#(because this and they both have light powers... i shall think on it)

[sparring-spirals]

im still thinking about that moment last episode where they're planning how to approach dancer and we got:

Ashton: "yeah we should go in with a ginger approach, make sure she doesn't run"

Imogen with complete sincerity, immediately: "so should i just go and calm her emotions right away?"

Ashton with zero judgement or concern: "that, or i was going to pin her down, but that's cool too."

and then when FCG naturally panics over why are we attacking dancer they both turn in sync to be like! No!!! not attacking. restraining. 👍 :) like what. you're both. mildly messed up on exactly the same wavelength here. i love them both so much. what do you mean overkill. this IS my ginger approach. I'm Doing The Job By Whatever Means Necessary Why Are You Yelling.

Something something two people who have spent their lives learning to suppress their flinch/doubt reflex when in a crisis. Out of a horrible necessity. Those two Problem Solving together with a casual sort of callousness. and looking at each other like 👍? 👍 meanwhile FCG is in the background going "wait we're talking about attacking her???" "no of COURSE not, just restraining!" god i adore them.

[iniziare]

Re-tag drop: Yelan

[justauthoring]

More Than You'd Think.

Summary: Surely, you were just some random daughter of some random employee of Sylus'. And surely that meant Sylus thought nothing of you. But, when faced with danger, you learn just how wrong you are.

Pairing: Qin Che / Sylus x F!Reader (not MC!)

Word Count: 2,849

A/N: Some angst and then fluff to make us all feel better :)

TW. attempted sexual assault, violence and brief mention of death (not reader or sylus)

"My father will be right out."

"Thank you... Y/N."

Your gasp is barely concealed, a soft shutter leaving your lips as you glance up to meet Sylus' eyes. He's already staring down at you, his usual air of confidence obvious as he stands before you with his shoulders held high. There's a small smirk on his lips, while his heavy-lidded gaze stays focused on you.

You make a strong effort to remain strong, but you hadn't the slightest clue Sylus, the leader of Onychinus and your father's boss, had any idea who you were. Let alone your name.

It's not like this is the first time either of you have spoken but any conversation between the two of you has never been any of subtance. More often then not, it was you telling him you'd fetch your father and him humming in response.

You don't miss the slight quirk of his lips as you react to that realization, shifting on your feet. "You're welcome, sir," you offer, lightly bowing your head.

Despite your shock, you're not foolish enough to think that Sylus knowing your name means anything. Your father has been working under Sylus for a long time and therefore, you're fully aware of the power that Sylus holds in the N109 zone.

Not to mention, you've grown up in the N109 zone you're entire life. You're fully aware of how dangerous people like Sylus are, even without your father's warnings.

"Please," Sylus offers after a short moment of silence. His voice is light as you meet his gaze, and the smirk has softened to something a little more sincere. "Call me Sylus, Y/N."

You're sure you're hallucinating what's happening in that moment. Because there's no way the leader of Onychinus is allowing some random daughter of one of his men call him by his first name.

Surely, you're going crazy.

"O-Oh," you find yourself stumbling over your words. You're not even sure what it is you're trying to say as you're saying it. "Well, th-then, um, Sylus--"

"--Sir!"

Halted at the sound of your father's voice, both you and Sylus' attention is shifted behind you. Your father comes rushing to the front of the office, looking out of breath and panicked.

"My apologies," he breathes, offering a bow. "I did not mean to take so long."

Sylus waves him off with a simple gesture of his hand. "It's fine," he assures with ease, "shall we?"

He gestures back towards the direction your father came from, the warehouse in which your father has set up what Sylus had come for today. Knowing that you're presence is no longer needed, you step back, with the intetion of moving towards the front desk.

"Y/N," your father calls, making you pause. You try to ignore the way Sylus' noticeable gaze falls on you in response, focusing on your father. "I need you to go pick up a package for me. Davie should have them ready and I'll need them for tomorrow."

Nodding, you change your direction, heading to grab your coat. "Sure thing, dad."

You expect that to be that, distantly hearing your father call for Sylus to follow him. Yet, once again, you're stopped by a voice; this time, Sylus.

"You'd send your daughter to grab a package on her own?"

Lips parting, you spin back to Sylus, confused. By the expression on your fathers face, he's just as confused.

"Y-Yes, sir," your father nods, obviously unsure of why Sylus cares. "Y/N often gets packages for me. It's... too hard for me to make the trip anymore."

Sylus frowns. "Surely you realize how unsafe it is for someone like your daughter to be walking through the N109 zone alone."

Your father seems stunned. To be fair, so are you. But, to save your father from stumbling over his words and making a fool of himself, you decide to brave Sylus' weirdly placed concern.

"It's alright, sir--Sylus," you assure, offering a gentle smile. "I've done it plenty of times. And I can protect myself if needed."

Sylus looks skeptical, his eyes running across your figure as his face twists in... concern? You're not sure and it's too much for you to even try and begin thinking about, so you choose not to. With another reassuring, polite smile, you finish pulling your coat on and step towards the door.

"I'll be back in a bit, dad," you smile at your father, before turning to Sylus. "Good luck with your meeting." You offer a short bow in response, and with that, you make your way out, unaware of Sylus' gaze that follows you.

Or, the pair of dark black eyes that follow you the second you step outside.

-

"Thank you, Davie. I'll make sure my father knows about the hiccup with the order."

"You're welcome there, Y/N." Davie smiles at you, "you sure you'll be okay heading home? I didn't think I'd keep you that long."

You just smile, brushing him off. "Not to worry, Davie. I'll be fine. It's a short walk."

Davie only hesitates a moment longer before nodding, offering you one final wave as you turn to make your walk home.

As you make your way back home, you pull your coat closer around yourself, keeping your eyes peeled around you in case of anything. You'd brushed it off to Davie, but realistically you were a little nervous walking home when it was already this dark out.

You hadn't expected the favour for your father to take that long, and you can't help but think about what Sylus had said before you'd left. It wasn't like you had thought he was wrong, but you'd been assured by the daylight and the fact that you had grown up in the N109 zone all your life.

Danger was something you were used to. It didn't mean it didn't frighten you though.

Your hand holds the small knife you carry with you at all times tightly, trying to hum quietly to yourself as you walk, pace fast.

You can't help but let your mind wander to how hard Sylus behaviour had been earlier that day. You weren't sure how the man treated other daughters of his employees, but you convince yourself he probably just had some sort of gentleman code he upheld. Sure he was the leader of a dangerous gang, didn't mean he was terrible in all aspects.

He'd never been anything but kind to you, even if conversations had been brief. Your father running behind today had just presented him the opportunity to speak more, and if anything, he'd just done it out of kindness.

His concern about you walking through the N109 zone alone? That was probably just because of the well-known knowledge of how dangerous N109 was and the fact that if anything happened to you, it would impact your fathers work.

Which would impact Sylus.

Yeah. That had to be it.

Shaking your head of silly thoughts, you take a sharp left, only to pause at the sight of a shadow up ahead. You instantly stop, feeting freezing beneath you, as you stare at the figure. You can't quite make out distinguishable features, but the build is clearly that of a man.

For a long, silent moment, the both of you stand there. Then, he steps forward.

You instantly step back, only to hear approach footsteps behind you. Your head snaps to the left, heart falling to the pit of your stomach when you see a man heading your way. A look to your right tells you another man is coming from that way too.

Breath hitching in panic, your eyes widen as a voice calls out;

"Well, hello there, pretty lady."

It's the man in front of you that calls it out, voice sickeningly sweet and promising nothing good. Feeling your body start to shake, you grip your knife tighter with your right hand, your left holding the pack and take a step back.

The man in front of you steps into the light, letting you see the lecherious grin on his face.

Swallowing thickly, you eye him for one long moment before turning around and breaking out into a run. You make it only a few steps before you feel a hand grab your shoulder, yanking you back. You don't waste a second, pulling the knife out from your coat pocket and swinging it at the man.

He dodges it, barely, but then the two other men reach you. They flank you on either side, and your arm swings out wildly, package falling to the ground with a bang as you let out a cry.

You manage to knick one of the men on the arm, him crying out in pain in response. It causes him to stumble back, giving you a bit of reprieve to try and break free. You strengthen your efforts into attacking with your knife, trying to ignore the fear radiating through your body and focus on the fight rather than flight.

But then, the man who you'd seen first, manages to grab your wrist. His grip pinches, fingers digging into your wrist as you try to pull your hand away.

"Stop!" You bellow, "no!"

It's useless. The men are stronger than you, especially with the two of them. And it doesn't go beyond your notice that the one you'd stabbed is getting back up too.

The two men overpower you, squeezing your wrist hard enough something pops and the knife clatters to the ground, leaving you completely defenceless.

Your arms are grabbed, body yanked forward until you're pressed against a wall. Pain radiates from your back where you're slammed up against the brick wall, a groan leaving your lips. It doesn't stop you, though, your hands striking out to push the man off of you.

"Fucking bitch," the one you'd stabbed bellows, striking you across the cheek. The punch stings, and you're sure your cheek is a bright pink as a result.

"This could've been so much easier for you," one of the men huffs at you, grabbing you by the chin to pull your gaze on him. "If you'd just submitted like a good girl."

Ignoring the rapid race of your heart, you narrow your eyes at him. "Fuck off."

Face twisting in anger, he grabs the wrist they'd sprained earlier, slamming it against the wall as you scream out in pain. It throbs in pain, strength leaving you as you try to fight back the tears that threaten to fall.

Your other wrist is pressed against the wall as well, and then something glints in your gaze.

"Now, stop fighting us or we'll really hurt you."

Eyeing the knife, the first tear slips past your defences, your vision blurring as your eyes water. It occurs to you then you really won't be able to fight your way out of this. Your only weapon had been taken from you and now you were the one with a weapon held against you.

"That clear?"

Swallowing thickly, you nod, inhaling sharply.

"Good," the man holding the knife grins. "Let's get started then."

A whimper leaves your lips as he steps towards you. His two henchman, one of them being the one you'd stabbed, hold you against the wall, grips never relenting as the main one stops in front of you. He drags the tip of the knife across your cheek, your body trembling as he continues down across the length of your neck until he reaches the collar of your blouse.

It occurs to you then that in your scuffle, you'd lost your coat.

"Please," you find yourself begging, bravo gone in face of your vulnerability. "Please don't."

"Too late, pretty lady," the one you'd stabbed leers at you. "We're going to make sure it hurts."

Letting out a sob, you weakly try to break free. It's useless.

The sound of buttons popping is all you hear as you squeeze your eyes shut, feeling the cold air hit your bare skin. The main man cuts away at your blouse like it's nothing, until you find your entire upper half bare, with nothing but your bra covering your modesty.

Sniffling, you feel your muscles freeze the second you feel lips press against your skin. The men lean into you, as if breathing you in, as you feel like you might throw up.

"Let's get this bra off," one of the men breathes against your neck.

You feel fingers slip underneath the strap of your bra and your breath hitches.

And then, you hear a cry of pain.

It startles you, eyes snapping open in confusion. For a second, you're not sure if you're the one who cried out in pain. But then, you realize that the man with the knife is no longer in front of you.

The men holding you seem just as confused, but before either of them can do anything, the one you'd stabbed is swept up in a mist of red and black and knocked back. He goes flying, your eyes widening as he lands againts the ground a few feet away from you, landing right on the shoulder you'd stabbed.

In the next second, the same mist takes the one to your right and sends him flying similarly.

You fall to your knees in an instant, legs giving out beneath you as you hold your throbbing wrist to your chest. You're terrified and baffled, not understanding what's happened.

And then, your answer steps in front of you.

Sylus steps in front of you, his gaze soft as he stares down at you. As he crouches in front of you, he's taking his jacket off of his shoulders and moving to wrap it around you. He's careful, making sure you know he means no harm as he covers you.

"S-Sylus?"

Your voice comes out small, broken. Sylus just shakes his head.

"Give me one second, Y/N. Then I'll get you out of here."

He stands back up, turning towards the scattered men on the ground before you. He instantly makes his way towards the main guy, towering over his cowering figure.

It seems Sylus' power really is something that precedes him.

As you sit there, pressed against the wall and cradling Sylus' jacket, it doesn't escape your attention that Sylus does more than just hurt the guy who'd held a knife to you. His other two henchman are hurt more by Sylus, but left for the two men who'd been standing back quietly waiting for Sylus' que. As Sylus turns back to you, he sends a nod at them.

It's clear what that means.

"Can I touch you?"

Blinking, you meet Sylus' gaze. He stares down at you, gaze soft and reassuring, making sure to keep his distance so as not to scare you.

Slowly, you nod.

-

Sylus doesn't take you back home.

Cradled in his arms, Sylus carries you all the way back to his place. When you quietly ask him about your father, he assures you that his men will inform your father of your whereabouts. You don't argue more than that.

Now, in Sylus' living room, you're wearing one of his shirts and sat on his couch while he bandages your wrist.

You've been otherwise silent until that moment, still startled and not really sure what to say. Sylus doesn't pressure you either.

But as you watch him finish bandaging your wrist, you find yourself speaking up.

"How did you know?"

Sylus glances up at your question, raising a brow as he meets your gaze. "Mephisto," he expains, using his head to gesture to his right. You follow his direction, eyes falling on the crow perched on a table across from you. "I can see through him."

You nod, even though you don't fully understand.

"I'm sorry it took me so long to get there," Sylus breathes. "They shouldn't have even been able to touch you."

Blinking, you stare down at him. "Why do you care?"

Sylus, to your surprise, seems shocked by your question. His eyes widen briefly, lips parting and it's the first time you've seen him unsure.

"Why wouldn't I care?"

"I'm just the daughter of one of your employees," you remind, shaking your head. "I'm nobody."

Leaning forward, Sylus shakes his head. "You could never be nothing." Then, pausing, he sighs. "I've... tried to make my affections for you obvious, but clearly I wasn't obvious enough."

Eyes widening, you blink back at him.

"You're not just some daughter, Y/N." Reaching forward, he slips his hand into your not sprained one, threading his fingers through yours and squeezing. "And no one will ever hurt you again."

The tears that well in your eyes are out of your control. As your lips begins to tremble, you stare down at Sylus.

"I was so scared."

You're pulled into his arms, head pressed against his chest as he envelopes you completely. Despite everything, the touch doesn't scare you. Instead, it fills you with an overwhelming sense of safety and assurance.

You let yourself fall into Sylus' embrace, clutching onto him.

[tarotbyjam24]

Pick a card : You and your future spouse's 1st valentine's day date

Likes , reblogs and feedbacks are very much appreciated 💗

Disclaimer: This is general reading . It may or may not resonate . If reading doesn't resonate let it fly and choose another pile or simply there were no messages for you through this reading 😊 Take the reading lightly as nothing's set in stone until you believe so🕊️

Masterlist\pick a cards

This reading a collab between @tarotbyjam24 and my girl @winisayswhat 🖤 don't forget to check her account loves

Thankyou for stopping by let's dive in ☄️,shall we ?

Choose the pile you feel most drawn to 🧸

Pile एक

Pile 1 : your first valentine's day date might possibly be a 50-50 date like you couples splitting your bills or it could be like you both are always so busy so it took effort from both sides to have a valentine's day date together finally. It's gonna be a very planned and calculated date . You guys might also not show your truest self to your spouse on this date because either of you or both can have your guards up even though you're married. I also feel on this date you could also fight with eachother 😭 probably because of hiding something. I see 'hide' word is so prominent here . I wonder how you guys are so mysterious to each other . Mostly I see you guys could be trying local street foods , trying drinks here n there. Although I feel you both will be dressed perfectly for a date to bring the date date vibe . Having drinks on this could help both of you to loosen up a bit and open up to each other . This date will be a start for something new probably you could think of starting family or something else . This pile seems like both of you love eachother but also don't show it and hide it very well that you both seem to each other like enemies ✨ that's all pile 1 I hope you liked reading this pile happy valentine's day and bless you all 🎀💗

Pile दो

Pile 2 : your first valentine's day date is gonna be amazing I swear . They'll make you feel like a prince\princess . Almost worshipping you and giving all the power . I also feel your spouse will be older than you . So ofc they gonna spoil you it's natural to them and you gonna enjoy it . They'll surely take you on various activities for this date like taking some fun classes in day , eating local foods , taking you on shopping, then dinner night at a perfect place probably by river or seaside . This date will grow more love between each other . I get the vibe of ' material girl ' from this pile and I support you for this lol . You go guys . You deserve it all . Now from another perspective if we see this than your spouse could be bit more domineering in this date like those ceo and their girlfriends where ceo likes to eat at three Michelin star hotel and you enjoy your ramen and drinks but you're forced to go on the three Michelin star hotel date lol. I feel you'll act like a disciplined kid when in real you're so spoiled 🍃 and you just don't listen to anyone but you'll have to listen and follow them .that's all pile 2 I hope you liked reading this pile happy valentine's day and bless you all 🎀💗

Pile तीन

Read by @winisayswhat

Okay, babes, this date is going to be mind-blowing . Like, expect some serious sparks flying, and that's just not from the table. The man or woman you're going on a date with has a provider energy. It's like a very fancy place, with a fancy setup. This person is jacked for sure. They're serious and will bring lots of stability and maturity into your life. They're the real deal, honey .The Two of Cups is all about harmony and balance. So, expect some beautiful, heartfelt connections. You'll feel fulfilled. This place feels like a rooftop restaurant with dim lights, and you're drop-dead gorgeous . You're dressed up, drop-dead gorgeous that day. Oh la la, that person is going gaga all over you! They're very chivalrous. They're going to spend all their money on you without thinking twice. You'll feel luxurious, wealthy with them This person is a provider, wild, and dressed to impress . Both of you are excited to meet each other and already know you're the "it" deal. It's like you both were meant to be together, like two puzzle pieces . You both love, value, and cherish each other. It's like you both have manifested each other. The God has led you both to each other .This person is very straightforward, and whatever they say is going to be very real. They'll be honest with you, and you'll love that about them . They're the type of person who'll have many surprises in store. If they take you out for dinner, they'll make sure there's music, a big bouquet of roses, jewelry as gifts, your favorite champagne, food, and good photos to be clicked . Oh la la, this person is also a great photographer! Your Instagram feed is sorted ! Every time this person walks into a room, people look at them and go, "Oh my God, who is that?" They drip with money and luxury 💸. This person is going to be so nurturing and caring. Expect some serious TLC from this person, honey! It's going to be wild, but guess what? This is just the beginning. The journey is much more exciting and spicy!

