gabichanwrites

[gabichanwrites]

once more, with feeling

876 words

it's not exactly the same every time. it's altered by what they went through, and why they’re asking, and how it all ended. but it's always close enough that it may as well be the same. 

100% inspired by this incredible post by @thirdtimed! it had me by a chokehold i had to do something about it

it's not exactly the same every time. it's altered by what they went through, and why they’re asking, and how it all ended. but it's always close enough that it may as well be the same. 

the first time, it was unprecedented. 

blood on his hands, tears in his eyes, we expected it to be over—a failed experiment, one that only he would ever remember to save the others the pain. too much grief wracked his body for him to even choke out the words for a long while, but we waited. it isn't an unusual thing for us to do, to wait.

smearing sand on his sunburned face, he wiped away his tears and said,

"give me another chance."

the second time, we were curious.

shaken and silent, he stared into our face for a long while, as if trying to decipher what in void we were. the crown of crystals were still and a kind of grey that isn’t truly grey, but every colour at once, and his breathing was shallow. the bloodlust drained from his eyes, leaving them as grey as the crown.

we asked, because he would not have thought to answer otherwise. he flinched, and hesitated. 

"i.. can i see them again?"

the third time, it was almost expected.

still smoking from the explosion, she sunk to her knees, sobbing and clutching herself as if she feared literally falling apart. it took a long while for her screams of grief subsided, and longer still for the weeping to fade into sniffing and hiccups. she hadn't looked at us once, as if she didn't know we were there, but we did not wish to interrupt—she was entitled to her unraveling in private.

wiping her eyes, she didn’t bother to compose herself much more. she lifted her face, littered with gashes and scars, and with agony in her voice-

"i want my friends."

the fourth time.. well, it was a little surprising.

a victor had not yet arrived so high on adrenaline and confidence, and the blood that stained even his mouth seemed to be a trophy. the sword had not left his hand, and still dripped with what remained of the last two, the drops vanishing into the abyss below. he was grinning, and this was the most surprising part.

not needing any persuasion or suggestion, he looked us right in the eye—as none had done before, crowing,

"come on, give us another go!"

the fifth time, it wasn't the request that was new.

alone in a field of sunflowers is where we eventually found him, after waiting fruitlessly for his arrival. he startled a little as he realised we were there, but soon calmed at the understanding of what we meant for him. after all, it had been almost a year since he became stranded—and stranded was the word for it. the shawl was still the red and purple of the flowers he had once given to his partner, and we suppose one could say they started this whole chain of events.

setting aside his gardening tools, he smiled almost sadly. perhaps he would miss what had become his prison, despite everything it signified. he sighed,

"i think i’d like a better try at companionship."

the sixth time.. it almost didn’t count.

surprised to have even been considered for a crown, they laughed in delight when the paper version settled on her head, clearly pleased with our creative flair. we were pleased as well—it isn’t often creative flair ends up being a positive part of our abilities.  they looked around, as if deciding whether or not the place was real, and seemingly settled on an answer. we didn’t ask what the answer was. 

adjusting the paper crown, she laughed, clearly finding the whole situation amusing. when we asked, they seemed to be even more surprised.

"i get to choose? well- let's do it again!"

the seventh time, it became amusing. they did know they could choose something else, did they not?

whooping and throwing his arms around in celebration, came the second victor to be genuinely pleased by his victory and subsequent death. he spent a considerable amount of time pretending he was at an awards show, thanking his family, his wife, his best friend and so on. it was refreshing, after all that misery we witnessed at the beginning of the games, to see the tides changing. especially with him; rage used to be his fuel. now it seemed to be love.

grinning up at us, he waited for something. perhaps one of the others had mentioned it, but he did not seem surprised when we asked.

"what do i want? of course i want more!"

the eighth time, we don’t have to even introduce ourselves.

considerably more pleased than he had been the first time, he seems to think that taking his own life was the ultimate show of power against us. of course, we have changed our ways since his game, but he is not to know that. like his predecessor, he too seems amused by the paper crown. 

cracking his knuckles, and stretching his neck, we already know what he’s going to say, but we let him ask it.

