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silverthehedgehogharacteristics · 26 days ago

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Silver the Hedgehog Characteristics

Justice - Driven by a strong Sense of Justice. Very confrontational because of this(Has zero tolerance for injustices and things like breaking promises, will take on anyone to right wrongs or help his friends(Mario & Sonic 2020)). Seeks to settle scores(Sonic Forces) and get back for those that have been wronged(or himself if you mess with him). Sometimes grapples with doing the right thing. His wish is to maintain peace, not to eradicate evil(Sonic & Silver).

Hope & Optimism/Positivity - Embodies hope and does not give into despair no matter the circumstances(fought through the Iblis future in the hopes of seeing a blue sky). Believes “There’s always hope as long as you don’t give up”(JP Sonic Forces quote). Inspires hope in others in the darkest moments(Sonic 06 last episode, Sonic Forces, helping Elise through her performance anxiety in Otherworld Comedy). Has an “Honest, unpretentious and kind demeanor”(Sonic Channel Staff Column Wallpaper) and an Enchanting Smile(His smile fills Elise with trust and joy during their performance in Otherworld Comedy and a recipient he serves apple slices to can’t say no to his smile even though they're full already in Wallpaper Comedy 2022). When he is down it does not take much to bring him back up(Sonic Rivals 2). “His way of life inspires people and makes them want to watch over him and cheer him on forever”(Sonic & Silver).

Kind - Is an Altruist with a strong desire to help others. “Does not want to use his powers for himself but to help others”(Sonic Channel Otherworld Comedy). His kindness is the only thing that can make him drop his mission as he can’t say no to a sad face and will stop to help those in need(Amy in 06, Soleanna Post Office in Sonic Pict). Actively goes out and does things like serve apple slices, deliver Christmas presents, play holiday mascots and engage in Cheerful Activities(Sonic & Silver). Wants to become a hero because it means being someone that can ‘protect smiles’, wants to “protect smiles” and make people happy because he grew up in a world where everyone lived in despair(Sonic & Silver).

Peace - Lives and fights for World Peace. Greatly empathetic to the world around him so his feelings reflect the state of the environment. Destroyed environments sadden and upset him while Beautiful Scenery and places with people prospering/living happily leave him breathless(in contrast to the apocalyptic suffering, darkness and devastation he’s experienced). Blue Skies make him feel at peace and people’s Smiles make him smile. Peace, blue skies and smiles are very important to him and he is vicious to anything that threatens them. His head quills are in the shape of a Japanese Red Maple Leaf which represents peace and prosperity.

Determination - Determined to protect peace. Arguably the most determined character. Doesn’t give up easily(got exact hedgehog apple slices after 40 tries) no matter how badly he’s hurt or how hopeless the situation. Has no regard for pain/massive pain tolerance(Kept fighting undeterred after being kicked in the head by Shadow and skipped across the street like a rock by Sonic in Generations, endures "pain beyond description” caused by his powers in Sonic & Silver).

Forthright - Straightforward and Honest(Sonic & Silver) to a fault, he cannot tell a lie(Sonic and Silver) though he can change the subject(“Circumstances have changed”, ending of Rivals 2). Is direct, blunt and wears his heart on his sleeve. Like his namesake he is said to have purity(Sonic & Silver). Is straightforward, outgoing and blunt in contrast to Blaze being shy and reserved.

Brash - Described as “Young and Immature” by his creator Shun Nakamura. Is juvenile(indicated in the Japanese terms that describe him as “young”). So straightforward and honest that he’s Rude and Blunt. He has no filter and will call you an idiot to your face if he thinks you’re an idiot. So straightforward and blunt that he often manners and social customs(Sonic Rivals 1/2, how he approaches NPCs in 06, even Sonic says that he has an attitude in Sonic Rivals). Abrasive and quick to insult both enemies and competition(mocks Sonic after beating him in 06, sneers at competition in Rivals 1/2 and Riders Zero Gravity, insults everything that gets in his way in Rivals 1/2, insults Eggman after stopping the Eclipse Cannon in Wallpaper Comedy 2021). Has a snotty attitude towards anything he one ups(“Can’t you do better?”). Prone to sarcastic remarks(“What am I doing?” when traveling with Amy in 06, "They think THAT is what the future is like? Please." in Colors DS). Headstrong(Offended when treated like an amateur in Otherworld Comedy Act 8, explodes at Jet’s provocations in Mario and Sonic). Has a Mischievous Side(Commemorative Illustration Series). In Japanese he uses informal/rude impressions “Ore”(I) and “Anta”(You)(instead of the polite “Anata”), points directly at people talks to(confrontational rude gesture) and crosses his legs while sitting(roughly the Japanese equivalent to putting your feet on a table). Informal overall in contrast to the polite mannered Future Trunks.

Naive - Has a Black and White mindset/Innocent in his ideals(06). Expects people to believe him when he says he’s from the future or explains outlandish situations just because he knows them to be true(Which causes people to think he’s crazy). Can be unfamiliar with things in the past. Can sometimes take things literally(has an angry “What’s so funny?” attitude when he doesn’t understand things. Says “Yes, why?” when Espio says “you want me to believe that?”).

Sentimental - Appreciates little things and finds great beauty in nature and simple parts of the world that most people take for granted(Calls Dusty Desert beautiful, comments on the beauty of a beach in TSR). This side of him ties into his peace themes due to his ability to appreciate beauty and serenity(also what a maple leaf represents) in various forms. Enjoys sightseeing and going on journeys(Colors DS, Olympic Games, Sonic Pict) because of this. Can be Introspective/contemplative(sits paused on his mission to destroy the Iblis Trigger to think about the morality of his actions in 06, thinks heavily about his worries about Dodon Pa in TSR). Says his favorite moment in racing is “seeing everyone come together and giving their all for a single objective”(Team Vector Interview).

Emotional - High-Spirited and Hot-blooded. Emotionally immature and unregulated. Feels joy and rage loudly but sadness and contemplation quietly. can get loud and carried away when riled up(06 design docs, Mario and Sonic 2020). Puts his all into what he gets invested in(I’m giving this everything I’ve got!). Easily angered(Gets indignant when Soleanna officials don’t listen to him in Sonic & Silver)/has a vindictive temper like Blaze(he’ll twist you up if you mess with him). Needs to be calmed down/held back at times(2012, 2020 Olympic Games, why he has stoic partners like Blaze, Shadow and Espio). Dead quiet when contemplating his dilemma and the loss of Blaze in 06 or thinking about his anxious feelings in TSR. Can deal with things too head-on or take on everything himself because of the strength of his feelings(Sonic & Silver) which can make him Impulsive and Reckless(such as when he goes to fight Ifinit in Sonic Forces ). Is passionate and controlled by his emotions while Sonic and Shadow are calm and cool(Sonic & Silver).

Warrior - fought and struggled for half his lifetime in the hellish Iblis future(Sonic & Silver), constantly fighting against Iblis, Iblis monsters and putting out disasters including Flame Tornadoes to bring peace to the world(06). Shadow describes him as a Fighter in Team Sonic Racing. Enjoys Fighting and can be quick to start fights(Fights almost everyone for both in Rivals 1+2 and Infinite in Forces, almost fights Blaze in Colors DS and Otherworld Comedy and Bowser Jr and Jet in the Olympic Games). Extremely Brave(Self-sacrificial, no regard for his own safety and will sacrifice himself at a moment’s notice(Sonic Comic Pumpkin Trigger), Instant fight response when surprised in Sonic Generations, does not back down in the face powerful threats like Iblis, Infinite or large disasters, fought Iblis monsters since he was Cream’s age). Values bravery and dislikes cowardice/cowardly tactics(Rivals 1+2, Colors DS, Team Vector interview). Has high aggression, determined expressions and aggressive body Language during anything he's focused on. Often makes fists, punches things when he’s frustrated and gets up with his fists in Sonic Forces. Due to his backstory he is deeply appreciative of peace and prosperity but also has a violent personality(Colors DS).

Focused - Is Focused on saving the Future(06 design docs). Very serious and focused when it comes to his mission or dealing with potential danger(Team Sonic Racing). Calls himself a realist in the English version of Sonic Forces and rallies the Resistance to focus and move forward after Tails disappears. Very proactive in dealing with things as he was the only one actively trying to defeat Iblis and change the world(06) and the only one trying to find the truth of Dodon Pa and Eggman(TSR). Has a Straight-To-The-Point mindset(doesn't care what the plan is called, only that it works in Forces) and doesn’t like things getting in his way. Very goal focused(even during competitions, he says the Jade Wisp Ghost ability is the only item he likes because it lets him “disappear and focus on racing”(Team Vector interview)). Takes things much more seriously than Sonic and sometimes gets mad at Sonic for not taking things seriously or messing around(JP TSR, Famitsu Magazine comic). Has pointed angular shape eyes like Sonic’s other rivals which represent intensity, danger and seriousness in character design.

Can be Ruthless - “sometimes calls forth great power without mercy”(Sonic x Silver). Opens both his fights with Sonic in 06 by trying to sneak attack and snipe Sonic with psychic energy balls. Has fought dirty(Played possum to hit Sonic in 06), tried to assassinate Sonic, snuck past Soleanna guards. Mugs Tails in Sonic Rivals 2(he’s okay with stealing), has no qualms with fighting kids like Tails or Bowser Jr. Leaves his enemies to die even if they beg for life(Sonic Rivals 2/IDW Sonic). Has the pragmatic “get-it-done” mindset of Future Trunks/will do whatever it takes to save the future.

Intuitive - Solves problems by using his mind in all his major game roles including figuring out how to revive Sonic(06), being a detective(Town Mission 13), uncovering Eggman/Nega’s plots(Rivals 1+2, TSR) and solving various puzzles. Very perceptive(Sees through Eggman Nega’s disguises by noticing small details), turns his fight with Sonic into a race to collect Chao to advance his mission(Crafty). Intuits Blaze trying to control great power when seeing it for the first time(Otherworld Comedy). Not trusting(Didn’t initially believe in time travel, Immediately suspicious of Dodon Pa in TSR, questioned Mephiles’ mission even as Blaze reaffirmed it as their only option, takes time to work with others in the Rivals series). Eggman is unable to deceive him the same way he does Knuckles in Team Sonic Racing.

Challenger - Enjoys challenges and seeks out ways to test himself(Climbed Tokyo Tower, disappointed when Orbot and Cubot don’t pose a challenge). Very Competitive(Almost fights Blaze when they start one-upping each other over who could deal with Orbot and Cubot on their own in Colors DS). Self-confident and has a smug attitude about his abilities but is otherwise pretty humble(doesn’t think of himself as a hero but rather someone just trying not to mess up the timeline in Sonic & Silver, has a humble attitude when befriending Donkey Kong in Mario & Sonic). Cherishes his friends and strongly believes in/very grateful to those who help him. Regularly trains off screen like Sonic’s other rivals and is said to make Steady efforts to improve(Wallpaper Comedy 2022). Bold and undeterred by any threat(“We can take them all on!” when facing Eggman, Knuckles and Rouge in Rivals 2, “I’ll just destroy him everywhere at once” when facing Solaris). Will take on anything for what he believes in or to help his friends(threw himself at Iblis and Infinite, took on Wendy for Tails and Luigi). one of his catchphrases is “I’ll take you on”.

Curiosity - Has a certain curiosity and likes seeing new and different things(“Interesting”). Can praise or call things cool as much as he can insults others as he has no filter(Sonic Runners). Might have a weakness for cute things(Has a soft spot for/plays with Chao in Sonic Rivals 2 and an official magazine comic).

Skills - Powerful psychic with various super powers(Sonic Runners). Like Sonic’s other rivals he has various skills including car racing, acrobatics, fighting near the level of Shadow(they were both out of breath during their fight in 06), sharp shooting among the best in Soleanna’s 1500 year history(he takes offense to being treated like an amateur for a reason). Has been a detective, delivery boy, butler, top ranked ice skater and “genius” skating coach celebrity that helped taught others and helped Elise through her anxiety(Sonic Channel). Fly/Skill-type character so he specializes in more technical sports like ice skating and drives a car with high balance(TSR, Team Vector Interview). Can be sharp as he was able to turn his fight with Sonic into a race to advance his mission in Rivals 2 and is noted to be very perceptive by Eggnan Nega. Eggman fails to deceive Silver the same way he does Knuckles in Team Sonic Racing.

