#also people act like luke was all heartless about it but he let them have a whole touching moment together lmao | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

danteinthedevildom · 3 years

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There's a Chat in OM where Satan shows concern over Beel because he saw Beel talking to himself, crouched down in the garden, which Beel later reveals to have been him talking to a very frail plant he found because Mammon told him that talking to flowers helps them grow.

And what I adore about this is that it shows things about the brothers involved that we don't always get to see in the main game, or that are sometimes overlooked for the funny hijinks.

- Beel notices incredibly small details. The flower is small and hidden enough that Satan initially thinks he's talking to himself. He doesn’t actually see the plant at all. And Beel is the tallest brother, so it's not as if his height would be any help to him noticing something on the ground that's small, hidden, and frail, especially when he’s doing a task like watering the garden. That’s just a job to be done, and most people would pay more attention to where the water’s going and how much there’s left to do than they would to each individual flower. He must have been paying genuinely close attention to his surroundings to even notice it to begin with.

- Beel's care for things extends even to nature. He talks to the plant because he wants to help it grow. It's just a small, dying flower, one of however many there are in the House’s garden; there’s no reason to fret over it when there’s probably plenty of other flowers around it, and maybe even flowers of the same species.

But Beel’s genuinely invested in bringing it back to health. He’s seen this tiny, sickly, insignificant flower, and his first thought is to make it better. It's why he later clarifies the situation to MC, asking for more help, because the flower hasn't shown any signs of improvement.

(Very quietly, it makes me wonder if part of the reason he does this is guilt. Maybe Beel just doesn’t like to see things that are dying.)

- Despite how the brothers act towards Mammon most of the time, Beel fully takes on his advice. He spends days talking to the flower because Mammon told him that's something that might work, and it's only when the flower hasn't gotten better that he seeks more help.

At no point did he question this advice. At no point did he think that the “scummy” second-born would say something stupid, or irrelevant, or unhelpful. Mammon told him to talk to the plant, and he so did.

He says that he asked because Mammon was nearby, but at any time he could have just walked right past him, found someone else, and asked them. He could have completely ignored the fact that Mammon was there - especially considering how little the brothers tend to think of his ideas, to begin with - and found someone “more competent”. But he didn’t.

Which means he genuinely has no issues turning to Mammon for help. He genuinely thinks Mammon can give competent advice.

Out of all the brothers, Beel is usually the best when it comes to their overall treatment of the second-born, so maybe that isn’t surprising - but he can be derisive as well.

So it's nice to see, in a situation where it was just the two of them, without the antagonising influence of the others, Beel show he's more than willing to listen to Mammon as a voice of authority and knowledge - especially over something he's worried about. He respects and trusts what Mammon says, and believes it.

- Mammon saw Beel worried over a plant - something small and insignificant that has no greater purpose in the world and hosts no real interest for either of them - and gave him the best genuine advice he could.

Mammon likely doesn't actually know how to care for sick plants, but wanted to try and give Beel something to work with. We know he cares for his brothers deeply - almost (if not exactly) to the point of self sacrifice - so it's not a stretch at all to say he probably suggested talking to the plant in full seriousness, hoping it would help Beel.

It's a common piece of advice, after all. I've heard people say it all the time, from the most amateur gardener to the most professional; talking to your plants keeps them happy and helps them grow.

The bit that really gets me about it, though, is the fact that Mammon... knew it? Out of all things, you'd expect him to care about gardening the least - and to suggest talking to a plant even less. It goes completely against his image, but not against what we know of Mammon as a kind and caring (as well as emotional) demon beneath the facade.

Him, in a similar position to Beel, crouched down low and out of sight to murmur quietly to a plant he thinks needs an extra boost, is well within the spectrum of things Mammon would do but deny doing if caught.

And I just think it's sweet, imagining him passing on advice he's used in the past over a similar thing he might have done to try and help his clearly worried little brother.

- Satan, in a chat with Solomon and MC, shows genuine care and concern towards Beel.

His first instinct is to ask MC and Solomon if they might know what’s going on. He’s noticed a pattern of behaviour that’s unusual for Beel - “sitting out in the garden, mumbling to himself”, to quote him directly - and once it’s gotten to a point that he’s worried, he asks if anyone else knows what’s wrong.

It shows a fair bit of forethought, too. Satan didn’t immediately assume something was up, didn’t immediately dogpile on Beel; he let it play out, keeping a close eye, until it went on for long enough that he thought it might be something bigger. He’s often shown as being thoughtful about how others might react to things (at least, when he’s not enraged), but it’s interesting to see the actual depth of not only his caring, but his understanding of emotional states and how to handle them.

Satan isn’t heartless. If he notices something wrong, he’s very likely to approach the person in question (or people he trusts) with his concerns in a very gentle manner explicitly to avoid overwhelming them. He actively cares enough to pay attention to the people around him, and to notice when someone starts acting differently.

This is especially sweet when it comes to Beel. The brothers have a tendency to treat Beel as the big, gentle giant who doesn’t have a worry in the world except for what he wants to eat. He’s quiet, complains little, and shoulders so many burdens in stride that they often overlook his struggles - if they’re even aware that they exist, because Beel loves his family so much he tries to avoid troubling them.

The fact, then, that Satan not only noticed, not only inquired about his health, but then - when Solomon and MC suggest that maybe Beel’s stressed out and bottling up his emotions - openly says this:

Just shows so much love. The game sometimes overlooks just how much Satan loves his family, but this? This shows it, without a doubt.

- Satan messages the chat with Solomon in it.

This surprised me when I went back to look over the conversation; I genuinely remembered it as him talking to Levi, for some reason. Beyond that, if you asked me who I thought it’d be that he questioned for information regarding Beel’s health, it wouldn’t be Solomon that immediately jumped to mind.

In this situation, you’d think it’d make more sense for him to ask MC and Asmo (who he’s shown to have a very close and affectionate relationship with), or maybe MC and Belphie (who would probably be the first demon anyone should go to regarding Beel, and who Satan definitely gets on with).

As far as I’ve seen - which, admittedly, I’m not caught up on any of the Human World events from the main game beyond spoilers I’ve looked up - there’s not a lot of, if any, interactions between Beel and Solomon? Most of them are Solomon trying to give Beel food, and Beel trying to foister that food off onto someone else because Solomon’s cooking is one of the few things he can’t stomach.

So maybe it says more about Satan’s relationship with Solomon. Looking back through the chats, Solomon feels comfortable enough with Satan to outright ask him if he’s kissed MC (in the chat where Luke overheard Satan and MC talking about K.I.S.S.), and Satan doesn’t react negatively even though it’s a genuinely personal question.

Likewise, Satan, when furious over one of his dramas, immediately turns to the chat with MC and Solomon in it. He explicitly states that he doesn’t know what to do with the feelings he’s got left over from the cliffhanger, and wants to talk it over with the two humans. Which is interesting in two ways:

+ It shows that Satan is comfortable enough when angry to go to Solomon and MC, confident that they won’t actively make it worse (which is always possible when it comes to Satan’s Wrath once it’s ignited).

+ It shows that Satan’s more than happy to talk about how he feels in front of Solomon, and actively engaging him in that discussion. Yes, it’s only over a drama, but you don’t often turn to someone you don’t trust when you want to vent over something you’re passionate about.

There’s a fair bit of trust between them, I think, regardless of how either of them are typically viewed. Plus, the chat’s called Cat (3). It’s almost definitely just a pun, but the fact that a chat with Solomon and MC in it is also named after the one thing that can soothe Satan from an outright rage (as we’ve seen both in OtakuFM and in the main game) is interesting in what it implies about their relationship with him.

So, back to what I originally pondered: why did he go to Solomon and MC when he was concerned about Beel, and not Belphie (Beel’s twin, most likely to know what he’s up to) or Asmo (who lives at the House and is absolutely more likely to have seen Beel in the garden)?

He trusts Solomon and MC enough to take the matter seriously, with discretion.

#obey me #obey me mammon #obey me beelzebub #obey me satan #obey me solomon

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yuristarwars · 2 years

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Han Solo Character Study

In Solo: A Star Wars story, we see him start out the same way he did in a New Hope. He’s cocky, morally ambiguous, and getting in trouble with people who have more power than him. However, we see a different side to him in the beginning too: he’s loving. Under all this carelessness, he was willing to risk everything to get Qi’ra off of Correllia, and only continued off world after Q’ira told him to.

Joining the Empire was the only way for him to find a place in the galaxy and get back to Qi’ra. After joining the Empire, then leaving, then joining a gang, he had seen plenty of death, from being a veteran, to the botched train heist.

It seemed like he had grown plenty de-sensitized to it, and had grown ever closer to the conclusion Qi’ra met the same fate so many others he’d seen had. That’s why he’s so excited when he finally sees her again, not only alive, but thriving, with Crimson Dawn. He grows closer and closer to Qi’ra throughout the movie, slowly falling in love with this woman who has so much power in a galaxy he has so little of.

He’s never met a Jedi, never had a run in with a Sith or Inquisitor, but has always been surrounded by people with more power than him, physically, financially, and socially. When Han is double-crossed by not only his lover, but mentor, within minutes of each other, that’s when he really starts to lose faith and become the cynical smuggler we see in a New Hope

These experiences he has throughout his life, trust, betrayal, trust, betrayal, mold him into being this near heartless man who could care less about who needed his help, as long as he got money.

That’s when he meets Leia. The bold, brash, boisterous brunette reminds him a lot of someone he knew years ago and he starts feeling the same things he felt towards her, about this princess. This scares him. Not just because she reminds him of Qi’ra, the woman who stole his heart and broke it, but because she reminds him of himself.

Han has hurt himself more than Dryden Voss, Qi’ra, Beckett, or the Empire ever could. He doesn’t want this girl to break him again, just when he put up a shield. She’s doesn’t though. Because through interactions with her, Han realizes both her and Q’ira are controlling, but they’re also in control of different things.

Han sees them both as nothing different, just people who could and would stab him in the back when he was no longer useful to their causes, but as he slowly starts to gain a moral compass from the princess and her space twink brother, he realizes leading an entire rebellion is very much different than running from him for her own personal goals.

Han and Leia both act like they’re in control of every situation at every moment, but in reality, they only act this way because of how little they can actually control. Leia couldn’t save her parents, planet, or old, trusted friend, because she wasn’t in control. Han couldn’t save Beckett, Q’ira, or his crew because he wasn’t in control.

That’s why it’s so important for both of them in Return of the Jedi, to trust the other, and trust their friends, and not need to have or feel like they have control over their situations. It’s why Han let’s Leia rescue her from Jabba and Boba and later the Ewoks. It’s why he can let Chewie and Warrick take the AT-STs. It’s why he is willing to let Leia go to Luke, because no matter how much he loves her, he doesn’t need to be in control of her, and is willing to let her go.

#Solo #Han Solo #star wars #solo: a star wars story #character study #writing #Hanleia

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sondepoch · 4 years

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Chapter 7

Written in the Stars (Lucifer x Angel!Reader)

Four thousand years is a long time. In the absence of your most cherished friend, it feels even longer. But when a certain student exchange program in the Devildom reunites you and Lucifer, things aren't the same. Because four thousand years of separation is a long time. And the love you once felt for Lucifer has changed into something different—something forbidden. But that might not even be your biggest problem, because with each passing day, your holy wings are turning blacker and blacker.

MASTERLIST

Panic sets in the moment you open your eyes.

You'd sensed hints of it in your dreams: the sensation of Lucifer's arms loosening their hold on you despite your protests, the feeling of the Devildom heat growing faint and being replaced with the coolness of the heavens, the sensation of the Morningstar's aura growing dimmer and dimmer until you couldn't detect it at all.

No doubt, your subconscious realized what had happened. Asleep, you may have been, but you felt it when your angel form manifested, when the room grew noisy with shouts and chaos as people must have set their eyes upon the blackness of your wings.

Your subconscious had known it, and yet your mind continued to deny such truth.

But now, having opened your eyes and taken in the unmistakable sight of the room you've spent thousands of years in—you can't deny it any longer.

You've been taken back to the Celestial Realm.

"S-Simeon!" You shout on instinct, untangling your limbs from the softness of the blankets.

When he doesn't come, you stand, catching a glimpse of yourself in the mirror mounted on the wall.

Your eyes widen when they fall upon your wings.

They're white.

Just how long have you been asleep?

Biting your lip, you creep the door open. "Simeon?" You call again, hoping, praying that he's nearby. You turn your head to the right, glancing down the hall that's usually lined with paintings and artwork, but all you see is an empty stone wall.

A sight you know all too well.

Gasping, you slam the door and retreat back inside, but then all the small details of the room you'd missed earlier are now highlighted in your eyes.

Your eyes dart over to the circular rug, the same creamy white you're used to but far too new and pristine to be the same one that you've had in your own room. You glance at the bedframe, a perfect replica of the one you once slept on, but it lacks the scratches along the side from all the nights you'd spent dragging your nails along the wood in boredom. The robes hanging off the hooks on the back of your door look the same, but they lack the telltale creases of your failed ironing attempts, too perfect to be the ones you've worn for so long.

You fall onto your knees, a shudder running through your body when you recall the familiar sight of the empty, stone walls outside.

There's no pretending otherwise.

You're in the tower of the High Seraphs.

You glance out of your window, hoping that the sight will prove you wrong, but the lack of neighboring clouds only confirms your fears. The room you're in is nothing more than a replica of the one in your shared abode with Simeon, the familiar surroundings nothing more than an illusion meant to give you some peace of mind.

You scowl.

Stomping over to your closet, you yank it open to find all the same clothes you have in your actual room, but it's obvious that these have never been worn. Still, you yank them over your figure with such force that you almost injure your wings in the process, knowing that time is of utmost importance right now.

You frown, running a comb through your hair as you begin to realize everything that must have taken place while you slept.

Doubtless, Simeon administered medicine to you, which must have manifested your angel form. If you recall the sound of shouting correctly, then the first person to scream must have been Luke—who likely summoned Michael on instinct.

Curses, you can't help but think. Luke can hardly be blamed for doing what he thought was right, but this situation absolutely could have been avoided if you'd told Simeon the truth about your wings. And now he must know that I've kept secrets from him.

Regret fills your heart at the realization, and you begin to wish you'd given him the truth from the beginning. Not just about your wings, but about Lucifer as well.

You're terrified to see the look of disappointment he'll give you when the two of you next meet.

But surely, there will be more to it than just disappointment. Michael must have also seen your wings and returned you to the Celestial Realm, which means that, as your guardian, Simeon should also be here. And if the High Seraphs know that your wings turned black while under his guardianship…

You don't want to begin to think about the punishment he will have to endure.

Mind heavy with thoughts of the angel, you yank open the door and storm down the familiar corridor that leads to the chamber of the High Seraphs. You've walked these halls before, during the Great Celestial War, when you were locked in these towers and isolated from Lucifer.

But back then, you were young. Young, timid, and docile. Now, you won't hesitate to speak your mind.

***

"Speak wisely, child." One of the seraphs warns you, raising a hand. Every holy being in the room frowns upon your figure, disapproving of your blatant disrespect, but you won't let them intimidate you into silence.

"Return me to the Devildom at once!" You repeat, your plea phrased as a demand while you cross your arms in defiance. "You promised me that I would be given a full year with Lucifer, and I will be given the full year!"

"You will be given what we permit," A voice returns swiftly, disinterested in your protests. "And nothing more."

"You can't go back on a promise!" You screech, gesturing wildly. You hate their utter apathy toward your situation, how they barely look at you as you argue your case. "It's unholy! You swore to me! You swore!"

"Our oath to you was that you would be allowed to partake in the exchange program as long as you did not allow your divinity to be corrupted by the demons," Another voice answers, and you whip around to face them. "Do not lie, child. Your wings were black as the abyss when Michael returned you to us. You are not so foolish to let such a thing go unnoticed. It is by Father's blessing that they have been restored to their true color."

"Perhaps our current punishment is too lenient for the child. Not only did she hide the truth, but she broke her vows to us in the process."

"Indeed. It is rather an embarrassment to have one so troublesome."

"Ah, but she is still young. With her lies, she has ruined all chances of ever seeing that fallen angel she adores again, so perhaps that may be punishment enough. Not to say that further punishment cannot be issued if she continues to act out."

Your body flits back and forth, turning every time a new voice speaks. The room is circular, and the High Seraphs each sit across from each other in different parts of the room, making a perfect circle that forces you to turn every time someone else speaks. Finally, you've had enough.

"Stop!" You shout, hands clenched into fists. You know that every time you raise they take you even less seriously, so you try to compose yourself. "Please, High Seraphs. I beg you—hear me! My wings turned black not from corruption but simply because I absorbed the darkness the way I absorb light. It never tainted my purity, I assure you!"

"The darkness did not taint your purity, but do you deny that you allowed Lucifer to do so?"

How do they know?

You flinch at the seraph's words, looking down. "W-we never had…"

"It matters not what physical pursuits you engaged in!"

"You foolishly gave your heart to a demon, child. How is that befitting of the holy equalizer of our realm?!"

"Love between an angel and a demon is forbidden. We allowed you to reunite with Lucifer because you swore that your love for him was pure, but that vile creature defiled you with temptation!"

You stare at the ground as the High Seraphs continue to rain insults down on you, each one mocking and ridiculing your relationship with Lucifer. You shut their voices out, trying your hardest to hold back tears as you stand, remembering a time where they had once praised you with the same vigor.

When a silence settles over the room, you speak again.

"W-who told you?" You ask, glancing away. You don't have any proper defense for falling in love with Lucifer when you were warned against that very thing, but you have the right to know who breached your privacy and spilled your secret to the High Seraphs. "W-was it Simeon?"

"Simeon?" A seraph asks from behind you, scoffing. "The fool has refused to answer any of our questions since returning. He is being punished. When he understands that it is his responsibility to confess the extent of your sins while in the Devildom, you can be certain that your own punishment will follow."

You gasp. "You would punish him simply for maintaining his silence? That's awful! It's immoral!"

"Simeon's sole instructions were to ensure that you were kept in line, and he betrayed us in the name of what he called your 'happiness.' We are not so foolish. Your happiness lies here, in this realm. Not in the arms of the treacherous Morningstar."

A fire ignites within your heart, fueled by the thought of these heartless divinities punishing the angel who's protected you for so long. "How could you do that?!" You spit, disbelief painted over your features. "Simeon has served for millennia as your holy defender! How can you lock away the very angel sent to protect you?!"

"Simeon is honorable, no doubt, but his loyalty is wasted. We live in the Celestial Realm, child. The defender of the High Seraphs is a noble title, but what need have we of him? Who would attack us?"

The fire in your heart blazes bright with the seraph's deriding words.

"Me."

The word leaves your mouth before you can even consider the weight of what you're saying, and you lunge forward to the seraph directly in front of you, your smaller frame growing closer and closer to his until he rises, summoning a wave of holy energy that deflects your body back onto the ground with more force than you ever imagined a person possible of procuring.

You try to suppress the sound that leaves your mouth when your body strikes the floor, sending you sliding along the ground as it cracks beneath the weight of the force you were thrown at. But you can't hold back your whimper as you raise your hand in defense, wings curling around your body as you try to nurse your front where the seraph's whip of light burned into your body.

"Foolish child!" The seraph exclaims, shaking his head in disdain. "You would dare attempt to attack me?!"

Another voice speaks up, and you might consider it an attempt to deescalate the situation if not for the fact that they take the side of your assaulter. "Celestial equalizer or not, this child's ways have been corrupted by demons. Let us leave her to repent, and that will be the end of her right to see us for the day."

With that, you sense the bodies of those around you fading, each seraph disappearing and leaving you alone in the room.

You let out a broken wail once they're all gone, not sure you're releasing your pain over being struck or over learning that Simeon is being punished for your actions or over the fact that the High Seraphs have made it painfully clear that you will not be permitted to see Lucifer ever again.

For once, you really don't know which is worse.

***

"And you'll never let go of my hand, is that clear?"

"For the thousandth time, I get it!" You tugged Lucifer's arm forward, pulling the two of you closer to the edge of the cloud. "Can we start now?"

Lucifer hesitated, glancing away. He didn't want to, you knew, but it was high time you learned how to fly, and he had made it clear that he wouldn't be letting any of his siblings teach you.