Pile चार

Read by @winisayswhat

This Valentine's Day date is going to be EVERYTHING and more! The energy is mutual, excited, and respectful. You both love and adore each other, and you're ready to spend quality time together.The ambiance is romantic, probably at a favorite restaurant or spot. The air is filled with a sweet scent, and you both feel harmonious and in tune with each other. You're thinking about how lucky you are to be in this relationship!Conversation on the date is all bout goals, future plans, and excitement for what's to come. You both are magnetic, high-achieving individuals who are planning out your adrenaline-fueled life together! Eye contact is intense, and you both feel a deep sense of connection and understanding.This is a couple who will be the life of the party, so in love and into each other that they won't even notice what's going on around them! You're best friends, despite being different, and you complement each other perfectly.Oh, and there's red velvet cake involved somehow! And maybe some red fruits or wine? Whatever it is, it's going to be a night to remember!You'll spend the evening planning your life together, discussing kids, cars, homes, and all the adventures you'll have. And guess what? The universe is going to make it all happen!Get ready for lots of kisses, gentle touches, and admiration from your partner. Their love language is touch, and they'll show you love and affection in the sweetest ways.This person is going to adore you, honey! They'll be captivated by your smile, lips, eyes, and entire aura. And they'll appreciate you for the rest of your life! You will be like one of those couples from the Hollywood 90's-2000's Romcom movie aesthetic for sureeee!!!

I hope you liked the reading . Thank you so much for letting me read for you . Wishing you best ahead . 🎀 Bless you and have a nice day 🫶🏻

Loads of love , jam

Exchanges : open , collabs for pacs : open

[sweetflanfiction]

Asymmetrical Symphony - Part 4

Universe: Arcane (LOL)

Pairing: Viktor x reader

Summary: You had been on the rooftop with Jayce and the Herald and somehow you were sent to a place where things can be different with your help

Disclaimers and Warnings: If you want me to tag you on the chapters let me know! Also leave a comment with your thoughts :D Not finished, not proofread. English isn't my 1st language. All I know about LOL is from google and all I know about Arcane is taken from the show, so inacuracies will be plenty. I have a sort of idea on how to I'm gonna go with magic and runes, so bear with me. The reader will be written as GN (going by they/them) to get everyone involved, but if you see any discrepancies let me know.

Trigger Warning: Mentions of death.

A.N.: Enjoy the 1st meeting.

Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3

• ··········· • ············ •

Death was a definite thing. No matter where you were. Undercity, topside, mid-city. Death didn’t choose. It wasn’t picky. It plucked children from mothers and fathers from children. And it was cruel. As if losing a loved one wasn’t enough, it took the memories. Their voice is the first to go, then their face becomes blurry, and then you only remember what they were when a particular tune comes up or a smell drifts from the window. And then it hits you. Slowly and all at once. A person that had been filling that hole in your heart, and now they're gone.

“Mother?”

The woman’s gaze turned to you and softened, eyes starting to wet just as yours were. Her voice. You remembered her voice. 

“Madame Rainemour.” Caitlyn stood even straighter, almost backbreaking. “I don’t think interrogating a suspect is a contact sport, Miss Kiramman.” Her eyes steeled as she looked at the younger woman. “Where’s their lawyer? If I remember correctly, every prisoner has the right to have a representative to defend them. Where is it?”

Caitlyn's mouth opened and closed, eyes shifting around for an answer.

“Very well.” The older woman, your mother said. “They shall use the Rainemour's attorney as their defender, and until you have summoned a judge, they will be coming home.”

“Home? Judge?” Caitlyn suddenly snapped out of her stupor. “Madame Rainemour, this person is suspected to be entangled with Jin—the author of the attack. They have also assaulted several enforcers and attempted to escape the hospital we had placed them in. I don’t know who this is to you, but to us, they are a person of interest.”

“This is my child, Miss Kiramman. And I will not have you abuse your grief and your power chasing a shadow in hopes of getting to the light bulb.”

“Can we discuss this outside?” Caitlyn hid the surprise well, but her eyebrows shot up, and you had half a mind to not mumble, I told you so. Mostly because you didn’t think your brain was functioning correctly and any thought you would try to convey would come out a jumbled mess. “Uncuff them and will.” “I can’t uncuff them; they are a suspect. They have tried escaping once!”  “Caitlyn, we can do this the hard way or the easy way. I can have the family's attorney here in minutes. He will spin whatever case you have into the tightest knot he can. You’ll be untangling it for months. Or you can uncuff my child and talk to me, and we can find a better solution for all of us.”

You could sense Caitlyn’s frustration as she turned to the table, grabbed the key ring from her belt, and unlocked the cuffs.

“Thank you, shall we?”

They both left the room silently, and you crossed your arms on the table, resting your head in them. 

You realized how tired you were. Not just physically, with all the aching bones and bruises starting to make themselves noticed as the stress levels diminish a little, but also your mind is chaotic and exhausted. And you haven’t even stopped to properly think about this. This shift, the runes, the magic, your mother? This world…

“Hello.” 

You jumped from your curved position, placing a hand on your heart while turning your body in the chair to look at the owner of the voice.

A serious-faced Viktor stood against the wall, near the door. Leaning on his cane with two hands.

“Blue balls of Hextech Vik.” You exhale quickly. “You want to kill me; just boink me in the head with the cane.”

“Blue balls of Hextech?” His square eyebrows raised in confusion, and you realized the slip-up.

“It’s…huh… It’s…complicated… It’s a joke.” 

It was easy how quickly you had forgotten this wasn’t your Viktor. This was their Viktor. And this Viktor didn’t have the memories of your Viktor. All the jokes, the quips, the way you three could have whole conversations in silence.

“It is funny because Hextech does exist in a blue ball form.” he said, the corner of his mouth tilting up. 

“How come they allowed you to be inside the room with a very dangerous criminal such as myself?” You pointed to your pitiful figure.

They didn’t get you a change of clothes, but they gave you some pants. So now you were sitting there, wearing a crimped hospital gown, gray pants that didn’t fit you, feet clad in dirty socks, bandages around your arms, and recently open wounds and bruises. You looked as menacing as a wet dog.

“They did not.” he simply said, shrugging and rolling his eyes.

You shook your head; of course they didn’t. Viktor did what Viktor wanted.

“Alright. I’ll remake the question.” You placed your arm on top of the wooden chair’s back and laid your chin on top of your upper arm. “Why are you in the room with a very dangerous criminal such as myself inside?”

“I have a conundrum.” He said fishing something from the inside of his white vest. A folded piece of paper that he handed to you. “Excuse the scratchiness of the lines. I did it on the trolley rides.”

You raised an eyebrow and unfolded the paper. It was definitely a Viktor sketch. You touched the lines on the paper gently, not even paying attention to what you were looking at. His neat cursive handwritten notes were scattered around a less neat sketch of a broken cog. It was made in pencil, and you assumed there were no erasers around since some of the sketch lines had been drawn thicker to hide previous mistakes. There were fingerprints, smudges, crossed-out words, and the little, neat hatching lines on the corner of the sheet he did when he was deep in thought. This was Viktor, your Viktor. You sigh deeply, doing your best to not think about the past right now.

You blinked the moistness out of your eyes and looked at the sketch. It was a broken cog, cracked in some places. There was a thin arrow pointing to one of the cracks.

‘Councilor Hosket, deceased.’ 

In the lower right corner, two dotted, parallel lines are drawn with a note pointing to it. 

‘No major damage.’

A little V drawn right next to the lines, near one of the cracks, had two arrows coming out of it. One arrow, thicker, went from outside the dotted lines to the inside, where another V was noted down, next to an interrogation point. The letters M J were also scribbled between the ‘no major damage lines.’

The other arrow was thinner and had another V next to a cross. 

‘Councilor Bolbok: deceased’ a line read next to the cross.

This wasn’t a cog. It was the table at the councilor chamber and the damage after the attack. You narrowed your eyes first, confused, but grinned a second after. Of course Viktor would have investigated the attack. Especially because you did tackle him out of what he figured out was the line of fire.

“I do not believe in luck. I believe in chance, but not luck.” He explained, leaning back into the wall, his golden gaze on you. “But I do believe the facts. Especially ones I can prove. You see, in all of the calculations I made, and I’ve been making them since I woke in a hospital bed.” He spat the last part with a palpable distaste. “Of the people who were in the path of most destruction, myself and Jayce were saved with mostly bruises and scratches. Jayce, I hypothesized, in an attempt to save Councilor Medarda, saved himself, pushing both out of the way.”

Sighing, you realized how much you missed his ramblings. He could have just said ‘I should have died, but I didn’t and I don’t know why.’ But here he was going on and on about the waves of destruction and the building infrastructure and how having a glass dome was just vanity and very unsafe. Excitedly talking with hands, always having one on the cane while the other moved through the air. His expression became animated, eyebrows raised and falling, his head bobbing around. And you couldn't help but smile softly at him.

Until he looked at you straight in the eyes.

“You're staring.” He stated, and you quickly moved your gaze elsewhere. Anywhere but him. “Sorry, old habit.” “It’s quite alright. I’m used to it. The cripple with the big words.” He stopped the sentence abruptly. “I don’t know why I said that to you. Anyway. My question is. Why did you push me out of the way?”

You searched your tired brain for a reason that didn’t involve time-jumping to save him from himself. Although if there was someone who would believe you, it would be him.

“Well, I knew about the attack… and I was trying to warn the councilors before it was too late.”

He frowned and shook his head, his eyes narrowing and widening as he thought about something.

“The quickest way to evacuate the Academy and the Council Chamber would have been to pull the fire alarm. You must have passed at least... He looked up mapping your hypothetical path to the chamber. “Four.”

“There was a rocket going straight to the Academy. I wasn’t thinking straight.” You answered, reverting to defending yourself.

His eyes narrowed for a moment, pushing himself off the wall with his shoulders and taking a step towards you. His cane and another familiar metal thump made you shift your gaze to his leg. He had already enhanced it. 

“But you were focused.” He said as he got close to you, so close you could smell the minty hard candy he kept in his pocket. He grabbed the paper from your hands, leaned down, hooked the handle of his cane on the table, and placed the paper on the table, the broken table schematic turned over. A small map was drawn surrounded by math equations.

You took the opportunity to look at his face up close. He looked less tired; the bags under his eyes were less dark but still present, his hair was still shaggy and long, but he looked…healthier, livelier. You dropped your eyes to his leg. Was it already eating him inside and pretending it wasn’t? Was this the calm before the storm?

“You are staring again.” You heard him, but this time you looked up at him. “You remind me of someone.” He searched your eyes for deception but found none.

He was about to speak again when the doors to the room burst open, and you both looked up and back.

Fuming was a mild way to describe Caitlyn’s mood as she strode to the table and slammed a pen and a paper down. You turned your body, watching Viktor grab his cane from the back of the chair.

“Sign this.” She barked. You looked back to watch your mother looking at you, her nose held high and a slight grin on her face. She nodded.

You read the paper in front of you. Father always said never to sign anything without reading it first. 

In sum, it was a bond contract. The council would let you go free, but aside from a hefty sum of money paid, you could not leave Piltover and had to be present whenever the Enforcers notified you for questioning. You must always be accompanied by a counsellor of your choosing, and you could reschedule it to your liking. If you were caught doing something illegal, you would be apprehended and shoved off to jail until further notice.

You almost didn’t finish signing your last name as Caitlyn pulled the paper under your hands.

“You’re free to go.” She hisses through gritted teeth.   • ············ •

The sky was still specked with the colors of morning when you stepped outside, closely followed by Viktor and your mother.

“I think this belongs to you, dear.” She grabbed your hand and placed the locket on your palm.

The metal was warm with her own heat, and your palm was cold and scarred, the soft gold contrasting with the rune that had appeared there. You stared at the familiar locket, silently.

Standing in the middle of a whole new Piltover, it looked the same; it smelled the same. You confirmed with your mother’s presence that it wasn't just a time jump. You were in a completely new universe.

And in the middle of it all, whoever the bigger deity was who had decided to do this had given you a very illegal and very cool new power. Magic. You weren’t dumb; you spent enough evenings in the Talis lab hearing both of the boys yapping about runes and magic. And you had spent enough time with Heimerdinger to know the use of magic was not allowed in Piltover. 

You were drowning in your heartbeat, but your lungs were working overtime.

Are you supposed to stay here? Are you going to go back? Do you want to go back? To the end of the line? To the place where everything ends? With Jayce on his knees and the Herald destroying everything you knew and loved. What if you stayed here and did something that could make it all worse? 

“Child?” The touch on your face sent a shock through your body, and you jumped back, eyes wide with fear.

The expression on your mother’s face softened, and she took a step towards you.

“Let’s go home now. We’ll sort this out after you take a bath and eat something.”

Her voice, her voice was like a song loved and forgotten. Every word she said was a stroke of a piano key flooding your senses with warmth and love.

Her eyes matched your own, but you guessed that. You used to roll them whenever someone told you you had your mother's exact eye color. You got a little angry that they remembered her that well and you didn’t. But they were right.

Her face hadn’t shown many signs of aging. Some crow's feet and laugh lines, but she looked beautiful. Graceful. Bright.

And you felt dishonest when you mentioned her as your mother, or when she mentioned you as her child. You weren’t. Not really. 

“I don’t think I am your child.” You whispered, sadly, after a second. 

“I know, sweetheart.” 

• ··········· • ············ •

@marshy-moo @victormydarling @blueesmiski @th3stup1dcat @22carolina08 @httpstes @adithsaley @that-one-shitty-blog @disa-pointment @sseleniaa @angelsukiipls @casey8522 @moons-lighttrail @buttermilktea11 @aysluxe @fae-doodle @kitewa @local-mr-frog @bakusquadobsessed @cherry-cola-100 @optimistic-but-very-realistic @seeksrsnn @thecordelialetters @hazzawillian

[clanwarrior-tumbly]

Can I request a fic about that theory that pure vanilla cookie is the avatar of destiny where during episode 7 & 8 where instead of awakening pure vanilla becomes the avatar of destiny and he is already in a relationship with both reader and shadow milk cookie? Fluffy with a bit of angst please

At first I was like "wait that's a theory???" and then I started looking it up and now I'm like "omg that's actually cool"

In the context of episode 8-30 beast yeast idk how to incorporate PV already being in a relationship with SMC so I decided to leave that ambiguous

...........

"GRAAHH!! GIVE BACK MY SOUL JAM!!!"

In a blinding fury, Shadow Milk Cookie rushed at the Truthless Recluse.

He was fully prepared to kill him at this point, for being "betrayed" after realizing the soul jam's power wasn't in his total control anymore. It couldn't end this way, he thought. He wanted..needed to have it.

But unfortunately for him, his attack struck far too late as Truthless Recluse drove his own staff through the soul jam.

Through the cracks that formed, blinding beams of light consumed the Beast's vision, forcing him to halt mid-flight. With a grunt, he shielded his eyes. Black Sapphire Cookie and Candy Apple Cookie had no choice but to do the same, but after the light faded, they all finally had a chance to see what became of their latest pawn...

But he was not a pawn anymore.

Instead, something incredible--something divine--had taken his place, and was now looming over them.

The Truth--no, Pure Vanilla Cookie had returned, and he was an angel. A literal angel, with four fluffy wings, dressed in white robes, and a crown atop his head. Chocolate syrup dripped down from underneath his ruffled neck, and a ring made of waffle cones hovered behind his back, rotating idly.

Although his eyes initially remained closed, they suddenly opened to reveal those familiar shades of blue and yellow.

Indeed, this was unmistakably Pure Vanilla, with a now fully intact soul jam resting in the very center of his chest.

"Yes...it's all coming back to me now." His voice boomed throughout the spire, yet there was a certain gentleness to it. "There is something new..a boundless conviction, warming me from within. I recognize this feeling..."

The more he kept musing to himself and over his new form, the more enraged Shadow Milk was becoming.