Polar Opposite of Eggman Nega(Blaze’s best friend, Pure, Young, Honest, Rude, Empathetic, Impulsive/Reckless, Naive, Practical/Focused, Altruistic, wears blues themed with white, desiring Peace and Happiness and willing to die to protect the world opposed to Eggman Nega being Blaze’s arch enemy, Twisted, Old, Deceitful, Polite, Psychopathic, Calculating, Sophisticated, Petty, Egoistic, wears red, themed with black, desiring Chaos and Destruction and willing to die to destroy the world)

Enhancer-Emitter - Enhancer is someone that is determined and simple, never lies, hides almost nothing, is straightforward in actions and thinking, whose words and actions are often dominated by their feelings and is very focused on their goals. Emitter is someone that is impatient, not detail-oriented and quick to react in a volatile manner but can also calm down and forget easier

Lives in the good future when not helping Sonic in the present the same way Blaze lives in her dimension. Thinks things in Sonic’s time are dated(sometimes, in Sonic Rivals and Colors DS). Often implied/shown to like apples(Ate apple flavored calorie bars in the Iblis Future according to Sonic Pict) and to live in Soleanna(He was originally going to be named Venice because he lived there, he may be Italian coded as his counterpart Galahad uses an Italian Cinquedea as a sword).

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southern-gothic-comic · 1 year ago

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Page 27

Next 💜 Back 🖤 First

(Author Notes)

Panel 1: In a sitting room in the Zenith temple of the Dawnfather. Matilda’s parents are having a conversation with a cleric of Pelor while she climbs on a chair to look at some devotional objects a short distance away. The cleric is pouring tea for the adults.

Cleric: Well, Mr. and Mrs. Bradbury, the good news is there’s nothing to exorcize. I sensed no interference from a fey or fiendish presence. But it seems your little one has been touched with an early knack for sorcery.

Mama: Sorcery . . .

Papa: But how? With all respect, Sister, we may not be the most pious of folks, but we’ve never gone astray from the gods.

Panel 2: The cleric continues. Matilda reaches out to touch the flaming head of a Pelor-shaped candleholder, surrounding it with a wobbling sphere of shadow that turn the edges of the light a purplish-black.

Cleric: Shadow sorcery is not unholy in nature, although it has much in common with darker magics. A shadow sorcerer’s power draws from the Shadowfell, the hidden echo of this plane. It may be innate, that is to say, hereditary, or it may be the result of a brush with that dark otherworld.

Mama: Hereditary? But . . . we’re just ordinary people.

Panel 3: Her father wrings his already-shapeless hat while her mother looks away in distress at the story.

Papa: Could be the other thing. When she was born, well . . . she almost wasn’t. It looked like there was no life in her at first. And she was such a tiny thing. Arrived too early and in the dead of winter besides. She hardly had a fair chance. But when one of you good folks came to perform the rites, there was no need after all. There she was, just taking in the sights with those great big eyes of hers.

Panel 4: Matilda picks up the candle flame like a marble, looking pleased with herself. Her fingertips have begun to exude a shadowy goo.

Papa: And now here she is, and as lively as a tadpole, is our Tillie. But it was . . . odd, to say the least.

Panel 5: She holds the now-dark flame in two hands, stretching it like a bubble and concentrating on it to see how big she can make it. It is nearly bigger than herself.

Papa: But what about this “lady” she keeps saying she saw in the barn?

Mama: Yes, she seems very attached to this . . . person.

Cleric: The company of an imaginary friend is one of the fleeting delights of childhood, is it not? She’ll outgrow the notion in time, I’ve no doubt. You are lucky to have such an imaginative and loving little girl.

Mama: (interrupting) What in the world is that child -- Matilda!!

Panel 6: The conversation goes silent as the bubble quietly pops, engulfing her in a localized cloud of darkness. Matilda’s voice emerges from the cloud.

Matilda: Where everybody go?

Mama: Oh, Tillie. What are we going to do with you?

#critical role #critical role fanart #critical role comic #comics #art #laudna #matilda bradbury #southerngothic #imodna #(tangentially)#a long road home #mintywolf

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oinonsana · 3 months ago

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thinking about world-first design

My last three games were more or less centered on the character, and consequently the player. I think this is a completely valid way of playing, but having done three kinds of games that had this, I wanted to branch out into a world-first style of design.

World-first design are the ones I associate with the stylings of mostly OSR: where the gameworld and the modules and the adventures and the equipment, the counting of ammo, of resources, are all more important than creating a character in such a way to fulfill a particular fantasy or character concept.

I call this world-first rather than character-first because it puts into primacy the very world and fiction that the players must interact with rather than the player characters being only focus of such games. In the same way that character-first design (WotC D&D, Exalted, Lancer) doesn't inherently preclude an overwhelming focus on a world's lore and vibe, world-first design doesn't inherently preclude a focus on character building or a certain primacy of the player characters over NPCs. In World-First design, to be someone of note is to have played the game and interacted with the world long enough. However, a caveat of this world-first design is that it's very easy to die, to be extinguished (it is important, in a way, in World-First design to showcase the strength of the world and how it doesn't bend to the whims of a player).

The difference of course, is how the mechanics are mostly written and presented. In World-First design, there's not much use for metacurrencies that imply that the PCs are inherently different or privileged over other player characters. World-First PCs gain privilege from things within the gameworld. While diegesis is of value, it is not the be all end all, as long as the game focuses on mechanics of the world rather than of the player. Frex: ROMANCE OF THE LOTUS THRONE has a (very rare, D&D 4e Action Point-esque) reroll system known as DETERMINATION. However Determination is a very real thing in the game, and can be gained from succeeding in particular tasks, or interacting with community and finding some form of purpose. Its sublimated form of willpower. Its also a bit of an Undertale reference. The difference then is that Determination is not meta-currency: it's in-world currency. There's no Determination stat in the character sheet: it instead fills up an inventory slot. It's a mechanic of the world and not of the player. It's simulationism without the tax forms (rules-lite, fiction-first simulationism is a topic for another post).

When I play or run RPGs, my personal preference has always been that of immersionism. The deeper you sink into a world's physics, a world's customs, the more the Other becomes the Self is a point of great joy for me: whether that be the chilling borderlands of SYMBAROUM, the intricate Underworld of VAMPIRE, the ineffable Space Opera of FADING SUNS, or the crimson-gold otherworld of ARTESIA. World-First can be a genre emulation philosophy (frex, if your world is meant to emulate a genre, a la Exalted's Creation) but I believe that Genre Emulation is not the be-all end-all of Role-Playing Games, as some would think it to be. Mechanics aren't automatically good just because it hearkens to a particular genre, a la PbtA. I think mechanics are good when they accomplish the Design Goal of the game. And sometimes Design Goals are to simulate or fabricate an otherworld and transport you there. I think that goal is one of the more difficult ones to truly achieve, so any that attempt it to this day I hold in respect, even if they end up being rules-heavy simulation-esque attempts. I believe that World-First games are like, the immersive sims of TTRPGs (in the sense that they take some getting used to but create for some of the best emergent gameplay moments, as well as potent immersion of a world).

In ROMANCE OF THE LOTUS THRONE, I’ve managed to do a bit of a mixing. Inspired by the likes of Dark Souls and Elden Ring, where the world is important, but its the character builds that make or break a game, I’ve made the characters dependent on the world. This means you more or less start a game with a blank slate of a character, or someone with the bare minimum of detail. Then, as you play, you learn and gain abilities from milieu of the world, gaining items and powers and magicks from playing the game, rather than from a Class Table. In a way, this is also an inherent forcing of diegesis in the game, and diegesis is one of my favorite concepts in all game design, across all mediums.

This does (somewhat) assume that the characters you’re playing are either amnesiac, young, or people that have not really accrued anything over the years. This is just as well: I believe that you can gain world-changing skills and capabilities even at 60 or 70 or beyond. However, if you want to build a character already seasoned, that’s easy enough to do: simply give them a number of starting equipment and Arts.

All of this lends itself to the ROMANCE's Buddhist bent, especially concerning the ideal of Anatta or Non-Self. Metaphysically, there is no self, all individuation arises from a nigh infinite set of other factors that eventually form the character. This enlightenment is inevitable for PCs that live long enough in Romance: a character eventually becomes a master of anything, removing the individuation of specialization as they inch their Cultivation closer to Awakening. To gnosis. To bodhi.

At the end of it, world-first design kind of asks the players to interact with the game not from their own biases but on the game's own terms. For the longest time this has been a no problem: the biggest world-first games are OSR after all, and they carry the baggage of D&D. However, for games that need and deserve worlds to be taken on their foundation and not the player's, both a World First design approach as well as a World First player mentality could provide a different, maybe even enriching experience that most character-first games would not deliver in the same way (character first games deliver a different, honestly more marketable niche in the realms of OC gaming and Power Fantasy).

#fantasy #gamedev #rpg #dnd #ttrpg #maritime asia

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purplesoulcollection · 16 days ago

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Otherworld Fans

Do you even question your existence in world?

Yeah, i was the one asking that. This is not the first time I'm being this serious, but this one is the urgent question.

I realized that I was the only one who felt that this world was not my real world.

This place doesn’t feel particularly strange, yet my dark eyes seem to express a reality that feels out of place, as if it’s my eyes that are the odd ones.

It’s a world that mirrors my own, filled with modern conveniences like technology, smartphones, and Wi-Fi that connects everyone through the internet. Yet, it’s also a world plagued by air pollution that makes breathing difficult, and the sun’s heat can feel like it’s cooking people alive, just like in my previous existence.

Still, deep down, I know I don’t belong here. The world I truly belong to is the one where I spent my entire life, a place that wouldn’t change over a single lifetime.

Even if I have to die, my memories would reset, allowing me to experience life anew, as if for the very first time, in an endless loop.

But who knows which monarch that made the blunder of allowing me to be reborn with the memories of my past life intact, robbing me of the joy of living without the weight of knowing I’ve lived before, only to face death once more?

Ops, I let my bad thoughts wander for some reason. My rational and gloomy thought is always ruin for the fun. Sorry for the moody rant. But I have my reason too!

Do you think you will happy if you have to restart your life and study the fact that you already know in the world that mirrors yours?

Yeah, I'm glad at first, but now my gladness dropped 70%, not completely happy again. Why? Why I'm not completely happy, you asked?

Because you know...?

This realm is now the world of solo leveling ragnarok. Not the world of Solo Leveling instead.

It’s no longer the place where Sung Jinwoo was the main character, starting from the very bottom and rising to greatness through a mission system that sought to exploit him. Even though I want to see the live action even if it has to be in secret stalking.

I’ve lost the chance to witness the iconic moments from his legendary comics and novels. I can't even glance at the majestic event that i already memorized the order if sometime i being reincarnated into this world...

I’ll never get the chance to be the person that Sung Jinwoo secretly admires or like since we don’t even exist in the same time period.

Tears streamed down my face when I encountered Sung Jinwoo, now married with children. I can't stop it.

Literally, I cried the first time I saw him alongside Cha Hae-in when my father let me see him—those countless fanfictions I had devoured about Sung Jinwoo x reader shattered before me, leaving only the harsh truth. He can't be mine...

I can only see his worried face when i cried in front of him, he tried to persuade me to stop the tears by by promising to buy me snacks or make friends with his child.

Seeing no change in me, he urgently ask my father for the clue of my cries that my father also having no clue at all.

Sung Jinwoo is undeniably so handsome even when he already married and is already middle aged man … but sadly, he’s not someone I can ever reach; Even after I met him through my unrealistic second life…

then I felt someone's hand wiping my tears. The hand that made me look away from Sung Jinwoo's face and turn my gaze towards the hand that cleaned my face from my tears.

And I saw it. the next protagonist in this world. Sung Suho.

He was the one who wiped my tears with his innocent face. His little hand, which was slightly smaller than mine, still tried to wipe my tears innocently.

Seeing his face and recognizing Suho's face which had similarities in the eyes and nose to his mother made my nose clogged with snot and I ran out of Sung Jinwoo's house which I visited with my father.

I dashed away, tears streaming down my face, feeling embarrassed about my snotty nose. Why should I humiliate myself in front of someone I look up to?

My eyes stung, making everything around me seem hazy, but I was relieved to find the playground deserted, free from other kids.

I plopped down on the swing, staring at the ground, feeling exhausted and sad. At least if I looked down, no one would notice a little girl crying all alone in this empty playground.

Why am I even crying? He’s not a character meant to be with me.