"Come on, Luci," You mumbled quietly, his nickname slipping from your lips as you pleaded with him. The angel had practiced posture and form all morning and all afternoon with you, running you through various exercises on land that he insisted were necessary for flight. Of course, you knew it was all just a ploy to delay the inevitable. Mammon had already told you about his first attempt with flight, and how Lucifer had thrown him into the sky and let the boy figure the rest out on his own, merely flying beneath him in case something went wrong.

But Lucifer was far too protective to pull anything remotely similar with you, and his hand never left yours as he tried to protest one more time.

"The sun is setting, MC." He gestured with one arm toward the ball of fire, which had only begun to journey underneath the horizon. "It's best to wait until tomorrow to try this."

"No," You responded, scowling. "We're doing this now."

Without even waiting for his word of agreement, you swallowed the last of your fear and jumped forward, tugging Lucifer with you as you spread your wings.

"Eek!" You screamed when you realized that you were falling, only held up by Lucifer's firm grip. But then you recalled the exercises he had drilled into you and attempted to flap your wings once, then twice, then thrice, and then you were flying!

"Lucifer—Lucifer, look! I'm doing it! I'm flying!" You exclaimed in joy, realizing that you were floating in place, wings bobbing your figure up and down as they flapped. Laughter spilled from your lips as the thrill of flight seeped into your bones, feeling nothing but unbridled joy as you pulled the angel next to you higher and higher.

"Very good, MC," He said, trying to keep his voice even. But you could see the pride in his smile, and his grip on your hand loosened as he began trusting you to use your wings. His hold tightened every time you wobbled or lost balance, and he pulled you closer when the two of you began making simple circles around the cloud of your home island, but soon he was letting you roam freely in front of him, a watchful eye trained on your body as you attempted to replicate all the fancy twists and spins you'd seen from Levi and Asmo.

"How does Belphie go so fast?" You asked, trying to flap your wings with more intensity. But the motion only lifted you higher in the sky, rather than propelling you forward.

"Lean forward," Lucifer instructed, flying in front of you to gently correct your posture. Even he couldn't tear the smile off of his face as he watched you. "And when you move your wings, make one strong push and then fold them inward to minimize air resistance. After that, just move your upper body to guide your path of flight."

Your guardian demonstrated once for you, circling back to where you were, pushing your neck down once before nodding.

With his approval, you followed his instructions, flapping your wings once with all the strength you could muster, and then folding them on your back as you tried to let your body propel forward.

For a few seconds, it worked. You were soaring faster than you'd ever moved, and you could feel your body cutting through the wind. But then, you began to plummet downward, falling headfirst as you desperately tried to unfurl your wings. But the wind was too fast around you, and it kept them furled close to your back as you flailed your arms out, opening your eyes and desperately trying to stop yourself from dropping.

You didn't even have the time to call Lucifer's name before he had managed to catch you, soothing you quietly while smoothing out your hair. "It's okay," He whispered, placing a kiss to your forehead. "You're safe. It's okay."

You managed to stop yourself from trembling in his arms, leaning into his strength and using it to fuel your own.

"I want to try again," You told him, and he didn't even protest as you pulled yourself out of his arms and got into position once more. He flew low beneath your figure, gazing up at you before nodding, and then you were at it again, flapping your wings once and then tucking them into your back, soaring forward at top speed. You managed to stay on your desired trajectory a little longer this time, and you almost thought you had gotten the hang of it when your body began to dip down against your will, leaving you to desperately try to stop yourself.

But this time, Lucifer was already waiting for you, strong arms wrapping around your body to catch you.

"Again?" He asked, a smile on his lips as he watched you continue to attempt the move over and over, proud of your tenacity.

You nodded, holding his hand as the two of you soared back up to try once more.

A smile blooms on your face at the memory.

Even then, you always knew that Lucifer would be there to catch you if you fell. But now that you've been ripped away from the Devildom, will he ever be able to save you again? Doubtless, if he had seen the seraph strike you earlier—regardless of whether you started it with your futile attempt of an attack—he would have been at your side, defending you against anyone who might hurt you.

And while you were prepared to leave the safety of his arms at the end of the school year when the student exchange program finally ended, you never expected it to happen so soon.

Just yesterday, the demon had been by your side, hugging and holding and kissing you. The two of you had expected to have ten more months together, ten more months of happiness before having to separate, but your time has been cut short.

How is that fair?

Please, Father, you plead, staring upward into the emptiness of your ceiling, imagining the face of God peering over you. Please help me. The High Seraphs can never understand. They'll only hurt me again if I continue to ask them, so I need your aid. I know that Lucifer has wronged you in the past, but have mercy.

You offer a light smile, unclasping your hands.

No matter how focused you are during prayer, your thoughts always stray to Lucifer at the end. Though this is the first time you've consciously voiced your desires to Father.

Mercy on us both, you think, closing your eyes before you rise to your feet. Amen.

Glancing at the mirror, you see that the feathers of your wings are still ruffled from when your back collided with the ground, and though your front still stings, there are no marks where the seraph summoned light to strike you down.

But your entire body is sore.

Not even bothering to change out of your clothes, you pull yourself into bed. It's already well into the evening, and you should probably stay awake in case someone delivers dinner, but the crawl back to your room had exhausted you. You just want to fall asleep.

Closing your eyes, you barely have the time to make yourself comfortable in the bed before exhaustion pulls you away to the dreamworld once more. Silently, you hope that Lucifer might visit you in your dreams, that you can bask in memories for some final tranquility.

But the moment you close your eyes, you're taken to a place all too familiar.

This isn't right, you think, recognizing the familiar circular chamber where all the High Seraphs sit.

This doesn't feel like a normal dream.

You frown, realizing that no one in the room seems to react to your presence, not even when you wave your hand in front of one seraph.

You're far too conscious for this to be a dream, impossible aware, to the point where you recall falling asleep just moments ago. So then, what is this? A vision? Of something to come or something still going on?

You walk forward, looking around as you try to make sense of what's going on. It almost feels as if you're awake, but surely that's impossible.

Hear me.

You flinch at the voice, the sound seeming to come not from anyone around you but from the inside of your own mind, the two words echoing in your brain. It's familiar, you realize, though you can't pinpoint where you recognize the voice from. Almost like...

A hush falls over the room, and you realize that the High Seraphs have heard the voice, too.

"Father!" A seraph cries, raising their hands to the sky and bowing low against the ground.

Your eyes widen in disbelief. Surely that cannot be true? But then you hear the voice again, and then there's no denying that this is the unmistakable sound of your Father, and you drop to your knees in a bow, honoring your creator even though you don't understand this vision.

Is it true that the child I have sent to you to answer all your prayers is now being denied happiness in her time of need?

"The child?" A seraph asks. "Do you mean the equalizer, Father?"

Who else?

You can almost hear the huff of irritation in Father's words.

I speak of MC. Her prayers cry for happiness and for mercy. Are you the fools who make my child weep?

Your eyes widen at the Father's words, realizing that he has heard your prayers. Instantly, you understand the nature of this dream, this vision, this truth. It is his gift to you: his silent blessing to allow you to sit in as he speaks to the High Seraphs as he does so often. Only this time, the subject of discussion is your fate.

And it seems that he is on your side.

"N-not at all, Father! She foolishly seeks the love of a demon, and we have been trying to show her the path of light."

"Indeed!" Another seraph cries in response. "Her heart betrays her holy nature! The Morningstar has corrupted her, and we merely wish to purify her soul!"

"The Morningstar may be gone, and her capabilities of absorbing the light may no longer be needed, but we aim to—"

You dare presume she was simply sent to absorb the excess light of my domain?

Everyone in the room flinches at the hostility in Father's voice.

That angel is my child, the daughter I constructed by hand to eternally protect the Celestial Realm. In her body, she harnesses the power of equality—to absorb light or radiate it, whichever is necessary to maintain the balance of the Celestial Realm. I gave this child to you as a blessing. You would dare trample her happiness?

Your eyes widen at your Father's words, and you glance down at your hands.

You've always absorbed the light, never attempted to radiate it. You've always thought that you were different because of your inability to radiate light, but if what Father says is true, then you truly are one of the most powerful of angels.

Suddenly, the title equalizer rings differently in your ears.

"Th-that is too much power for a single child to possess! Her heart is not pure, if she sides with the demons she can eradicate our entire realm and—"

You dare presume one of my holiest creations would misuse a power I have personally invested in her?

There's a pause, filled only with Father's fury. Not even one of the High Seraphs dares to speak.

Come, child! Show the realm what you are capable of!

You flinch, and suddenly everyone in the room has their eyes on you—likely another work by the hand of Father.

Hesitantly, you meet the eyes of the seraph who struck you earlier.

Don't just absorb the light, you tell yourself. Radiate.

It's every angel's most basic instinct: to give off light. Yet you've always walked the line of absorbing it.

But if you try...

You visualize Lucifer, how he's always pulsed so brightly with the light of his heart, carrying in it holiness or darkness and spreading his will.

Be like Lucifer.

While the High Seraphs watch you in shock, you try to harness the power in your heart, to radiate light as Father has so clearly instructed.

Like Lucifer.

A blinding light fills the hall, bursting with your energy. The sheer brightness of it jolts you awake, and then you're acutely aware of the power flowing through your veins. Breathing in and out, you can sense yourself absorbing and radiating light, the room darkening and brightening with your every motion.

Your gaze flits to the door. It's the only thing separating you from storming down the corridor and back into the hall of the High Seraphs.

Father's words replay in your mind.

It's time to show the realm what you are capable of.

***

Lucifer wakes up with a start, flinching as he opens his eyes.

The ink spilled, he realizes, wary eyes glancing over his desk. The demon blinks and pulls off a report that's stuck to his cheek. He must have fallen asleep. Small wonder, given the fact that he's hardly slept since Michael whisked you away, instead opting to bury himself in work.

But for the first time since your departure, Lucifer is wide awake, the demon now scrambling out of his desk to tear his door open.

That dream was vivid. Too vivid. And it's not the first time he's had such an impossibly lucid slumber.

Did Father mean to send him that vision?

Lucifer bites his lip, stumbling through the corridor. He's sweating, and his hair is disheveled, but he bangs on Mammon's door anyway, the noise loud enough to wake all the residents in the hall.

"Did you—did you dream—"

"Yeah," Mammon nods solemnly, not an ounce of sleep in his eyes when he opens the door.

"Go, Lucifer," Belphie calls from behind, standing next to Beel. "Father sent al of us that vision for a reason. Looks like MC is about to show the Celestial Realm the full scope of her power. And you can bet that she's going to want to see you when it's over."

Lucifer turns around, hesitant. "Lord Diavolo—"

"Lord Diavolo will understand," Satan interrupts, crossing his arms as he, too, opens his door to face the firstborn. "And if he doesn't, I'll take over your duties until you return, so stop wasting time and go."

Levi opens his door, nodding in agreement, and even Asmo is startled awake by the vision, making no comment about missing his beauty sleep as he urges Lucifer to go to you.

"I—" Lucifer hesitates, running a hand through his mussed up hair as he looks at his brothers. Each of them stands with their arms crossed, waiting for him to leave. "I want you to know that I—"

"Hurry up and go."

Lucifer can't tell who said it, but the words bring a smile to his face. This isn't the time to thank his brothers. Rather, the best thank-you gift he can get them would be the sight of your smiling face, something he'll only get to see if he manages to reach you in time.

Without another word, he nods his head and flies out the overhead window, left open the night prior when Belphie was stargazing. He begins soaring into the sky, his four black wings pushing him higher and higher as he prepares to exit the domain of the Devildom and approach the heavens.

It's been millennia since he's been so close. Millennia since he's dared to fly so high.

But he won't let any of that stop him, any of that prevent him from going to see you. Because to him, you are his world.

And there are no lengths he won't go to for your sake.

MASTERLIST

Word count: 4.7k

Notes: It's kind of wild to think that at this time next week this series will be complete 0.0 This has been a wild ride and we finally get the beginning of our happily ever after with luci in the next chapter so yayyy

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Next Update: 6/13/20

I do not own the rights to Obey Me! or any of the characters within it.

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makeupbychio · 4 years

Text

Lost & Found // Chapter 3.

Pairing: Calum Hood x Rosie Rivera (Latina and dancer female character).

Words: 6.3k

Summary of the chapter: Go out to a club one night brings more than just inspiration. After the great news they get to know Rosie’s life and other reality besides the rockstar lifestyle.

Playlist made by me: L&F.

Warnings: alcohol, fights, mentions of violation of human rights in the past. Italic and bold means song lyrics.

a/n: hi babies! chapter three here, this one is my fave because all of the writing for the party was really excited for me as I pictured in my head. Hope you enjoy it, feedback is more than welcome. I also love how I’m adding things that should be talk because it’s someone’s reality. All mistakes are mine. Love y’all, take care and stay safe xoxo.

[Prologue], [Chapter 1], [Chapter 2]

I know you want me Every day, not only when you're lonely‚ yeah You see me think you know me But you don't even know nothing about me‚ yeah

The guys went to every floor of the club to check the vibes of the different types of music. Tecno was the least favorite so they came back with the girls that were in the platform with Gigi and their other friends. VIP view just for them because Gigi doesn't allow too many people up there.

Michael amazed of Gigi's work and took the opportunity to chat with her about it and she promised him to take control of the music later. She gave the welcome to everyone to start the night. The boys decided to stay a little longer there while the girls and their friend Dominique followed them to join the dance floor once Work by Rihanna started playing.

"Cool that you have alcohol up here too, Gigi" Luke said taking a beer from the ice bucket there was.

The girls have no shame when it comes to dance and having fun. The word 'boring' is not in their vocabulary so it's not a surprise founding them giving everything on the dance floor. It was their first song and they were dancing with so much confidence and shameless but here in this side of the planet is what is running in everyone's blood. Passion. Passion for everything that sometimes it could be a double-edged sword.

After a whole song dancing dancehall steps, they went for another round of tequila. Every time Rosie has a tequila shot it reminds her of the night before of her last high school day. They drank too much till 4 am that the next all of her friends went with sunglasses, a blue gatorade bottle and a pill for the hangover.

Calum was resting on the metal barrier, hands on the beer bottle's neck while watching the girls dancing. He laughed when Cami accidentally hit a stranger's head dancing. He looked down to the floor trying to hide his smile. Alcohol starting to do its thing on everyone.

"They have always been like this, sorry mate but if you choose them to be your friends you have to get used to" Kevin said next to Calum who didn't hide his joy very well.

"They are hilarious" Calum said now when Dominique was doing some robot moves. "I'm sure that in one hour they are going to go off energy".

"I know them since second grade, trust me". Kevin started a conversation with Calum. At some point Ashton disappeared, Luke went downstairs to sit in the bar and Michael was searching on Gigi's computer the songs for their shared set. After Kevin ended his beer, he went downstairs to join his friends.

The variety of music Gigi and Michael were playing was interesting. It wasn't a battle, but both of them just playing hit after hit. It was fun that twist of suddenly playing J Balvin with 'Otra Vez' to Drake with 'Passionfruit' or Bad Bunny with 'Chambea' to Travis Scott 'goosebumps'. Spanish or english, the group knew every single word and left their bodies dancing.

Calum felt so inspired with the panoramic view he has from the platform. He was partying next to the Djs, and didn't have the courage yet to join the rest but his view was better. He enjoyed and took mental notes at how in this place people's souls were left in the dance floor. The beauty of sweaty bodies and laughs between the crowd. The energy he and everyone could catch from this environment was mind blowing. Not all the people in the room knew each other, that's for sure but they looked like and it was a powerful moment to catch. Calum went downstairs to join the group for a while to drink and feel what he was thinking to lose himself in the dance floor.

You see my thick thighs Lost it when you look into my brown eyes See‚ my little waist can make you switch sides You never know the devil in the disguise So why don't you stand up, baby

And of course his friends. Luke still on the bar. Michael like the happiest kid in the world as Gigi's guest. Ashton was with the girls now, Calum lost the count about the amount of shots but he was sure that more than five tequila shots were in their bodies. He focused on Rosie, how she was dancing to 'Love Galore' by Sza and how shameless she acted in front of her friend's camera. Cami was filming for Snapchat and Instagram, making sure her followers know that they were having a good night.

You know that kind of snaps or stories. Everyone tipsy or drunk. Showing tongues or the middle finger or blowing a kiss or a dance move or even showing more skin. It was pretty basic but Calum held his breath when later he saw Cami's stories showing Rosie modeling for her friend by taking off her denim jacket and show her outfit and her legs, then a turn to see her back and her clothed butt sparkling thanks to her dress details.

Gigi took a break and left Michael in charge of the music for a while. She joined her friends to have a good time too. Ashton was the only one of the boys dancing and snapping videos.

When Michael put Sorry by Beyoncé, Cami was already with more drink on her system. Rosie tried to tell her to slow down but her friend’s broken heart didn’t listen.

“Cheers to every single boy who has broken our hearts” Gigi said raising her drink.

“And to every single girl too” Kevin protested and Ashton, Dominique and Calum agreed with him.

Two songs later, Gigi and Dominique went to the bathroom and Ashton with Kevin and Cami were begging for some fresh air so they went to the second floor. Rosie told them that she was going to stay there. She felt at home and her friends were going to be back soon so nothing to worry.

Michael decided to play songs from Gigi folder called ‘Chile hits’ and choose one that the name sounded cool for him. ‘Damelo’ by Ceaese and DrefQuila started playing. Rosie as she was alone in the dance floor, she started to melt into the crowd dancing and feeling herself relieving all the tension and feelings for this song.

Be honest (Be honest) You want this (You want it) But I can be heartless Regardless of my conscience

Her glistening figure among the people could be noticed by Calum watching her from the bar. She didn’t notice his stare. Calum watched himself getting closer to join her, suddenly surprised of his choice, ‘it would be rude from me leaving her alone’ he tried to convince himself instead of the truth, he wanted to dance with her.

As he got closer, the view of her became ten times amazing. How her tattoos - the ones that are visible- looked in her arm and her legs. How her glistening face because of her makeup and chest because of sweat matched so good with the blue lights against her skin. The lights looked amazing on everyone, on Calum too and his similar shirt color.

The intermittent pace of the lights made if everyone were dancing in slow motion. Calum reached Rosie and still she was lost in the song waving her arms above her head and moving her hair, her back facing Calum. To not scare her, he decided to step slowly behind her. She recognized him from his strong perfume so she let him put his body against her without turning around. The height difference made Calum to lean down his head so his breathing was hitting Rosie’s ear, so his mouth was close her ear too.

He put his left hand on her waist when he started following her body’s rhythm at the beat of the song. She raised her right arm to put her hand on Calum’s neck. Rosie feels no shame when it comes to dance, it’s when is the real her. Calum couldn’t resist himself to look down to check her, he didn’t know what he was doing but he was having a good time. He didn’t mind about his dance moves, it looks like he was doing a good job right there.

Rosie turned around to face him when Michael changed now to the folder ‘dancehall’. ‘Kiss’ by Zilla was playing -Gigi is a huge fan of dancehall culture, so she is always the one with dancehall hits from artists that are not that famous-. It was funny how Michael was messy mixing and changing the genres of the songs.

She led them into dancehall moves, slow ones like the song. No word were needed between them, he followed her body and now both of his hands on her waist, and her arms around his neck. They were so close that their faces were touching, her forehead close to his mouth. Coming to an end of the song, she looked up and she gained height, now their mouths were close and both of them looking at the others lips.

What was going to happen next was interrupted when another song by DrefQuila started playing. The fast beat of the song made them jumped and woke up from the dream and what they were doing and about to. They stepped back for space and when Calum was about to say something they were surprised by Luke’s call.

I can show you somethin' you can run to When I'm finished, you'll be feelin' brand new

“Guys, you need to come to see this” Luke’s harsh breathing showed that he was worried. While Luke guide them to the second floor, he explained them. “So I was going to the bathroom when I found Cami and Ashton dancing and then when I was going back to the bar now she was dancing with a stranger and she seemed uncomfortable and went here for help”.

