#and i quite like how elias’s aesthetic came out

[lazycats-stuff]

The New Heir - Prologue

Alright, the awaited multichapter, actual plot series! I'm excited, feedback will be greatly appreciated, don't hold back. I don't know how many chapters there will be, so everyone, including me, will be taken for a ride. It's also Batfam & male!reader, so I'm excited! There are also OCs here, so if you don't like them you can stop here. Also, first time making this aesthetic Warnings: child birth, hints towards a backstory, hints towards the potential father,

Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9

20.5.2011.

The state of New Jersey, Gotham City. It was the dead of night and screams ripped the usually quiet halls of the hospital. It all came from the maternity ward, where Natalia Rose Callahan was giving birth. This baby wasn't an easy one and it seemed like it didn't want to leave the Natalia's womb. The baby seemed quite content to stay there forever, seemingly knowing that the world was a cruel place.

Natalia was alone, the only company nurses and doctors, who were making sure that the baby coming out of her was healthy. There wasn't anyone outside of the room for Natalia. Natalia was in a world of pain, but she was used to it. For the last 20 years of her life, pain and healing was all she was doing.

She was the bringer of pain and death and yet, she was giving birth to a new life.

How ironic.

Her head was swimming, not a single coherent thought inside, only get this baby out now and my God help me. She let out another scream and she let her head fall down onto the pillow. Her sweaty hair was stuck to her forehead, evidence of the fight she is going through. She was going to get through this, she did go through this before, but she was put under.

Maybe she should have opted for a C-section too. Or an epidural. But not this.

She heard the doctor tell her, just one more final push. She took a deep breath through her teeth and when she felt a contraction she pushed, nurses holding onto her hand, helping her through this with soothing and encouraging words.

Natalia Rose Callahan closed her eyes as she heard a baby's cry. She heard shuffling and the doctor was telling her about the placenta and the umbilical cord, but she didn't care at this point.

She just wanted to hold her son. She heard him somewhere else in the room, crying and then silence.

Would he turn out like his father? Would he be ruthless as his father? Merciless? Sadistic? Evil?

She barely opened her eyes. It felt like her eyes were taped shut and she was fighting against it. She smiled as she took her son into her hands. She cried as the nurse helped her place her infant son on her bare chest, the baby calming down instantly.

Natalia cried for a long while. Some were happy tears and some were tears of sadness. Her son was finally here, in her arms, thousands miles away from her old life and back in the place where he belongs.

But at the same time she wondered how did she allow him to get her pregnant once more. Did she love him? More than anything. And she knew, that deep down, he loved her too. But was that the life for her son? A life of pain? A life of destruction?

A life full of grooming to take over?

Only purpose to be an heir?

When Natalia stopped crying, she looked down at her son. He opened his dark blue eyes and Natalia knew that she was going to break the cycle. One way or another.

Her son wasn't going to be born into her old life. When she gets out of the hospital, her son will step into the new life. And with his step into a new life, she will shed her old self, like a snake.

She will adapt. She was surviving before, but she won't anymore. She will live. She will do whatever it takes to protect her son. He won't live in fear.

She won't let it happen.

" Do you have a name mom? " The nurse asked as she came in to see how the duo was doing.

" Elias Spencer Callahan. " Natalia said, smiling down at her son.

" Such a beautiful name mom. But I'm afraid that I have to take little Elias. " The nurse said as she wrote the full name down.

Natalia nodded and with a last kiss, she handed her son over. The nurse cooed at Elias, putting him into the special crib, just near her.

" Rest up mom. You will need it. " The nurse said with a smile, leaving the room.

Natalia closed her eyes, ready to fall asleep, but woke up when she heard the door opening.

" Hello Aseel. " Natalia said tiredly, smiling at the old friend.

Aseel chuckled, walking towards the bed, giving her a kiss on the forehead. He gripped her hand for a moment, before letting go. He walked up quietly to his nephew. Although not related, Natalia looked at Aseel as an older brother.

He looked down at the baby. The baby fell asleep. Aseel felt a tear fall down on his face. He wiped the tear away.

" What's his name? " Aseel asked, watching as the baby's face scrunched up a little bit.

" Elias Spencer Callahan. " Natalia said, turning her head to the side.

Aseel nodded, gently caressing the baby's face with his pointer finger. He washed his hands before this. Natalia could smell the scent of soap. Something... Floral?

" I can see that something is bothering you Aseel. What is it? " Natalia pressed, making Aseel sigh.

" He kind of looks like his father. "

" But he has my eyes. " Natalia said softly, making Aseel smile. She did have gorgeous blue eyes.

" I don't doubt it. I took care of everything. You and little Elias are going to be fine. " Aseel said, moving back to Natalia. He took a chair and sat down next to the bed.

" Something else is bothering you. " Natalia said, closing her eyes for a moment.

" I love my unofficial nephew, but... Was it wise to have him? You gave the bastard an heir. A male heir. " Aseel said, jaw clenching at the thought of Elias' father.

" The baby isn't at fault. And he never will. He didn't ask for this. And I will do whatever it takes to make sure that he is safe. " Natalia said, clenching her fists.

" Does that include that you will teach him how to fight? "

" Yes. But it will be more fun. "

Aseel snorted quietly, rubbing his eyes.

" You should sleep Nat. You look almost dead. " Aseel joked, standing up from the chair.

" I will don't worry. "

" I will go to your apartment to get it ready. "

" Thank you Aseel. For protecting us and for helping me. " Natalia said, finally falling asleep.

" Always my sister. Dayiman akhti. " Aseel said, giving her a kiss to the forehead. He walked over quietly to the little baby. Elias was so untouched by the world and its cruelty.

" And I will always protect you. " Aseel whispered softly. Aseel chuckled quietly after a funny thought. The kid is going to have a year round tan. And very good skin complexion.

But there was something else that entered Aseel's mind. The sheer protective feelings and a feeling he thought he would never feel. Paternal love. This baby, this boy was going to be loved so much.

Elias Spencer Callahan was going to be okay. Aseel al-Dawood swore to whatever deity was listening.

Translations: Dayiman akhti - Always my sister

[diwatera]

LGBTQ+ Movies I Watched Recently (Part 2)

Happiest Season (2020) dir. Clea DuVall

Short Summary: Abby plans on proposing to Harper when they visit Harper’s family for the holidays. Her plans get derailed when she learns that Harper hasn’t come out to her family yet.

Why you should watch it: Not gonna lie, Mackenzie Davis drew me to this movie; I’ve been in love with her ever since San Junipero came out. Add Kristen Stewart, Aubrey Plaza and Dan Levy to the mix and I’m sold. If you want a sapphic romance with a happy ending, this one’s for you. 

Été 85 (2020) dir.  François Ozon

Short Summary: Alexis recounts his six-week love affair with David during the summer of ‘85. 

Why you should watch it: If you love 80s aesthetic and music, you definitely should watch this. The movie made me nostalgic of that decade and I wasn’t even alive back then! It’s a whirlwind summer romance reminiscent of Call Me by Your Name but with a more devastating twist.

Getting Go: The Go Doc Project (2013) dir. Cory James Krueckeberg

Short Summary: An obsessed college boy pursues his internet crush through the pretext of making a documentary about him.

Why you should watch it: The script and the acting are the one-two punch of this film. The writing is incredibly genuine, and both of the actors’ performances made the lines feel even more natural. I’m not the biggest fan of mockumentary-style films, but this one felt like it was a recording of my own life. Hyper-obsessive college grad with a Tumblr blog? Might as well have called out half the population of this damn site.

Pihalla (2017) dir. Nils-Erik Ekblom

Short Summary: Miku and Elias find themselves, and each other, during a summer in the Finnish countryside.

Why you should watch it: I’m a sucker for gays in the countryside™ and although this one is not quite up there with God’s Own Country and Call Me by Your Name, it still makes for a good watch. Miku as a character and his relationship with his parents was chaotic and fun. His relationship with Elias felt really natural and dreamy. 

You, Me and Him (2017) dir. Daisy Aitkens

Short Summary: Olivia, a mature responsible lawyer, wants to have a baby, but her girlfriend Alex isn’t ready for the responsibility. Things get even more complicated when their flirty neighbour, John, joins the picture. 

Why you should watch it: It is one of the most feel-good lesbian romcoms I have seen in a while. But I warn you, there are some dark parts that can really sneak up on you. Yeah, it’s hilarious, but damn it made me ugly cry, too. Oh, and if you want to see David Tennant as an alpha male douchebag, here’s your chance. (CW: **spoiler alert** p̶r̶e̶g̶n̶a̶n̶c̶y̶ ̶l̶o̶s̶s̶ )

Giant Little Ones (2018) dir. Keith Behrman 

Short Summary: Franky and Ballas have been best friends since childhood, both on the swimming team, both incredibly popular. But after an incident during Franky’s birthday, they quickly fall apart and Franky falls from grace.

Why you should watch it: I think the film captures just how tumultuous coming-of-age stories are. Franky is going through his own journey of self-identity, and I’m happy that the movie didn’t rush in with labels. The conversation Franky has with his dad at the end also hits hard.  (CW: physical assault, allusions to sexual assault)

Our Love Story (2016) dir. HyunJu Lee

Short Summary: A fine arts student meets an attractive bartender, and the two women begin an intimate relationship.

Why you should watch it: It’s a very intimate love story that isn’t rushed or dragged out for too long. We definitely see Yoon-Jo and Ji-Soo’s relationship bloom from start to end, but it’s not mind-numbingly boring to watch. Raw and unembellished, I definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a realistic portrayal of wlw romance.

Die Mitte der Welt (2016) dir. Jakob M. Erwa

Short Summary: The film follows Phil and his relationship with his family, his best friend, and a newcomer at his school, Nicholas.

Why you should watch it: This is technically a second watch for me, and I’m glad I rewatched it, because I was able to catch some glaring red flags that I missed the first time. I love this movie in spite of all the heartache it caused me. The story, especially the deal with Phil’s family, struck a chord in me. And the shots! Visually stunning as well! 

Les Amours Imaginaires (2010) dir. Xavier Dolan

Short Summary: Marie and Francis’ friendship is put to the test when a beautiful boy called Nicolas comes between them. 

