#terri immortal desires

[distraughtlesbian]

the world if terri immortaldesires was somehow made aware of the existence of vampires prior to the beginning of book 1 and that’s why she packed up her entire life and fucked off to crimson beech. also the world if she became a vampire hunter immediately post-nexus trial shitshow

[hydn-jpg]

this is a sketch i did for children's day! (5th may in korea so this is from quite a while ago haha) i never had any plans to post this (which is why it's kinda jank lol) but i'm working on something Big™ rn so i thought i'd post this in the meantime!

translation here bc i'm too lazy to edit the image:

jiwon kim (age 1)

cas: you were so chubby lol

gabe: so cute!

mc's mom: isn't my jiwon just the cutest?

jiwon (my mc): moooooooomm!!

[m0nchoices]

cas and gabe got mad lucky endearing themselves to mc's mom in the circumstances they did. imagine them both having to meet the parent in a normal way

personal mc thoughts below:

my mc (duane banks) is gonna have to drop so much on her at once . like, "yes i have a boyfriend. yes i have two of them. yes they are vampires. no i am not in danger. yes they are dating also. yes". better than me fr because id simply leave her in the dark forever

[aria-ashryver]

A Pinch of Sugar

Book: Immortal Desires Characters: Seth Olsen-Cooper, Terri O'Rinn Ratings/Warnings: General, recurring food motif Words: 2K

Summary: Seth sees Terri buying cookies for "her son". (Fic takes place within the SICSIG timeline, some months after CH33 when Seth and Terri first cook stew and dumplings together).

A/N: Participating in Choices May Challenge 2024 | Prompt: "I'll take care of you". (Honestly, the “Have you ever been struck by a sudden desire for - soup?” prompt works too. Stew is nearly soup, right?)

Tagging: @choicesficwriterscreations @choicesmaychallenge24 @lilyoffandoms @stars-are-within-me

Seth’s lunchbox was a cheery sky blue. It was a huge, circular affair; an insulated metal canister with a handle at the top, that unscrewed to reveal a number of little compartments for cold cuts, for snacks, for soup, for cutlery.

The paint wasn’t even scratched yet, because Terri had only just bought it.

For him.

She’d bought Seth his own lunch box.

It was brisk outside, today; the sky a slate grey and smelling like the edge of rain, a line of seagulls slicing through the air to wing their way toward the docks. Probably not smart weather to be sitting outside in, eating lunch alone on the steps behind the gymnasium. But here he was all the same; concrete cold beneath his thighs, lunchbox warm and perched on his knees.

Curls of steam rose up from the stew and dumplings. Ever since Terri had taught him the recipe all those months ago, the beef stew had become one of his safe foods.

Seth huffed a breath, pushing a piece of onion around the bowl with his spoon, his feelings all tangled up in his throat.

He’d come to know the taste of many things, sitting at the O’Rinn’s dinner table.

The crisp snap of Anzac biscuits, butter clinging to his fingertips to leave little smudgy fingerprints on the edges of the newspaper when he helped Terri finish her crossword puzzle.

The creamy indulgence of fettucine alfredo, and the carb-laden groan Luca would always make when they got to the end of their bowl. The second, louder groan that always came on the heels of the first when they remembered it was their turn on dish duty.

The way the taste of Twizzlers grew rubbery and numb on his tongue at 5:27am, when he’d eaten his way through yet another packet, over yet another round of Mario Kart, and Luca had finally passed out beside him on the couch.

The slightly lumpy mashed potatoes Terri made to go with her red-wine braised lamb shanks, that he’d honestly thought would cause him all sorts of sensory issues at first. Until he’d quickly learned that the lumps were his favourite part.

He’d only ever had instant, powdered mash potato under the foster care system. It had tasted like dust.

All of his meals did.

Terri put butter and milk in her mashed potatoes.

Salt, and pepper, and understanding, somehow. Kindness. Care. Sometimes she’d put garlic, or crispy little bacon bits and chives, or some other secret thing. Once, there would have been a time where he couldn’t handle the unpredictable deviations from the norm. The unexpected textures.

Now, he didn’t care as much, because it wasn’t the ingredients that made the potatoes taste the way they did.

