#yes you can be fighting to save the world in a fight while a scantily clad lizard woman is the most passive aggressive piece of shit

[impossible-rat-babies]

ffxiv is one of those games where I’m like. yes the story is amazing. the music, gameplay, universe—so much of it is so incredibly wonderful and I adore it dearly. but it’s also an mmo and cannot recommend it. 200/10 game, would not recommend

[whitelotus-ffxiv]

you’re my celebrity.

[[ tagging @benes-diction / @sirenofthesea-xiv for mentions of her characters! I FINALLY WROTE IT, JONESY. I DID IT. ]]

I try to stop myself from gawping like one of the guards when I look over the lagoon once the water breaks, the sun shimmering off of the surface...

And off the rivulets rolling down the neck, arm, shoulders, and chest of Lady Lian Hua. Her slender hands reach up and smooth her hair back from her face as she tilts her elegant neck backwards, tilted up towards the light like the flower that she is. Other servants hurry forward to offer her towels, or changes of clothes, but she shakes her head and urges them to fuss over someone else.

“Ning,” one of the others hisses in my ear when she notes that I haven’t moved, and I jump a little, almost dropping the towel I had in my own hands. “Stop staring, won’t you? You think the prince won’t have your head just because you’re a girl?”

Of course. Of course, I shouldn’t stare at Lady Lian Hua. She’s not an object. She doesn’t swim for us to ogle. She’s the prince’s lover. There are many reasons to not stare, but...

Kami help me, she’s so beautiful that I don’t know if I want her of if I want to be her, to be honest. 

Lots of people in the palace are afraid of Lian Hua, and I get it. Everything about her is intimidating. Even though she’s short, she walks as tall as the prince or his bodyguards. Her eyes are sharp and often hard, and the angles of her face aren’t soft. Lian Hua’s jaw is shaped like a V, and her cheekbones are high, and even her eyes and lips seem to end in sharp lines. Maybe that’s why she’s so difficult to ignore, though. In a palace filled with women that have features that are gentle more often than not, Lian Hua sticks out. 

If one didn’t know better, they might even mistake her for one of the Amari clan by blood, with the way that her scales shimmer like the insides of shells and with the way she carries herself - dignified, and serious, and elegant... But oh, when she smiles - when she smiles, it could melt even the thickest, heaviest winter snow. 

When Lian Hua smiles, it crinkles up the corners of her eyes, and her cheeks turn round in a way that you wouldn’t expect. Her whole face softens. When she laughs - on the rare occasions she laughs around the servants - it’s better than windchimes or music. It warms you right down to your core.

And when Lian Hua is angry, when her lagoon blue eyes with their tinges of green flash, when her elegant brow draws together and her trained hands reach for her sword, it warms me in a different way. Once upon a time, I was very afraid of an angry Lian Hua. Being in Princess Aoi’s personal entourage of servants, though, has taught me that it takes a lot to get her bodyguard’s ire directed at one of us. 

We just get to see her being strong and to live in awe of it. There’s not a danger that she won’t face, sometimes even with a smirk on her lips. She plunges into the lagoon while the Amari family sleeps, knowing all the stories that surround the water - having been present to see girls fished out of its depths or off of its surface. When you watch her walk, you know - you know that Lian Hua isn’t afraid of anything. She walks with her back straight and her head high.

Of course, we all knew that she wasn’t afraid of anything the day she jumped in to save the prince against a fight that wasn’t fair before she had even been here for a sennight. That’s what she does. She protects. She protects all of us, no matter the cost. But she’s no fool. Even if her actions seem reckless to outsiders, those who know her know that every single one of her movements is calculated. She can think on her toes. Lian Hua is brilliant, observant, and intuitive, made of fire and ice in equal parts. 

It was with her head still held high that I remember watching the Jade Lord’s personal guards escort her from her room, eyes trained forward and jaw set. From the dungeons, we didn’t hear her even whimper, let alone scream or beg for mercy, for the pain to stop, even as we heard the sound of the whip lashing against her delicate back. 

And when she came back, it was with the help of one of the prince’s bodyguards, but you could see that she was walking as tall as she physically could - tall and proud and undefeated. 

Some of the older servants think she’s too prideful. And I know that plenty of the guards believe that Lian Hua slept her way to the top and now is much too big for her britches. They don’t like seeing a woman with power. They don’t like knowing that a young, small woman gets to say whether they wake up the next day or not. And they don’t like that they don’t get to touch her. All around the palace, you hear murmurs from those that just want a night with Lady Lian Hua. As many people that envy Lian Hua for her closeness with the Jade Prince now envy the prince for his closeness with Lian Hua. 

Lian Hua walked into this cursed and rotting place and stayed by choice to protect the people within it, when she could have run many times. She knows how to escape. She’s disappeared for days at a time before. She has freedom to move that many of us don’t - her own money, her own connections, but... she stays. She stays, and stays, and stays. 

There have been nights where she allows herself to loosen up a little bit with some of the older servant girls or with the prince, and I cherish those memories, of watching her sip sake and relax, when her smiles come quicker and easier. I cherish the times she laughs and laughs and laughs in her beautiful silk hanfu, or in those clothes that look more like they come from the West that she favors sometimes - and kami help me...

Lian Hua looks graceful and elegant and powerful in traditional dress, but I think we all act a little bit like a fool when she comes in wearing something that shows off her long, powerful legs, her collarbones, that clings to her curves. 

There was one evening where the Jade Lord was particularly busy, and everyone felt especially at ease. And, scantily clad, Lian Hua was laughing and joking with the servant girls. I remember watching her dance, but not like how I was ever taught or how we’d seen her dance before - traditionally, demure, powerful but elegant. Her hips swiveled and swayed with a glass in her hand, her long hair loose and shining and rippling down her black while fabric hugged her bare thighs, with a shirt that was cut off to show off her flat stomach. 

“You have to know how to dance like this if you ever head out to the West - or Kugane,” she had told us, grinning, as we all watched with wide eyes. “The fan dances aren’t going to cut it.” 

And I remember Princess Aoi going wide-eyed and asking the Jade Prince if she could dress and dance like that and getting immediately told ‘no,’ even as he watched Lian Hua with extremely thinly veiled lust before whisking his lover away to his own chambers. 

Between the Jade Prince and Lian Hua, I don’t know who I’m more jealous of. They’re both so beautiful and intimidating and confident and I wouldn’t complain if either of them wanted to step on me and order me around.

As Lian Hua emerges from the water and onto the dock, still dripping wet with water from the lagoon, her eyes lock with mine. I swallow thickly again as she starts towards me, forcing my gaze to stay on her face and not stray any further. 

“Thank you,” she says, her voice soft as she takes the towel I hold out to her, too dumbstruck to say a word. Her eyes focus on my face for a long moment, dark brows raised just slightly, before her lips quirk in a small smirk. “Cat got your tongue, Ning?” 

Ning.

Oh, kami, she remembers my name?

“I’m sorry,” I say, bowing quickly as she squeezes out her hair, and I bite back a groan as I’m met with the sight of her thick thighs. She doesn’t wear modest swimwear. She wears what looks like smallclothes, just... black and tied at the hips with thin string. 

“Don’t be sorry... Ah. You brought the green tea?” Lian Hua continues, looking to the small table loaded down with snacks for her and her little entourage of the prince’s bodyguards, their families, and Princess Aoi, with the Jade Prince preoccupied with other tasks that day.

“Yes-- yes, I did, Lady Lian Hua!” I manage, straightening back up to look at her with wide eyes. “It’s your favorite type, too -- from Haishan.”

“Very good. Thank you.” Lian Hua pauses, watching my face, before she smiles again and reaches out to gently pet my hair. “You did well, Ning. Go on and relax now with the other girls, hm?” 

It feels like my brain has completely shut down as soon as her hand touches my head, as soon as she pets my hair, as soon as she looks at me with eyes that are not hard or severe, but gentle. She looks at me gently, and focuses on just me, and I know -- I know that she’s closest to Ume and Anh, although still kind to the rest of us and that most of us all live in awe of her, but this is one of the first times we’ve really had an individual interaction, just the two of us, and--...

“Are you hot?” Lian Hua’s smile fades into a concerned frown. “Your face is bright red. Go on, get out of the sun, Ning.” 

Would it be strange to ask her to sign something I own? It’s not like she’s from an idol group or a celebrity, but she is worldly - and otherworldly, too - and experienced, and I wonder if she knows how to touch. I wonder, briefly, how she likes to be touched. How much of the world has she seen? How much experience has she had? My heart is racing so fast, and I know ethereal, smart, terrifying, brave Lian Hua is waiting for an answer because she’s worried about me, of all people--...

“I think she’s a little overheated,” another voice interjects, and Lian Hua glances up at the new face - Zhenzhen - once she comes to my side, gently taking my arm. “Not to fret, my lady. We’ll get her cooled off.” 

Lian Hua glances between us both, almost skeptically, before nodding a little and turning as the little girl with the head of dark curls calls her name. She smiles in a way that’s only ever reserved for those in her closest circle before happily making her way to the little one, scooping her up in her arms, into the air, and causing the sweet little thing to let out a chorus of delighted squeals. 

“Control yourself, won’t you?” Zhenzhen groans once we’re alone, glancing after Lian Hua as she leaves and then back to me. “Pull it together. You’re practically drooling on yourself.”

“She’s so cool,” I breathe, and Zhenzhen sighs at me.

“...Yeah. Yes, she’s really, really cool,” she agrees, quietly. “The coolest. You’re not wrong. But we have work to do.”

I clear my throat and nod quickly, forcing myself to look away from Lady Lian Hua as she plays with the little one and Princess Aoi, and over to Zhenzhen, and she frowns at me.

“Kami, Ning, what did she say to you?”

I reach up, slowly touching the side of my head where Lian Hua had touched me.