Rosie frowned her brows at confusion. Luke could easily helped Cami but he didn’t want to misunderstood the situation since he was drunk so he wasn’t sure. When they entered the room, for her surprise it was Matty’s friend -a friend of Cami’s ex-. Immediately she stepped between her best friend and this guy who had Cami trapped in the corner.

“Hey what the hell-” the guys said when he recognized Rosie’s face. The guys didn’t understand a word of what they said. You know, everything in spanish. But they could see the trembling in Cami’s hand. “Look who is! I was just dancing with your friend if you don’t mind” the guy said. Rosie gave him a hit on his shoulders to step back.

“Fuck off, Sergio. If you don’t want to be kick out of this club forever” Rosie said with confidence turning back to ask her friend if she was okay. Ashton appeared standing next to the guys.

“Why to be that grumpy? When you can show me how you dance in that dress” Sergio said when he touched Rosie’s leg. Calum felt how his blood ran faster through his veins and when he was about to hit this guy -even when they were trying not to because they can’t get in trouble- Rosie did justice when she knee him on his balls.

“Why did you just said? Motherfucker” Rosie said while Sergio was in the floor with too much pain to talk. He just let out a ‘whore’ to her.

“Rosie we should go” Cami said wasted when Sergio’s friends appeared next to them founding their friend laying on the floor.

“Hi assholes, we were just leaving but not before giving your friend a lesson” Rosie said slowly leaving the room but another guy stopped her.

“Hell nah, princess” he said trying to hit her. Calum couldn’t resist it anymore, he punched the guy in the face.

“Hey dude what the fuck, were you going to hit a woman?!” Ashton yelled at him. And Cami kicked Sergio on the floor to give him a lesson to not touch her or her friend again. When the guy was about to respond Calum, he dodged the punch.

“K’ we’re leaving now” Calum took Rosie to carry her like the firefighter carry. Ashton did the same with Cami.

“No! We are not leaving!” Rosie said hitting Calum’s back to bring her back to the floor. She wanted to fight the group of assholes but she was drunk like the rest. They started running to the exit of the club with the other guys behind them thirsty of keep fighting.

“Where is Michael?” Luke said desperate and Calum told him where to find him. Luckily, the rest -Dominique, Gigi and Kevin- were with him. Luke told them they have to leave right now.

As they reached the exit, Kevin tripped out Sergio. The security guard asked them what happened and Cami told him when he found the group of guys and banned the stupid guys forever from this club.

“Rosie, I know you can protect yourself but please next time called one of us” the security guard told her with a warning, but before he went back inside he congratulated her. And Gigi apologized to the security guard, and told Cami that it will not be repeated. Gigi said goodbye to everyone and went inside to take control as the Dj.

“What in the hell happened?” Michael missed the whole situation.

“The question is why you leave Cami alone?!” Luke asked Ashton while all of them walk back to the cabin. At this point it isn’t necessary to find a guilty.

“I just went to the bathroom for one minute and when I was back I-” Ashton said.

“Who were those morons?” Calum said, he had a feeling that they know them by the way they knew the girls names.

“They were in our school, our same generation” Kevin said. “They have always been a pain in the ass. They are rude with woman and with everyone. Once I defended Rosie and Cami because they said to every boy in the school that they were ugly girls and other stupid things”.

“Still don’t understand how your ex’s friends with them” Dominique said to Cami. She just mentioned ‘that her ex’s an asshole too’. Dominique reminded her the principal reason why Cami wanted to go to dance tonight. Rosie was carrying her by surrounding her arm around Cami’s waist and Cami put her arm around Rosie’s shoulders. Cami was the drunkest of the group.

“I wanted to do that long time ago” Rosie confessed not regretting what she did even when it sounds evil. She wanted to walk next to Calum to ask about his hand but Cami needed her more.

The night wasn’t ruined, of course it wasn’t nice to end the night like this but the rest of the night was amazing for everyone. Dominique and Kevin said goodbye, they were staying in Dominique girlfriend’s place.

Now back in the cabin, the boys stayed outside sitting in the wooden garden picnic table that it’s in the front while the girls inside Cami begged for something to eat -what chileans called ‘el bajón’- after too much alcohol and dancing.

“Guys I have an idea for a song, Michael go get your guitar” Calum said. Michael wasn’t going to do that without asking something.

“Dude before tell us if you both kissed” he said. Ashton and Luke it took them by surprise the question.

“What?!” Both said.

“We didn’t, we just danced” Calum said dry.

“Come on dude, I saw you dancing when I was in charge of the music…” now he was talking to the other two boys “and let me tell you that what I saw it was pretty promising, they were so but SO close and you -pointing at Calum- were blocking Rosie’s figure so I couldn’t see if they were kissing or not” he stood up to go inside and find his guitar. “You’re welcome Cal, I chose the right songs” he said with a teasing smile.

“That’s why you both jumped when I appeared when I asked for help” Luke connected the story. “You were going to do it but I interrupted” he was very surprised.

Calum didn’t want to talk about it, he tried to hide the blush on his cheek. He didn’t want to seem like he doesn’t respect Rosie or that he wanted to take advantage of her. It was just a cool moment they shared, which they let themselves flow with the music, the heat, the energy and let their bodies met to communicate something without words-that Calum wasn’t sure what he wanted to express-one thing for sure is that it made him feel something never experienced before.

“Cami it’s ready!” Rosie called her friend that was getting changed into more comfy clothes. She cooked pasta, something quick for everyone who was hungry. She was pouring a glass of water when she saw her friend about to burn herself. “Cami, no!” she hurried to move her friend that was about to dip her hand into the boiling pot with the pasta.

“I was going to check if they were ready!” Cami said, she was still very drunk by finding that a good idea instead of using a piece of cutlery.

“But you have to do it with a fork! Not with your own hand!” she was getting stressed, she took a deep breath and take care of her friend-because she would do the same for her-. “Now eat and then go to bed, please”. They have tons of funny stories from parties, this one is one more to tell to their friends.

“Now what?” Michael asked ready with his guitar. Calum started to explain the inspiration of this song.

He realized that at a bar, party or club; there a different types of people. What he saw tonight from his group gave him the idea and the inspiration.

Michael was the kind of always down to meet new people by just went behind the Dj set and have a really good time. Ashton was the kind to meet a beautiful girl or talk to a friend of him and dance, have drinks and maybe having sex in the bathroom -no judgement-. Luke was the kind of getting wasted as fuck because he still misses his ex partner so he would be bartender's best friend just regretting his past. And Calum, he's not sure at all what kind of party person he is, maybe not for every occasion but tonight he was the kind of getting into a fight.

He thought about the countless nights and stories that club could have. That he or you are never going to hear them. Stories that just stay indoors the club.

"If these walls could talk!" Calum said after a couple of guitar chords Michael gave them to find the lyrics. "Yeah, that would be the name of this song". He was really proud and very inspired.

"Did you get all the inspiration from your moment with Rosie?" Luke asked teasing him and testing him what he was going to say.

"No, Luke. Did u hear the whole story I said?" Calum said. It was true that not just Rosie inspired him, the whole night was.

"Why they don't go to sleep?" Cami asked sleepy. She can hear the boys singing and the guitar from her room because was the closest to the entry.

"I don't know. Just go to sleep, okay?" Rosie told her and in a few seconds Cami was knocked out. Rosie wanted to go to sleep to but she was curious so she went outside. When the boys saw her they stopped singing like if she was a spy. She rub her arms with her hands at the sudden cold night. "Don't stop playing I'm not going to leak this" she laughed. "I just wanna check if you need something before I go to bed" and the boys told her that they are fine and thanked her. She focused his attention on Calum. "Is your hand okay, Calum?" he nodded at her but she can see the redness in his knuckles.

"Don't worry, I'm going to put ice and it's to be fine" he told her letting her know that he can still play for the next shows.

She felt kinda guilty for that but well she doesn't want to think about it too much. "K' guys goodnight".

When she went to bed she could still hear the boys laughing and throwing verses.

The next morning surprisingly Cami didn't have a terrible hangover headache. She has a super power with that - last year at a party on independence day she was so drunk but they needed to leave sober because Cami's mother was waiting for her in the living room and before they got inside she just walked around the neighborhood to have some air so the drunkenness could be less noticeable and it worked or that's what she thought, because her mama is not a fool.

"First of all guys, sorry for last night I fucked up everything" Cami apologized before she turned on her car. The guys let her know that everything is fine.

Once they were in the hotel's parking lot they sadly said goodbye but Ashton promised them he will come back soon and that they are always welcome in LA or Australia.

In their own hotel rooms, they took an early nap at 11 am even when they can sleep in the plane too because their flight was at 5 am to Argentina.

Rosie talked with her family about London and Cami told her parents about her breakup. They are not rockstars so they have to continue their lives.

It was almost 4 pm when Rosie arrived her grandfather's bar. Today the bar opens late so she had the dance floor just for her to practice, well, she had to share the space with the bar's band when they arrived early to practice and set the instruments. She and the 'Dominos' are friends so they always help her to practice with live music instead of hearing the songs from her phone.

"Thanks guys for always helping me, now I need to practice the dance for the other class" Rosie said when she handled the musical score to them. That week she had exams for her jazz class, dance performance class and ballet, so she couldn't relax right now.

"Sweetie I know this song perfectly" one of the band members said. And 'More than a woman' by Bee Gees started. She has to present this one for dance performance and her Tony Manero was -thank God- her good friend and really good student, Andre.

When she thought it was enough because she preferred Andre to be there, she moved on with the song for jazz class.

"K' guys this is not that famous like the previous one" she handled the music scores of the song 'Maria' by the Silver Linings soundtrack -from that movie she took the song that obviously is older than the movie-. She practiced her solo because this is a group project too.

It was 6 pm when on the other side of the door Ashton was waiting in the car and told Calum to go find you. And when nobody answered but heard the music and saw the 'close' sign on the door he just opened the door and he found her dancing too damn focused on the routine.

It was the first time he saw her dancing something not related to club. At her purest with a classic dance. He imagined her with a beautiful dress presenting this to her class and he couldn't imagine a bad grade for her, the teachers would be crazy if they would ever do that. When she finished and waited 3 more seconds that she stayed in the final bow, he started clapping.

"Gosh, Calum you have to stop always greeting me like this" she said when she saw him leaning on the door.

"Well, Miss Rivera if you don't turn on all the speakers you could hear when someone is knocking on the door" he gave her an advice in a teasing tone and smile while he walked closer to the dance floor. "Hi".

"Hi Calum, don't offend but what are you doing here? you should be taking a plane" she said confused.

"See my lady, our flight is very late and we wanted to spend more time with you" he said not telling her the truth. The truth was that Mario invited the guys to the house for tea to celebrate the great news of Rosie's exchange.

"I would love to but I have to practice a little bit more" she bit her lower lip resisting to his invitation. And an idea clicked in her head. "As my dance partner is not here, what if you help me and at the same time I teach you how to dance" she said excited grabbing him by his arm. Before Calum could protest, the music was playing and she showed him simple jazz moves that even a mummy could do. He wasn't prepared for part of the deal to be done that day.

"But I didn't have my bass here to teach you" he said before she grabbed his hand to put in practice what she taught him.

"K' put your right hand on my waist" she could tell that he was nervous. "Come on, Cal. I'm not going to bite you". He placed his hand where she told him and the other one held her hand. She remembered him to have fun and that just the guys from the band were watching them.

The music started playing by the instruments and it sounded exactly like the original song. The melody is so peaceful and beautiful that he would never get tired of it.

At the start his moves were messy and off rhythm to follow hers. But he took her words, took a deep breath and like last night just flow. And as he relaxed, they started moving around the dance floor and the room. This moment is so charming that even if he never gets to see her again, he's going to remember this moment forever. How the warm lights looked against their silhouettes, the fun he was having and how she looked already like a professional dancer for him.

The outro of the song was coming, and just like the movie, he took her after her solo and turn around and then again holding her and made a mental picture of the proximity- chest to chest - before he leaned her back back and his face close to her neck when the last chords of jazz sounded. They stayed there a couple of seconds catching their breaths -by the clothes she was wearing to practice, he could see the skin of her neckline and how it went up and down after 4 minutes of dancing.

"You were amazing!" she told him once he helped her to stand straight again. She told him her thoughts and it was better than she expected. He blushed at the comments.

"I can see you doing this in big projects" he encouraged her. He was dreaming big and she thanked him and called him crazy at the same time.

"Okay so if I ever reach those big projects you are talking about, I hope I auditioned with this song" or at least remember this moment.

Calum waited for her in the room while she changed her clothes. Then he lead her to the car.

"Ashton! Hi!" Rosie greeted him with a hug inside the back of the car.

"I've been waiting for you two. What the hell, did you found the cure for cancer?" he said referring to all the time he waited.

"I'm so happy to see you again too, Ash" she joked and squeezed his cheeks.

The boys were not telling her the surprise and threatened them to scream if they don't tell her, but when she recognized the well known route she stopped asking.

"What are we doing in Cami's house?" she asked and when they opened the front door everyone jumped to scream 'surprise'.

Michael and Luke were already there. Cami's whole family too. Her parents and her grandfather. Her friends from last night too.

She greeted everyone with a big hug and smile.

During all night Rosie, Cami and Mario helped translating to the rest.

The house is huge because with 4 children in the family and from different ages. They needed their own room. It has a garage, a big backyard and a lot of space in the hallways.

Rosie was so excited to see Max - Cami's 4 years old little brother -. He had been so busy with his therapy. When guys met him they understood what Cami told them about being worry of bullies in his school. Max is on a wheelchair after an accident when he was 3 years old. He's been in the chair since then but attends a special foundation to help him to recover because he has possibilities to walk again.

"Yeah it's been a hard year but I would do anything for my kids" Marcela - Cami's mom - told the boys when they asked politely.

"But the system still sucks, the state of this country should pay for treatments and give them the basic amenities like transport" Rosie said abruptly angry but everyone feels the same. Marcela has to take the subway in summer and winter, melting with the heat or freezing with the low temperatures at 7 am every single morning, and even when there is campaigns to collect money isn't enough because Cami's family spends a lot of money on it.

Max , or Maxi is how he likes to be called, is the funniest kid in the world and so talented in everything.

"Maxi what if you show the boys what you wanted" Cami told him helping him to go to the garage. Maxi was very nervous that night but shyly he asked Cami to told the boys that he is a big fan and that Ashton is his favorite member.

"He's been playing the drums since he got it from last Christmas" Rosie told them. He is unbelievable because at age of 2 he learned traditional latin dances, now the drums and he loves to learn different things every day.

"Do you need help with the bass drum, buddy?" Ashton offered his help and he couldn't say no to his idol. He played first his favorite Chilean song from an andino group - which Ashton freestyled when to play the bass drum - and then he surprised them playing 'Don't Stop' - his favorite -. The guys clapped and cheered him like a champion because he freaking nailed it.

"Okay Maxi, what if know we go sit to have dinner" Gabriel told him because he knows his child that he can be playing all night. Everyone took a seat and had the chance to know the rest of the families. Mario did a review of how he knows Ashton.

"This man right here is like a hero" Gabriel said. "You know thanks to him I met my wife" And he told the guys the story of it. When during the dictatorship Mario hid Gabriel and his family in the closets when soldiers always interrupted his house. Mario was always a suspicious for being a journalist and his well known opinion against dictatorship, so a lot of times soldiers broke his things that they found out of order - most of the times they just burned books related to arts, music, all books to be honest -. Mario always laughed at their tiny minds because they always appeared at the same time and the same days of the week so Gabriel and his family were already secure in the secret place.

"And one night Marcela was running from them because the curfew caught her when she was leaving a friend's house. So desperately she asked my wife to help her or the soldiers were going to kill her" Mario continued the story. And Antonia - Mario's wife and Rosie's grandmother - helped Marcela and she met Gabriel. Even in terrible times good things happened but of course till today South America can't recover from that horrendous years and never going to forget or forgive what happened because till today people are looking for their disappear loved ones.

Then Joy - Rosie's mother - served dessert and Luke asked her for another slice of her famous apple pie.

They kept talking after dessert, then Maxi asked them to go with him to his room to see his new football ball and his collection of Star Wars Lego toys. The boys felt kinda jealous of Maxi because of the cool things. Ashton was still surprised for the drums, Calum went directly to the ball and play with Maxi a little bit and Michael made Maxi promise him to take care of any Star Wars thing he could receive. At the frame of the door Cami supervised that her brother didn't injure himself but she smiled watching him interacting with other people and felt comfortable because she knows the hell it could be when people bullies you in school.

"Okay Maxi now look at the camera" Marcela said when she asked the guys for a picture and all of them kneeled down at his height. "Good job baby, now you are going to be even coolest boy in this city". She was cheering him, he just met one of his favorite bands.

It was time to say goodbye, sadly. They promised Mario to come back and Ashton told the girls to keep in contact. They wished Rosie good luck and told Maxi that he is going to get out the chair sooner than he thought and that he can call Ash to threaten the bullies. A lot of hugs, good wishes and 'thanks for the lovely dinner' before the boys went directly to the airport.

Joy went to Cami's room where her daughter was talking to her best friend and told her that they were going home.

Once in their place, Arthur - Rosie's father - went directly to bed after he congratulated his daughter. And Joy wanted to talk with Rosie about something.

"They are pretty funny guys" Joy said sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Yeah. I thought that they were going to be assholes or divas but no" Rosie said ordering her clothes spilled all over a chair.

"Yeah, Mario told me a fight happened last night" she said worried.

"Oh don't worry, mom. It was some pervs but I put them in their place but the guys helped to "stop" the fight" Rosie explained without looking at her.

"Yeah, sweetie I just want to make sure that don't get your expectations too high about a guy right now" Joy grabbed her hand to stop her cleaning her room. "You are going to go to London and I just want for you success in this exchange" she smiles at her and Rosie was surprised because she knows her mom's opinion when she dropped University to follow her dream of being a dancer.

"Thank you, mom" she hugged her before she left her alone in her room. That's what you can call 'process' to Joy's attitude. She knows that her dad feels the same way but she understood why the last few months he is been acting weird because his job is not that easy.

1 month later

Rosie was waiting for her call outside the gate, she was in Roma and not to be rude but her first impression of Italians wasn't the best. Pure chaos the Roma's airport, another language, people yelling, little amount of sleep, anxiety, excited, a mix of everything, but she is going to get used to it because London is going to be no different from chaos.

And after the very first week on London she confirmed. The university was dreamy, she wishes that all academies would look the same, but there is a teacher that is a pain in the ass. Also what about all of the combinations of the subway? and she still thinks that why english have to contradict everything. She had euros to buy in Italy then changed them to pound for England, the opposite side of the driver in the cars that confused her the first time she called an uber.

Thanks to the universe that she has friendly roommates. Two of them from Argentina, one from Puerto Rico and one from Spain. She lives with them inside the campus and all of them from different careers too.

Her dancers friends by now are Darren who is from Glasgow, twin brothers Louis and Lewis from France and Sarah from Jamaica.

By far she had explored London by her own, sometimes she asks the exchange supervisor for basic stuff like bank, market, drugstore, museums, etc. But for the rest of the fun she just goes out with her friends or her roommates.

"Sorry if it's too early" Rosie said to Cami. They facetime almost every day, but still forgets the different time zones. We already know that Cami is not a morning person.

"It's fine, I have to go with Maxi to his therapy" Cami said "So how it went your first exam with that evil teacher?"

"I passed, but she's a pain in the ass. Now we have to practice the triple for the annual dance show" Rosie said while she was having lunch and Cami breakfast.

"Cool! Rosie don't see this as a bad thing because you have to spend more time with your teacher, you have to see this as an opportunity" her friend was right, she had seen the theaters in London and they are huge and a lot of plays everywhere. She went to Harry Potter's play and one day saw Orlando Bloom in the street. Darren was disappointed the day they went to Winston castle and didn't meet the queen. 'You can invite the queen to a cup of tea another day' Rosie told him, she didn't understand his love for the royal family but he thanked her for the motivation.

"If she doesn't kill us before the show, thanks and say hi to everyone! Gotta go we have to go to class". Rosie hanged up.

As always, her wise friend helped her to see the situation with another perspective and she has to enjoy the next months in London because things are going to get interesting.