Why you should watch it: Watch it for the visuals -- the colors, the costumes, the cast. Seriously, the actors included here may as well be kept in the Louvre: Xavier Dolan, Neils Schneider, Monia Chokri, hell, even a cameo from Louis Garrel! Dolan said it himself that this is a shallow film, but it’s worth the watch just to see Neils Schneider wearing heart-shaped glasses.

Closet Monster (2015)  dir. Stephen Dunn

Short Summary: A creative and driven teenager is desperate to escape his hometown and the haunting memories of his turbulent childhood.

Why you should watch it: Right off the bat, I am going to say that this film is dark. I tried watching it back in college but tapped out within the first ten minutes because something traumatic happens. Then I tried again about a week ago, finished it this time. It’s actually a very moving film. It’s violent and gory in some parts, but also ridiculous and wholesome in other parts. IT HAS A TALKING HAMSTER NAMED BUFFY! BUFFY WAS THE STAR OF THIS MOVIE FOR ME. (CW: gay bashing/sexual assault)

Straight Up (2020) dir. James Sweeney

Short Summary: Todd and Rory are intellectual soul mates. He might be gay but she might not care.

Why you should watch it: The dialogue in this film is undeniably sharp and witty. Loved the fast-paced back and forth between the two main characters as they discuss relationships, sex, gender, and more. James Sweeney and Katie Findlay’s chemistry just pulled you into the screen. It was funny, it was sweet, it was heartwrenching, it was great! (CW: allusions to sexual assault)

Latter Days (2003) dir. C. Jay Cox

Short Summary: A promiscuous gay party animal falls for a young Mormon missionary, leading to crisis, cliché, and catastrophe.

Why you should watch it: I saw this in santiagonex’s top 20 LGBTQ+ films with happy endings, and I honestly thought it was gonna be a feel-good watch. Instead, I got a rollercoaster melodrama filled with early 2000s gay culture, religious guilt, buttcheeks, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Needless to say, I got more than I bargained for. (CW: self-harm, conversion therapy)

The Old Guard (2020) dir. Gina Prince-Blythewood

Short Summary:  A covert team of immortal mercenaries are suddenly exposed and must now fight to keep their identity a secret just as an unexpected new member is discovered.

Why you should watch it: Okay, I was debating whether I should include this here, because it’s not necessarily an LGBTQ+ film as much as it is an action film with queer characters. I decided to include it, because JESUS! I have never seen such respectful and well-written representation of queer characters and relationships. Joe and Nicky are the most unproblematic couple in history. PERIOD. Pray for sequels, everyone. This is the kind of representation we deserve in mainstream media. 

. . .

Click here for more LGBTQ+ film recs

[pennylogue]

tma post canon au idea that i came up with IMMEDIATELY after listening to 200 while chatting with @rinnaden:

you know all that fan content of monster jon? i had this image of martin stabbing jon and just...tape spurting out. jon unraveling and wrapping around the two of them and carrying them along the web, to one of the fear’s new worlds. they wake up in the parking lot behind a convenience store that stands where the magnus archive once stood. 

(possibly when one of the cashiers calls the cops on the two bloody, dirty, likely homeless men sleeping in a parking spot.)

so they’re in a new world. but the entities are still here, so i’m thinking that jon does have some access to the eye. like obviously not apocalypse powers, and the eye’s hold is new and weak here, so we’re talking early days. (either that or jon letting martin stab him counted as a rejection of the eye and he’s wholly himself, which would be a huge pain but quite interesting in itself.

point is, dumb thing that the eye is, it doesn’t hold grudges against either of them for...you know...everything...so jon’s able to figure out how to get them some papers and ids and etc.

so now the question is--the entities are here. nobody but them knows about them...

do they do anything?

martin, at this point, is ready to torch the entire world if it gives jon one less thing to sacrifice himself for, and maybe jon is willing to go along with that for a while out everything that happened...but massive guilt complexes don’t just disappear. jon definitely is gonna feel some responsibility for everything that happened. and this new world is pretty much defenseless. surely, they should try to help this world?

what i’m picturing is sort of a long, fun fic where jon and martin go on lots of adventures and get wrapped up in conspiracies as they try to help this world get ahead of the entity problem, via finding the entities’ new seats of power and destroying them, trying to convince avatars to stay away, spreading misinformation about any ideas for rituals.

SO! GREAT THINGS ABOUT THIS AU:

conveniently hooks into martin and jon’s main conflict at the end of canon, as well as tma themes of knowledge as power and (re: season 5) what you do with your privilege. martin and jon know things about what’s coming that no one else in this world does. if they play this right, they might be able to help a lot. or hurt a lot. what should they do? do they have a responsibility to help? they both would probably go back and forth on this a lot...

and like, is it even a good idea to help? for all they know, helping might just accelerate the process of someone figuring out a ritual.

martin and jon, two codependent and traumatized wrecks, having to adjust to living in a normal world. for bonus fun, no one around them could possibly understand or comprehend what they went through, and there’s almost no one they could tell without being thought crazy. ain’t that fun. setting up new lives in an entire nother dimension is a story in itself.

culture shock! a different dimension! how is it different? did the fears not appearing cause any huge historical differences that jon and martin would be surprised by?

they...would probably find out about a certain podcast eventually. that would be a thing. (...this could totally be a self insert au couldn’t it.)

jon hungers. powers = need snack. i don’t even know where to go with this because i’ve seen so many takes on it and i love all of them, and i still don’t know if it’s an addiction or a hunger or both. maybe he even feeds in an entirely new way, because he’s not part of the web anymore?

cryptid dimension traveler aesthetics! i take your “traumatized jon or martin going back in time and being all mysterious and supernatural and all-knowing” and raise you “mysterious shady boyfriends who know way too much about this stuff, how do they know, what do they know, can we trust them”. like the fact that the only beings to have swapped dimensions are a bunch of fear entities and two men that hitched a ride from their dimension...might not make jon and martin too endearing.

like ahhhh those secret keeping dynamics are fun. and even if they do tell the people they’re working with about their dimension, there’s still their role in the end of the world, as well as the release of the entities, etc.

and of course, who are they working with? do they try to meet up with this world’s jon and martin, or run into them? any of the other canon characters? like i feel like they’d eventually run into everyone, but i feel like at first it would be lots of ocs, plus maybe some canon avatars?

like you could do suchhhh good angst with how different this dimension jon and martin might be. or sasha. or tim. or melanie. or daisy and basira. or everyone, really--what’s real elias up to, huh? 

like, this is an entirely new dimension. the fears could manifest in an entirely new ways, wouldn’t that be fun? since humanity is already sapient, maybe there’s a lot more “deal-striking” involved. the fears have to approach humans a little more blatantly, etc. maybe they’d go for big leaders. try to induce war, disaster, just generally the kind of atmosphere that would be welcoming for fear. 

jon and martin sneaking into black tie events to infiltrate powerful people and figure out who’s most susceptible to becoming an avatar and “convincing” them not to. jon and martin covertly hiring sasha to spread misinformation online and doxx potential new avatars. those who don’t crave power, but just kind of fall into it, they can help. anyone sets up an archive, they burn the fucker to the ground. anything like leitners appear--i’m thinking it would be more digital, since this is the digital era, they try to head it off and discredit it.

you could literally just. do a crossover with this. of almost any fandom you wanted. this also erases the hard part of creating ocs. but honestly there’s lots of shows that have societies that deal with supernatural problems that would probably very much appreciate the opportunity to work with jon and martin. honestly it would be a lot easier than not doing a crossover.

and meanwhile you got that excellent background of them re-adjusting and making new friends and trying to learn to breathe in a world on the brink of apocalypse, because life just be like that.

[blacksunscorpio]

Scorp you're a genius! So relatable and I love how you don't judge others or anyone who comes to you for help. Keep it up! I just had to ask since I see that you make pop culture references to make analogies with astrology. You've mentioned GoT a few times and im a huge fan! Can you do a quick post on Game of Thrones characters and their potential zodiac signs? I'd love to hear your input! Thank you so much!!

Game of Thrones Characters & Their Zodiac Signs

Aries

Khal Drogo- Impulsive. Warlike. Bloodthirsty. Alpha. Conqueror. Hardcore athlete [did you see him on that horse?] Extremely sexual. Forceful. When he first meets Daenerys, he forces himself on her. Afterward, however, he is the first to go to war if he feels the people around him have been disrespected.

Aerys Targaryen- Impulsive, sadistic. Boastful. imperial. He would be the Emperor [reversed] in Tarot, lol. Not as good with being a tactician as he ought to have been. Cruel. Rage problems. The need to be the first and the best. Fire and blood, anyone?

Taurus

Maergery Tyrell - Classy, wealthy, sexy, laid-back, frank but with an air of elegance. Highgardeners have a love for the finer things in life. A love of fine wines and foods. Beautiful clothing and aesthetics. RICH RICH. Get on their bad side and they will take their time finding a way to subvert your authority.

Robert Baratheon- Love of luxury, bullheaded, strong, takes no shit. Fixed in his opinions of others, highkey jealous. In his youth, he enjoyed the gifts of Venus: Charm, wealth coming from the noble house of Baratheon, widely considered handsome by almost all in the 7 kingdoms. 

Gemini

Tyrion Lannister- Silver-tongued. HIGHKEY intelligent. Social. Charming. Great sense of humor. A freak [in the sheets]. Chatty. Always finds his way out of a sticky situation. Finds a way to use his intel to bolster diplomacy between his family and the families who hate them.

Little Finger- Cunning, quick-witted, works behind the scenes, manipulative, a  snake, jack of all trades. Top dog in the social circles of the 7 Kingdoms. There wasn’t a person who didn’t know of him and his... reputation. He singlehandedly, through his Machiavellian tactics, caused the events of Game of Thrones to unfold. 

Cancer  

Cersei Lannister- Protective, moody, caring [to her kids], motherly, cantankerous, jealous. A savage. People don’t give Cancer’s the credit they deserve in terms of what they’re capable of. Cersei is a prime example of the type of person who can show unrivaled levels of devotion to the one’s they love. “No one matters but us.” She can be cruel because she lets her emotions rule her actions. When her safety is threatened, she makes sure no one else feels safe either. She loves with a ferocity only rivaled by...

