#represent her children

[fatherforgivethem]

What a sad reality for those who merely wish to worship.

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[alicentalicent]

in episode 1x06 we see how alicent interacts with each of her children, considering that she shows her affection with touch.

she touches helaena's arm, which openly displeases helaena.

in the same scene she hugs aemond, and he sinks into it. (i like that both moments happen in the same scene, with the two children she's affectionate with)

then we have aegon, the child she does not give affection to, but rather grabs his face harshly.

she then realizes she lost control a bit and was too harsh, even if it was to protect him and make him understand what's at stake, and she brushes his hair, trying to soothe the hurt she already inflicted.

it does not work.

[tantaliart]

strahd von fucking zarovich

[acourtofquestions]

Aelin.

He had no voice here, but he spoke her name. Threw it across the gulf between them.

Slowly, she turned to him.

It was her face—or it would be in a few years. When she Settled.

But it wasn't the slightly older features that knocked the breath from him.

It was the hand on her rounded belly.

She stared toward him, hair still flowing.

Behind her, four small figures emerged.

Rowan fell to his knees.

The tallest: a girl with golden hair and pine-green eyes, solemn-faced and as proud as her mother. The boy beside her, nearly her height, smiled at him, warm and bright, his Ashryver eyes near-glowing beneath his cap of silver hair.

The boy next to him, silver-haired and green-eyed, might as well have been Rowan's twin.

And the smallest girl, clinging to her mother's legs ... A fine-boned, silver-haired child, little more than a babe, her blue eyes harking back to a lineage he did not know.

Children. His children. Their children.

With another mere weeks from being born.

His family.

The family he might have, the future he might have. The most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

Aelin.

[spelllingandthemysteryschool]

we must rid this world of the specter of The Girl

[herrscherofmagic]

losing my mind over this comparison

[bumblingbabooshka]

Patreon, November: Rag Dolly "S'veyk doesn't remember her mother much but she has dreams where she's looking at the sky and knows her mother is behind her and that time is running out. She wants to turn and look at her but for some reason it's an impossible task - and then she starts sinking into the ground and the sky gets further and further away until she wakes up.

S'veyk's conditioned fear response is 'freeze.'...she is naturally very conflict averse which is fine to a point but often means people don't actually get to know her and she isn't able to forge many strong bonds" [Patreon | Commissions]

[shadowglens]

she knew herself, how she had slowly, over years, become a cat, a wolf, a snake, anything but a girl. how she had wrung out her girlhood like death. (x)

taglist (ask to be added/removed):

@risingsh0t, @faerune, @zahra-hydris, @jennystahl, @carrionsflower, @fenharel, @loriane-elmuerto, @auricfog, @tommyarashikage, @thedeadthree, @arborstone, @imogenkol,

[lachispipreciosa]

When Sephiroth grew a little taller, he was immediately dressed with the classic Sephiroth uniform we all know and love.

But here’s the thing.

It was too tight.

Very, very tight.

The poor man felt like he couldn’t breathe.

But of course they wouldn’t care. It’s Shinra. All they want is to push their golden child into the spotlight and receive all the praise and money.

Loads and loads of money!

But Sephiroth was very good at hiding it all behind a stoic mask, because he’s supposed to be obedient.

A good obedient SOLDIER.

Shinra’s Stamp.

He could hear many things.

The screams and whistles of his admirers, the laughter from Heidegger, the band going louder, people chanting his name, the Shinra flags being waved at everywhere, and most importantly…

The loud beating of his heart.

He was breathing heavily.

The young man gripped the handle of the sword tightly.

Asides from the president and executives, one was staring at everything like a hawk, that was Hojo.

Hojo knew. He knew the boy was stressed.

All what Sephiroth had was eighteen.

It is foolish to ask for help around this age, or so that’s what Hojo made him believe.

Sephiroth adverts his eyes.

“Come on. Keep your posture. You’re their hero. Don’t mess this up.”

He talks to himself quite a lot. If it’s a way to calm down, then so be it.

He has a feeling he will embarrass Hojo more than he will embarrass himself.

He couldn’t think much once he heard the loud ceremonial horn.

It is time.

He breathes in… and out.

“Don’t mess this once, Sephiroth.”

The gates open, and the sound of the chains grows louder and louder.

“Don’t… mess… this… up.”

The Bahamut roars, entering the arena.

Sephiroth would move… but his uniform’s tightness makes it almost impossible for him to breathe.

But he can manage, because he’s Sephiroth, SOLDIER First Class.

Not enough space, for the Bahamut is making it difficult.

Badum, badum.

Everything hurts.

Badum, badum.

It hurts… so much.

Badum, badum.

He couldn’t take it anymore.

The moment the Bahamut ran at full speed towards the legendary war hero, Sephiroth grabbed his closed turtleneck and ripped it open, letting out an exaggerated gasp.

He was able to breathe.

Not only did he manage to cut the monster in half, but his captivating long silver hair, which was usually wrapped in a ponytail, was freed from the rubber band.

He felt… free.

The hell with how unusual he looks, his chest needs air.

As for his hair? Let it run down.

He couldn’t been more relieved.

Regardless of the events, Shinra will never set him free.

He will never have a life of his own.

He will always remain loyal to Shinra… like a good SOLDIER that he is.