"one more time."

[gabichanwrites]

Okay, I don't know if this is every going to go anywhere, but I feel like I need to put the idea for this fic out there because I found some Merle POV brainstorming I did and need to share it.

Fic Concept: Sophia Time Loop

The general idea of the fic itself is that it wouldn't have been super long or detailed or anything--a season a chapter at a push--and all chapters would have been an outsiders POV of the whole debacle because I anything time travel related is so interesting when you're not the one time travelling.

So, Chapter 1 would be Carol's POV, detailing how "There is something wrong with her daughter" and starting a couple days pre-apocalypse where Sophia outright kills Ed in their house. From there, Carol would get dragged to King's County to pick up Morgan and Duane, and shack up in the hospital Rick is staying in so they're there for when he wakes up.

Season 1 would go as normal, relatively speaking, with Morgan and Carol helping Rick get acquainted with the new world while Sophia is practically acting on a schedule no one else is, nudging people in directions they need to go without using words because she's been quiet since the Ed thing and Carol doesn't know how to help her (or reconcile with the fact her twelve-year-old murdered her shitty husband and didn't cry about it).

Sophia gets Morgan and Duane to come with them to Atlanta, and she leads them up to the Quarry camp before they even reach the city, letting reunions occur earlier. Without Rick kicking up a bunch of noise, everyone from Atlanta comes back in one, slightly bruised piece, and the camp has all the guns (RIP the Vatos but Carol doesn't know about them and they never make it anyway).

They'd still leave the quarry after the incident, but they'd have significantly less casualties, and they wouldn't go to the CDC.

Chapter 2 is where Merle's POV comes in. His whole thing makes it clear Sophia's weirdness is noticed by others, but, as he is Merle, he's very Merle about it.

Carol's daughter is weird as fuck. See, here's the thing, Merle has met his fair share of strange people, she's not even the first person he's met who doesn't like talking like a normal fucking person. But it's not just the talking thing--she has a voice, soft as shit and raspy like she'd stolen a pack of cigs of someone, but she's got one--it's the fact that she's freaky as fuck.

I think his POV as a complete juxtaposition from Carol's soft, uncertain rationalising through S1 is very funny.

Season 2 still kicks off as normal with Sophia going off into the woods, Carl getting shot, and everyone being involved in the search party. Merle is, reluctantly involved, mostly helping because Daryl has moon eyes for Carol and keeps glaring at Merle when he says Sophia's dead or as good as. Plus, it gets him away from everyone else.

Naturally, he finds her. Or, well, she finds him.

I have two different sort of conversations brainstormed in a note, and I don't know if they're supposed to go together, but you sort of get the picture of the vibes of the conversation.

Snippet #1 - I imagine Sophia is sitting in a tree when he stumbles upon her

"You shouldn't be out here." It's the most words she's said in one go and, honestly, it's a little jarring. Still, he scoffs. "Look who's talking."

Snippet #2 - probably picking up after a "we should get back" sort of sentiment

"Not yet." "The fuck you mean not yet?" She levels him with a look and, okay, what-the-fuck-ever, she said what she said. "Fine. Die out here." "Been there, done that." Of course, how could he forget the freaky as fuck part. "Did you find the farm?" "The hell are you talkin' about? How d'you even know about that?" She shrugs, "'cause that's where you always go when Carl gets shot." Right. Merle has decided she's not only freaky, but crazy as shit too, wonderful. Why does he always get stuck with the fucking weird ones? (This isn't even mentioning that this is probably the first real, verbal conversation this girl has had in months, and it's with him. It's not the kind of thing he'd normally give a shit about but, hey: freaky.) "There's somethin' seriously wrong with you, kid." "Sure," she offers with a nod, "but I figure that's pretty normal now." "Oh yeah? How's that?"

And then there was the tiniest little exchange I just thought really solidified their dynamic in my mind which was:

"No one's ever going to believe you." That little shit.