I admire him from afar, and while he’s my idol, that’s all he is—just an idol. Sure, he’s incredibly cool, handsome, and exactly my type, but I have to accept that he’s out of reach if fate doesn’t align with my dreams.

and because I looked down I didn't see someone chasing me coming to see me sitting on the swing. he was panting after me who was emotional.

But seeing me sitting and not realizing that he was chasing me finally made him sit on the swing next to me.

the sound of the swing being shaken made me aware of someone's presence, I wiped my tears and wiped my snot with my hand, trying to appear fine even if I knew it would be useless if my eyes were red from crying.

When I saw the person next to me, I wasn't too surprised to see Suho chasing me. My father knew that I was a smart child to be able to come back to Jinwoo's house when I was done crying and whining, and both Cha Hae-in and Jinwoo were two people who could detect me in their own way, they're strong for the reason.

Only Suho was the one who bothered to chase me here alone.

He didn't look at me when I saw him, but I knew that he was aware that I was watching him.

"Why are you chasing me?" My voice was nasal from crying, not the sweet voice of a girl who can ask for anything sweetly and have her parents grant it.

Hearing me finally want to talk to him made him turn around and asked, "Why are you crying anyway?"

His probing eyes made me shy away from being angry with him. He thinks I want to cry in front of his father? NO!! I want to be the best daughter figure for him, but i can't control my reaction.

"I don't know why, so don't ask!"

I barked at him, still very frustrated with my current situation.

it's better for him to just leave until I manage to calm myself down. That would be better for both of us. I don't want to mad at him, he's innocent and know nothing about me.

But he's being the one who couldn't read the situation and didn't leave even after I barked at him. he just looked back at the sky and swung his swing.

Why doesn't he leave too? Is he insensitive?

We both fell silent, allowing the wind to blow and the warm sunlight to fill the quiet, which was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable.

Since I was starting to sweat from the heat, I finally stood up and suggested we head home together.

"Why are you crying?" he asked, trailing behind me as I walked away, he walking slower than me. Maybe that's why he couldn't immediately chase after me who ran away to the playground.

I scrunched my face, knowing I couldn't be completely truthful with him. "I don't know, maybe it's because your dad is just too handsome… and that makes me a bit jealous of your mom?"

His reaction was one of surprise; he lowered his arms from behind his head, clearly taken aback. "Do you like my dad?" he asked, his voice rising in pitch.

I didn't appreciate his response, which felt like it was prying into my embarrassment. "No, don’t joke about that! I’m just intrigued by him, not in love! I just hope to find a guy as good-looking as he is someday."

What I said was partly true but also a bit of a stretch. Where else could I find someone who matched my standards? Imagining someone perfect was my only option.

"Since you seem to like my dad so much, why not extend that to me?"

His question left me speechless, making me reconsider his character.

Wow, is Suho really the kind of person who can be this unpredictable? Shouldn't my mere glance at the comic be enough?

"Why do you keep making jokes? How can I like you when I don’t even know your name?"

Technically, I still didn’t know his name; we hadn’t introduced ourselves yet. Dad had only introduced me to Suho's parents before I ended up in tears.

"You can like my dad right away, so why can’t I?" He still insisted, he raised his hand while making a fist. Looks very serious in his opinion.

"You just can’t!" I shook my head firmly, dismissing Suho's illogical suggestion.

He fell quiet, awkwardly tracing his finger along his cheek before finally saying, "If you don’t know my name, I’ll tell you, but you have to share yours too!" He looked embarrassed and turned his gaze away.

Why is he looking away so awkwardly? Is he trying to be my friend but feels shy because our first interaction was a bit rocky?

feeling guilty because this was my fault I stretched out my hand to Suho, "Okay, my name is Name, satisfied now right?"

He looked at the outstretched hand in front of him, clearly taken aback. When I noticed he wasn't moving to take it, I thought about pulling my hand back.

But as if sensing my doing, he quickly grasped both of my hands. "I'm Suho, nice to meet you, Name!" he exclaimed loudly, causing me to jump a little from the unexpected volume.

"Why do you have to yell like that? You really startled me!" I loudly tell him. He only can shrunk because he knew he was doing something wrong.

"Well, you can't expect me to just stand here waiting for you to say something." he answered in a nervous voice. afraid of making me angry again.

"You took your sweet time, didn't you? Let's get home before my dad gets mad!"

He nodded, and we started walking home, completely unaware that we were still holding hands.

The End

#fanfic #x reader #manhwa #manhwa x reader #reader insert #solo leveling #solo leveling x reader #solo leveling ragnarok #sung suho #fem reader #oneshot #fluff

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forgottenroderick · 1 month ago

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OOC | The Twelve Conquered Kingdoms & the Formal Style of the Emperor

antilla -- HOUSE OF RODERICK'S STEPMAMA, im sort of picturing a spain/portugal mashup || taken from a medieval iberian legend abt a mystical land founded by some visigothic bishop (antillia)

vinetta – think lithuania, latvia, poland, germany, etc || a mythical city at the edge of the baltic sea (vineta)

kvenheim – i was sort of envisioning norse scandinavia || the icy otherworld which the forst giants rule meets a mysterious lost island from medieval and norse legend (kvenland + jotunheim)

kolchis -- HOME OF HOUSE CALAINON, think medieval byzantium/greece || taken from greek mythology, the homeland of medea, the golden fleece, and the cholchean dragon (cholchis)

malakarta – the sun-soaked deserts of the middle east || an invisible realm meets the toll house located between the realm of light and the earth (malakut + matarta)

aarnu -- think egypt: a fertile river running through vast deserts || also known as the field of reeds, the sacred paradise ruled by osiris (aaru)

argadara – a whole country of vast mountains in the fantasy!himalayas || a legendary land located at the core of the earth meets a sacred mountain in the puranas (agartha + mount mandara)

xangadu – the most hospitable part of china basically -- their governing body was called a blogring ;D jk jk no but fr s/o to xanga rip || the mythologized summer capitol of kublai khan, used to represent opulence and splendor (xangdu/xanadu)

aotepo -- sort of pictured a chain of tropical islands! which is also interesting bc i feel like roderick's navy is kinda. ehhh so they def got a work out w this one! def think this was one of the more recent conquests too! || the polynesian realm of light meets its realm of darkness and the ancestors (ao + te po)

alytar – HOME OF HOUSE VASILIEVA, think medieval russia || taken from slavic myth where it is the navel of the earth, a rocky and sacred place, marked w ancient runes and endowed with healing powers (alatyr)

affaraon -- tis scotland ;D and, as such, i was thinking this was possibly a neighbor to astaira? || also known as the immortal land and the 'city of higher powers,' and the 'ambrosial city,' it is the legendary home of a sect of druids dedicated to metallugry and alchemy and is said to be located somewhere in scotland (dinas affaraon/ffaraon)

astaira -- HOME OF HOUSE STAFFORD, &c.

you will note that the og varmont nation is not included on this list, and that is purely bc he did not conquer it but, rather, inherited it. also, except for kolchis and astaira, ofc, these are all place holder names but [ i stole most of them from world mythologlies ] and sort of jostled them about a bit: for exmaple, xanadu aka xangdu is now XANGAdu for reasons ;DDD

INFORMAL STYLE OF THE TRUE EMPEROR

His Imperial Majesty, Roderick the First of His Name, by the Grace of the One True God, of the Great and Holy Empire of [Varmont] and Astaira and of His other Realms and Territories One True Emperor, Conquer of the Twelve Kingdoms, Defender of the Faith, and God’s Own Champion

FORMAL STYLE OF THE TRUE EMPEROR

His Imperial Majesty, Roderick the First of His Name, by the Grace of the One True God, of [Varmont], and of Antillia, Kolchis, Alatyr, Aarnu, Vinetta, Kvenheim, Aotepo, Argadara, Xangadu, Malakarta, Affaraon, and Astaira, and of his Dominions beyond the Seas, One True Emperor, Protector of Vyrajj, God-King of Kolchis, Archduke of the Two Isles and of the Shimmering Seas Overlord, King-Elector of the Astairans, Lord of the Two Lands, Sun-King of the Hauren, Divine Emperor of the Iddenese, the Freefolk, and the Cockaignians, Evenstar of Astaira*, Conqueror of the Twelve Kingdoms, Defender of the Faith, and God's Own Champion

*i hc that that's just the title of the ~lord of stafford~ but roderick still isn't quite taking in the whole premise of elected kings and so he's like 'obv that is the title of the ruler of astaira' and...its not so astairans hear this and they just like 'why that one county??? and why not malconaire or lorcan or smth too?? but ok' alkdjfkljdsf bc i love to laugh at roderick

#about #lore #ooc #this has been sitting in my drafts since may omg!!!#aksjfksdjfkjsdf

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the-king-and-the-druidess · 20 days ago

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prompt: almost • Morgause/Lancelot • S4 • the spiritworld • not rated

It has been days there, it felt like an eternity here. An eternity of loneliness, pain, fear, numbness.

Morgause was lying on the ground, hiding from them, when she felt the air stir. Something has changed. She hid deeper into the folds of darkness, fearing it was something evil after her.

But it was good. Oh, he was so good. Strange how he can be in this gloomy place of mists and emptiness. His bright self had no place here amongst the likes of her.

He wore the dimmed lustre and glory of knightly robes. His face was kind and handsome. Morgause sat by the withered rock and watched the knight wander the ashy valleys of the otherworld.

Lancelot could feel her gaze on him, hear her quiet footsteps behind him. She never left him. A strange woman in grey rags, her eyes were so alive, full of passion and power. Like embers, they burned on her pale scarred face. The look of a fallen queen.

The shadows attacked, they choked her, tore at her fair curls and clothes, and Lancelot drew his sword and attacked them, protecting her. They surrendered.

"Who are they?" He sat down beside her, their elbows touching.

"Ah, those." Morgause threw a glance at the shapeless figures crawling aside, hissing angrily. "The souls of those I killed. They come and go. They want me to be like them, but I won't. No way!"

And Lancelot believed someone like her would never become a shadow. She would always keep the fire burning. "Have we met before? You remind me of someone..."

"I didn't kill you. I would have remembered..."

Without words, they realised who they were before. High Priestess and Knight, enemies with no chance for mercy or understanding.

"Why are you here?"

"I sacrificed myself for the one I loved."

"Likewise. And I regret nothing."

If Morgause guessed what sacrifice Lancelot had made, it could not be a coincidence, it did not touch the ghost of her heart. That, the past was gone. Love, it lasted forever. Morgause held out her hand to him. Lancelot hesitated a moment, then pressed his palm to hers.

The touch was so real, warm, sensual, stronger than anything here and maybe, beyond. "We would have hated each other back there." he said sadly, intertwining their fingers.

"Sword and magic, it would have been a glorious fight." Morgause smirked. "But there is no past or future here." she clung to him greedily.

"Is it forever?" But he was not alone anymore.

"Until we are purified." Morgause reached for him, and Lancelot leaned towards her, and their lips almost touched in what might have been salvation and redemption, but some wicked force suddenly seized him and dragged him upwards, into the cruel reality of the living world.

"No!...."

Morgause found herself alone in the darkness again, and the sins crept closer, again, tugging at her tattered skirts, dragging her down into eternal silence.

@merlinmicrofic

#morgause #lancelot #merlin micro fic #a work of mine again

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yoga-onion · 11 months ago

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Legends and myths about trees

Celtic beliefs in trees (26)

I for Idho (Yew) - December 21st Winter Solstice

“Death of a king in his waning 6 months - The Celtic Tree Calendar (Ref), the end of the beginning, the beginning of the end ...”

Colour: dark green; Star: Saturn; Gemstone: olivine; Gender: female; Metal: lead, Element: earth; Patron: Banba, Hecate; Symbols: resurrection, death + rebirth, eternity, path to meet ancestors + land of the soul

Today is the winter solstice, also called the hibernal solstice, the day in the northern hemisphere when the sun is at its lowest altitude in the south and day is shortest and night longest during the year (reversed in the southern hemisphere).

Yew is an evergreen tree with dark green leaves and red berries. The yew is a robust tree with a thick girth and an extremely long life. It is probably the longest lived of all trees.

As soon as the downward reaching branches reach the ground, the tree begins to grow strongly, as if it has been reborn as a new tree. The eldest living yew tree is in Europe is said to be the Fortingall Yew, in Perthshire, Scotland, and it has been estimated between 3000 to 9000 years old.

