#wife self immolate

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“WIFE SLAYER BECOMES TORCH,” The Province (Vancouver). March 16, 1931. Page 5. --- Alberta Man Leaps Into Flaming Strawstack and Burns to Death. --- TOTS CARRY NOTE --- EDMONTON, March 16. - Sending his children into Vegreville with a note in which he signified his intentions, Steve Yknitski, farmer, killed his wife with an axe in his stable at Royal Park near Vegreville this morning and then leaped into a flaming straw stack where he was burned to death.

At noon Alberta provincial police officers and residents were busy battling the flames in an attempt to get the body from the straw pile. The body of the woman remained in the stable, and no examination had been made at that time. The children, aged 8 and 4 years, were instructed by the father to take the note to his brother-in-law. The latter read it, notified Corporal Heacock of the Alberta provincial police detachment, and then rushed out to the farm, where he found the body of the woman, and could see that of the man enveloped by the flames in the straw stack.

Corporal Heacock and residents were making desperate efforts to quench the flames to get the body of the man out before it was entirely consumed, but the intense heat beat them away.

[contemplatingoutlander]

How to save the Supreme Court from Alito’s ethical malfeasance

The justice’s unconscionable violations of ethics demand the court be reformed.

Jennifer Rubin clearly explains why Alito went too far in allowing a symbol of the insurrection to fly over his home, and why the Roberts Court needs to stop slow-walking the presidential immunity decision if the Court is to regain any credibility. This is a gift🎁link so anyone can read the full article, even if they don't subscribe to The Washington Post.

Among the Supreme Court’s abominations — shredding precedent to obliterate reproductive freedom, financial impropriety, partisanship — none compares to the upside-down flag, identified with violent insurrectionists, that flew over the home of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. Ethics experts and lawyers (including former judges) of all stripes expressed their outrage. “His statement — which says his wife displayed a symbol associated with a failed coup to subvert democracy because she was offended by an anti-Trump sign one of her neighbors displayed — is so incoherent it is insulting to our collective intelligence,” constitutional law professor Leah Litman emails me. “And a Justice who resides in a house that displays symbols glorifying a coup should not participate in cases that will determine whether people who participated in said coup will face any accountability.” [...] Alito (alongside Justice Clarence Thomas, whose wife encouraged coup plotters) has heard multiple insurrection-related cases, including the pending immunity case that could absolve Trump of criminal liability. In letting his home stand in solidarity with constitutional arsonists, Alito made a mockery of his oath to “faithfully and impartially discharge” his duties under the Constitution. Any other judge (especially one implicated in financial misconduct) would be compelled to resign and/or face the threat of impeachment. So what about Alito? Immediate Triage Unlike its speedy disposition of the 14th Amendment case (24 days after argument) and of many lesser matters, the court put the immunity case in deep freeze, making it near-impossible to try the ex-president before the next election....The Alito debacle only deepens the impression that the court has its thumb on the scale — or the brake — for Trump. [...] As constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe warns in an email to me, if Roberts “wants the Court to retain any credibility at all,” he must compel the court to “bite the bullet and issue its decision, ....” Then, Tribe explains, “Judge [Tanya S.] Chutkan either can hold whatever hearing the Court thinks necessary to decide exactly which charges against the former president may remain” or can begin the trial itself, which “should have been over by now.” Alito’s ethical self-immolation leaves Roberts no alternative if he wants to dispel the perception that two ethically compromised, partisan justices have thoroughly corrupted the court. (He also should implore Alito to recuse, but who believes that’ll happen?) [emphasis added]

[flee-from-fresno]

The thing that gets me about Bushnell's self-immolation is that he's an airman. He was a member of the Air Force. Historically, the group that is the most emotionally distant from the wars they partake in, and even he was unable to stomach the scale of death in Palestine.

In my personal experience with vets from the Iraq War, you can physically see the results of US conditioning against the perceived enemy in the average soldier. I've had vets from the Army and Navy call Iraqis "sand ni**ers" to my face. But a lot of the ex Air Force I've talked to didn't have that kind of vitriol because they didn't need that level of indoctrination.

There's a post going around right now, dramatizing a defence contractor getting done with their 9-5 of drone striking and getting to go home that night to their wife and kids after a full day of murder, and that's the Air Force experience too. If you have a combat role, you sit in a 30 million dollar chair, press a button and people die. You don't need to make the soldier hate the target, you make them see the target as a statistic, a number.

I know there's been an increase in IOF suicides since last October, which is to be expected when you realize you're an active participant in genocide, but when an active duty airman goes as far as to self-immolate in protest, it either needs to be the death-knell for the US military's support of Israel in Gaza or the death-knell for those politicians that continue to green light that support

[jessaerys]

just watched kim and jimmy break up in 6x9. im going to go to LA and break into vince gilligan's house and self immolate in his bedroom to change the trajectory of his and his wife's life forever

[bestworstcase]

Yknow what makes me sad?? People always end up forgetting SOME character trait in favor for something else. Like, for example, Ozpin is arguably the FUNNIEST character in RWBY. Like yeah he has issues and he's immortal and the most divorced man alive(?) but he also purely drinks hot chocolate. He wears a turtleneck, vest and coat all the time in the summer. He wears goofy glasses. He has a silly sense of humor and he's sassy. His reaction to the portal closing in v8 is "Oh dear" as if he can't say 'shit'. Every other scene with him makes me laugh bc he's so unintentionally hilarious and it's even pointed out by other characters (coco says he has a mischievous, boyish charm). Also you can TELL he was a dad bc his immediate reaction to Oscar being like "please don't do anything embarrassing :(" is him immediately doing something embarrassing

He's so fucking funny and it's a serious shame literally NO ONE talks about it it's one of my favorite parts of his character and it's definitely one of his biggest character traits. Like without it it just doesn't feel like Oz, yknow? He's not an entirely serious character, though he definitely uses humor to cope (as a distraction, which Oscar clearly hates bc he's a p straightforward kid). I just fhchgj he's silly okay

one of your favorite character traits of his is that you… mock him for dressing in manner you think is strange? weird pull. oh he’s so sillygoofy, he doesn’t swear and he drinks hot cocoa, everybody point and laugh!—like ??

what is the joke.