Catelyn Stark- Another mother who would die [quite literally] for her children. Fierce, Protective. Doting. JEALOUS. Let’s not forget how she treated Jon all because she believed Ned’s lie about him being a bastard. Followed her son into battle. Damn near lost her hands fighting off Bran’s would-be assassin. 

Leo

Jaime Lannister- Proud. Handsome. Princely. Funny. We seem him go from underdeveloped Leo [arrogant, selfish, bully, prideful, snob, loyal to no one but himself] to developed [Kind, helpful, warm, honest]. Fought bears for his friends. Skilled and proud fighter even without the use of both his hands. Unfortunately, his loyalty caused him to stay loyal to his twin towards the end, but such is the nature of a Leo. They’re hard-pressed to abandon those they truly care for.

Brienne of Tarth- LOYAL. Proud. Devoted. A bit of a flare for drama especially brandishing her sword. Brienne is the definition of Leonine traits. Hard to miss. Devoted to those who show her kindness, i.e Renly, Catelyn, Jaime, Sansa, etc. Always at the front lines in war screaming “STAND YOUR GROUND”. Unrivaled levels of bravery and courage. Not to be fucked with. A true Queen.

Virgo

Samwell Tarley- Intelligent. Scholarly. Methodical. Always with his nose in a book. Unproblematic king. Caught the things everyone else missed, especially when he was an apprentice in Old Towne. Figured out how to cure Jorah Mormont’s affliction on his OWN without any formal training. Genius.

Lord Varys- Remember, Virgo is also ruled by Mercury who is the most cunning of the planetary rulers. Varys always had a spy to collect intel on everyone. A tactician. Never lost his temper. Always had the scoop but didn’t partake in gossip for gossip's sake. Not afraid to be critical or tell those “in charge” his opinion. We can see this specifically when he critiques Aerys, Daenerys, and Robert. 

Libra

Davos Seaworth- a skilled diplomat. Davos is always seen seeking balance and fairness in the situations he finds himself in. The minute you see this man in a scene you know he’s going to give a moving speech and get someone out fo a sticky situation. He convinced the Iron Bank to support Stannis. Convinced Daenerys to entertain Jon Snow when they traveled to Dragonstone. Always breaking up a fight. He is in full support of law and order, especially when he called for Melisandre’s head after discovering her part in Shireen’s death [RIP.]

Rhaegar Targaryen- Had a love of music. Harmony. Balance. He brought two families together [Stark and Targaryen]. He was also blessed by Venus in my opinion because he was said to be extremely handsome. A fabulous singer. A fighter yes, but a lover first. Very good with diplomacy but not the best with defending himself against his cousin sign, Taurus [Robert Baratheon].

Scorpio

Daenerys Targaryen- Many see her as an Aries but I have to respectfully disagree. Daenerys is a Scorpio in my opinion. Remember, Scorpio is honorary fire. She was literally “reborn from the ashes”. A Phoenix, Scorpio’s final form. She went from a silent and meek girl to a skilled and commanding Empress. Unlike Arians, she did not jump headfirst into battle. It took many arrows in her dragons, many slights to her ego, copious council from her advisors, dozens of her loved ones lost for her to go nuclear. Like her father, she hungered for power, a very Scorpionic trait. However she, unlike her father, listened to reason [Jorah, Tyrion, and Barristan Selmy]. She had a long fuse until she didn’t, and then that’s when she rained fire and blood on everyone in King’s Landing. She was skilled at retribution and was unapologetic with it *cough* the Tarleys *cough*.. Unlike Arians who pop off at the drop of a hat, she gave her enemies fair warning if/when they crossed her.

Arya Stark- You already know what it is with this one. Arya is pretty much death [Pluto], personified. Stealthy. A tactician. VENGEFUL. I think we all fist-pumped when she served Filch Walder Frey his sons in that pie. Never forgets a slight. Keeps a list of people who’ve wronged her [All Scorpios can probably relate]. You never see her coming. She is “no-one”. She is the assassin that slips through the back. She may seem calm at first but trust that she has been planning your downfall for a while. LOYAL. The definition of a Scorpio.

Melisandre- Dark. Mysterious. Unafraid of the occult. So much of her life is unknown and I’m sure that’s how she preferred it. Even her Lord of light was mysterious. Strong supernatural abilities and highkey psychic. Knew immediately how many “eyes” Arya would “close.” Had ties to the underworld which is demonstrated with her ability to resurrect the dead. Came through at the clutch in the last battle wielding fire [Mars] with her witchcraft. It’s no secret that Scorpios are some of the most skilled in sorcery.

Sagittarius

Missandei- Exotic. From Naath which is an island just above the mysterious continent of Sothoryos. A world traveler. Lucky enough to escape slavery [until the end]. Jupiter's influence is here in my opinion because she is so kind and friendly. Also a polyglot and gifted with the ability to speak 19 languages. Her fire is seen at the end of the series when she tells her best friend “Dracarys”-- meaning “fire” in High Valyrian. She isn’t afraid to call wrath down on others.

Olenna Tyrell- Loud, unapologetically blunt, zero-filter, feisty. Olenna to me is the definition of Sagittarius. Always speaks her mind. Clap back queen. Will call you out. Was also quite promiscuous in her younger years. Very charismatic and extremely likable despite her penchant for saying whatever was on her mind.

Capricorn

Tywin Lannister- I can’t see the patriarch of the most notorious family in Westeros being anything other than a Capricorn. Methodical. Structured. Business-minded. Karmic [A "Lannister always repays his debts"] Cold. Cruel. Unfeeling. Like Saturn, he is the father figure. Basically ran the 7 Kingdoms for Aerys, [which was probably why the latter was so salty towards him.] Always has a plan. The man you want in charge if we’re strictly talking about law and order. Vindictive [had the mountain kill Elia because Rhaegar rejected Cersei.] He’s the ultimate son-of-a-bitch.

Jon Snow- Brooding hero that he is, Bae Jon Snow is without a doubt a Capricorn in my eyes. Duty-bound. Serious. A leader in his own right. Could also be cold and unfeeling in terms of distributing karmic justice. Lest we forget the “fetch-me-a-block” situation with Janos Slynt. In addition, the moment he was resurrected he took vengeance against the black brothers who betrayed him. Saturn, Like Pluto, is all about karmic justice. The beating he put on Ramsey after The Battle of the Bastards was one thousand percent a karmic beating. A proper lover as well, according to Ygritte, Jon also knew how to handle himself in the bedroom, a trait very akin to Capricorns.

Aquarius

Bran Stark- I thought about making Bran a Pisces, but then I changed my mind. Remember Uranus rules sudden insights and hardcore psychic receptivity. It also rules sudden and unexpected catastrophes or surprises/ sudden breaks. Bran suffered a literal “tower” moment at the beginning of the series which resulted in his psychic powers developing. Once he became the three-eyed raven, he became very detached from the world.

Grey Worm- Aquarius is also androgynous. Grey Worm is a eunuch. He is always down to fight for a cause though, specifically his queen’s. Cares about others, specifically Missandei, and was seen towards the latter season speaking up for the Unsullied against the slavers. Fierce combatant but also very detached. His job is his job.

Pisces

Jaqen H’ghar- Much like Neptune, Pisces’ ruler Jaqen has a mysterious and illusive personality. He wears “many faces”. Skilled at illusion and very very intuitive. Has a soft side though which is clearly seen with how he treats Arya. Hardly ever flies off the handle. Calm. Cool. Collected.

Hodor- Sweet and gentle giant, Hodor is a Pisces to me. Affected by psychic trauma, it’s revealed why “Hodor” is the only thing he can say. Calm. A bit of a baby. Caring. Easily adaptable [think of all the terrain he carried Bran through]

Eddard Stark- I don't care what anyone says, Ned stark to me represents the most developed form of a Pisces. Like the Hanged-Man in Tarot that represents sacrifice and which Neptune Rules, he willingly sacrificed his reputation as honorable for his sister, Lyanna. He later sacrifices himself for his children when he died at Joffrey’s [little bitch] command. He is wise. Though appears cold, he is actually a well of feeling and caring. Unfortunately, he also suffered from the naivety of Neptunian influence which is why he wasn’t very skilled at the Game of Thrones, which calls for more tactical ruthlessness. Pisceans however also have the rage of Poseidon flowing through their veins [which people like to forget]. This was displayed when he pinned Petyr Baelish to the Wall in King’s Landing for daring to dishonor Cat by inviting her into a Brothel. RIP, King Stark.

[literatehiss]

Trust Fall - Blood & Family

cw: Physical Violence & Injury The Lukas’s are upset with Peter over the failure of his ritual, Simon and Elias are displeased with their reaction. Read on AO3 here That fucking Archivist.

Peter coughed, wincing at the pain in his ribs and the blood that bubbled up between his lips.

Damn Eye bastards could never leave well enough alone could they? His ritual could have worked, it should have worked. All it took was one bitter old woman to ruin it.

It had cost so much money.

It was by no means enough to really disrupt the families finances, but it was enough for them to notice, to be irritated. If he bothered to do the maths it would have only really been a few years worth of his allowance. It didn’t matter. He had wasted all that money and they were angry.

He was always a disappointment, they had hoped he would be a good choice for the head of the family when he was young, the powers of their patron had come so naturally to him, but he just wasn’t quite good enough. A few scattered friendships, his relationship with James or Elias as he was now calling himself, a too cheery disposition. It all weighed on him as proof that he was useless, just like his uncle had said, over and over again as the men he had hired took their time making sure he was ‘properly regretful’ for what had happened.

Peter was lucky really. They didn’t really care. He had received his punishment and everyone would be back to ignoring him as per usual by the end of the week. If he lasted that long. Well, ok, now he knew he was being morbid, he had survived worse after all.

He was aware that he was leaving smears of blood on the walls of the apartment hallway as he stumbled and dragged himself to the flat he sometimes shared with Elias. His on-again off-again husband wouldn’t be at home, it was the middle of the work day after all and Peter had dragged the fog of the Lonely around himself like a thick blanket, enough to keep himself from Elias’s ever present gaze. His fingers were numb with cold and blood loss as he fumbled with his keys.

