#'tell me my fortune'

[coraniaid]

Do you think Kendra's Watcher knew Drusilla was destined to kill her when he sent her to Sunnydale? Was Sam Zabuto surprised when his Slayer came back alive the first time? Was he surprised when she didn't come back the second time?

Think about What's My Line? and Becoming from Kendra's point of view. Compare it to Buffy's experience of fighting the Master in Season 1's Prophecy Girl, especially if she hadn't stumbled on Angel and Giles talking about her behind her back.

Buffy's Watcher knows that Sunnydale is on a Hellmouth, and that a terrible evil is about to rise from it. A very dark power, you might say. The Master. Giles has been preparing Buffy to fight the Master all year, trying to track down as much information as he can about the Master and all the "salient books of Slayer prophecy". Thanks to Angel, he tracks down a copy of Pergamum Codex. He cross-checks it against "all [his] other volumes". It's very plain: the Master shall rise, and the Slayer shall die.

He doesn't want to believe it. Isn't it his duty to protect her? But, as he said in Nightmares, just a couple of episodes earlier, when confronted with a vision of her death: "[Buffy] was so gifted. And the evil was so great." He knows what will happen if the Master rises. Buffy wants to quit, but Giles urges her not to.

"Were you even going to tell me?" Buffy asks Giles when she finds out, and he doesn't say yes. He was "hoping that he wouldn't have to". He was looking for "some way around it". But he also knows that the prophecy says that Buffy was going to face the Master tomorrow. That doesn't leave him a lot of time left to let her know. He'd already passed up on at least one chance to tell her.

And when Buffy does go to fight the Master, after she loses and he has the Slayer hypnotized and helpless and moments away from death, what happens? The vampire taunts her with the prospect that this was all for nothing; that her actions were worse than useless. That he can only escape the Hellmouth at all because of the strength he'll get from feeding on her. "You heard the prophecy [...] and you came to stop me. But prophecies are tricky creatures [...] You're the one that sets me free."

Now back to Kendra and Drusilla.

Why is Kendra in Sunnydale at all in What's My Line? It's not to save Buffy from the Order of Taraka, although she does do that. Kendra wasn't told that Buffy even existed; maybe Mr Zabuto didn't know about Buffy either. But Kendra, she tells us herself, was sent to Sunnydale "for a reason". Her Watcher told her that "all the signs indicate[d] that a very dark power [was] about to rise in Sunnydale".

Doesn't that sound ... familiar? It's almost the same reason Kendra will give again in Becoming for why she's been sent back in Sunnydale, too. Just like Giles, Sam Zabuto has been looking for prophecies and portents. And maybe, just like Giles, there were some details in those prophecies he was hoping against hope he wouldn't ever have to tell his Slayer.

If Kendra's "dark power" is meant to be Drusilla -- honestly, it could easily be Angel losing his soul or the Judge or even Acathla, I think, but Drusilla is the threat everyone in Sunnydale assumes the signs are warning Mr Zabuto about -- it's also worth noting that Kendra doesn't actually mange to do anything to stop her. Spike succeeds in his mission to restore Drusilla to health. Yes, Kendra does some good, but she doesn't achieve the aim her mission apparently sent her to Sunnydale to complete. The dark power still rises.

Worse, if Kendra doesn't come to Sunnydale, she doesn't make the (frankly very odd) decision to lock Angel up in an eastern-facing room in Willy's Place (despite apparently being able to sense that the bar's owner is "dirty" and potentially in league with vampires). You have to wonder if "leave defeated and vulnerable vampires alive for hours and in a strong position to be rescued by their nearby allies, while you go off hunting for more potential vampires" is the sort of advice the Slayer Handbook gives its readers, and if so whether maybe this means Giles was right not to use it for Buffy's training. But if Angel isn't weak and helpess waiting for the sun to come up, Willy obviously can't hand him over to Spike. If it came to it, could Spike or any of his underlings expect to beat Angel is a straight fight? Could they track him down in time? Do they even know where he lives?

If Kendra doesn't come to Sunnydale, does the ritual to restore Drusilla to full health even happen? Does the newly restored Drusilla decide to re-assemble the scattered pieces of the Judge? Do Buffy and Angel risk their lives trying to stop this from happening? Does Angel abandon this objective to jump into the water and rescue Buffy? Does he take her back to his place to recover? Does Angel lose his soul? Do Angel and Drusilla unearth Acathla? Does Kendra get sent back to Sunnydale for a second time?