also like. sorry but a grown man purposefully going out of his way to embarrass a fourteen-year-old boy who’s already mortified and uncomfortable as a "joke" isn’t dad behavior. it’s just mean. if you want to read ozpin as the type of person who thinks it’s funny to pick on teenagers that’s… your prerogative, i guess? but i think his poor treatment of oscar in v4-5 is a confluence of fear, resignation to his curse, and just being thoughtless. lol

anyway. ozpin uses humor to lower tension and ease people into big revelations (e.g. "would you believe me if i told you that one’s been around since i was a boy?" or delivering "i gave them the ability to turn into birds" like a self-deprecating joke) but his own sense of humor runs more to subtle ironic or irreverent whimsy and dry understatement. he doesn’t make jokes per se, he calls ironwood’s fleet "a bit of an eyesore."

the funniest thing that’s ever come out of his mouth is "fighting and dancing aren’t so different; two partners interlocked… hn. although, one wrong move on the ballroom merely leads to a swollen foot," which is a mirror image of and funny for the same reason as salem telling oscar "perhaps you and i can have a better working relationship"—in that they’re both, in these moments, thinking about that one time they immolated each other. this dance reminds me of when my wife and i murdered each other… we had a poor working relationship. he sets up the joke and she delivers the punchline, six volumes later. same sense of humor.

[etymology-of-the-emblem]

Shiva / シヴァ and Safy / サフィ

Shiva (JP: シヴァ; rōmaji: shiva) is a mercenary from the village of Sabang under the employ of the pirate Lifis in Fire Emblem: Thracia 776. He gets his name from Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction and member of the Trimurti—the three supreme deities personifying creation, preservation, and destruction. However, Shiva is also viewed as a wise and secluded sage and the one who educated the Yogis, the original practitioners of Yoga. Given this duality, Shiva has been portrayed in the culture as both a benevolent, compassionate god and a fierce, terrifying god. This may be the basis of the dichotomy between the character Shiva being a brooding sellsword under the enemy and a more understanding man seen in his interactions with Safy. However, their relationship is further influenced by her namesake.

Safy (JP: サフィ; rōmaji: safi) is a cleric in service to Linoan of Tarrah. Her name is a corruption of サティー(rōmaji: satī), the Hindu goddess of marital felicity Sati. She was the favorite child of her father Daksha, avatar of the Great Goddess Mahadevi, and first wife of Shiva. From an early age, Sati devoted herself to worship of the reclusive god, even rejecting the possibility of taking any husband other than Shiva, much to her father's chagrin. She left her life in a palace to live remotely in the forests like Shiva to garner his attention. Eventually he caved, and the two were wed. This only caused tensions to rise between Sati and Daksha. When the latter held a yajna, a sacrifice with sacred fire, he invited every god except for Shiva and Sati. Despite Shiva's warnings of her father's intention, Sati returned to her father's house, convincing herself that family need not receive formal invitation. Upon her arrival, Daksha became enraged; he belittled and insulted his daughter and her husband. Sati, out of a desire to defend Shiva's honor and distance herself from her father, threw herself into the sacred flames. Her self-immolation brought the wrath of Shiva, who slaughtered all present at the yajna. His benevolent aspect, however, revived all of the lives he stole and forgave their actions.

Safy being a priest and her devotion to serving Linoan are likely both based on Sati's ascetic lifestyle in devotion to her lord and god Shiva. Even Safy leaving her home of Tarrah to find aid could be derived from Sati leaving her home in search of Shiva's attention. By far the most important tie between Safy and Shiva's namesakes is their interaction in Chapter 7. Here, Safy stands before Shiva, willing to die to a mercenary's sword to give Leif a window to escape. Shiva gives in to the cleric's wishes and changes side, remarking that she needs to take better care of her life and his frustrations of people speaking lightly of death and rushing to meet it too soon. All of this seems to relate to Sati's self-immolation, from Safy's willingness to die to protect another, to Shiva's irritation from the reckless handling of her life and aversion to death.

[kendrixtermina]

I think I've figured out where the "human shields" thing really comes from

After seeing many responses from ppl posting IDF propaganda, one patterns stuck out to me in the responses. or even those gross mocking tiktoks I noticed is how they accuse the gazans of trying to use sympathy.

Either it's a sob story, or wanting sympathy or "making" them do it. It's "pallywood", it's "human shields"

Either way, it's construed as trying to get sympathy somehow.

It is a common fallacy of human thinking to assume that, if something makes you feel a certain way, it must be because the person wants you to. Someone feels insecure and thinks the other person is showing off. Someone is jealous and thinks the partner must be cheating.

It's a failure of theory of mind, not distinguishing your thinking from theirs.

I think this is what we're seeing here.

They feel sympathy, but that doesn't fir their worldview, so the sympathy must be explained away.

It's like the wifebeater or abusive parent who claims the wife or child "made him do it".

Empathy is often equated with morality, but that's not at all the case. There is that whole book, "against empathy" about how those things are different, and one of the points (besides the obvious "selective keyhole compassion" thing) is that empathy is just as likely to make you look away from suffering because it overwhelms you.

During the Nazi dictatorship there were people who complained that ppl were being killed next to their towns. Soldiers complained of having to shoot the victims.

This was even weaponized. KZ guards in Dachau were rewarded with a day off if they shot a prisoner, so people became more trigger-happy to not have to see the murder anymore.

But it still happened, just out of sight.

This is the same thing.

The Palestinians aren't trying to get sympathy. What sympathy? When have they ever gotten any? They keep being butchered. If it's a tactic, it's not working at all! Plus, they're hardly self-immolating. They are trying their darndest to survive!

No. The sympathy you are feeling was not put there by them - it's your sympathy, your conscience trying to get your attention, from wherever you've stuffed it down. It's your sympathy that you're crushing, deligitimizing, ignoring, explaining away.

Most ppl are not total psychos, not in this mass. Normally people have huge inhibitions against killing. Significant mental gymnastics are needed to justify it.

The sympathy you're feeling is your own silenced conscience. Maybe start listening to it.

[stephenjaymorrisblog]

The Very Last Resort

(Arron Bushnell self-immolates)

Stephen Jay Morris

3/2/2024

©Scientific Morality.

A normal person cannot comprehend someone walking up to the Israeli Consulate and pouring gasoline all over themselves, striking a match, and burning to death while screaming, “Free Palestine!” Was he insane? Back in the 60’s, Vietnamese Buddhists set themselves on fire to protest America’s occupation of their country. They believed in reincarnation and had faith that they would return to earth for their sacrificial good deed. But Arron? He was a member of the United States Air Force. It is alleged that he was a Gay Anarchist, which makes me very inquisitive about him. Why was he in the Air Force? Was he a weekend leftist? I wonder if this question will ever be answered.