Absolutely nothing could have prepared him for this. Nothing in the cards came even remotely close to predicting this would happen.

All along, he thought he had finally won. That his other half would finally see things his way and become the other Cookie of Deceit. One who was a mirror of himself. An ally who would help him reshape this world.

But now, not only did he--the master of lies and trickery--get tricked by him, but he used the soul jam--their soul jam--to transform into this divine entity, using the Light against him and his other realm.

How was that possible?

Why couldn't he turn into something similar?

"You...You TRAITOR! LIAR!!"

His outrage snapped Pure Vanilla out of his thoughts, and he looked down on him, almost amusingly. "Hahaha. Should there be Deceit, I shall embrace it. Should there be doubt, I shall accept it." He extended a hand out. "Come now, Shadow Milk Cookie..let us end this."

With gnashed teeth, the jester leapt into the air, meeting him at eye-level with his staff grasped tightly between his claws. "You think I'm scared because you're bigger than me?!!" He snarled. "I'LL DESTROY YOU!!"

"A lie shall vanquish a lie."

In one swift motion of his hand, Pure Vanilla cast a powerful beam of light that illuminated the entire sky, further empowering the other realm to bend to his will.

What was his will?

To dispel the lies, rumors, and gossip that have devastated Crispia, saving Parfait Cookie, Princess Cookie, and Latte Cookie from being ostracized from the public and convicted of any wrongdoings. Their reputations were restored, and the cookies who once condemned them had come to apologize.

And just like that, there was peace once more throughout the lands.

At first, Shadow Milk was perturbed, but when he suddenly began to snicker, Pure Vanilla looked at him in confusion. "What's so funny?"

"You may have won this battle. You may have undone my work...but your friends and your beloved cookie are still gone forever!" He cackled. "All that power won't bring them back! They've crumbled to dust! Nothing more than helpless souls that will roam my Spire for eons-!"

"We're actually fine! Thank you, though."

Bewildered, he whirled around just in time to see you, Gingerbrave, Strawberry Cookie, and Wizard Cookie rush into the room, weapons drawn. Not a scratch nor crack was left on any of your dough.

It's like he never pushed you all off that tower to begin with.

Not only that, but Fortune Teller Cookie was also present, silently following you four to confront the Beast once and for all.

However, upon realizing who he was currently facing, your jaw dropped. "No way.."

"Woah! What on earthbread is that?!" Wizard Cookie exclaimed, almost frightened. "Another one of his monsters?"

"No. That can't be Shadow Milk Cookie's minion!" Gingerbrave huffed. "It looks too much like-"

"Pure Vanilla Cookie..?" Strawberry Cookie uttered, only to gasp as the giant angel nodded.

"Is...i-is that really you?"

He looked to you, tilting his head, before shifting form---this time shrinking down to his normal cookie height, resembling the Ancient Hero you've always known and loved. His wings, crown, and waffle ring remained, but he gazed at you with that familiar smile. "It always has been me, [Y/n] Cookie."

Tears brimmed your eyes as you rushed over to hug him. "I never thought I'd see you again! Did you ever plan on telling me that you were..?"

"To be honest, I wasn't sure when or where. But I suppose there's no time like the present." He chuckled, holding you tightly. "I'm happy you're safe."

"We owe it all to Fortune Teller Cookie. But I'm confused.." You let him go, eyes shifting between the two. "You guys are the same person, so...how did you pull that off?"

"Haha, don't you remember? "In this tower, space and time intertwine in a myriad of reflections." Here, the past and present coexist. The cards showed me a glimpse of a possible future. A future that had yet come to pass...fortunately, I was able to prevent it."

"I see. I'm glad Fort--err, you were there to help us." You turned to the hooded cookie with a smile. "Thank you, my dear."

Fortune Teller Cookie nodded his head, a smile coming to his own lips as he returned to his present-self, where they merged as one. It was such a beautiful and mesmerizing display that had the younger cookies beside you in awe.

But it did not last, as the Spire's violent rumbling reminded you all that your job wasn't done yet.

"Excuse me? I'm so sorry to disturb you..but I'M STILL THE MAIN CHARACTER HERE!!" Shadow Milk snapped, tired of being ignored as he raised his weapon. "You got lucky. So what?! I have other ways to kill you all!!"

Several small portals spawned in the room, and the monsters that you've faced during your ascent began to appear on all sides: Haetaes of Lies, Slithering Scrolls of Lies, Winding Totems of Lies, and Shadow Wolves in Sheep Clothing gnashed their teeth--each and every one ready to attack on his command.

"Oh for crying out loud!" Wizard Cookie groaned, charging his staff with lightning magic. "How many of these things have we beaten?! Just give up already!"

"He can keep summoning them forever.." You sighed, although you stood firm and glared at the nearby wolf. "But if he's not gonna surrender, we won't either. For the good of the Cookie World, we have to win-"

"Hold on." Pure Vanilla raised a hand, abruptly silencing you as he looked to his counterpart. "Shadow Milk Cookie, wait."

"What now? Afraid to lose them again, little birdie?" He taunted.

"You are right. For me, nothing is more important than protecting my friends. But they are much stronger than you realize." The Ancient Hero huffed. "They've helped me find my path again."

"...hah, seriously? You're gonna lecture me now?"

"Well, I've been wondering...instead of taking my soul jam by force, you decided to try me and see if I could truly fall. Why?"

There was an uncomfortable pause, and you weren't sure what his motivations were for asking that now instead of fighting back--but you stayed quiet.

"Oh, what does that matter? Can't I have a little fun? Seeing the seeker of Truth tremble, consumed by self-doubt? So scared to be devoured by Deceit?!" He flicked his weapon to you. "Afraid of what your sweetheart might think? They see a different side of you now. Something you've kept hidden from them for oh-so-long~! Amazing how they didn't feel betrayed by-"

"You say that, and yet..I saw your records. I saw how happy you were to see my soul jam touched by Deceit."

".....what?" He blinked.

"And I could feel how lonely you truly are." With a slight frown, Pure Vanilla put a hand to his chest. "[Y/n] Cookie could sense it, too."

Silent, Shadow Milk Cookie's gaze shifted to yours, noticing how you loosened your grip on your weapon, as well as the subtle nod of your head. "At first I didn't, but now...I think I have a better understanding of you-"

You were cut off by a howl of laughter that echoed throughout the room.

"AHAHAHA! NOW WHO IS THE CLOWN HERE?! Him or you?? Oh, I'm tearing up!! Look at my Spire! Bask in its splendor! Here, I have anything I want! Fools eager to fall to their knees in exchange for one little lie!" He gestured to everything, sneering at you. "You...You must've lost your minds! How could you possibly understand me?!"

"You say you can have anything you want here, but..it's really him that you want. And you realized I was in the way." You pointed out. "You could've gotten rid of me. Torn me up in a card. Shattered me as a chess piece. But...you let me be a spectator. You hesitated to push me off this tower. You did everything you could to test our bond. To see if we would break, or if I'd shun him for turning into a liar. All of that couldn't have been out of simple "enjoyment"."

"SILENCE!!" He barked. "You dare act like you know me?!! You lowly cookies know NOTHING!!"

Pure Vanilla stepped forward despite the snarling monsters still surrounding you all. "That's where you're mistaken, I'm afraid. When you and I became one briefly-"

Without warning, Shadow Milk slammed his weapon down, now redirecting his anger to the Ancient Hero. "One more word out of you, and I will wipe your pathetic dough off the face of the world!!"

Yet he wasn't intimidated by the threat. Nobody was.

"--I felt it. A minute droplet of longing, hiding in the dark."

"........."

"I know it, for I've felt the same. Many times. Until [Y/n] Cookie brought me out of that darkness." He looked to you with the warmest smile, prompting you to come forward as well and take his hand. "They've saved me. And maybe..that's who you needed all along, too."

"I...I don't need any cookie to "save" me." Shadow Milk tried protesting, although his resolve was weakening. "How could you-?"

"We share the same soul jam. So yes..I am the only one who truly understands you, Shadow Milk Cookie."

"....but..that's.."

"And..if you'd let me, I'd like to understand you, too." You added with a tiny smile of your own. "You laugh in the face of loneliness, but you still haven't denied it, have you?"

"....."

"This doesn't have to end in violence." Pure Vanilla let go of your hand, instead offering it to the Beast. "You don't have to be lonely anymore. We are here. Please..let us walk the path of truth and deceit together."

The monsters of lies were still awaiting their orders to attack, but much to their confusion...their master abruptly fell to his knees, staff clattering to the ground.

And just like that, all of them had vanished into thin air.

"Together..?" He asked in the smallest of voices, although when he realized how vulnerable that sounded, he growled and scowled deeply at you all. "No...why did you have to make this so difficult?!! I HATE you all! I hate YOU and your soul jam and your stupid bird form and lovely-dovey relationship-!"

"Okay that's enough."

In an impulsive act that was either very stupid or very brave, you kneeled down to sweep him into a hug--but in your gut, you trusted that he had no tricks left up his sleeves. "That's no way to talk to the Avatar of Destiny now, is it?"

"...wh-wha...what are you doing?" He struggled a little. "Didn't you hear me?! I said I hate you!"

"Come on, Shadow Milk Cookie. Give a rest already. Aren't you tired?"

"...I...I'm not..." Yet despite his attempts, he could not get the words out.

Because even he knew they would were lies you and Pure Vanilla could easily see through.

You felt him struggle less and less in your hold, until he stopped moving entirely. His expression became unreadable, and for once...he didn't say anything at all.

"Uh..[Y/n] Cookie? Maybe it's time to let him go..." Wizard Cookie warned.

"It's okay, my friend. This is how I'm gonna embrace Deceit, by literally embracing him." You chuckled softly, only to fall silent as you felt the Beast's head fall onto your shoulder, his body going slack. "Huh? Oh..."

"H-How can you do this? After all I did to him..to you and your friends?!" He asked, his tone utterly defeated as he trembled a little, blue claws clutching at your armor. "Is this...what you truly desire?"

Before you could answer, Pure Vanilla's wings came into view as he knelt down on the other side of him, embracing him from behind. "This is what we both desire, Shadow Milk Cookie. Thank you for accepting us."

The only response he got was a tiny sniffle, but given how the blue cookie practically melted into your arms, you knew that he was beyond exhausted and had no room left in him to fight.

While Black Sapphire and Candy Apple were bewildered that their master had fallen like this, Gingerbrave and his friends couldn't help but smile, relieved that the mind-bending games and illusions were finally over.

The Avatar of Destiny was certainly a shocking reveal,....but so was the truth that Shadow Milk just wanted somebody who understood him and was willing to reach out and dig up that loneliness he so desperately tried to keep buried.

And it ends up being two cookies, not one, who succeeded.

[nottsim]

— ᴡʜᴀᴛ’ꜱ ɪɴ ᴍʏ ʀᴏᴏᴍ 𝒽𝑜𝑔𝓌𝒶𝓇𝓉𝓈 𝒹𝑜𝓇𝓂 ᴇᴅɪᴛɪᴏɴ

══════════════

⊹ ࣪ ˖ quick disclaimer: i scripted out the canon ravenclaw dorm for this, um..masterpiece? it’s pinterest approved, chaos infused and definitely not up to standard ravenclaw aesthetic. sorry, i like my personal space with a side of whimsy and highly overpriced.

and yes, i sleep peacefully knowing that there are no dusty tapestries or whispering paintings in my room. my bed? a trap. productivity doesn’t live here. and to the right, you’ll find the three socks lost to the void (no pun intended) ୨୧

ahem, anyway… not to brag but i may have poured my soul into this mood board for you. so, welcome to the full experience—pretend you're here with me.

way up in the ravenclaw tower, where the air is thin and the academic stress is thicker, you’ll find my dorm, with the best view in the castle and where beauty sleep is taken very seriously. my dorm is a love letter written in soft cotton sheets that feel like whispered secrets, with my dove duvet crinkling with every shift. sigh. can you tell i love my bed? my bed is the kind of cozy that turns waking up into a personal betrayal. yes. it’s that deep. once you’re in, there’s no way out. my canopy drapes like a royal decree that shall remain cozy forever. my pillows? massive. comically oversized. one wrong turn in my sleep and i’m lost in the fluff, never to be seen again. a tragic fate some might say. i highly disagree. my beds comfort level makes me consider skipping morning classes in favor of one more minute (hour) of warmth. alas, i carry the burden of the ravenclaw tendencies..so i drag myself out of my personal cloud and into the cruel, cold world of academia.

beside my bed, you’ll find two nightstands. because symmetry is important, and so is convenience. each has a lamp because i refuse to subject myself to the harsh betrayal of the big light. a glass vase of peonies sit on one of them because, yes. i am both romantic and delicate (my dad sends me them). next to it my silk sleep mask waits, ready to shield me from the cruel reality of early mornings. the wall behind my bed is dressed in classic toile print, all delicate scenes in muted a rose. it looks like it belongs in a countryside manor, the kind with sweeping gardens and letters sealed with wax. very fitting for someone who hoards handwritten notes and thinks too much about which shoes match the mood of the day. what can i say? i needed to feel like i stepped into a historical romance novel every time i walked into my room. sigh. at the foot of this luxurious trap is my little couch seat. it’s expiate solely for dramatic lounging, contemplating life’s biggest mysteries (why i own so many shoes) and acting as my clothing rack for when the wardrobe is an inch too far.

then there’s my vanity/desk hybrid also known as my personal command center. this is where business gets done. makeup, hair, staring contests and my dreaded assignments. it holds everything that makes me feel pretty..and random quills because, i am both beauty and brains. you know how some people have motivational posters? i have a hairbrush that speaks to me in rhinestones and whispered affirmations..beside it? ah, my fragrance, my signature scent if you will. vanilla. it’s not just any vanilla, it’s the vanilla. soft, fresh, sweet. it’s just enough to gain a baker title. skip dessert, this tops it. also. if you read my last post (ily), you’ll know i live in constant fear of bad breath, yes. i’m very particular about how i smell. and, if we’re being completely honest, my whole room smells like vanilla at all times. why? because this fragrance is so powerful that it quietly infiltrates every corner. so, if you're wondering what this room smells like, it’s not vanilla :’)

my mirror you ask? what? this mirror? perched on my vanity like a regal heirloom? ornate, vintage and the closest thing to a masterpiece i’ll own…yet somehow, the real highlight? the little note taped to the corner..Theo’s doing, of course. one of many, because my vanity is where i usually end up when i’m avoiding the black hole that is my bed. i like looking at it…like a little reminder, i am indeed adored. i might’ve spared a kiss for it. it’s still there, slightly smudged, like a love note and a signature all in one. then there’s a bear and a bunny, aka me and Theo in stuffed animal form. the bear naturally, wears a slytherin tie. because even in plush form Theo has to be extra. together? they’re like our tiny, fluffy alter egos, silently judging my makeup skills.

what else is crammed into my room, you ask? my box of pictures. because naturally, i must document everything like a historian with a flair for the dramatic. most pictures are taken with my beloved pink digicam which i treat like a priceless artifact..if you zoom in you’ll get a visual representation of how much free time i have. and speaking of prized possessions? allow me to introduce my holy grail of footwear..(that rhymed). anyways. my repetto ballerinas. these shoes are the unsung heroes of my chaotic life. they’re sleek, they’re chic, and they somehow manage to elevate every outfit..at least from the ankles down.

and here we are, the grand finale of the tour, where the chaos meets its inevitable, slightly tragic, conclusion. anyways. that was my dorm, basically the physical embodiment of my brain, trapped within four walls. it’s a curated ecosystem at this point. questionable priorities, comfort and clutter tied together with a deep sense of regret and the sheer unwillingness to leave my bed.

from my bed, 𝐣𝐚𝐬 “𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐞𝐭 𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐨” ୨୧

[gloriaregaii]

Honestly, I need to say this, because after reading multiple comments that Melkor abused Mairon, I've had quite enough. Especially by the Ring of Powers' writers who say they know canon when truly, all they know is jackshit.

MELKOR DIDN'T ABUSE MAIRON!!!!

Let's take it back to Almaren when Melkor first encounters Mairon and seduces him, shall we? We obviously know Melkor desired light and desired creation above all else, having said to rival the creator, Himself, Eru Ilúvatar. He sought after Varda, but after she saw his true nature, the darkness within, she rejected him. Morgoth already had numerous enemies amongst the Valar. Having quarrels and hard feelings against Tulka, Aulë, a few others, and now Varda. All he desired was to hold a glimpse of light and possess it alike that of Eru with the Flame Imperishable, said to be the source of all light, which he previously wanted as well. He wanted a lot of things and was despised and repulsed by the majority already. In that time, he must have been very lonely, even without given a Maia like all of the Valar had. He wanted something to feel not only powerful, but to feel seen, a source of beauty and light. He found all of that in Aulë's most talented apprentice, Mairon.

One thing I've noticed over the past years of reading Tolkien's works is the lack of thought or reason the Maiar have in serving their designated Vala. Mairon didn't. He had a reason in going with Melkor which was accounted numerous times. Not once did it say why the other Maiar follow the Valar. Most likely the reason in being that "it was the right thing to do" as in most other fictional stories is also the same reasoning.