Terri O’Rinn’s lumpy mashed potatoes told him, “I'll take care of you”.

They tasted like being loved.

At least, Seth thought that was probably what being loved felt like. No one had ever really…

He’d never had…

Seth swiped a finger around the rim of his lunchbox, sucked at the savoury richness of the stew until the bowl was licked clean.

He wasn’t even really that hungry, to be honest. He just didn’t want to waste it.

It had been a really long time since Seth had gone hungry.

Supermarket lights were one of the few things that drove him mad when it came to being a vampire. Something about the combination of flickering halogens and the hugeness —the sterile off-whiteness— of grocery stores never failed to give him a headache.

Seth hurried through the supermarket —but not too fast; human, human, gotta look human; gosh, these lights are nasty; don’t walk too fast, you’re totally human; nod politely at Mr Philips in the produce section; oh, that’s right, need to finish those homework questions for economics; Luca probably forgot to do his, too— shuffling to a halt in the aisle where all the candy was.

He grabbed a brightly-coloured pack of Twizzlers from the shelf. Two, actually. Because Luca had been staying with Gabriel a lot more often lately, but the past few nights they’d been home, and maybe they would want to play Mario Kart with him again sometime.

Seth was just making his way to the checkout when he caught sight of Terri across the store.

‘Oh, aren’t these cute!’

Terri beamed, laughter in her smile, peering at a display of baked goods near the checkouts.

‘I should get some of these cookies for my son!’ she told the clerk. ‘He absolutely loves cats. Our Minnie adores him.’

As Terri paid for her purchases, chatting happily with the girl at the counter about their pets, Seth found himself frowning. He tucked himself behind a shelf full of bread loaves, lurking where Terri wouldn’t see him.

It wasn’t like her to slip up like that.

Luca hated “son”.

It was one of the gendered terms they despised the most. Seth knew, because he’d asked Terri on four separate occasions exactly how and when he should be using Luca’s pronouns, and what words to avoid. Luca had been so kind to him these past months. Welcoming. He’d hate to get it all wrong and upset them.

“Son” was an absolute no-go.

He knew, because he kept a list in his wallet, and he’d re-read it until he knew it by heart, and still checked it now and then, just in case he’d forgotten.

Pronouns: he/they. Alternate between them, don’t just use one.

“Dude” is a term they like, so is “lad”.

“Boy” is fine sometimes, but it’s not their favourite. Context dependent. Maybe re-work the sentence to use something else instead.

“Man” makes him deeply uncomfortable, and “bro” is hugely dependent on who it comes from.

Under no circumstances should he ever refer to Luca as Terri’s “son”.

Seth hadn’t asked about “brother”, on account of that seemed really presumptuous.

And besides, Seth thought. The mere thought of even asking whether Luca might ever consider himself Seth’s brother made funny little bubbles fizz around in his stomach, like he was a can of cola that had fallen with a heavy thunk off of one of the supermarket shelves, and now he was whizzing around in sticky, dizzying spirals on the linoleum in Embarrassing Coke-Can Hell.

Or something.

A wave of clammy discomfort washed over him. Seth fiddled with the frayed threads at the edge of his sleeve.

But, then again, Seth supposed, trying his best to blend in with the loaves of bread —which wasn’t hard, because sliced bread was very boring, and Cas said he was the most boring person he’d ever met, so maybe Seth had been a loaf of bread in a past life or something, which would go a long way toward explaining his complete inability to ever have a normal conversation with anyone— it wasn’t exactly like he was an expert in being non-binary. He hadn’t even known that was a thing until a year or two ago.

Maybe Luca had just changed their mind about the “son” thing?

…or maybe not?

Ragged, grey threads drifted down onto the linoleum, littering the floor by his shoes.

He’d ask Terri about it again. Just to be sure.

Seth stopped by his room at the Nexus. Or rather, he tried to; he wound his way through the underground corridors, arriving outside his door only to have the keypad flash red when he tried to key in the pin code to his room.

He tried again.

“No Entry”.

Confused, he bumbled his way back through the labyrinthine halls, picking his way to Astoria’s office.

‘I had that room cleared out about a month ago,’ Astoria told him, waving him in. Her eyes pinched in mild confusion. ‘I had assumed your living situation with the O’Rinns had become something of a permanent arrangement.’