“She patted my head... and told me I did well,” I whisper, and Zhenzhen narrows her eyes before sighing again.

“You’re hopeless. Go on and get out of the sun and drink a cold glass of water before she whips you into shape like that gaggle of guards - or before the prince comes and throws you into the lagoon for staring at his woman like that.”

[sineala]

Avengers: The Man Who Stole Tomorrow

Now we come to the 1970s Marvel Comics prose novel that I was most excited to read -- Avengers: The Man Who Stole Tomorrow by David Michelinie. If you're familiar with the comics you can probably guess why I was excited, which is because, unlike all the other authors of these books, Michelinie was an actual writer at Marvel at the time he was writing this. He's probably most famous for his two Iron Man runs with Bob Layton -- the first of which was already ongoing in 1979 when this book was released -- but he also wrote actual Avengers issues during this time period. He didn't have a continuous run but he did about 25 issues total.

So I was really looking forward to this one, because I figured that, surely, if anyone could write a good Avengers novel it was going to be the guy who was literally writing actual Avengers comic books at the same time. And furthermore, I figured, given how beloved his Iron Man run is (Doomquest! Demon in a Bottle!), I might luck out and get some really good Tony characterization.

(I should say right now that if you're reading this hoping for Steve/Tony, there really isn't any. Sorry. I think they might exchange a couple words in the middle of an action scene at some point, but it's very sweet that they appear together on one of the chapter header images. That's about it.)

What I found was... complicated.

Michelinie isn't a bad writer, exactly. He's written some amazing comics, and he's very good at the banter here. He's not so great at writing prose and there is a lot of unnecessary exposition (like, there are three paragraphs about how Tony's repulsors work before he fires them the first time, which really slows down the action scene) and so many epithets, oh my God, so many epithets. So, I mean, he's not really a great novelist, but I have read a lot worse, and he's good at making the Avengers feel like the Avengers, which is what I wanted.

The problem here is everything else.

I know I haven't usually bothered going through the plots of these novels in a lot of detail because I've been reading them for character rather than for plot, but this is a very plot-motivated book. And so I think I'd really better summarize this whole thing, because it's basically two books shoved together. The first book is basically everything I wanted this book to be -- tense, dramatic, anchored in canon with a nice deep dive into canonical history that actually works, and it had me very, very excited to read the second half. I was really loving where this plot was going.

The second half of this book is where this book proceeds to go completely fucking off the rails.

Let me explain.

Okay. So the Avengers team these days is Tony, Steve, Thor, Vision, Wanda, Pietro, and Beast. We open with some team bonding in Avengers Mansion, a lot of exposition about who everyone is, Tony's secret identity, how Pietro still hates that Wanda and Vision are married, how Beast is a ladies' man and will crack jokes at every available opportunity. You get the idea.

They then decide to start the debriefing about their most recent mission. They are taping the debriefing, which is relevant because they are interrupted by a guy who shows up, calling himself Aningan Kenojuak, and he summons a magic bright green polar bear, knocks out all the Avengers, steals Steve, and disappears. When the Avengers wake up they conclude he is an "Eskimo shaman" who is probably from Alaska (okay, yes, there is some race fail here, but there is a reason that this specific guy is what he is, because this is one of those things that's gonna come up when you're dealing with Silver Age comics) and when they review the tapes (that recorded the whole thing) they hear him talking about someone "wing-footed."

So you remember how, in Avengers #4, there was that whole thing where Namor finds "an isolated tribe of Eskimos" who are bowing down and worshipping the frozen body of Captain America (not visible as Captain America at the time) as a god and Namor gets mad about that and throws the whole iceberg into the ocean and that's where Steve is when the Avengers find him?

So this Kenojuak, it turns out, was the guy who found Steve in the ice, and he really wants his god back, so he uses his magic String of Stones -- touching his string was also what summoned his magic polar bear -- to cover Steve in ice again. So now he has him here in Alaska covered in ice. Yep. Captain America has gotten iced again. Imagine how he must feel.

Meanwhile, Tony and Vision go to Atlantis to see Namor, who admits that maybe once upon a time he might have done something like that to a body he found, but what's it to you, land-dwellers? Also, fuck off. That's when Kenojuak comes to Atlantis and attacks Namor with his polar bear. They fight him off, he retreats to Alaska, and Namor agrees to help out. I guess he cares about Steve too.

We have some fun team banter on the Quinjet as Beast insists on playing Devo, while Pietro is no fun and would prefer some nice classical music, like Dvorak's New World Symphony. (The lyrics to Devo's "Jocko Homo" appear to be quoted without permission.)

Anyway. Kenojuak gets back to Alaska, hauls the Capsicle out of his igloo and goes looking for his village -- I guess it's been a few years since he's been home -- which has apparently been destroyed by a pipeline and replaced by a town and this makes him very angry and he's going to use his magic to destroy it. The Avengers show up and stop him, earning the gratitude of the town's residents, and they finally get Steve back.

This is when they find out that Steve... isn't melting. Uh oh.

Kenojuak, defeated, hands over his magic String of Stones to the Avengers, at which point they find out that it is not in fact magic but Sufficiently Advanced Technology. The Blue Totem gave it to him, he says, to accomplish his task. Can he describe the Blue Totem? Sure, he had a blue face and he wore purple and green and the Avengers are starting to have a really, really bad feeling about this because...

It's Kang. It's obviously Kang the Conqueror.

So what they have to do now is find Kang -- an explanation of who Kang is that is actually pretty comprehensible then follows -- and get him to unfreeze Steve, and the problem with finding Kang is of course that he could be anywhere in time.

So at this point in the book I was very excited. I mean, Steve's in peril! We have this fun plot thread linked to his actual canonical history! The Avengers are going to have to travel through time and save him from Kang! It's going to be just as dramatic and amazing and make me feel all the feelings as the Avengers strive to save Captain America!

I regret to inform you that this, alas, is where this book gets really fucking weird.

Beast picks up Steve's frozen body -- he'll be the one holding onto Steve here, pretty much -- and the team gathers together and apparently Thor can just time-travel by swinging Mjolnir around over their heads? Was anyone going to tell me this or was I supposed to find it out for myself?

Anyway, they end up in the year 3900, on an Earth where everything seems to be made of plastic (even the grass) and the first guy they meet is jealous of Beast for having so much fur and jealous of Tony for having so much metal. Everyone has stupid future slang. They are apparently all in some kind of theme park for humanity, and this guy is happy to point the way to Kang, who lives in a giant building with his name on the side. That was easy.

The building is basically a maze, and Beast gets split from the main team twice, and the second time they don't even bother going looking for him, even though he is the guy carrying Steve. It's a little weird. But they all make it to Kang's HQ just fine; Beast comes in through a service door because apparently he asked directions? It is really weird.

And Kang is all too happy to help them. He explains that he basically just gave Kenojuak the technology for the lulz once he found out what the guy wanted to do and he figured there was no way he was going to manage to ice Captain America. So the Avengers ask him to please bring Cap back and he does and Steve is perfectly fine.

So, you know... so much for narrative tension.

They leave Kang's HQ and are hanging out in the theme park, about to go home, and they're talking about how that was all too easy... when a Tyrannosaurus Rex attacks them.

Yeah.

The Avengers save everyone from the dinosaur but not before the nearby Richard M. Nixon Memorial Massage Parlor nearby -- look, I said this book was fucking weird -- is destroyed and its angry owner comes running out and she is a sexy, scantily clad woman, which the book makes sure to tell us. She is happy to tell them that they all agreed to live here under Kang's rule because otherwise he would destroy them because his plan... is to rule all of history!

I have no conceivable idea why this should come as a shock to the Avengers because it is pretty much the only thing Kang has ever wanted (except for the times he wants to try to kill one of his selves).

Nonetheless, the Avengers are shocked! And they realize that Kang only let them get away so easily because it was a trap! And now they have to go back and actually fight Kang! But first the rest of the team has to tell Beast he can't have a quickie with the massage parlor owner before they fight Kang. Yes, really. I had to read this with my own two eyes.

Anyway, they fight their way back to Kang and it is a lot tougher this time because they are dodging, among other things, pterosaurs and Messerschmitts (did you know that one model had a jet engine? I did not know this!), but Steve is good at tactics and the Avengers are all good fighters. This time when they make it back to Kang, he just says he can open time portals to anywhere and send them through and kill them all. Except he's not gonna kill Beast because Beast is blue and I guess Kang likes that in a guy.

So it's a good thing he's not going to kill Beast because while the Avengers are distracted with the time portals fighting samurai or whatever, Beast creeps around, figures out all the portal controls, eventually traps Kang, and then scatters him across, like, seventeen time portals so he's not going to be a threat any time soon. So that's how Beast saves the Avengers from Kang in, like, one page.

Anyway. All the Avengers go home and live happily ever after, except Steve, who feels guilty for letting down that one guy who thought he was a god so he's gonna go hang out in Alaska for a bit and talk to him.

So I think you can see why I'm kind of conflicted about this book -- I loved the first half (modulo the Silver Age racism) and thought it was going places and I was really excited about this dramatic story of the Avengers rescuing Captain America and then the second half was... I don't even know how to describe it. It was like they were two different books, and the first one was a four or five star book and the second one was, like... one. The characters were good, though, I guess. I just... what the fuck. I don't even know what I just read.

I also feel like fandom would be able to do a lot better than this -- like, "Steve is frozen and stolen by Kang the Conqueror" would be a great prompt and would make for some great stories and none of them would be this one. I feel like if this had been a comic and more people had read it we would have a dozen AUs. I just wanted... angst and feelings, I guess.

Of all these books so far, it's the one I paid the most for, and I'm not sorry I bought it, but I also definitely don't think it's worth the prices it's going for on the used market, because the actual plot is... really a letdown. Given Michelinie's comics work, I was expecting a lot more from this. I think I'd rec the Iron Man book, and then the Cap book, and then this. (I also have the Doctor Strange one, if anyone wants me to read and review that.)