Is it that much of a stretch to imagine Drusilla leaning in close to Kendra -- while the Slayer is hypnotised and helpess and moments away from death -- and reminding her that prophecies are tricky creatures? To imagine her whispering that "You heard the prophecy and you came to stop me ... but you're the one who set me free"?

[sirbird]

Grief and Rage

(Small piece from chapter 24 of AFM II)

[just-null-cult]

love struck much...?

[chasingfictions]

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER | PROPHECY GIRL (1997)

"you face the master and you'll die." "maybe. maybe i'll take him with me."

[ryllen]

FJADJSDSDHSDH NOW THAT Ooo..... MAKES SO MUCH SENSE

[torgawl]

if wriothesley doesn't appear in any quest once we get to remuria, what even is the point?

the parallels between wrio and king remus are crystal clear. remus who descended upon meropis (a name very familiar to anyone who knows of the fortress of meropide) in his golden fortuna, the legendary ship of remus that is also called the bringer of civilization and glory (wrio who built a ship to deal with the misfortune upon fontaine) is an example of it.

wrio also has connections to hades with the cerberus motif as guardian of the underworld. it's curious that the tower in remuria is described not only as not built to receive heavenly oracles, serving as a guide to ships traveling between islands, but also as a border of reality and dreams. if this is not necessarily literal but a metaphor or allegory, it could fit very well with the idea of a portal between domains or realms, like life and death.

wriothesley also parallels another character in the genshin universe and that person is arlecchino. they were brought up as orphans, taken in by an institution with corrupted leaders, which they reformed and achieved a leading position of. and funnily enough, she has ties to purgatory (a place for punishment, much like the fortress). as i have said in another post, purgatory has been described by dante as a tower leading to heaven. but we also know that celestia in the genshin world is associated with the demon realm - archons being named after ars goetia, an anonymous grimoire on demonology. although the concepts aren't the same in theory, is it impossible that the game has used elements of both? wriothesley and arlecchino's themes are similar enough to overlap. even though i don't expect wriothesley to be lore revelant anymore, i do think his ties to remuria and his role as someone who punishes others for their sins, much like arlecchino, is very much purposeful.

[feluka]

GPS lady on google maps in this country is like:

turn left at a̷̢͔̬̓̈́̿͐b̸̡̖͗̅̅̌a̵̩̘̳̾͝a̸̢̛͓̒̾̕s̵̛̲l̸̠̟̇à̸̰q̸̖̲̜͑͌̚̕ͅǎ̴̜a̷͙͂d̵̗̘͛͝ street 😊

[deardarlingdevil]

I just had the most batshit idea for a BG3 parody where Tav sings about Raphael and it's just Hellfire from The Hunchback of Notre Dame with modified lyrics then it's revealed that the whole thing was actually written by Raphael as a self-insert fanfic of him and Tav

And Tav just goes "He wrote this about me?" while Astarion laughs his ass off because they both know he's totally projecting his obsession for Tav

[stolenslumber]

though the stars walk backward (sjy) (preview)

Your first encounter with Jake Sim ends with ketchup on your clothes and his burger in his friend's lap. The second encounter doesn't go so smoothly, either. He thinks he might have gotten the hang of it by the third time, but as the saying goes: there is no easy way from the earth to the stars.

PAIRING: sim jaeyun x female reader GENRE: college au, one-sided enemies-to-lovers (the e2l part is short-lived lol sry), friends-to-lovers, mutual pining, fluff, romance, jake as a star soccer player but also loser physics nerd WARNINGS: swearing, eventual kissing and suggestive content/sexual themes, familial angst/generational trauma (it's present and it's heavy but it's not suuuuuper heavy) WORD COUNT: ~2.5k (preview); final word count is, again, btwn me and god PUBLISH DATE: reallyyyyyyy hoping to get this out before my next semester starts but We'll See About That...

“Don’t freak out, but I think the girl you stare at in the library is staring back at you.”

Jake freezes with his burger halfway to his open mouth. “What? Where? And I don’t stare at her in the library—”

Jay nudges his friend’s jaw upwards. “I said don’t freak out.”

“At least he didn’t turn in her direction,” Sunghoon offers. But he says it while looking disdainfully at the ketchup dripping from Jake’s burger onto the dining hall table, so Jake isn’t all that comforted by it. 