In addition, the yew's hollowed-out heartwood, especially when wet, looks like a flayed animal, and when cut it appears to bleed, so the yew is increasingly said to be a sacred tree. Yew sticks were believed to be able to divine the future, and yew sticks were used as 'writing pillars' to engrave the Ogham script, as they could be preserved almost forever.

As the druids believed the natural law of reincarnation, where the soul becomes reborn as another person, the yew was seen as a protector of the soul during the journey to the Otherworld. Some believe that the road to the Otherworld is shaded by rows of yew trees. Furthermore, the yew is said to stop any obstacles caused by evil spirits from the other world.

As a sacred 'tree of immortality', believed to protect and purify the dead, yews are often planted in cemeteries, many of which are as old as the church or much older.

ケルト人の樹木の信仰 (26)

IはIdho (ｲﾁｲ) - 12月21日冬至

“衰えゆく半年の王の死〜ケルトの木の暦（参照）、始まりの終わり、終わりの始まり…”

��: 深緑; 星: 土星; 宝石: オリビン; 性: 女性; 金属: 鉛; 要素: 土; 守護神: バンバ、ヘカテ; シンボル: 復活; 死＋再生、永遠、先祖に出会える道＋魂の国

今日は冬至、北半球では太陽の南中高度が最も低く、一年の間で昼が最も短く夜が最も長くなる日(南半球では逆転する)。

イチイは濃い緑色の葉を持ち、赤い果実を実らせる常緑樹。イチイはたくましい樹木で胴回りが太くなり、ものすごく長生きをする。おそらくすべての木の中で最も長生きする木といえるだろう。下方に伸びた枝が地面に着くと、新しい木に生まれ変わったかのように、力強く生育を始める。ヨーロッパで最も古いイチイの木は、スコットランドのパースシャーにある『フォーティンゴールのイチイ』と言われており、樹齢は3000年から9000年と推定されている。

また、幹の中が空洞になったイチイの心材は、とくに湿っていると、一見皮を剥がれた動物のようで、切れば血を流すようにも見えるため、ますますイチイは聖なる木だといわれるようになった。

イチイの杖は未来を占うことができるとされ、またイチイの棒はほぼ永遠に保存できるため、オガム文字を刻印する「文字棒」として使用された。ドルイドは、魂が別の人間に生まれ変わるという輪廻転生の自然法則を信じていたので、イチイはあの世への旅の間、魂を守ってくれるものと考えられていた。冥界に至る道はイチイ並木の木陰になっているという説もある。さらに、イチイは異界の悪霊が起こすいかなる障害をも食い止めるという。

神聖なる「不死の木」として、死者を守り浄化すると信じられたイチイは墓地によく植えられ、その多くは樹齢が教会と同じか、またはそれよりずっと古い。

#trees #tree legend #tree myth #folklore #mythology #legend #celtic mythology #yew #nature #art #winter solstice #celtic calendar

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shadowqueenjude · 1 year ago

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TOG characters meet ACOTAR characters part 1

It was the annual Yulemas celebration, and all of Aelin’s friends + Lorcan had convened in Terrasen’s palace. Everyone from Ansel of Briarcliff to Manon Crochan Blackbeak came. Even Yrene with her abdomen that was now showing had come. Aelin and Rowan’s home had never felt more full. It was an amazing feeling. She wondered if this was how it would feel to have children.

She pushed the feeling aside. As much as she wanted children, she wasn’t ready for that kind of commitment yet. Terrasen’s rebuilding came first.

Aelin was wearing a shiny silver dress while her mate wore green armor (sigh, when was he going to start wearing normal clothing?) that brought out his eyes. Fenrys on the other hand, was having way too much fun dressing up. He’d shown up in a full-blown white toga, paired with a golden laurel and golden waistband. He’d tied half his hair up and left the rest to cascade in waves around his shoulders. He seemed just fine as he went to annoy Lorcan, but Aelin could sense the sadness radiating out of him. Aelin just wished she knew how to fix it.

Lorcan was not in black (gasp!), but rather it seemed he had been forced into dark red robes by his wife, who wore a matching dark red dress. It never failed to amuse Aelin that one, his name was Lord Lorcan Lochan, and two, he willingly followed the small, delicate young Lady of Perranth’s every order. He had been teaching her how to read while helping rebuild Perranth, so Aelin would sometimes catch Elide reading children’s books out of the Terrasen royal library.

Chaol was awkwardly standing in a corner with Manon, of all the people. Dorian was dancing with Chaol’s wife, leaving the two standing near each other. Chaol looked slightly pale and constantly stared at Manon’s hands, as if waiting for the iron nails to unsheathe themselves. Aelin decided to spare her old friend and come in between them.

Once she was within earshot (since she was Fae, she was still quite far from them), she heard Manon hiss in his ear, “Agree to dance with me Chaol, so that Dorian thinks I’m playing nice with his friends.”

“Are you playing nice with his friends though?” Chaol dared to ask.

“Do I look nice to you, human? Come, let’s dance.” Manon grabbed his hand.

“Mind your manners, witch,” Aelin said coolly, stepping towards them. There was a glimmer of relief in Chaol’s eyes as Aelin interfered. “I’ll keep her from doing anything murderous, don’t worry,” Aelin said, patting Chaol on the arm. Then they began to dance.

Manon had very little grace, but Chaol made up for it with his own steering.

“No interest in dancing, my queen?” Rowan suddenly appeared in front of him, offering a tattooed hand to dance. Aelin snorted. “Still pretending to be a gentleman, I see.” But she accepted the hand and let him pull her to the dance floor.

Aelin swished and swayed around, and Rowan laughed. “Are you drunk already, my queen?”

Aelin shook her head. “No, the floor is just unsteady.”

“Why would it be unsteady?” Rowan asked. But then he suddenly tilted sideways. “Oh shit.” Aelin had no time to react when she and a majority of the guests at her party got sucked into a vacuum in the ground like a black hole. Meanwhile in Velaris… Gwyn rolled her eyes as she trained with Emerie and Nesta. “Merill has become more and more obsessed with her otherworld theory ever since you used the Harp. I don’t know how she found out about it, but…” Gwyn swiped low with her sword and aimed a kick at Emerie, who dodged it quickly. “She’s convinced she’s found a way she can actually look into other worlds. I told her she’s barking, and she got mad.”

Nesta snorted. “I’d be pretty irritated too if a little priestess called me crazy.”

Gwyn elbowed her, and the three of them laughed. Merill’s experiments were ridiculous anyway.

Lucien was just strolling through the streets of Velaris when he was hit by flying fae.

The Mother must really hate him, he decided. He’s just minding his own business on any other day and of COURSE he’s hit in the face by a body.

“That’s it, I’m done with this shit,” Lucien grumbled, pushing the body off of him. He found himself staring into the eyes of a beautiful female. Her eyes were a turquoise with a ring of gold around the pupil, with long flowing blonde hair that fell to her waist. She was wearing an elegant crown along with a silver dress so sparkly Lucien almost had to look away. But that wasn’t the strangest thing. No, the strangest thing was that…

“I can smell the flame on you,” he said. The female just stared at him, confused. Then she replied back in a foreign language.

Lucien recognized it from a class he had taken ages ago. He was probably the only one of his brothers who would ever recognize it, as he had had the most thorough education as the youngest child. He was pretty sure there would never come an occasion where he’d need to converse in such a dead language, but here he was.

“I can’t understand you,” she had said. “No one has spoken that language here in thousands of years,” Lucien replied back in that old tongue. His words sounded strange, like they were spoken by a different person.

The blonde girl gasped. “Oh no. I must have traveled between worlds.”

Lucien raised a brow. “Impressive. How’d you manage that?”

The girl shook her head. “This was not supposed to happen. The Wyrdgates are closed.”

“I have no idea what Wyrdgates are, but I’m pretty sure there are multiple ways to cut across worlds.” The girl stared at him. “Where am I?”

Lucien shrugged. “Prythian.”

“My friends- they must have fallen here with me. Where are they?”

Lucien shrugged. “I don’t know. I only saw you, as you literally knocked me down.”

The girl winced. “Sorry about that.”

Lucien smirked. “There are better ways to get my attention than sitting on my face.”

The girl smirked back but replied with, “You’re hot for sure, but I’m married.”

Lucien stood up, brushed off his clothes, then offered the girl a hand. “I was only joking. I’m a mated male.”

The girl took it. “What a coincidence. I’m also mated. What is your name?”

“Lucien. You?”

The girl grinned. “Aelin.”

Lucien and Aelin searched around Velaris for her friends. It wasn’t hard to find most of them. They were all dressed in strange attire and looked extremely disoriented. Lucien soon met Aelin’s mate and husband, a male who looked as if he’d fit right into the Summer Court with his white hair and tanned skin. He later found a male he could only describe as golden. Golden hair, golden skin, golden on his clothes. He gasped when he saw Lucien. Lucien had raised a brow. “Is something wrong?”

The golden male had replied with, “Wow…your hair. It’s so bright, and thick, and colorful, and long, and shiny!!!!!” He’d turned to the white-haired male and said, “I want red hair now, Rowan.”

Lucien had to stifle a laugh. “Thanks.”

“How do you maintain your hair?” The golden male, who Lucien soon came to know was named Fenrys, kept asking him about his hair care routine and it occupied them until Aelin found their other friends.

Lorcan groaned as he got off the ground. He was covered in snow, having landed in a nice, clean patch of it. He panicked for a moment, searching for his wife before he realized he hadn’t let go of her hand. Elide was right next to him, and she looked a little winded but otherwise ok. On Lorcan’s other side several feet down, he could see Manon, Chaol, Dorian, and Yrene getting off the ground. Yrene was frantically patting her womb, trying to ensure that her baby was still alive. Lorcan resisted the urge to shout that her baby was just fine. He had no idea what sort of enemies were here.

He got up and gently pulled his wife with him. Together, they began to walk towards the King of Adarlan. Just then, he saw Aelin walk around the corner with Fenrys, Rowan, and a strange male with red hair and a scar that added a dangerous edge to his handsome face.

Together, Lorcan and company walked towards Aelin.

“Who the hell are you,” Lorcan asked shortly of the redhead.

Aelin tsked. “Sorry about him, Lucien. He’s a miserable bastard, but don’t let him put you out. You ever need him to do something, just ask his wife, Elide.” She gestured to the woman whose hand Lorcan still held.

Lorcan scowled, but the male who Aelin referred to as Lucien looked him over and grinned.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Lorcan demanded. The male with glossy red hair and a wicked scar to go with the metal eye on one side of his face only grinned and replied, "You're taller than Cassian."

“Who the hell is Cassian?”

Lucien shrugged. “Nobody important. An annoying, bratty, overgrown bat.” Lucien turned to Aelin. “I’m assuming you’ll want a safe place to stay temporarily with all your subjects.”

Aelin raised a brow. “Subjects?”

Lucien snorted. “I don’t think ordinary citizens walk around with that kind of glamour or with crowns on their heads.” He gestured to all of them. “I have a residence in this city. I’ll take you all there.”

Lorcan wasn’t sure if they could trust the male, but he seemed decent enough. Lorcan could smell no ill will on him. He wondered at the scar on his face. Fae did not scar easily, and for him to have a metal eye like that…he must have survived unbearable cruelty. He immediately thought of his wife’s ruined ankle, a product of the tower she had been locked in for ten years, and he clenched his teeth. What kind of fucked up shit went on in this world?

#lucien vanserra #pro lucien vanserra #lorcan salvaterre #aelin galathynius #rowan whitethorn #fenrys moonbeam #elide lochan #manon blackbeak #dorian havilliard #chaol westfall #yrene towers #anti cassian #nesta archeron #gwyneth berdara #emerie of illyria #the valkyries #fanfic

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conjuredsun · 1 year ago

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Like the Witch Father, the Witch Mother is the dual-natured Archetypal Divine Feminine. She is life and death, creation and destruction, She is all. In Traditional Witchcraft, She is an initiator into witchcraft and the being that creates and molds the world to Her whim. The Witch Mother is essentially Witchcraft itself.

In the same way it is hard to define and pinpoint the Witch Father, the Witch Mother is another enigmatic spirit essential to Traditional Witchcraft. Across cultures and centuries, She has been known by many names. Diana, Herodias, Frau Holle, Baba Yaga, Sa Rejusta, the Queen of Elphame, and Nicnevin are some of the names that She has gone by.