But, hey, it does have a great title.

[itswhatimreallythinking]

My boyfriend can't be this cute (guidelines to dating Lance McClain)

My gift to @tamaraneankori. Merry Christmas to you girl (hope it’s still christmas at you place). You ask for a fluffy fic and this is the sweetest thing I ever written. It came out longer than I expected (happens to all my fic actually) but I had so much fun writing this. Hope it lives up to your expectation.  

@klance2017secretsanta

AO3

Summary: Keith have a cute boyfriend

A.K.A Keith’s constant dilemma of battling his raging hormones while his boyfriend remain oblivious

A.K.A Keith is doomed

From the first moment, he laid eyes on the blue-eyed boy across the campus ground Keith knows he was doomed. From tantalizing caramel skin to a dazzling smile, and sparkling eyes that he wants to keep looking into for the rest of his life, Keith had fallen hard.

 And the worst part is the boy, Lance McClain, have no freaking idea.

 Despite his flirty words and affectionate behavior, Lance is actually very dense when it comes to people’s affection towards himself.

 Many times, Keith just want to forgo all the courting (that all went unnoticed) and kiss the Cuban till he gets the memo. If Hunk didn’t constantly remind him that Lance like romantic gesture he might do just that. It’s not easy though. From the number of times Pidge came close to ripping her hair off, he guessed that she too is close to saying fuck it and shove both of them into a locked room.

 So, it’s understandable when he believes that Hunk is sent from heaven to be his impulse control and the best wingman ever. Without him Keith would have bombed this a long time ago.

 But he didn’t.

 After months of pining and extreme courting, (he once brave a snowstorm to get Lance McDonald’s because he happens to mention in the group text that he have a sudden craving, even Pidge was impressed) Lance finally get the message and reciprocate his feelings.

 It was the best day of his life.

 Yes, Shiro, it’s better than the day the papers finally went through and they really became a real family. Stop looking at him like that. Go complain to someone who cares. Who? Oh, he don’t know, Allura maybe? Of course, he’s still mad. His ‘brother’ decide to ditched his birthday party because he rather ‘Netflix and chill’ with his girlfriend for god sake. DON’T TOUCH ME!

 Anyway, that day was the best day of his life, but also the start of his unending dilemma. He’s not sure he’s going to live past 50 if this continues. Not with the constant spike in blood pressure and head trauma.

 Being friends allow Keith to spent time with the Cuban, while this is good it’s not enough. Keith always wants more. They said to be careful of what you wish for and only now did he come to fully understands that saying. Because, if he thought Lance was cute while being his friend he is so not ready for the level that is of the boyfriend.

 He can’t count how many times he bangs his head against hard surface just to keep his emotions under control.

 Thus to save himself from early demise he constructs up a list of guidelines that will (somewhat) make his life as Lance’s boyfriend (and to be the best boyfriend ever) a little easier.

 #1 Be more open-minded

He had said this many times. Lance is gorgeous. Anyone who disagrees can fight him on that. Even Pidge once admit it to them in secret (and also threaten them with a lifetime of suffering if anyone as much as hint it to the Cuban). So it’s quite understandable when someone tries to make a move on his boyfriend.

 More than once that Lance’s friendliness got taken out of context as an invitation to sweep the Cuban off his feet. Now that will not do. Sweeping Lance off his feet, literally and figuratively, is Keith’s job.

 He’d hold his tongue when they were still friends but now he’s not going to let it slide. Many times it became a fist fight (if they’re a guy and of course he always wins) because talking doesn’t work with these people.

 Lance always gave him an earful while tending to the cuts and bruises, asking why he feels the need to start a fight, that he was never like this before. He keeps mum during all of it but after months of coaxing and disappointed looks, he cracked.

 “Because you’re you and I’m me that’s why.” The answer rendered the brunette speechless and Keith to gather himself for a bit to soldier on.

 “Lance do you realized how amazing you are? You… you’re beautiful and smart and friendly and hundreds of other positive traits. I’m unsocial and hot-headed and…and I still don’t understand why you agreed to go out with me.” Lance stared at him with a blank look on his face, Keith turned his head away. “When I saw those guys, with their slick hair and perfect teeth…and money to spoil you the way you deserved. I just felt so threatened, so scared, that you would suddenly realize that you can do a lot better than me and-”

 “Leave?”

 Even if that what he’s about to say hearing it coming from Lance’s mouth made his heart dropped to his feet. He heard the brunette heave a tired sigh and he grinds his teeth. He really shouldn’t say all that, now Lance will know what a loser he is. A sharp flick to his forehead made him yelp in surprise. Looking up he was met with a murderous glare. Lance is furious.

 “I could not believe what you just said,” the words were drawn out in a snarl that reminds Keith of a predator. The Cuban got right up in his face, their nose touching, “you see me that shallow? That a pocket full of money and a few nice words could lure me away?”

 “NO! I would never. It’s just that…”

 Lance pinched the bridge of his nose, muttered a few words in Spanish, and if Keith has ears they’d be drooping right now.

 He didn’t hear Lance take a huge calming breath but he did feel it when two warm hands cradled his face and then he’s looking into a pair of deep azure eyes.

 “Now you listen to me Keith,” gone were the terrifying snarl replace with a voice so soft his heart shuddered in his chest. “To me, you’re the most passionate and loyal person I’ve ever met. You’re kind-hearted and so strong, and may God have mercy on those who dared lay a finger on any of us because I know you will do whatever it takes to protect us. You have no idea how happy I am when I know you love me too.” Keith’s breath hitched when Lance lay his forehead against his, looking at him so adoringly it makes him want to cry.

 “I love you so much, Keith. I want us to be together for the rest of my life and I hope you feel the same way.”

 Instead of a verbal answer, Keith pulled Lance in for a kiss, desperate and sweet and full of promises. When they part Lance give him a soft smile before gaining a serious look. “I don’t know where you get those silly notions about yourself from. So, I need you to write down all the names of every person who ever made you feel that way so that I can have a private chat with each of them.”

 Keith burst out laughing.

 After that, whenever he saw someone flirting with his boyfriend he would step up beside the brunette and laced their fingers together. If that is not enough to drive them away the kiss (tongue included) usually does.

 #2 Accept that you will always come after Hunk

Halfway through the second year of college, they decide to move in together. By moving in he means moving into the recently available room across from Lance’s old one that he shared with Hunk. Shay is replacing Lance next semester when her contract expires.

 They were in the middle of unpacking (mostly his stuff since Lance just has to carry his from across the hall) when the Cuban's phone rang. He was not paying attention but after hearing the sound of the phone hitting the floor and seeing Lance’s devastated face, Keith wished he did.

 Hunk was involved in a hit and run case. Thank god the other party was a motorcycle. The Hawaiian got a concussion, twisted ankle, a broken arm and dozens of cuts and bruises. But he was fine. The smile he gave them the moment Lance burst into the room is proof enough. Lance has to refrain from jumping from sheer relief.

 Hunk has to stay in the hospital for another 3-4 days to make sure that nothing is critical. Lance demand he be allowed to stay with him. Hunk also begs the doctor to let him stay.

 He shared a look with Shay then. The large Samoan girl had known them longer than he does and was the one who constantly assured him that there is absolutely nothing going on between Hunk and Lance. They’re just really really close.

 He looks at Lance smoothing down Hunk’s hair who’s giving a sweet smile and have to bite his tongue. Shay has been doing this far longer than him. If she can then he can too.

 After Lance grabbed his stuff and leave for the hospital again, Keith is left alone to looked around at the messy room. More than half of the boxes were still unopened and he couldn’t be bothered to continue. It’s not moving in together if he’s the only one unpacking.

 He has a quick late dinner and went to bed. Before he can drift off his phone rang.

 “Hey, mi amore, you’re asleep yet?” Lance's face is illuminated by the light of the screen while Hunk snores softly in the background. Keith smile tiredly and they spent their first night together apart, talking till he fell asleep at the phone.

 Lance called 5-7 time a day, once in the morning, once before going to bed and anytime in between. Whenever his thought drifted to the messy room (boxes still at the same place where he left them) his phone will be blowing up with messages from Lance saying how much he missed him. With the hospital visits, constant phone calls and text, Keith didn’t have the time to be lonely.

 The day Hunk was released Keith came home to a candlelit room and homemade dinner. Seeing the brunette standing in their room again made everything right with the world. After dinner, Lance took him by the hand and led him to their bedroom.

 The sight of caramel skin scantily clad in delicate white lace undergarment made it suddenly hard to breathe.

 “How about we start breaking in the bed,” voice dripping like honey with kisses just as sweet, Keith lost himself in Lance.

 Yes, he thought, that is an excellent idea.

 #3 Ignore the morning complaints

With his sunny personality, one would think Lance is a morning person. Oh, how wrong they were. A morning Lance is a cranky Lance and you don’t want to approach him before he has his morning coffee.

 Keith untangles himself from the bundle of blankets and clinging long limbs. He drowsily stretches out his body and drops a kiss on his still sleeping boyfriend’s cheek before making his way to the bathroom.

 Lance was just stumbling into the bathroom when he got out of the shower. The other was wearing the same pair of sweatpants he was wearing yesterday. Well, he was wearing it before Keith decide that he look better without it. Bite and kiss marks littered tanned body, couple that with tousled hair and a slight limp in his steps, Lance looked thoroughly fucked.

 “Wipe that smug look off your face Kogane”, Lance spit out venomously, “this is all because of you.”

 If this was half a year ago Keith would have been hurt. Now, he took it in stride.

 “You weren’t complaining last night”, he invaded Lance personal space, “or do I have to remind you.” He blew teasingly into the Cuban’s ear and quickly move away to avoid the other’s hand from swatting him like a fly.