The apartment was cold, sterile. It wasn’t due to any real aesthetic reason, they were both simply not at home enough to both making any personal touches. A spark of hot pain lanced up his side and he fell into the wall, his teeth gritting as he dragged himself pitifully to the large black sofa that sat in the living room.

He had never been so glad Elias had convinced him not to go with the white sofa, they would never have got the blood stains out of it.

He slumped onto the leather with a huff as the impact winded him. Peter closed his eyes to block out the sunlight streaming in through the huge windows that took up the entirety of the eastern wall of the apartment. Exhaustion hit him quickly after that and he drifted off to sleep, arm still clutched around his chest protectively, unaware of the being stood at the window.

Half-way across London, Elias Bouchard received a phone call.

“Why is Peter lying half dead in your apartment Elias?” He couldn’t be sure whether it was the words or the fact that Simon Fairchild sounded so serious, that made his blood chill.

“What?!”

“Oh so it wasn’t you. Thank goodness, I was thinking of having to do something quite unfortunate.” The phone clicked off abruptly.

“Wait. What?”

Simon really wished he had bothered to get a key for Peter’s new flat, he had always had one for all his other places, just made it easier, and these weren’t the sort of windows you could just keep cracked open ‘just in case’. But Elias ‘liked his privacy’ which was the funniest joke the other man had ever made as far as Simon was concerned. Multiple lifetimes with varying interests had lead him to have at least a passing knowledge of how to break open locks but it still took him far to long to get the door open. He could barely see Peter through the fog the other man had summoned around himself, but he could see the blood pooling on the couch and dripping slowly onto the floor. The bright red a shock against the monochrome of the apartment.

Simon waded through the mist, placing a nervous pair of fingers to Peter's pulse. Alive, if weak. His presence probably wasn't helping matters, the Forsaken could heal Peter far faster than any vague attempt on his part to give him medical attention could ever provide. He couldn't just leave him though. Couldn’t just abandon the young man he had seen grow from a scared little child to a depressed and irritable teenager to a proud and confident adult that had enough power to be able to attempt his own ritual, even if it had been disrupted and failed so spectacularly.

Simon had always been so very proud of him.

He levered Peter up to slip his coat off him, throwing it in the sink with water and salt, might as well try and stop the blood staining the thing, god knows how fond Peter was of that coat. Blood had clotted and dried into his shirt and jumper and Simon ended up rummaging through the practically unused kitchen for scissors to cut them off him. Peter winced and shifted as he tried to gently pull the fabric away from his wounds.

Wiping away the blood proved to be a trial all of its own, immediately flowing again each time he managed to wash it away. A palm to his lad’s forehead proved him to be burning up, by which he was starting to reach the same warmth as someone who hadn’t accepted the Forsaken into their heart, which was a startling difference in temperature. He kept the floor to ceiling windows open and made a stiff breeze flow into the room. Far too cold for the average person but it should keep Peter at just the right level of corpse-like cold. He felt the skin under his fingers suddenly shift as Peter’s ribs snapped back into place. A disconcerting sensation but one that Simon was thankful for, knowing it meant that Peter was healing. The fog was starting to fade, the most life-threatening of the injuries having fixed themselves.

He knew the Lukas’s would be upset with Peter but this was a bit much surely? He had never wished so fervently that he had tried to persuade Peter over to the beautiful Vast when he was younger, before it became too late. He couldn’t imagine hurting any of his own protege’s, not like this, not even if they had truly disappointed him. He was just about to consider dragging Peter into a cold bath when the front door of the apartment violently slammed open, crashing against the wall with an almighty bang. A panting and sweating Elias stood in the doorway, suit jacket hung over his arm, eyes wide in alarm.

“What happened?”

Elias was panicking. He really wasn’t expecting to get a call from Simon on a Wednesday afternoon accusing him of attacking Peter. Apart from the mild hilarity of the thought of him being able to take down a man double his size and weight, he was also alarmed that he hadn’t noticed anything. He rushed out of his office, flying down the steps towards the lobby of the Institute. A body slammed into his own, the form of his Archivist standing in front of him, faux concern and sharp interest glittering in her eyes as she stopped him.

“Elias you seem to be in quite the hurry. Is there a problem?”

He pushed forward and grabbed her shirt

“Gertrude if I find this was you I will kill you myself. I didn’t do anything about you destroying his ritual but this is just unnecessary.” She frowned and he immediately was shown that she wasn’t the cause of Peter’s injuries. He pushed her to the side, her own surprise the only reason he was capable of doing such a thing. Elias stormed past, ignoring the calls of Gertrude and Rosie behind him.

London was a miserable place to travel through if you were trying to get anywhere in a hurry. He had a car but the thought of using it to get home in any sort of reasonable time at this hour was laughable in this traffic so he pushed his way to the nearest tube station, something he normally only did when his car broke down or he was particularly hungry. There was nothing like being packed in with so many people for sucking up all their trauma.

Right now all the people were getting on his very last nerve.

His jacket got caught on the door of the tube as he ran out and rather than stop he just pulled and pulled until the fabric ripped. Slinging it over his arm, he ran towards his rarely used flat, finding the door already unlocked he slammed it open.

Fog curled around his feet, emanating from the figuring lying on the couch and staining it with his blood. Simon was sat next to him, a handful of fabric pressed against a wound on Peter’s side.

“How is he? What happened?”

“I have no idea to be honest Elias. I thought it might be Gertrude but we both know he wouldn’t be alive if it was her”

“No it wasn’t her. I think it was the Lukas’s, probably Nathaniel organised it.”

“Oh dear. Yes I thought as much.” Simon said with an exasperated sigh that said a lot for how long he had been allied with the Lukas’s.

Elias reached for the Eye to tell him how Peter was doing but it just pushed back against him, angry of him using his powers to help someone rather than just watching, observing.

It took two days for Peter to wake up. the Forsaken protesting against their intrusive presence. Elias took time off work for the first time in a decade to watch over him. When his cold blue eyes eventually pried themselves open, it was to see Simon sat on the floor next to him, playing with something on his phone while he could hear Elias complaining down a phone to some poor employee.

“S’mon?” he mumbled, the fog of the Lonely already trying to whisk him away, misty tendrils wrapping around him.

“I’m here lad, don’t worry.”

“Hurts”

“I bet. Nathaniel? Conrad?” A shrug.

“Th’ watched. All of ‘em. Hired people.”

“Didn’t even have the balls to it themselves I see.” This was spat angrily from over his shoulder by Elias. A familiar ringed hand came over the back of the sofa and stroked fingers through his hair. He closed his eyes and rested in the company of his two favourite people. Not that he would ever tell Elias that, the man’s ego didn’t need the boost, he would get simply unbearable. He listened to their hushed talking before slipping back to sleep.

The Lukas’s never knew that anyone found out what they did to Peter. They never linked the sinking of so many of their ships or the dropping of so many of their investments to that day. When a cousin that was brought before Court suddenly found a rush of evidence against him, well he should have been more careful. It wasn’t as if their longest allies would turn on them like that. They weren’t the type to keep in contact so if the hired men they had used went missing? Well that was none of their business. What happened to those men? Well Elias and Simon would never say, but the only one who was ever found was curled up crying at the top of Everest with his eyes clawed out. Peter stood at the stern of the Tundra, smiling as he watched one of the Fairchild’s ships pass his own as he pressed a kiss to his newest wedding ring.

[kessielrg]

[Kingdom Hearts] When you give a bunny kid a cake…

Summary: After living for so long with a pack of toddlers, you grow used to their sweet doe eyes when they're about to get in trouble. Ventus has not grown such an immunity toward Oswald's sextuplet bunny kids and as such they recruit him into sneaking the ultimate treat; Ortensia's triple chocolate silk cake. [lowkey requested by @chibi-mushroom and the idea was just too adorable not to ignore]

Rating: K

Word Count: 2,714 words

If you like this story, please reblog!

---

When Ortensia invited them over for a small fall party, Ventus didn't quite think he'd spend most of the time trapped in his girlfriend's bedroom. Not that they were doing anything exciting to begin with. Playing mancala had been Sabrina's idea, but now she looked like she was ready to go to sleep. She laid against her stomach with her head cradled in her arms, the mancala board at the foot of her bed, and Ven volunteering to sit on the floor. Sabrina's eyes drooped lower whenever Ven took his turn.

“You're allowed to go to sleep.” he told her at some point. “It's just me, Terra, and Aqua.”

“And Vanitas.” she spat back. “There's no way I'm going to sleep with that creeper in arm's distance.”

And so, indirectly, Ventus now had the reason why she had him trapped in her room. She needed someone to keep her awake. Someone that wasn't going to be too loud or annoying just by sharing a room with her. Someone, in other words, that she trusted.

He did not feel lucky knowing he was that someone.

“What did you do last night?” he then asked her. “You look so… dead inside.”

Sabrina opened her mouth to retort -a possible 'that's because I feel dead inside' if he knew her well- but was cut off with six little voices calling, “Sabreenie! Sabreenie!” from the other side of the door. Without skipping a beat, Sabrina shouted back;

“Buzz off!”

“But we need you Sabreenie!” three voices told her.

“And Ven-Ven too!” a single voice reminded them.

“Yes! And Ven-Ven too!” two others chorused in agreement.

Sabrina let out a low groan as she buried her head further into her arms.

Even though he knew she didn't want to hear it, Ven told her, “Can't you humor them for now? They are your siblings.”

“Not by blood.” she grumbled as she started to get off her bed anyway. Ven fought the urge to fondly smile at her while she sat straight up, and rubbed the sleep from her eyes using the palm of her hand. It looked enough like a scene from a movie that Ven wondered if she did it for show.

His opinion on this was squashed easily when she did rise to her feet. If it wasn't obvious Sabrina was exhausted, it became quickly apparent as she made her way to the door. She had a light, unintentional sway to her gait, which almost led to her bumping into the mannequin she used to test outfits before she wore them. It was actually kinda weird that she had it out- she usually hid it in her closet when guests were coming over.