Mairon wanted more than what he had currently as Aulë's apprentice. He wanted power and Melkor knew that. Undoubtedly, Mairon had caught his eye the moment Melkor laid eyes on him. I mean, how could he not? The description Tolkien gives about Mairon excudes nothing but beauty, power, and talent. Melkor was attracted to that immediately but he felt something else. Desire for power which he knows exactly how that feels because he too, felt it at a point in time. He took his chances and seduced him. Never once did it say that Mairon was "forced" into becoming his Maia. He gave him his own free will of choice, promised him power, and more. Something the Valar wouldn't do, but Melkor could.

The two of them eventually fell in love after their attraction to one another. How else can you explain "he adored Morgoth", and no doubt Morgoth adored Sauron? And how do we not think that they could have spent time together in Almaren at private times, alone? The little fiery Maia displayed his devotion time and time again, never once did he abandon Melkor which the Vala took to heart. NEVER ONCE did he ever go behind his back. The Dark Lord saw that and for once felt seen, felt heard, felt wanted.... and loved. And in return, he reciprocated that. He came to believe that Mairon was the most beautiful and perfect creation Eru has brought to life. Mairon fell first, but Melkor fell much harder.

Proceeding down the line to the War of Wrath, Mairon practically begs Melkor to hide because they both knew what was to come. He begged by saying "Go, my lord. There are places down below..." If Melkor abused Mairon, Mairon would have never begged his master to flee and hide. Melkor saying "I release thee, go" could translate as "go now, save and hide yourself away" which must have put Mairon in a position of hesitance and reluctance to leave the man he loves behind. Even in the audiobook, Mairon's voice quivers saying those very words, emphasizing the emotion he felt in that moment. Mairon wanted his master to disappear — to escape the Valar. An abused victim would never have done that.

Going forward, it is evidently clear that Sauron's complete intent was to build an army to go save Melkor. After many years, the man still worships the Vala by doing acts in his name. Building a church of worship and sacrifice in his name, taking on personas that reflected previous personas or titles Melkor had taken up. A notable one is Annatar, Lord of Gifts which was based on Melkor's title as "Giver of Freedom". Freedom and gifts go hand in hand.

Last but not least is the constant little hints Tolkien gives throughout the books that only bears evidence that Melkor, his Vala husband was always on his mind. Those little hints is in naming things he's created after things within the past, such as Grond, Melkor's hammer that he named the battering ram after, which was used in Lord of the Rings.

There is much more points that could be said about Angbang and their relationship but the thing is, is that Melkor and Mairon loved each other. It was never based on abuse or gain. It was based on mutual feelings that were never forced against either will.

If y'all like abusive ships then go for ships like Maidar or Silvergifting, even Haladriel. Those are technically abusive. To say Angbang is while there is no context that says such.... that's your preference and opinion. Not trying to attack ships, I'm merely putting source material Angbang into perspective and saying why it isn't abusive by giving the factual reasons from the books. If you take this harsh, that is on you. Go out and ship whatever you desire, even if it is abusive Angbang.

Addition to this for those who may say ROP didn't make this ship abusive :

Which is all good! Go ship whatever your heart desires! Again, I'm not trying to attack ships, I'm just basing this on what the original source material says!

[dracowars]

knight in shining armour | elrond

pairing: elrond x elf!reader

word count: 5,5k

summary: where elrond and y/n have to make fatal decisions in war

a/n: i'm having so much fun with writing in this universe i haven't had in a long time (with writing in general) and i think that's beautiful <3 season 2 elrond really did it for me, so i hope you enjoy this flangsty fic. don't forget to reblog and give feedback, it means the world to me ♡

warnings: angst, violence, mentions of blood, mentions of injuries, miscommunication (kind of), elrond kisses galadriel

universe: the rings of power

You hold your breath once you step into the dimly lit tent, teeming with orcs and their smells. Carefully, you place one foot in front of the other, never taking your eyes off the enemy who is currently watching three elves enter its territory. Amidst all these orcs and darkness, you couldn't stand out less in your polished white armour.

You follow Vorohil who is walking directly behind Elrond, and quickly spot the Father of the Orcs sitting on a makeshift chair that almost resembles a throne. Your gaze doesn't linger on him for long, however, because something or someone else catches your eye. Galadriel is standing right behind him, tied up and leaning against a post. Her eyes widen when your gaze meets and everything in her face screams for you to not be here, to turn around and leave again immediately. But you are here to help her, to free her from the clutches of the enemy, from the claws of evil. And you won't leave without her.

One of the orcs tells Elrond to sit opposite Adar, and he does as he is told with so much confidence you hardly recognize the sweet, curious boy behind the mask. Vorohil positions himself to his left, you stand on his right, ready to step in at any time should something go amiss.

You are more than aware of your situation: right in the mouth of the enemy whose teeth could pierce your flesh any moment, with absolutely no escape. Should this turn out to be a trap and part of Adar's plan, you have stepped right into it. Yet, Elrond insisted on not bringing a weapon of his own. You, on the other hand, have hidden daggers all around your body that you could pull out in the blink of an eye if the situation arises.

Even though all eyes are on Elrond, you still feel uncomfortable. You have never been this close to orcs before without fighting them at the same time.

"The ring you carry. Show it to me", Adar opens the conversation, and you inevitably flinch. Of course he shows interest in the ring. Like all of Middle-earth, it may seem.

"A foolish act if I had brought it here", Elrond answers in a firm voice and appears calm and collected, stoic almost, one arm draped over the armrest.

Adar's expression tells you that he is less than satisfied with this answer. What he doesn't know, however, is that the ring is closer to him than he thinks possible.

Its metal presses cold against the skin between your collarbones, your heart thumping loudly at the mention of it and your mind drifts back to the moment when it was handed to you.

'You shall have it', Elrond tells you, wearing that gentle smile on his lips that always adorns his features when he's around you, that makes your heart beat faster every single time. He places Nenya in your palm and when the light reflects in its beauty, you gasp. This small ring, inconspicuous at first glance but incredibly beautiful, contains a power you can't and don't even want to imagine.

'No, Elrond. I can't', you whisper, afraid that your voice might break. He now clasps your hand with both of his and gently closes your fingers around the piece of jewelry.

'My love. I wouldn't trust anyone else to keep it safe', he tells you with so much confidence and affection in his voice that you can't help but believe his words. The way he stands in front of you, his brown locks falling into his face, his eyes clear and bright, and holds your hand tightly leaves no room for further discussion. He trusts you with this power and you won't fail him.

'You can consider yourself a ring bearer now', he smiles, gently guiding your fist to his mouth to place a light kiss on top of it, his other hand cupping your cheek while doing so. His eyes linger on your lips for a second too long, but before you can say anything, he is summoned to the High King.

"It was Celebrimbor himself who welcomed Sauron in. You cannot save him. You can save Galadriel", Adars voice brings you back to the present. The circumstances you find yourself in make it hard to believe his words. He won't let Galadriel go willingly and Elrond will never give him the ring voluntarily. Since it is in your possession, you don't plan on handing it over either. No matter how much more danger that puts you in.

"It is an earnest offer. I suggest you take it", Adar continues, staring solely at Elrond from across the table, and stands up from his seat. "And leave Sauron to me."

The mention of this name sends a shiver down your spine. A name that describes pure evil. It is obvious from the way Adar says his name that he feels as much hatred towards him as the elves and all other inhabitants of Middle-earth. It makes you a little suspicious, after all, Adar was once a loyal servant of Sauron.

Once more, your gaze slides over to Galadriel when Adar walks around the table. One of the orcs holds his sharp weapon against her throat, a sign to not even think of making a wrong move. It is known that Galadriel was deceived by Sauron, or Halbrand as she used to call him, which is why her face reacts to his name, too.

She whispers something and you try to read her lips, but you don't get a chance when Adar suddenly stands right in front of you, blocking your view. Although he is still talking to Elrond, his full attention is now solely on you.

"You must know you cannot defeat me in battle. I will outmaneuver you, my forces outfight yours, and you will fall", Adar spits out, searching your face for any signs of fear, but you hold your ground and present him with your best death stare in return. But inside of you, it looks much different. Chaos rages within your mind and veins, your heart is beating so fast that it's pounding in your ears and Nenya is pressing painfully against your skin. You send a prayer to the Valar that Adar won't suspect anything, that he can't see behind the mask you've put on. Because you don't know how much longer you can keep it up, especially not under his relentless gaze.

Adar takes another step towards you and you can now feel his breath on your skin. Since he knows that you cannot resist him at the moment, he uses this to his advantage. His eyes search your face, but you cannot say what exactly they are looking for. Whatever it is, he doesn't find it.

"You will fall and all your little elves with you", he says in a calm voice, but his words are filled with hatred. At this, Elrond suddenly raises from his seat as well and positions his body between the two of you, enabling you to finally breathe again, your heartbeat slowing with relief.

"Not before you have painted the sands of the Glanduin black with the blood of your kin", Elrond tells him, briefly looking over to the orc whose blade is still at Galadriel's throat. His hand behind his back indicates that you should remain calm. Some of the orcs around you growl.

"My children have endured cruelties your bravest couldn't bear to hear spoken aloud."

"Are you prepared to spend their lives so freely, Adar?", Elrond confronts him, his words sounding accusatory. "Are they?"

Peaking over Elrond's shoulders, you see a clear shift in Adar's face, in his eyes. Apparently Elrond has struck a nerve with his words, the orcs becoming more and more restless as well.

"The ring for Galadriel's life. What is it to be?", Adar once again presents him with the tough decision, to choose, to pick one and let the other down. Before answering, Elrond closely walks past Adar, drawing his attention away from you and what it is he desires most. From your position, you only see Elrond adjusting his cloak before he casts another glance at Galadriel. Their eye contact lasts almost a moment too long before he then returns his attention to her captor.

"Ask me on the field, when the neck with a blade against it is yours", Elrond tells him, his deep voice making it sound like a threat. The orcs around you begin to seethe and snarl again and all of a sudden you are very aware of the dagger strapped to your shin, hidden beneath the leather of your boots.

"Very well. I will meet you there", Adar replies, his voice carrying a tinge of amusement after he gave him a once-over. And for a moment you think he actually agrees, that this decision can be made without shedding any blood, no matter red or black. That is until he finishes his sentence.

"With her head on a pike."

You want to step in, to say something, anything to help get Galadriel and the ring out of here, but you don't even know what. And you don't want to risk putting Elrond in danger by acting rashly. That is why silence ensues for a moment while Adar and Elrond just stare each other down challengingly, neither of them backing down or even thinking about giving in.

"If that is to be the way of things, I should like to bid her farewell", Elrond finally answers him, causing a gasp to escape your lips as you unintentionally take a step forward. But Vorohil stops you by putting his arm out in front of you, preventing you from doing something you might regret later.

You can't believe what you're hearing, what just left Elrond's mouth. Galadriel, on the other hand, seems just about pleased with this decision, because it means that no one will be harmed because of her. At least no one who is currently present in this tent.

To your surprise, Adar grants him this favour and lets him talk to Galadriel one last time. All eyes are on them, but you can't hear what they say to each other; their voices too quiet. You watch in disbelief, however, as Elrond softly touches her face and suddenly leans in to her, connecting their lips in a gentle kiss.

All of a sudden, you find it difficult to breathe. You distinctly feel your heart breaking in two. The tent feels too small, too cramped, and tears well up in your eyes. No longer able to bear the sight, you lower your gaze, clenching your hands into fists at your sides. Although no one should be looking in your direction at this moment, it does not go unnoticed by Adar. He notices the pain in your eyes and in your entire life you have never felt so at the mercy of the enemy as you do right now.

You thought there was something between you and Elrond, a mutual, deep understanding that connected you. When by his side, you felt safe and loved. Until now you thought he returned that feeling and that there could be something more between the two of you, one day.

Apparently you were wrong.

It may have only been a few seconds, but for you it feels like several agonizing minutes before Elrond and Galadriel separate again. As soon as Elrond turns away from her, your eyes meet and a sharp pain ripples through your body, as if someone had stabbed you directly in the chest. Elrond's eyes are sad, suffering almost, and he looks at you with so much pity that you wish to disappear into thin air.

Elrond blinks a few times before making his way straight out of the tent.

"Vorohil. Y/N", he calls out your names, a silent command to follow him. Your gaze meets Adar's again who is watching you with his head tilted as you leave the tent together. You entered it as one, as a unit, but you leave it shattered.

You follow them out, the sun blinding you, but due to the tears you are still trying to hold back you couldn't see much from the beginning anyway. The orcs swarming around you aren't at all helping with the chaos that are your emotions.

You fall behind the two men. As if you were in a tunnel, you hear Vorohil bombarding Elrond with all sorts of questions in the distance. Questions whose answers are no longer important to you.

When they stop in front of you, you almost crash into them, too busy with all the thoughts swirling around in your head.

Was it all just a lie, a plot? Was he just using you to protect the ring? To have someone to sacrifice?

Your common sense tells you that this simply cannot be true, that Elrond has not been leading you astray and that what you feel for him is reciprocated inside of his heart. But your broken heart painfully beats in your chest and tells you something completely different.

You watch as Elrond mounts his horse and gives Vorohil an order, but the words do not reach your ears. You only see him in front of you, a knight in shining white armour, the sight of whom used to give you so much joy, made your heart beat faster and your cheeks blush. In the tent, you were willing to take a blade for him until the very end, but everything is different now.

Elrond's gaze wanders from Vorohil to you and all the sadness from before has disappeared from his face, replaced by a neutral expression. The expression of a warrior on his way into battle.

"Meantime, I will ensure that Eregion's walls hold for one more night", you finally register his words as he looks straight at you. Without another word, he puts on his helmet and rides away. An unspoken order hangs in the air and you swing yourself onto your own horse. After all, he is still your commander, whom you will always follow into battle, come what may.

════════════

Your legs are shaking, your hands sticky, covered in blood and mud. Your movements are shaped by exhaustion. Nevertheless, your blade sinks into the flesh of another orc who falls to the ground with a gurgling sound. With all your strength, you pull out your sword and stumble back a few steps, your gaze wandering over the battlefield in front of you.

Corpses over corpses scatter the ground. Some brave warriors are still fighting against the few remaining orcs, but there is no way out. You have lost, Eregion has fallen. You are shocked to realize that you have lost so many elves today, friends and strangers alike.

This realization hits you with so much force out of nowhere and you collapse to the ground, onto your knees, and let out a scream filled with pain and sorrow and all of your remaining strength. You fought, side by side, and in the end it was all for nothing. The forces of Adar have taken you by surprise and no one was prepared for the chaos that would ensue. Now you find yourself in the mud, surrounded by the dead, the last sounds of battle wafting towards you, and you feel utterly and completely alone.

You lost sight of Elrond since the troll's attack and Arondir is nowhere to be found either. Just thinking of Elrond gives your wounded heart another stab that cannot be compared to any wound inflicted in battle. Ever.

A tear finally finds its way down your cheek, but you are quick to wipe it away with your dirty hand. You can't show weakness, not even now when you feel incredibly overwhelmed. You don't even know if Elrond is still alive, and you scold yourself for still worrying about the man who took your feelings for granted.

But of course you do, you love him.

You don't know if it's the ring still around your neck or your instinct, but something tells you to look toward the fallen walls of Eregion, to get one last look at the once beautiful city. And there you see him.

Elrond.

Kneeling.

In front of Adar.

Without hesitating for even a split second, you gather all your strength and stand up. You approach them quickly and watch as Elrond attacks Adar with his dagger, but Adar parries his attack by violently grabbing his arm. With a whimper, Elrond drops his weapon. You stand still as Adar's hand closes around Elrond's throat and lifts him above the ground, choking him. The sounds that escape from Elrond's mouth will haunt you in your dreams.

"Where is it?!", Adar shouts at him, losing his composure. Elrond's hands claw at his, trying to somehow prie them away, but to no avail. The battle has left Elrond weakened. Adar, on the other hand, seems to have gained more strength from it. At that moment, Elrond spots you, and even though you only look at each other for a second, Adar immediately notices Elrond's shift of attention. He turns his head in your direction, and if you didn't know better, you'd think surprise flashes across his face. Apparently he didn't expect to ever see you again.

"Let him go", you command, your voice trembling and your sword pointing at him.

"Or what?", Adar asks spitefully, raising an eyebrow. Not knowing how to answer, you look at Elrond again.

"G-Go", he chokes out.

You look at him in shock and immediately shake your head. You would never leave him behind. Adar follows this encounter with interest and with a smile pulling at the corner of his mouth when something dawns on him. The next moment, he pushes Elrond to the ground forcefully who desperately gasps for air.

You want to rush to his side immediately, but Adar draws his own sword and pushes the tip directly against Elrond's throat who is still gasping for air and hasn't even managed to sit up.

You freeze when you see blood.

"So that's how it is, I understand", Adar murmurs loudly, seemingly amused by something. Then, he reaches out his open hand towards you, catching you by surprise.

"The ring. Or he's dead."

Your eyes inevitably widen, but you no longer have the strength to put on a mask and hide your true emotions. And in doing so, you put everyone in danger.

"D-Don't listen t-to him", Elrond stutters, his eyes full of terror when he meets your gaze. He is not afraid of dying. He is afraid that the ring will fall into the wrong hands.