 “Get away from me!” The Korean barked out a laugh and walk out of the bathroom. He searched around in the closet with Lane still going on in the background.

 “Look at all these marks, and after I told you to go lightly on the neck because I have a presentation today. I can’t cover all these with make-up. Now I have to wear a turtleneck, in summer. Who wears a freaking turtleneck in the summer? A douche that’s who. I’m going to look like Steve fucking Jobs trying to sell an iPhone.”

 Keith laughs at the last comment. Pulling a shirt over his head he realized that Lance had gone quiet. He moved to a blind spot the mirror can’t reflect and peek inside.

 Lance is staring at himself in the mirror with a soft smile on his lips. Fingers lightly tracing the marks Keith left behind from one to the other with a look of utter fondness in his eyes.

 Is someone screaming? He’s definitely hearing screaming. Oh never mind, that’s just him. Screaming. Internally. BECAUSE HIS BOYFRIEND IS FUCKING ADORABLE!

 Keith felt the blood rushing to his face…and the lower region.

 Maybe if they’re real quick? No no no nope. Lance would kill him if his perfect attendance is ruined because Keith can’t keep it in his pants. He took a couple of calming breaths and announce that he’ll be outside making breakfast.

 “Bacon and sunny side up for me, please. Love you.”

 DAMMIT LANCE! YOU’RE MAKING THIS REALLY HARD.

 #4 Always have an extra set of contacts at hand

“Aww, I’ve run out of contacts.”

 That was the comment that turned Keith’s normal weekend into a nightmare. He poked his head into their bedroom to see Lance rummaging in his side of the bed nightstand drawer. He walked closer to see if there’s anything he could do to help.

 “AH HAH!” Keith's mouth went dry when Lance plopped a pair of glasses on his nose. Of course, Lance has a pair of emergency glasses, anyone who wears contacts does, it’s only common sense. But, damn, why is it getting hot in here?

 Since they planned to stay in and study for the upcoming exam week, they postponed the contact lens shopping to this evening when they go out for dinner instead of now. Sitting on opposite end of the dining table, books and pens scattered messily on the surface, they lost themselves in their reading.

 Actually, it’s only Lance who’s reading.

 Keith is busy gawking at his boyfriend.

 The more he stared the wilder his imagination became.

 Lance is an honored student who got roped into tutoring the delinquent Keith after class. They’re going over everything Keith learned that day. Lance was patient while Keith kept getting angrier at his own failure.

 “This is useless. I’m never going to get it, you should stop wasting your time with me.” Keith sulked in his seat while Lance looks at him calculatingly. The honored student’s glasses flash as he got up and got right in Keith’s face. The Cuban’s arm was on either side of his chair caging him in. The sharp glint that Keith had never seen in the good-natured boy’s eyes before sent a jolt of electric down his spine.

 “How about we try a different method,” Lance whispered against his lips before closing the distance. The kiss was hot and wild and ended quicker than he would have like. Chasing after the departing lips a finger stopped him in his track.

 “Ah, ah,” the Cuban said in a sing-song voice, “only if you get the next question right.”

 Lance sneezed and Keith snapped out of his daydream. Lance smile sheepishly at him and he quickly looks down not wanting him to see the blush on his face. Keith can only get a paragraph in when he turns the page and saw a picture of a team of doctors on the other side.

 Lance is a doctor and the owner of a small clinic. Keith is a police officer who often comes in to have Lance take care of his wounds of the day.

 It was after midnight when Keith stumble into the facility with blood down his arms. Lance's face paled and he orders the officer to sit down on the bed while he rushed around gathering supplies, mouth complaining all the while.

 “He was holding a knife to the woman’s throat. What do you suggest me do then?”

 “Not offering yourself as a substitute would be the first step.” The doctor bites out harshly and Keith let it slide because he knows Lance was only worried about him. He took off his shirt as instructed and shiver when the cold air made contact with his skin. He bites down the hiss at each pierced of the needle just to keep the doctor from frowning any deeper.

 When the cut was stitched and wrapped up nicely Lance dip down to kiss tenderly at the bandages. Keith’s heart melts at the sight. His breath hitched when those lips glided up to mouthed at the old scar on his collarbone as he's pushed down onto the bed.

 “That one and this too. All because you have to be a hero. Coming here with blood all over yourself, always threatening to kill me with a heart attack.”

 “Sorry,” his take in a shuddering breath when the brunettes bite at his neck.

 Lance climb on top on him and settle himself on his stomach, pants gone leaving him in only his briefs. Keith wants nothing more than to run his hands down those smooth thighs.

 “Nope. It won’t heal if you keep moving it.” Lance hold down his wrist gently as he looks down at Keith. Hooded eyes from behind the glasses met his own hungry ones.

 “Now be a good boy and lay still while I punished you for scaring me.”

 The doctor grinds down on his crotch and Keith shiver in anticipation.

 A sharp cold against his cheek abruptly ended his fantasy. Lance smiled at him cheekily eyes dancing with mirth from behind those damned glasses.

 “Here”, the brunette hand him a can of soda before popping his own. Tanned fingers caressed his shirt, looking him up and down appreciatively. Lance did buy it for him after all.

 “It suits you.”

 Suits

 Lance and Keith are high profile lawyers working for a different firm who often handle the same case. This time Keith is the defender while Lance is the prosecutor, both going neck-to-neck, not backing down an inch.

 Keith can’t remember how he ends up sprawl on the bed underneath Lance but he’s not complaining.

 The Cuban looks downright sexy in that form-fitting deep navy suits that accentuate his eyes behind those clear frames. One tanned hand combing through soft brown strands while another slowly pulled off the tie. Keith swallowed thickly. His eyes follow as pink tongue dart out to lick their owner’s lips seductively.

 Lance give him a vicious grin promising one hell of a good time, “you’ve been a very naughty boy, Keith.”

 Keith slammed his head on the table making Lance leaped away in surprised.

 Shit

 This is serious

 Also, why the hell is he always the bad one in those scenarios? Is he developing a new kink? Fuck, he is, isn’t he?

 “What the hell Keith!? Are you alright?” Lance is frantically checking his forehead (ow that hurts, he shouldn’t have done that). The close proximity with Glasses Lance makes him take a sharp breath. Before his brain can conjure up another fantasy he quickly dragged Lance towards the door.

 “Hey! What-where are we going? Keith!”

 “Contacts shopping. NOW!”

 #5 Endure the scratches

Lance is a scratcher. Whenever the Cuban is on the receiving end Keith will come out looking like he’s been in a fight with a vicious cat. Long thin red lines will adorn his back for days stinging irritatingly whenever he got sweaty.

 So, for the sake of trying out new stuff, Lance suggests they use handcuffs.

 Keith didn’t know he has a bondage kink until he saw his boyfriend naked and cuffed to the bedpost. The sight of the brunette writhing on the bed stir up something primal within him. That night he couldn’t get enough on Lance. Not that he ever had enough but that night was on a whole other level.

 Keith went to sleep thoroughly satisfied not noticing that Lance was less vocal than normal.

 He was eager to go again the next day. The thought of his restraint boyfriend plaguing him throughout the day. They barely made it to the bed before Keith was ripping off his clothes and Lance’s.

 He let out a blissful groan when he finally gets to enter the Cuban, but somehow he couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was missing. A sniffle pulled him out of his thought and his heart dropped when he saw tears running down Lance’s face.

 “No”, the brunette whimpered and fear grip at his heart.

 He hurt Lance

 He wants to die right now

 Keith quickly gets off him and tears spring to his eyes when he sees Lance weakly tugging at the restraint.

 “Lance,” he choked out past the lump in his throat, “baby, I’m so sorry.” He unlocked the cuffs and the brunette throw himself into Keith’s arms holding on tightly. Keith hugged back just as fierce, head burying in the crook of Lance’s shoulder, “I’m sorry I hurt you, Lance.”

 He felt the brunette shook his head, “no, you didn’t hurt me. It just…” Lance pushed away from him but Keith holds on tight not allowing the brunette to go far. “When I have that thing on, I can’t touch you.” He nuzzled Keith’s nose, “you’re right there but I feel so far away. I don’t like that.”

 “Then we’ll stop using it.” He kisses at the red mark on the brunette’s wrist apologetically.

 “But you like those handcuffs.”

 “Not enough to make you cry.” He lay the hand on his cheek nuzzling into it, “nothing is worth making you cry for.”

 Lance’s tears come back anew and his heart clenched, “I’m sorry Lance, please stop crying.” He kissed away the tears at the corner of those blue eyes he loves so much, “I never know what to do when you cry.”

 Their lips meet in a soft kiss, so sweet and loving and everything Keith wanted. When they joined together again as one, with Lance’s arms clinging to him, he finally understands what was missing. This is what missing. This connection, this intimacy, they always have when making love.

 His back is full of scratches again, but with Lance laying soft kisses on each one as an apology, Keith realized he don’t mind.

 #6 –

 “KEITH!” The owner of the name came back to his senses and look at the boy sitting beside him. Oh, they’re on a date right now, aren’t they? Keith kicked himself mentally. Before he could apologize Lance was already resting his forehead against his, looking at him with worried eyes. His heart hammered in his chest.

 “You’re a bit warm and you look kind of dazed. Let’s go home, we can do this another day.” The brunette tugged at his hand for him to stand up. Keith wants to protest, but after a bit of contemplation, decide against it. Who is he to say no to having Lance fuzzing over him. Also, if he plays his card right he’ll get to monopolized his boyfriend for the whole weekend. Now isn’t that a thought.

 Making their way home Keith lift up their joint and to lay a kiss on the back of Lance’s. The Cuban looked back at him with a fond smile, soft red splayed across his face.

 Keith fell in love all over again.