Regardless, she made it to her door with otherwise ease. Sabrina opened the door and was greeted to six bunny children. They had stacked themselves by their shoulders- but even with the added height, the bunny kid on top was just barely tall enough to see above Sabrina's shoulders.

“You have three minutes.” Sabrina said to the bunny kid on top.

“Mama made a cake!” they happily told her.

Sabrina cocked an eyebrow at them. “And…?”

“Mama told Junior, Roy, Ray, Ruth, Herb, and Elias that cake has to wait until dinner.” came the sullen reply. All six of the bunny kids hung their head in misery.

“And I assume you want it now?”

The bunny children eagerly nodded in unison. Their little tower swayed for a moment from the small weight change, but the six were able to readjust quickly.

“Why didn't you guys get Vanitas?” Sabrina then wondered, casting them a suspicious glance.

“Van-Van is napping now.” one of the bunny kids told her. The others gave a solemn nod in agreement.

“But why Ventus too?”

“Sabreenie always hides Ven-Ven.” the bunny kid on top told her.

“We want to play now!” the others happily chorused.

“In other words,” their adoptive older sister mused as she leaned against her door frame, “You need a scapegoat.”

“Why would they need a scapegoat?” Ven curiously wondered, appearing by Sabrina's side. His girlfriend looked back at him with a disinterested raise of her eyebrow.

“When you give a bunny kid a cake,” she informed him, “Nothing after will go down in your favor.”

Now it was Ventus's turn to give her a funny look. He looked back at the bunny kids and saw their pitiful little faces. It was absolutely heartbreaking seeing their long faces; Ven could already hear a few random bars from Sarah McLachlan's Angel playing in the distance. 'In the arms of a bunny child...'

“Aw, come on Sabi,” he tried to gently tease, “Look at them. Look at those sad little faces...”

There wasn't even a moment of hesitation before she spat, “Those are the same faces they make before half the house gets set on fire.”

The bunny children let out a unified sound of surprise, then gave her a rather prude raspberry. Even with her being a good 13 years older than them, Sabrina retaliated with a raspberry of her own.

“You know,” Ven gently said to her, “You're not much different.” To the bunny kids proper, he said, “I'll help you.”

Unified squeal of joy came from the bunny kids as they hopped off each other and into Sabrina's room. Once everyone was in her room, Sabrina grimaced as she shut the door. The bunny kids might have been small, but with all six it still seemed like there wasn't enough room for everyone. Sabrina sat back down on her bed as Ven and the bunny kids started with their game plan.

“Our plan is simple,” he told the kids with a sense of mirth, “Ortensia usually leaves the cake in the fridge before we actually eat it. To avoid a crumb trail -literally- we should take it to the laundry room. All we really need to do is get some plates and forks from the…”

“This isn't going to work.”

Ventus and the bunny children looked over at Sabrina with the same look of bewilderment. It was Ven who soon gave her a rather cheeky grin before asking, “Jealous because our plan doesn't involve you?”

“Hardly.” Sabrina snorted. “While it is rather smart to eat it in the laundry room, Ortensia will hear you all clatter around the kitchen like a batch of chickens with their heads cut off.”

Ven's face immediately fell. “Oh.”

“This is where a divide and conquer plan would come in handy.” Sabrina went on, moving herself so the other seven could get a better look at her. She even pulled out the mancala board to better illustrate her plans. “Half of the six will go distract Terra and Aqua by directing them outside, the other half will keep Ortensia upstairs. Maybe Oswald too, but he's either-or in this kind of situation.”

“But who's getting the cake?” Ven asked, looking up at her with a curious tilt of his head.

“You are.” she claimed. “Alone.”

“Why just me?”

“Because I am making this plan foolproof, and I don't want to get between Ortensia while she's in guest kisser mode.”

Ventus recoiled a little and didn't look at her directly when he mumbled, “I wouldn't say Aqua, Terra, and I are guests...”

“You're not,” Sabrina affirmed with a huff, “But try telling Tense that.”

Ven let out a contemplative hum before looking down at the bunny kids. They looked back up at him with wide, adoring eyes that practically read 'isn't our big sister the best?' When he turned to Sabrina again, Ventus admittedly (and rather embarrassingly) zoned out slightly as she went over the plan to her siblings. There was a sense of concentration etched into her furrowed eyebrows as she went on. If she wasn't so interested in fashion and aesthetics, Sabrina would have made a good strategist.

“Roy, Ray, and Junior, take Ortensia upstairs and be loud about it. Junior might want to cause an 'accident' in the bathroom to be sure. Pops can jump in on that if it's real bad, so he's out of your hair too. Ruth, Elias, and Herb, your job is probably the easiest because Aqua and Terra love the stuffing out of you. Take them outside and show them your jack-o-lanterns. They should still be standing perky after a month. If not, make up a sob story of how much hard work you put into them and now they're rotting. Get some waterworks going and Terra will be eating out of the palm of your hand. All in all, you can only hold Mom's attention for about ten minutes before she figures something is up. Ven should have gotten the cake by then, so let's make that our time limit. Everyone good? Good. Break.”

“Break!” the bunny children immediately repeated with a clap of their hands. The six of them immediately left Sabrina's room to do as they were instructed. Ven remained where he was for a moment. Sabrina looked at him, a soft smirk appeared on her face.

“You didn't hear a word of that, did you?” she asked him.

“Of course I did!” he told her as he stood up. “I just gotta wait for the Six to clear everyone from the kitchen, then I've got less than 10 minutes to take the cake from the fridge and to the laundry room.”

A small snicker came from his girlfriend as she shook her head. “Good guess.” she gently teased. “Now go steal that cake before Ortensia finds out.”

. . .

Sabrina could deny it all she wanted, but the bunny kids got their sense of stealth from her. Or maybe the plan she made really was foolproof. Ventus waited out in the living room while the bunny kids tried to distract their respective roadblocks. Terra and Aqua had been easy targets; at least one of the bunny kids hopping into Terra's arms, and the other two tugging at Aqua's skirt to get her attention. Ortensia was harder to budge. It took two bunny kids to finally make her crack- running down the stairs (how they got up undetected to begin with was beyond Ven) in hysteria.

Just to be sure though, Ventus did wait an extra minute or so before going into the kitchen. He tried to walk as casually as possible, but the sudden anticipation of getting caught made him want to walk on tiptoes. He did find it rather hilarious that Sabrina as indirectly trying to help hide the noise he could have made in the kitchen- not that Cheyenne Kimball's One Original Thing was the best soundtrack to this moment.

Ventus carefully peeled the door to the refrigerator open and nearly let out a sigh of relief to see that cake was placed on one of the higher shelves. It had to be a higher shelf because of the Six, even if they attempted a bunny stack, but it must have been too high for Oswald and Ortensia too. Terra or Aqua must have placed it up there. For Ven, it was an easily reach and careful extraction. He set the cake down on the counter with care.

Ortensia had really outdone herself with the cake's presentation. Looking to be about three tiers, the cake was covered entirely with chocolate frosting with hand piped rosettes around the top edge. In the center was a neatly twirled covering of whipped cream, hand cut chocolate strips decorated the top of it. For a moment, Ven almost felt bad that he was an accessory to a soon to be cake murder by six ravenous 4 year olds.

Almost.

“Cake is for after dinner, Ventus.”

Nearly jumping out of his skin, Ven quickly tried to find the source of the voice before noticing Vanitas coming down the staircase. His twin had an undeniable smirked etched on his face. Seeing it made Ven's blood run cold.

“What are you doing in the kitchen?” he questioned. It sounded so accusatory, as if Ventus himself wasn't trying to do something that would have warranted the wrath of some very angry adults.

“Woke up from my nap and the wabbits weren't there.” came the reply, simple as day. “Came downstairs to harass Terra, I guess, and here I run into you…” Vanitas looked his older twin up and down with a smirk on his face before asking, “What'cha gonna do with that cake, Ven?”

“Eat it.” came the automatic answer. Ventus immediately flinched upon hearing himself. This answer only seemed to amuse Vanitas as he got closer.

“All alone?” he snorted. “I doubt that very seriously.” That was when a certain thought crossed his mind that almost made him laugh hard enough to tears. “This is a cover up operation! Hate to break it to you Ven-Ven, but giving Sabreenie a whole cake isn't gonna help with her seasonal depression.”

Ventus's face immediately scrunched into distaste. “She doesn't have...” he tried to argue, but was soon distracted when one of the bunny kids came down the staircase. The tiny four year old gave the cake a look, drooled a little, and in realizing that Vanitas was there, got right back into action.

“Hey there, squeaky.” Vanitas greeted when the little rabbit jumped high enough to be noticed. “What's eating you?”

But the bunny kid was speaking so quickly, it was hard to follow exactly what they were trying to tell Vanitas. Knowing that the message wasn't easily going through, the bunny kid changed tactics, leading Vanitas into the living room. Ven could only watch in a small awe as Vanitas willingly followed the bunny kid. Apparently Terra wasn't the only pushover when it came to them…

Ven shook his head. The mission was almost a success, and with the unexpected roadblock gone, he had to finish the deed. Carefully picking up the cake again, Ventus made his way around to the laundry room. It was no hassle in setting the cake down on top of the dryer. Letting out a small sound of relief, Ven wiped an imaginary bead of sweat from his brow. He left the laundry room as quietly as he entered it. The mission was accomplished- now all he needed to do was tell the bunny kids and possibly get them a spoon or two.

Going into the living room did lead to a small shock. Somehow, the bunny kid that had gone to distract Vanitas had gotten the teenager to go back to sleep. It took everything it had in Ventus not to let out an unflattering snort. When the bunny kid noticed him, Ven was given a doe eyed look of question. At his nod, the bunny kid let out a happy, “Thank you!” before bounding off to get the others. It was rather adorable, honestly, and Ven felt good about himself as he went into the kitchen to get spoons for the seven of them.

He didn't expect for all six of the bunny children to beat him back into the laundry room by the bunny kids. Someone really needed to come up with a reason why these kids were so fast. It didn't seem right.

“Ven-Ven helped us...” the oldest of the bunny children decided.

“So he gets first slice!” the others finished off with a solemn nod.

