with York and she felt taking down the Director was her duty.

Wash did arguably have a lot more positive ties to others than she did during the Project, but he was ready to burn it all down while in Recovery duty. I always thought he would have a lot harder time moving past his own trauma of getting left behind to get back to the good memories. Regrets about Doc I can kinda understand since they had time to work together while at Chorus after Wash's villain arc was over, but again, the man carries a grudge like it's a badge of honor. He didn't exactly get closure with his former teammates, aside from collecting the AI from their dead bodies after he'd been left alone following the fall of the MoI and after South shot him in the back. It's interesting how differently Shisno trilogy and S19 handled how Wash and Carolina feel about the whole thing, but I'm glad they stick together regardless. I love their relationship so much.

Wash staying silent when the recovery unit is broken..... Ngl I'm kinda obsessed with how he and Epsilon never got closure

I still don't have interest in checking out Zero....

Woulda been a lot better if they just let Trocadero do the music :( As predicted, the movie OST lacked the personality the series OST was built on and somehow including one track from them felt a bit of an insult. A reminder of what could've been. Also I didn't like the "oohh this part is super loud because movie" bits

Tragically obvious how rushed the production was and how they had a lot less people and resources to work with

If Shisno was a mixed bag of some high highs and a lot of lows, this was relatively steadily ok. Some dips, at least one peak. Not nearly as good as what precedes it but. ok. I can take it as one possibility

Sigh. The funky space marines are finally free. (I'm not, these fuckers seem to continue to fail evacuating my brain)

#red vs blue #rvb #rvb19 spoilers #rvb restoration #rvb restoration spoilers

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