 He understands long ago that Lance is dangerous. Deadly so. He’s a lethal weapon tailored to bring Keith to his knees with only a smile. Trapping Keith within his blue eyes with no means of escape and he loves it. Lance could ask him for the moon and he swears he’ll find a way to give it to the brunette.

 Keith smiles happily as he watches his boyfriend flitted around the room, gathering blankets and pillows and piling it around him creating a comfortable nest on the sofa. He took hold of the bronzed wrist before its owner can disappear into the kitchen. He tugged lightly and Lance yelp as he falls into Keith’s waiting arms.

 Their lips gravitate towards each other. Languid and soft, he carefully pours his feelings into the kiss, and the next, and the one after that as well. He scoots closer to the backrest and Lance climb in beside him without protest. Smiling exasperatedly the brunette open up his arms and Keith tuck himself into them. He breathes the smell of Lance in deeply into his lungs and felt himself relax.

 “You’re spoilt. I’m spoiling you.” The Cuban lament half-heartedly as he lay soft kisses along the milky temple. Keith agreed by trailing kisses along the column of bronzed-colored throat, making pearls of laughter spill forth from Lance’s mouth.

 Listening to that wonderful sound while being encased in Lance’s arms Keith wondered if this is what happiness feels like.

 Yes

 It definitely is

[randomnameless]

Chapter 7 - Darna to Alster!

Seliph finally finishes this Naga forsaken map and says good bye to the Desert.

RETCONS RETCONS WHO WANTS RETCONS?

(joking, FE4 happened before FE5 so FE5 is the retcon game but)

Ares wants to talk to his friend - the reason why he turned blue to begin with 

but an idiot is here, blocking the doors.

so the only thing he can do in this situation, since he’s grey and can’t move, is talk to the guy.

don’t ask that

no “it is I, Ares the Black Knight”? Vengeance leaves no place to theatrics.

uh... yeah? Siggy couldn’t kill Eldie even if he wanted, he didn’t have the stats for that!

Poor Graine. Here you see miscommunication at its finest, granted, given how Eldie ignored his wife/son to run to his sister’s side and Siggy’s help, I understand why Grainne never got the true side of the story. Her version, and I believe the version of most Agustrians is “Siggy led an invasion in Agustria, Eldie died while defending his homeland and his King” which isn’t that far from reality actually! I love how Ares calls his mother “noble” and not just, my mother. Seliph is of course completely clueless, no one bothered him to keep him in touch with the Augstrian campaign - Aidean what were you doing?

uh... well, i’m sure they hold no hard feelings against each other because they were knights and knights simply do what they’re told, if they hate someone it’s the king who orders them to fight, but Eldie wasn’t totally happy at Siggy’s invasion/occupation. Hopefully Siggy went all “i’m just listening to orders i’m trying to write a letter to Azmur don’t worry” and Eldie believed him. If Chagall wasn’t such a douche the blame could be shared, but hey, we have the most perfect scapegoat so let us all blame Chagall, it makes the Augustrian campaign less catastrophic.

haha Seliph doesn’t understand a thing, Ares is the son of dad’s friend so we can be friends, right? It’s still kind of insensitive to call Ares’ lifelong grudge a “misunderstanding”, OTOH it’s clever because Seliph isn’t calling Ares’ “noble” mother a liar to his face!

Genealogy of the Holy War : sons must pay for the grudges of their fathers? S

Subverted here, Ares drops his grudge. If only we could have asked Brian or even Scipio to do the same :) But their dads had ugly sprites, so they couldn’t be Siggy’s friends so we don’t give figs about them :)

Not totally subverted though, Ares still has doubts and will murder Seliph if he lied.

i cringe a little at this line from Seliph tbh, the fate of the world resides on your shoulders (lel) because you’re the only Naga alive (lelel) F!Lewyn said so, and you’re willing to die just to please Ares? Seliph no :’(

hey you know what you could have met him when you were 3 weeks old if Eldie wasn’t such a douche and didn’t ignore his son and wife. During the occupation he could have sent them to say “hello” to Siggy and his family (or invited them at his place) before Chagall became a douche, but no, Eldie never gave a crap about his family - save for Raquie.

Once he is finished with Seliph Ares pushes him and runs to find his true friend

Here she is! He worries about her, how cute.

:’(

Ares apologises and calls himself a fool, poor Ares. And Lene confesses that she isn’t alright but she still trusted him even after he made himself a fool with that “killing Seliph” nonsense.

Daw! Why IS didn’t give them any lover convo?

Of course he won’t! He will take you home to Agustry! and then you’ll be eaten alive by the agustrian court

“are you the guy Ares wanted to kill?”

“Ares told me about you, he said “move imbecile i have to rescue Lene” when i tried to talk to him earlier”

No dancers in Isaach? 

i don’t know if that would be the word i’d use. Seliph is flustered seeing scantily clad women. Granted, any scantily clad woman would have been captured in Dozel!Isaach so...

and now for the retcon: Raquie’s children!

“who are you random knight?”

what are you talking about? Wait you didn’t knew you had a bro? But in FE5...

that’s understandable - save the part where Lewyn only tells you now that you have a sibling but fig that guy.

off screen, crawling after Shanan and Oifey because they said they could only carry one child and that one child was Seliph

hoho, so Nanna’s Leonster born, it fits with the timeline. The thing that doesn’t is Nanna still ignoring she has a bro :’(

is it me or FE4!Nanna seems to miss Raquie more than FE5!Nanna?

??? I thought you said you didn’t know you had a bro and now Raquie told you she left to meet him in Isaach??

Poor Nanna, she waited to see her, she had no mother figure during all those years

only kaga knows

she took her horse and fled with her horse in the desert with figging sand and it’s not like Quan did the same mistake but no 

meanwhile, two cousins chat

at least - well yeah at least because he had to backtrack to Darna and it took around 15 turns or something (thanks Naga for Lana’s warp staff)

prelude indeed, since Arvis hired Travant and co to assist in his coup

bad Leif, you forget how Travant first set your home in flames and only afterwards Blume arrived. You were sleeping during Finn’s history time or what?!

“my knight Finn” sounds... not strange, but I can’t see FE5!Leif calling Finn “his knight”. Finn is his father figure, he is Finn, not a knight. Heck I doubt FE5!Leif would even call Carrion and co “his knights”. August/Dorias would.

this is so... well, not strange because in FE5 Leif says retaking Leonster was his dream (Finn’s dream) but before chapter 6 he was happy living as a peasant in Fiana with his sisters (and Jugdral’s best mom) killing pirates. Maybe that’s not something you can tell to your kingly cousin, so it’s better to say that he wanted to fight since the beginning...

pff would you have helped against Raydrick when he stoned Eyvel - i mean when Dorias and co tried their multiple attempts at murdering Blume in his sleep? I don’t think so but it’s something Seliph has to say. He doesn’t have to apologise per se but... Well, the way Leif told his story we could think we should be berating Seliph/Siggy for the BBQ’s aftermath that impacted Leonster - in that regard Seliph HAS to apologise.

but this vision, of course, throws Travant in the “ignored” trashcan.

But Leif quickly apologises, it wasn’t his intention to put the blame on Seliph. It’s squarely his fault. RIP Dorias :’( (well Miranda has to share the blame too)

?? Of course he was worthy of being dubbed a knight of Nova he was a crusader. But Leif bragging about being the son of Quan? Heck, that’s something Finn/Dorias would say “don’t lose hope prince you’re the son of quan”, the words of support Ced shared with him when he was down! FE4!Leif is so... confident and assertive, it’s super... weird considering my only Leif experience was FE5!Leif.

It’s so weird that I don’t recall FE5!Leif saying something like that, or reclaiming himself of Quan’s legacy even once. 

“Marty, Othin, pack your things we’re going with Seliph now. Lifis too.”

“But Lord Leif, we’re returning to Fiana now” “don’t you dare i said we’re leaving.” Haha, restoring honor to Granvalle? It’s not about stopping the child hunts and stopping Loptyr’s resurrection? this is so un - FE5!Leif - like! remember the guy who screamed about honor and glory? he would have said those lines!

uh... sure, Quan helped Siggy a lot. And given how Quan died for/because/ during his quest to help Siggy, their deaths are linked.

OMG OMG OMG SOMEONE REMEMBERS

Indeed, but i can’t totally ignore the fact that maybe Ethlyn, even if she wasn’t a Chalpy anymore, wanted to restore her “birth” house’s name clean too, and was also worried about her dad - who didn’t even mention her but that’s how we roll in Jugdral daughters are worthless.

Again, Seliph apologises. Not for Leonster’s fate, but for Quan and Ethlyn on the behalf of his dad.

yes, the stories August told me said that Siggy manage to pierce Arvis’ plans before everyone else! He was a wise man!

As do I? What about “don’t hate the people, only the evil in their hearts?” “oh fig it”. 

pff hahaha if only you knew what were your dads’ last wishes! it was only about restoring chalphy’s good name!

he already said he was going to lend you his scrubs!

“damn that new blade shoots beams of light it’s so cool!”

“I GAVE YOU THOSE RIBBONS!” “hilda did and told me to hang myself with them it’s not a kindness”

hey look, it’s the imperial princess!

“Fear me else I’ll tell everything to daddy and he will Valflame you to oblivion”

because...

“THE MYSTELTAINN CRAVES THE BLOOD OF MEN”

but i thought Julius wanted to throw his party there? You can’t just rewarp in it, it’d be lame!

Wow no mercy for Blume? But yeah, per Aidean’s history lesson, when a baron escapes he will return to piss you off again until you kill him.

it could have been helped if we put men to block the exits, re you really a strategist? or maybe Blume just rewarped when Ares was busy screaming his finishing line for the finishing blow...