Ven chuckled a little. He took his spoon and made a rather generous scoop of cake. Normally, doing such a thing would have physically hurt him. But at the moment, knowing that the cake wasn't going to survive much longer, he chose to ignore it.

“I think this is all I need.” he decided out loud. He gave them all a smile before adding, “Thank you.”

“Is it for Sabreenie?” one of the bunny children curiously wondered. But Ven looked at them for a moment before giving a sly wink. The bunny kids went into a flurry of giggles as Ven started to leave. A smile was also pressed into the corners of Ventus's lips. Sabrina had been a major factor in their cake heist, so of course she deserved a piece of it too. Sure, cake might not help much with seasonal depression, but at least it could show that he still cared about her. And that, for now, was enough.

[alicentes]

2020 in review

tagged by: @sanssa thank you lovely ♡

Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 5-8 (ish) favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2020. Tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome work!

1. Amy March character aesthetic graphic - I really like this aesthetic and I think it fits Amy well. I was afraid it would look too cluttered but it turned out much nicer than I expected. The pictures are so pretty!

2. Jennifer’s body gifset - tongue scene - I’ve wanted to gif this since forever lol and I like the b&w shade and sharpness I managed to get without using a psd.

3. Elia Martell character aesthetic graphic - I’ve grown to love Elia so much over the past couple of years and wanted to make an edit of her. This is how I imagine her aesthetic and the donnish aesthetic based on what little we know of her. I hope I did her justice.

4. villanelle character aesthetic graphic - I based her aesthetic off her whole soft, sweet and glamorous but secretly lethal kind of thing. I’m still not sure I like it as much as my other aesthetic posts though.

5. Roswell, New Mexico gifset (bisexual isobel confirmed!) - I really like the pale colouring I managed to get and also I screamed when izzy kissed a girl and my Bi head canon came true!

6. Florence Pugh edit - I really love this photoshoot and the vintage vibe. Also I really like how the colouring turned out.

7. Hope Mikaelson character aesthetic graphic - I really like the whole witchy aesthetic. I was afraid this edit would look quite bland but it’s nicer than I expected.

8. Blair Waldorf character aesthetic graphic - I saved my favourite one for last. I think this aesthetic fits Blair perfectly and I really like the pink pastels combined with just a bit of black and white. This would definitely be my aesthetic if I was rich lol.

I know I'm late doing this since it is already 2021 and I don't know if anyone else is interested or if you’ve already done it but I tag: @ravenclairee @weirwolves @ballroomofmymindp @daeneryssansa @amymarchs and whoever else wants to do it, please do and tag me! I would love to see your edits.

thank you so much to everyone who has liked or reblogged any of my edits, And thank you to everyone who has followed me this year. I’m glad these fandoms are still active so we can still create things and share them with each other. 

[gayoperatorgunclub]

For the OTP ask thing 26, 34, 39, 47 and 81. For your fav ship, it's up to you which one you choose!

ohohoho! i’m actually gonna pick more than one, so here’s doc/lion, doc/monty, twitch/cav, blitz/rook, and blitz/monty! 

Doc/Lion- 

26 (How good would your OTP be at parenting?) - i think they’d be pretty good at it, seeing as olivier actually has a son, and gustave gives off Dad Energy 

34 (Who makes fun of the other for having a crush on them, and who has to remind them that they are in a relationship?) - olivier definitely makes fun of gustave for little things like handholding or wanting to cuddle, saying stuff like “oooh you like me” and gustave just stares at him and is like. we are married. 

39 (Who sleeps in the other’s lap?) - GUSTAVE!!!!!!!!! he is a cuddly man and is Certified To Be Huggable. he’s shaped like a friend. love is stored in the combat medic. olivier will get an email from him thats just like: come to the medbay i need your help with something. and so he goes and gustave just motions for him to come in, gets out of his chair, grabs olivier’s wrist and tugs him closer, pushes him into the office chair, and climbs up onto his lap, his back to olivier’s chest, and grabs olivier’s arms and wraps them around his torso, and goes back to work for a few minutes, but he ends up falling asleep once olivier starts rubbing his tummy or sumn. whatever it’s very cute 

47 (Who proposes?) - i’ll probably use this setup for a lot of different ships, but there’s a post that talks about how a girl proposed to her girlfriend 3 times, 2 without a ring (1 because she panicked, another because she thought her gf was gonna propose and wanted to beat her to it) and lemme just say that olivier proposed to gustave at least 10 times, from handing him a ring pop while drunk and carrying him home to plan the wedding, to talking with lera about their upcoming date and she mentions how it’d be the perfect opportunity for someone to propose and so olivier panics and rushes to the medbay and is just like “gustave i love you so much you’re the man i want to spend the rest of my life with will you marry me” and gustave, who has had a stressful day, walks over to him, wraps his arms around him and presses his face into his chest, and starts crying. worry not though, when olivier finally actually proposes it’s remarkably well planned out, very romantic (perhaps in a park or on a beach or some other picturesque location, since i hc doc to be something of a nature lover so maybe olivier takes him for a picnic out in a meadow or something. it’s very aesthetic. gustave cries. and says yes. 

81 (Who said “I love you” first? and who ends their arguments in a fight with “Because I love you”?) - olivier woke up in a hospital bed with gustave sitting next to him, holding his hand, and olivier looks over at him and says “je t’aime beaucoup” before passing out again. gustave will only end an argument with “because i love you” if they’re arguing about something stupid like olivier wanting to eat nothing but croissants for a week and gustave has to be like “no you cant do that because i want you to stay alive and healthy because i love you” since i read the prompt and thought “hm. manipulative.” this almost always results in olivier either calling him a “trick ass bitch” or leaving a voicemail on his office phone that’s just this 

Doc/Monty- 

26 (How good would your OTP be at parenting?) - they’re both great at being the dad friends to other operators, but i feel like they’d think they were too old to have kids of their own, as much as they would adore it. they’re everyone’s first choice for babysitters though, and if any other operators have kids, they're referred to as uncle gustave and uncle gilles or something cute 

34 (Who makes fun of the other for having a crush on them, and who has to remind them that they are in a relationship?) - i think neither, but gustave would probably see gilles holding flowers obviously meant for him and be like “you are a lovesick fool” and gilles is like “sir we have been married since it was legal???” 

39 (Who sleeps in the other’s lap?) - GUSTAVE!!!!!!!! again, he’s a cuddly man and gilles is an absolute Unit, so they’re both more than happy to curl up around each other and sleep in eachother’s arms 

47 (Who proposes?) - gilles. it is, quite literally, the perfect proposal. (gustave is blissfully unaware of the fact that it’s almost happened many times before, mainly whenever gilles enters their bedroom after returning from a mission to see gustave wearing one of gilles’ hoodies, curled up in a pile of pillows in bed, and has to restrain himself from waking him up to ask if he’ll marry him. 

81 (Who said “I love you” first? and who ends their arguments in a fight with “Because I love you”?) - gustave was being carried out of his office by gilles after deciding that fine, he can finish the paperwork tomorrow, and he sleepily mumbled “je t’aime, gilles” before going limp in gilles’ arms, almost giving him a heart attack. luckily, gustave was still breathing. gilles definitely uses it as a last-ditch attempt to get gustave to go to bed, like “PLEASE come to bed, gustave” “why should i? you know i’ll come to bed once i’m done with these files” “because i love you, you hypocritical fool!” then manhandles him to bed 

Twitch/Cav- 

26 (How good would your OTP be at parenting?) - NO! they are either mischievous older sisters, cool cousins you see once a year, or wine/vodka aunts. no matter what, they will bastardize your children. taina taught maxim’s niece how to make a molotov “just in case the bourgeoisie tries anything” while emmanuelle is off to the side like “USE A DRONE TO BE ABLE TO LAUNCH IT FARTHER FOR MAXIMUM DAMAGE” 

34 (Who makes fun of the other for having a crush on them, and who has to remind them that they are in a relationship?) - taina will be like “why are you staring at me? do i have something on my clothes?” and emmanuelle is like “no you’re perfect it’s just that i love you and want to see you” -OR- 

emmanuelle: haha you like spending time with me 

taina, in emmanuelle’s lap while they watch animal planet: no. 

39 (Who sleeps in the other’s lap?) - it depends! usually it’s emmanuelle, but sometimes taina will enter a room and say “you look cold. i suppose i could help” and just. wraps herself around emmanuelle and falls asleep. everyone else is too scared to say anything, especially after emmanuelle almost stabbed james in the neck when he tried to draw on taina’s face 

47 (Who proposes?) - emmanuelle: she panics and throws the box at taina and runs, while julien sprints after her yelling “TELL HER YOU LOVE HER AND WANT TO MARRY HER WE ALL KNOW SHE’LL SAY YES” 

taina: they are in a diner after a mission. halfway through their meal, taina gets up and takes a knee in front of emmanuelle, taking the box out of a secret pocket in her pants. julien has to tell emmanuelle, who is nearly asleep in her pancakes, to look a bit to the left. she does, and taina’s like “i love you. we’ve already sworn that we’ll be together forever, but i think the tax benefits are too good to ignore. take your time with your response. thanks” and power-walks away. vicente meets her outside and just starts laughing while she punches him while saying stuff like “i talked about TAX BENEFITS! TAX BENEFITS?????” 

81 (Who said “I love you” first? and who ends their arguments in a fight with “Because I love you”?) - emmanuelle for both. it’s not that taina doesn’t love her, it’s just that she shows her affection through physical gestures. however, whenever taina actually says “i love you” emmanuelle just melts

Blitz/Rook- 

26 (How good would your OTP be at parenting?) - TERRIBLE IN THE BEST WAY POSSIBLE. they are both Children themselves, so putting an actual child in their care is stupid. the one time they were entrusted with caring for a child, it involved face paint, an easy bake oven, a staggering amount of chocolate, and the child’s parents finding the three of them passed out on the couch while minecraft let’s plays played on the rec room tv

34 (Who makes fun of the other for having a crush on them, and who has to remind them that they are in a relationship?) - julien will find little love notes around elias’ room and tease him about them, and elias is just like “aren’t you the one who came up with a ridiculously elaborate plan for us to go on a date without it actually being a date instead of just asking me out??” 

