#~moonlights daughter~

[iron-hearts-ablaze]

REST - aylin

send " REST. " for the sender to sit beside the receiver and rest their head in the receiver's lap without explanation. || Accepting

The battle had been harder than Karlach predicted. Her confidence had gotten away from her and they came out bruised - but victorious. Karlach had leaned against the wall and slumped down to the floor in exhaustion. With her head tilted back, horn lightly knocking the wall, she sighed as her eyes closed. As such, she didn't see who was coming up to her from the side, but was too tired to care. Her eyes only opened again when she felt a weight in her lap, and a familiar feeling of feathers close by.

She placed one hand on Aylin's shoulder plate, the other on her head, stroking through her hair. She wasn't entirely sure what she could give as comfort, words wise. That was more Isobel's forte.

"You did the right thing," Karlach muttered eventually. "The bastard had to die. It's alright...you can rest now."

[iron-hearts-ablaze]

Karlach became rather overtaken by all these emotions. It was as if a tidal wave had come and ebbed away at her hopelessness and refilled her with a newfound hope and determination.

But hope was like a newborn; fragile. So easily harmed. She had harboured hope when Dammon first started making such great progress in cooling her engine. Cradled it to her chest and began to raise it. Only for it to be ripped away when Dammon confirmed he could do no more. How unfair... Just as she got attached.

Yet, now came a new babe. A new rush of hope that really Karlach should have been more tentative about receiving. What if this, too, was taken from her? Any average person would have been more uneasy, more realistic. But not Karlach.

The laughter began to become more solid in happiness than in anything empty. The tiefling wrapped her arms around Aylin and squeezed, perhaps a little too tightly, as she began to swell with excitement.

"This is fucking incredible!" Karlach exclaimed. "I know I shouldn't get my hopes up, but holy shit-! S-Sorry, is that offensive?" Karlach jumped up, suddenly full of an energy that could not escape her easily. But, she kept Aylin's hands in her own. As if in worship. And in a way, she was. She was worshipping the miracle that was bestowed on her.

"Scratch what I said, you're incredible, Aylin! Gods...if this works...I could....I could actually stay! I don't have to go back to that fucking place! HA!"

A gentle laugh left the aasimar’s lips as she squeezed Karlach’s shoulders. “Selune would welcome your companionship. She welcomes all into her arms no matter what.” However, Karlach descended back to the safety of her mask and Aylin knew it well. She stayed quiet, sitting next to her as Karlach worked through her struggles internally. Her arms rested against her knees as she looked out at the water’s edge, a quiet calm before a storm.

“It could contain the heat of your engine, and far stronger than the iron of your current metal. I truly believe the blessed material would aid and give you the lifetime you deserve.” Aylin moved closer and canted her head just slightly with her feathers fluttering against her cheeks. “It can handle the hottest first of moonfire, without melting or warping. It can handle your engine and fires. I will speak with some mortals, find where some are stored. And I will send a call to my mother, ask her if she still has those within her hoard at home,” Anything she could do to help her, she would.

“oh,” Aylin whispered, seeing the way to it affected Karlach and Aylin put her legs down and reached around to pull Karlach into a hug, holding her close. The Aasimar was touch starved and looked for any reason for affection. Plus, she knew Karlach needed it right now. Her wings wrapped around her, creating a safety blanket within her embrace. “Tis ever reason to hope, Karlach. We will find a way; if I have to travel to the far reaches of the heavens or to the depths of hell, I will.��

[porcelainbunnyy]

[angelinefairydoll]

♡Dreaming Away Life♡

[nixie-deangel]

If you’re still taking the emojis! 💔💐🍼

I absolutely am! And will be taking them all weekend!

💔 icemav break up / icedad

Tom can't help but stare at where Bradley had finally passed out, after spending most of the evening crying out his hurt and frustration at his mom and Mav. Bringing his hand up, he rubs at his jaw and just watches his kid a moment more before he pushes up, moving to close the door partly and turning on his heel to shuffle quietly down the hall to the kitchen. Grabbing the cordless, he drops down onto a seat at the small breakfast table and stares at it. He knows he needs to call the others, Sarah and Slider at the very least to let them know what's happening. That of everyone, they deserve to know that he's broken up with Mav, that Bradley will be living with him for the rest of his senior year. That they need to know what Carole said, what she, and Mav, tried to do to Bradley.