??? They’re happier than the Isaachians you fred from Danan’s rule? I honestly can’t believe it.

a real hope, not a joke like Leif’s failed attempts^^

yeah, they’re all stronger than you. Even your wife Larcei!

“have you seen that kid with Leif’s group? She can steal stuff with a magical staff!”

“just as planned and if you don’t i have a backup plan involving a minor character with naga blood”

lol Julia isn’t part of any plan.

[keepyourpantsongohan]

Ayesha Liveblogs Fairy Tail S3

Can the narrator really justify the “small peaceful nation” part of the intro after a morality weapon was resurrected and almost destroyed a ghost town

“Flower parties are freakin’ manly!” Elfman isn’t here for your gender roles

My sweet stripper son:

Erza: Have you considered putting on a shirt?

Gray: [Growls]

“Don’t get cold feet” I love shitty battle puns

The implication that Natsu would literally move the heavens and the earth for Lucy is beautiful

I can’t believe that disaster of a play exists in continuity

“I need your guidance Laxus” When Freed is faced with difficult decisions he looks into the sky and sees Laxus in the clouds

“A real man never uses his brain” I mean... tru

Gray just fucking peacefully iceskates past a pile of his friends

“You and me aren’t married okay” “Then why are you blushing” Baby Natsu and Lisanna are so cute

That exchange between Natsu and Lisanna makes it seem like she’s missing and not dead but they buried her body right?

Gildarts has apparently decided to adopt Natsu

Poor Natsu he doesn’t even get sad about Lisanna’s death he’s mad

Natsu @ Gildarts: You’re not my real dad! 

DRUNK GAJEEL SEARCHES FOR KITTY CATS

Mystogan is Wendy’s Jellal oh no the one nice thing Jellal thinks he did his whole life was a lie

I fucking love Natsu’s nicknames for Gray: Frosty, Freezer Burn, Snowflake <3

“We need to talk, it’s time you learned to grip it right” Gray pls

“I wish something interesting would happen today,” said Lucy, shortly after Mystogan announced the impending apocalypse

This is the second time that everything Wendy knows and cares about has evaporated right before her eyes yikes

Based on this intro everyone’s going to meet their AU selves in Edolas and I’m really curious if AU Gray is just going to put on more clothes

“If none of our buddies are in this world, what would be the point of coming back here anyway?” Natsu <3333333

“We gotta walk somewhere, so why not this way?” shit u right Natsu

AU Gray does wear too many clothes I love it

Oh no Lisanna’s probably still alive in this universe

“Why isn’t Cana half-naked and fully drunk?” Cana is a mess 

Natsu, weeping: The Gray I know would be half-naked by now

“I’ve never seen a frog like this! We should take it back for Lucy as a souvenir” Amazing his friends are trapped in a giant crystal and he’s still thinking about what they might enjoy as keepsakes

I think Scary Lucy is in love with Natsu

But how did Gajeel get to Edolas without a magical flying cat?

“This Gajeel’s a freelance journalist, better get the scoop on him” I wonder if his political activist alter ego also uses terrible wordplay

“Being bossed around is kind of a nice change” Kinkshame Scary Lucy

It makes sense that Lucy’s the only one who can use magic here because her magic isn’t tied to Earth

Gentle Fro Gajeel bonding with Angry Spiky Gajeel is great

Lmao @ Mystogan just tossing up random members of a Fairy Tail up into the sky and also it seems abundantly clear at this point that he’s Edolas Jellal

Natsu [Aggressive Roadster voice]: My Lucy

I guess Edolas Natsu is only ballsy while inside moving vehicles

“Not exactly my idea of a dictatorship” Clearly you have never seen footage produced by any dictatorship ever

Nalu must be canon because she just gave him the Hug of Passionate Restraint

Ngl this cat drama is a bit Much for me I don’t even like Happy

This is some dark philosopher’s stone ass shit that I didn’t really expect from Fairy Tail yikes there’s no moral dilemma for these people

How come Gajeel can use his magic??

Honestly the greatest suspension of disbelief in this show is pretending Happy does not sound like a whiny adult woman

The way they told that story at first made it seem like all 100 eggs belonged to Happy’s parents 

I’M SCREAMING THE REAL GRAY AND ERZA ARE BACK MY SWEET NAKED AND VIOLENT CHILDREN

I love their entrance bathed in ethereal light and also the fact that their combined magical power was enough to fill a town square

Ohhhh so that’s why Lucy can use her powers because Mystogan gave her the crazy red pills

Gray, trying to give medicine to a person who is out cold: Come on, open your mouth, you loser

“I was wondering what he popped in my mouth,” I'm concerned about you Lucy

Gray just faded into transparency because he was being ignored amazing

“Do you want get in the middle of that?” “You know, you make a good point” I missed Gray’s and Lucy’s asides <3

Gray did you need to pin Lucy down to protect her you are so Extra and I love it

Gray just... fucking chucked Lucy.... twenty feet in the air GOOD LORD

Oh my god is Panther Lily going to become Gajeel’s magical flying cat

“You’re not dead, are you? Yell if you’re dead!” NATSU PLS

“I have to care about her, because it’s obvious that you don’t!” Lucy is so powerful and kind I love her

Full offense but I’m going to marry Gray Fullbuster

“I’m still making you my cat” he said, before beating the shit out of a man-sized panther

I bet Good Erza robbed Bad Erza lmao beautiful

Why are neither Gray nor Natsu attempting to retake their hostage

None of the Edolas boys have this same need for angry haircuts

The Cat Drama has reached new heights but I’ve slowly grown fond of it

Did Panther Lily save Mystogan?? Oh the answer is yes

What the ever loving fuck that was an abrupt cut off to an almost happy ending

I can’t believe Mystogan is a prince and also that no one is reacting to the fact he is Edolas Jellal

“I’m sure he’ll feel right at home crawling along the ground with the other pests” Apparently there is a worse dad than Papa Heartlessfilia in this show

Natsu as Daenerys Targaryen: Fire cannot kill a dragon

Fairy Tail is full of Human Disasters no matter what universe

Erza, every time she puts on a new suit of armor: My strongest armor

I love that Erza, Gray and Natsu all give their opponents speeches on the morality of their decisions as they fight

“Is a floating island going to fall on our house?” no one ever said that Mystogan was great at foresight

“But Edolas had a pretty good run, huh?” said Hughes, just calmly fucking watching the apocalypse

Why is Jellal always trying to get himself killed no matter what universe

I’m crying I love Space Jellal 

The fist pumping is killing me 

“What an overachiever!” Gajeel is so happy to have his own kitty cat

Every time Natsu tries to hug Lisanna someone physically restrains him

I’m so happy for Mira and Elfman and Natsu <3

This is going to be so weird for Fairy Tail to them it’s like they passed out and they wake up to their friends bruised and bloody, Mystogan gone forever, a baby panther in Gajeel’s arms and someone back from the dead 

Hughes, about his own execution: Seriously, it’s not a big deal, just do it!

Jellal did the thing! The Fairy Tail thing again my sweet son

The implication of Mystogan having joined Fairy Tail as a child means that he’s been walking around in a full cloak since he was like 10

Lmao @ Natsu dreaming about fighting Gray 

The unnecessarily intimate and homoerotic friendship chain continues as Lucy and Cana bathe together

Literally their legs are intertwined together underwater?? This is Extremely Gay and I love it

“Forget your clothes again?” “Don’t have time to worry about that!” 

Ggekghjrhgkhkg Gray using one of Lucy’s spirits as his partner 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀 

“At this point I’d put almost anything in my mouth as long as it’s cold” ... Like an ice wizard? 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀 

GRAY IS LITERALLY THIS MEME:

I arrive at S-Class Trials

Ship: Crowded

Partner: Loke 

Dick: Out

I am forcibly clothed at S-Class Trials

Gajeel using Levy’s head as an armrest pls 

Makarov @ an Ice Wizard: Chill

“What sort of vulgar sorcery is this?” Omg Freed is so nervous around scantily-clad women I love it

I guess Freed and Bickslow throwing the fight makes more sense than if they were defeated through the power of sex and cotton candy

“There is one thing you still lack” Self control?

This was actually a pretty accurate guess

Mystogan’s a little young to have an adult man as his pupil

Hard for Emo Wizard to avoid confrontation when everyone in this guild takes “I could kill you” as an invitation to fight

I guess it says a lot about Natsu that Gildarts has been mentoring him for many years and yet he still thinks of the dragon as his dad

[mechagalaxy]

John T Mainer 28840: Legion of Vega

Legion of Vega

I was on Vega brokering a deal to sell some of the garbage the Spirit of Bunny got on their last raid. Apparently fighting evil energy sucking stormclouds gives you crap for loot. Weathermen don't retire rich, I guess that was one of the reasons I became a pilot in the first place, I didn't want to do honest work, I wanted to shoot bad guys for beer money and shiny shiny loot. There was little danger of any of that on Vega. Vega is a desert world, one of the wind swept hell worlds of the Prince Of Iron's Meiji Shogunate. Settled by Islamist Fundamentalists, they got nuked back to the stone age by one of the early Emperors for an assassination attempt, and only rebuilt partially when the nuking clean up revealed some nasty heavy metals useful in biopic production were discovered, and crystal farming proved to be the one thing that Vega's high radiation atmosphere and almost total lack of surface water was good for.

Vega had been a bright spot for the Shogunate during the war against the Illyrian's, but had fallen into disfavor when the garrison sided with the Prince of Flowers in the late civil war, and the once proud 11th and 14th Legions of Vega were disbanded. The scum soldiers of the Legions of Vega had been an open joke, a dumping ground for criminals, stim addicts, discipline cases, burnouts, and political dissidents, yet when the Illyrians attacked the border, and world after world fell, the father of the current Emperor, the famous/infamous Teddy K, lead the 11th in their doomed stand, and the 14th in their epic war to take back not just Vega, but to drive into the Illyrian border worlds and gut the supply chain for the whole invasion. Since the civil war, they had been without anything but local corporate troops and Internal Security Force security troops. With the increase in pirate and Storm linked activity the governor of Vega, the vastly and cheerfully corrupt "Uncle Chandy" had been authorized to raise a defense force if he could equip it out of his own (cheerfully lined) pockets.