You gave him your promise. When you accepted the ring, you simultaneously promised that you would protect it with your life. And you still stand by that.

But right now, this is not about your life.

"Hurry or your sweet commander will soon find it extremely difficult to breathe", Adar threatens and presses his blade even harder into Elrond's skin, making him whimper in pain.

He can't speak anymore because of the life-threatening weapon at his throat, but his tear-filled eyes scream at you not to give in. But how could you not?

You move your lips and form the words 'I'm sorry', but no sound wants to escape your throat, your vocal cords failing terribly.

Lowering your sword dejectedly, you feel for the silver chain around your neck and eventually pull it over your head. Nenya dangles at the end, catching the sunlight that slowly but surely breaks through the clouds. Your hand trembles as you place the ring in Adar's palm, feeling like a failure.

Not just to yourself, but to your entire kind. And above all, to Elrond.

As soon as Adar has the ring in his possession, he removes his sword from Elrond and lets you approach him. You immediately fall to your knees beside him. Elrond gasps for air and coughs repeatedly, his head thrown back in defeat. You support his head with one of your hands, helping him to sit up.

"Forgive me", you sob quietly, but get no answer from him. He watches silently as you are surrounded by orcs who were just waiting to take you as prisoners.

And the whole time you can only think of one thing: You betrayed them all.

════════════

You were about to set out to help her on your commander's orders. But it was already too late. You only saw a white figure falling down the cliffs. Now you're running through the dense forest, searching the ground, looking for a body. Every inch of your own body hurts, the cuts across your face throbbing painfully, but you have to keep going, keep walking just a bit longer, because she could be lying behind the next tree and you would never forgive yourself if you didn't find her.

Taking a break and catching your breath for a second, you lean against a tree, the battle taking a heavy toll on your body and strength. Suddenly you fleetingly notice a white shimmer to your right and run straight towards it, your ribs hurting. You breathe a sigh of relief and, at the same time, shock when you see Galadriel's motionless body on the ground, her arms stretched out at unnatural angles.

Without wasting any time, you rush to her, lifting her head so that you can gently place it on your lap. Loudly, you call out to the others that you have found her.

Her face is covered in soot and blood, her eyes closed. As you look at her like this, you once again realize how truly beautiful she is, even on the treshold to death. Your thoughts make your heart ache deeply, because how could Elrond not take a liking to her?

"They will be here soon", you whisper encouragingly, although you are not even sure she can hear you and your voice sounds anything but heartening. Your gaze lands on a large wound on her shoulder, the source of black streaks that are running across her armour. Carefully, you lift her armour with shaking hands and recoil in shock, as if you burned yourself, when you see a dark mark carved into her skin.

You don't get the chance to think about it any further, however, when Arondir and the High King finally arrive at your side. You let Gil-galad help Galadriel and take a few steps back, giving them enough space. As you do so, a light catches your eye, coming from under a branch. The relief you feel deep inside when you spot Nenya is overwhelming.

The High King tries healing Galadriel with the help of his ring. In Quenya, he orders her to step back into the light and leave the darkness behind her and her soul. With tears in your eyes, you watch as Galadriel takes heaving breaths, her eyes blinking violently, but she doesn't come back. Every passing second, she leaves the light a little more.

When you hear footsteps, running quickly at first and then slowing down abruptly, you don't have to turn around to know that it is Elrond.

"We're losing her", Arondir says and looks around helplessly. You see as much pain in his eyes as is reflected in yours and Elrond’s.

When you look over at Elrond at last, your heart stops beating for a moment. You thought you had already seen him at his lowest, where things couldn't have gotten any worse, completely devastated, but the way he is looking at Galadriel right now convinces you otherwise. The sadness that adorns his battle-torn but still beautiful features brings even more tears to your eyes.

His heart seems broken, crying for Galadriel.

"The darkness is too powerful. I cannot save her", the High King utters in defeat.

Even though it is only for one short moment, you hesitate. You hesitate to give the ring to Elrond, afraid of what might happen then, that your heart will crumble into even more fragile pieces.

"You can", you hear your own voice from afar and give Elrond the ring that you lost earlier. Elrond's eyes suddenly become clearer, brighter as he takes it, feeling it in his palm. But his eyes tell you that he is afraid, too. Afraid that he may not be able to save her. He fears he might lose her.

Gathering all your remaining strength, you force an encouraging smile onto your face, nodding and indicating that he should go to her. Elrond doesn't return your smile, he still looks at you with so much suffering in his eyes, but his facial features are more at ease now as he nods back at you. His way of thanking you.

"We can", he states, to convince himself once again before he puts on the ring.

════════════

You stare at your own reflection, which looks up at you from the quiet water of the river. You dip your fingertips into the water, the waves that result distorting your face. The wounds that covered your face have been cleaned and treated, only slight cuts still visible. There is nothing to do but rest and reflect while everyone waits for Galadriel to awaken.

You are not startled when you suddenly see another reflection, a face above your own, for you have heard him coming.

"Galadriel has awakend", Elrond lets you know and elicits nothing more than a nod from you. "She is up and well."

"I'm glad", you reply and see his brow frowning, his eyes growing sadder in the reflection of his face in the water. Which surprises you in all honesty, because he should be filled with happiness right now. You may have lost the rings for men and many of your elven friends have fallen, but in the end you are alive and safe. Galadriel is safe.

In fact, you admit that you feel relief that she seems to be doing well, but it somehow still hurts just thinking about the kiss they shared.

"May I.. May I have a moment of your time?", Elrond asks you now, after a few seconds of silence, filled only by the chirping of birds and the rustling of the trees around you. This place is truly a sanctuary.

His voice sounds so fragile that you can't help but raise up and turn to him, folding your hands in front of your lower body.

"I bestowed the ring upon you as a token of my faith in you", Elrond explains and you notice from the small wrinkles on his forehead that he is having difficulty finding the right words.

Meanwhile, you just want to leave. You can't listen to him express his disappointment about your actions. After everything that has happened, you're just not strong enough anymore. Your heart is not strong enough.

"I entrusted you with it because I didn't trust myself", he continues, looking into your eyes, but you avert them and focus on the grass on the ground. "Because I knew that, if the situation occurred, I would have acted the same way you did."

A look of surprise crosses your face as you lift your gaze and meet his glistening eyes.

"If the roles had been reversed, I would have given up the ring, too. For your life", Elrond states, his eyes solely focused on yours. "Because when it concerns you, I'm simply too weak. You are my weakness. By giving Nenya to you I thought I could prevent myself from losing it. Instead, I placed the burden upon you."

Your heart beats loudly in your ears, not quite understanding what he is saying.

"But Galadriel-"

"What you saw.. It was a distraction. Galadriel is merely a good friend, whom I love differently", Elrond explains and his voice tells you how sorry he is. "I gave her the pin off my shoulder piece to give her a chance to escape. I couldn't guarantee that it would work, but I took the risk. And I was willing to hurt you by doing so."

He carefully reaches for your hand and you let him take it, continuing to stare at him with glassy eyes as he speaks, your throat dry.

"I am deeply sorry for any pain my actions have inflicted upon you", he apologizes sincerely and lowers his head in regret, some of his brown curls falling into his face. "I couldn't even look at you after that because I could see exactly how badly I had hurt you."

"E-Elrond..", you get out, but you don't even know how to continue or what to say to him. Your emotions are all over the place because you have wanted to hear these words from him for so long, but on the other hand you feel sad because he suffered as well. And if there is one thing you hate more than anything else, it is seeing those you love hurt.

"Another weakness on my part was not telling you about my true feelings earlier. It was unfair since you have always given me nothing but sincerity and affection. My love, I hope you can forgive me and overlook my weaknesses", he says, his voice getting quieter and more humble towards the end, his hand squeezing yours tightly as if you could run away at any moment. What he doesn't know, however, is that with every word he is mending your heart a little bit more.

"I remain hopeful that you will return my love, despite what happened."

He stands before you, probably barely able to stand after days of constant fighting, and pours his heart out to you. He is still in his armour, his face scarred by battle. And you can't help but admire him for it.

Because what he is doing right now is braver than anything he has ever done before.

Without saying a word, you finally pull him towards you and wrap your arms around his neck tightly, his armour pressing against your chest. At first, Elrond didn't expect such a reaction, which is why it takes him a moment until his muscles relax, the burden falling from his shoulders, and his arms sneak around your waist.

"Sometimes I really hate you, Elrond Peredhel", you say against his neck before pulling away from him, hitting his chest plate once to get your point across. Laughing, he takes a step back and protects himself with his arms in front of his chest. You laugh too, but only for a moment until Elrond's smile disappears again as he looks at you.

"Your beauty is truly captivating", he smiles softly and slowly steps closer so that your bodies almost touch. His hand reaches out to tuck a strand of hair behind your pointed ear as he looks back and forth between your eyes, his fingertip gently running over your skin from your ear to your chin. His touch leaves a trail of warmth. A smile twitches at the corner of your mouth and your gaze wanders to his lips.

The world stands still for a moment, all the events of the last few hours forgotten, banished from your thoughts to enjoy this one moment.

When Elrond's lips gently connect with yours, your patched up heart feels like it's about to jump out of your chest. Elrond's hand on your chin pulls you even closer to him, but he does it in such a gentle way that your cheeks turn red. One of your hands searches for support on his armor because your knees feel like they are about to give in. But you know that Elrond would be there to catch you. Your knight in shining armour.

You never want to stop kissing him. How many times have you dreamed of this moment, imagined what it would be like. All your expectations are being exceeded right now.

When Elrond pulls away from you so you can both catch your breath, he leans his forehead against yours gently. You immediately miss the feeling of his lips on yours.

"My love", Elrond whispers against your skin, placing a soft kiss on your forehead. His cheeks took on a shade of red after the kiss and you are certain that his heart is beating against his armour just as fast as yours. Gently, you cup his heated cheek and run your finger over his skin, being careful not to touch any of his wounds. Then you can't stand it any longer, pull him even closer to you and kiss him again, which elicits a surprised gasp from him. Both of you smile into the kiss as he leans in even more.

If it were up to you, this moment would last forever - just you and Elrond and your love for each other. But you know that this is just wishful thinking, that you have tasks to complete, duties to fulfill. After this moment, the world will continue spinning, wars and battles will be fought, history will be written, but now you know that whatever happens, Elrond is by your side. For eternity.

[wisteria-lodge]

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are not interchangeable.

(OR: Why Rosencrantz is the dumb one.)

Okay. First, their character introduction:

GERTRUDE. Your visitation shall receive such thanks  As fits a king’s remembrance. [she's paying them to spy on Hamlet.] ROSENCRANTZ. Both your Majesties  Might, by the sovereign power you have of us,  Put your dread pleasures more into command Than to entreaty. [Not a great opening move. What Rosencrantz is saying IS true, the King and Queen COULD just force them to do whatever. But why remind them of this, and risk upsetting them (and risk not getting paid??) ] GUILDENSTERN. But we both obey,  And here give up ourselves in the full bent  To lay our service freely at your feet,  To be commanded. [Guildenstern covers up Rosencrantz's faux pas, lays on the flattery, and is just much more politic with his 'thank you so much! We're so happy to be here! I am here to support your version of events 100%, whatever it ends up being!']

They later meet up with Hamlet, and at first there's an easy back and forth. Hamlet is friendly, happy to see then. But then Hamlet describes his situation as a "prison"... a red flag which Guildenstern immediately picks up on.

GUILDENSTERN. Prison, my lord? HAMLET.  Denmark’s a prison. ROSENCRANTZ. [doesn't get it] Then is the world one. HAMLET. A goodly one, in which there are many confines, wards, and dungeons, Denmark being one o’ th’ worst. ROSENCRANTZ. [STILL doesn't get it] We think not so, my lord. HAMLET. Why, then, ’tis none to you, for there is nothing  either good or bad but thinking makes it so. To me, it is a prison. ROSENCRANTZ.  Why, then, your ambition makes it one. ’Tis too narrow for your mind. [COMPLETELY wrong, as Hamlet is about to tell him.] HAMLET. O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams. GUILDENSTERN. Which dreams, indeed, are ambition. [Guildenstern is again stepping in to cover for Rosencrantz, by saying... okay, that comment wasn't THAT stupid, since 'dream' and 'ambition' can mean the same thing]  For the very substance of the ambitious is merely  the shadow of a dream. [and I've got some additional thoughts: how can dreams and ambitions imprison you, if they're not real?] HAMLET. [Okay, I'll play, I'll bite.] A dream itself is but a shadow. [I'm talking about bad dreams specifically. A nightmare, like a shadow, isn't 'real' - but it can still affect you.] ROSENCRANTZ. Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality that it is but a shadow’s shadow. [I'm not ambitious! I go with the flow! Wheeee!]

When Hamlet accuses them of spying, it's Guildenstern who asks "What should we say, my lord?" He's giving Hamlet a politic non-answer... what's your game, tell me what you want and maybe I'll do it. But then Rosencrantz starts asking Guildenstern what they're supposed to do... totally giving the game away... which is when Guildenstern makes the call for both of them, and confesses.

Which sets up one of my favorite jokes in the play, because it's just so dumb. Hamlet LOVES it when people are honest with him, so Guildenstern confessing seems to have... unlocked some extra emotional honestly, and Hamlet goes into the "What a piece of work is man" speech, just pouring his heart out, until:

HAMLET. ...what is this quintessence of dust? Man  delights not me, ⟨no,⟩ nor women neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so. ROSENCRANTZ. My lord, there was no such stuff in my  thoughts. HAMLET. Why did you laugh, then, when I said “man  delights not me”?

Hamlet is doing his Hamlet thing. Rosencrantz doesn't get it. He's zoning out. But it sounds like maybe Hamlet is wrapping up, and and then Rosencrantz comes back in right at the end, only to hear him say "Man delights not me."

And giggles.

Because "Man delights not me [anymore]" sounds... kinda gay.

So Hamlet has to roll his eyes and be like oh my god I've ALSO stopped being delighted by woman.

Like that's the joke right? If there is another way to interpret this joke I want to know.

Then, in the next scene, R & G check back in with Claudius to make their first report. Rosencrantz says "[Hamlet] does confess he feels himself distracted/but from what cause he will by no means speak." (He said he feels weird but didn't say why.) Guildenstern comes in with the actually useful thing: "But with a crafty madness keeps aloof/when we would bring him into some confession/of his true state." (Hamlet is 100% faking, because he doesn't want to deal with people.) Which is, y'know. Correct.

I want to skip ahead to after Hamlet's climatic play, where R & G show up with the message that Queen Gertrude is angry with Hamlet, and wants to talk to him. This is very much Guildenstern's scene. He's the one who delivers the message, he's the one who has the back-and-forth with Hamlet about the recorder, culminating in Hamlet's "Do you think I'm easier to be played on than a pipe?" It's such a modern insult I love it. "Do you think you can play me? You can't even play a pipe." But of course that's the insult Hamlet gives Guildenstern, who is at least trying to play the game.

The only part of the scene where Rosencrantz talks is this:

ROSENCRANTZ. Then thus she says: your behavior hath struck her into amazement and admiration. [Hamlet already has this information, Guildenstern already told him. Rosencrantz seems to actually think that the only reason Hamlet isn't coming is because he doesn't understand what to do.] HAMLET.  O wonderful son that can so ’stonish a mother! [*Deliberately* misunderstanding Rosencrantz. Making fun of... the way Rosencrantz tends to misunderstand things] But is there no sequel at the heels of this mother’s admiration? Impart. ROSENCRANTZ.  She desires to speak with you in her closet ere you go to bed. HAMLET.  We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. Have you any further trade with us? [This switch into the plural pronouns, and shift in register means that he is MASSIVELY pulling rank on Rosencrantz. It's an insult. Hamlet is saying "Why are you wasting my time?"] ROSENCRANTZ.  My lord, you once did love me. (... ) what is your cause of distemper? You do surely bar the door upon your own liberty if you deny your griefs to your friend. [I find this line heartbreaking, because it's honest. Rosencrantz really, authentically, does not get it. Hamlet was his friend, and now he's not. Something is bothering Hamlet, and he doesn't know what. And that's as far as he can go.]

The last bit I want to look at is the final solo interaction R & G have with Hamlet before he kills them (spoilers.)

HAMLET. (...) to be demanded of a sponge, what replication should be made by the son of a king? [Back to pulling rank] ROSENCRANTZ. Take you me for a sponge, my lord? [Doesn't get it] HAMLET. Ay, sir, that soaks up the King’s countenance, his rewards, his authorities. (...) When he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again. [When Hamlet insults Guildenstern it's - you're trying to play the game but you're bad at it. His insult to Rosencrantz is - you sponge. you don't have a single original thought or impulse in your head. Everything in there is something someone else put there, and the only reason the King keeps you around is to use you.] ROSENCRANTZ. I understand you not, my lord. [Doesn't get it.] HAMLET.  I am glad of it. A knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear. [Directly calling Rosencrantz a fool.] ROSENCRANTZ. My lord, you must tell us where the body is and go with us to the King. [Doesn't know what to do, reverting back to just doing his job, therefore proving Hamlet's point.] HAMLET. The body is with the King, but the King is not with the body. The King is a thing— [Hamlet is doing a Hamlet, riffing on the idea that Claudius isn't really king, etc.] GUILDENSTERN. A “thing,” my lord? [Guildenstern hasn't actually said anything in a second. And this line... always feels cold to me. Cold, and a little angry. Because Hamlet is insulting the king by calling him a "thing," after he just insulted Rosencrantz by calling him an object. Rosencrantz didn't pick up on that... but GUILDENSTERN did. "Thing" is also slang for dick - Hamlet is calling the king a dick - and there might be an undercurrent of "is this really the time for dick jokes?"] HAMLET. Of nothing. [This does continue the dick joke. Nothing = no thing = vagina (in shakespearean slang) So, yeah, Claudius is not only a dick, he's a... pussy (sigh.) Claudius is also "nothing" as in worthless ect, but I actually think this is a three-way pun, because Hamlet was also JUST talking about Rosencrantz having no substance. Being "nothing" in the sense that he's an extension of Claudius, the "thing of nothing."