As it stands, the Witch Mother is the Mother of all Witches. From her, we begin to learn the ways of the Crooked Path. Usually, it is by chance encounter that we meet Her, or one of Her emissaries, and we are put through trials. Through these trials, however, comes the enlightenment of the Path and we find our Witch Fire lit. With Her blessings, we are granted access to the unseen.

The Witch Mother is a Dark Feminine Great Spirit. She is the primordial womb from which all life emanates. She forms the Earth to Her liking. The Witch Mother holds sway over life and death, the seasons, and even the turning of the day. She is the Magna Mater. She fiercely protects Her children and gives us the knowledge and tools that we need in order to defend ourselves from those wishing us harm.

Her lore can be dark and sometimes violent. But it’s necessary as a protectress for Her family. When we prove ourselves to Her, She becomes a Great Ally for us in our paths.

Baba Yaga

In Vasilisa the Beautiful and Baba Yaga, we come to learn that Baba Yaga has mastery over the world. Through her servants, the days and nights turn over. In the story of Natasha, Baba Yaga has a towel that can create rivers and a comb that can create forests. Baba Yaga occupies the archetype of Witch Mother as the initiator and creatrix of the world. She gives these girls tasks which at first glance seem impossible but by their wit and cunning natures, they overcome them. This leads to Baba Yaga fulfilling her promise and granting them the boon they came to her for. For Vasilisa, the fire she seeks also burns her stepmother and sisters to ashes leaving her free from their oppression and hatred.

Frau Holle or Mother Hulda

In the story of Mother Hulda, two step-sisters end up in the Otherworld and in service to Her. The first sister is hardworking while the other one is lazy. The hardworking sister drops her spindle into the well while trying to clean it and must figure out a way to get it out. She falls in and comes out in the Otherworld. She meets an apple tree asking for help to get its ripe fruit down from its branches and a loaf of bread asking to be taken from the fire before it burns. Naturally, she obliges. Coming to a house in the meadow, she meets Mother Hulda who asks her for help around the house. This sister is very hardworking and listens to all of Mother Hulda’s requests, including how to fluff her pillows so the feathers fall so it will snow on Earth. Accomplishing this and asking to return home, she is sent back with gold falling all about her to keep.

The second sister, being lazy and greedy jumps into the well and into the otherworld wanting her own gold. She marches past the apple tree and the bread not stopping to help them, and comes to meet Mother Hulda and agrees to work for her as well. She performs well on the first day and gives way to laziness in the coming days. When she asks to go home, expecting to be showered in gold, she is told to “get lost” and is instead showered in tar.

In this story, we see Her control over the weather and her home in the Otherworld. She has the power to bless and to curse. She expects those who want to learn witchcraft and the occult arts to hold up their end of the bargain. She grants power to those who are willing to work for it.

Queen of Elfame

In several witch trials in Scotland, we see the Queen of Elfame make an appearance. In the trial of Bessie Dunlop (1576), she confesses that she has traveled to the Otherworld and has communed with the Queen of Elfame several times. For her kindness when in the guise of an old woman, Bessie is granted a familiar who teaches her natural remedies, knowledge of where to find lost items, and information about prophecies.

Several years later, in 1588, Alison Pearson (also styled as Alesoun Peirsoun) was burned at the stake for communing with the Queen. In Elfame, she learned of medicinal herbs, healing arts, and how to make charms and potions which she sold.

In 1597, Andro (Andrew) Man confesses that he has lain with the Queen of Elphen and they begot many children together. He further confessed that through her, he would become knowledgeable in all things, help and cure all sicknesses except death. In his confession, Andro Man goes on to explain that “the Queen of Elphen has a grip of all the craft, but Christsonday (the Devil) is the husband and has all power under God.” They also have spirits in their company that are known to Man.

Aradia: or the Gospel of Witches

In Aradia, it is attested that Diana is the Mother of Witches. She teaches her daughter, Aradia, witchcraft and charges her to go to Earth to teach humans this art. Specifically, Aradia is sent to teach the poor and the slaves witchcraft in order to free themselves from their lot in life.

#witch mother #witch fire #witchblr #witch #witchcraft #traditional witch #traditional witchcraft #aradia #diana #witch trials #queen of elfame #baba yaga

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satureja13 · 10 months ago

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Jeb ran out of ingredients for his potions and since they can't just hop over to the Muggle World to stock up (they have the devices now, but it still drains Vlad and Ji Ho), Jeb tries to find similar herbs and stuff here in the Otherworld. He took Ji Ho with him to show him around. But he can't stop thinking about Kiyoshi - and Saiwa. Jeb: "What if Kiyoshi never had a partner because Sai really is his fated mate? And now he will be alone forever because I took Sai from him? And he never said anything because he's my best friend..." Ji Ho: "Jeb. You and Sai belong together. Not even fate can ignore that." Jeb sighed: "But how can I compete against a fated mate? I just love Saiwa. No Bond, no fated connection..."

Until Kiyoshi gets back they won't get an answer anyway. And so they looked for promising plants and stuff. It's getting dark already.

Jeb never paid much attention to the plants in the Otherworld. His visits before were only short. But he knows what he's looking for so he took a few samples to examine. Saiwa is mad at him, so he has enough time to do some research in his shop...

When it was too dark to see and the got hungry, Jeb showed Ji Ho the Night Market.

Ji Ho: "It's so amazing here. And so empty. It really seems we and Arturo are the only ones who can stay here for longer." Jeb: "All thanks to you and Vlad." Ji Ho: "And Rubyn ^^'"

Meanwhile at the Crappy Home. Saiwa: "I really hope you're doing your best too to come back, Kiyoshi... this is so humiliating. I wonder what else I have to do to bring you back..."

Saiwa: "At least you have the decency to look away."

Jack had decorated them a bathroom with a bird wallpaper. Saiwa: "Note to myself: kill Jack."

Saiwa knows that Vlad is right. He would have asked the same of any of them to save any of them... And Jeb and him went through enough to not make their lives harder with such a stupid quarrel. Saiwa just can't figure why Kiyoshi's last thoughts and words were about him. If he really were attracted to him: Why hadn't Kiyoshi hit on him when Jeb and him had broken up last year? This is so strange. And why had he never told him? He even gave them this present. Or was this a flirt? Kiyoshi was always very open and there were a lot of strange things going on at his Temple. Was Kiyoshi hitting on him and he just never noticed it?

'I saw myself as a concealed attraction I felt you kept me away from the heat and the action Just like a child, stubborn and misconceiving

That's how I started the show One of us had to go Now I'm changed and I want you to know

One of us is crying, one of us is lying in a lonely bed Staring at the ceiling, wishing she was somewhere else instead One of us is lonely, one of us is only waiting for a call Sorry for herself, feeling stupid, feeling small Wishing she had never left at all'

One of Us - ABBA

From the Beginning ~ Underwater Love ~ Latest 🛺 'Home happy Home' from the beginning ��️ here 📚 Previous Chapters: 🛺 'Home crappy Home' from the beginning ▶️ here 🌴 'The Expedition' from the beginning ▶️ here 🎤 'Putting the Boys Back together' from the beginning ▶️ here 🥀 'Disbandment of the Group' from the beginning ▶️ here

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silverthehedgehogharacteristics · 3 days ago

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Justice - Driven by a strong Sense of Justice. Unlike other Guardian characters Silver’s mission stems entirely from his personal sense of rather than imposed responsibility like Knuckles and Blaze. Seeks to settle scores(Sonic Forces, dunked Rough the Skunk to get even in IDW) and get back for those that have been wronged(or himself if you trifle with him). Very confrontational because of this as he has zero tolerance for injustices or things like breaking promises and will take on anyone or anything to right wrongs and help his friends without a second thought. Though he can also sometimes grapple with what is right(06). However “His wish is to maintain peace, not to eradicate evil” and he wants to become a hero because it means being someone that can “protect smiles”(Sonic & Silver).

Positivity - Silver is an optimist and embodies hope just as Sonic embodies freedom. He always looks to a brighter outcome, does not give into despair no matter how dire the circumstances and believes “There’s always hope as long as you don’t give up”(JP Sonic Forces quote). Inspires hope in others during dark times(Sonic 06 last episode, Sonic Forces, helping Elise through her performance anxiety in Otherworld Comedy) and spreads happiness during peaceful times as he is said to engage in Cheerful Activities after the historical change in 06(Sonic & Silver) and does things like serving apple slices(Wallpaper Comedy 2022) and giving gifts as Santa(Sonic Pict) because his greatest joy is seeing smiles. Silver became a top ranked ice skater and a “genius” skating coach celebrity in Soleanna to entertain and help people. When he is down it does not take much to bring him back up(Sonic Rivals 2). “His way of life inspires people and makes them want to watch over him and cheer him on forever”(Sonic & Silver).

Kind - Silver is an Altruist with a strong desire to help others. Silver is always thinking of someone else’s happiness rather than his own(Sonic & Silver) and “Does not want to use his powers for himself but to help others”(Otherworld Comedy Act 4). His altruism is the source of his mission and the only thing that can make him break from it as he can’t say no to a sad face or ignore those in need(Amy in 06, Soleanna Post Office in Sonic Pict). Silver wants to “protect smiles” and make people happy because he grew up in a world filled with despair, where people lived without hope(Sonic 06, Sonic & Silver).

Peace - Silver lives and fights for World Peace. His feelings reflect the state of the world around him. Silver is devoted to peace because he hails from a hellish ruined future that was filled with darkness, devastation and suffering. Silver has great empathy for both people and environments, even Dusty Desert is beautiful to him simply because its thriving and the people are happy(in contrast to the apocalyptic devastation and suffering he’s experienced). Because of his empathy, he is sad to see these things destroyed and vicious to anything that threatens them. Blue Skies and Smiles are especially important to him, blue skies make him feel at peace because he came from an environment that was ravaged and always dark, and he can’t help but smile when seeing people’s smiles. The quills on Silver’s head are in the shape of a Japanese Red Maple Leaf which represents peace and prosperity.

Sentimental - Silver is very sentimental, he finds great beauty in nature and appreciates little things that most people take for granted. Beautiful scenery and people living in prosperity takes his breath away. Silver likes talking about and simply observing beautiful things and he relaxes and chats with Sonic before and after their mission in Kingdom Valley(Sonic & Silver). Can be Introspective and meditate on things(sits paused on his mission to destroy the Iblis Trigger to think about the morality of his actions in 06, thinks heavily about his worries about Dodon Pa in TSR) but can also be slowed down by doubt. Silver serenely appreciates things like the legend of Revival Bridge(Sonic & Silver) and says his favorite moment in racing is “seeing everyone come together and giving their all to a single objective”(Team Vector Interview). Silver enjoys sightseeing and going on journeys(Olympic Games, Sonic Pict) as he likes taking in the world. This side of him ties into his peace themes due to his ability to appreciate beauty and serenity which the Japanese Red Maple Leaf also represents.

Naive - Has a black and white perspective and is innocent in his ideals(06). Expects people to believe him when he says he’s from the future or explains outlandish situations just because he knows them to be true(Which causes people to not believe him). Can be unfamiliar with things in the past. Sometimes takes things literally. Has an angry attitude when he doesn’t understand things(Says “Yes, why?” when Espio asks “you want me to believe that?” in Rivals 2, says “What’s so funny” when he doesn’t understand what everyone is laughing at in Otherworld Comedy) and can’t take a joke(Team Sonic Racing, Sonic & Silver).

Forthright - Described as forthright in design docs, Silver is Straightforward and Honest to a fault. He can’t tell a lie and wears his heart on his sleeve. Has an “Honest, unpretentious and kind demeanor”(Sonic Channel Staff Column). Silver is a very genuine and pure person and this is something those that come to know him adore about him. His naivety, immaturity and straightforwardness all tie into his purity. Although he can have a smug attitude about his powers, Silver is very humble and does not think of himself as a hero(Sonic & Silver). Can praise or call things cool as much as he can insult others as he has no filter(Sonic Runners, Otherworld Comedy Act 12). Silver is a reliable person(Sonic & Silver) that cherishes his friends, strongly believes in and is genuinely grateful to those who help him(Sonic Rivals 2, Sonic & Silver). Silver is an Enhancer(someone that is determined and simple, never lies, hides almost nothing, is straightforward in their actions and thinking, words and actions are often dominated by their feelings and is very focused on their goals).