[the-owl-tree]

more thoughts from yesterday's discussion. what a waste of moth flight for the trial, she's a perfect antagonist for leafpool. they're both daughters of a clan leader, they both have a higher connection to starclan, they both discovered an important spiritual place, and they both, in some regard, had to give up their children.

however unlike moth flight, leafpool knew when to ask for help and she wasn't afraid to lean on her family, her children rejected her but she ultimately gave them a better life compared to moth flight, and while moth flight has defined her existence to protecting a cruel law, leafpool could've (and quite frankly should've) been the one to defy and ultimately destroy it.

[ntaras]

it always shocks me that there are people who dislike ambessa and the same people who dislike ambessa love silco like you love a bad father why can’t you love a bad mother…

they’re both horrible people who soooo deeply love their children. one sent her beloved daughter away because she was her weakness while the other kept his beloved daughter possessively close with him because she was his weakness i don’t see how you could love one but hate the other

silco has enough defenders and ambessa has many people who love her but she truly deserves the same amount of immense defense of her parenting that silco gets

[mightydyke]

The Xenogenesis series is so fucking good. With each book, the ending gets more hopeful, the protagonist is less human and I found myself sympathising more with the Oankali and less with the humans (although I can't bring myself to "pick a side", Butler's portrayal of both is so nuanced and makes me feel so conflicted in the best way possible.) At first the Oankali are presented as colonisers, forcing the humans to mate with them and sterilising those who don't in a pretty clear parallel to eugenics, but in the second book this role is reversed when Akin is kidnapped by human resistors and they want to force him to be more human, trying to cut him off from his Oankali way of life. The scene that really drove this point in for me was when some humans were plotting to cut off the tentacles of those two Construct children, even though it could kill them. There's a reading group question about this in the back of my copy, about possible parallels between this and our own world, and yeah. FGM and the treatment of Native American children in residential schools spring to mind. It's crazy how astute Butler is and how this scene, which is about half-alien children, is still so true to life. But even then, there are sympathetic humans, like Tate and Gabe and Yori. They still make mistakes, but mostly out of a lack of understanding, like Tate not returning Akin to his family and Gabe interrupting him when he's healing Tate.

And the endings! Dawn: Lilith has been impregnated against her will, being led away by Nikanj, her plan to get to Earth and run away has failed. Adulthood Rites: Akin has secured the Mars colony for humans. Despite not being allowed to reproduce and live on Earth, the future of the human race is secured. The town Phoenix is burning, but there's still a sense of hope (also the symbolism of Phoenix adds to this hope. And it's so clever!! I love Butler's symbolism so much). Imago: Jodhas and Aaor have been accepted by a human village, Jodhas plants a seed that will grown into a town. Planting a seed is such a symbol of hope, but this seed will grow into a ship that will devour the Earth of resources, leaving it a husk. Also the different narrators! Lilith and Akin don't narrate their own stories directly, only Jodhas' story is written in the first-person. Lilith is human, Akin and Jodhas are half human, but Jodhas is an ooloi, which seem less human than male and female Oankali. Lilith wants humans to escape from the Oankali, and Akin fights for the humans to be allowed to continue to exist without breeding with the Oankali. But Jodhas is the opposite. It seduces humans into wanting to mate with it. It represents the gene-trade mission. Yet it's story is told in the first-person. I'll be honest, I felt sympathetic towards Jodhas whilst knowing that I probably shouldn't. I found it's relationship with Jesusa and Tomas to be very sweet, I was happy for it! When it didn't tell them that them staying with it throughout it's metamorphosis would hormonally bond them for life, I obviously saw it as terrible. To chemically bond someone to you for life without their consent is awful. And the way that the Ooloi are so good at convincing humans, like when Aaor and Jodhas go to Jesusa and Tomas' community and Aaor instantly gets mates! That humans would immediately want to mate with something they have been brought up to fear their whole lives shows the power of the Ooloi's manipulation. And yet I still feel compassion for them. Butler's writing creates empathy for every single character. The way she writes is as seductive and convincing as an Ooloi's scent.

[dippers-doodles]

“A fierce champion, I am sure.”

- - -

“You look sharp. Well done soldier.”

[lala-blahblah]

I will never make this because it would be for an audience of one (me) but ever since reading "If we Were Villains" (story about serious drama kids in college who perform shakespeare and deal with a murder) I have been entertaining the thought of a crack fic crossover with High School Musical The Musical The Series where the staff decides they will no longer put on shakespeare after the tragic accident that happened at Thanksgiving, because Shakespeare plays would only increase the tension and drama. So they hire Ms. Jen who decides their spring play will actually be High School Musical (which exists in the 90s in this universe) and it ruins the vibe so much that everyone gives up on being dark and mysterious because they're universally pissed at Ms Jen for making them learn choreoraphed basketball dancing.

[airandangels]

You know how sometimes someone tells an anecdote from their childhood in a manner that suggests that while they see it was not cool, they have not yet begun to process how fucked up it actually was?

That's the opening anecdote in Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams.

[death-rebirth-senshi]

I once saw a post that was like "Radahn and Malenia are half siblings what beef could they have" and like you cannot possibly comprehend the beef that half-siblings children of divorce can have with one another.