Let’s talk about his political suicide. Or was it suicide? This is a very controversial point. This act was, indeed, an existential shock. As for me, I am afraid of death, even were it to occur in my sleep. But many brave souls are willing to die for a cause, or for a loved one. I would die for my wife. That is understandable. But for my country? People who send others to war would never die for the USA. So, why would I?

Why would a 25-year-old man self-immolate? Was it because he was experiencing a moral panic? Maybe. If you are a moralist and hear continuous, daily death tallies of innocent men, women, and children, you feel helpless. He may have had fantasies of being a Rambo type and going into Gaza with an AR-15, shooting IDF soldiers, and freeing Palestinians. Or, perhaps, parachuting into Gaza with food and water to help. Maybe Navy Seals could complete such an unimaginable act, but without professional help, it is not really feasible. What Arron did was apparently self-determined and purposeful. It was his protest of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Palestine, the genocide of the Palestinian people, and the U.S. support of the Israeli government in these actions.

The mainstream media played this down as suicide. The reactionary element of America has played it cool. Oh, there have and will be insensitive memes or hateful posts on X, but I would be very surprised if some conservative pundits pose analytical theories on Arron’s motives. Maybe some MAGA lunatic will set himself on fire to stop abortion. (Am I now a participant in stochastic terrorism? Sure, why not.) I doubt that it would ever happen. It would be fun, though.

What Arron Bushnell did was a humanitarian act of altruism; the highest form of altruism, which is putting someone else’s needs above your own. America is so indoctrinated with the Ayn Rand virus of, “Fuck you! Me first.” Sacrifice is more moral than self-interest. What Bushnell did was the highest form of morality: sacrifice.

If you are willing to die for a cause, die in the anarchist revolution. Bakunin once said, “A revolutionary is a doomed man!” There is nothing romantic about revolution. It is full of hardship, bloodshed, and death. If that scares you, then become a Democrat or Republican, and waste your vote.

Me? I’m almost 70 years old. Unlike President Biden, however, I know my limitations.

[psychotrenny]

And for what it's worth, self-immolation is an incredibly painful form of death but let's not act as though that makes it inherently meaningful. To be absolutely clear Palestinian Liberation is an intensely important and noble cause, and whatever you can say about that soldier you can't deny that his heart was in the right place for this one. But the nobility of the cause and the cost of the gesture are two things with no correlation, and it's irritating to see people express sentiments along the lines of "Of course this is important, he died painfully for it". Within the USA alone you have the examples of a man who self immolated in the name of Men's Rights Activism and another man was an active incel who apparently self-immolated over being unable to find a girlfriend. In 2006 a German Pastor once self immolated and his wife claimed it was over atheism and the spread of Islam in Europe, while the year before two Israelis set themselves on fire to protest the withdrawal of Zionist settlement from Gaza. It's a drastic action to take but you can't act as though that alone justifies or gives credibility to the movement; people pay the ultimate price to advance or support all kinds of reasons and not all of them are good. The liberation of Palestine is a worthy cause because the people of Palestine should be free from the cruelty and oppression of an apartheid settler state, not because you can find people who were willing to kill themselves painfully for it

[invisibleicewands]

The BBC’s new three-part drama The Way is Michael Sheen’s directorial debut. It has been nearly a decade in gestation, this story of civil unrest fermenting in Sheen’s Welsh home town of Port Talbot – cradle of militant unionism and symbol of working-class fury and pride. It has been created with writer James Graham (Brexit: The Uncivil War, Quiz, Sherwood) and – slightly more unusually, documentary auteur Adam Curtis.

The opening episode is something so different and fresh that even if you can’t say you’re actively enjoying it (though I was), the power and ambition of it all, the unashamed idiosyncrasy that permeates the direction, the allusiveness of the narrative and its slightly dreamlike (or nightmarish) off-kilter quality surely makes you sit up and take notice. It has a clear, accessible narrative at its heart, for sure, but the sensibility is rare and all its own.

It’s a tale of civil discontent, sparked by the death of a youngster in a vat of molten slag at the steelworks and his father’s self-immolation – in grief, in protest, in some unspeakable combination of the two – thereafter. The union blames management and decades of underinvestment. Management offers to reline a furnace, a sop to the emotion of the moment, rather than a recognition of needs. “We didn’t realise we were buying a mood,” says one of the new investors, with a combination of bafflement and frustration.

The unfurling of the unrest plays out for the viewer mostly through the long-established local Driscoll family. The late paterfamilias was a committed striker in the 80s, the failure of which terrible feat of suffering and endurance is largely blamed by the family for his death. His son Geoff (the stalwart Steffan Rhodri, last seen in the excellent Men Up at the end of last year) takes an approach to communicating with the bosses that is more pragmatic/conciliatory/weak/treacherous – delete according to political proclivities. He is separated from his wife and family for reasons that become clear over the succeeding episodes, as does the specific bad blood between his son, benzos addicts and petty dealer Owen (Callum Scott Howells), and his police officer daughter Thea (Sophie Melville).

As the internet is shut down within the town, tensions rise, curfews are imposed and riots between townsfolk and police start to break out. The Driscolls become the police – and the media – scapegoats for it all, and are eventually forced, along with Owen’s eastern European girlfriend, Anna (Maja Laskowska), to flee their home and their town.

Threaded through this growing but none-too-incredible – especially to a post-lockdown audience also being assailed with headlines about coming redundancies at Port Talbot’s Tata Steel (though business secretary Kemi Badenoch has extensive explanations about how government investment is actually saving the works) – dystopian landscape are, presumably thanks mostly to the Curtis influence, potent illustrative clips of real-life news and CCTV footage. Through them the sense of dislocation increases, while the themes of the drama only become more closely knit. From Graham – and, I’d posit, Sheen’s powerful sense of Welshness and all that means historically as well as currently – come the more mystical, ancient touches. The importance the town places on the works’ pilot light never going out; the sword made of the first steel forged in the town, long before modern industry got there; the red-hooded figure appearing and disappearing; Sheen as Geoff’s father’s ghost and/or manifestation of his conscience, pursuing him as they make their escape. And then, as the Cambrian borders become increasingly policed, there is (garbed in a costume somewhere between pastor, Clint Eastwood nemesis and Matthew Hopkins’ finest) the Welshfinder.