Instead, he repeats “Where?” through gritted teeth. 

“At your four o’clock, but I wouldn’t get too excited about it.” Jay squints. “I’m pretty sure she’s glaring at you, honestly. Okay, seriously do not freak out, but she’s coming over here…”

Jake tries to figure out what to do with himself as you approach with alarming speed— should he fix his hair, or tuck his shirt in? Damn it, he doesn’t even remember if he’s wearing something clean today. Before he can fully comprehend it, you’re standing in front of him, looking as pretty as ever in a silky dress that floats down to your ankles. 

Your mouth opens to say something, and there’s a deep furrow between your brows that Jake longs to smooth out, but then his hands clamp down on his burger, and— “Oh shit, dude, I’m so sorry!” 

Bright red ketchup decorates the front of your pristine white dress.

Your jaw drops, as does your gaze, fixated on the ugly red splotch spreading over the fabric covering your stomach. Everything you’d been meaning to say to him flies out of your head, replaced by blood rushing in your ears as your anger grows at the foolish oaf in front of you. “This is dry clean only,” you hiss.

Jake drops his burger in Jay’s lap, ignoring his friend’s squawk of indignation. Hurriedly, he wipes his hands on some napkins and tries offering them to you before cowing under your withering glare. “I am so sorry,” he repeats. His arms flail at his sides before he picks up the cardigan lying next to him and hands it to you. “You have a library shift coming up, right? Please feel free to wear this until you can get home and change. I have class until two, but I can take your clothes to the dry cleaners afterwards. I’m really so sorry!”

Your mouth shapes around air a few times as you work out exactly how to respond to him, but then your phone buzzes to remind you of your library shift— it is coming up— and you decide that you’ll deal with this— and him— later. Unhappily, you grab the proffered cardigan. “Two o’clock. Don’t be late.” And then you twist on your heel and depart, leaving Jake to stare sadly at the swish of your hair against your back.

“Are you gonna take my clothes to the dry cleaners, too?” Jay intones dryly from beside him.

Jake groans and sinks back down into the booth, covering his face with his hands and shaking his head repeatedly. “I can’t believe that just happened. I have to walk into traffic now.” Before Jay can say anything else, Jake tacks on, “And yeah, give me your pants.”

“Damn, take me to dinner first. Oh, wait, I guess you did offer me food.” Jay plucks the burger out of his lap and deposits it onto Jake’s plate pointedly.

Sunghoon lets out a whistle between his teeth. “Wow, I’ve never seen anyone fumble so badly. Like, seriously, that should be studied in a lab.”

“I got nervous!” Jake exclaims. 

Sunghoon chortles. “Clearly. Cute girl comes over, and you not only call her dude, but you also squirt ketchup all over her.”

Jake kicks him in the shin, hard. “Can you not pile on?” 

“Sorry, sorry.” Sunghoon holds up his hands in mock surrender. “Was that the first time you interacted with her?”

Unhelpfully, Jay pipes up. “Unless you count staring at her in the library interacting, I’d say yes. Speaking of, how do you know her schedule, bro? You’re creepier than I thought.”

Jake jabs him with an elbow. “My class got canceled once and I saw her at the library then, okay? Some of us actually have homework, Socrates and Warren Buffet.” He rolls his eyes at Sunghoon (philosophy) and Jay (business) in turn. “And again, I don’t stare!”

A few hours later, Jake stares at the back of your head.

He’s not in his usual spot in the library, which is a round table near the windows on the mezzanine level— straight line of sight to one of the reference desks, but he did not pick that spot on purpose, no matter how much his friends like to joke that he did. He’s been sitting in that spot since the first day of his freshman year; he’d chosen it because he like being able to see out into the quad, and the noise level in that area is perfect for him (not too quiet, which would make him fall asleep, and not too loud, which would just make him want to join in on wherever the fun was). He couldn’t have known that you would show up halfway through last year, get a job as one of the students manning the reference desk, and then occupy the exact spot his eyes tend to rest on when he zones out.

And he really couldn’t have known that you would be so pretty.

It doesn’t help that you’re in practically all of his classes this year, and he’s had the opportunity to talk to you every day for the past two weeks if he wanted to. He’s not the most shameless person in the world (Sunghoon), but he’s also not scared of his own reflection (Heeseung), so why couldn’t he have just introduced himself like a normal person on the first day of classes and avoided this whole ketchup fiasco?