Brash - Described as “Young and Immature” by his creator Shun Nakamura. Silver is so straightforward and honest that he is also rude and blunt. He has little filter and will call you an idiot to your face if he thinks you’re an idiot and is so direct that he can often ignore manners and social customs(06 NPC dialogue, Sonic Rivals 1+2, even Sonic says Silver has an attitude in Sonic Rivals). Is very sassy, abrasive and sarcastic, being quick to insult any opposition(06, Rivals 1+2, Olympic Games, Eggman’s theme park in Colors) or make snide remarks in general. Silver is said to have Mischievous Side(Sonic Channel Commemorative Illustration series) and is Headstrong(almost fights Blaze when she treats him like an amateur in Otherworld Comedy). Silver has various mannerisms that are informal/rude in Japanese including bad posture, using “Ore”(informal masculine “I” pronoun), “Anta”(Impolite “you”) that signifies he speaks bluntly, pointing directly at people he speaks to and crossing his legs while sitting(roughly the Japanese equivalent to putting your feet on a table). Informal overall in contrast to the polite mannered Future Trunks. Silver’s rudeness and honesty is opposed to Eggman Nega’s over-politeness and deception.

Fighter - fought and struggled for half his lifetime through the disaster future(Sonic & Silver), constantly fought against Iblis, Iblis minions and disasters including flame Tornadoes possibly since he was Cream’s age. Silver was able evenly fistfight Shadow till they were both out of breath in 06 and can repeatedly destroy both colossal enemies like Iblis(Sonic Pict) and small armies of foes(various Town Missions) by himself. Enjoys Fighting(Fights Sonic for fun in Generations) and can be quick to start fights for both serious and petty reasons(Fights almost everyone in Rivals 1+2, Infinite in Forces, almost fights Blaze in Colors DS and Otherworld Comedy, almost fights Bowser Jr and Jet in 2012 Olympic Games). Instant fight response when surprised in Sonic Generations. Can “sometimes calls forth great power without mercy”(Sonic & Silver). Has very determined expressions, aggressive body language(even during competitions or just tasks he's focused on) and sharp pointed angular shape eyes like Sonic’s other rivals which represent intensity, danger and seriousness in character design. Often makes fists, punches things when he’s frustrated(06, Olympic Games Animations) and gets up with his fists(Sonic Forces). Due to his backstory he is deeply appreciative of peace and prosperity but also has an often violent personality(Sonic Colors DS) and feral aggression.

Emotional - Emotionally Immature and unregulated. Feels joy and rage loudly but sadness and contemplation quietly. Silver is generally High-Spirited and puts his all into what he gets invested in(I’m giving this everything I’ve got!). Can get loud, carried away or needs to be calmed down or held back when he gets riled up(06 design docs, Mario & Sonic 2012, 2020), hence almost always being partnered with stoic people. Dead quiet when contemplating his dilemma and the loss of Blaze in 06 or his anxious feelings in TSR. Short-tempered, Easily Angered(explodes at Jet’s provocations in 2012 Olympic Games, twists Sonic for messing with him in a magazine comic, fights/almost fights people for petty reasons throughout the series). “Sometimes Silver tends to deal with things too head-on because of the strength of his feelings, or he tends to take everything on himself”, which can make him Reckless and Rash/Impulsive. Silver is hot-blooded and passionate, controlled by his emotions while Sonic and Shadow are calm and cool(Sonic & Silver).

Focused - Described as Focused on saving the Future in design docs. Silver has the pragmatic and somewhat ruthless “get-it-done” mentality of Future Trunks(has robbed, sneaked and killed before) and a Straight-To-The-Point mindset(doesn't care what the plan is called, only that it works in Forces, encourages everybody to stay focused and move forward throughout Forces) that can make him impatient. Silver is Goal Focused and hates distractions/things getting in his way(tells anything that doesn’t help to get of his way in Rivals 1+2, even during things like competitions he says the Jade Ghost Wisp is the only item he likes because it lets him disappear and focus on racing in the Team Vector interview). Very Proactive(Spent most of his life trying to defeat Iblis and find out how the future came to ruin when no one else did, actively investigated to find the truth of Dodon Pa and Eggman). Takes his mission and potential danger very seriously, takes things much more seriously than Sonic and sometimes gets mad at Sonic for not taking things seriously or messing around(JP TSR, Famitsu Magazine comic).

Challenger - Enjoys challenges and ways to test himself(disappointed when Orbot and Cubot don’t pose a challenge in Colors DS, Climbed Tokyo Tower in M&S 2020). Silver has a certain curiosity and likes seeing new and interesting things(“Interesting”). Has a confident and somewhat smug attitude about his abilities and is very Competitive(almost fights Blaze when they start one-upping each other over who could deal with Orbot and Cubot on their own in Colors DS). Said to make Steady efforts(Wallpaper Comedy 2022) to improve and regularly trains his skills. Silver is a very skilled person that is able to do various jobs around Soleanna and has sharp shooting among the best in Soleanna’s 1500 year history(06 Town Missions, Sonic Pict)(he takes offense to being treated like an amateur for a reason). Silver values bravery/directness and dislikes cowardice/cowardly tactics(Sonic Rivals 1+2, Team Vector Nintendo Dream interview). Silver is bold and undeterred by any threat as he fought against disasters and large Iblis monsters in dark dangerous environments from a very young age and throws himself at every enemy from Iblis to Infinite with no hesitation, even if they are stronger than him(says “We can take them all on!” when facing Eggman, Knuckles and Rouge in Rivals 2, “I’ll just destroy him everywhere at once” when facing Solaris). One of his catchphrases is “I’ll take you on”.

Determination - Arguably the most determined character. Battled his entire life through the Iblis future in the hopes of seeing a blue sky. Doesn’t give up easily in any activity(got exact hedgehog apple slices after 40 tries) no matter how badly he’s hurt or how hopeless the situation. Has no regard for pain/massive pain tolerance(Kept fighting undeterred after being kicked in the head by Shadow and skipped across the street like a rock by Sonic in Generations, endures "pain beyond description” caused by his powers in Sonic & Silver). Silver is extremely brave and self-sacrificial, he has no regard for his own safety and will sacrifice himself in a heartbeat if necessary(Sonic Comic Pumpkin Trigger) due to his selflessness and recklessness.

Intuitive - Searches for truth and solves problems by using his mind(Prima Strategy Guide) in all his major game roles including being a detective(Town Mission 13), figuring out how to revive Sonic(06), uncovering Eggman/Nega’s plots(Rivals 1+2, TSR) and noted to be very perceptive(Sees through Eggman Nega’s disguises by noticing small details), can be sharp and crafty(turns his fight with Sonic into a race to collect Chao to advance his mission instead, Intuits Blaze trying to control great power when seeing it for the first time in Otherworld Comedy). Despite his naivete Silver is not gullible or trusting and does not fall for Eggman’s tricks the same way Knuckles does in Team Sonic Racing. He didn’t initially believe in time travel, questioned Mephiles’ mission several times in 06, took time to work with others in the Rivals series and was immediately suspicious of Dodon Pa in Team Sonic Racing.

Lives in the good future the same way Blaze lives in the Sol Dimension when not in Sonic’s time(spends most of his time there as he doesn’t get to see Sonic very often according to Team Sonic Racing). Also implied to live in Soleanna(He was originally going to be named Venice simply because he lived there, implied to live there in Sonic & Silver and Otherworld Comedy, he may be Italian coded as his counterpart Sir Galahad uses an Italian dagger as a sword). Shown/implied many times to like Apples(ate apple flavored calorie bars in the Iblis future according to Sonic Pict) suggesting they are his favorite food.

#silver the hedgehog #sonic the hedgehog #sonic channel #sonic 06 #idw sonic #sonic #shadow the hedgehog #sonic colors #sonic rivals 2 #team sonic racing

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kneelingshadowsalome · 1 year ago

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"Angel. You feel like… like it's my birthday."

STOP WHAT IF the reader just starts to like, bake her own cake for him everytime on his birthday and the cake would be covered in edible flowers , his favorite flowers, maybe celebrate his little birthday somewhere secluded and they share little kisses after like omgondidbg (and omgonssk little flowers on his hood)

And why do i feel like his favorite color was red, black, anything that reminds him of violence and any color that is a resemblance of his childhood ,because fighting is the only thing that could distract him from his own mental problems and violent fantasies, and after he met her, his favorite colors changed into ones that remind her (and himself) the most, white symbolizes her innocence and the vast difference of how they both perceive the world, and green symbolizes moving on from some things? He may not move on from his violent tendencies, but maybe he doesn't always need to hold on those painful memories alone, maybe he doesn't need to come back to his room alone with his own sick and twisted world, maybe he can share some of it with her.

maybe thats why kö had a slight dislike of her wearing a black dress :p

Gahh what a message! You know I love you, right??

This birthday idea is so so sweet 😭💞 I know these two cuckoos would have the sweetest moments together. Can totally see them having a birthday picnic under the spring/summer trees (for some reason I'm convinced König's birthday is in May–June. Probably June, yandere König is a Leo sun & Scorpio rising I just know it lmao)

But look, now that you brought up colors I just have to start rambling again... (I'm sorry I'm a rambler)

I was supposed to share this in an author's note but never did so I'll share it now: the dresses symbolize the reader's mindset and reflect her stages of initiation. So:

Yellow = joy, optimism, curiosity, sunshine

Multi/flowers = femininity, fertility, sexual awakening, birds and bees, seduction

White = innocence, purity, hope, coldness, emptiness

Black = otherworld, power, darkness, grief, rebellion

Red = blood: the color of life, death, aggression and (re)birth. ("Birth is through blood")

And yes, König craves the innocence, purity, the angelic aura of the reader. She's like a drug to him when she's outside, dressed in those summery sweet colors, catching some air and watching the sun & the clouds (all the while he walks "underground", in darkness and in filth, watches the world through a black hood).

She reminds him of memories he doesn't even have (if that makes sense). She also reminds him of a certain memory he does have & which is filled with peace and light: the day he enlisted and celebrated by having a few beers. Apple trees were in full bloom and he was so at peace because he was in control now: he was in charge. He could finally leave his childhood home mainly filled with memories of abuse (I'm guessing not only his abuse but his mother's as well).

The evening was filled with the soft light of an early sunset and he thought those cute white blossoms were the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. It was a brief experience of what paradise might look and feel like before the army and fighting and war became his second home. But as you said about the colors red & black: he likes them, they're what he's good at, but it's not very cheerful or soothing!

When he first saw the reader she instantly reminded him of those cute apple blossoms and the paradise he never really got to taste. And even if his angel "fell" in the end, König adores both sides of her (the "blood-red woman" and the "apple blossom girl"). After all, there's two sides to him as well: the lonely boy who wants to protect the innocent... and the vengeful, grown man who wants to drown the world in blood and bury himself inside a woman to get at least some comfort.

And listen, I'm so glad you noticed the "dislike for the black dress" moment... Because it's there for a reason! König absolutely does not want her descending to the blackness he knows so well. His Engel might look good in red, but she doesn't belong in the ultimate darkness. It's kind of bittersweet how König wants to save her from that by taking the blame for her crime in the end (because he already knows he can bear the dark).

I don't know if this sounds gibberish but I just love to add symbols and metaphors in my stories... and I'm so happy you noticed there's a thing with colors going on 💋

& König needs that birthday cake, he needs those flowers and he needs to see her angel in a white dress and they both need to stop fucking around and go touch the grass 🤍💗

"maybe he doesn't need to always hold on those painful memories alone, maybe he doesn't need to come back to his room alone with his own sick and twisted world, maybe he can share some of it with her" -> look, I'm crying... 😭😭😭

#answered #könig backstory #just friends fic #esoteric rambling about colors

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x0x0josephinex0x0 · 10 months ago

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rare child | yeosang

this was a fun one to write! genre: fantasy warnings: def some spookiness and some local folklore inspiration, reader is mentioned to have the form of a woman and gendered terms are used, reader is said to have grayish brown eyes, also reader is some kind of forest spirit/deity so keep that in mind as you read

He was a rare child, that Yeosang.

Not just because he was uncommonly beautiful (which he was) or unusually thoughtful and kind (which was also true). But also because he could see what the normal children could not.

His mother was the first to know his gift, as mothers often are. Her boy was quiet, withdrawn, and rather shy, and she knew the other children in the village could be unkind to those who didn’t want to join in their loud games where they pretended at war or pirate mutinies or crusades. So she, despite the pestering of her husband, did not bar Yeosang from sitting with her on the flat black stone as she tended to the water lilies in their pond.

It was on one of these quiet summer mornings that Yeosang suddenly sat up straight, his eyes wide and frenzied. “What is it, lad?” she whispered to him. And wordlessly, Yeosang had pointed at a lily pad.