It is a bravura opening episode – powerful, confident, ambitious, confrontational and unexpected. It conjures precisely the feeling of a town on the edge, a tinderbox for the powder keg that is an increasingly divided Britain as a whole. Then it pushes things a little further and if you squint just a tiny bit, you could be looking at the future. Maybe even a blueprint, if you were so minded. It feels like a drama fully in the tradition of Bleasdale, Loach, Alan Clarke and Jimmy McGovern, and if it occasionally falls victim to the latter’s tendency to agitprop, that still leaves it head and shoulders above the usual fare.

It doesn’t quite meet the high bar it has set for itself over the remaining episodes. Although they gesture towards the issue of displaced persons and what is to be done with waves of desperate people, they become too much about the internal dynamics of the Driscolls and their family history to feel as innovative or thrilling as that which has gone before. But you can live off the first hour for quite some time to come.

[dyed-red]

hi! do you have any weirdcest headcanon but about dean x john? i love those posts about sam and dean being very weird and kinda creepy and lacking all boundaries with each other and with each other's stuff (like recently that one about sam's baby teeth lmao) and i was wondering if you have any headcanon of that kind about father and son(s)

this is such a fun and sexy ask i've been savouring it for a few days since you sent it.

i think @augustonly refers to this as 'daddyweird' for john-related weirdcest so it's definitely something i've thought about before in the context of deanjohn. tbh i'm far more of a dean x john gencest and weirdcest enjoyer than outright dean x john wincest, so you have come to the right place.

because i read them as engaged in covert incest, or symbolic incest, in this sort of self-immolating mobius coil, which dean doesn't really acknowledge or realize that john is also in (until it's too late) and which john refuses to look right at because he needs dean and hates himself for needing dean and hates dean for needing him too while also wanting to give dean everything. it's very messy. i'm a fan.

in terms of articulate headcanons, it's hard to give you too many concrete things here. most of what i have is nebulous vibes lol. but okay.

dean's canon anger and jealousy over john's various hookups i think would manifest in interesting ways, both during the years sam is there (more covertly) and when he is gone (more overtly). dean understands that a wife -- the role he symbolically fills, not that he acknowledges it as such and instead buries deep into elemental understanding alone -- is entitled to certain things, including fidelity. as a teen and young adult, blocking john's attempts to go out, biting his lip and reminding him of the budget, of the fact that they have booze here, going to the bar to bring him home if he stays out too late, especially hanging around if there's a woman on his arm. and rationalizing it to himself as making sure his father doesn't spend too much of their very limited money, that he won't be tired and surly the next morning and snap at an already cantankerous sam, that any hunter needs someone to watch his back and make sure a succubus doesn't take him home.

and in the stanford years, that sort of entitlement over john's sex life becoming more overt, insisting (in a toothy grin sort of way, never demanding directly, of course) on sharing a room when they're on the same job even though john's become a bit more accustomed to privacy as he's worked more and more jobs away as the boys aged.

and that entitlement over his father's things, like cologne and aftershave and clothing omg. the jacket in the pilot episode, dean doesn't even think twice, grabbing it is as natural as breathing. (don't we see the same jacket in After School Special? the clothing entitlement started young). dean borrowing his father's razor, his father's skin mags, his father's toothbrush. running it over his teeth and tongue and making himself gag, just a little, with it at the back of his throat before the sensation shocks him out of it, spits the frothy toothpaste in the sink, tries not to think about the fact that he's hard or why.

john has a huge degree of entitlement over dean and dean's body as well. different, though. not jealousy but a too-close sense of pride in his hookups. didn't think too much about it and kept a distance when dean was younger but when he's of an age to sit comfortably with his fake id in the bar, to be of an actual age to be in that bar, and watching all the attention float around him, the heady desire that coalesces in the eyes of people who want to devour a young and beautiful thing like dean. protective, john would tell himself, that's all it is when he's observing. protective and amused, sure, when dean's kissing that beautiful blonde right at the bar itself, kiss drunk red lips. and pride, normal pride, when dean makes sure to find john in the crowd, over his pool game or across the bar, locks eyes and dean's face relaxes into an easy smile, reassured. dean's being smart, knowing his surroundings, and the flare in john's chest is just love for his boy, joy at his joy, and if there's a sense of affirmation that dean belongs to him, it's fatherly. it's fatherly.

it's not attraction between them, not really. it's triangulated and complex. they don't want to fuck each other but are disturbingly entitled to each other. john doesn't respect dean, not properly, but he loves him fiercely. dean admires his father and resents him but can't let himself acknowledge the second part of that, and the one thing he doesn't feel entitled to (not yet) is that resentment and anger. it comes out as a desire to be close beyond reason, to force his father to see him, to look at him, to acknowledge him and to give him what he is due.

they have no boundaries. sometimes the motel has only a room with one bed and they fall asleep to each other's snores and wake up with scents that are mingled and similar, bodies that are too similar, faces that look the same in sleepy waking and they recognize themselves in the other. sometimes dean jerks off to john's skin mags while john's in the shower and the door isn't closed the whole way. sometimes john goes to check on dean and finds him getting a blowjob in the impala or behind the bar and sometimes john keeps his distance and watches and tells himself it's just his job to have his kid's back and make sure he didn't take home a succubus.

(and the entitlement stretches to what john will ask dean to do for the job, but that is straight up canon. go make yourself monster bait, let that vampire suck on your neck, trick that monster into trying to bed you so it lets its guard down. john watching his son get molested while dean grits his teeth and plays his part and waits to be saved. john comforting himself with how he's never let it go too far, never asked dean to get on his knees or his back for a case, ignoring the gut-deep understanding that dean has most certainly done both when a situation -- financial or hunting -- has demanded it. john hasn't asked it of him, not directly, so it doesn't count. and dean's reciprocal entitlement then to john's space and time and comfort, his relative sobriety and words of affirmation and partnership. he's earned his keep.)

[grimowled]

@sidestriker continued from x.

"HM, HOW VERY AGREEABLE of you."

the owl prince replied in a goading drawl as he stepped through and closed the portal behind his billowing cloak with a whoosh, idly contemplating his glossy talons, grimoire hovering by his shoulder like a familiar and echoing with the pulse of his infernal magic; the limits of the true power of a goetic demon were nigh unknown, however stolas was wise enough to use it sparingly - and, in this case, to make a point, as striker had also stalked and caught him by surprise without warning.

(how delightfully rude ! he was lucky the dark prince had a soft spot for rebels.)