So yeah. It's Shakespeare. Ending the scene on a viciously insightful three-way pun... that is also a dick joke.

[evilminji]

You know, i just had the mental image of a sith in star wars finding a ritual or something to summon a ghost and end up summoning danny, while in space. The sith is struggling to try and convince this otherworldly being to help them do evil and their just staring out the nearest viewport in awe about the amount of new space things to discover.

How does it feel? To have such a big and wrinkly brain? So full of smartness?? :O

That? Is Brilliant~☆

It could be a Krell situation. Stress of the war got to be too much. Or a Dooku situation, discontent fed and fed until it burst. Like a silently festering wound, left unseen and untreated.

Regardless of HOW it happened?

The lil shit steals from Madame Nu. Like a CRAZY PERSON.

Rightfully terrified that she will Kick Their Ass into the stratosphere for touching HER archives, they head straight for the "Sith Stuff". What does it DO? What RESEARCH did they do? HA! You ask too much of them! There is no PLAN here!

Their brain has gone to SOUP with the Dark Side. It's all wild mood swings and impulse decisions! Research and careful precautions takes PATIENCE. Planning. The calm and rationality they just THREW OUT AN AIR LOCK.

They are high on the initial high of the Dark Side that few, if any, Dark Siders ever SURVIVE. That TEST of their character and control, as they stand in the storm they have unleashed upon themselves.

You want POWER?

Okay.

HAVE IT.

Like trying to swallow a waterfall. Drink the ocean, one cup at a time. Endless, yes, but equally so? It is BRINE. Not the life giving waters of the Light. The more you drink... the deeper your thirst. The faster you die. Can you control yourself? Suffer it? For that's all that's left... suffering. Thirst. Endless, Endless Thirst.

Water water everywhere, and it shall grind your bones to DUST when next you drink.

Welcome to the Dark Side! Was it WORTH it?

But, ah, our Fallen's brain is muddled soup. They think so. They are not themselves. May never be again. That's why it's a tragedy. Because it both IS and ISN'T their hands that takes that Sith artifact. Because who they WERE would be appalled.

They don't even know what they are grabbing, do they? No one does. Seized from the ruins of a laboratory. Long dead horrors, painted upon the walls. A Sith's obsession with the afterlife of his people. Ghosts. Beings that were, supposedly, DIFFERENT then Force Ghosts.

The notes speak of "green". A vision or experience in his youth. Brief. The world tearing open. A gate to somewhere "green". The Sith believed it was the afterlife. Felt death inside the gate. Described as "peaceful, joyful, driven, and eternal", he was ultimately unable to full articulate the full scope of what he believed he saw.

Now his last device is in the hands of a fallen jedi.

Who is going to USE it.

P A N I C

Obviously, the Temple gaurds chase the crazy mofo as hard as they can. Without a DOUBT, every master on hand and available, is roped in by Madame Nu to FOLLOW that psychopath, before he unleashs FORCE KNOWS WHAT, directly over CORUSCANT AIRSPACE!!! The SENATE. THE TEMPLE?! HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF LIVES!?

Fallen McFuckface? Clearly did not think this through (nooooo, REALLY? Everyone is SHOCKED! Shocked, they tell you!), panics. Which is, unfortunately, the LAST thing they wanted them to do. FUCK™.

Masters and Knights are LITERALLY cutting through the hull, kicking down the door, they can survive limited Space exposure and honestly? We're not THAT high yet! Let's see you jump to hyperspace with HOLES in your ship! (Fucking, DONT GIVE THEM IDEAS! They're insane, remember?!) (Shit. You're right.)

When?

.......Green...~¤~

Hilariously? The Sith can plan all they want. But you can NEVER plan for stupid. Make a plan idiot proof, as they say, and the Universe will just build a better idiot. All that carefully curated misery, hatred, and suffering? That DISPAIR. The webs upon webs of Darkness carefully spread across the Senate district? Choking the Temple?

Mmmmm, tasty kindling. Good fuel! Sith Artifact LIKEY~!

It RIPS and TEARS. A screaming MAW IN THE SKY. A black hole for Dark Side energy that takes and takes and TAKES. Dropping people all across the district below. KILLING the particularly irredeemably monstrous. After all~!

The Force? Is in all things.

You DON'T have to be Force Sensitive, to Fall. Just a BASTARD. Just cruel and selfish, hateful and needlessly petty. All the things that would sour and turn a Jedi? Can sour and turn YOU too. Just slower, quiter, and with less explosions. But! It still wraps the Dark around your bones. Feeds it into your blood.

Kills you, when it all gets ripped away.

One must wonder.... how many Senators die instantly? And how many die in the days to come? Slowly, painfully, bed-bound as they reflect on who they had become? The fall out will be SPECTACULAR.

The Jedi's fault? How? How is their being stretched so thin they could not mount a proper response THEIR fault? How is YOUR corruption, THEIR fault? Please note all the individuals who were FINE! Baffled, but FINE!

But perhaps you are correct.

Perhaps, for the safety of ALL, we should MOVE our main Temple.

We've done it before. We can do it again. Or do you not want to HAVE that conversation? Hmmm? No, no, we wouldn't want to be a THREAT to you FINE people! You HONORABLE senators! Please, continue to yell and make demands! SEE HOW FAR IT GETS YOU!

Would they normally send someone more diplomatic? Yes. But STRANGELY all of THEM had weird SITH Darkness on them that got violently ripped off! They are in the halls of healing. Unconscious. Because getting Sith shit, that was hooked into your brain, violently ripped out? Not GREAT! 0 out of 10 healers recommend!

Fuuuuck you! Yes, I bite! And be warned, my Race is VENOMOUS! *aggravated Jedi Senior Padawan noises, hissing*

Danny? Got pulled out in FULL regalia. Just FULL on Ice and Stars. Full "I am the Cosmos beholding itself, I am the dead child you could not save.", beyond vanta-black armor and cape like a window to ever shifting stars, crown of aurora borealis playing off the eternal ice, all upon a youngling that seems forever floating... frozen in time. By death.

Was it sacrifice? Natural? Is it just a shape the spirit takes? IS he a youngling?

They both can and can not feel him.

Both can and can not SEE him.

He is so young....

A child king, hsmiles with such shared grief, when they look upon that too large crown, upon a head that should never have been forced to wear it. Like a child, forced to wear his father's mantle too soon. Is that what happened? Was it something worse? They can not bring themselves to ask.

Not when he is so... so DELIGHTED?

Playing with the younglings. In AWE of each and everyone of them. The things they learned each day. "Who wants to go flying?" "Try to float me!" "I believe in you." Oh, he BASKS in their Light like a desperate thing. Showers them with praise and attention, gentle corrections and undivided attention.

He is empathic. Alive and dead. Fascinated by the stars.

And of course... King™.

No, no, he's not interested in your Senate. Doesn't like um, Doesn't trust um. The vibes are RANCID. But I mean... if you REALLY need an army so bad? Since it seems you guys are pushing yourself WAY outside of your normal duties? Like, he doesn't know, uhhh farmers burning crops to prevent starvation? Something like that.

Just? Since you hate it? But are worried people will die? Or those Clone guys (Sweet! Clones! Ellie is gonna be HYPED.) Are gonna die? He could, you know... fix that for you?

JUST you.

We're gonna have to get it in writing. And they won't do anything BUT stop the robots and help people. They don't actually answer to you. Soooo.....?

.......are you offering us an army? (Yeah. An endless skeleton army. Lead by the greatest Generals to have ever died.).....(they get bored.)

And SUDDENLY? Oh look! The Galactic suffering levels? Just fucking DROPPED. All those SENTIENT Clone soldiers! Dying in vain, in agony, ALONE? Not happening! Skeletons can get blasted apart, fade, reassemble, and march RIGHT BACK OUT! This is GREAT fun!

And even better? Unlike with Pariah? THIS time they march? King PHANTOM is sending them to HELP people! Woooooo! Destroy metal crunchy things! Help clean up rubble! Build a house! Rescue trapped people from rubble! Tireless effort! Honor and service! Thanks for the FREE METAL! *rips apart your robots*

There are no anti-ecto technologies here! The BEST they have is Force users! Which? Ha ha ha! GOOD LUCK. That's what? One? TWO? Of you?? To HOW MANY of us??? *cackles in bone army*

And! If they happen upon OTHER things they don't like? Whoop! Should'a thought of that! Before being a DICK! King Phantom says slavery is ILLEGAL. And we, the FORMER slave army of King Pariah, have Millennium Long ISSUES with that! (Easy to remove that chip, when you can reach THROUGH a person. Here you Slaver FUCK. YOU have it! In fact! Have ALL of them. From each and every slave.)

Anikin LOVES his new Bone friends. They are WONDERFUL. Him n them? Bonded. He's made them all speech boards. They're plotting the gruesome end of the Hutt cartel together. He's showing them the holo of his wedding. They're making Super Advanced Chip scan-.....

W....Why is his scanner going off? There should be nothing near by for it to recognize. The only thing HERE is him, his Bone Buddies, and Rex for supervision.... *mounting horror as he slowly waves the device around* *beep*

R-Rex?

...

......

The Clones? De-chipped in like... two days. There are too many skeletons to NOT have them be able to just? *reach in, feel for the Non-Clone bit, grab it, pull out* didn't even need surgery! But boy, oh, boy! Is Anikin upset. That sure is a Slave chip! Hey, Kamino! Have a Chosen One and his Bones Bros! Some Clones in orbit with Real Big Guns.

And Palatine? Is? PISSED.

His whole ass Empire is dissolving in his hands. The Sith Master Plan! Going up in smoke! Walls are closing in! All because of ONE(1) glowing BRAT.

Wanna bet he goes after him... with LIGHTNING? In human form, of course. Danny. Who DIED to electricity. Who has, throughout ALL of this? Been chilling in the Jedi temple, finally... FINALLY! Unwinding. Putting down the stress on his shoulders. Healing from his childhood. Cuddling cute babies and laying on the grass to nap, listen to the waterfall. Be at PEACE, surrounded by the Light of the Jedi.

Danny, who has been making friends. Enjoying the archives. For once in his stressful, STRESSFUL life? Letting OTHER PEOPLE deal with it. Playing with alien puppies and weird not-cats. Trying new foods! Seeing about adopting some droids that Tucker might get on with. Sorry "buying" some droids. (As though those Restraining Bolts aren't coming off the SECOND they droids are in his hands.)

It's been cool. Relaxing. Great for his mental health.

They have folks LITERALLY called Mind Healers here! Jazz would love it!

So obviously Sith face ruins it. Hurts his friends and blasts him with LIGHTNING. The kids are crying and terrified. This was supposed to be some sort of "learn about how the Republic works" day trip to the Senate! He was helping chaperone. They are being so, SO brave. Staying together. Trying to get their teacher out of harms ways.

He? Is? PISSED.

How DARE you. How FUCKING DARE YOU?! A fight between adults? Not his Reality, not his business. Clockwork drilled that into his head. He CAN'T keep the Multiverse together. Fight every fight for everyone, save everything. People have free will. Have to decide for THEMSELVES. Choose to do the right thing.

It doesn't mean SHIT if they don't save themselves. Wont last, in the end, because they won't have LEARNED a damn thing. He GETS that! But KIDS?! Ooooh ho ho! He DRAWS THE LINE AT KIDS! At shocking the SHIT out of him with LIGHTNING!

You want to poke the sleeping titan 'til it wakes up?

Well congrats!

YOU HAVE HIS ATTENTION NOW!

*inhale*

*Wail*

Palpatine goes through the HOLE where about fifteen walls USED to be. Half of Coruscant physically hears it and EVERYONE with even a TOUCH of Force sensitivity FEELS it. Across the entire planet and up into orbit.

Dying screams and the crackle of electricity. Regret. Fear. The desperate need to protect, in your final moment. Pain and pressure, the cool slide of Death come to take it all away. You were just fourteen. You were just fourteen! You died screaming, you came back screaming, in the place between... will you ever stop screaming?

You are the Galaxy, the Cosmos, the INFINITE. You are just a child.

How many souls died screaming?

Can't you hear ALL OF THEM?

Pissed or not, kids come first. Fuuuuuck that guy. Danny picks up the teacher, the kids, and back to the Temple they go. Teacher survives. Kids cling. Senate gets itself into a snit over the "unprovoked attack". But the thing is? A whole CLASS of Baby Jedi say the Chancellor is the Sith Lord. Look too spooked to be lying. Their teacher, too WOUNDED for this to be a prank.

The Jedi close rank.

Palpatine tries to use the Clones.

You know... the De-chipped by their Bone Bros Clones.

Commander Fox? Gets to finally, FINALLY(!!!) live out his long time fantasy... of shooting the fucker. Slug thrower. Tragically, fails to kill him. But the attempt WAS enthusiastic! We applaud his attempt. Commander Fox gets to join Danny in the Gardens, under a Crechelings pile, staring at the stain glass ceiling and Not Thinking Or Having Responsibilities.

Huh.... kid's right. This IS nice.

Fox enjoys being a climb-able lump for the Crechelings. Welcome to the club, my dude.

The other Jedi? THEY can figure it out. The Temple is literally unassailable. If needs be, his army can PICK IT UP AND MOVE IT. Danny is Vibin. Have a fruit. You hear about Skywalker? Making pretty good ground on his whole "one man and massive bone army campaign against Slavery" thing. Missed the whole.... his buddy was an asshole reveal. Apparently reception is spotty. *shrugs*

His wife's nice though! *various married Jedi agree, Obi-Wan continues to sulk because: "REALLY?! You didn't even INVITE ME!? My own Padawan! To his WEDDING! Anikin how COULD YO-!?"*

[sylvieserene]

currently thinking about how dark enchantress is technically WLC and how maybe her weakness is still PVC deep down

It definitely could be true.

While I was writing the chapters for my PureLily fic, Love is like a Poison , I found myself pondering about it in my free time lol mainly to get a better understanding of WL's character

Idk if I have said this here before but I see White Lily Cookie and Dark Enchantress cookie as Kagome and Kikyo from Inuyasha as their characters resemble eachother perfectly.

Just like Kagome and Kikyo, both are the same as they share the same soul but with two different halves and beings.

When their souls split and DE was born, they got divided in two halves.

Just like Dark Enchantress Cookie's birth was through a tragic event and basically the "death" of White Lily Cookie where she split in two

As shown in her gacha animation too

Kikyo's tragic "death" is what caused the birth of her reincarnation

But also a hollow version of her when she was brought to life again unfairly.

Just like the Shikon Jewel which shall never again choose her or shine for her in her rebirth, the light of freedom shall NEVER shine for DE because just like Kikyo, upon death both of them were reincarnated as former shells of themselves, born with only resentment, revenge and hatred towards the world, the last feeling they felt before they died.

WL got to keep the love and kindness part of her soul while DE got born with her dark hatred, jealousy resentment, angry and regretful side. Just like Kagome got born with love and empathy while Kikyo got born with anger and resentment because of how unfair life had been to her previous to her "reincarnation" (Inuyasha fans will know)

Just like her, DE is also more than happy to get rid of her "other half" as it is the part she is missing and she.... doesn't want to acknowledge that

She doesn't want the reminder of the pain when she went through at all.

Just like DE, she (Kikyo) lived a miserable existence as she couldn't accept the fact that Kagome (who is basically her reincarnated in modern time, sharing her soul and heart) exists and Inuyasha (whom she loved) still loved her (just like she loved him) and wanted to reach a conclusion. She continued to hate him, but still kept reaching out to him. She didn't get liberated until she found closure from him.

I see White Lily Cookie and Dark Enchantress Cookie's character in the same light because underneath all that hatred and anger, DE, as much as she likes to pretend she doesn't care, she cares a lot.

Which is evitable with her question here.

Just like WL, who asks the same question.

Despite everything, DE is still what WL is, but just a former shell of it for she only got her hatred while WL got to keep the love and kindness she possessed at heart.

At the end, DE is merely a shadow of what WL is and would forever be incomplete without her. Deep at heart, despite the anger and resentment, DE is still is doing what she feels like is in the best interest for Cookie Kind. Not to attain world dominance, not to get all that power for herself but trying to "fix" the world in a way she feels is right

All of these wars and atrocities? All of this is still for the "help" of others.

Mainly because Dark Enchantress Cookie still cares.