Be honest You want this (You want this) But I can be heartless Regardless of my conscience

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janiedean · 5 years

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Do you think book!Bran will get the same ending he does in the show? I mean, if he does, it will obviously be better written (I was like "Does Edmure know about the Three-Eyed Raven? Is Yara going 'the hell did you smoke' at the 'he couldn't walk so he learned to fly' part? Is nobody going to go 'ok but shouldn't we look for someone older and better known through Westeros, with experience in both politics and military stuff' at Tyrion?" through the whole scene), but do you think that's that?

(I had another anon that went like:

i can't believe there are still bran is evil theories. im pretty sure that bran ending up on the throne is likely bc it doesn't make sense in the show. d&d don't know anything about bran, but they do know this is george's ending

so I’m answering both XD)

the short answer is yes, but obviously it’s not gonna be written the same way as in this dumbass show for a whole lot of reasons.

now: actually, bran on the throne makes in hindsight a whole lot of sense...... if you take into account also what tropes he’s there to deconstruct. (I’m gonna cp some older meta of mine on the topic that I did ages ago but it still holds up lol.)

as in, when it comes to bran GENERALLY:

bran is the first pov chapter in these books. the first. should hint that he’s important;

bran has 90% of the magic-related storyline. I mean, if you don’t count the dragons/r’hollor + mel and the AA prophecy, there’s less magic in asoiaf than in regular fantasy for obvious reasons, but what there is of is all in bran’s storyline. all. of. it;

as it is right now, he’s arguably a powerhouse. possibly the most powerful powerhouse in westeros. he can probably warg dragons. he can time travel. if the show didn’t fuck it up, he can change things in the past while time traveling even if he shouldn’t;

the entire storyline is headed north/behind the wall and bran is the one main character who’s behind the wall rn. and bran is at a point where he basically is in direct connection with the north at least and when I say direct I mean literally. the guy can warg into anything. maybe he can’t walk but man he’s basically a hundred luke skywalkers put into one person;

he’s also tied to all the northern mythology - the trees, the children of the forest and the likes. him, his storyline, everything. and the north is arguably where this story started and will most probably end and he is the character more symbolizing that mythology, not anyone else.

when it comes to bran thematically.... guys. bran is the deconstructed fisher king. as in: the fisher king is a character from arthurian mythology who is absolutely fundamental in the entire scheme - also arthurian mythology is one of the basis people built modern fantasy on - and which has been rehashed and reinterpreted for a shitload of times since the middle ages. c/p-ing quickly from wiki because you don’t need to go in-depth to do 2+2 on this:

In Arthurian legend the Fisher King, or the Wounded King, is the last in a long line charged with keeping the Holy Grail. Versions of his story vary widely, but he is always wounded in the legs or groin and incapable of moving on his own. In the Fisher King legends, he becomes impotent and unable to perform his task himself, and he also becomes unable to father or support a next generation to carry on after his death. His kingdom suffers as he does, his impotence affecting the fertility of the land and reducing it to a barren wasteland. All he is able to do is fish in the river near his castle, Corbenic, and wait for someone who might be able to heal him.

+Many works have two wounded “Grail Kings” who live in the same castle, a father and son (or grandfather and grandson). The more seriously wounded father stays in the castle, sustained by the Grail alone, while the more active son can meet with guests and go fishing.+The Fisher King appears first in Chrétien de Troyes’ Perceval (late 12th-century), but the character’s roots may lie in Celtic mythology. He may be derived more or less directly from the figure of Bran the Blessed (!!!!!!) in the Mabinogion. In the Second Branch, Bran has a cauldron that can resurrect the dead (albeit imperfectly; those thus revived cannot speak) which he gives to the king of Ireland as a wedding gift for him and Bran’s sister Branwen. +The Lancelot-Grail cycle includes a more elaborate history for the Fisher King. Many in his line are wounded for their failings, and the only two that survive to Arthur’s day are the Wounded King, called Pellam or Pellehan, and the Fisher King, Pelles.

now, what I said last year in that meta was:

then there’s the entire part where galahad (or whoever else in his stead but it’s galahad most times) heals the fisher king and saves the land which turns fertile again, but whatever, point is: asoiaf is a deconstruction of tropes, right, well sorry but I’m eating my own hat if bran isn’t a fisher king deconstruction where the wound actually makes him powerful rather than weak and where he definitely won’t need anyone to *heal* him, while at the same time he is tied with the (his) land directly and he embodies it and most of the magic storyline. and the fisher king is one of the main tropes/legends in western literature/arthurian mythology, if you have that kind of character in your book then you are not planning for them to be a second-rate player.

now, admittedly back then I was envisioning a finale when bran was either king in the north or in some similar position and not as endgame king but if we take the show finale for granted because as the other anon said it made no sense for d&d but it was george’s ending and they had to make it happen without understanding it.... well. actually:

if bran - ie deconstructed fisher king who becomes powerful because of his wound and doesn’t have to be healed by a knight to make the land fertile again because that wound gives him power - becomes actual eventual king it’s the full circle of that trope’s deconstruction because his wound means the eventual salvation of the entire continent, which works perfectly to bookmark how that specific scenario is turned on its head;

the problem is that d&d can’t write bran for shit and turned him into the heartless robot/3ER who might or might not have schemed the entire thing and didn’t make him do shit for three seasons because they can’t handle the magic storyline and then at the ending mAGICALLY we have king bran first of his name, but in a coherent version done by grrm and not by them where bran has his eye-opening experience beyond the wall, doesn’t magically lose his personality when he becomes the 3ER, keeps his sweetness and empathy after risking to lose them (which was his adwd storyline), helps greatly during the long night thanks to the fact that he’s a powerhouse and is eventually recognized as a savior of the realm in its own merit, then......... it’s actually very much coherent with grrm’s themes to have him become king, but not because he knew all along and played mysterious until now and whatever the fuck else, but because it’s the coronation of his entire storyline which starts with sweet young boy who just wants to be a hedge knight and then ends up saving the entire continent making the best use of what he has after that’s taken from him while using his connection to the magic roots of the story/to his land/to his family for the good of the entire realm, and that was a damn good story - sadly it’s not what d&d chose to tell except at the end;

edmure and yara were badly written but that entire scene was badly written and well-acted sadly, like no one objected because no one will object in the book storyline, given that ^^^^ happens, in the show they just basically tried to find a way to make it halfway plausible but it looks dumb because it’s badly written and it’s copypasting an endgame for a story that d&d have not adapted, but basically you had to buy that bran was it. it made no sense but like... what made sense, this episode’s salvation was the acting and that since the endgame was half grrm’s it wasn’t as shitty as 8x05 but like within itself it was incoherent af;

that said I think that bran being king + the small council being more or less what it was in the show (because LIKE HELL that’s brienne’s endgame like brienne is def. not going into any kingsguard in the books unless george smoked weed when he was writing acok/asos/affc) as in made of all discriminated categories in westeros or discriminated people in westeros after the throne’s destruction is absolutely a thing grrm would do, because basically we’ve gone from badly suited kings with a small council that’s basically the westeros equivalent of old white republican men to a realm where the king can’t walk (but can fly! ;) ) and the rest of the small council is a) a disabled man who’s been abused to hell and back all his life (REGARDLESS OF TYRION’S FAULTS let’s just look at the strict facts here), b) a former commoner who has been a lord for years but couldn’t read when the series began (davos), c) another former commoner (bronn) [note that both davos and bronn are former *criminals*/come from a really poor background, not from the wealthy side of the commoners], d) a woman who is also a knight ie something that pretty much disregards the entire status quo from before (brienne), e) sam who let’s all remember is a noble but was sent to the wall by his father because his skills were in his brain and not with swords/fighting/whatnot and who also was abused to hell and back when he was young - like, both the only nobles in it that were born nobles were disadvantaged and felt that on their own skin so they aren’t out of touch with the rest of the continent (sam was at the WALL where the only nobles go there for lack of options but it’s basically a glorified prison X°DDD). like, that is an ending I can absolutely see grrm going for because it’s basically the revenge of our forgotten-from-s1-and-dnd cripples, bastards and broken things that start the show the way they do and end it on top of things. that is absolutely a thing I can see grrm doing (with some changes bc again I really doubt the books small council would include bronn and brienne). the problem is that d&d wrote it like crap.

but bran becoming king and that being the general idea? I absolutely can see it same as while I was on team jon gets the throne and hates it before if this is how it goes... well, since I’ve been saying that if he wanted to be happy he should have just gone back beyond the wall if that is his actual endgame I have no issues with it. hell, it’s way better than the one I had envisioned for him for that matter.

that said bran being evil is a theory that makes no sense, it’s just that d&d can’t write him and they managed to make him look like an ass if we assume he knew everything from before. but like. it’s them being unable to write that story, not the story in itself being invalid or making no sense, because with the book elements we have.... it makes a hell of a lot of sense.

they just had to write it and they didn’t.

#bran stark #game of thrones spoilers #got negativity #janie writes meta #sorry my hand slipped #haljathefangirlcat #ask post

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squishyocalum · 5 years

Text

Never, and I mean never call me that again {C.H} Part 2

Warning - More angst. So much angst. s l I g h t fluff

Summery - Alex comes back to Cali for Michaels wedding and sees Calum for the first time in eight months.

Wordcount - 4K

A/N Okay guys so my sister and I write these on google docs, and in our stories you’ll see where we will insert ‘E/N’ (Editors notes, my sister is my editor) and A/N (I’m the author heyyy) But please please please leave feedback because we work really hard on these. The next part should be up tomorrow love bugs :) Part One

Calum's POV

It's been eight months since I've seen her. Eight months since I showed up our house to propose to her, and eight months since Michael met me in the kitchen to assure me that she was never coming back.

In the weeks that followed the boys told me constantly to sell the house, to put it on the market and walk away from it. The sane part of me begged me to do it, but the part of me that yearned for her - the part that still does - just wouldn't let me. I haven't washed that Zepplin shirt, and the coffee cup that she left on the counter that morning is cleaned but I never touch it. I see now why she left, I don't understand how she lasted as long as she did here because the easiest way to describe this is by saying it feels like I live with a ghost. Small whisps of memories wash over me day in and day out. You would think that I would run out of memories eventually, that they would all just mesh into a blob of moments but no, its the little things. Like when i'm brushing my teeth and I remember how she would act when I would barge into the bathroom while she was taking a shower to brush my teeth or even to join her in the shower. I remember the smile that would be plastered on her face when I would make stupid jokes or the way she would giggle and struggle when I would throw her on the bed and kiss her-

This isn't healthy, Calum. The voice in my head has told me this a thousand times but I can’t help but to constantly think “maybe she’ll come back, maybe we can start over.” (E/N this guy just doesn’t stop does he!)

I would beg Michael to tell me where she was, beg him to give me her number so I could talk to her. I had tried the other guys and their girlfriends but my girl- Alex was always smart about how she did things. This situation wasn't any different. Michael was her bestfriend and they were closest (other than us, of course) so she knew he would keep her secret. Fuck, if I had just stayed with her that night maybe things would be differnt.

Ash 9.34 AM- We need to be at the Venue in an hour for a last minute practice so I hope you're on your way.

I looked down at my phone screen before sighing and throwing it onto my bed. I only had to tie my shoes and then I would be on my way.

Today was Michaels wedding day, he is unbelievably happy and I'm happy for him but I wish it was me getting married. I wish she would've stayed for me. (E/N THIS DUUUUDDEEEEE)

As I made my way to my car, thoughts and ideas of what she could be doing right now flooded my mind, whatever it is that she's doing I hope shes having fun.

Alexs' POV

Today is the day I go back to Cali for my best friend's wedding. I was more than excited but I was even more nervous considering the fact that Calum was going to be there and I had no idea how he was going to behave. I know that the way I left him was mean, I know that some people upon hearing the whole story may think I was heartless to not forgive him but that's just the thing. Loving that boy was killing me from the inside out, I wasn't eating, I wasn't doing anything, and everytime I walked through the house it was like my heart was breaking all over again. If he loves me as much as he says he does, then he'll understand why I did it.

Stepping off the plane into the hot California air felt unreal and downright wrong, but what kind of a best friend would I be if I told him I couldn't come to his wedding because one of his groomsmen was my ex and I didn't want to see him', that's just selfish. Immediately I saw Michaels car and the arm that was wrapped around me a second ago quickly let go allowing me to run into his arms.

"Oh my god I missed you so much!" I stated as I hugged onto him as tight as I could. There was a chuckle from behind me followed by a deep voice

"Babe, you're going to break his neck if you squeeze him any tighter." I glared at him playfully peeling myself away from the soon to be grooms’ arms.

"I'm so glad you could both make it, I missed you so much Allie." He pushed my shoulder slightly in a playful way and then turned his attention back to my plus one. "It's good to see you again, Liam. Thank you for being good to her, she needs someone like you in her life."

He whispered the last part, I'm assuming he thought or more rather hoped that I didn't hear him because he gave Liam a pat on the back and grabbed our bags right after.

I know what you're thinking. It's only been eight months how could I have possibly moved on so fast. Just keep in mind that I was trying to move on when Calum proposed to me, I had been trying to move on for months, I can't just let myself never date again. And I mean yes, Liam was another famous guy - hell he even knows Calum and the rest of the boys but none of that matters to me because he was there for me. About four, maybe five months ago we met at this party he was hosting, some colleagues of mine dragged me to it saying there would be A listers there and that I should go because Michael had pulled some strings and gotten me invited (that boy had been trying to get me to go to parties since I moved, this time it just so happened to work). Lets just say I got really drunk and I tried to Call Calum, when I realized I didn't have his number I called Ashton and asked to talk to him. He did hand Calum the phone, I did hear Calums voice but I also heard a girl tell him to come back to bed. I don’t know what it was about liquor that made me realize that I missed him -what about it made me realize that I was ready to forgive him and move on;(E/N WELL LIQUOR TELLS THE TRUTH MY DEAR!!!) but I was, I was ready to let it go. I was hoping that it was just a fling - you know we weren’t together so he could do whatever he wanted but I felt the sting of heartbreak all over again when he said 'I'll be there in a minute babe' and hung up on me without another word.

I don't know if you've ever felt complete and utter love for someone before, like the type of love were you would die for them, kill for them, do anything in your power to protect them, but I had never loved anyone except Calum that much. So in my drunken depressed state all I could think was 'he never really wanted you anyways' or 'I can't believe you thought he loved you'. The house that the party was being hosted at was huge, five stories minimum, and my mind was already hard at work. `you have nothing else to live for.` It was telling me 'he was the only one for you, what's left'. Yes, I had left him. I left him because I had to. I thought it was killing me to see pieces of him everyday but in all reality it was killing me not seeing him every day.

I tried to jump off of the back balcony of Liam's house, that's how we met. I don't mean he caught me sitting up there I mean he walked into the room to grab something and when I noticed him I jumped. To this day I don't know how he caught me in time, but he did. He's been by my side ever since. We got closer over time, and eventually we started dating; when I finally told him about the whole situation with Calum he was dumbfounded to say the least. He would say how he always thought Calum was a good kid and he didn't understand how he could hurt someone like me.

Liam made me feel alive, like the world wasn't crashing around me everytime I took a breath.

Calums POV

One more hour until my boy is officially a married man. I'm trying my best to push the thought of Allie to the back of my mind and let Michael and Crystal be the center of my attention. Ashton, Luke and I were standing next to Michael talking about a few things and how everything was going to go - none of the girls were there yet considering they still had to finish their makeup and hair. Michael was all but foaming at the mouth to see Crystal in her dress and Luke was teasing him about it relentlessly.

"I'm going to move the wedding up an hour, I can't wait anymore." He groaned drawing laughs out of all of us "I mean everyone is here right?"

"Michael, the wedding starts in like twenty minutes." I started with a wide smile.

"Twenty minutes? Fuck me, I can't wait that long."

Almost on cue Crystals cousin walked through the door and sprinted the best she could up to us.

"Okay guys so Crystals ready to walk - she says she can't wait any longer." She spoke with hurried words and tried to catch her breath.

"And that's my girl." Michael smiled "Tell her give it five minutes and we can start, Luke would you mind?"

Luke nodded and walked to the center of the venue grabbing everyone's attention.

"Hello everyone. If you could please take your seats, we're going to start a little early." Everyone murmured and chatted amongst themselves as they took their seats. I was standing with my hands locked behind my back as Luke takes his spot back next to Michael and the music begins. When the doors leading to the walkway opened I saw Crystals dress first obviously, but behind her alongside KayKay and Sierra holding up her long veil was the love of my life looking as beautiful as ever.

Panic and excitement rose up in my stomach, I looked over at the guys and the only one who even glanced at me was Luke - he did so with a sympathetic look. I didn't take my eyes off of her and when I saw her look to her right I followed her eyes to a guy I knew extremely well but when I saw her smile at him and blow a kiss in his direction while he just gave her the cheesiest smile I couldn't help the lump that grew in my throat.

She moved on.

(E/N YUUUUPPPPPP)

(A/N Y’all forgive her, she like to give commentary lmao)

Alex's POV

"Stop stressing Crys, you look beautiful, really." I told her as I flattened a couple of creases in the belt of her dress. She had been freaking out for at least thirty minutes and we had all been doing our best to calm her down.

"Can't we just do it now? Like, Stella go out here and tell them I'm ready. Let's do this thing."