"oh-- is it really fair of you to talk about trusting me, considering it is I who was in bound in pretty ropes and on the other side of the barrel of your gun, the last time we were in the same room?"

the demon prince tittered in graceful hoots behind his taloned hand, sauntering in slow circles around the other, as if he found the irony of the situation terribly amusing; still, he was not there to antagonise, not necessarily. his prowling finally came to a halt when he swept his regal star-studded cape to the side, as the heat of the hideout was starting to get to him, and splayed a taloned hand across his buttoned chest, his other placed on the sinuous dell of his slender waist, as if to dramatically declare his intents in an earnest speech.

"--you know, I never meant any harm to you, and yet you have gone to great lengths and taken a large sum to assassinate me."

he paused for effect, pouting and heaving a purposely forlorn sigh as he cast his four-eyed gaze on the cowboy imp, glossing over the other's overt hostility and, of course, the gun permanently levelled at him; the expression on his strigine features an exquisite study in affable self-immolation, whilst his eyes scanned every detail with predatory precision.

(as a precaution, of course !)

"it still hurts, you know. I feel like we've gotten off on the wrong foot. I would beg you to consider this as you hear me out: as far as moral compass goes, we are more alike than you might think."

his tone was low and honeyed, dangerous yet alluring - the flash of a blade beneath a sheath of silk; the darker the scowl on striker's face, the wider the smile that pulled the avian's beak.

"you are ... exceptionally skilled, I'm sure you know. nobody has ever managed to do to me what you did - your talent is shockingly wasted. so I will cut to the chase - wouldn't you rather take my money and my generous patronage, than my ex-wife's ? I could help you unlock your full potential, if you will allow me. "

[fwipination]

Meet Don Vallus!

He's a new design and new take on my old beloved vampire for a very fluffy and utterly fun self indulgent story. Aka: I wanted an excuse to make him and his tiny wife fall in love again because I'm a hopeless sap. This has always been true.

As a dragon Don Vallus breaks the traditional mold a bit by being very open to dealing with mortals, as long as they are flattering or afraid of him enough, and wildly wealthy enough to top off his hoard. His main line of business these days is keeping nobles and princesses. In the past this was generally as collateral. A kingdom might need a magic sword of his so he would loan it out and expect it back with interest. The looming threat of eating the king's daughter worked really well for encouraging timely exchanges. However, as time passed, his threat became more of a service itself, with high class nobles and the like renting his illustrious manor's tower rooms to keep their daughters in so they would 'stay pure' before their largely arranged marriages. (The nobles who do this all pretty much suck.) It's a silly play on the whole princess in a tower guarded by a dragon bit. It's just that now he can write them off on his taxes. Which he definitely doesn't pay. Of course one day he accepts a contract of a particularly stubborn and rebellious daughter who keeps screwing up her family's reputation and over the course of many escape attempts, sword fights, constant threats of immolation, and cutting banter, the two take a narrative lap of enemies to rivals to friends to lovers. (There's that hopeless sap bit I mentioned earlier.)

The specifics of his design are still fluxing around a bit, but I like that with dragon's anyway. They just look like they feel at any given time. It's all magic anyway.

[clearlyivy]

Day one of Navratri .

9 days , 9 Godesses

Day One: Shailaputri | शैलपुत्री

Shailaputri is said to be the goddess of the moon. After Sati’s self-immolation at the Daksha Yagna, she is reborn as Goddess Parvathi or Shailputri Devi and becomes the wife of Lord Shiva.

Shailaputri Devi resides in the root chakra and upon awakening, begins her journey to Shiv. She is the starting point of spiritual discipline.

Mantra:

“Aum Devi Shailaputryai Namaha!”

ॐ देवी शैलपुत्र्यै नमः॥

Jai Maa Durga 🔱

[horizon-verizon]

What do you think Laena's and Daemon's relationship was?

*EDITED POST* (4/23/24)

Disclaimer: A Headcanon, bc We simply Don't Know The Deeper Stuff Apart from he loved her and she him.

I've said this before (Post #1 and Post#2 and Post#3), but I think not long after they met & married, they came to love each other platonically and romantically; that his motives for pursuing her were political as well as emotional/romantic/sexual.

A) HotD & Its Racism

Honestly, even in the original canon, the Velaryons lose a lot throughout their connection to the Targs and Corlys' ambition. However, HotD made some decisions that make them look less impressive or intelligent than was needed:

Laena not having her Vhagar-claim scene despite her saying over and over she wants to embody dragon-riding and her heritage for its own sake since she was 12 (Aemond is because he wants to prove himself against bastards) -- also her having that dragonrider pride Daemon has, yet that not being enough for him to love her?! How does this not also invalidate or throw into doubt the central ship these people are trying to push (Daemyra)?! Self contradictory.

her daughters not getting a glance from Daemon in that 7th episode (I could be tripping for this one, but idk)

Daemon's apparent "trouble" with Rhaena not having a dragon bond yet despite he himself not having claimed/bonded with Caraxes until he was in his late teens and how more likely it is for him to actually expressively encourage her to be okay with that and know how to do that/be persistent! [more on his fatherhood below]

Laena gets that self-immolating treatment (a common wife-riddance social tool in some cultures' literature and actual history) when dragon riders actually don't die often in fire nor is that even a desired death by anyone in canon. It's simply a flashier way to go and to provoke watchers while giving more pain to an already dying, lonely woman (as she wasn't surrounded by loved ones like in canon, and in Driftmark her childhood and ancestral home).

Laenor got punched up by a Kingsuard while becoming the next Prince Consort of a ruling Queen, and yet doesn't recompense through Criston's exile or death.

Laenor loses his lover to a nonsensically-allowed outburst of rage from Colon in the midst of his engagement feast. In canon, Choler kills Joffrey in what could be reasonably excused, at least, during a melee, where anyone could get killed in a competitive fury. Thus Cholera escaped death and punishment that way.

those wigs were just not it (being semi-facetious) and comparatively worse-laid than the ones for white actors

I did not like that we did not get more of Daemon giving her the respect he gave her in F&B concerning her desires to live in Driftmark when she explicitly said that she wanted her kids to grow up in her ancestral home when he himself has been clawing at the bit to live close to his own family...canonically. There is a clear difference in emotional support and care the writers or producers or whoever thought Laena would get from Daemon, and that partially comes from what they think of Daemon and the men of this world but with how they treated the Black characters thus far and with Laena's death, I can't help but see a racial bias at work as well.