“There’s a little person on that flower,” he stated. Not a hint of a joke could be seen written across his delicate features, which were serious and concerned, a little furrow between his brows.

“Which one?” his mother asked, squinting.

“That one, the smallest in the group of three,” he replied, pointing with greater urgency.

“Does it have wings?” his mother asked calmly.

He cranes his neck. “Yes,” Yeosang confirmed. “She’s pretty.”

“She is,” murmured the mother, fighting tears. Her husband had only given her one child, this son, and the family gift was only said to be passed on to daughters. But it seemed Yeosang could see like her. She didn’t understand why — perhaps it was his still, gentle nature that allowed the fair-folk to bestow their favor upon him. But she knew that the gift must be nurtured and protected.

And so, all through his childhood and into adulthood, the boy and his mother spent hours and hours exploring the little world within their village, seeking out the creatures no one else could see. As he grew, the boy became more beautiful and more strange and quieter still, until as an adult whispers went around the village about the son of the healer. Rumor spread that he was cursed, or a changeling, or that he wasn’t a human after all, but rather some creature from the otherworld that had infiltrated the carefully guarded borders of the mortal world. As the rumors grew, the people became more and more unkind, and Yeosang retreated into the forest, building himself a cabin and only venturing down into town for the essentials.

It wasn’t long after the move that Yeosang started seeing the things in the woods. Most were neutral - neither friendly or unfriendly, and not keen to interact with humans. But every once in awhile there was something else — one time, he’d seen a pair of reflective eyes, higher than his own eye level, staring at him from the foreboding treeline. The violently murderous energy radiating from the creature had turned Yeonsang’s blood cold. When he’d done a double-take, whatever it was had vanished…or moved. He’d gone home immediately and locked the door after that. The worst was when he would hear a cheery whistle from the trees that Yeosang could only describe as beckoning. He always ignored it, but it sent full-body chills down his spine every time. Because who — or what — would be so keen to lure him further into the woods?

Yeosang had long learned that if he ignored the more unsavory creatures, they’d leave him alone. So that’s what he did. But that was all about to change.

He’d heard screams in the woods before, and most of the time he’d known it was just one of the things that wanted him to come sprinting into the woods in the dark. But this time it was different. Yeosang was already in the woods, searching by his own torchlight for a particular kind of winter flower for his mother, when the short scream burst through the silence and was immediately cut off, a strange choked yelp in its place. As good as the things were at imitating human noises, that was one he’d never heard before. It struck that particular chord in his body that crystallized into one single, urgent thought in his mind. Real.

So he took off running. This was difficult through the brush and the two feet of powdery snow, but he managed, bounding into a clearing and stopping in his tracks at what he saw.

A woman — from the looks of it — was tied by the wrists and waist to a tree, shrouded by fifteen or so humanoid figures in long black cloaks. A knife protruded from a wound in her chest.

A wound that leaked silver blood.

Without really knowing why, Yeosang shouted, “let her go!” And then watched with distrust as the figures dissipated like smoke into the surrounding line of firs.

—-

You were fading. You could feel it.

In a fever dream, you felt your soul straining against the tether binding it to the broken wreck that had been the body it had inhabited for the whole of your immortal existence. Death was not something common to your kind, but as you hovered between it and the pain of staying alive, you once again felt a moment of kinship with the humans. No wonder so many saw death as mercy, if living felt like this.

It was odd being in this position. You weren’t able to move your limbs in your disconnected state, and yet, your heightened senses allowed you to feel and nearly see the warm hands that tended to the wound in your chest. All you knew was that someone was taking care of you. After all the torture you’ve been through, the feeling of hands on you is frightening, but these hands are gentle and skilled in healing. As time passes, you start to become aware of voices.

“Why do you think they did this to her?” asks a soft deep voice.

“Religious turf war, I’ll bet. She governs the forest, and another deity wanted it,” a higher voice, probably feminine replies.

“I didn’t think goddesses could die.” This was a whisper. Barely distinguishable.

“They can’t,” the feminine voice assures. “Unless you exert inhuman effort. The only way to kill a goddess is to call a demon.”

A sharp gasp came from the deeper voice — and then you felt a hand on your face.

“She’s beautiful.”

“Even now,” the deep voice agrees.

“And she hasn’t died yet. I think she’s still deciding.”

There is a pause. You are starting to drift out of awareness again, but just before you sink into the warm nothingness, you hear the deep voice whisper, “you should stay. I’d like to know you.”

—-

It takes another two weeks for you to open your eyes.

Every day when Yeosang would check on you, there would be a new improvement, which he would write in a little notebook he kept by his bed — a bed which you now occupy. On Tuesday: a new flush in the cheeks. On Wednesday: deeper, more filling breaths. On Thursday: slight movement in the fingers. And so on. Your eyelids flutter for an hour before you blink them all the way open, peering around the cottage with a wide grayish-brown gaze. The first thing they really land on is the pretty boy in a chair at your bedside, sitting with rapt attention, enthralled by every one of your movements.

“Oh,” you say, your softly musical voice laced with recognition.

Because of course you know this boy — the one who sang mournful songs at the base of the trees he felled to build his cabin, who left warm honey in little jars through the forest for the fairies who dwelt there in your care, whom you had paid a visit to months before. You hadn’t gone in your true form, instead choosing to follow him as a fawn, curious as to how he could see your subjects so clearly and even more puzzled at how kind he was to them. You had watched him from a distance, trying not to alert him to your presence, and had been shocked when he had laid a loaf of freshly baked bread at the mouth of a brownie’s lair. Where most humans were frightened by you and your kind, this odd human seemed to care for them.

Yeosang reaches a hand out toward you before thinking better of it and withdrawing it. “My lady,” he says with a small nod. “How do you feel?”

Angry. Overwhelmed. Crushed. “Who are you?” you say, and you can hear how frightened your voice is — it shakes around the corners of your words.

Yeosang moves his chair forward quietly. “It’s alright,” he whispers. “You’re safe.”

When your eyes narrow in suspicion, he sighs. “My name is Yeosang.”

“You’re the boy with the honey,” you venture, and though your eyes are still hesitant, they seem to warm just slightly.

“Yes,” he agrees. “I am.” He looks at you — really looks at you, like no human had ever looked at you before as the keeper of the forest, with a mixture of wonder and curiosity and trepidation. Your heart speeds up, beating painfully, reminding you of the wound you’d sustained. Your hands fly up to your chest, where a neat row of stitches hold what was probably a gaping hole closed.

You take a deep breath, but despite your efforts to remain calm, a wild breeze blows through the cabin, buffeting Yeosang back from your side. He has to hold onto the doorframe to keep from being blown right off his feet, and stares at you almost reproachfully after the gust dies down -- which almost makes you laugh.

But then Yeosang approaches you again, and his fingers wrap around your nearest hand, which is ice cold. He rubs warmth into it, a familiar action it seems he has practiced many times before. “Do you know why you were in that clearing?”

You clench your jaw to avoid releasing another flurry of wind. “Yes,” you say grimly. “Because of a demon who wants this forest for his own. If I hadn’t recovered, you and your village would be decimated by him. As it is, he is probably thinking of ways to come for me again.”

“How did he capture you?” Yeosang asks curiously.

“Like a coward,” you spit. “He snuck up on me. If he had tried to take me head-on, I could’ve fought him off.”

“I believe you,” Yeosang breathes, still massaging your cold fingertips with his warm ones. You fixate on this for a moment -- it has been eons since you felt a human’s touch.

“Most mortals can’t see me,” you finally say, looking up into his dark eyes. “And around here, the only ones who could see me were --”

“Women,” Yeosang finishes. “Yes, my mother told me.”

“Who is your mother, then?” you asked him.

“She is the healer in the village. Her family has the favor of the fair-folk.” He clears his throat and avoids your gaze. “Somehow, I inherited it, although it’s only supposed to pass to the daughters. Perhaps it’s because I am my mother’s only child.”

You watch as he tangles his fingers with yours absently -- another familiar gesture, and yet it makes your stomach flip over. “How long have I been --”

“It’s been a month,” Yeosang says. “The forest is unusually dark these days.”

“It’s because of me,” you whisper. Slowly, you move to sit up, and Yeosang springs into action, reaching around to support you as you inch into a seated position.

You can’t help but stare at him, his soft dark hair falling in front of his eyes, his uncommonly beautiful face inches from your own. He is not paying attention in the slightest, using all of his focus to help you, stepping back once you are sitting up with your back against the headboard. “Is this alright?” he asks you, watching you carefully as he steps back a single pace.

“Yes,” you reassure him. And truly, you feel galvanized now that you aren’t flat on your back. “Are you not afraid of me?” you ask suddenly, surprised by his closeness.

“Do I need to be afraid of you?” he counters, a bit amused.

“Right now, maybe not,” you allow. “But when I haven’t just been pulled back from the brink of death, I am normally one of the more powerful forest guardians that exist in this world. Most humans feel...unsettled in my presence.”

Yeosang blushes. “I never said I don’t feel unsettled.”

“So you are afraid, then?” you ask him with a raised eyebrow.

Slowly, he shakes his head. “More...nervous,” he admits, avoiding eye contact.

The room feels suddenly hot, and his hand in yours becomes somehow heavier. As you try to determine the reason for this sudden shift in your mood, the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.

Something is watching you from the trees.

You can almost see them through the brush visible through Yeosang’s small bedroom window -- you probably would be able to see them if it weren’t for your current state of weakness. As it is, the only thing you can pick out is a sound: the slow, careful shifting of weight of something trying not to be seen. This was a common enough sound. Animals do it all the time. But this is different. Every other noise from the forest falls silent to listen to it.

Yeosang watched you carefully as your spine stiffens, your stormy grayish-brown eyes narrowing as you strain to pick out what you’re hearing. And then, through the eerie silence — that whistle. The same beckoning call Yeosang had been hearing since he moved to his cottage on the darkest forest’s edge. Carefully extracting his hand from yours, he steps in front of the window and locks it. After pulling the curtains closed, he looks around at you with a smile that doesn't reach his eyes. “Get some rest. I will come for you in the morning.”

“You knew what that was?” you ask him. It was just a guess, but he’s grown pale, and his dark eyes are wide.

He doesn’t reply, just unconsciously places a comforting hand at your shoulder. Then finally he speaks. “I don’t know what it is. I just know that it scares me.”

******

It takes you another week to feel like yourself again. Yeosang bullies you into walking through the closest trees with him, but respects your wishes not to travel back into the deep woods. Instead, the two of you walk side-by-side, usually hand-in-hand, the human and the guardian of the wood, and talk -- about everything from Yeosang’s childhood memories to your favorite creatures from the forest. You are fascinated by the beauty and strangeness of him, and the more he speaks, the more you find yourself wishing to know about him.

On the sixth day since you awakened, it snows. You step outside to watch the white flakes dance down from the clouds, finally able to see the patterns in each one. Yeosang is quiet for a human, but the sound of the powder beneath his feet alerts you to his presence behind you. A part of you wants to turn toward his warmth, toward that funny little smile that he always seems to wear when he speaks to you, but you’re too occupied by the falling snow. “Hello,” you call.

“Are you enjoying yourself?” he replies fondly.

“I love the snowflakes,” you tell him.

“I can see that.” You hear him take a step closer, and jump a little when you feel a hand at your waist, but relax into his touch easily. “It’s just me,” he reminds you in a soothing voice as his arms wrap around you, his chin finding a resting place in the crook of your shoulder.

“I know,” you say softly as you almost automatically entwine your arms with his. He’s never held you like this before, but the warmth is welcome.

“Is this alright?” he murmurs in your ear.

You lean into him further. “You’re warm,” you reply, and Yeosang chuckles, pressing his lips to the side of your head.

“So are you.”

There is something ancient about the way it feels to be so close to him — something that, for all your time watching over the trees, you can’t remember experiencing as an immortal being. And yet, it’s as familiar as breathing. It reminds you of when you were human.

That afternoon, on your walk, it is Yeosang who asks the question. “Were you always...the way you are now?” he asks, squeezing your hand as it swings back and forth in his own.

The corners of your lips raise. “Why do you ask?”

He blushes a little. “Well, for a deity, you seem so...” He trails off. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to offend you.”

“You haven’t offended me,” you say, amused. He hadn’t even finished his sentence. “I was human, once.”

“You were?” he says, nodding for you to continue.