‘Oh. Okay.’

Astoria paused, her pen hovering above her documents. ‘Is it not?’

Eyes downcast, Seth shrugged. ‘I dunno,’ he mumbled.

He’d learned not to ask questions.

It always worked better when you were quiet. Helpful. Well-behaved. Didn’t ask too many questions. Questions were the kicker. As soon as you asked too many questions, that was when they dumped you back in foster care.

Or… the vampire den, in this case.

Astoria jiggled her pen between her fingers. ‘You’re not in the least bit curious?’

Seth scuffed the toe of his shoe on the floor and said nothing.

A quiet sigh slipped past Astoria’s lips. She flicked her paperwork aside. In all honesty, Seth couldn’t tell if something had her amused or if she was seconds away from throttling him; she shoved out of her chair, crossing her office in two quick strides to tug a duffel bag from a closet.

‘Here. The last of your things from your old room.’

Seth caught the bag on reflex. It was lighter than he’d expected, but that shouldn’t have surprised him, really. He’d never had that many belongings of his own.

‘I had it cleared out a few weeks ago,’ Astoria explained. ‘Remus is staying there for the time being. But, Seth?’

As much as he disliked doing so, Seth forced himself to make eye contact.

‘That doesn’t mean you aren’t welcome here, too, do you understand that? Family is who you choose to love, and trust, and protect. If you want that to mean the O’Rinns, as well as the Venandis… that’s okay.

Nice Astoria might be even more terrifying than Regular Astoria, Seth thought. She slipped back into her seat and he nodded.

‘Okay. Um. I should head home,’ he said by way of farewell, startled to realise he did actually think of the O’Rinn’s house that way. ‘Thanks, Astoria.’

Astoria smiled after him as the door swung shut.

Home.

What a concept.

‘Seth! Hi, dear!’

Terri was in the kitchen again when Seth arrived… home. She brightened as he entered, bustling over to steer him toward the dining table, where a plastic clam-shell container sat on the warm, age-scarred wood.

‘Here — look what I found at the supermarket!’

Seth took a seat. A number of cookies peered back at him from behind their glossy plastic shell; chocolate, vanilla, caramel, the flavours all mixed and patterned to look like little calico cats.

‘Oh,’ he said, quietly. Seth’s stomach felt all funny again, and he wasn’t sure why. ‘Wow, great. I’m sure Luca will love them.’

Terri’s head whipped around, confusion skewing her expression. ‘No, they’re for you, duckie!’

Fizzing cola can.

Thunking to the floor.

Spinning around and around and around and around and—

Seth stared blankly at the cookies. ‘But you said they were for…’

‘Have some now if you like!’ Terri said, his whispered words pitched too low for her human hearing. ‘Don’t ruin your appetite, though, I’ve got dinner on.’

Seth’s mind was reeling.

Terri hummed a mellow tune to herself as she skirted back behind the kitchen counter, her fingers brushing lightly over his hair as she went.

It seemed... important, somehow, to open the container quietly. The plastic crunched beneath his clumsy fingers, the clam-shell packaging popping open to jostle the cookies about on the tray, crumbs jumping everywhere.

Seth glanced up to see if he’d made Terri mad, but she seemed happy as ever, standing at the oven and tasting the sauce on the end of her wooden spoon, nodding quietly to herself.

Fingers trembling, Seth popped a cookie into his mouth. The first bite was sugary sweet against the wash of salt on the back of his tongue. He chewed slowly, gratefully, coughing against a throat grown tight.

‘So? What’s the verdict?’ Terri called over her shoulder. ‘Are they good?’

Seth sniffed, scrubbing his wet eyes on his sleeve before Terri could see.

‘Yeah. Um. Thank you, Terri, ’ Seth said. ‘They’re perfect.’

[choices-ceri]

ID2 CHAPTER 11 SPOILERS:

Omg who

It's gonna be Terri isn't it? Y'all remember when she was on the phone with Lennox.

Terri plz don't do us like that.

[miilkyrolls]

cough it's actually terri and astoria's faul- WHO SAID THAT NOW HAHAhaha

[whoblewboobear]

GO HOME, TERRI! YOURE GOING TO GET US ALL KILLED.