(Watsonian) I didn't think that Daemon being more distant with Laena than he was/is w/Rhaenyra was about race while I was watching because in the HotD universe, (not the book or pre-HotD world of ASoIaF/original!) the Velaryons' Blackness does not seem to affect their in-world how other nobles in-world regard them nor the wider cope of prestige the Velaryons canonically had. Racism is not baked against the Velaryons from other houses. It simply isn't there. So "in-text" (text of the show that the writers think they are giving, not the book), Daemon is more distant from Laena bc she wants to live as a free dragon rider while he wants to lick his wounds and feels guilt for still wanting Rhaenyra. Again, this is what the writers tried to convey but fucked up because they wrote against the Velaryons as a whole as well as made Laena's death less emotionally impactful for both Rhaenyra and Daemon by removing the women's friendship.

We need to separate the show from the books, because the Velaryon women have been erroneously and sexistly rewritten. I talk about Laena HERE. And I don't mean that her blackness is the mistake; how they rewrote her relationship to Daemon. We only have their life together in a few scenes of one episodes, first of all, which constricts our understanding or the material for it to one episode that's shared with other characters. I this lone epsiode, we only get to see that despite Laena herself a prod dragonsrider of the dragon his dead father was bonded with and of the rider whose sword he carries, Daemon seem sto treat Laena or regard her more as a nag than a companion. They don't have moments of peace or simply enjoying each other's companies, too, without it going back to their public dragonriding performance, which coincidentally (not really) pushes Laena to try to make Daemon see reason to go back to KL. Meaninwhile, bk!Daemon makes the decisions himself and does what show!Daemon of episode 3 refuses to do and appeal to his brother Viserys so he can move the pregnant bk!Laena to Driftmark so she can do as what show!Laena wanted and have their kids grow up in the place she did. In the show, Daemon is upset and uncommunicative to his own daughter both before and after LAena dies, and some people argue that he's just too upset with the prospect of Rhaena not having had a hatched egg in infancy...meanwhile, not only does Daemon himself only bond with Caraxes until he's 16, MOST Targaryens/Targ-descents bond with a dragon in ther preteens to even adulthood! There's no reason for show!Daemon to feel as he does towards Rhaena.

And the show changing Daemon hugging his daughters to him just leaving them to cry is such a clear attempt to recharacterize Daemon and his relationships to his family a something much more dysfunctional than it was to coincidentally match deadbeat dad energy...bc apparently Daemon cannot feel as close connections to his black family as he can his white ones (Viserys and Rhaenyra)? that's the conclusion you very much can go to, since the writing simply makes no sense when we think abt the actual lore. "Oh, it's so hard for him bc he had all these grand ideas about dragonrider legacy and Rhaena not making her egg hatch messed that up"...I've had to listen to people claim that Daemon was not ignoring or mistreating Rhaena through neglect...I'm sorry but this makes bad parenting, NOT being a uwu babygirl! Your children should not have to experience emotional withdrawal from a disappointed parent and be left to feel as if you are the issue.

And yes, show!Daemon makes Rhaena feel like she is the issue bc if we say that he was disappointed that she's not a "proper" dragonrider, we are saying that he's not the issue, she is! We're more concerned about how Daemon's prospects are not aligning how he wants them instead of how he's performing his fatherly duties. We're practically encouraging deadbeat dadism, and why? Meanwhile, people get on about Rhaenyra beign a bad mom bc she "allowed" her sons to be born WHILE SIMULTAENOUSLY sayinf she shouldn't have left KL for Dragonstone even though she clearly wanted a better life for her and her sons away from Alicent's attempts to denigrate their positions at court. Fostering a more negative environment for those boys. Sure....

Why all this change, and towards the negative?! And why do so many fans love it so much?! I am a Daemyra fan, but really, I don't need Daemon to hate every women he's married to for the sake of the ship. The ship, to me, stands on its own. And GRRM confirms it many times. If you need a ship to be discriminatory (in terms of making its adapted version more fraught with discord), then you probably have some bigoted shit or ideas about relationships to work through. Or the ship itself is logically unfeasible even with all the fanons made for it, and you are desperate to make up for it.

I think that along with the racism that just "automatically" governing the reasoning for the writers in regards to the Velaryons, they also wanted to make Daemyra that much more central for marketing value. The hot OTP couple made even hotter for all our consumerist needs.

B) Fire and Blood

That being said, I read F&B before the show existed. The changes I mentioned above (apart form the Velaryons becoming black) didn't need to exist at all. Laena and Daemon of canon had their own secure, unique, and charming relationship.

At the same time, while I do very much believe that Daemon and Laena loved each other (I already gave an example of him writing to Viserys above) before the show, I never thought Daemon fell in love with Laena or first pursued her for her personality and bearing alone. Similar to how he loved Rhaenyra and her him for some ideas of their political roles.

After they marry, they spend a year together traveling and in the next year, they stay at Pentos for Laena to give birth and to take care of their twins before going back to Westeros-Driftmark, where they eventually build a life with Rhaenyra for the rest of their marriage (1-2 years). In all, they were married for 4 or so years.

I believe that with Laena, Daemon became a real father of action and practice and settled; Laena lived her happiest, freest days. But as I said in this post about him maybe marrying and fucking Rhaenyra not long after Laena's death--just from the biased, unforthcoming, short, undetailed account of people who were not there to witness Daemon-Laena at Pentos and the rest of Essos...they canonically did not seem to have quite the same potency--that je nais se quois--for each other as much as Laena had for their kids and Vhagar/dragon-riding and Daemon for the Targ-Valyrian heritage, their kids, Viserys, and Rhaenyra. However, we don't get a lot of detail/as much detail as even the already -not-very-elucidated relationship b/t Daemyra for Laena x Daemon in-text, so make of that what you will. 🤷🏻‍♀️

For me, it's not about Laena being inferior, it's just about someone else being what you would have chosen if you had a chance bc that bond was strong and it matched your core needs as well as critical desires. It wasn't about "second choice" so much as different type of connections and timing.

Again, could just be the fault of lack of access to them as they lived and traveled. It easily could just be that Daemon was very loving and affectionate and attentive to her, and by his letter to Viserys it very much seemed so. (I am one of those who believes that Rhaenyra also really loved Harwin...it's just that Daemon was what she had in her heart for years until both of their deaths, she could live her own version of a freer life with Daemon [she could never be "out" with Harwin and she wasn't keen on giving up her throne], they were well matched, and it wouldn't take much for her to settle into a life with him.)