Within a matter of minutes the music started to play signaling that it was our time to go. The smile on Crystals face was enough to make me want to get married, I mean she looked so happy, so excited. When the doors opened, I didn't let my eyes travel to the altar - not yet. I was going to enjoy this moment damnit. I looked over and saw Liam with a huge smile on his face, he looked so happy to see me and seeing his face made my stomach flutter. I blew him a kiss and he 'caught it'. It's cheesy, yes, but that's just us. And I love us, I love the person he's helping me become.

```````````````````

"You may kiss the bride." The priest spoke prompting Michael to grab crystals face and pull her into a sloppy adorable kiss. We all cheered for them, I wasn't ignorant to the glare that Liam and I got when I latched onto him. He grabbed onto my jaw and kissed me lightly before telling me that I looked beautiful in my dress.

"Thank you, babe. You don't look to bad yourself."

"Well you know this girl helped me pick this suit out, she was kinda hot you know." (E/N *Starts screaming ‘SHES KINDA HOT’)

"Was she? I bet she thought you were pretty handsome, huh?"

"I meeeeaaaan," He drew out "She tells me every once in a while."

I kissed him again letting my hands dangle over his shoulders loosely, he smiled against my lips before I pulled back and wrapped my arms around his waist facing the couple.

Crystal threw the bouquet back for someone to catch and it found its way into Sierras hands. She smiled widely jumping into Lukes arms. Luke looked just as happy and even though it didn't mean that they were going to get married any time soon, that didn't mean it wasn't in the future.

The after party was finally starting and the sun was only just starting to set - the venue had a ballroom type thing as the lower level and that's were the cake and food was set up, there was a small bar loaded to the brim with drinks and something in the pit of my stomach I wasn't leaving tonight without some kind of drama going down.

I hadn't drank since the night I tried to do a swan dive off of Liam's balcony so seeing everyone around me drinking was rather boring to me - that was until I felt someone walk up next to me. I want to say that I didn't expect it but I would be completely stupid to think he wasn't going to approach me at least once tonight.

"Allie." He spoke, his voice wavered tugging at my heart strings "You look amazing."

"What do you want, Cal." I asked begging my heart to let me keep my distance from the man it had been calling out for, for months.

"I want to talk to you." He reached out to my hand stepping closer to me and it was only now that I could smell the liquor on his breath. I pulled my hand away before he could grab it and stepped back scoffing at him.

“Just please go, Calum.”

“Allie, please -”

“I was going to come back.” I stated, cutting him off . A baffled look raked over his features and I watched his eyes go wide.

“What do you mean?”

“The night I called Ashton to talk to you, the night that you were with that girl I was calling to tell you that I was coming back.” My voice broke as a lump formed in my throat thinking back to the night that finally broke the last pieces of my heart. “But you were busy.” I spat.

“No. No, no Allie I swear to god that wasn’t what it sounded like -”

“You called her babe and hung up in my face, Calum. Are you fucking serious?”

“Baby, I did it because I was hoping it would make you jealous enough to come back to me. It was my sister, I asked her to I swear to god.”

Baby. Hearing that stupid pet name still did things to me. I felt an overwhelming sadness take over my subconscious, mixed feelings were swirling through my brain, it very well could have been his sister, but how could he be selfish enough to hurt me in that way again. The feeling of complete heartbreak overtook my senses and for the first time since I met Calum I didn’t feel the want or the need to fight for him. I didn’t have the strength to again.

“It’s over now Calum. Just stay away from me.” I mumbled turning on my heal to search for Liam. I made eye contact with him right before I felt Calums large hands engulf mine.

“I love you, Alex. Please I can’t keep living like this.”

His words didn’t get the chance to have an effect on me before Liam was by my side shoving Calum away.

“Get the fuck away from her, Hood.” He seethed, I grabbed onto his shoulder hoping to keep him at bay.

“Liam it’s Michaels wedding. Calm down.” I whispered in his ear.

“Who the fuck do you think you are?” Calum challenged.

For the love of god. I thought It would’ve been better had I not come.

“Liam lets go.” I begged

“No, he can’t just come up to you and grab you like that. He has no right-”

“No right? I love her! She knows I love her, Allie please-”

“She tried to kill herself because of you!” Liam boomed, his voice carried through the ballroom and I felt like I could faint at any moment “The night she called you and you were with someone else again I caught her right before she fell five stories off of my balcony. So no, Calum, you have no right.” He was holding me in his chest now running his hand up and down my back to comfort me.

“I thought you would call back to get an explanation. I thought you would come back If I gave you a reason.” He spoke with a fragile voice, almost as if he was afraid to talk to loudly.

“How was I supposed to know that! You gave me every reason to think that you had moved on.”

“I tried to call you after I hung up.” He admitted “I tried to call you for an hour straight. I sent messages.”

Shock spread through my body, I hadn’t seen any messages or calls. Granted I didn’t have my phone on me until about three hours after the incident Liam did. I turned my attention to him and slowly backed away.

“Liam did you delete the messages?” I asked with a trembling voice “Did you erase my call log?”

“Yes. I did.” He admitted, he did have remorse in his voice but he was quick to explain his actions “You were so hurt, Allie. I was holding you for hours and then he texted with all these excuses. I didn’t want to see you hurt again. In my mind I was protecting you.” (E/N IM SO HURT RIGHT NOW LIAM HAD NO FLIPPING RIGHT!!!)

He was holding my hands and looking into my eyes; despite the betrayal that I felt in my heart I couldn’t be mad at him, he was protecting me. Or at least he thought he was.

“You mean to tell me, she would’ve been back home in our house if it wasn’t for you?”

“No, she would be dead if it wasn’t for me-”

No one had time to react before Calums fist collided with Liam’s jaw. I gasped as Liam staggered back holding onto his jaw. He never got the chance to hit back before Calum was on top of him throwing punch after punch.

“Cal, stop!” I begged pulled on his arms in hope to sway him “Please! Please, I’ll go with you we can talk, just Please.”

He slowed his movements now turning to look at me with a lost look in my eyes. I had no idea he tried to call me, so I owed it to him to let him explain. He didn’t shove me over that ledge, my drunken mind did. I couldn’t help but think that had I looked at my phone before Liam got ahold of it I could've been back to him by now, we could be home we could be getting married. I wouldn't be pretending that I didn't love him anymore

All this time thinking he had moved on but he had missed me as much as I missed him.

“Liam stop!” I screamed as he went in for a hit to Calums face causing Cal to stumble backwards giving Liam the upper hand.

At this point everyone around us was completely gobsmacked and Michael was holding onto a completely distraught Crystal. I feel horrible about this, it was stupid of me to come, I should’ve known better. (E/N they didn’t have to do this at the wedding though…like they JUST GOT MARRIED)

(A/N bitch it was your idea “have them do it at the wedding so Calum can get drunk and cause a scene” headass)

(E/N I didn’t think you’d actually do it!!)

(A/N of course I was gonna do it the idea was golden tf)

“Liam, stop!” A voice called out through the crowd, I looked up and matched the voice to Luke who was hurriedly pushing his way about the people making his way to the two men. I watched in awe as he effortlessly plucked Liam off of his best friend and threw him quickly to the side. He helped Calum up before demanding that he leave.

“It’s Mikey’s wedding man, this shit isn’t okay.” I heard him mumble as he walked with Calum.

I felt Liam's hand rest on my shoulder and I almost instantly backed away.

“I need to go talk to him.”

“Allie,” He whispered with a worried expression “I’m sorry I hit him but come on, he’s not good for you.”

“I still need to talk to him. I love him Liam, you know that. What gave you the right to decide what and who was good for me?”

He sighed as he let his hands fall to his waist. He seemed to ignore my question which was probably for the better.

“I knew it was going to happen. You would see him and all those feelings would come back. Allie, go get closer, go confess your love, whatever you need to do. But please understand that the only reason I did what I did was because the thought of someone like you getting your heart torn apart by him again .”

“You’re so good to me Liam, I’m sorry-”

“Hey, its okay. I support you no matter what remember that.”

Running out of the venue I saw Luke sitting with Calum on the hood of his car. Calum had a cigarette resting between his lips and they were talking about something. As soon as his eyes met mine he put his cigarette out and sprinted to me.

“Calum-” I was cut off when he grabbed my face and pressed his lips to mine. It only took me a second to relax into his touch allowing my hands to raise to the nape of his neck and pulled him closer to me. I was the first to pull away allowing him to rest his forehead on mine, his breathing was labored and I could tell that he had been crying.

“Alex, did you really try to jump?” He asked quietly but when I didn’t respond he let out a strangled sob “Princess, I am so sorry. I didn’t know you were going to come home. I - I thought if I made you jealous enough you would come back and I could show you that I only wanted to be with you. I had no Idea-”

“Breathe baby.” I cooed looking up into his eyes. “We have time.”

“Can we go home? You don’t have to stay but please come back and talk. Please let me fix this.”

“Yeah, Cal. Let's go home.”

(E/N YESSS FUCK IT UPPPPPP!!!

Okay but on a serious note you guys don’t know how hard my job is. This girl really can’t spell. :’D. But I am glad that you guys enjoy my presence. )

(A/N Aye don’t put me out like that :( But no writing this chapter was really fun, we had a lot of fun writing it and I look forward to writing part three and boi oh boi I bet y’all are gonna enjooooyy that part. If you know what I mean WinK wiNk. I’m gonna convince Courtney to set up her own Wattpad cause let me tell you this girl has some good ideas. I hope y’all enjoyed please like and comment -Lyndsey x)

(E/N I have a Wattpad. I just don’t write.)

(A/N well then start fucking writing brah)

#calumhood #calum hood imagines #calum 5sos #luke 5sos #ashton 5sos #michael 5sos #5sosimagines

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5sosdrfluke · 6 years

Text

He’s A Prince (Luke Hemmings)

So I originally wrote this for my Wattpad readers, but I love it so much that I had to share it with the tumblr 5sos fam too. It’s one of my favorite pieces and I had so much fun writing it. I hope you enjoy it.

My Wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/user/LouTommo11

In His P.O.V

Words: 6.6k

Warnings: It’s literally just sassy Luke and fluff. No need to worry.

Luke stared at himself in the mirror. He looked utterly ridiculous.

His so-called "fashion consultant", Jerry, had shoved him into a lot of white ruffles.

"I look like the layers of a lasagna." He mumbled, gaining a glare from Jerry.

"You look like a proper royal now. You should be grateful." Jerry sniffed, crossing his arms.

"No, what I look like is a romance novel with extra ruffles. And no scantily clad women. I'm disappointed." Luke said, pulling at the white fabric.

"You are incorrigible!" Jerry threw his hands up and stormed out of the room, leaving Luke to fluff about with the ruffles.

It wasn't the first time he'd gotten Jerry upset. He enjoyed it. His mother, however, did not. She wanted him to be the perfect vision of what a prince should be.

Luke loved his mother. She was an amazing queen and ruler. But he didn't want this kind of life. He wanted to explore the world. Find himself. Instead, he was attending balls and reading Shakespeare. Princesses and duchesses were thrust upon him at all hours of the day. There were only so many of them he could handle. So many of them only wanted his kingdom or his money.

He pulled off the heinous shirt and sighed, putting on his everyday clothes. He found cotton very comfortable. Satin just made him feel like a marble statue.

He settled the dark green material over his broad shoulders and instantly felt better. He liked colors on him. He felt confident in greens, reds, and blues. But Jerry was stuck on white. So much white. White was such a "pure" color. Luke was anything but pure.

He remembered Calum finding him in the toolshed with a maid and grimaced a little. He wasn't exactly the poster child for purity and perfection.

Luke sighed and grabbed his notebook and headed out the door.

He made his way to his favorite place on the premises. The old treehouse his father had built for him and his brothers when they were young.

It was hidden in the trees behind the palace and only certain people knew about his hideaway.

He climbed up the rope ladder and into the place that felt more like home than the palace did.

He breathed in the atmosphere and wandered over to the bundle of blankets he'd acquired over the years. He was a regular blanket stealer. He settled himself down on the plethora of blankets and opened his notebook.

This place is no home, It's entirely to clean and stuffy, I'd rather be stuck living with a gnome, And a dog that has fur that is oh so very fluffy.

He wrote and furrowed his eyebrows. It was absolutely awful. He tore the page out and crumpled it, throwing it aside.

He set the pen against the parchment and started to write again.

No one wants to listen. All they care about is the palace that has a sensual gleam and glisten. Royalty is cold and heartless. People look up to them regardless. There's more to be done in the world, Than to be thrust into the arms of yet another girl. I wish for real love, not the shallow, But so far, every encounter leaves me hollow. I wish to watch the sunrise with my love, But I fear I won't get that because of someone from above, All I want is something true, But this life is everything that leaves me dark and blue.

"I thought you'd be here." A voice came from the treehouse opening.

Luke jumped and the pen flew out of his hand. "Calum you insensitive bastard."

Calum chuckled and wandered in. "Sorry, majesty."

Luke hated people referring to him as "Your Highness" or "your majesty." Which is exactly why Calum did it.

"You know, you're the reason I hide up here," Luke muttered, reaching for the pen.

"I assure you I'm not. You hide from everyone. So it's not just me." Calum sat on the floor in front of Luke.

Luke considered his friend for a moment. "Why do you put up with me? All I am is a menace. And incredibly good looking."

Calum shook his head. "And humble."

Luke smiled a little. "I mean it. How have you been my friend for this long? I'm not exactly pleasant."

Calum rested on his hands and looked at Luke. "Well, to be honest, your mother pays me and tells me she'll keep me if I just shut you up for a few hours."

"Ha. You're quite the jester my good friend." Luke teased.

"I guess I'm the only one who actually knows you," Calum said seriously.

Luke raised his eyebrows. Calum was right. He didn't show anyone else his secret spot. Only his brothers and father knew before. But he trusted Calum. Calum didn't treat him like royalty. He treated Luke like a friend.

"You only say that because you've seen me naked."

Calum winced. "Several times. You really need to find more private places for your...adventures with women."

Luke chuckled. "Sorry, my friend. I'm spontaneous."

Calum rolled his eyes. "I'd like for you to actually be with the same woman for more than one night. That's my hope for you."

Ouch. Luke felt that one. He did feel guilty about the women he'd led on. But truthfully, he'd hoped he'd connect with one of them. But they all resorted to asking him about being royalty. It was a blow to the face.

"I hope that too Calum. But alas, my ass is far to good for one woman." He spoke, protecting his hurt heart.

"Your ass is average and you know it."

Luke gasped. "Surely you don't mean that. I have worked very hard on it. I sometimes run from wily women. It helps keep it tight."

"Luke I'm serious. All you do is talk about how many women you've had. You make jokes. You don't talk about your duties or your responsibility," Calum said sternly, "You drive people away. But I stay because I know you. I just wish you wouldn't try to drive me away."

Luke listened to his friend quietly.

"And I know that you treat those women kindly until they ask about your royal blood. Then you shut them down." He continued.

"I am a gentleman until provoked," Luke mumbled, playing with the pen in his hand.

"I just know that when the right girl comes along, you'll give up the stupid, jerk act. Or maybe you are helpless. Either way, I'm stuck with you."

"Thanks, Calum. You have such faith in me." Luke scribbled across the page, crossing out the poem he had written before Calum showed up.

"You will find someone to love," Calum said softly, "You just need to open your heart to it."

"Calum are you in love with me? Is this why you've been with me all these years? You've gained feelings for the man in front of you. I'm honored and flattered friend. But unfortunately, I do not share those same feelings. Not that you're unattractive or anything."

Calum threw his arms up in exasperation. "I give up."

"Ah yes. The way of the coward. It is my favorite way."

"You're impossible," Calum stated.

"No, I am Luke."

Calum glared at him.

"What? I think I am rather charming. My wit is what makes me so irresistible."

"Luke. You're being extra horrible today. Did something happen?" Calum asked, clearly concerned.

Luke's face fell a little bit. Last night he had an argument with his father about his behavior. He had told him he was "unworthy of being royal and taken seriously". There was also a small comment about being betrothed had nothing to do with love. He and his mother had been lucky. They fell in love eventually and had three boys. Luke being the youngest. But his father didn't think anyone would ever fall for Luke. He just wanted to establish relationships with other kingdoms. So to him, Luke's happiness wasn't a factor.

"Luke? You look like you're miles away."

Luke blinked and looked at his friend. "I am quite alright. Just remembering the exquisite bosom of the lovely lady I wooed the other night."

"Luke I swear I will hit your royal face."

Luke sighed and set down the notebook. "If you must know, my father chewed me out last night. I'm unworthy of anything and blah blah blah."

"I'm sorry. I'm sure that wasn't what you wanted to hear." Calum said.

"I'm used to it." Luke didn't mean to sound so small, but it just came out that way.

"Maybe you'll find someone at the ball tonight," Calum suggested, shrugging.

Luke groaned. "Don't remind me. I've been stuffed into shirts that make me look like my aunt Matilda."

Calum laughed and held his stomach.

"I'm glad that my pain amuses you."

"How many ruffles?" Calum let out between fits of laughter.

"Twelve," Luke grumbled, causing Calum to laugh harder.

"Well, now you know the love will be true if those girls see you in that!" Calum cackled.

"I am not wearing that monstrosity. I will find something else."

"Oh yeah? How about something with four ruffles? Or is that a little toned down for your taste?"

Luke threw his pen at the other boys head.

"Alright! I'll stop! You need to go do your studies. The queen sent me for that reason. So leave before she gets upset." Calum breathed.

Luke sighed and got up, climbing down the ladder.

Calum watched him and picked up the notebook the prince had left behind.

He opened it to the page that Luke had scribbled on and he made out the words, "I wish for real love. Not the shallow."

~~~~~~~~~~~The Ball~~~~~~~~~

Luke was pleased with the way he looked. He had pushed Jerry out of his room and dressed himself. He thought he looked rather dashing.

He chose a rose-colored silk shirt, black slacks, and his best shoes, which still had holes in them.

He combed his fingers through his curls, taming them away from his face. He hadn't shaved and he liked it that way. He liked the look of the scruff on his prominent jawline.

A knock on the door signaled that his alone time was up. He sighed and opened the door to reveal a handsomely dressed Calum.

"Hello, majesty. I see you went for a pirate look tonight."

"I look fabulous Calum. And so do you. Are you going to be my date?"

Calum raised an eyebrow. "You think I'm available? Am I the first one to turn you down?"

Luke blinked. "Unfortunately, I think you might be."

Calum and Luke arrived at the intimidating ballroom. It was covered with flowers, lights, and people in very uncomfortable looking outfits.

Luke disliked this very much.

"Alright. I'm going to go let the queen know you're here. Go mingle. Find a nice looking girl. Talk to her for longer than a minute." Calum whispered, leaving Luke to his own devices.

He took a deep breath and stepped onto the floor. It felt like every eye was on him as soon as he entered. Men wanted his status. Women wanted his....well imagine. Oh and his money.

He hated the attention from people he did not know or enjoy.

"Excuse me, your Highness." A high pitched voice came from his left.

He turned to see a very petite girl bowing before him. Her dress was unbelievably poofy and ruffled.

"Stand please," Luke spoke.

The girl stood and smiled toothily. She was awfully flushed. "It's a pleasure to meet you, your Highness. I've been dying to meet you. You're even more handsome than you are on the invitation."

"What invitation?" He asked, horrified.

"The one you and your family sent to everyone. With the lovely picture of you holding a book. You looked so smart and regal." She gushed.

Luke was taken aback. "What did the invitation say, dear woman?"

She giggled at his words. "It was something along the lines of, "Prince Luke invites all eligible women of high stature to bide for his engagement". Something like that." She said, entranced by the prince.

His blood ran cold. This wasn't a ball for the kingdom. It was a ball for him.

"I appreciate you telling me. I must take my leave of you. I apologize." He inclined his head and quickly walked away.

The girl watched him walk away and stamped her foot.

Luke ran out to the garden just outside the ballroom to catch his breath. His parents had deliberately made this function into finding a wife for Luke.

Luke didn't want to find a wife here. He wanted more than a night to get to know someone. No one understood that. He kicked a nearby stone and winced at the pain.

"That looked painful." A voice said from a bench sat in the middle of the garden.

Luke looked up to see yet another woman in a ball gown. "It was actually rather satisfying." He quipped.

"Kicking stones are usually what one does for fun." She replied.

He crossed his arms over his chest. "Shouldn't you be one of those girls inside, dying to be chosen by me? I've heard that I'm enchanting."

She chuckled. "I'm not interested. My parents made me come here. So I'm sorry prince. I'm not here for you. No matter how beautiful you think you are."

Luke never got a response like that before. Not from anyone besides Calum. "Ah, I see. Are you here for the hordes of other women in there? I am absolutely supportive of the same sex relationships. I will happily be your wingman."

"You are full of yourself aren't you?" She murmured, getting up from the bench.

"Am I making you leave princess?" He teased, watching her curiously.

"No. I am getting bitten by mosquitoes." She said simply and brushed by him to go inside.

He was intrigued. No woman has told him she wasn't interested. It was refreshing. He could move on from her easily.

After a while, he wandered back inside to see Calum dancing with the mystery girl. Good for him. He could use some interaction for once.

Luke moved his way through the crowd to get to the food. He was starved. He spent the rest of the day with his studies and had no time to eat anything.

He picked up a delightful looking tea sandwich when someone grabbed him by the back of his shirt.

"Oof."

He was being dragged to the side by big hands. "Is now really the time to be eating?"

His heart sank. It was his father. "I am sorry father. I haven't eaten since breakfast."

"Well, that's your own fault, Lucas."

He flinched at his full name. "Yes, father."

"Now. Have you met any women that you're interested in?" His father asked.

"If I said no, would you kick me to the curb?" Luke asked hopefully.

"I mean it, Lucas. You must find someone you want to marry. You may have tonight and two days to spend time with her before proposing. There is no changing your mind. This is how it must be."

Luke felt the anger bubble in his chest. He didn't want to just pick a random girl and know them for two days before becoming engaged. "Father this is unfair. I'm not even going to be king. Why must I marry?"

"To better the kingdom. To show our people that you are serious." He answered.

"But I don't want to be stuck with someone I tolerate. I want more than that." Luke said desperately.

"Get that fairy tale out of your head. This is our life. You must take part and do your duty!"

Luke swallowed. He wasn't going to win this battle. "Yes, father."

"Now put down the sandwich and dance with some of the ladies. There are some lovely ones here tonight for you." His father said, taking the tea sandwich away from him.

"Yes, father." Luke walked away, towards the ballroom floor.

Several girls approached him and he did what he was asked. He danced with them quietly and moved on to the next girl who was in line.

Some of them were beautiful. Some were cute. Some were funny. Some were shy. But he still didn't feel a connection with anyone. And that scared him.

After two hours he felt exhausted and he took a seat on the garden bench. He buried his head in his hands and willed himself to breathe.

"That looked a little rough."

Mystery girl was back. He looked up at her. "Thanks for noticing."

She looked a little sympathetic and handed him something. A tea sandwich.

"Bless you lovely maiden!" He cried out and ate it quickly.

She laughed. "You're the picture of elegant right now."