39 (Who sleeps in the other’s lap?) - both. depends on who is more sleepy at any given time. it’s usually julien tho

47 (Who proposes?) - elias: very romantic, heartfelt, they’re both crying while dominic and olivier threaten anyone who even glance at them sideways 

julien: it’s a ring pop (but a limited edition one he’s been saving for a special occasion), they’re at a rainbow holiday party, and dominic is playing wonderwall

81 (Who said “I love you” first? and who ends their arguments in a fight with “Because I love you”?) - elias, before they were even together. they were at another holiday party and he was feeling sentimental, so seamus convinced him to go talk to julien and the first thing he says once he’s stumbled over to the couch is “you. you are an angel. i love you.” except he said it in german so now julien thinks he’s done something wrong, which leads to a 6 month period during which they’re both pining fools who think they’ve done something to upset the other, while seamus is in a perpetual state of looking into the camera like he’s on the office. neither. they are both enablers for the other’s stupid ideas (example: julien trying to give himself the ability to breathe fire by swallowing many on-fire marshmallows, and elias trying to shield-surf down a mountain in the french alps breath of the wild-style  

Blitz/Monty- 

26 (How good would your OTP be at parenting?) - gilles? the perfect father. elias? he’s a little confused, but he’s got the spirit. he has no FUCKING clue what children enjoy or what’s appropriate for a specific age group, so he usually enlists the help of several other operators (none of whom are any good with kids) and together they attempt to care for a child. think lunchables, mcdonald’s, and ice cream as every meal and staying up until ungodly hours. gilles is off to the side, watching amusedly and making sure nobody is ever in any serious danger. elias may be clueless, but he’s not completely incompetent, and the kid has a great time, always pestering their parents about when they can visit uncle elias again 

34 (Who makes fun of the other for having a crush on them, and who has to remind them that they are in a relationship?) - neither, really. they’re both pretty lovey (is that the right word? idk they just really enjoy being together and find any quirks or evidence of crushes extremely endearing) 

39 (Who sleeps in the other’s lap?) - ELIAS!!!! gilles would CRUSH this poor little man!!!! of course, this doesn’t stop elias from summoning super-strength to carry gilles to bed and hold him on his chest the way gilles does for him whenever gilles returns from a particularly long or grueling mission 

47 (Who proposes?) - elias: he gets nervous and starts to tear up multiple times throughout the proposal, before he even gets on his knee, prompting gilles to worry that he’s sick, or being sent back home, or that he’s going to break up with him. luckily, elias manages to pull himself together and finally pop the question, and the way gilles immediately tackles him, muttering things in french while peppering his face with kisses is answer enough 

gilles: it is the Perfect Proposal, and elias leaps into his arms while frantically saying yes and kissing him all over. dominic yells at them to get a room, but with a sincerity that lets elias know he’s truly happy for them 

81 (Who said “I love you” first? and who ends their arguments in a fight with “Because I love you”?) - gilles. they were cuddling on a lazy sunday and during a lull in their conversation, he quietly whispers it into elias’ ear. coincidentally, that is also the day gilles learns elias’ ears are especially sensitive, and having someone whisper into them is one of elias’ biggest turn-ons. honestly? neither. but gilles would probably use it when elias announces he’s going on a shield-surfing trip with julien and has to be “tricked” into staying non-alpine land

[waltrp]

THERE IS NO WHY I’M KISSING A FROG AND EATING A BUG IN THE SAME DAY

BIDDI BOPPI BOOP A SPECIAL MESSAGE ADMIN ZULEMA: when i tell you that both kiara and i were excited to get this app i mean we are so freaking excited to finally have a tiana. Ash, bless you. Tiana is a character I love here and in general. You captured their voice so PERFECTLY. your app was beautiful as usual, you gifted human. i’m so excited to see what you do with Tiana. I know i’m excited to see Lottie and Tiana interactions. Please refer to THIS PAGE for your next tasks. We can’t wait to roleplay with you. Welcome to our Ohana xx.

It’s a pleasure to meet you…

Ash, 22, She/Her, GMT+1

Are you positive you can be active?

Im on as much as I can be, I had a bad few weeks during june where I wasnt able to get on due to personal issues but that is very rare for me. I give 70% of my day to this group… which now that I type it sounds really sad…

How did you stumble upon Walt?

Zane Holtz tag, a true hottie

Did you read the rules?

Yes!

Are you sure?

- and I bet they’d be cute!

Character you want?

Tiana Hudson

Please describe the character for us

Tiana is a realistic dreamer, when she dreams it’s bigger than anyone else’s but she is willing to put the work in. Tiana knows nothing in this world comes free and pours her blood, sweat and tears into everything she does in order to make her dreams come true, She is fiercely passionate and independent, she is extremely sure of herself and sets constant goals. She can seem a little uptight to others but its only because she doesn’t have the time to goof around or take her eyes off the prize. Once she sets her sight on something Tiana will stop at nothing to get it, even if that means missing key moments of her youth. She is a kind hearted soul who really would do anything for anything for anyone, her only flaw is that she’s so focused on her future that she can’t slow down to appreciate her present.

Second character choice

I would be torn between Gabriella Montez and Poppy Lang

It’s time to see that sample para.

The sound of crickets and birds chirping alongside the rising sun mocked Tiana as she reached the front porch, her shift lasted longer than expected as she offered to do overtime and clean the kitchen. It had been a slow night for tips and she needed all the extra cash she could get if she wanted to keep on track for buying a restaurant of her own. Yawning as she entered the family home she shut the door quietly behind her and dropped her bag on the sofa. “Morning baby” her mother called out from the kitchen as Tiana followed the scent of cinnamon and coffee. “Goodnight, Mama” she responded sleepily “I can’t believe you’re up this early” she mumbled taking a seat at the table. Her mother chuckled in her night robe standing over the stove and began spooning porridge into two bowls. “Someone’s gotta’ make sure you eat”. Tiana smiled lazily at her Mother as she placed a warm bowl in front of her “Thankyou Mama”. “You’re welcome Tiana.” The two women ate in silence while Tiana checked her emails and her Mother read the paper. Both too exhausted at this hour of the morning to make chit-chat. Tiana knew her Mother didn’t enjoy waking up this early but appreciated that she would not let her daughter dine alone, eating together was something they continued to do as a family after the death of her Father.

Tiana’s phone buzzed mid-spoonful of porridge and the entire thing dropped to the table with a clatter. “Its the realtors for the Old Sugar Mill!” Tiana gasped, jumping up from her seat. “Gone are the days when they used to mail documents to you– now everything is online” Her mother commented while taking a sip of her coffee. Tiana’s eyes narrowed “Mama stop being so negative– this could be it!” she beamed, feeling her heart pound against her chest. “Well don’t just stand there open it!” her Mother replied, masking her own anxiety. It was tough to watch your child grow up and even tougher to watch them chase their dreams in a world that could be so cruel. “Okay okay– Dear Miss Hudson, we are writing to inform you that your recent bid for Sweetman’s Sugar Mill has been rejected.” Tiana felt her heart sink to her feet as she briefly scanned over the rest of the email, her mother audibly gasped and stood up. “That’s just one realtor, there’s plenty more properties in the City” She said softly, stepping towards Tiana who stood numbly in the kitchen. “It was his dream…” she whispered. Tiana’s mother wrapped her arms tightly around her daughter and kissed her cheek. “Baby you are so young, you’re working too hard. Maybe its time to take a little break– go on a vacation!” she offered. Tiana shook her head. “I can’t. I don’t have the time– I gotta’ make sure Daddy’s hard work means something!”. Tiana’s mother took a step back. “Tiana!” she said sternly. “Your Daddy may not have got the restaurant he wanted but he had something better.” placing a gentle hand on her daughter’s cheek, her voice was soft. “He had love.”

Tiana felt like she was going to burst into tears, she buried her head against her Mother’s shoulder as she hugged her. “I don’t know what to do..” she confessed, feeling helpless, lost, not only was she letting herself down she was also letting her Father down. Her Mother soothingly patted her back. “There there– you learn from it baby. You take the rejection and you let it go. You use it to fuel your fire and you continue to live your life… and maybe you get coffee with the sweet boy from the bakery.” Tiana pulled back from her Mother’s embrace and rolled her eyes. “Quit tryna’ marry me off I’ve got plenty of time to date.” she replied, folding her arms. “So do it then” her Mother replied. The two women were now smiling, though Tiana was faking it to please her Mother. She didn’t understand, she wanted Tiana to date and go dancing, like any of that could mean something when her heart clearly belonged to a different dream.  A dream that was now just out of her reach. She was almost there. “Whatever I gotta’ go email some auctioneers and property scout” she said with a wave of dismissal heading towards her room. “Don’t forget to shower and take a nap!” her Mother called out in response. Tiana grunted some kind of reply reaching her bedroom door, she heard the sound of her mother’s sewing machine buzz in the background. Now she was free to feel her emotions without interruption.

As Tiana shut over her bedroom door she began to tear up, passing her collection of family photographs on her dresser she picked up the one of her Father smiling that they used for the funeral. “Daddy I’m so sorry…” she whispered, wiping her thumb across his face. He looked so happy, full of life and hopes and dreams. She missed him everyday and now she was failing him, it was a disappointment too hard to stomach. “There’s nothing here for us anymore.. I gotta’ go somewhere with real opportunities.” she explained. Tiana placed a kiss on the forehead of her Father’s photo and gently put it back onto the dresser, kicking off her shoes she climbed onto her bed and pulled out her phone. She softly wiped away at the tears that began to fall from her eyes. “No more crying, No more feeling sorry for yourself Miss Tiana!” she warned. “We accept it, we move on and we keep trying!”. In the spirit of looking for a new opportunity Tiana scrolled through her contact list and began to type a new message.

[NEW MSG; LOTTIE]

Hey girl! Long time no speak. Please don’t kill me because work already is. So.. I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about Elias. If I came up would you give me a tour?

Anything else, love?

I made an aesthetic HERE and a playlist edit HERE and HERE bc im v committed to taking up my favourite princess<3

[mysticandskepticmuses]

@anonymous sent in a question for me about saori & rori.