[mercedesdecorazon]

If anything happens to Cas, Gabe, Terri or MC, boy... the hurt I will hurl at you PB!!! I mean it!

[somerandomjewelleryonthefloor]

Yo really weird ID scenario here but, work with me and let me microwave some leftovers for a bit: what if like how I said a few days ago with the Lewyn/Terri idea, what if that also involved Astoria in some way?

My expansion on this: ↓

Imagine if both Coven Leaders decided to be a bit closer to Terri just to spy on her AND Mc?

I can see Astoria getting close to Terri with having just principal & parent conferences over some (half true half lie) 'concerns brought to her attention over MC's behaviour in school', and then she gets in touch with Terri and starts a fake friendship with her.

Lewyn would probably try a fake friendship with Terri gradually too, slowly with having lively conversations with her when they're both overworking at the hospital and all that.

And I'd like the idea that depending on the interactions MC has with the coven leaders surrounding her mum or with her mother about befriending Dr. Junius & Principal Yao, that it could affect which route they go with? Like platonic or romantic?

Like if you make a choice that accidentally slips up a romantic thing that they could do for Terri, then they'd try that to get closer to her (and possibly succeed)

And also if you did say choices to mama Terri that leaned towards 1 over the other, then Terri would pay attention to the coven leader you were 'preferring' the majority of the time.

I'd imagine if you did that over the book/s, then something romantic between them and Terri would happen. And if it did, I'd like to think of it as a real slow-burn romance with Lewyn/Astoria to Terri. And at the end- if Terri ends up with one, then the chosen person would start having a REAL difficult time trying to not protect Terri all the time in The Nexus.

Imagine if there were diamond scenes with Astoria/Lewyn where you had to 'bond' with them while Terri was around, and depending on how many you did and how much you impressed them- then they'd slowly see your MC as less of an annoyance and possibly a child figure to some extent.

Like pls, imagine Lewyn slipping up and calling you something endearing like 'my child' and then MC had to run with it since Terri was nearby.

Imagine Astoria being slightly less annoyed with you around and giving you a genuine smile while taking of Terri in endearment?

Imagine a scene where you find Astoria/Lewyn at your house doing something like having coffee at the dining table, or something of the sort? And MC is hit with "THEY'RE GETTING WITH MY MUM WTF-"

CMON PEOPLE- extra tension in the house, more drama, more complexity within the relationships of the characters, more insight to their characters (when they're not being horrible bitches)...

I need to see Astoria/Lewyn get scared for MC's safety after seeing you outside during chapter 14-15 in the battle of Crimson Beech. PLEASE.

It'd also add another parallel to Cassy/Gabby & MC and their dynamic, the Human & Vampire dynamic.

I can see MC reminding them of Esme and Louis when she confronts them on what they're doing.

Imagine you get an option to call them "Mom/Dad" as a way to mess with them or at chapter 16 during the 'Celebration of Life' event to be nice to them, or MC slips up and says it during an argument at The Nexus with them? That'd be such a bittersweet comedy I think.

[monyrawolf21]

I have the theory that MC's father was k!lled by a vampire and maybe thats the reason why the mother us always on trouble because she wants to know the truth or she always known the truth about the vampires existence and she wanted to play along in the first book and part of the second but she didn't know until chapter 7 that Mc was a vampire

[aria-ashryver]

Elam's grin is so infectious!!! 🥰🌸 and oh my gosh, what pretty handwriting!! It's leagues better than mine haha. Of course Cas is jealous Saini let Gabriel enjoy the baking too hahaha 💝

I'm working on a Seth POV fic at the moment for the "Family" prompt for Choices February 2024 (which funnily enough fits well with this ID text post I made for the next time I do a text post dump haha)

‘Oh!’ Terri beamed, sunlight in her smile. ‘I should get some of these cookies for my son! He loves cats. Our Minnie adores him.’

As Terri paid for her purchases, chatting happily with the girl at the counter about their pets, Seth found himself frowning.

It wasn’t like her to slip up like that. Luca hated “son” — it was one of the terms they hated the most.

Seth knew, because he’d asked Terri on four separate occasions exactly how and when he should use Luca’s pronouns, and what gendered terms to avoid. Luca had been so kind to him these past few months. Welcoming. He’d hate to get it all wrong and upset them.