He had the whole sandwich in his mouth. "What's your point?" Crumbs fell out.

She giggled. "I apologize. I saw you with your father and I saw him snatch the sandwich out of your hand. It was rather rude if you ask me. Royals get hungry too."

Luke swallowed the sandwich and looked up. "I get more hungry than most. One time I ate an entire roast after my archery lesson."

"That is impressive. I would've pegged you for a brisket man."

"I am an everything man. I will eat anything that's put in front of me." He admitted.

She nodded and sat on the other side of the bench. "So. See any suitors in there?"

"That man you were dancing with earlier. He was rather handsome."

She laughed. "He is. He's very kind."

"That's good. He's a good man. He deserves a wonderful woman." He nodded.

"Yes. He does. He seems to be taken with the one in the blue dress. They've danced several times." She pointed out the girl.

Luke smiled. "Good for you Calum."

"So be honest. Did any of those gussied up girls get your attention?" She asked, resting her hands on her knees.

Luke chuckled softly and looked at his hands. "No. Not really. They're all lovely and good choices. For someone else."

The girl looked astonished. He didn't make a snarky comment. "Well what are you wanting out of this? Isn't this ball for you to find a wife?"

"It isn't my ball. My parents set this up. I had no idea until I came down to the ballroom."

"So...you didn't send out those ridiculous invitations?" She inquired.

"Oh, gods no. I had nothing to do with that. I would've picked a portrait of me with a pig in my arms." He sighed, running his hand through his hair.

"A pig?"

"Yes. A lovely one named Petunia. We'd be best friends and pose for several pictures. I have it all planned out." He rubbed his temples.

The girl frowned a little bit. She knew what he was going through. "I'm Y/N. I'm from a kingdom far away from here and I eat several pieces of chocolate throughout a week."

Luke stopped what he was doing and looked at her. "I'm Luke. I'm from here. And I eat several pieces of chocolate a day."

Y/N giggled.

"So your parents made you come here for me?" He asked her.

She nodded. "Yeah. They thought I should mingle. Not necessarily find a suitor. But just to get in with the royal crowds. It's very interesting indeed."

"At least there's no pressure there. You can take your time." Luke felt a little jealous.

"I got lucky." She smiled, looking over at him.

He didn't know why, but he really liked her smile. And the sound of her voice.

"Lucas! You're being rude. Ignoring those girls inside. Come back inside." Luke's mother showed up at the garden entrance.

He stiffened a bit, Y/N noticed.

"I'm coming mother." He stood and sighed softly.

Y/N watched as he walked inside, completely broken.

Luke danced with the girls that asked him. He was forced to ask other girls. It was a vicious circle of dancing with girls he didn't want to dance with.

He was in the middle of a particularly horrible dance when someone tapped his shoulder.

He turned and Y/N smiled. "Can I get a dance, your Highness?"

He felt so relieved that he almost threw the other girl off of him. He held Y/N close like you do when you're dancing.

"Thank you for saving me." He whispered.

"You looked extremely miserable." She replied, dancing. "You've danced with every woman here at least twice."

"My father expects me to choose one. I have no idea where to start." He spun her.

"Well, what's a good quality you're looking for?" She questioned.

"Someone that makes me laugh."

"Hmm. Have any of them made you laugh?"

"One. But only because she said orgasm instead of organize."

Y/N giggled. "Oh no."

"It was wonderful. She turned about four different shades of red. But I felt bad. So I kissed her cheek and said she shouldn't be embarrassed. Then she ran out. So I tried."

Y/N glanced up at him. "You did that?"

He nodded. "It's not easy to be relaxed in a situation like this. I wanted to ease her mind. But I guess it didn't work."

Y/N's heart leaped a little. He cared about keeping these women comfortable. He had a bad reputation, but maybe it was only rumor.

"OK well, are there any other things you're looking for?" She asked, dancing close.

"Someone who doesn't want my status or my money. Someone who wants to be with me because they like me." He said truthfully, holding her gently.

She had thought this man was incredibly selfish before. She thought he was going to be flirting up a storm with everyone to see who was the most beautiful. But he was wanting what she wanted too.

"That's a very hard thing to come by." Y/N whispered.

Luke nodded and danced. "So far the ones I've had private encounters with all turned out to want the status. Now all the public encounters are all the same."

"Private encounters?" She was stunned.

"Yes. I am not proud of them afterward. I only get the girls pawing after my crown. Expecting me to give it to them all because I've had sex with them. There were even a few times when I thought I would really love one of them. But they were all the same. Not wanting to love me."

Y/N's heart hurt. She's had men only want to get into her skirts for the status of saying they had sex with a princess and that they'd be royal. She declined all of them. But it seemed like Luke was really desperate to feel something.

"I am sorry you've had to deal with that. You should be able to find someone that will love you. Not the royalty. But the real you." She comforted.

He looked at her eyes. "No one's ever told me that before."

"Well, I am. It's the truth. I believe everyone should be able to fall in love."

He smiled softly. "You're an interesting woman Y/N. You seem to share the same values I do."

"Yes, but without the snarky comments." She teased.

"Fair enough. Perhaps I should dance with another. My father's giving me that look." He said sadly, letting Y/N go.

Y/N nodded and bowed, moving out of the way for a barrage of girls that surrounded him.

~~Later That Night~~~~~~~~~~~~

"But Father! I did not choose her!" Luke yelled, balling his fists.

"You seemed incompetent. So I chose one for you. You will take her to the fair tomorrow and you will be pleasant. Do you understand?" His father commanded.

Luke's hands shook. His father had picked a girl at random. It just so happened to be the maiden in the blue dress that was dancing with Calum. She was going to be his betrothed in a matter of days.

"Lucas answer me!"

Luke grit his teeth. "Yes, father."

"Very well. Go get some sleep. She deserves your well-rested self." His father ducked out.

Luke fell to his knees in defeat and cried out in frustration. His chance at any sort of love before marriage was gone. He didn't know this girl at all. He danced with her once or twice, but she never spoke. He tried to talk to her but she kept quiet.

"Luke?"

Luke looked up from his spot on the floor to see Calum. He was never so happy to see him in his life.

"Calum. My father's done something horrible."

"I know," Calum said sadly, "I heard."

Luke wrapped his arms around his knees and thought about all the different ways he could run away tonight.

"You know they'd find you." Calum guessed, sitting beside his friend.

"But it would be a hell of an adventure." Luke murmured.

"I saw what your notebook said. I had no idea that you felt that way. I thought you just wanted any girl that would let you take them into the supply closet."

"You read my notebook?"

"Don't be upset. I only wanted to make sure you were not thinking of doing something drastic." Calum watched Luke. He looked so defeated and worn down.

"All I've ever wanted was to feel free to fall in love at my own pace. To let myself get to know the woman. I wanted to leave this kingdom and explore the countryside. I wanted to take my true love with me, to marry her away from all of this selfish, thickheaded royalty. The gods have been cruel to me. I've been cursed with these shackles. I shall never be free." Luke let his heart pour out to Calum, unafraid of what he might think.

"Luke I know you want more. I know you never wanted this life. But think about it this way, once you've married, your father will loosen up on his overbearing ways." Calum tried to comfort him.

"Calum I don't love her." His voice broke.

Calum wrapped an arm around Luke's shoulders. "I know. But I think I have an idea."

Luke looked at Calum. "What kind of idea?"

"Just trust me. I'll get it all worked out."

~~~~~~~~~~The Fair ~~~~~~~~~~~

The smell of fried foods and sugar wafted in the air as Luke walked with his soon to be wife on his arm.

She had yet to say a word to him.

"So. Do you like to read?" He asked softly, trying not to scare her.

Nothing.

"Alright. Well, I write my own poetry sometimes. It helps get my mind off things you know?"

She stared at the ground.

"Are you hungry? Because I can get you a wonderful spun sugar if you'd like." He offered.

Silence.

"Or I could just strip naked right here and now and ask you to take me as your crazy husband."

Her eyes widened, but she still said nothing.

Luke sighed and continued to walk the girl around the fair.

"Excuse me miss. I think you're in the wrong arms. May I escort you further?" A man's voice said.

Luke was about to protest, but he turned to see Calum.

The girl looked relieved to be saved. She let go of Luke's arm and took Calum's instead.

Calum winked at Luke and took the girl towards the food stands.

"He stole my very quiet, soon to be wife," Luke muttered, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Your Highness?"

Luke whirled around, almost taking down Y/N with him. "Oh my. I'm sorry. You startled me." He caught her.

"Yes, I can tell. I was almost on the ground." She composed herself and looked up at him.

"Y/N," He breathed, "Why are you here?"

"Calum penned me a note that said to meet you here today. I thought you knew." She sounded a little disappointed.

"I didn't know."

Her face fell slightly.

"But I'm really glad you're here. You being here just made my day a hell of a lot better." He admitted.

She gave him a small smile. "So have you eaten everything yet?"

Luke chuckled and offered his arm for her. "No I have not had a thing. But I am about to raid that stand over there. Would you care to join me?"

Y/N took his hand and smiled. "I'd be happy to."

He took the liberty of ordering almost everything they had so that he and Y/N could try it all.

"I think the spun sugar is instantly the most satisfying," Luke commented, wrapping a little on his finger.

"It is excellent. I do like the chocolate cookies they had though." Y/N replied.

"Whoever said sugar is bad for you, is absolutely horrible. Sugar makes me happy." Luke ate the spun sugar off his finger.

Y/N giggled. "So was that the girl you're going to marry? She's very pretty."

Luke stiffened. "She is pretty. She does not talk to me, however."

"Oh really? She wasn't talking your ear off about how handsome you are?"

Luke looked at her. "You think I'm handsome?"

Y/N sputtered. "I mean...you're not not attractive."

Luke smiled a little sadly. "She was chosen by my father."

"Oh. But I thought you got to choose any of the girls last night."

"He did not trust me. He made the decision for me. It's final." He looked at his hands.

"That's incredibly unfair. He told you-you could choose from any of the girls there and then he picked for you! How selfish!" She fumed.

"That's my father. He didn't think I was mature enough to make my own decision." He sighed.

Y/N looked at his face. He looked exhausted and so unhappy. There were dark circles under his eyes and his hair looked unruly.

"I am so sorry your Highness."

Luke glanced at her. "Why are you sorry? You have nothing to be sorry about."

"I am sorry because you didn't get to fall in love before you get married." She said softly.

He sucked in a breath. "Love. I don't even know what that is. It feels like a fantasy to me at this point."

Y/N softly placed her hand on top of his. "I don't know what it is either. I couldn't tell you. All I can say is that I hope you get that chance with her."

Luke rested his other hand right on top of hers. "Thank you. I hope the same for you someday. It is a hard world to find it in."

Y/N and Luke sat there for a little while, watching the world go by. People with different walks of life and styles. It was fascinating.

"I've never been on the Ferris wheel before." Y/N said, breaking the silence.

Luke looked at her incredulously. "You're kidding."

She shook her head.

Luke stood up and held his hand out for her. "Well let us change that then."

He led her to the giant metal wheel and bought two tickets. He handed her one of them and brought her into the compartment.

"I must admit, I'm nervous." Y/N said, sitting down with the bar being closed down over their laps.

Luke chuckled. "There's no need to worry. I'll be right beside you if anything were to happen. Nothing will happen, but I'm trying to ease your mind."

The ride started to move them and Y/N gripped the bar. Luke gently offered his hand instead and she took it gladly.

They slowly made their way to the top and Luke softly rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb, calming her down.

"OK. Y/N look." He said quietly, pointing to the view in front of them.

She looked and gasped. "It's beautiful."

They overlooked the green fields and beautiful trees. Flowers grew in several different colors all over.

"It is beautiful. A lot of things up here are beautiful. The clouds, the flowers, the breeze. You." He breathed.

She turned to look at him. "Me?"

"Yes. You are beautiful Y/N. I know I shouldn't be saying that while I'm supposed to be with someone else. But you're absolutely beautiful."

Y/N's heart beat so fast that she thought for sure Luke would hear it.

"I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable." He said softly.

"You didn't. I just didn't expect you to say that to me." Y/N said, a breeze blowing her hair gently.

Luke absentmindedly reached out and brushed the hair behind her ear and froze. What was he doing?

Y/N leaned into him and glanced in his eyes, a soft blush appearing on her cheeks.

Then Luke did something he felt was right. He held her face in his hands and softly kissed her lips.

Her lips melted into his and she moved closer into him. He was warm and tasted of spun sugar.

He kissed her so desperately, holding her close and pouring himself into the kiss.

Y/N's hands moved to his shoulders and she kissed him with the same amount of passion.

When the kiss ended, he lingered close to her lips.

"You taste like spun sugar." She whispered, softly pressing her lips to his once more.

Luke welcomed it and held her against him. The Ferris wheel began to go back down again, but he didn't want to let her go.

Y/N was the one to break away first this time. Her chest rose and fell, her cheeks were slightly flushed and her lips were pinker.

"Y/N."

She began to get butterflies in her stomach. "Yes, your Highness?"

He softly kissed her jaw. "Please call me Luke."

She nodded and looked at him. He was very attractive. She knew he was. But getting to know his softer side made him instantly more attractive.

His eyes were the kind of blue you could get lost in. And his hair was in curls that you could get your hands tangled in. His lips. So wonderful.

"Can I see you tomorrow?" Luke asked, looking in her eyes.

"Yes. I would like that." She answered.

He smiled and helped her off the Ferris wheel, kissing her hand. "Until then princess."

~~~~~~~~The Next Day~~~~~~~~

"Calum you're taking her with you right?" Luke asked, fixing the sleeves of his shirt.

"Yes. I'll take her with me while you meet Y/N. I don't mind. She's very sweet actually. When we danced at the ball, I thought she was lovely. Besides, we had a good conversation yesterday at the fair. Calum smiled.

"She spoke to you? She said absolutely nothing to me. Did you perhaps drug her?" Luke wondered, tying his hair up.

"I did not. What an accusation! She was kind and told me she rather enjoyed my company." Calum stated.

"Well, I'm glad you two are happy. I'm sure my father would be pleased with the match."

"Just finish getting ready majesty. I don't want you to show up at the botanical gardens with your trousers falling down." Calum spoke, handing Luke a fabric belt.

"What a shame. Most people would pay top dollar to see my trousers on the floor." Luke sniffed, hoisting his pants up.

"They'd pay to see you get chased by the law." Calum retorted.

"Either way, money will be involved," Luke said, finishing up with his cursed trousers.

"You're still ridiculous," Calum mumbled.

Luke smiled and finished getting ready. "Calum. I really like her."

"I know you do."

Calum and Luke reached the carriage and were on their way to meet the women.

The quiet girl was there first. She saw Luke and looked terrified. But once Calum came into view, she visibly relaxed.

"I wonder what I did," Luke muttered.

"She thinks you'll take her into a closet and do scandalous things with her." Calum offered.

"I only do that with women who are willing and agree. I would never do that to her."

"I'm teasing you. I don't know why she dislikes you."

"Thank you, Calum."

Calum met with the girl and took her arm, taking her into the gardens, leaving Luke alone.

When Y/N finally did show up, Luke smiled. She looked lovely.

"Hello, Luke." She greeted, grinning softly.

"Y/N. You look wonderful." He kissed her hand.

"Thank you."

He took her arm and walked her inside the gardens.

"So does your father know about this little arrangement you and Calum have?" Y/N questioned, holding on to his arm as they stepped over a few rocks.

"No. Not yet. I'm not sure how I would tell him."

"What do you feel in your heart?" She asked, reaching the rows and rows of assorted roses.

Luke held her hands. "My heart's telling me that there's something here between us. Am I right?"

Y/N looked up into his eyes. "Yes. I feel it too."

"Then that's what I'll say. I'll tell him I want to choose you instead." He admitted.

Y/N's heart pounded loudly. "You what?"

"Y/N I want to choose you. You're the only one who understands what I'm going through. You treat me like I'm a human instead of just royalty. You kissed me on that Ferris wheel after I kissed you. You made me laugh. Y/N I've never had this feeling before. So I know something's different."

Y/N opened her mouth to say something before they were interrupted.

"What is the meaning of this Lucas?"

Luke's heart stopped. He dropped Y/N's hands and looked into the face of his father. There was no mention of his father meeting them there.

"Father I-"

"This is not the woman we agreed on for you. You were supposed to be here with her." He said angrily, scanning his eyes over Y/N.

Luke had had it. He squared his shoulders and crossed his arms over his chest. "You agreed. I did nothing of the sort."

"Because you wouldn't have chosen anyone of real substance! Or of importance!" His father countered.

"The girl you chose for me won't speak to me! She likes Calum if you believe me! I found the girl I like. Father, I won't marry her. I want to marry someone else."

"I'm assuming it is the girl that is hiding behind you?" He asked cruelly.

"As a matter of fact, it is. Father this is Y/N. I want to marry her instead. You took away my choice, but I still managed to find someone else I'd rather be worthy for."

Y/N looked at Luke's father. He narrowed his eyes. "And what of the other girl?"

"She's with Calum. She likes him. They actually talk. Don't force me to be with someone who would rather be with him. I want to be with someone who won't be miserable with me."

"I really like him, your majesty." Y/N spoke, causing Luke to stiffen a little.

"And why do you? Hasn't he been incredibly rude and insulting?" His father spat.

"No. He has been kind and loving. He's shown me the heart he contains. He's a gentle man who only wanted to find love. He cares for me." Y/N said confidently, keeping eye contact with the king.

He seemed surprised at the way she described his son. "You wish to marry my son as well? Or is he making this all up?"

"I would be honored to receive his love. Marriage is only a contract. Love is infinite." She stated.

"Lucas, do you also feel this way?"

Luke nodded. "She's the one father. I've never felt this way. Please."

His father seemed to soften at the admission. He let himself relax and he looked between the two. "Alright. You may marry this woman. As long as you actually go through with it. No more tricks Lucas."

"I want this." He turned to Y/N. "I want you. I want to hold you at night. I want to write you poems that are incredibly cheesy and worth throwing away. I want to kiss you when you're laying in bed with me. I want to give you the world. Will you let me? Will you marry me Y/N?"

(A/N If you read the whole thing, thank you. I would love feedback! If you want to request something, just shoot me a message! -Kenzie xx)

#5sos #luke hemmings #luke 5sos #luke hemmings fluff #luke hemmings imagines #5sos fluff #5sos imagine #calum hood #ashton irwin #michael clifford #luke as a prince is a mood #im loutommo11 on wattpad btw #if you care #request #preference #5sos prefences #5sosdrfluke #sassy luke

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bearofohu · 6 years

Text

Professor Layton Anime Theory - Luke’s Possible Betrayal (LMDA Spoilers!)

hi guys its luke today i’m making a callout post on luke

this is probably the most cursed theory i will ever create and i promise this is pure speculation, i don’t WANT this to happen i don’t think this SHOULD happen i know the layton community will systematically explode if it does so please don’t unfollow me i am a sensitive boy

summary of the theory: this theory analyzes the possibly of luke betraying layton in the relic stone mystery similarily to emmy based on several aspects of luke’s two appearances in the anime and what we know about the future of the anime so far.

warning: swearing, implications that luke is a good boy gone bad

ps: sorry for the typos im so fuckign tired

full theory under the cut!

alright, lets go lesbians

me and the bros were talking on the layton community discord, and i mentioned something that has been bothering me about luke, a theory if you will. @officialchampionred summed up my thoughts on my own theory pretty well after i told them about it

i originally was just going to not do anything with my speculation, but i figured since the one i made about luke being kat’s father was so well received, even if i ended up being incorrect, i would take another shot at a theory that i think has a good chance of being realized somewhere down the line

ok so the theory summary sounds like a load of baloney when you read it for the first time, right? well hear me out, because i have several points to bring up that may rattle ur bones. without further ado, here are the points:

1. Luke’s Design and its Similarity to the Relic Stone Thugs In Episode 10

im going to start with one point that several people have caught on with all ready, but i don’t think anybody has ever really tried to connect the dots here. so you know luke’s new design, right? the fedora, the jacket, very cute

EXCEPT

here is an image comparison of luke’s design and the outfits of the men, we’ll call them the fedora fellas, we see that attack by don paolo’s orders in the museum

now i know what you’re thinking, “that there is just coincidence” or, “THEY MUST ALL HAVE TO WEAR FEDORAS ON MONDAYS” but i assure you, the similarities here are not accidental. there’s just no way. the design team wouldn’t love the same horrible design enough to just use it on multiple characters just cause they want to. there is just no way this has no relevance.

while some accessories and colors may be different on luke and the men, the general design is still in place, especially with the hat being an exact copy every time. a uniform protocol is being followed here. luke is most likely not wearing choice clothes. this is a uniform, and the men are also following this uniform.

it’s also worth mentioning that even don paolo has a SORT OF similar design change to the color schemes we see in the henchmen and luke

its not entirely relevant, but the red color kind of fits the bill, and i don’t think they would also change paolo’s design for absolutely no reason.