I'm not entirely sure what she's referring to (either her being weird, her talking to him, or him going back to the others to tell them he found her but she didn't want to come back with him) but either way Merle and Sophia to me are always chaos.

Thank you for your time, I know this isn't really the kind of thing I post but omg I needed these snippets to go somewhere that wasn't an actual fic I had to put thought into, especially because I genuinely haven't thought past Merle and Sophia being assholes to each other in the woods of Season 2.

[gabichanwrites]

Whoever pissed them off has approximately 0.2 seconds.

Show carphia bc they should have been. I totally didn’t give Sophia comic Carl’s necklace.

[gabichanwrites]

something oddly hilarious i noticed about askeladd in vinland saga is that he kills pretty much everyone's father. thorfinn's father, canute's fathers (real and adoptive), his own father, countless other random men who are or could be fathers... he's practically a father figure to thorfinn by the end of the first season, and he even gets himself killed -- one more dead dad because of him. he's so real for that. i love askeladd.

[gabichanwrites]

mourning flower

drawn for the @kavehzine

[gabichanwrites]

Started this when i was rereading Akatsuki no Yona, but i never finished it 😓

[gabichanwrites]

Your uncle says to you "I'm the one who got your parents together. It was a hard dungeon raid and-". Your father interrupts "I HAD TO PERFORM SO MANY HEALINGS ON THIS MAN THAT I AM ON A FIRST NAME BASIS WITH THE GODDESS! THAT'S HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER!"

[gabichanwrites]

"You have no enemies."

Got really into Vinland Saga recently. A truly special manga/anime.

[gabichanwrites]

The prettiest of views

[gabichanwrites]

Can we please appreciate Odysseus being a silent stalker in the shadows, taking out suitors with his bow, not deigning to speak to them as he takes them out one by one

until some of them go "we have to strike him in the darkness too! we know the halls of this palace! the odds can be tilted!"

and Odysseus, built this palace with his very hands, has to step out of the shadows like "are you this fucking stupid"

[gabichanwrites]

The King has returned

[gabichanwrites]

Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss, and Guy We Found! (poses by @mellon-soup !!)

[gabichanwrites]

Viktor always had to watch Jayce walk away, to be the face of their achievements, to get them sponsors, to the councilor duties, to be with Mel. He had his reasons and maybe it was needed and he did come back each time something happened - but when shit was going down, when everything was on fire, Viktor was always alone.

But this time, Jayce stayed.

[gabichanwrites]

I have heard everyone's theories and I raise yall:

[gabichanwrites]

Buying you time

[gabichanwrites]

Eurylochus from the Closure AU! The au is made by Slmstars (from tiktok).

I LOVE HIM SO MUCH! HE DESVERE THAT CLOSURE!

And I swear if anyone says "he deserved it" Im gonna find your mailbox and then put tomatos in it! >:(

[gabichanwrites]

Can you... Can you guys imagine. Get in the Water. Poseidon is MAD happy to finally get Odysseus. Get in the Water, Odysseus. Or I will DROWN your Ithaca, or I will GOUGE your son's eyes. Odysseus answers, begs. What else can he do? It's Been Ten Years, they are both hurting from loses. Why can't they stop and just... go home. Finally, finally get to the home that is so close.

But No. The god says "Die". The god sends waves, sends him under. Ruthlessness is Mercy, he said before. He will not let Odysseus get away again. There is no escaping god of the sea now, not so deep in the ocean. Odysseus can hear Polites, can hear Eurylochous, can hear his mother. All of his comrades are Waiting, Waiting, Waiting. He can't let go but he must. They are Waiting. But then something unlike the sound of trumpets - crashing waves - resonates within him. A beat like his heart but getting stronger, getting more powerful. His chest is vibrating with it when he finally hears the tick-ticking, so familiar yet foreign. Then, a voice shakes his very being. "I was promised blood." Godly wrath fills him and suddenly Ares' instruments are all he can hear, followed closely by his soldiers' vengeful cry.