“Son” was an absolute no-go. He knew, because he’d written down all the things Terri had told him and re-read the list until he knew it by heart.

Pronouns: he/they. Alternate between them, don’t just use one. “Dude” is a term they like, so is “lad”. “Boy” is fine. “Man” makes them uncomfortable sometimes. Under no circumstances should he ever refer to Luca as Terri’s “son”.

He hadn’t asked about “brother”, on account of that seemed really presumptuous. And besides, the mere thought of even asking whether Luca might ever think of himself as Seth’s brother made funny little bubbles fizz around in his stomach, like he was a can of cola that had fallen with a heavy thunk onto the floor.

But, then again, Seth thought, fiddling with the frayed threads at the edge of his sleeve and doing his best to hide behind standing display of Reese’s Cups —which was hard because he’d never worn bright orange in his life, but Cas kept telling him off for lurking and staring at people like a creep, so he thought he’d give blending in a go— it wasn’t exactly like he was an expert in being non-binary. He hadn’t even known that was a thing until a year or two ago. Maybe Luca had just changed their mind about the whole “son” thing. Or maybe not.

He’d ask Terri about it again. Just to be sure.

Tagging anyone who sees this to share their WIPS if they want! ✨

WIP Wednesday

Since it’s TCH chapter day, have a sketch of some Kieran x Elam art I’m working on. Trying a new style hair for Kieran (again) and giving them some beautiful features that PB continually denies us.

I’ll tag anyone that wants to share with me. Please please share with me. I’m soooooo bored and I’m alone tonight in an empty house and gods am I bored. Please distract me haha

[theendorisit]

I want to talk about some fun stuff I have had knocking around my head regarding the Magnus archives 

Note: is it Canon? I don’t know and I don’t care. @jonnywaistcoat gave us a bunch of fun toys to play with. I wanna play with them. I am not gonna tell anyone if their opinions on Magnus are right or wrong because it doesn’t matter! it’s a story. It’s fiction. It doesn’t matter if you picture white Archivist, black Archivist, asian Archivist - that’s how we end up with fun stuff like mermaid Tim! Imagine everything, and anything - it doesn’t matter, and that’s the fun of it! Also, I am keenly aware I am (checks watch) 8 years late to this fandom and I may be spouting stuff long since discussed, so forgive me if I am getting excited discovering long trodden ground.

I digress. So. One of the many things I love about Magnus is the fun and very clear metaphors that are used to describe the entities/ fears and what’s going on in the story. One of my favourites is the colour wheel theory. During the show I would get confused between the different entities particularly the stranger and the spiral but if the entities are like colours then this makes perfect sense: they do bleed into each other. So I wanted to try and transcribe these entities onto colours not thinking so much about which particular colour I think they ought to be, but how they complement or clash with each other. Disclaimer, not an artist. At all. I don’t know if I’ll do a good job - but that’s not really what I wanna talk about. 

Death/Terminus/The End isn’t a colour. Death is black-and-white. And death isn’t like any of the others.

This is just to say, that the way I read it - death, as an entity, is treated differently.

Jonny himself said in calls and livestreams that death was actually his main fear, maybe still is? So that might lend itself to different considerations.

In TMA, death is described as the fear of death, dying and nonexistence and all of that cosmological shit that most of us feel. However, TMA stories of death also include the opposite fear which is the fear of not being able to die. This is equivalent to the Eye finding someone who is afraid of being watched and putting them in a box, where no one can ever see them again.  The fact that this person in the pyramid can’t die and wants to, the fact the reapers, in escaping death achieve basic immortality - and often are not so sure they like it - this would be a very weird way to create a fear of death, by creating an apparent desire for it! 

So I think within the universe, this fear is special because it encapsulates itself and its opposite - whereas the other fears have distinct opposites which are separate entities (buried and vast, eye and dark). Not only that, but as season 5 showed us, there are fears that can combine and match with each other, and there’s no fear that death DOESN’T complement!  Like yes, actual death will stop fear, but a healthy dose of the fear of dying will go with everything. So in the colour wheel theory, I say fear of death is black and creates shades with other colours, and fear of not-death is white and creates tints (I just really like this metaphor!).