@muzzable also made an amazing color comparison for this theory between luke’s uniform and the fedora fellas, so full credit there!

this image analyzes the color differences between luke’s outfit and the ones worn by those men. note that obviously its not exact, and its probably not supposed to be.

that’s because this is the shit akihiro doesn’t want you to pay much attention to while watching, and its WORKING.

this is so in the event of a betrayal it will smack you upside the jaw (my jaws been broken before, it hurts)

now another counterpoint could be, “maybe its relevant but it doesnt automatically mean that luke works with the fedora fellas or don paolo” and you’d be fucking spot on you funky little luke fanatic, but i got a lot more up my sleeve to tell you.

at the end of this theory, we’re going to move to discuss luke’s motives, but for now, we’re going to stick with the essential points. now we’re going to move onto point 2, which isn’t entirely as direct as point 1, but still holds relevance if you squint

2. Luke’s Nervous/Suspicious Behaviour in Episode 10 & ESPECIALLY 20

watch out, this point is the biggest one analysis wise

you wanna know something i noticed about episode 10 and 20?

luke looks and acts noticeably nervous in almost every scene he’s appeared in

for one example, did anybody else notice the repetitive anime sweat drop going on with no character BUT luke in episode 20, ESPECIALLY the closer they got to the relic stone chamber?

he’s sweating in a LOT of scenes, and on top if that, if you pay attention to his behaviour a lot of it is him just looking generally... worried. a lot of people discredit the anime sweat drop as a cosmetic trope, but a lot of animators actually use it to convey genuine fear or anxiety that offers hints to the direction of the plot.

it’s like he knows something we don’t about the relic stones, like he has something to hide, and he gets worse the further they go, like the closer they get to the relic stones the more nervous luke gets that he’ll have to betray the professor IN THAT MOMENT

and hershel isn’t worried or nervous at all because he TRUSTS luke and i know you could be like, “oh but luke, hes just a nervous boy” and thats all fair and good, we can safely say that luke COULD be a naturally anxious character, but these little details and luke’s general behaviour are VERY noticeable once you pay attention to them for the first time, and also the concept of him being a nervous character was never in place when he was a boy with no malicious motives that we’re speculating now

the pattern of looking luke generally troubled is also shown in episode 10, though perhaps not as noticeable as it is in 20.

while they’re discussing the relic stones and luke is explaning the situation to marina (who im pretty sure is not aware of luke’s outside motive), he gets a little nervous and hesitant when they start talking about why he was doing it. layton then finishes his sentence for him, saying it was for katrielle, indirectly saving luke from having to scramble for an explanation. he just looks OFF.

marina’s face is also the official mood for this post

anyway, level-5 loves using body language in their animations. in cutscenes, the characters often perform actions that define their thinking and their motive. for example, layton puts his hand on his chin and walks around, oh boy he’s going to expose someone. descole slams his hands on the piano keys in eternal diva, oh boy he’s pissed. layton points at someone, oh boy they’re the culprit.

was luke ever THIS nervous and hesitant in the games, when he was a boy? no, not passively nervous. he was only really nervous in the face of danger. as a boy, he was actually pretty confrontational and confident.

so why act so strange here? what changed?

luke looks pretty nervous in this anime, oh boy i wonder if there’s something bothering him that nobody knows about

i feel like now would be a good time to issue a disclaimer that also supports my points, this theory is NOT meant to imply, “oh luke’s a heartless bastard he hates layton and wants the relic stones for himself”

i have very little faith in the idea that, if luke is doing this, he would be doing it for himself, or because he wants to.

i’m confident in this theory, but im not confident that luke’s motives are just plain evil, because while his character can change and realistically SHOULD CHANGE, i don’t think he has it in him to just become evil. i think someone’s either forcing his hand (maybe similarly to clark’s situation), or giving him something he can’t refuse in return for layton.

but more on that later.

now we move onto point 3!

3. Key Hint Passively Given by Picarats

u guys know picarats, right? the guy that provides us with the streams, my bro, an awesome guy...

a guy that is in direct kahoots with level 5 and knows exactly how everything in the anime going to work out

beelieve it or not, picarats is actually a member of the discord server that i run (https://discord.gg/ZYxmPP) and he posts there occasionally. he’s pretty vocal with our community so it’s really not that much of a shocker that he would give us hints from time to time. we’re true bros. i love u my guy

but that’s not the point, the poINT, THE JUICY PART, the REASON why im bringing picarats up... is because he’s provided us with a crucial hint to support my theory, mainly during the episode 20 stream

THE KEY HINT THAT PICARATS HAS GAVE US WAS...

LMDA’s storyline, in its current form and in its future presumably, is a reflection of the events of Azran Legacy.

now this is something picarats DID say, though not entirely in verbatim, during the episode 20 stream. i promise u with every ounce of gay power in my body that he said that the anime’s storyline reflects azran legacy’s.

unfortunately, i do NOT have a screenshot because i was too busy having a psychiatric breakdown in the middle of the episode. if anyone took a screenshot of him saying that, pls send it to me, i will credit and love you forever. <3

that single hint during that stream is EXTREMELY crucial and most likely the most important one, it was one of the things that spurred my thinking about this theory, so essentially

BUT you may ask, lUKE, what is so important about the fact that the anime is supposed to mirror azran legacy?? whats the significance of that??

well.. u mere mortal... im about to give you a series of events from both azran legacy and LMDA

azran legacy was an adventure to discover the secrets of the azran, right?

right.

emmy, his loya resourceful assistant and friend of whomst he TRUSTS, is with him up until they are moments away from unlocking the secrets, right?

right.

then, this devastating shit happens.

youtube

emmy shows remorse for betraying layton but tells him she was doing it for someone else and wouldn’t have done it otherwise.

everyone dies.

are you following my thought process so far?

now lets go to LMDA’s current canon storyline

layton reunites with luke, who is acting nervous constantly and wears an outfit similar to the people who want the relic stones for malicious intent

layton, fully trusting luke, leave katrielle to go on an adventure to find the relic stones, a series of artifacts that are linked to the azran.

they go on the adventure and then become moments away from unlocking the secrets of the relic stones

LAYTON GOES MISSING.

thanks picarats, that single sentence you said in a stream has turned me into a conspiracy theorist

are we broken yet? are we all nice and broken yet?? good. now we get to talk about LUKE’S POSSIBLE MOTIVES.

Luke’s Possible Motives for Betraying Layton

now this is yet another juicy part of the theory, and probably where the biggest counterargument might come into play, which is:

“bUt LUkE WoUld NeV ER dO tHAT”

bUT i will give you my theories on luke’s possible motives for concocting a scheme that wild, but before i do, i would like to give u a memorable quote from clove dive that basically sums up the point im about to make:

we, as a fandom, are collectively forgetting that it is unrealistic to think luke has barely changed in terms of personality and motive

do i blame us? no. after all, we’ve known luke as an innocent boy for about 11 years now.

hino knows this. hino knows how good we think luke is. that’s why i said that his attempt to make us ignore the hints is WORKING.

and like i said, i can’t blame any of us at all for wanting to believe that luke hasn’t changed, but its simply unrealistic.

as much as we don’t like to believe it, luke and layton have basically barely if not at all interacted for several years up until this point

luke is not a boy. something about luke has changed.

and this theory attempts to connect just what that change might be.

like i said before, i wholeheartedly disbelieve that in the event this theory is accurate, luke has ‘turned evil’ just like we all believe emmy didn’t turn evil.

they were forced to do it for something that they deeply cared about.

they were forced to betray their friend for something bigger.

and i think that’s a damn exhilarating plot device.

Conclusion

now you might have guessed that in this point in the theory i’ve gone from being serious into shitposting as my thought process usually does, and also i’ve been working on this since 3 AM, so im gonna go ahead and wrap this up with a disclaimer before you throw a chair at me.

i am in no way implying that this is canon or SHOULD be canon. i love luke and don’t want to see him betray layton, but this theory is meant to purely speculate the possibilites of the future of this anime

in a nutshell...

its just a theory.

A GGAAMMEE TTH E EE O RR Y.

#professor layton #pl #lmda #lmj anime #layton anime #layton theories #layton anime theory #hershel layton #luke triton #shut up luke #luke's crackpot theories

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pamphletstoinspire · 6 years

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Why Would a Loving God Allow Suffering? - Part 7

Written by: Robert J. Spitzer, S.J., Ph.D.

II.C.5 Forgiveness

Forgiveness requires both humility and empathy because it entails letting go of a just grievance against another. If someone has intentionally insulted or hurt us without provocation, it is difficult not to desire retribution or, at the very least, some form of retributive justice. Yet this retribution generally produces a cycle of vengeance begetting vengeance and violence begetting violence. If we are to interrupt this cycle of vengeance and violence, if we are to allow the parties in the cycle to begin the long process of healing, and if we are to restore equanimity to a shattered peace, we will, to some degree, have to let go of our just claims against the other. But how is this possible? We must see the intrinsic value and need of the unjust perpetrator (like the priest in Les Miserables who sees the goodness and need of Jean Valjean “beyond all appearances”); we must see the goodness of interrupting the cycle of vengeance begetting vengeance and violence begetting violence; and we must want the good of our enemy (even though we may have to protect ourselves against him in the future). But how can we do this – particularly when we are still stinging from the injustice of a seemingly callous attack?

In my novitiate, this occurred through a recognition of the truth in the Parable of the Wicked Servant who maltreated his fellow servant (after having been forgiven by his master for a much greater debt – Mt 18:23-35). I had an intuitive recognition of the truth of this parable and its general applicability to everyone. But eventually, the direct applicability to me became “painfully” obvious. My deepening appreciation of empathy and humility opened the way to seeing the dignity and goodness of others, which, in turn, led to a deepening care for them. My past disregard, thoughtlessness, and callousness became painfully apparent. I reflected on some of the times in college when I intimated that people were not as quick or knowledgeable as I might have “expected.” I also let people know the privilege of my family background without regard to the hardships they may have had to endure. As I considered these things, I realized how much the Lord of unconditional love had forgiven me for my arrogance, insensitivity, and heartlessness.

I realized that if I had been forgiven for so much, I too would have to forgive others. The “have to” in that recognition was not one of fear (i.e., “If I don’t forgive others as God has forgiven me, then I will be punished like the wicked servant”). Neither was it a “have to” arising out of duty (i.e., “If God did it for me, then I would be an ingrate if I did not do it for other people”). Rather, it was a “have to” borne out of love. When I recognized how much I had been loved by God, I was moved to do the same for others out of both a profound sense of gratitude, and a simple desire to love in the same way as the One who loved me.

Yet, none of this would have occurred if I had not appreciated empathy and humility (which led to the recognition of the unique goodness and lovability of others). As noted above, my appreciation of empathy and humility was greatly assisted by suffering, which allowed me to move (partially) beyond the spell of self-absorption and autonomy. Weakness and suffering enabled me to see the goodness and lovability of others and what I could have done to befriend them through empathetic and humble love. Though this filled me with another kind of suffering – the guilt and regret for my indifference, callousness, and arrogance – it led me to realize that I had been forgiven much and loved much – by both God and neighbor -- and this led me – albeit gradually -- to the freedom to forgive others who had unjustly offended me. I could ask the Lord for the grace to imitate Him in His forgiveness, and I could pray for my persecutor by putting the entire matter in the hands of the just and merciful judge. This freedom which came through a combination of suffering and the love of God has enabled me, albeit imperfectly, to forgive from the heart.

I have a long way to go in the pursuit of humility and empathy, of care and respect, and forgiveness; so I expect that I will need further assistance along that path. But I have come to realize that God’s unconditional love in combination with suffering is one of the best vehicles to this freedom to love and forgive in the very imitation of Christ. I have also come to realize that true happiness consists in this love, which seems, at least in my life, to come inevitably through the vulnerability of an imperfect physical nature in an imperfect world.

II.C.6 Compassion

Compassion is yet another gift which suffering helps to appropriate. “Compassion” means “to suffer with.” Though the Ancients recognized the nobility of this virtue, Jesus elevates it to the very perfection of the Father: “Be compassionate (oiktirmones) as your Father is compassionate” (Luke 6:36). This passage parallels Matthew’s rendition, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48). The Greek word here, oiktirmones, has multiple connotations. It implies mercy in the sense of forgiveness, and also in the sense of genuine sympathy for the poor and the marginalized. It carries with it every implication of the heart of the father of the prodigal son (Luke 15) where we see the root of compassion quite deeply.

The father of the prodigal son (who represents God the Father, for Jesus) is not simply merciful to him, he sympathizes with him in his suffering. Even though the boy has betrayed him, his family, his country, his election, and the Law, the father cannot help but be moved by his son’s misery. He so sympathizes with his son in his suffering that he forgives him and restores him to full membership with the family (signified by giving him a signet ring). Compassion (“loving sympathy with another who suffers”), here, is not only the source of forgiveness, it is also the source of healing and the imparting of dignity. We are now getting to the essence of compassion.

When we are compassionate (not merely showing compassion, which feels like pity to the receiving party) we become like the prodigal son’s father. We don’t feel misery in the same way that the son feels misery (i.e., starving, deprived, alone, regretful), but we feel miserable because the one we love is miserable, and this sense of “sympathetic sadness” moves us to do as much as we can to comfort the one who is suffering. Comfort sometimes takes the form of doing something beneficial (restoring the son to the family, giving a medical treatment which is successful, giving a poor person a meal, etc.). But frequently enough, we cannot do anything but give our time, presence, and attention; we can only be with the other. We are capable only of using our presence, our friendship, and our love to give comfort. Yet this imparts dignity. Spending time with another proves to the other that he is valuable, because most everyone intuitively recognizes the preciousness of time. Children certainly do.

No matter how compassion is manifested (doing something for someone, or simply being with someone), it always has the capacity to impart dignity. There is something about “an act of loving sympathy with another’s misery from which comfort naturally comes” which proves to another that he not only has esteemability or status, but genuine lovability (belovedness), which is much deeper than a mere accolade for talent or a job well done. This “loving sympathy giving rise to comfort” is the deepest and most positive gift which can be given -- for the awareness of belovedness, genuine belovedness, is a recognition of our truest dignity. We intuitively know that it is better to be loved than “accorded esteem,” and when we receive such love, it brings with it a flood of dignity, a freedom to be oneself, an appreciation of the goodness of one’s personhood – one’s being -- and not merely one’s accomplishments. This is true joy.

There is only one hitch. We generally have to be suffering in order to receive compassion. When you really think about it, you can only receive “the loving sympathy for suffering which naturally gives rise to comfort” when you are suffering! You can’t be the recipient of a genuine gift of “suffering with,” unless you are suffering. Thus, we can see one of the most paradoxical aspects of the human condition – if we are to receive the deep affirmation of our belovedness which leads to our deepest moments of dignity, freedom, self-affirmation, and joy, we must be in a state of weakness, pain, or need.

Most children experience this when they are sick and stay home from school. Instead of their mothers being revolted by their illness, or angry at the inconvenience of their illness, they probably receive loving sympathy, comfort, and a genuine affirmation of their belovedness. This gift of compassion leaves an indelible mark on children. If it recurs again and again, an intuitive belief begins to form that they are intrinsically lovable. They are beloved just in themselves, without all the accomplishments and comparative advantage that can make them exteriorly esteemable. This will eventually enable them to love themselves and to accept love from another, which will make all the difference between a life of love and a life of trying to win the love that we believe we do not deserve. The former strategy leads to lasting friendships and good marriages, but the latter one substitutes the loveable self for the esteemable self. Notice how suffering is integral to the difference between these two self-conceptions.

Though suffering is exceedingly helpful for breaking the spell of a dominant Level 2 identity and helping us to sympathize with others who are suffering (the first step in being free for empathy, humility, and compassion), it does not automatically lead to compassion. In order for this to happen, the suffering person must fulfill two other conditions:

1. See the value or goodness of a Level 3 contributive identity, and 2. Be relatively free from fear and anxiety.

This article is devoted to showing how to fulfill these two conditions. In my view, the most important step for fulfilling them is faith – which includes:

belief in an unconditionally loving God, belief that His intention is to bestow eternal life on us in His kingdom of love, belief that He suffers with us while we are suffering and continuously brings goodness and opportunity out of it belief that He is inspiring, protecting, and guiding us through our times of suffering, spontaneous prayers that can act as conduits of grace, and the ability to recognize how He is guiding us through the actions of His Spirit. Faith transforms the other critical elements for “suffering well” by focusing them on eternal life and love and complementing them with God’s grace and inspiration. These other elements include:

prudence – the ability to know that Level 3 and 4 happiness give rise to a more pervasive, enduring, and deep, purpose, dignity, fulfillment, and destiny than Levels 1 and 2.

rationality to make backup plans, strategies for limiting negative effects, plans for utilizing others’ skills and connections, etc.

connecting with friends for both support and complementary skill sets and connections

reshaping our expectations and avoiding negative comparisons

With faith as our foundation and with these other natural abilities to complement it, suffering will almost inevitably lead to a deeper appreciation and appropriation of empathy, humility, and compassion. This can happen either by directly recognizing the intrinsic goodness of contribution, empathy, humility, and compassion, or by seeing the goodness of these qualities through the eyes and mind of Jesus Christ who loves us and is redeeming us. As noted above, I was in the second group, but I know many who are in the first.

II.C.7 Acceptance of Compassion

Most of us who have reached our mid-twenties no longer have the attitude of children who are capable of accepting the compassion of parents, friends, and teachers. We have learned that we are supposed to be capable of taking care of ourselves, carrying our own weight, and that our respectability depends on this. We have also learned that we should never take another person’s time for our personal needs. Even though we could not possibly live this way, we try to believe the myth so that we can content ourselves with our autonomy and self-sufficiency. If we believe the myth, we tell ourselves that we are not needy, and we would never explicitly admit to being needy, but we do find ways, “acceptable ways,” of getting our needs met.

How do people find the freedom to accept another’s compassion? As implied above, some people do this naturally. Others remember the acts of compassion they received as children and carry them over into adulthood. And still others, like myself, need suffering in order to do this.

As I mentioned above, I suffer from retinitis pigmentosa (a degenerative eye disease). This caused me to lose my driver’s license when I was 31. Now if there is one thing in this culture that proves we are self-sufficient and autonomous, it is the fact that we can get into our cars and go wherever we want whenever we want. But I found myself, at the age of 31, not being able to get into my car and go wherever I wanted whenever I wanted. Quite the contrary. I lost my insurance, and therefore, my driver’s license, and therefore became dependent on others for rides.

At first, I could not bear to ask anyone for a ride out of sheer embarrassment. I felt that the mere admission of bad eyesight and an inability to drive myself (not carrying my own weight, as it were) would produce utter shock and disdain among the people I asked. This shock and disdain really never happened, but after two years of having my secretaries ask for rides for me, I still did not believe that people respected me as much as they would have if I had not been losing my eyesight. I thought they were disguising it incredibly well. So, as I took the rides from compassionate people, I would sit there believing that they were annoyed at the inconvenience, troubled by my inferiority, and pitying me for that inferiority. I really hated getting into those cars.

One day, I was accepting a ride to my parish when a lady mentioned to me that she was really grateful that she was able to get on the list of people who wanted to give me a ride. I said, “A list? Why would there be a list?” And she said that this was something that many people thought they could do, that it was relatively easy, and it would give them some time with me. I was truly surprised. They were not annoyed at my weakness. They found it a rather pleasing and interesting idiosyncrasy in a person who seemed, at times, distant because of his use of complex sentences and concepts. They said that my eye problem made me human, and that they were able to empathize with a person that they had otherwise found to be somewhat intimidating. In fact, this lady said that it made me “un-intimidating!”