You sigh. “It was...an age ago, it seems. Hundreds of years. Maybe thousands.” The memories are fuzzy, but after all this time, you still ache. “You want to hear the story?”

“Please,” Yeosang implores.

You take a deep breath and fixate on the bare branches of the trees overhead. “The forest was new then. I was young. And in love. It is hard to remember exactly what happened...someone from my family didn’t approve. I was...nobility, I suppose you might call it. And he was a farmer who lived on our land.”

“Do you remember his name?” Yeosang asks.

You shake your head. “Only that it sounded like music to me.” The ache in your chest is growing sharper now, more pronounced, as though the wound Yeosang removed the stitches from only days ago has split wide open again. “We ran from our village into these trees. Deep within them. And we got lost. The woods were empty then — it was a bitter winter, and we didn’t have any food or any way to get it. I had been well-fed, but he…”

You are surprised at how easily the tears spring to your eyes as you struggle to recall what happened. Drawing in a great shuddering breath, you continue. “In the end, it wasn’t even the starvation that took him from me. It was love. He gave me his cloak to wear as a blanket every night when we slept, and one morning I woke to him sitting cold and unmoving beside me.”

Yeosang is still watching you with gentle eyes, offering an arm around your shoulders to comfort against the cold and the rising emotion. “My kind are made immortal by some unknown power that attaches to us, at the right place, in the right time, and only when we are at our most vulnerable. At this very moment, when I lost a love meant to last eons, the transformation took place. With every cry of all-consuming anguish, I found myself slipping further into madness, until I was as wild and undying as the woods themselves.”

“Have you loved since then?” Yeosang quietly questions. His arm around your shoulders, the shawl he wraps around you every time you’re about to leave the warmth of the hearth, the days he spent at your side as you decided whether to succumb to death or not, all swirl around like a breeze in your mind.

You give a soft laugh. “I am made of love. It is the reason I persist. I can do nothing without it. I love the trees as my own home. I love the creatures who dwell in my home like my own children. I even love the human lovers who have wandered into my arms.”

“Do I have a place in your heart?” Yeosang asks. “Am I one of your children, then? Or one of your trusts?”

The moment you look into his eyes, you have your answer. “You are not like a child or a lover to me, no.”

“Then what am I?” he challenges. And his voice is still quiet, but his eyes flash.

“I see in you the echo of the love that changed me,” you whisper, pausing in your walk to bring a chilled finger up to Yeosang’s pink cheek. “You have the same essence.” You hesitate before you make your tearful admission. “A part of me fears that you’ll meet the same fate he did.”

Your murmur sends a shiver down Yeosang’s spine — or perhaps it’s the contrast of your cold hand against his face — but he takes a step closer, so close you can feel the warmth coming from him.

“Let me be clear, then. I may not be the only one you love, nor can I be the first, but I want to be the name that even thousands of years cannot erase from your memory.”

And then he presses his lips to yours.

You are only able to register the sensation -- the soft brush of sensitive skin, and his large, calloused hands cradling your face -- before the wind starts, buffeting the two of you as you stand in each other’s embrace. You feel it snake up your body, stealing the warmth from your limbs as you cling to Yeosang.

It is odd, though. Even as the wind picks up speed, flinging your skirts and your hair and the snow all around you, you feel as though nothing exists but the feel of Yeosang’s kiss, as though time has stopped for just this moment and you and he are the only real things in the world. His hands slide back to knot in your hair as he deepens the kiss, seemingly unperturbed by the raging gale around him, as content to do it amid the frigid gusts of air as he would by a warm fire.

In the evening, when it is time for sleep, you wordlessly pull Yeosang into his own bed again to sleep beside you, knowing he will understand the invitation for what it is. You spend the cold night curved around each other, his muscular arms wrapped snugly around your waist, keeping each other warm. In your immortality, you had shared a bed with many humans, and you always knew it would be temporary. With Yeosang, it almost convinces you that you are human again.

***

One night, not long later, your sleep is unsettled. You hover between waking and uneasy dreams full of shadows and teeth, your eyes flying open as you realize the space in the bed that Yeosang usually occupies is empty. The panic grows worse when you realize that there is a cold draft in the cabin from the door that’s propped open, swinging gently in the freezing wind.

Petrified, you jolt out of bed and run to the doorway, the sight that greets you only confirming your fears. There are no footsteps in the newly fallen snow leading down from the cabin’s steps. Yeosang has been taken.

Just as you come to this realization, the wind suddenly falls silent, and you hear it.

The whistle. The cheery, beckoning sound -- the invitation to travel deeper into the woods.

You pull the blanket around your shoulders, tug on your boots, and run into the snow, heading right into the trees.

The whistle guides you, occasionally sounding from your right or left as an indication to turn. As you run, you feel a friendly breeze picking up speed beside you, blowing you quicker toward your destination. Thanks to your forest, and the life that inhabits it, you are able to cut an inhumanly quick path through the growth, even allowing the wind to fully carry you down the steeper hills and around particularly sharp turns, until you come upon a wide clearing and stop in your tracks.

Because there is Yeosang, crumpled at the feet of something that is nearly impossible to make out in the darkness. Once you can tell what it is, it is only your immortal side that keeps your human side from bolting like a deer at the sound of a branch cracking.

It is about the height of a man, with what looks like the face of a man -- but it’s too long, slightly too smooth and hairless, and the eyes are unnaturally glassy, like a doll’s. It turns its head as you burst into the clearing, its movements jerky and awkward, as though imitating a human rather than really being one. The arms are too long as well, as are the fingers, and as the mouth splits open in a grotesque attempt at a smile, the teeth glint unnaturally, almost like animal eyes do at night.

The voice that echoes across the clearing doesn’t seem to be coming from the creature’s mouth. Rather, it seems to materialize from the darkness, as sudden and harsh as a slap to the face. “The lady of the forest has returned.”

You give the creature your coldest stare. “So it seems,” you call back. “What have you done to the human?”

You can hear the anger in your voice, hot and dark as the moonless night. It would make other creatures cringe and cower, but this foul beast only laughs, a clicking, disharmonious sound that scrapes at the bones. “He offered me his life for yours when I came to end your life tonight,” the creature tells you. “Poor thing. I think he thinks he’s in love with you.”

“This war is between us,” you say. “Release him, and let us finish this.”

Another sickening laugh sounds across the clearing before the creature begins to limp toward you at a jarring speed, contorting hideously onto all fours as it gets closer. You breathe in the frigid night air and feel the heat rising in your chest as your whole body lifts off the forest floor into the air. The wind starts to whip around furiously, coming to your aid, as usual. You hover two feet above ground and look upward as light begins to erupt from your fingertips, the crown of your head, even your chin and your cheekbones. The clearing is suddenly illuminated, and the creature shrieks as beams of hot light zap into its skin, creating disc-sized burn marks all over its body..

But then yet another shout echoes across the clearing. You look toward the sound to see Yeosang, his brow furrowed in that same way it had been the first day you’d woken up, when you’d nearly blown him out of the room. Almost amused, almost reproachful. He’s alive, you think, and the wind slows down enough for you to drop to the ground and bolt towards Yeosang through the piles of untouched snow as the creature writhes in pain behind you.

You notice he’s kneeling as you approach, and you slide to your knees as well when you reach him, flinging your arms around Yeosang’s neck. “What did he do to you? Where are you hurt?” you ask him frantically

He gently pulls away. “I am not hurt,” he insists, pushing your hair out of your face so he can better cradle it. “I came freely.”

“Why were you unconscious?” you ask. “And why did you go with him?”

He sighs. “His power was growing every day. I knew he would come for you soon. It was the only way I could think to keep him from doing anything to you.”

The creature behind you has now recovered, and is scuttling toward you once again. “Get behind me!” you scream at Yeosang, flinging your arms out and letting a jet of light shoot from your eyes. It sears a small burn into the creature’s hand, and it screeches, but there’s another yell -- this time from Yeosang. When you whirl around, he’s nursing a burnt hand, too.

“What --” you begin, but Yeosang interrupts by placing both hands on your shoulders.

“Listen carefully, my darling,” he says urgently. “I made a deal with him.”

“No,” you say, rejecting this news immediately. Because to make a deal with something like that monster meant certain death for a human. Their deals are unbreakable, inescapable, binding. If Yeosang really did this, he’s lost to you forever.

“He promised to leave the village and your forest alone,” Yeosang continues, ignoring your protest.

“And what must you give him?” you demand, terrified of his answer.

He gives a weak smile. “Everything.”

“What does that mean?” you ask in a broken whisper.

“The way he tells it, he will absorb me into himself. I will...become something different. Perhaps something like he is.”

You cannot speak. You simply stare at Yeosang, who is eyeing the creature over your shoulder, still staggering in pain. “Please, my love. Please get yourself somewhere safe. You cannot hurt him without hurting me, so there’s nothing more you can do here.”

Your thoughts are racing. “Not again,” you say quietly. “Not this again. No.”

When you were human you might have had words for the grief you feel, because as a human your capacity for it was so much smaller. Many times you’ve wondered if that’s not why you were changed -- because your pain was so overwhelmingly large that you couldn’t manage it unless you became impenetrable. But it is the first time since the change that you’ve felt this way: the ground beneath you seems to crumble to dust, the world fading to a helpless gray devoid of all the colors of hope and joy and lust and love and passion and mercy and goodness. “You cannot leave me here without you,” you say in a flat voice that can barely contain the burgeoning storm inside you, which threatens to burst from you at any moment. This is the first time you’ve said out loud what has been screaming in your brain for as long as you have been immortal.

His smile is sad. “I don’t know if we have much choice, love,” he admits. “Can you make me a promise?” When you don’t answer, he quickly continues, “Will you say my name every day, for the rest of eternity? So that you never forget about me, or how much I loved you?”

“Yeosang,” you whisper, and he nods in gratitude. But he doesn’t realize -- the emotions are bubbling up, dangerously close to the surface, and as the creature your love is chained to begins gearing up for another attack, a bright light bursts from you, from every part of your body. This is not the searing light of destruction: this is pure power, and it envelopes both he and the creature.

At the same time, you let out a primal shriek that echoes through the forest, raising a sea of bats into the night in fright and causing owls and mice and other nocturnal creatures miles away to become disoriented and confused. Even the tenants of the village hear the scream of a goddess, noting how it shakes the earth and brings piles of snow and ice hurtling down from the trees.

As the light surrounds Yeosang and the creature, the beast begins to dissolve. Bit-by-bit, the creature’s essence is absorbed into Yeosang’s body -- preserving the sanctity of the deal, but preserving the one person you refuse to lose. It happens quickly, the light fading with your scream, and by the time all traces of it have evaporated into the air, Yeosang collapses to the ground. You fall to your knees, exhausted, but can’t help but crawl through the snow toward his fallen figure. As you gently roll him over, he opens his eyes, and they glow red in the darkness.

You blink once, before the searing pain behind your eyes overtakes you and you faint.

*** Immortality is an intoxicating and dizzying mass of colors and lights, where the sequencing of time becomes distorted and waxy. Life among the trees gives your immortality structure, the changing of the seasons making obvious the passage of years, into decades, into centuries.

And every autumn, your heart returns to you.

He had survived the contract -- not just his body, but his soul. In the many conversations the two of you had had, in the dead of the forest, in the heart of the winter, he’d told you that he secretly believed this had been the reason for his strange gift. In an odd way, he’d been destined to save you.

There was something inside of him that kept the darkness in him at bay -- he swore that it was his love for you, but as sweet as that was, you felt that it was simply his goodness, his purity, that kept him from acting on the rabid hunger that possessed him. Because it was him -- he couldn’t, he wouldn’t.

There was a sadness to everything, though. As the world became warmer, the anger he held inside of him became restless, and he would need to leave. You didn’t quite understand, but you knew how tenuous his hold on himself could be if he tried to stay with you, so at the opening of spring, he would depart, leaving you to rule the forest on your own for half of the year. But he always returns to bring the autumn.

Even now, you wait in the customary clearing, unable to keep a smile from your face as a chill steals over the earth. You watch as the grass frosts beneath your very feet, and the whistle sounds from the treeline. The whole world seems to hold its breath for a moment, and then --

He emerges from the trees, as beautiful as ever, shrouded in shadows and with his piercing red-tinged eyes fixed unfailingly on you.

And your whisper seeps through the whole clearing as the frost does.

“Yeosang.”

#ateez #ateez fic #ateez x reader #ateez x you #yeosang #kang yeosang #yeosang x reader

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