I think Daemon was sexually attracted to Laena in the beginning, liked she was a dragon rider like himself and thus could pass on that legacy and ability to their kids, got to know her and liked her, and her being of close family blood and a Velaryon and made the whole thing sweeter. At the same time, I just never thought of Laena/Harwin being those people Daemon or Rhaenrya choosing to be with if they had that freer choice. Even though it reads as the "healthiest" to some people for Daemon--Harwin for Rhaenyra. Yeah, it works for you and what you want for the characters/people in general, but what about who these characters are (as long as no one is being abused, and no one was in the orig Daemyra)?!

Account of Daemon and Laena Before Leaving Westeros:

Why Daemon Killed the Son of Braavos for Laena/Wanted Her

They had met for only a few weeks tops? I mean lightning strikes and rarities and all that, it's possible he did fall in love or develop limerence or whatever for Laena in this period of time. She, him? Sure. But...it certainly doesn't hurt that he, as a Targ, manages to bring the Velaryons closer to his family through his marriage and I don't think this was far from his head when he planned what he planned with Corlys.

I think Daemon fought for her/killed her betrothed because:

he wanted to get closer to both/either Rhaenyra & Viserys to aid in any political upheaval/add his own sword/reputation (Driftmark is really just a dragon's flight away from either Dragonstone or KL)

(another "partnership" with the salty, still-grumbling Corlys) it is one way to get back at Viserys for Mysaria's exile/his loss of a child--the rebellion/self affirmation deal again--this girl who Viserys rejected wills till birth technical heirs to the throne through Daemon

it gets the Velaryons/Corlys even more on the Targ side and their interests bc their kids are officially Targaryens as well as potential heirs/claimants of the Velaryon seat

Laena was gorgeous. And he was definitely attracted to her and her manner (movements, bearing, attitude), and I think this was the draw/icing on the cake. She already had an adventurous, bold spirit which is what he was already attracted to and this is why she and Rhaenyra likely first were endeared to each other and how got along so well. She bonded and flew Vhagar before she ever went into her teens.

Laena is a Valyrian-descent dragon rider, one who rode the mighty Vhagar -> impressive and prideworthy to have such a spouse for their connections to your own history (part of the point of feudal marriages), and a good deterrent/speed stops for those greens.

Some of these could be bonafide plans and intentions...some or all could be thoughts and strong feelings as he acts or circles in his mind as he interacts with various Velaryons.

The Other Lords and Ladies of Westeros

Reasons 1, 2, & 4 are enough to explain why Daemon would feel "passionate" about winning Laena's hand and killing her betrothed. He doesn't really care about people outside of the family he recognizes nor about what people outside of his even smaller circle think about him as long as it fulfills his purposes. His reputation as a fearsome, unpredictable wild card serves him, and he got it by not adhering to much Andal-Westerosi mores of behavior and restraint or caring what people thought of such behavior as long as it didn't blow back hard against Viserys or Rhaenyra. His willingness to kill: setting up an army for Viserys before the Council ever happened, his "work" in the Stepstones, his brutal handling of the accused rapists, thieves, and killers in KL while being Commander of the City Watch. Why wouldn't he kill Laena's betrothed even if he didn't "love" her at first sight if he expected and observed what I already listed above?

Getting criticized for killing him is not enough of a hypothetical deterrent for Daemon in his considerations to marry Laena or not.

The Sealord's son had even less connection to any Westerosi house by the time his Sealord father died and he himself started to drain his own family's funds for stupid stuff. Daemon was willing to butcher and maim several people in KL in the name of the King's "peace" and he got some flack for it; even though those KL people were commoners versus the Sealord's son having been of nobler birth, the Sealord's son wasn't favored or very familiar amongst those at Driftmark...at least positively. We have to remember that in the negotiation w/Corlys, Corlys likely gave the okay or would have to be okay with Daemon killing this guy, which may give Daemon (for what little trepidation he may have had) more incentive to say "Let's do it" and expect even less backlash or criticism from others. If he made other nobles' criticism/side-eye/disapproval the only or primary consideration to kill or not kill the Braavosi guy, then their observance of how Corlys allowed Daemon to marry his daughter with little to no protest (in lieu of their suspicions of Daemon being ambitious for himself) would also be good enough for Daemon to "risk" actual practical disadvantages in killing this guy. If Corlys doesn't care, they have less right to protest--because he, the house leader and lord under whom both the son and Daemon were receiving guest rights--allowed it (asked for it in some theories) and there was no backup from Braavos for this same son of a Sealord. Daemon instigated the conflict between him and the son by insulting the kid many times for him to "defend his honor" and walk into getting killed. And it was definitely on purpose because it was still a fight that would have been recognized as a real duel because it was about keeping one's honor and public respect. There didn't seem to be actual laws against or for duels from the monarchy at any time in Westerosi history, which means that the only sort of enforcement or limitations or punishments for duels & their results were the local lord's allowance, whether the men followed through, public opinion, and the host lord's powers.

Kinda like how Daemon and Rhaenyra married so soon after Laena's death, Daemon dueling this Braavosi kid was considered in extremely poor taste. It certainly made more/others fear him, but also a part of this feudalist social fabric of militarism and machismo AND Daemon, in my view, likely would have been fine/indifferent to glad of it because he wants to make others think twice before going against him and the other Targs or immediate family.

While he would have known of Laena before he met her 23-yr old self, I don't think they hung out enough before for him to suddenly want her for her. Again, the guy places his closest family above all, and while Laena is his cousin's child:

he did not grow up with her

she is a Velaryon daughter of the ambitious Corlys who still wouldn't see Viserys very well (but perhaps Daemon was fine witht hat since he also wasn't fond of Viserys then)

and he did not spend much time around her as much as he did Rhaenyra

Therefore, all people could really do is talk about a guy they already either loved or feared. And that they were concerned with how Daemon, in their suspicions, messed around with the preconditions of a duel by purposefully killing this Braavosi for his own gain and without fear of getting reproached for messing with said "rules". What was there to fear, for Daemon and from his perspective?

But again, I think this was all a blip to Daemon when he was thinking and planning on marrying Laena.

It's possible that Daemon would rather not induce make Viserys blow all the way up by marrying Laena Viserys' reaction. However, they already had a contentious relationship after Daemon did whatever he did with Rhaenyra, which Viserys likely saw as a power grab for Daemon's sake alone. Because Viserys ruined Daemon's chance to have his first son with Mysaria.