After some reflection on this incident, I discovered that people liked me – just for myself, not for my intellect or my gifts of speaking. They wanted to get to know me, they wanted me to be un-intimidating. They enjoyed being around me not despite my weakness, but in the midst of my weakness. They really enjoyed being of service – and giving a ride was something they could do (which I obviously could not do). I had the peculiar role of allowing these wonderful people an opportunity to obtain dignity from their selfless service to another. In their attempt to make my life easier, in their loving sympathy with my weakness, in their self-sacrifice to care for me, I too was able to impart dignity back to them by merely accepting their compassion as compassion, by accepting their love as genuine love. I often wondered why people were so happy when they were giving me a ride. It began to occur to me that the smile was not an act, but a genuine bit of joy produced through an authentic act of empathy, graciously accepted by someone in need.

But how did I get there? Suffering. In this case, deprivation – a problem with my eyes. But more than this, I had to go through a period of embarrassment and humiliation (more suffering) before I began to realize that people were better than I ever expected them to be. The reason I did not think they were better than I ever expected was because I was not up to their level. I was not capable of that kind of compassion. Formerly, I believed that their compassion really was a disguised act of shock and disdain (they were doing it because the pastor had put pressure on them, and so they were making the best out of a bad situation). But when that lady told me about the list, it occurred to me that people are really that good; they are much better than I expected; and so I felt called to be more compassionate in imitation of them. The more I responded to this call to become genuinely compassionate myself, the more I was able to accept the compassion of others.

I deduced from this a cycle for people like myself, namely, that a small act of accepting compassion induces an awareness of how genuinely good people can be, and this awareness, in turn, called me to imitate them, which, in turn, freed me to accept their compassion. Not a bad deal! Suffering induced not only the compassion of others, it made me aware of goodness in the world, called me to compassion, and allowed me to accept the compassion of others, which imparted true dignity to the one giving compassion. All of this through one manifestation of suffering.

There was another hidden benefit underlying my increased ability for compassion and the acceptance of it – the recovery of my loveable self. As noted above, before my eyesight problem, I struggled with substituting my “loveable self” with my esteemable self. I am not sure how my esteemable self-conception grew so strong, because my parents never emphasized Level 2 characteristics, but rather Level 3 and 4 characteristics. I suppose it happened throughout my academic studies because I was in competition with other students in three masters programs and a doctoral program—and I wanted to win the esteem of my professors as much as my religious superiors—perhaps more (I hate to admit it). Strangely, this emphasis on intelligence, research, writing, and lecturing (Level 2) did not undermine my faith (Level 4), but it did undermine my capacity for love (agapē), empathy, and compassion (Level 3). Though I was always willing to help people with their final exams and comprehensive exams, they would hint that “I did not suffer fools gladly” or “Wow you were a little rough with that guy” or “Intellectual precision is not the most important thing—you know.” I would always ask, “You really think I was that overbearing?” Most people would just say, “Figure it out for yourself,” which gave me enough room to convince myself that I really wasn’t that bad.

My eye disease changed that. It removed the delusion of compassion, and laid bare the fact that I had replaced my loveable self with a merely esteemable one—an objectified self—a “thingafied” self. As I began to accept the genuine acts of compassion from others, and to see how truly good people really were—I began the long process of going back to what my parents had taught me through their loving actions. Thinking back on it, if I had not been blessed with this gift of progressive blindness, I might have become quite heartless—and if that occurred, I do not think I could have sustained my vocation as a priest. I would have found a much better vocation for the heartless—the interiorly blind. This would have been true darkness—something far worse than a thorn in the flesh. And so I discovered as St. Paul says that in my weakness Christ grows stronger in me—and it is then that I am truly strong.

I have been going through this for thirty years now, and I have received a lot of rides – I mean a LOT of rides. I have seen the benefits of accepting and giving compassion again and again; and I feel that God called me to be a magnet of compassion (with a concomitant deepening of my own compassion) in all of these circumstances of need – need that was met by my accepting the compassion of others. If I lived for this alone – skip the books, the teaching, the degrees, the presidency, etc. – it would have been more than enough – simply living to induce compassion by the simple act of asking for and accepting a ride.

II.C.8 Conclusion

Is suffering really necessary for agapē (empathy, the acceptance of love’s vulnerability, humility, forgiveness, compassion, and the acceptance of compassion)? For God, it is not, for He can, in a timeless, completely transparent act, through His perfect power and love, achieve perfect empathy, perfect acceptance of love’s vulnerability, perfect humility, perfect forgiveness, and perfect compassion. As I have indicated many times above, I believe there are some people who can more easily move to this position without much assistance from suffering. But for people like me, suffering is absolutely indispensable to removing the blocks to agapē presented by my egocentric and autonomous desires, my belief in the cultural myth of self-sufficiency, my underestimation of the goodness and love of other people, and all the other limitations to my head and heart.

I have to believe that God allowed an imperfect physical nature and an imperfect world for people like me not only to actualize agapē freely (well, at least partially), but also, and perhaps more importantly, to even notice it. I really believe that God asks people who are better than me in love to patiently bear with the trials that are indispensable for people like me to arrive at an insight about empathy, humility, forgiveness, and compassion. But then again, they already have the empathy, humility, and compassion to do this, so God’s request is truly achievable.

God works through this suffering. He doesn’t waste any of it. For those who are open to seeing the horizon of love embedded in it, there is a future, nay, an eternity for each of us to manifest our own unique brand of unconditional love within the symphony of love which is God’s kingdom. Without suffering, I do not think I could have even begun to move freely toward that horizon which is my eternal destiny and joy.

#why would a loving god allow suffering

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flyingseacow · 7 years

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Star Wars - The embrace and rejection of love (part 1)

After seeing The Last Jed twice I must say that I am firmly in the love-it camp. I understand some of the criticism, (the communication misnomer in particular) but there is just too much goodness for me to dislike it in any way.

One of the things the movie did for me was actually making Kylo Ren more appealing. He is still a walking garbage-fire and I want to see Rey to slamdunk him into a reactor core sooo much. But The Last Jedi did give me enough to put him into the mythology of the Star Wars universe in an interesting way.

And in doing so, I found an overarching theme that I need to talk about.

Love.

Love have always been something of a power in all the movies, but The Last Jedi punctuates it in ways I had not seen coming, and it is fascinating what love means for all the characters throughout the series, and so I will go through it under the cut, with focus on specific characters from The Last Jedi.

This part will focus on most of the force sensitive characters.

Obviously massive spoilers, and beware, this will be long.

Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader

So, while his presence in TLJ was near nothing, I need to begin with Anakin, for it all begins here. From the very first episode, Anakin is a person who embraces love, who hungers and grasps it with all his might. And this is his undoing.

Yoda is not wrong when he days that fear leads to suffering. It is Anakin’s deep love of his mother, and the pain of her loss that firmly puts him on the path of the dark. Not that Anakin wasn’t without troubling idea’s to begin with. Both due to Palpatine’s manipulations, but also most likely due to his upbringing as a slave. Anakin do genuinely want the galaxy to be a better and kinder place at first, but the Jedi clearly fails to bring him the right solutions, and the prequels does make a good job of showing the bureaucratic restraint that the order has been lulled into. Slowly Anakin turns to idelogy of fascism and dictatorship.

And so, when the he fears the loss of Padme, the love of his life, and the Jedi only tells him to let go, while the Sith offers to stall death, Anakin grasps love so tightly and so smothering he literally ends up choking it.

Anakin murders and burns down anything that stand between him and his love, and so he fails, killing the very thing he coveted.

Darth Vader is born from the ashes of lost love, and is terrifying in his coldness and effective destruction of everything standing in the way of the Empire. For Vader has given up everything for love lost, and so he only has the ambitions of the Empire to fight for, and a heartless Emperor to love.

Then Luke appears.

Luke, the very embodiment of Anakin’s love to Padme, one of the things he burned down a galaxy to protect.

Vader is now split, and the conflict appears. For throughout the years he has come to love the Empire, and the Emperor as only a trapped apprentice can, but his love for Padme was never gone, and now his son appears.

Thus, as any proper Sith would do, Vader aspires to overthrow Sidious, and place himself and his son on the throne. Had Padme not opposed him, Anakin would have done the same, killed both the Jedi and Sith, finally crowning Padme as eternal empress of the galaxy.

And so Vader’s offer to Luke is genuine, a last chance for Vader to fulfill his dream of remaking the galaxy according to his will, with his loved ones at this side.

But Luke rejects him, rejects the dream, but this time Vader refrains from choking love, instead falling back into the role of the apprentice, watching as Sidious tries to turn Luke into his replacement.

But this time Luke reaches out, offering a different path, a different love. And in his final moment, Anakin is reborn as Vader grasps this love offered, ending the nightmare he himself created and dies doing the one thing he always wanted.

To save those he loves.

Luke Skywalker

Luke is a mirror to Anakin.

Both embraces love, both fight for love, both will do everything they can for love.

But where Anakin would burn the world, Luke would burn himself first.

At all times Luke puts himself on the line first, leaving behind even destiny and power for the chance to keep people safe. Even when it seems hopeless, even when he knows it is a trap, a trick meant to harm him, he will try. He will go to Bespin, he will reach out for Vader when he glimpses the glowing embers of love. “I will save you” He says. “We will survive.” He says, radiating hope and positivety.

Where Anakin closed himself around the few, brutally cutting away anything that did not fit, Luke opens his arms, radiating love to all who will receive it.

It makes him perhaps a bit naive, and very vulnerable despite his power, but also makes him a glowing sun of hope.

It is no wonder that Skywalker becomes a legend.

And so Luke fails when his unending love is not enough. Not that Luke had not before meet those without love. The Emperor is a black hole of darkness, but ultimately evil in simplicity. Jappa the Hut was greed and hedonism personified, and Luke only gives him the simple chance of letting go.

Deep evil is not confusing to Luke, but an absence of love and an obstacle to be overcome with love.

But what does one do when evil appears in someone who was already loved? Someone who was surrounded with love for whole their lives? Someone who Luke deeply and sincerely love from birth? His own flesh an blood?

This is not a new thing in neither stories or real life. How often do we not hear of people committing atrocities, and their families stands left behind, confused, betrayed and uncomprehending how this could occur?

And so Luke fails Ben, and he cannot comprehend how, cannot fathom why, and in one horrible moment Luke acts with the blind terror of seeing something alien and foreign, something terrible and threatening.

The Rejection of Love.

Vader may have struggled with his love, but he did not reject the very idea of it, he may not have seemed to feel worthy of Luke’s love in the form it was given, but he was never denying love, only what his options where, what reality offered him.

But not Ben. Ben was a deep churning darkness, a chaotic maelstrom of violence and hatred, rejecting the hands reaching for him, surrounded by light as he was.

But despite the urge to end the threat, Luke still cannot commit to it, he acted with instinct, not thinking, and will forever be tormented with the shame of it.

But he almost did, and so everything he build is destroyed, the Legendary Luke Skywalker is a lie, and his actions, his failure sets loose a new darkness on the galaxy.

And so Luke hides himself away, placing himself as the greater threat, and thus removes it. For he can only worsen it with his failure, if he tries to mend it, he is likely just to make it worse.

Shame is obviously a motivator, the sheer pain of failure, not just to the galaxy, but to his family.

Perhaps he sought out the first scriptures with hope, searching for an answer, or maybe he saw the whole Jedi order as a failure from the beginning.

After all, the old Jedi created Vader, and he created Kylo.

“The Force does not belong to the Jedi”

So arrogant the Jedi where, claiming ownership of something that truly belongs to all living things. It is better if they all die out, that they are destroyed, so that they cannot harm others, no longer create monsters by failing love, as he did. It must be his mistake, and his alone, for how else could a boy, a sweet young boy surrounded by so much love, ever reject it so willfully and darkly?

Ben also failed Luke, but Luke struggles to understand this, and may never understand what fully created Kylo, for Luke is love.

Luke understands love, he even understands, and fears, the absence of love. But the willful rejection, the violent wish to burn down even those wanting to help. That he cannot understand, and so he hurts and hides himself in agony and bitternes. Ironically falling into the same darkness that his father did, binding himself to an idea.

And so Father and Son mirrors again. Anakin ends in bitternes from trying to control his loved ones and the world around them, Luke ends in bitternes from trying to shield his loved ones from himself and his failures.

And it is in the end, when Luke returns to his love, when he finds forgiveness, not from the one he failed, but from himself and those who truly love him, that he finds peace.

Kylo Ren/Ben Solo

Where the Skywalkers both embraced love in different ways. Kylo rejects it.

Kylo is chaos, death and destruction, and seemly without reason.

Previous sith always had a goal, an outlet for their passions; power, revenge, a belief in a specific order of the universe, or simply the preservation of love.

What do Kylo want?

“Burn the past, kill it if necessary”

But when you simply burn away everything, kill and salt the past, reject everything given to you. What is left?

Destroying the past may free you to become something new, but you need to have something to become at first. And Kylo has nothing but the destruction of himself.

Killing Han Solo did not make Kylo stronger, in reverse it simply made him weaker, more lost and chaotic.

It is no wonder Snoke is so disappointing,but is perhaps of his own making, something was missing in Snokes plan, in his training. For Kylo, despite his raw power, fails to focus, fails to fully dedicate himself. His anger explodes in childish fits, flashy and destructive, but ultimately pointless.

Kylo is, in many ways, the worst sith to ever grace the galaxy.

Kylo cannot become as Vader, will never be able to reach the power Vader had. For Vader did not reject love, Vader did not kill the past just to become something else.

Anakin became Vader in the name of love.

Poisoned, warped love, but still love.

And as long as Kylo keeps trying to kill those who loves him, and whom he loves back, regardless of how hard he tries to deny these feelings, he will never be able to become what he thinks he needs to be.

His goal is hollow, pointless and nothing but empty destruction. For each bridge he burns, he simply kills more of himself, becoming less and less.

And perhaps he already know this himself.

But Kylo is so obsessed with killing the past, so blinded by his ritualistic rejection of love, that he cannot grow, cannot center himself, cannot admit that his failures lays at the feet of his own actions. Instead he acts as a destructive toddler, crying and screaming at a world that does not grand him the things he feels entitled to.

And he keeps chasing any lead that may justify his beliefs, punishing and killing any who tries to disprove him.

So he is drawn to Rey. For Rey has power, Rey has focus. In Rey he could find proof of his beliefs. He sees how she clings to her past, to a hope of love lost. If only she could be convinced to let go, as he tries, to burn her past, and become more powerful for it.

Kylo needs Rey, in a deeply selfish hunt for confirmation.

“You are nothing, but not to me.”

And so he has believes. For Kylo had spend so much time rejecting love, that he has convinced himself that love cannot make a person grand. That it is only through rejection that you can become great.

Kylo proposes Rey to follow him, as Vader proposed Luke.

But Vader loved Luke. His offer was toxic, but laced with true affection, love and passion. Vader had a goal, a dream of a future he wished to see forfilled.

Kylo belittles Rey, mocks her feelings for Han and Luke, tells her she is nothing without him, spitting in the hope and love of a future in the light that she offered first. For Kylo does not have anything to offer but fire and destruction, he only wants her to convince himself of his delusion. He does not want an equal, he may seek her out of loneliness, but he refuses to truly listen, refuses to acknowledge that he might have been wrong.

And so Kylo fails.

He may have been manipulated by Snoke for years, and his family may have failed to reach him or even understand the depth of the darkness he was falling into.

But he still made the choice to reject love. Makes it abundantly clear that he does this by choice, by forceful ideology. Rejecting and killing them at any moment they do reach out. Rey tried to hard, so naively to reach him, guide him back to the light, prepared to forgive even his atrocities, if only he will help end the nightmare of the First Order.

And yet he still rejects love, continuing down his spiral of darkness into mad nothingness.

Rey

Where Kylo is chaos, Rey is focus.

Where Kylo destroys and rages, Rey builds and learns.

Where Kylo regresses, Rey grows.

If Anakin and Luke are mirrors, Rey and Kylo are counterpoints to each other.

Rey, who has been through more hardships than most. Anakin at least had a loving mother, and an owner who saw value in keeping him well fed and encouraged his passions.

Rey was left alone for so long, with nothing but a faint hope of her family returning. Yet she clings so deeply to this hope, grasps at the flickers of love she craves.

Yet Rey isn’t bitter.

She is curious, and compassionate, with a strong sense of justice, and once she sets a goal, she keeps to it.

At first this is a hindrance. Her hope and obsession with staying and returning to Jakku harms her. Yet she cannot let go of the smoldering embers of love for her family.

For Rey embraces love.

Not with the consuming fire of Anakin, nor the enveloping light of Luke.

But with dedication.

It is almost frightening what Rey can do once she sets her mind to it. The force comes easily to Rey, and not just the light side, even the dark side she explores, and with a willingness that horrifies Luke.

And one wonders, the prophecy that Anakin was thought to embody, what if they were wrong? What if it is Rey, who will find the balance between light and dark, and walk the grey path?

Luke does not comprehend the dark, he knows what it is, but he does not contemplate it.

Rey does. Rey meets the dark, willingly, raging in righteous anger, yet without getting consumed. For Rey understands the dark, have lived in nothingness, and pain and loneliness, with only her hope and her focus keeping her afloat for so many years.

And when offered kindness and love, she takes it, embraces it and returns it.

It was not an instant thing. Han Solo offered her everything she may have dreamed of; the life of a pilot, freedom and something that could have been a new family. But Rey had made a promise, a pact with herself bound in love, and at first she turns away, pained, confused and sad. But still grateful.

Finn leaving also hurts her, and with the reveal of her force-sensitivity she is torn and pained.

But Rey grows, she overcomes. She finds a new hope, a new plan, and forges a new pact of love. This time founded around Finn, a person whom she now loves, and who loves her in return, who fought for her, who bleed for her.

The one who came back.

Rey learns, she adapts and flourishes.

She doesn’t understand Kylo, cannot see how he can reject so much love offered. But she has hope, and she can face the darkness, so she searches for Ben, and naively, thinks that she has reached him.

Luke did the same for Vader, so why could she not do the same? Finn turned his back on the First Order, so why should Kylo not be able to do the same? She decided to forge a new path, and leave Jakku, searching for answers elsewhere, so why should Ben not could do the same?

She have found the legendary Luke Skywalker, and found him wanting, yet she still believes in the legend.

And here she fails, and Ben fails her.

But she moves on, hurt, betrayed, hopefully wiser.

For Rey is focus, Rey is dedication, Rey is a new beginning. Forged in love, in hope, in darkness embraced and overcome.

For when Rey confronts the truth of her past, she lets it go, she does not burn it away, but accepts it and turns towards her future instead. There may no longer be any love in her past, but she can grow from this, she can release herself from the pain, and beyond it is her new life. For she have found new loved ones, people who deserves her love, who loves her back.

Rey does not need to kill the past to become who she is meant to be. She makes the choice to become something herself.

There is a irony in a way, for if Rey did turn to the dark side, If Rey did let herself fall into despair, and burn everything away, she would likely have become the most terrifying sith ever. With her power, and her focus, and her easiness with the Force, she could have destroyed Kylo in an instant. He was lucky she rejected his offer, he would have been nothing compared to her. Snoke was a fool for simply wanting to kill her. Had he done as Sidious attempted with Luke and succeeded with Anakin, he would have gotten the Vader he coveted.

And so Rey instead is now affirmed in her beliefs of love, choosing Finn, choosing the Rebelion, choosing the light? That remains to be seen.

As of now Rey has closed the door, and turned her back on Ben.

For Kylo is a self-destructive black hole.

And Rey is pulsar of focused dedication and love.

TL:dr - The overall theme of Star Wars is love. Anakin, Luke and Rey all embrace love in different ways, making them dangerous, powerful and flawed people. Kylo rejects love, making him a terrible and childish person, but at least The Last Jedi made him slightly interesting and made him fit with the rest of the story, if only in confirming his uselessness.

#star wars #The last Jedi #fan speculation #my essays

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