💐 serial killer Jake - hangster

"So, you ever gonna let me help you out, honey?" Jake asks as he pulls out his wallet and a few hundreds to stuff into Bradley's personal tip jar. Bradley snorts, sending a pointed look to the money Jake just dropped. "Aren't you already doing that, sweetheart?" Opening his mouth, Jake narrows his eyes as his lips twist into a pout because technically Bradley is right. Even if it's not nearly enough of what Jake wants to be able to do for Bradley. To be able to give to him.

🍼 non navy bradley/fighter pilot jake as parents - hangster

"What are you saying?" "That I wouldn't mind if we had a second or even third kid," Bradley repeats, sending Jake a half amused look before he goes back to cutting the potatoes to add to the pot roast he's about to put in the oven. "I know you've always wanted a big family, Jake, " he continues. "And I've mentioned once or twice how lonely growing up an only child could be and I don't want that for Emmy. I-I want her to grow up with siblings and with family and to know without a doubt she's surrounded by love." He pauses to send Jake another grin, "'sides, I wouldn't mind having a little Seresin to call ours." "Bradshaw," Jake croaks out, eyes well with tears as he stares at his partner, his husband in all but title. "It'd be Bradshaw. Janie's got the Seresin name covered. We've got the Bradshaw one."

Make Nixie Write This Weekend!

[alaeyne-the-cruel]

The Hand and His Aide

— Ser Otto and Lady Rhaenyra

Art by alexx_moralesss

For my fic Sunrise and Moonlight, a Bastard and Usurper Rhaenyra AU.

[purebbyfawn]

not mine ♡

♡ creds to @/lily4lana on pinterest ♡

[canonicallyanxious]

I know it has already been said many times but Jim and Li Ming being mirrors of each other makes me feel utterly insane. Like I think Jim looks at li ming and can only see himself as a younger man, hotheaded and emotional and driven by love, and he wants so so badly for li ming to not become him bc deep down he doesn't think his life filled with pain and regret and loneliness is one worth living ("I'm not fit to be anyone's home" you get what I'm saying!!!)

But setting aside the fact that Li Ming is his own person with his own path to walk and his own lessons to learn, he is also a person who cares fully and deeply about the people around him, who strives to create community and help the people he loves feel like they have a place where they belong and is GOOD at it, and i think it's obvious where he learned that from, coming of age as he has in Jim's diner. It fucking kills me that Jim can't seem to fully see the value of that, both in Li Ming and himself.

[delicatesolitude]

i blink and it is october and i have been alone for years

[weirdlookindog]

Hugh Rankin - Daughter of the Moonlight

(Weird Tales - August 1930)

[iron-hearts-ablaze]

❛ what’s meant to be will always find a way. ❜ - Aylin

𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐬.

"Hmph," Karlach couldn't help the sound, but it was not out of malice in the slightest. She straightened up, as if he words had bolstered her - invigorated.

At first, she thought that her death was the reference. That i was meant to be, and would find a way. But no... The look in Aylin's eyes, the determination and steadfast decision was clear. It wasn't Karlach's death that was meant to be. It was her saving.

"Celestial iron sounds...nice. I trust you, Dame Aylin. I want to give it a try."

[iron-hearts-ablaze]

Tears were always a sign of weakness in Avernus. They were almost a foreign concept to the devilish ilk. Karlach had refused to let the monsters see themselves reflected in her tears - and so they were kept for herself. Not that they lasted, they usually sizzled away before they even glided down her skin. Even the ability to truly cry was taken away from her.

But she had been cooled. Perhaps too much now, because she felt so cold. It had very little to do with the warmth of her flames and of Aylin's embrace, and entirely to do with the feeling of death clawing at her soul.