She is still that scared White Lily Cookie with anger and fear clinging her heart as she fell to her ultimate doom.

That girl who thought she can change the world single handedly.

The girl who failed.

The girl who lost her life in the process and is angry about it.

The dead girl still saying "Only I can offer a path to unity."

Just like Kikyo, who also seeked to "fix" the world after she got reincarnated with just hatred

DE is still trying to do what's best for everyone even if it means casualties and hurting everyone in the process.

Something WL, being morally grey, also has done to reach the "truth" (not this severely ofc cuz she still held love and kindness, smth de lacks) but did all the same and perhaps even continues to do so without realising. But she recognises this flaw and is trying her best to fix it.

This is why, I can confidently say Dark Enchantress Cookie has deeply suppressed feelings still for Pure Vanilla cookie and vise versa.

Because again underneath that soul less shell, she still is an extension or perhaps a part of WL, who still carries similar feelings and sentiment over things she cares about.

And no matter what she tries, it keeps showing.

White Lily Cookie is consciously aware that Pure Vanilla Cookie is her major weak spot. Something which even Shadow Milk Cookie catches on very quickly.

Even Dark Enchantress cookie is aware that perhaps only Pure Vanilla cookie who, as much as she'd like to discard her past, continues to be someone she sees as a threat because he can stop her, not just via power but via being himself

And it shows, over and over again.

"Especially you"

Even back when she met him all over again, she's like "So you finally admit you were an idiot aye?"

When PV tries to talk about it, she goes

She is amused and curious. Because she does know this guy was close to her. She knows his deal, she is interested in hearing his side even though frankly she got no reason. She still has an interest over him.

But she recognises this instantly so she doesn't even let him speak lol

Because while she is interested, she is still angry. As evidenced here:

The interesting thing here is, she glares. Because she still recognises that something about him still makes her feel ...weak

Which is why her next question was this

She questions her weakness despite Pomegranate never even mentioning anything about it and just saying "as long as pv is here, the echoes of the past will continue in this castle"

Which is why, DE inorder to get rid of this, tries to kill him lol because she knows Pomegranate is right and that she won't be able to do anything if PV just keeps being himself because no matter how hard she wants to throw away her past, that strange pull for him would never go because he is a major part of it.

What better way to stop making yourself feel bad but by simply getting rid of the thing causing that hurt especially when you're in an eternal cycle of anger and resentment and are incapable of thinking rationally emotion-wise?

She is still angry at him for sealing her and if we go deeper, not getting/understanding her. Which ultimately lead to her doom and cause DE because like I said, underneath all those layers, WL still is alive in DE, in a form who is angry at PV for not understanding her even before anything happened. Something which ultimately led them to splitting paths as even PV admits, he didn't get her and which is what led to both of realising that they gotta part ways, leading to WL's expedition to beast yeast for searching the truth and for PV to stay back and help crispia and his kingdom.

Both did things for helping others.

Their goals aligned but at the same time, they didn't.

Because neither of them got eachother.

Because unfortunate timing.

PV valued his Kingdom more than searching the world with her for a truth they may never find.

This is why when she "meets" him again in Creme Republic, she is almost disappointed at him lol

To the point you can interpret it as "You are still an idiot and you are talking to me?! Stfu"

Just like she was disappointed back at banquet because despite all this time, he has still not seen the "error" in his ways according to her.

He still didn't understand her vision.

This is why, this is exactly why DE is the way she is to him.

She is still deeply affected by him. Even if she doesn't admit it, she still cares a lot. She still has deeply suppressed feelings for him which make her question herself even when literally no one on earthbread is capable of doing so.

She doesn't understand these complex feelings because she never processed her anger. She is permanently incapable of processing these feelings because her other half got that part and now she is merely a husk of what she was.

Just like Pure Vanilla Cookie still questioned his feelings for White Lily Cookie (whom he knew had become Dark Enchantress Cookie), Dark Enchantress cookie definitely questions hers but in a way she is capable of mentally and in her own way.

Pure Vanilla Cookie is what Inuyasha is to Kagome/Kikyo. He recognises the soul of White Lily Cookie even when she can't find it out because he truly loves her. He didn't just love her, he fell in love with her soul. He recognised it was WL in his final moments of the Dark flour war as his eyes went wide which is why he sealed her instead of killing her and along with that sealed his own memories because he couldn't bear this anymore.

This is why when told again that de is wl, he accepts it relatively fast because he knows, he knew and was in intentional denial because he didn't want her to be that.

This is also why he is the one approached by the light of freedom because it also knows that only he has the ability to know the true WL and recognise her being.

This is also why he is more than happy to get WL despite her being half alive to the point of him being willing to die just to get her back because he loves her soul and he wants that part, the one whom he fell for, come back to life and wake up.

This is also why again and again back when he didn't know the entire debacle of WL and thought she is gone for good in exchange of DE, he tried to explain her over and over again that there still was time and she can come back if she wants because he didn't want to seal her, not when he clearly recognises that it's her, it's still the same soul he fell for but now against him.

This is why he happily embraces WL back when she is alive again because he realises that she and DE are not the same despite being the same soul.

Because he fell for WL and not her but he can still/might have residual feelings because at the end, they're still part of each other but he'll always love WL more because DE and WL are no longer the same. But he will definitely always have a spot for DE too cuz that's a fragment of WL too. A part of her too.

So does that mean DE has feelings for PV? Highly possible because it's clear that she's still drawn to him and what he has to say. She still holds him in high regards despite what she likes to admit to herself.

So yes, it is very possible that DE still has deeply suppressed feelings for PV just like he did for her once (before WL woke up) but she would NEVER voice them because caught in a cycle of eternal anger, pain and resentment, she has lost the ability long ago to process these emotions.

Just like Kikyo continued to love Inuyasha but couldn't say it out loud despite her evil birth, despite everything, still continued to subtly show so as she became incapable of love in her new unfair "birth", DE shall always remain this tragic character with an unfair fate and life incapable of emotions and feelings other than hatred.

This is also why, these 3 shall always remain my favourite characters as WL is not a Mary Sue, she is a deeply complicated, complex character who deserves all the love she gets along with PV.

[demonslayerunhinged]

Unhinged yap

Monthly reminder that THIS is OFFICIAL ART

The Ufotable staff are basically telling us that Sanemi and Giyuu canonically have a thing for each other. I've never seen official art that's as blatant as this-even from anime franchises that have a lot more queer-baiting, like you don't even need to draw an outline and connect the dots, it's RIGHT THERE.

Shout-out to this absolute Queen, who opened my eyes! May her Ws be many and her bitches abundant 🙌

Call me stupid(no, you're stupid!), call me a delusional fujoshi who likes to 'fetishize' gay people (despite being gay herself).

Side note: The belief that people who hc characters as queer are just straight girls who fetishize gay men doesn't make sense because straight people aren't the only ones who watch anime.

Anime has a lot of queer fans and of course they're going to find characters that they love, identify with and ship. So to discredit queer ships as just 'women being fujoshis' is imo homophobia with extra steps with a sprinkle of your basic misogyny ✨

Anyway, If you headcanon these lads as straight, more power to you! If you genuinely believe they're straight that's okay, but to look at stuff like this and call it reaching is just being disingenuous.

Sanemi straight up said he's not interested in women, Giyuu's feelings and recollection of Sabito reads like a widow who lost her beloved husband, Sanemi being a tsundere with Masachika, and that's not even including how Sanemi and Giyuu's interactions read like two exes who broke up due to miscommunication, repressed feelings, and the inability to properly express themselves, the parallels in their stories, the fact that the last image of them is this

They look like a married couple 😭

If you still don't believe with all this evidence, then that's okay. The aim of this post is to tell sngysn shippers that are feeling uneasy because they think they're being delusional or reading into it too much.

You're not delusional, this ship isn't forced, there's so much evidence that I've collected-that I can provide if you want. I've studied Sanemi's chapter in the light novel with annotations and shit, plus both Sanemi and Giyuu's backstories. I'm reading up on Samurai culture and history, I have studied the blade-literally.

Remember their collab scene. They have matching tsubas (handguards)! Look at the whirly pattern for both, the tsuba on Giyuu's katana is the water version of Sanemi's pinwheel tsuba!

So my fellow SNGYSN brethren, let's put aside our differences and arguments on which dynamic is better(it's gysn obvs), if you're queer or straight and feel so strongly about this ship and can or cannot put your finger on why, hell even if you're a casual fan and just really like the characters lots, or even if you just want to piss off a homophobic animebro. Girlies, I gotchu 🙏

Here's my GiyuuSane masterlist which can also apply to SaneGiyuu as well.

Here's my ever expanding folder of gysn official images where they're always put next to each other or in suggestive poses.

You can also get stuff from my discord(shameless plug 👀), I yap a lot about them on there and share my annotations and drabbles and stuff.

Feel free to use it-with credit of course 😊, for the analysis and the discord stuff, you can use the images without the credit since they're not mine.

Also shout-out to the MasaSane and SabiGiyuu shippers! They're our allies, our backbone, our Rohan shall Answer to our Gondor calls for Aid, our Knights of the Vale to our Battle of the Bastards. We need them!!!!

SaneGiyuuSane, SabiGiyuu and MasaSane shippers when the see each other in the wild be like

The only person who can refute me is Gotouge-sensei herself, and even then Id be skeptical-and coughing up blood. The 'coincidences' are just too much! So yeah that's all I have to say in this post. Yes I'll always make everything about GiyuuSane, they mean everything to me.

And you can try to stop my dancin' feet But I just cannot stand still 'Cause the world keeps spinning 'Round and 'round And my heart's keeping time To the speed of sound I was lost 'til I heard the drums Then I found my way 'Cause you can't stop the beat

Sanemi and Giyuu are gay, they're dumb and they're in love!

Thanks for reading my overly dramatic rambles! 🩷

[thyandrawrites]

A look into Li Lun's obsession with choices, and the thematic weight of being understood

Thinking about how Li Lun’s motivator for most of the actions he takes post-break up is a wish to be understood is so fascinating to me because it ties so well into many of the themes of the show. And at the same time, it makes me so sad because so much of that wish comes from the baggage of that messy break-up itself. From the mistaken conclusions he draws from it, and that Zhao Yuanzhou doesn’t really dispel, either. 

According to Li Lun, “friend” is a human term. Throughout the show, demons are said to be different from mortals in that they don't have a structured society. They don't follow rules and laws like humans because they're more primal, obeying instincts and self-interest, since they don't have a collective to answer to. I find this very interesting because if that's true, then it sounds like it was Zhao Yuanzhou, Humanities student extraordinaire, who first slapped a human label to his relationship with Li Lun, defining it as the act of “sharing joy and sorrow” with someone. 

This definition is one that Li Lun seems to accept, up to a point. He even extends its meaning to encompass eternity, making it part of their vows to each other when they infuse their powers to restore the Divine Tree. The line didn't make it to the final version of the show, but here’s how it goes: “To protect the Great Wilderness and die together. To share both joy and sorrow, until death brings it to an end.” (source)

I'm italicizing the last part, spoken by Li Lun, because it sheds light to the weight he gives to this promise. To him, accepting the other as a lifelong companion is not only a given, but also a solemn vow that only death can break. This is further emphasized later on, when he tells Zhao Yuanzhou “The day the malicious energy in your body goes out of control shall be the day the mortal world gets buried with you. By then, I wonder if your friends will choose to kill you or die with you?” 

I think we can take this to mean that Li Lun defines “close friendship” as the ride-or-die willingness to stay unfalteringly at someone's side, even in the face of the world's ostracism and name-calling. At the very least, it connects neatly to what he puts Zhuo Yichen through in the demonization arc. By making ZYC experience the same scorn LL can’t escape, he hopes to make him understand what it's like to be a great demon in a world that hates their kind. Ironically, he does succeed in that. He just ends up not being the intended recipient of it. 

This is the root of Li Lun's character: his struggle to grapple with the complexity of human emotions and intentions.

Li Lun is the type to process conflict as action and reaction. A simple cause and effect that follows natural order. He takes pride in facing things head on, never backing away from anything, so he isn't really equipped to deal with subterfuge or manipulation, which are distinctly human things. Despite knowing and resenting how deceitful mortals are, he’s never prepared for their duplicity. We could say that he’s watched reality through the Truth Eye for so long, he started trusting that his eyes cannot fool him, that he will always know when someone is lying. 

Adding to this, Li Lun is characterized as being more true to his demon nature than Zhao Yuanzhou, who instead tries to escape his own (which he associates with loss of control) and to seek refuge in humanity. Where ZYZ comes to associate an excess of malicious energy as something bad and shameful because he’s the Vessel, Li Lun embraces the darkness inside of him because he sees it as part of who he is. He’s a great demon and a Pagoda Ghost, a tree that attracts malicious energy naturally. So of course he’s meant to have power flowing through his body, and being an extremely forthright person and inflexible in thinking, he sees nothing shameful in taking pride in who he is, in never wanting to be anything else. He firmly rejects wanting to be human, despite how clear it becomes later on that he envies mortals for having an easier time being understood. 

By contrast, Zhao Yuanzhou seeks to escape his own nature – or rather, he seeks to escape the instinctual bloodthirst that he sees as inherent to demon nature. To quote a relevant dialogue here, ZYZ tells this to WX: “Humans are naturally human because they were born humans. While demons need to cultivate hard to become humans. Monsters are simple, but instinctively bloodthirsty. We are more like animals.” To which WX replies: “They want to hunt when they’re hungry. When they’re in danger, they bare their fangs. Humans are a type of animal, but over the course of time, they have created civilization, defined good and evil, and formulated laws and regulations.” 

In other words, Zhao Yuanzhou spends hundreds of thousands of years of cultivation to “become more human” because he is afraid of letting his demon nature dictate his actions. Being the Vessel, the malicious energy inside of him far exceeds anyone else's. Giving way to his instincts is akin to letting his dormant violence run amok and cause irreparable havoc. As a result, he wishes to learn from their civility and resourcefulness. He will always attempt the human way of tackling problems first. Not with raw power the way a demon would, but with human craftiness, cleverness, subterfuge. This is not to say he isn’t above using violence when it suits him too, but he doesn’t default to it with the same lack of remorse Li Lun shows. 

This, however, creates a rift between them: when they discover the dungeons under the clinic, they react in opposite ways to the sorrow in their hearts. Li Lun gives in to his most basic nature. To quote Wen Xiao, he bares his fangs like a wounded animal backed into a corner, wishing to defend itself against a threat. Zhao Yuanzhou, however, had planned to deescalate first, to seek a solution that didn't involve killing more people to correct a wrong. But in a twist of fate, he accidentally hits Li Lun with the Ever Burning Wood, in what is perhaps the cruelest, most treacherous weapon to use against a tree demon. Against a close friend. And that’s a betrayal of everything they’ve ever shared. 

What happened to their vows to each other? If a friend is someone who's meant to share sorrow and joy with, how come Zhao Yuanzhou doesn't share any of the fury Li Lun is going through? Why does he question him instead, calls him crazy? If he cared about protecting the Wilderness, why would he get in the way of punishing humans for how they treat demons? 

To Li Lun, who is so ride-or-die loyal, Zhao Yuanzhou taking the Baize goddess’ side and helping her seal him was more devastating than the fire itself. I can only imagine what it feels like to dedicate 34000 years to someone, only to lose them overnight over your first real fight. This is made worse by the fact that Li Lun admits he had nothing else to call his own, after losing Zhu Yan. His only real match in the whole vast world. The only one that ever understood him. And then ZY goes and picks new friends in a species that has always been deceitful and cruel, lesser and treacherous. 

With his more simplistic, more animalistic thinking, Li Lun can’t make sense of ZY’s motivations. He keeps making it a matter of choices, like it was as simple as picking a side. Why would Zhu Yan defend the oppressors, if he alone had enough power to stomp on the whole mortal realm and wipe it out? Why would he keep surrounding himself with liars and weaklings, if he already had a trusted friend who never lied to him and was always his equal in everything? His new companions don't even come close to ZYZ's level. What does he see in them that LL didn't have? ….was he lying from the start about seeing him as a friend? 

After all, Li Lun has always struggled to parse complex motivators. Since he doesn’t understand that ZYZ’s dislike for giving in to your most basic instincts comes from self-loathing, he takes Zhao Yuanzhou’s attempt at stopping him as hatred for him. So when ZYZ opposes him for the first time, Li Lun makes it a black and white matter. Zhao Yuanzhou hates him because Li Lun killed humans, and killing humans is the thing Zhao Yuanzhou hates the most in the world. 

Of course, we know this is a broad oversimplification. ZYZ’s morality is much more complex than that. Not only has he killed innocent people himself whenever it suited his agenda (the guard at the DHB in episode 1, the pagoda tree girl), but he also had no issue sympathizing with demons who killed a lot of humans, too (Ran Yi, Qing Geng). He also kept Li Lun's primordial root the entire time, was hesitant to oppose him in any way that mattered every time Li Lun possessed someone to target him, and even pleaded ZYC to spare Li Lun’s life. 

None of this paints the picture of a guy who left him in the past. From the outside, however, that’s exactly the impression he gives. You have to know that he did those things, to realize that he still cares. For his part, he never really tries to smooth things over between them. Notably, it’s not even him that offers the root to Li Lun — the thing that finally breaks their miscommunication; it’s Wen Xiao that has to step in and do it for him. But why does Zhao Yuanzhou let it fester for that long? 