I’d love to make anthropomorphic art of the entities as individuals, and groups of individuals, based on matching colours. Example - Death, The Buried, The Corruption all work together as a buried alive fear. Unfortunately my fine art skills are dismal, so I’ll let more talented people have a go if they like this idea. I get why I haven’t seen so much of this, as the avatars kind of do this anthropomorphism, but death itself as a concept has been characterised for thousands of years (I am a big fan of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s versions!), and we have 4 (+1?) horsemen of the apocalypse bringing war and pestilence into humanoid form so I reckon it could be pretty interesting how people envision the entities. Personally I imagine the vast like Junji Ito’s Spiral-faced girl (she’ll pull you in!).

Anyway, that’s my perspective on blending fears like colours, and why Death really isn’t like any of the others.

[im-galazy]

caressing Terri for last time before she probably dies in Immortal Desires 2

[m0nchoices]

finally finished immortal desires book 2! honestly i'm pretty satisfied overall, i liked a lot of what we got and rly only have like. one complaint tbh

so tldr; glad terri's keeping her memories, happy to officially pair up with both vampires, and very glad there's gonna be a book 3. hopefully without ai please please please

longer thoughts:

excited for the larger role terri might be able to have come book 3, since she was allowed to keep her memories this time around. i imagine she won't be the only one though, since the story briefly mentioned libby keeping some memories which like, on that note..

whatever happened to the whole mc's human friends plotline? at the start i thought it'd actually amount to smth but iirc it really doesn't? not even libby really gets much which is odd, considering how much we kept going back to her. it might be a book 3 thing? idk if there was enough setup in that case though

my only other critique was with seth's funeral bc like... again, i don't think they developed him enough to really make me feel much? like, i liked seth but... with how emotional everyone was in his funeral scene, i imagine they thought players would be sobbing and the mark was missed -- on me at least.

like, they had to invent a scene that we never even saw to endear him to us, during the funeral scene which shouldn't be necessary. he really needed a bigger role in this book to make this all work, maybe having him and mc train together (since they're both so new), and tag along during the little exile arc. just something tbh

-

but negatives aside, SO so happy we could finally officially be with our chosen vamp. i went w/ both bc im a sucker and i enjoyed the scenes we got. i especially enjoyed:

solely bc it feeds into gabecasmc. i think gabecas has a genuine chance in the next book and im rly excited, happy for mc and all but i rly want all three to be down and shit. idk

and final thought . witches for book 3? with the mention they got at the start of the chapter + the runes on the tree and cas' powers still needing development, i think its the most likely route. wonder what the next collection we'll get will be, maybe mc could learn spells as well? just excited omg

and real final thought fuck this outfit in specific. gabe and cas r so lucky mc is whipped bc i wouldve denied

[aria-ashryver]

Hii 🥰

Has your MC / OC or Li ever been sent to the principals office? And if yes why?

If not themselves have their kids ever been sent to the principals office? If so why?

Luca has combined type ADHD (and trauma relating to their father), so yes, they were in the principal's office quite often, because of "acting out"

(which absolutely wasn't him acting out at all, he just has so much shit to process! Luca is not built for sitting quietly at a desk all day.)

When Terri was called in, she was 110% on Luca's side, chewing the faculty out for not providing the needed accommodations for mentally ill and neurodivergent students, and asking them how many other student they were letting down? What about students with physical disabilities? Is the school making any accommodations for them? Does this place even have wheelchair ramps?

(Luca and Terri in the office like)

The school was kinda relieved when, at age 14, Luca enrolled at a specialised Arts Academy instead of continuing with regular schooling... bc it meant they didn't have to deal with Terri's rants any more lol

But alternative schooling worked soooo much better for him!! Classes at Avalon meant Luca could lean into the physical and creative side of learning (particularly with their ballet and dance classes), so they definitely weren't typecast as a "problem child" at their second school 😊

Ty for the ask hun! I haven't actually had a chance to talk about pre-Avalon Luca yet, so this was nice 💖💖

[choices-ceri]

The way Terri didn't move to defend herself/attack MC in anyway, even though she was very much in a life threatening situation.

My mom would have knocked me into next year.