Thus, some of the elite of Mecha Galaxy were gathered on a world that made Arakis look like a vacation spa, that made Pirate Moon look law abiding, and made camels sick of sand. Uncle Chandy was a fat, happily decadent and corrupt man whose vast appetites were only exceeded by his intellect and a strange, almost inexplicable desire, to serve the Shogunate's best interests, whether they knew or approved or not. He was so openly shifty he had three boxes on his desk labeled clearly "Bribes" "Blackmail" "Payoffs", they were all full. One thing Uncle Chandy had oddly never once been accused of, is breaking a deal. Win or lose on a deal, he paid in good coin. Thus it was a few of us were gathered on Vega trying to offload some low level gear, crap crystal mecha, weapons you could possibly bother a rat with if he hadn't been eating well lately, and some decent gear we just couldn't afford to level up.

Uncle Chandy was a generous host, and plied us with all sorts of comforts when we were not negotiating, but when we were, he took a duelists delight in a close match and permitted no distractions, so negotiations were not swift. The first reports of storm disruption of the gates were drifting in to us through our own private networks. If we hadn't been busy trying to out outmaneuver each other, and treating each other as enemies, we might have compared notes and been able to get our asses out of there before it went sideways. We didn't. We each had a report of disruption of some of he gates, we each had reports of raiders hitting some adjacent worlds. If we would have compared notes, we could have summoned our own clans to deal with it before we got cut off. Uncle Chandy, well, he had all of it, and played us like the master gamesman he was.

I was sitting in the waiting room, a scantily clad hostess was plying me with some sort of candied fig while I waited to finalize the sale on a half dozen Cindron when Lewis Reed my Logistics Officer burst in.

"Boss, we got trouble. The gate network is down hard. Something has scrambled all the access routines and we have zero contact with base. From the bit that I got, all the teams are reporting the same. They can't get offworld, and we have over thirty percent of our personnel in all Clans isolated or trapped away from support. We also have word of Deneb and Misery falling. Unknown raiders, not pirates, way too big. Not a raid, they took Deneb's main city and shut down the spaceport and the gate complex both"

I just about choked on my fig. Deneb is a sector capital and well defended. Misery is another hell world, but its an ice ball. To be brutally honest, the only export of Misery is misery....and ice. The water to keep Vega alive came on the ice ships from Misery weekly. With the gates down, the fall of Misery meant we were trapped on Vega with no water, in the sure and certain knowledge that the world that should be enforcing order in this section of space just got conquered by "forces unknown". This was not good.

I swore under my breath. I had to see Uncle Chandy right away and see about trading our Cindron's for one of his ships to get offworld while we still could. I wished for the first time that I had brought the clan in a Warship not taken commercial transport through the gate system. I approached Uncle Chandy's door to see about interrupting his current meeting when I heard voices inside.

"Not on your life, no frigging way. Only a lunatic would agree to that, I don't care what you are paying! That is suicide!" I stopped, my hand about two inches from the call plate on the door. I swear I recognized that voice. The door opened and a hard bitten pilot with a angry scowl just about barreled into me.

It was Able Hunter. He took the cigar out of his mouth where it was being chewed more than smoked in his current rage and jabbed it in my direction. He turned back and shouted one more time at Uncle Chandy before pushing past me and leaving.

"Try that idiot. He is just stupid enough to volunteer to commit suicide for this sand covered crap-hole!"

Uncle Chandy was full of smiles and took my arm and lead me to a nice massage chair in front of his massive desk. Easing himself into his own larger version, two of his many semi-dressed assistants settled glasses of melon soda over ice in front of us. He kept up a constant and happy babble of nonesense and routine Japanese politeness to prevent me from getting to business until he could raise his glass to offer a toast.

"To the glory of the Emperor, the safety of his children, and our own mutual benefit. A drink, and some of the last ice of Misery unless someone of experience and standing undertakes the defense of this world. Sadly, there is no way off this world save the Kigamure, which is reserved to trasport the troops of the Legion of Vega for the defense of this world. Sadly, that is by order of the Prince of Iron, and your humble servant could never oppose the will of the Son of Heaven or his war prince." Uncle Chandy's smile was a mix of the beneficence of Buddha, and cold hunger of the great white shark.

I took a sip of my drink, and considered his words.

"If we don't get off this world, you will run out of water faster" I attempted

He spread his hands, and replied "A hundred or two foreigners more or less won't make a difference when two million of my problem children run out of water, yet with a strong military expedition to restore our water supply and to guarantee our defense until such time as the gates stabilizer, would not your people and my own both profit?"

I looked into his smiling face and sighed. I nodded. "Fine, I will lead your defense. What can you offer me?"

Uncle Chandy smiled and pushed across a box. I opened it and found a memory crystal, code locked to an individuals DNA and brainwave patterns, and the insignia of a Tai-Sa, along with eight matching Legion of Vega pins. Uncle Chandy was beaming and his voice boomed happily.

"I offer you command of the glorious Legion of Vega, and all its resources for the defense and strategic security of this world and its trade. This includes the Kigamure warship as well as all the mecha and support resources you can raise as volunteers. Yours will be the war against Chaos for the glory of Vega, and the enrichment of your troops. I guarentee that each will receive a mecha commensurate to their own glorious contribution, paid for from my own, considerable pockets" Uncle Chandy's voice dripped happy avarice at the end that made my mercenary soul perk up a bit. The fact was, generosity aside, eight mecha is a crappy basis for defense of a world.

I countered "I want command of the ISF batallion. Sure they are green troops, and used to only dealing with civil disobedience and labour disputes, but a batallion is a batallion. I want command of them as well. They can be meat shields if nothing else" I demanded.

Uncle Chandy's face expressed sorrow like a baby basset hound, and he let his implant depolarize his huge office window. Outside the demonstration of Sal-Eh-Dim was in full force. Marches and even mecha carrying or draped with banners "Boycott Chaos" pressed against the line of ISF troopers and mecha out front of the Vegan capital building.

"It is regrettable that I must retain the ISF batallion to keep order here at home, thanks to the peace activists demand we boycott the Chaos war, even if that means failing to restore the Ice supply from Misery, and everyone on this beautiful world dying" Uncle Chandy showed absolute innocence and an odd belief that this waterless pustule of corruption was indeed a paradise worthy of the blood of a legion, but he wasn't wrong. If we let things stand, this world died. He was going to see us paid, and paid well. In the end, if you are a mercenary mecha jock, you chose this profession because you wanted to kick ass, take names, and yes by the gods, be a hero every once in a while.

I pinned on the insignia, slotted the memory crystal into the reader on my belt and felt it synch with my implants. I activated the Legion command circuit and the call for volunteers went out. By the time I got Lewis from the front office and had him book transport for our mecha to the Legion barracks, so long empty and probably looted dry, I was deeply depressed. No eight random mecha platoons can defend a world. I opened the bay doors and walked in. There was chaos underway as swearing pilots and technicians in a mismatch of coverals and even bad Hawaiian shirts struggled to slot a bewildering array of mecha into empty cradles and other deeply suspicious pilots started undogging the unmarked crates Uncle Chandy sent over that seemed to be brimming with Meiji Shogunate munition marks that I strongly suspect the Shogunate does not know are no longer on its shelves.

I pinged the officers from my implant, wondering who I had, and hoping I wasn't looking at a half dozen third level pilots with nothing heavier than a Warhorse when my implant accepted the response from the Legions officers. I gave a low whistle.

Ben Rail, Terry Cole, Lewis Reed, Stroker Spot, Mike Ehmann, Able Hunter, Myeponym, and me. Son of sand rat, maybe we could defend this world. If I had to take eight platoons and bet the life of a planet that I could take Misery, at least long enough to get the ice ships flowing back to Vega, this would be it.

The rat banner of the Legion of Vega flies again. A dumping ground for the disgraced, despised, and the disposable, they had turned the tide of war before, so perhaps we could do so again. We are the Legion of Vega. We are coming for you.

John T Mainer 28840

[ggdbcheapforsale-blog]

Golden Goose Superstar Sneakers Online Poker Is many People Winning?