But actually, marrying Laena brings the Velaryons more into the fold while Daemon has his little "revenge" against Viserys for a bit by marrying Laena. Viserys allow them back quite easily.

Why? Corlys and the Velaryons and Viserys need to be on their good side for his own reputation, that fake "harmony" he thinks is necessary to hold the dynasty together, peace of mind (Rhaenys being passed over and Corlys still being likely salty about it), and Rhaenyra's support. Their marriage was Corlys' decision. Viserys also can't really protest against the marriage as much as the Sealord's son being killed.

What About the Singers?

On the one hand, their songs or claims about Daemon falling instantly in love with Laena at first sight and wanting her for her could be an amplification or an exaggeration of the observable, genuine attraction he had for her. Because it's not what they or what his reputation allows them to imagine from him.

Or it could be a way for these singers to spread the news of Daemon's "changed"/"changing ways" by Corlys to give/amplify this marriage a veneer of sentimentality and diminish whatever outrage against it, a way to diminish the suspicions of this being a typical political allowance. We remember that singers and bards often entertained local lords at dinners and gatherings and wrote songs in their honor or whomever they thought would get them in good with the lord and any/particular ones in the future. "The Rains of Castamere" was definitely, at least, encouraged by Tywin Lannister to add and build his own reputation. And such was the practice of real-life troubadours of medieval France/Normandy and bards of other Western/Italian regions.

Could be both.

I do also find it a nice narrative contrast to observe RhaenyraxDaemon versus LaenaxDaemon in how well-reported the respective emotional connections were. Daemyra has more suggestive pieces while Laena and Daemon have the singers and Daemon's reaction to Laena dying (more explicit pieces).

After Wedding

Because of the personalities they had and their going well together, they definitely grew closer after they married.

The way Daemon carried her to her bed and was distraught after her death seems enough to show how much he cared. He also quickly wrote to Viserys directly so he could safely move back to Westeros after they had their dragon twins. And they definitely flew together both in Essos and Westeros. These are the things explicitly said about him and Laena in canon and they imply great care, interest, and respect. Which indicates and proves his love for her.

At the same time, I also think that Daemon still desired & yearned for Rhaenyra in all of his marriage to Laena. Marriages don't cancel out long-time deep connections and attractions to others, esp when they start out political. That would take time and maybe some personality changes.

Like how some theorize Ned loving Ashara Dayne and wanting to marry her then moving on with Catelyn, Ned totally and surely reorient themselves to love their new spouse for the sake of their future happiness and because they genuinely see their spouses' qualities, but it's not a guarantee and takes TIME. Ned is not Daemon, who not only is more willful but is also a proud Targ prince of emotion who's been suspected of trying to kill/undermine his own family for power for years.

[angstyandromanticwriting]

Benjamin X Fem!Vampire Reader Angsty Forbidden Love prompt (Part two of the last prompt I posted)

!TW: Jealousy, implied depression, mention of plan to commit suicide, suicidal intentions, mention of planned self-immolation!

“Tia just-.. Held me up,” he explained, and you grunted. “But I’m here now,” he changed the subject, lowering his hand as he smiled sweetly at you, “you ready to go to the park?”

You nodded, excited as you rushed out of the house with him, but you both faltered when you noticed Tia and her father waiting outside. “Going somewhere?” Tia’s father spoke up, scowling as he stepped closer to the both of you.

You felt your still heart sink as Benjamin released your hand, but you hid your face from them. “Just to the park,” Benjamin answered, and her father looked back at Tia, before he returned his gaze to Benjamin.

“I’m afraid you can’t go tonight,” her father responded, and you began to despair, looking up at Benjamin.

Benjamin held back a scowl, tilting his head partially. “Why can’t we go?” Benjamin questioned, his reddish brown eyes flickering between Tia and her father.

“You need to spend some time with your wife,” he answered simply, and Benjamin looked over at you, frowning when he heard a barely audible sniffle beside him.

“Y/n-” Benjamin watched as you rushed back into the house, and he sighed heavily, forcing himself to look back at Tia’s father.

“You need to stop whatever it is that you’re doing with that girl,” Tia’s father demanded, “and you need to stop sneaking off to see her. If either I or Tia catch you with her again, we’ll speak to Amun, and she will be sent away - Do you understand me?” Benjamin nodded gravely, and Tia’s father dragged him over to Tia by his arm. “Now go home,” he commanded, and Benjamin dragged himself behind Tia, feeling guilty and worried about you.

↯

When Benjamin had gotten a bad feeling, he snuck out again, hoping that Tia wouldn’t notice; he just wanted to check up on you. Benjamin practically flew as he ran to the Hayes’ and the Cullen’s home, and he knew he probably shouldn’t go in through the front door, so he jumped up to your window, startling you as you dropped the carton of gasoline on the floor; you’d been planning on trying to take your life by setting yourself on fire. Benjamin hadn’t noticed the gasoline, at first, as he was focussed on opening the window. Once he’d managed to get it open, he climbed into the room. “W-What are you doing here, B? Tia’s father said that we can’t-”

“I was worried about you,” he interrupted, looking around the room as he smelt something horrible and strong. “What is that?” Benjamin uttered, and you winced, watching as he followed the smell to the carton by the bed. Benjamin looked back at you, before he picked up the carton to examine it, and he felt his still heart sink as he began to realise that you’d been planning on taking your life, and this was why he’d gotten that bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. “Y/n,” Benjamin murmured, his voice cracking as he lifted his head to look at you. You bowed your head, tears invading your eyes as you began to feel ashamed of yourself.

Benjamin stormed up to the window, before he threw the carton of gasoline out of it. “I’m sorry, B, I just-”

Benjamin threw his arms around you, and you heard that he was crying as he was breathing shakily. “I won’t lose you,” he whispered, his voice trembling. “I - I can’t live without you,” he added, his voice faltering as a sob escaped his lips. Benjamin held you at arm’s length, his expression firm, though he was in the middle of breaking down in front of you. “Don’t ever do that again,” he demanded, and you nodded, whispering ‘okay’, before you buried your face into his shoulder, and he pressed his face into the crook of your neck as he cried quietly. You let yourself break down with him, hugging him tightly as you did. Once you’d both begun to calm down, Benjamin held you at arm’s length again. “Are you okay?” Benjamin asked, and you nodded, reassuring him.

“I’m better, now that you’re here,” you answered, and he smiled weakly at you, before he lifted his hand to stroke your hair; he knew it helped to comfort and relax you.

~~~~~

Hope you enjoyed this prompt! ❤️