Someone comes up to the desk to ask a question, and your head tilts toward them as the afternoon sunlight frames your face just so; Jake gulps and thinks, Oh yeah, that’s why. So pretty. And dizzyingly smart, if the way he sees your pencil fly over quizzes is anything to go by.

As if sensing his eyes on you, you twist around fully to catch him staring after you’ve answered the question of the person in front of you. Jake blinks deer-in-headlights eyes at you; if this was a cartoon, there would be a ?! above his head.

Your own eyes narrow at him and you jerk your head in your own direction. Get over here.

Jake gulps and straightens up before shuffling over to you. He kind of feels like he’s walking to the gallows, but on a flower-lined path, because his cardigan on you softens you around the edges, and you look right at home in it. 

“Heeeeeeey.” He raises a hand and waves at you, even though he’s right in front of you. He winces before you can even raise a skeptical eyebrow at him, but then you do, so he grimaces. “Sorry, that was weird. Uh, hi.”

You nod curtly at him. “Hi. I’m done in two minutes. Thanks for being on time.”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” he mumbles to the floor. Luckily, you don’t catch it because you’re packing away the problem set you were doing in between answering student questions, which he chances a glance at because hey, he’d been having trouble with page 157.

Of course, you catch that. “What are you, twelve? Do your own work.”

“Wait, what? Hold on a second, I’m not trying to cheat off of you— hey, wait up!” He scrambles to catch up with you where you’re already halfway down the stairs. Panicked, he speeds past you and plants himself in your path, greeted by your look of supreme irritation for the second time that day. “I wasn’t trying to cheat off of you,” he says, more firmly this time. “I was just gonna ask you how you did with page 157, because I was having some trouble with it earlier.”

You scoff and slide to the left to go around him, only to be met by him mirroring you. “Are you serious right now? Get out of my way.”

“We’re going to the same place!”

“Yeah, and now I’ve remembered that I can pay for my own dry cleaning. Move.” You go right, and he follows.

“I’m still coming— I gotta take Jay’s pants there. I dropped my burger in his lap earlier when, well, you know.”

You go left again, and he follows once more. “Okay, for real? Let me go, asshole.”

Jake drops his backpack off his shoulders and hoists it onto his knee, rummaging around in it while still blocking your path. You think he’s officially lost it, but you’re also never one to miss an opportunity, so you feint to the right and then go left, but he’s faster and blocks you again with his head halfway buried in his backpack. Damn it, he’s good. You don’t realize you’ve said it out loud until he looks up at you and smiles sheepishly. “Soccer team,” he explains. Oh— that reminds you why you were approaching him at the dining hall in the first place, and real anger resurfaces in your blood. 

“Like I care,” you snap. You’re about to just shove him down the stairs and call it an easy day when you’re met with a crumpled piece of graph paper waved in front of your face. “What the hell is this?”

“Next week’s problem set! See, look, I finished everything except the problems on page 157, and I did get started, but I just wanted to check if I was on the right path, okay? I promise, I wasn’t trying to cheat off of you.” He frowns. “These aren’t even graded for quality. It’s just a submission for completion.”

Your eyebrows climb up your forehead. Though his handwriting is shit, you can see that he’s telling the truth. The fact that he’s doing the problem set for next week probably should have tipped you off in and of itself, but what surprises you is the simple elegance with which his calculations come out. “Hey, how’d you do that on number 89 on page 151—” You cut yourself off. “Never mind. Fine, I believe you. Can you move now? We’re blocking the entire stairway.”

Jake seems to finally notice the build-up of annoyed students in front of and behind you both. “Right, oops.” He zips up his backpack and slings it over one shoulder before descending the stairs with quick steps. He turns around and tilts his head quizzically at you when you don’t follow. 

Truthfully, you’re trying to decide if you should make a break for it and go up the stairs so you can take a different set of stairs down, but then you realize how childish that sounds. So, it’s with less dignity than you’d like that you meet him at the bottom of the staircase. But you don’t stop where he’s standing; instead, you breeze past him so smoothly that he finds himself staring at the back of your head for a few seconds before springing into motion after you. 

“Soooooo… dry cleaner’s?” He offers you a tentative smile once he’s fallen into step with you.

You seem to have made your mind up about something, because you turn to him with a dazzling smile that knocks the breath right out of his lungs. “Lead the way.”