These can be found very are inclined to the extremely people who actually jump totally from one options to one particular more Golden Goose Sneakers Outlet ithout basically following whatever through. The company are Golden Goose Superstar Sneakers ulled to the actual worthless 'Fool's Gold' behind modern day time hype, with the help of all an promises within instant load and trouble free money. A global wide watch dog cap-and-trade being organized (a remarkable job killer) is in all probability the debt relief power elite's next firearm against the specific free sell as those tactics transform from offering actual wars as smokescreens for making use of our choice to methods such to be global warming (now local change), world contagious health probem scares (bird flu) additionally a combat on terrorism. What? It is fights on Islamofascist terrorists. Your business can't specifically wage rivalry on wild, worldwide whacky ideas. If not for one happens to be sitting at the tables, make absolutely there undoubtedly too a lot cooks here in the bedroom. Being employer top-heavy by way of a down economy is that you simply sure smoke way to finally burn via a cope of price. Education is also a interesting animal. Within the you've started a terrific educational message that an individual should especially flaunt it, feel cost to interact about what you finished with four.0 GPA, Magna Cum Laude. This detail has a lot of application that will those from you that didn't make an application yourself throughout college, potentially learned using the studies of tricky knocks. You and your family don't buy to feature the truth that that anyone didn't scholar with honors, or you didn't student at almost all. Feel to curtail the college education section while much as being you have need of to. Any time you're a complete great professional they have the ability to see your current value on your give good results experience. Great inspiring ideas can are available from a new great intuition, any hunch in the case you must. It is usually any kind of a very tiny, small, scantily audible voice that is there available for a additionally and and also poof it's gone! The program has rendered me asking you of some sanity way more than a nice few repetitions. Not with Golden Goose Superstar Outlet earing a person's voice desire you, but for right after it, in addition to no are certain explanation in order to really give in order to really my peers, as on the way to why My partner and i am making time for a different action or alternatively activity. That time when that does take place about this it had one of most the extremely ideas and they have ever in the future seen, well, I have the ability to confidently say, 'Yes, related to course, I will knew every along them would work'. Hire a fabulous Web Developer Now! It Saves The individual Time - - Time definitely is of the most important essence when it includes to sector. You have proven to be not had hoped for to complete everything as compared to your cash flow grows as the days visit by. Webpage development requires a skilfully and creatively crafted mind of that web construtor. And a don't acquire all our own time on the economy to yield one. Your are equally not clipped out for many such undertaking. Plus your organization get that can have improvement that is higher than your expected results .. So don't hesitate and as a consequence hire a very web manufacturer now! It is this ditch of the majority gout patrons that may make this conditions (if they call information technology so) every Golden Goose Deluxe Brand during those big pharmaceutical carriers. For you will will endlessly pay concerning their products for all the rest pointing to your life, once buyers are but used with regard to the instantaneous fix per relief which in turn it gives you. Any warning flag you pay up for is definitely dangerous, basically once your site 'invest' in an idea, you will likely spend each lot connected with time to make the work while your systems, even in the event that way unintentionally curve fitting nor over-optimizing. Giving away money to do with an sign gets then you emotionally involved, and that can cause trouble. Typically, you deliberately or subliminally have all the need towards be power in an purchase, and simply that will eventually be painful you.

[menuh]

The audiobook Doug is listening to in House of Cards:

A Tale of Two Cities

Book 2, Chapter 13: The Fellow of No Delicacy

(I guess Doug is a slow reader!)

If Sydney Carton ever shone anywhere, he certainly never shone in the house of Doctor Manette. He had been there often, during a whole year, and had always been the same moody and morose lounger there. When he cared to talk, he talked well; but, the cloud of caring for nothing, which overshadowed him with such a fatal darkness, was very rarely pierced by the light within him.

And yet he did care something for the streets that environed that house, and for the senseless stones that made their pavements. Many a night he vaguely and unhappily wandered there, when wine had brought no transitory gladness to him; many a dreary daybreak revealed his solitary figure lingering there, and still lingering there when the first beams of the sun brought into strong relief, removed beauties of architecture in spires of churches and lofty buildings, as perhaps the quiet time brought some sense of better things, else forgotten and unattainable, into his mind. Of late, the neglected bed in the Temple Court had known him more scantily than ever; and often when he had thrown himself upon it no longer than a few minutes, he had got up again, and haunted that neighbourhood.

On a day in August, when Mr. Stryver (after notifying to his jackal that “he had thought better of that marrying matter”) had carried his delicacy into Devonshire, and when the sight and scent of flowers in the City streets had some waifs of goodness in them for the worst, of health for the sickliest, and of youth for the oldest, Sydney’s feet still trod those stones. From being irresolute and purposeless, his feet became animated by an intention, and, in the working out of that intention, they took him to the Doctor’s door.

He was shown up-stairs, and found Lucie at her work, alone. She had never been quite at her ease with him, and received him with some little embarrassment as he seated himself near her table. But, looking up at his face in the interchange of the first few common-places, she observed a change in it.

“I fear you are not well, Mr. Carton!”

“No. But the life I lead, Miss Manette, is not conducive to health. What is to be expected of, or by, such profligates?”

“Is it not—forgive me; I have begun the question on my lips—a pity to live no better life?”

“God knows it is a shame!”

“Then why not change it?”

Looking gently at him again, she was surprised and saddened to see that there were tears in his eyes. There were tears in his voice too, as he answered:

“It is too late for that. I shall never be better than I am. I shall sink lower, and be worse.”

He leaned an elbow on her table, and covered his eyes with his hand. The table trembled in the silence that followed.

She had never seen him softened, and was much distressed. He knew her to be so, without looking at her, and said:

“Pray forgive me, Miss Manette. I break down before the knowledge of what I want to say to you. Will you hear me?”

“If it will do you any good, Mr. Carton, if it would make you happier, it would make me very glad!”

“God bless you for your sweet compassion!”

He unshaded his face after a little while, and spoke steadily.

“Don’t be afraid to hear me. Don’t shrink from anything I say. I am like one who died young. All my life might have been.”

“No, Mr. Carton. I am sure that the best part of it might still be; I am sure that you might be much, much worthier of yourself.”

“Say of you, Miss Manette, and although I know better—although in the mystery of my own wretched heart I know better—I shall never forget it!”

She was pale and trembling. He came to her relief with a fixed despair of himself which made the interview unlike any other that could have been holden.

“If it had been possible, Miss Manette, that you could have returned the love of the man you see before yourself—flung away, wasted, drunken, poor creature of misuse as you know him to be—he would have been conscious this day and hour, in spite of his happiness, that he would bring you to misery, bring you to sorrow and repentance, blight you, disgrace you, pull you down with him. I know very well that you can have no tenderness for me; I ask for none; I am even thankful that it cannot be.”

“Without it, can I not save you, Mr. Carton? Can I not recall you—forgive me again!—to a better course? Can I in no way repay your confidence? I know this is a confidence,” she modestly said, after a little hesitation, and in earnest tears, “I know you would say this to no one else. Can I turn it to no good account for yourself, Mr. Carton?”

He shook his head.

“To none. No, Miss Manette, to none. If you will hear me through a very little more, all you can ever do for me is done. I wish you to know that you have been the last dream of my soul. In my degradation I have not been so degraded but that the sight of you with your father, and of this home made such a home by you, has stirred old shadows that I thought had died out of me. Since I knew you, I have been troubled by a remorse that I thought would never reproach me again, and have heard whispers from old voices impelling me upward, that I thought were silent for ever. I have had unformed ideas of striving afresh, beginning anew, shaking off sloth and sensuality, and fighting out the abandoned fight. A dream, all a dream, that ends in nothing, and leaves the sleeper where he lay down, but I wish you to know that you inspired it.”

“Will nothing of it remain? O Mr. Carton, think again! Try again!”

“No, Miss Manette; all through it, I have known myself to be quite undeserving. And yet I have had the weakness, and have still the weakness, to wish you to know with what a sudden mastery you kindled me, heap of ashes that I am, into fire—a fire, however, inseparable in its nature from myself, quickening nothing, lighting nothing, doing no service, idly burning away.”

“Since it is my misfortune, Mr. Carton, to have made you more unhappy than you were before you knew me—”

“Don’t say that, Miss Manette, for you would have reclaimed me, if anything could. You will not be the cause of my becoming worse.”

“Since the state of your mind that you describe, is, at all events, attributable to some influence of mine—this is what I mean, if I can make it plain—can I use no influence to serve you? Have I no power for good, with you, at all?”

“The utmost good that I am capable of now, Miss Manette, I have come here to realise. Let me carry through the rest of my misdirected life, the remembrance that I opened my heart to you, last of all the world; and that there was something left in me at this time which you could deplore and pity.”

“Which I entreated you to believe, again and again, most fervently, with all my heart, was capable of better things, Mr. Carton!”

“Entreat me to believe it no more, Miss Manette. I have proved myself, and I know better. I distress you; I draw fast to an end. Will you let me believe, when I recall this day, that the last confidence of my life was reposed in your pure and innocent breast, and that it lies there alone, and will be shared by no one?”

“If that will be a consolation to you, yes.”

“Not even by the dearest one ever to be known to you?”

“Mr. Carton,” she answered, after an agitated pause, “the secret is yours, not mine; and I promise to respect it.”

“Thank you. And again, God bless you.”

He put her hand to his lips, and moved towards the door.

“Be under no apprehension, Miss Manette, of my ever resuming this conversation by so much as a passing word. I will never refer to it again. If I were dead, that could not be surer than it is henceforth. In the hour of my death, I shall hold sacred the one good remembrance—and shall thank and bless you for it—that my last avowal of myself was made to you, and that my name, and faults, and miseries were gently carried in your heart. May it otherwise be light and happy!”

He was so unlike what he had ever shown himself to be, and it was so sad to think how much he had thrown away, and how much he every day kept down and perverted, that Lucie Manette wept mournfully for him as he stood looking back at her.

“Be comforted!” he said, “I am not worth such feeling, Miss Manette. An hour or two hence, and the low companions and low habits that I scorn but yield to, will render me less worth such tears as those, than any wretch who creeps along the streets. Be comforted! But, within myself, I shall always be, towards you, what I am now, though outwardly I shall be what you have heretofore seen me. The last supplication but one I make to you, is, that you will believe this of me.”

“I will, Mr. Carton.”

“My last supplication of all, is this; and with it, I will relieve you of a visitor with whom I well know you have nothing in unison, and between whom and you there is an impassable space. It is useless to say it, I know, but it rises out of my soul. For you, and for any dear to you, I would do anything. If my career were of that better kind that there was any opportunity or capacity of sacrifice in it, I would embrace any sacrifice for you and for those dear to you. Try to hold me in your mind, at some quiet times, as ardent and sincere in this one thing. The time will come, the time will not be long in coming, when new ties will be formed about you—ties that will bind you yet more tenderly and strongly to the home you so adorn—the dearest ties that will ever grace and gladden you. O Miss Manette, when the little picture of a happy father’s face looks up in yours, when you see your own bright beauty springing up anew at your feet, think now and then that there is a man who would give his life, to keep a life you love beside you!”

He said, “Farewell!” said a last “God bless you!” and left her.