At first, Karlach was still. As if slow to react, or pondering whether to give in. Eventually though, shaking, her arms made their way around Aylin as she completed the hug.

"I dunno what's worse..." Karlach muttered with a shaking sigh. "Feeling like this-" She didn't need to explain to someone who understood. "-or feeling the guilt that I'm feeling this way. The guys need me to be on top form and I'm falling apart instead. I feel like a selfish prick..."

Silence lingered over the group as Aylin watched Karlach struggle. The boiling heat burned from Karlach and not because of her engine. Aylin stretched out her wings again, and just like before, she placed her wing around Karlach in comfort to give her a safe space. Aylin sighed softly as she heard the question. “A hole that cannot be filled,” Aylin’s voice a bare whisper, also knowing how it feels. “It didn’t aid my pain. An angel of vengeance, and yet it does not help, and I don’t know what to do with this emptiness,”

Aylin leaned forward and moved to wrap her arms around her legs, and took a breath. She turned her head to look at Karlach, seeing those glassy eyes, and she lowered her legs down and placed her hands on either side of Karlach’s face. While Aylin usually had plenty to say, she had nothing right now because she did not know what words would help fix it. She still didn’t have the words to fix her own pain.

So instead, she did what Isobel had done for her; and she wrapped her arms around Karlach and pulled her close into a hug. Her wings wrapped around her as well, cloaking them in feathers and hidden from the others. “I’m here, with you Karlach. I understand your struggle, the emptiness. Just... release the tears.”

[porcelainbunnyy]

[calliedion-dungeon]

My Papa is divine 🪽

Pic @danielnielsendk_concerts on ig

[zeezeebum]

You're both Hell and Paradise like the Ocean

[fictionadventurer]

By the Shores of Silver Lake was my least favorite Little House book as a kid, and upon starting the reread, I could see why. Earlier books had Laura as a child observer--not engaging in or totally understanding the wider world of the adults, but still engrossed in the simple joys of childhood. In this book, Laura is neither child nor adult--she's too old to play like a child, but she's too young to take an active part in adult life, so she's stuck in this awkward middle ground.

Yet as the book went on, I started to see that that was the point. This book is about growing up, about being on the brink of adulthood and trying to hold onto childhood while also becoming someone new. Laura's growing-up is paralleled with the "growing up" of the country around her. Both the old and the new ways of life have their benefits and their downsides, and Laura has to figure out how to hold onto the best of both.

The prairie is beautiful, wondrous, free. Laura would love to just roam forever, always traveling west, always seeing new places. She doesn't want to marry, doesn't want to teach school, doesn't want anything to change about her way of life. But one can't stay a child forever. Eventually, the infinite possibility of childhood has to turn into the definite identity of adulthood. She has to take responsibility and settle down. The arrival of the town brings that adult life to the prairie, and in doing so, it destroys the innocent wonders of nature--the majestic wolves lose their home, the buffalo are gone, and the ducks no longer land at Silver Lake. Laura has to wrestle with this--is childhood, for herself and the prairie, gone forever? Does she have to let go of childlike wonder and embrace the mundane responsibility of adult life?

This theme is resolved when Laura finds Grace in the buffalo wallow. It's a place of impossible magic and beauty, a carpet of fragrant violets hidden away from the world with butterflies flying overhead, so perfect it seems like a fairyland. Of course Grace, the innocent child, is the one who was able to find it. When Laura asks Pa about it later, he explains that the "fairies" that made this magical ring were buffalo. There's a mundane explanation for the phenomenon, but that doesn't destroy the wonder and beauty of the place--adult knowledge enhances, rather than destroys childlike wonder. The buffalo might be gone, but there's still beauty left behind. Laura can move forward into the future and know that there are still wonders to find. She can be an adult and still maintain a childlike wonder, can take responsibility and still find comfort in the safety of home and family.

This thematic resonance made so much about the book so much deeper. It's the message of the entire series distilled into story form. Remember the past, children, but go forth boldly into the future. It's a message much easier to see with an adult's eyes, so I'm so glad I gave this book another chance.