“O-Okay.” He’s taken aback by your sudden about-face, but he’s not going to question it.

He tells you that he’s happy to drive there, and you’re perfectly agreeable about it. You even start talking about the problem set that had been the source of such strife just minutes earlier. At the dry cleaner, you give him the biggest surprise yet when you ask for his number. Obviously, he gives it to you, and he has to pretend like he isn’t perturbed by the cryptic, almost manic look in your eyes when you promise that you’ll be in touch.

But then you’re gone without so much as a goodbye, and it’s only when he gets back to his place that he realizes he doesn’t even know how you got home, and he can’t text you because he doesn’t have your number.

Still. A win is a win.

ball sports (derogatory) (heeseung, jay, jake, sunghoon) 

jake: this has been the strangest and possibly greatest day of my life

sunghoon: ur preaching to the choir ketchup boy

sunghoon: yizhuo told me i was hotter with blonde hair

sunghoon: so like hell yeah she thinks im hot but hell no now i have to dye my hair back

jake: ????? did i ask

jake: i’m talking about MY day

jay: she actually did not say you were hotter with blonde hair. in fact none of those words came out of her mouth 

jay: you asked if she liked your new hair and she said no

sunghoon: hop off my dick tf????

heeseung: so what happened jake

sunghoon: oh i can tell u this it’s old news

sunghoon: jake fumbled his first interaction w/ the girl he stares at in the library

jake: BUT she asked for my number and said she’d be in touch!!!!

sunghoon: right so u can pay for her dry cleaning bill

jake: OR maybe she wants to be friends

jake: to lovers<3

jay: idk she kinda looked like she wanted to take you out when she was coming over to us at lunch today

jake: LIKE ON A DATE?????

jay: no like

jay: lethally

women’s rights and wrongs (you, minjeong, aeri, somi)

you: so you know how i was gonna confront jake today

yizhuo: yeah i heard that went poorly

yizhuo: sunghoon said something about ketchup????

you: nvm all that. i have a Better Plan. i’m gonna ruin his life

minjeong: cool

somi: noooooo he’s hot

you: HE RUINED MY BROTHER’S LIFE

somi: girl u have to let that go

somi: ur brother is 10 and made it to the B team for club soccer

somi: i think he’ll be fine

you: BUT HE SHOULD’VE BEEN IN THE A TEAM. I SAW JAKE’S BEADY EYES SINGLING HIM OUT UNFAIRLY

somi: he actually has like insane puppy dog eyes

you: anyways i’m going to systematically but subtly make his life more and more difficult as soon as i start assistant managing his soccer team on monday. but he will never know it’s me bc i’m going to be so nice and normal to his face BUT ACTUALLY i’m gonna make him my bitch

yizhuo: “nice and normal to his face” u have the worst poker face i’ve ever seen

minjeong: technically speaking if ur an assistant manager aren’t u THEIR bitch

[qldqueerboy]

The card seems to suggest that there is a compulsion to seeking other alternatives to minimize the amount of work on your to-do-list today. You know at some deeper level that it is not the answer to your troubles. At some point you will have to make a start in getting these jobs done but for the moment it is much more enjoyable to wish or hope that somebody else will come in and magically make these tasks all disappear. It isn’t going to happen but it certainly is a nice distraction today.

[catsinaspacesuit]

*Bad not remembering what a travel visa is called.*

Chat: Visa

BBH: It's not visa, chat, that's a credit card

[blujayonthewing]

IN MY DOVE FUCKING PROMISES???

[kingscourthouse]

The quote is from my fortune cookie this morning. Thought it sounded funny so I drew Ex with it :D

Sorry if its a bit weird to read, for some reason I didnt do them on separate pages. BUT- I tried to make my handwriting legible instead of using the text box thing so I'm proud of it!

[dent-de-leon]

OFFICIAL ART OF CATHA AND RUIDUS MY BELOVEDS 🌕✨

[voltfruits]

volt toxic trait: my life is so generally full of misery that every time something really nice happens to me i'm like "ah. i just experienced genuine contentment and hope while presenting as male. maybe i really can be happy in this body instead of subjecting myself to an expensive, difficult medical transition and a lifetime of experiencing poverty and transmisogyny." and then i proceed to go deeper into the closet

[marsneedstherapy]

yall I know how much we talk abt phoebe and silas now days, but I must admiT rosalind and orion r still my favorite secret shanghai couple.... 🤧😁