If he doesn’t do anything about it sooner, I think it’s because he attributes their separation entirely on Li Lun, citing how it was his choice to “go their separate ways.” It was Li Lun who gave him an umbrella, a symbol of parting for humans, and it was again Li Lun that couldn't forgive him for the accident with the Ever Burning Wood. 

But if Li Lun's rampage wasn't enough to cross him off Zhao Yuanzhou's heart… if he still longs for his presence at his side enough to dream of him alongside the dead Zhao Wan'er at his table, sharing tea together… Then his continued avoidance is meant to tell us more about his character flaws, than any contempt he might have for Li Lun's methods. 

The idea, I think, is that Zhao Yuanzhou cannot face Li Lun after condemning him to burn to his death, even if he didn't do it on purpose. After all, it wouldn't be the first time he beat himself up for things that were entirely out of his control, but that caused so much pain and misery. What's for sure is that ZYZ has a pattern: he always chooses self-punishment to deal with his regret, rather than spend effort into making amends. It's Zhuo Yichen who exposes this flaw of his first, but we have several examples of it throughout the story. Avoiding a proper confrontation with Li Lun until he's backed into dealing with his messy baggage is one. The fact that he kept his identity a secret to Wen Xiao upon meeting her again is another. Then of course there is his ultimate sacrifice itself, giving up his life to repay his “debt” to Zhuo Yichen. 

So it’s a mix of his fear of confronting his past + Li Lun's inability to parse complexity that causes the rift between them. Li Lun becomes convinced that he was easy to discard, despite having been close enough to share destiny itself up until now. And that in turn amps up his belief that it is truly impossible to tell what lies inside a person's mind. After all, even someone he's known intimately for 34000 years ended up harboring what Li Lun perceives as human duplicity – the ability to hypocritically call someone a close friend, only to turn your back on them without warning. 

This is not to say that Li Lun is incapable of lying or manipulation, by the way. He lies to all the demons he cooperates with. He lies to himself about what he wants all the time. His character hang-up is specifically how unprepared he always is to face deceit when he feels common ground with someone. It stems from ZYZ's betrayal, but it's made worse by the fact that he watched reality through the Truth Eye for so long, he lost the ability to make his own judgements, to see nuance. Reality is hardly ever factual or black and white. To quote Zhuo Yichen's brother, “your eyes lie, but your heart will tell you the answer.” Li Lun becomes unable to parse people's true intentions because he trusts only what he can see on the surface. For example, he sees Zhuo Yichen's hatred for the demon who killed his family, but not the developing warmth between them, or ZYC’s unwillingness to betray a comrade who pierced himself on his sword to get Zhuo Yichen out of nightmares, or who bled for him easily, yet used his magic to cure ZYC's wounds when he didn't have to. 

Times and times again, Li Lun flattens complexity into something that is close to the truth, but lacks depth. He reduces it to simpler emotions, more basic reactions. He tries to bring people down to his level so that they can see eye to eye because he wants to be understood, to have that common ground in misery, if he cannot have it joy. Qing Geng must've resented being sealed at Lingxi villa for eternity because Li Lun resents his own captivity and seeks freedom. Wen Xiao must've resented Zhao Yuanzhou for letting her believe someone else had killed her shifu because Li Lun hates him for the cowardice of never facing him after their fight. 

So he backs people into a corner and demands they make a choice, waiting with bated breath for their answer. Sometimes he thinks he knows what they’ll pick – the answer he hopes to get – but then they don’t, and his reaction is always so excessive it reveals the desperation underneath. 

That he was willing to hand over the Yao water to Wen Xiao when he thought they had reached an understanding, despite how he shouldn't be helping her restore the token, is also very telling imo. Sure, one might argue that he only offered the water because he knew the Divine Tree had already withered. But he could've polluted it from the start, and he doesn’t. He could've gotten rid of it altogether, and he chooses not to. I think handing it over counted as a genuine peace offering. He wanted Wen Xiao to be on his side. Just like how he wanted Zhao Yuanzhou to offer him an alternative when he sat down to play go with him, listening to his attempt at negotiation. If he renders the yao water temporarily useless, it's only because Wen Xiao hits his sore spot dead in the center, mocking him for being easily fooled and never learning better. That's always what sets off his rage btw. Thinking he has common ground with someone, only for them to reveal themselves as two-faced.

Much like Zhao Yuanzhou, he’s a character shaped by loss who mistakenly seeks to find meaning in self-destruction and death, even when he knows that cannot cure him of his loneliness. Zhu Yan made new friends, but what does Li Lun have? If he goes up in smoke, what will remain of him if he never made a name for himself? Before he dies, he wants his life to have meant something, so he becomes consumed by the obsessive need to be understood, to be accepted, and lashes out when he isn’t. 

Every traveler seeks shelter from the rain, every person stuck in the depths of an abyss wishes for the light of a lantern showing the way out. And so he keeps demanding, where is my light? Where is my shelter? 

This is of course a nod to the main themes of the story. Li Lun wants to be “chosen firmly”, but he thinks Zhao Yuanzhou prefers humanity over him. And so he keeps asking, with more and more frantic urgency, “What is better? To be a human, or to be a demon?”

But at the end of the day, Zhao Yuanzhou never really gave up on him, despite Li Lun's belief that he had. And it's the reassurance he feels at being chosen firmly, in the end, that makes Li Lun leave Bai Jiu's body for his primordial root. It was a simple truth, in the end. One he could’ve easily reached, if only he had trusted himself enough not to doubt Zhao Yuanzhou. 

This is why I think it's so symbolic that he decides to give up the Truth Eye in the end, deciding to let his heart guide his choices from then on. Even if all he has left to live is a few precious minutes. And why those minutes make a difference, as does his willingness to accept Zhuo Yichen and pass on his powers onto him.  

For all that Li Lun takes pride in his demon nature, at the end of the day he's revealed to have a certain humanity, too. To tie this to what Wen Xiao and Zhao Yuanzhou said about the difference between the two species, animals seek food and shelter, but it's humans who seek a home to return to. And Li Lun starts his journey as an animal “baring his fangs” because he and his kind are being threatened. But his journey eventually confronts him with the question of defining what he actually wants, and what matters to him. And this brings him to embrace his own humanity, to realize he wants a home to return to, not just temporary shelter. Because of this, he's able to devote himself to the protection not only of the Wilderness, but also of the people who have become important to him; Zhao Yuanzhou, yes, but also Zhuo Yichen, to whom he's thankful for having opened his eyes to the real truth: that to love someone is not to bind them to you for eternity, but to set them free. To help them achieve what they want, even when it's not what you'd want for yourself. 

[justasecretflower]

“So feminine with grace” homicipher men ft mitsuri reader!

synopsis- you end up in homciphers world, they don't really see people like you in here.. how would they react to you?

Cw- kinda suggestive if you squint, mentions of killing and stuff. If any of this above is not fitted for you please click off your mental health is important <3

A/N- hello ˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶ !! it was hard finding a song for this lol but ty for the request !!

Now Playing:

Doja cat - woman

0:01 ❍─────── 4:28

↻ ⊲ Ⅱ ⊳ ↺

Volume: ▁▂▃▄▅▆▇ 100%

🖤mr. Crawling

🖤'baddie gf and some random loser bf' that's you guys

🖤closested pervert. Got all excited seeing ur clothes, his face lit up and he was all over you, his hands climbing up you as he yelled ‘pretty! Pretty!’

🖤he hasn’t really ever encountered someone as brightly colored as you. Loves touching your hair and braiding it and stuff.

🖤he’s attracted to how gracefully you fight, absolutely in a trance looking like a puppy with his eyes wide and sparkling while he almost drools

🖤your appetite is another thing he finds adorable. He likes to collect food and stuff and feed it to you

🖤definitely overprotective of you

🖤he likes to gently bop your little beauty marks

🖤LOOOVES your affectionate nature. He cuddles up to you all the time. You make him so happy:).

❤️Mr. Scarletta

❤️curious about you. How can something so beautiful and gentle looking be so dangerous?

❤️fuels him to be even more obsessed with you. How graceful and powerful you were, the perfect balance between kindness and danger.

❤️holy stalker. He memorizes every food you like and puts it where you frequently go. Like an offering of some sorts

❤️he likes that your hair is unusual like his, so bright like his, but so soft, like the look of your hair is almost comforting in a way. Something so brightly unique and pretty in a place like that.

❤️pays no mind do what you wear. He knows you and him both can fight, so what does it matter?

❤️he does like how the clothing fits you though.

❤️since you’re so beautiful. He often feels like he should scare everybody off to know that you’re his.

❤️he thinks you two make a very good couple. Powerful, two polar opposites yet the same in one crucial way.

❤️gives you a pink umbrella :P

🩶Mr. Silvair/ silver hair

🩶so so so curious about you! Is your hair natural? Are your beauty marks a birth defect ? How many rice ball thingys did you have to eat to get that hair color? Will it fade? Will your kids have the same hair color ?

🩶 shall he test out the last question?

🩶he has an itch only experimenting on you can scratch, but he never does harmful experiments because yk, he doesn’t want to hurt you.

🩶I will always say this in my homicipher headcanons but Mr. Silvair is EAGER to have kids with you just to see what it’d be like to have half ghost half human kids, now he’s even more eager because of your hair and unusual features

🩶(of course he will always be a good dad no matter what even if he did have a kid for experimental purposes)

🩶honestly a little concerned with the amount of food you eat. But no the less he says nothing about it since he wants to be a good boyfriend!

🩶questions if your strength relates to your unusual hair and things like that.

🧡mr. chopped

🧡feels so incredibly undeserving of you. You're insanely good looking, talented, unique, smart, kind, and strong and he's just like.. a head?

🧡knows how the other homicipher men look at you and he hates it. He hates it when they recognize how graceful, strong and beautiful you are. He's super insecure, that's why hes so whiny all the time.

🧡thankfully to your affectionate personality it helps soothe him a lot. He likes nothing more than just being in your arms with you holding him and comforting him. He just relaxes, you can't feel his body ease up, But you feel how slowly his eyes shut and how light he suddenly seems

🧡he loves how your braids kinda match lol

🧡when you do your hair, you also do his, he lets you re braid it and even make it like yours!

🧡he loves how sweet you are and how you feed into his compliment fishing. Don't tell me he doesn't compliment fish lmao.

🤎mr. hood

🤎I love my man boom shakalakaaaaa

🤎the first time he saw you he was literally frozen. If he had eyes, or, if we could see them, they'd be the most sparkly, light, in love, puppy dog eyes ever.

🤎he's so obsessed with you, tell me otherwise rn.

🤎he likes to feel your hair. How soft and colorful it is in his void black hands.

🤎when he saw your outfit he at first just thought the top like didn't fit..

🤎he would often try to pull your top together to see if it was supposed to be worn like that. You'd have to tell him it was a style choice, he kinda tilts his head for a bit and then shrugs it off. Oh well, your body looked divine that way anyway. Why not show it off?

🤎will never get tired of seeing your strength. He's such a male wife. 'Whatever you want my strong, beautiful wife who I love so dearly'

🤎tries to get you all the foods that you enjoy a lot and helps clean up your clothes once he sees how much of a tedious task that is.

🤎he gets flustered!! you can't see it but trust me he freezes up once you cuddle all over him or nuzzle against him. He loves it so much he's just so new to it he doesn't know how to cope with it. Eventually puts a hand casually around you after some time.

🎐𓍼ֶָ֢⊹ ࣪ ˖Tags

[mako-neexu]

Edguda and Obeguda.

There's a special sense of distance to be found between them. I think its really good... Along with their own way of caring for guda, comes their different views for their star. Based on what Dantes has said along with his actions he's the one who supports and grants what his accomplice desires.

"If that is what you desire, then I, the Count of Monte Cristo, shall obey you." He's said this in game himself its still insane....So I think he's very indulgent in guda's whims, never denies them in a way that this kind of sweetness makes guda clam up. Because if they asked, they know their Avenger would do everything in his power to follow through. Dantes listens to them, accepts what they say and gives his utmost support that it makes it hard for guda to say something.

On that regard, I think guda is careful in saying what they want in front of Monte Cristo.

"You mean you could buy me an entire island if I just said so?" Ritsuka asked, giving the man a mixture of amusement and slight mortification.

"Yes." The Avenger replied without hesitation, "Anything you desire goes. Only if that is what you wish."

Of course, Ritsuka rolls their eyes, showing a hint of displeasure and pain, but also fondness before holding both sides of his face, "Okay...But what if I want you to take care of yourself? That includes no more sacrificing your well being for me. Will you grant that too?"

If it is for my sake. If you truly are willing to grant what I want...

For so long, Dantes is silent, strangely bearing a man who was given a task far heavier than what Atlas carried on his shoulders before oh-so hesitantly conceding with closed eyes, he accedes, "..............Mm."

Id chapter considering, along with Prison Tower this guy's form of salvation is to be someone like Abbe Faria who became a guiding light, wherein their own body is used for a means to escape the tower of despair. So of course he would be hesitant on that part. He wouldn't hesitate to lead guda to a brighter future or shower them in comfort and riches...but I do think when it comes to himself, he doesn't/can't see himself in it because of his nature. EVEN SO his own heart yearns to be with guda even as all of his actions and determination point in the direction of letting them go towards the future.

So it's up to guda to be the one to tug him to be by their side when they walk together. Not just as a shadow who watches and protects, but also as an "accomplice".

There remains a sense of distance between them that I can only describe as "their bodies are so close, pressed up against each other, and yet their lips remain forever merely a centimeter apart."

As for Obeguda, Oberon sees guda through far better along with Castoria. Fellow bystanders in the story, fellow actor in this seemingly neverending play, reflections of the others as people who are too stubborn to give up, bearing their own star to reach as they run towards their end.

Though I have Monte Cristo brain, Oberon's care and love for Guda is still so sweet and far more gentle. His valentines, summer lb6, material 13 is proof of that. Furthermore, I think its just highly sweet he does his best to get around his lying curse just for guda... because the most common phrases he'll use is commonly described by JP as very "roundabout". he wants to convey clearly his thoughts and feelings to them, cursed his tongue may be. Just like Monte Cristo, he is compassionate and kind in his own way...

But as it is his own way, his care is different from Monte Cristo.

Because the Avenger spoils Guda as "accomplice", the Pretender's way of caring is through truly seeing the other, the thoughts and feelings of Fujimaru Ritsuka lay bare before him. A "friend". I feel a romantic sense like a lover wouldnt accurately describe it (the feeling Obeguda has in comparison to Edguda) but its that kind of feeling to me to be honest.

A "friend". A "foil", is a better term i think. Where there remains a sense of distance between them, but there is a bond that allows the other to harshly criticize each others' actions, out of compassion, out of care, out of love. That's why the times Oberon in fanon calls Guda out is really so good... even during the Garden, even though "Oberon" is just a reflection of Guda, it doesnt change the fact that Oberon sees right through them. Especially considering his valentine's gift to them.

Of course, a distinct difference in care is their brand, namely, Monte Cristo wants Guda to keep going in their journey to be happy (because that is what Guda needs), Oberon's brand is giving them an "end". A peaceful end away from the horrors and nightmares, where he takes their willing hand and holds them as they both fall into the abyss out of the World's reach, an eternal rest and reprieve that relieves their soul from burdens... towards oblivion.

"Hopeless idiot, that you are," Oberon clicked his tongue, yet gently sat beside Ritsuka, deep into slumber sporting fresh bandages, the blankets that covered them in disarray. "You've chosen to sacrifice yourself again, knowing you'd get killed... and despite my offer once more, you denied yourself of it."

The low tone gradually descending to become a harsh whisper, the Pretender looked back with a glare.

The star's light flickers like a candle in the storm, try as it might to shine its best throughout the night or give warmth to those gathered around it, there's only so much time until it miserably dies out.

Until nothing of it remains, until it gets discarded, used, thrown away without a care by those who were protected by it.

Before it comes to that point, someone needs to take away that light from those ungrateful wretches. From the hands of those foolish, greedy pigs, from the strings of fate that wraps around that tiny light's neck like a noose...

A black clawed hand reaches out, its talons sharp as a knife that could easily cut through, that could so easily end it all-

Yet merely brushes away the lone tear that slipped past the sleeping Master's eye.

Oberon closed his eyes as his jaw clenched, his bangs hiding his gaze while his hand retracts, merely moving back to his initial position of sitting beside them... intent on staying by their side until they woke up.

He wants to give them an end, but Ritsuka doesn't need it just yet. But they want it. An "end". Of things finally coming to a close. of that "game complete" their own star advised them to reach.

Their sense of distance is like that. Exactly like Edguda

So Ritsuka can't stop now, Monte Cristo encourages them, but to reach an end is natural and Oberon is is more than willing to give it, to guarantee rest and sweet dreams... Both of Monte Cristo and Oberon holds themselves back as the former is a flame destined to scorch those around him/a man who restrains himself to avoid tainting that star's light and the latter is a doomsday device who only holds himself back because he cares for what Ritsuka wants.

Both idiots are hopelessly sweet and caring for Fujimaru Ritsuka.