How did you come up with the ideas for the girls? ( rori and saori) They're really cool!

    Meep!  First off, THANK YOU SO MUCH ! As I’m sure everyone knows, I’ve been watching Altered Carbon pretty consistently the last month or so and I really loved the setting, the scenery, the ideals, the conflicts, the problems with and just the whole concept of the Envoys and the Uprising as led by Quell in the series.  I’d considered making one of the Envoys, there’s a female Envoy that’s played by the actress that played Sarah in the Crow series that I’ve always been a huge fan of and I had considered picking her up – she has like, five minutes of screentime and says two things, I think, but I always have a lot of fun fleshing out those characters but I was waffling about it, hadn’t quite decided.

    Then somebody on my dash had reblogged a photo set of Jessica Chastain in the Huntsman: Winter’s War and she was in leather and had a bow and arrow and it looked like she was covered in ashes (pretty sure it was snow but whatever) and it just struck me as very High Key Envoy Aesthetic.  And I kind of waffled about it, and reblogged a few things w/ Jessica as a potential face claim and then I thought about it some more, and made a couple sample icons.  And I’d been talking with @suburbanrelapse about some AC plots w/ Sage which included writing a verse w/ Elias & Tak & Sage & whomever else where Sage had been an ally / working with / scout for etc. the Envoys, where she’d known Takeshi, etc. and they’d worked together some but w/ Sage being either out on a mission or back in town for supplies or something during the attack on Stronghold and

    That got me thinking about how there were probably lots of other stragglers, go-betweens and allies / sympathizers for the Uprising, there has to be for any rebellion to work and Quell constantly emphasized the importance of making assets, of gathering allies, of taking advantage of any and all help that the locals in any area could provide, even if it ended up getting the locals killed, etc. because the Cause was what mattered and I figured that would be doubly important on Harlan’s World; they’d need constant help with supplies, intel, information about military ongoings, whether anyone knew they were there, where they were, etc. etc.  And honestly at first I kind of waffled between making Saori a straight up Envoy, because they’re bad ass, but I didn’t want to detract from the importance / trauma of Takeshi being the -last- Envoy and I waffled about how important to make her and how much she would actually know about the Uprising / how involved she’d be because I didn’t want to be a Power Player type when making her but I also wanted her to be important enough to actually have Plot Points and options when it came to interactions, whether it was with Envoys, day to day people in the city, Protectorate agents investigating her, whatever.

      So I mulled on that a bit and then I made a post about the things I was waffling about: whether to make her an Envoy, whether I wanted her to survive til Tak’s re-sleeving, general IDK WHAT TO DO WITH THIS SHIT and Liz poked me and suggested that it could be a descendant, same face claim, different personalities and histories etc and I was like !!! Yes, good !!!  So then I settled on having Saori as the daughter of a high ranking military officer on Harlan’s World, which would give her access to the information and supplies that would make her of interest to Quell / the Uprising at large, and then I had to decide what kind of personality she’d have, whether she’d be willing to help the Uprising out of anger and spite, or out of a genuine desire to help / true belief in the hazards of what Quell foresaw for the future, and it just sort of built itself in pieces from there.

       As far as spinning Rori off from that, one, I had to settle on how Saori got to Earth, why, and why her son would still have Dearing as a last name (Liz had also suggested that Rori could be the sister for her Claire, giving us a fun connection to play off of and tying in the connection to Takeshi & Harlan’s World).  And Liz and I talked options about personality and the relationship between Claire and Rori and Liz suggested Black Sheep vs Golden Child because we could – I decided to keep to the more idealized version of rebel child, as (an unknowing ic but fully aware ooc) homage to Saori, also with the intent of it being a little more like seeing a ghost in the flesh for Sage and Liz’s Takeshi / or anyone else that would have known Saori and sees her doppelganger in the flesh in Bay City, 250 years later.  I’ve had a lot of time to think about the various flaws in the system when it comes to the way that the penal system transformed over the centuries in Altered Carbon’s universe, and had so many problems with it as a concept of anything that is supposed to equal reform.  There’s so much debate between reform and punishment now in our world, in our time; the system in the future world represented in Altered Carbon literally removed any potential for reform, re-education.  It literally just puts you in a time out and the body that you came in with has to be rented by your family / friends if they don’t want it being rented out / sold off / handed off to the next batch of prisoners that are being released.  

      It doesn’t actually punish the hard core criminals - the only ones it punishes are the ones that actually care about their families and friends - it entirely removes the ability to think about your actions and consequences - it punishes your family if they are trying to come up with the money to keep your sleeve on the slab waiting for you - it punished your family if they can’t and they see someone else walking around with your face – there are just so many ethical issues and that’s assuming that the people that run the prison systems aren’t so corrupt that they’re literally just doing it for the money that can be made –

     So really, that seemed like something that I could very easily write a character being up in arms about, plus it’s the kind of thing that, as coming from a Meth family, she should be totally oblivious to or uncaring about, especially in contrast with Claire who as a Meth and a doctor / scientist, works at Psychasec in the field of developing the latest and highest end synth and cloned bodies that exist – so the contrast in concepts of basic morality and basic acceptance of the penal system and sleeving / resleeving norms of the age between the sisters was super appealing.  Plus, it was something that I figured Sage would be right there with, which would give plotting opportunities with @suburbanrelapse‘s awesome ac concept / verse – and it was something that both Liz’s Elias & Tak would respond well to / create potential plot hooks / thread ideas / Trouble plot points for etc.  

     Deciding on random personality bits, what kind of tattoos, piercings, body mods, how much trouble she’s actually gotten into, age, where she lives, what kind of income she uses vs. has access to etc. just kinda fell in as I was writing stuff up.  And I’m still fleshing things out for both of them, I probably will be for a long time but.   Yeah!  I hope this is the ramble you were wanting out of your question - if you want to know anything else at all let me know ?????

[explosiveglitterqueen]

The things I like/love about the wh boys & their routes

Heyo everyone~ I thought I’d make a quick post about a few things I liked/loved about all the routes for the wizardess heart bois (sequels included)~ (There will also be some points made of what I didn’t like for certain characters so just a small heads up *thumbs up* though I’m mainly focusing on the positives) Also there maybe spoilers so if you haven’t seen/read a character’s route or if you’re brand new to the game view at your own risk <3

Elias Goldstein:

Tsundere boi who’s super adorable a lot of the time

Elias turning into a piglet

Him PUNCHING Merkulova in the face to protect Liz

Elias Sequel:

Cutest/Power couple of the academy

Being able to see Elias develop more as a wizard and open up more

Spell dancing

Yukiya Reizen:

Soft boi who loves animals

Has blue hair

His promise of one day giving Liz aruenaristy flowers the day he proposed to her

Yukiya Sequel:

Best sequel done among the rest

Sweet boi trying to become friends with more people

Yukiya and Elias bein bros

Yukiya proposing to Liz before the big fight against the Nue

Chap 8 cg where Liz is in the beautiful dress

Luca Orlem:

My first pick/first love when the game came out (It’s been freaking SIX years I’ve been playing this game)

The princely character who’s a prankster and artistic (is a prince)

Klaus Goldstein:

Handsome boi with a huge sweet tooth

Wasn’t such a big fan of him at first

Favorite scene was when he went to go save Liz from Azusa at the Spring of Unicorns

Klaus Sequel:

This is where I started to like Klaus more

One of my favorite scenes that I actually cried a little while reading was when he graduated w/ the chap 3 cg

Randy March:

He’s super funny and cute as I share a similar personality

The scene where they’re dancing in the classroom and Liz is wearing the pretty dress he made magically appear

Just overall a nicely developed character that’s fun but also can be serious when absolutely necessary

Randy Sequel:

Overall favorite scene was getting to see him SUMMON a bunch of magical creatures

Liz getting to meet original Randy at the end

I’m a sucker for endings that have the children in it

Azusa Kuze:

He’s so freaking pretty

Regardless of all the things he’s done I still love him very much

He had an interesting development as a character

Also happy ending cg had to be my all time favorite when he first came out

Joel Crawford:

Actually dropped his route twice for other characters

Childhood friend aesthetic

Vincent Knight:

Actually didn’t enjoy his route all too much, felt more like an older brother

Brings up the age gap WAY too much

Him being protective over Liz and keeping her safe

Vincent Sequel:

STRONGLY disliked his sequel

The whole route felt rushed and jumped around a lot

Did ya’ll mean the redemption sequel that should of been Azusa’s since his brother is in it

Leon:

Pretty innocent unicorn boi who’s easily confused by a lot of things

Loved his happy ending and cried during it

My son

Cerim Leiado:

Princely knight who has long blue hair

Liz protecting Cerim from the spirits of the past guardians from potentially killing him

Cerim treating Liz like a princess

Guy Brighton:

Another good boi (If Randy was into sports)

Him standing up against his father in order to protect Liz

Schuyler being a father figure to Guy (though the man won’t admit it)

Glenn Qing:

LOVE THIS MAN

Big tough guy is actually a big softy who just wants to bring his sister and town back from being frozen in time

His blushing cg from chap 8 melts my heart and makes me loved him even more

Leslie Roseblade:

Originally didn’t like him cuz he looked like if Liz was to be a boy

Luca 2.0 but softer and w/ a bow and arrow

Chica is so adorable

Sigurd Curtis:

Seeing him tease Klaus is very entertaining

Pen-pals finally meeting and falling in love aesthetic

Chap 5 cg of him in his glasses is quite cute

Mel Glover:

Another one of my sons

Him being super passionate about plants and trees

Though lacking kind of in personality he’s still a fairly likable character

Zeus Brundle:

Blue hair aesthetic (Noticing a pattern?? I can’t help but be in love with blue aesthetics X3)

Loud boi who likes to appear tough but is actually just a soft teddy bear that cares about family and friends (though he may not show it)

I really like both his chap 8 cg and his happy ending cg (Pst hey Solmare can you pls give us night class female uniform for our avatars <3)

Klaus 2:

Actually didn’t read his route but did get spoilers from friends~

I really like making soul/soulless jokes about Klaus

Hiro Tachibana:

I think it’s super cool he can cast spells with his sword

Sleepy boi who just wants to eat his muffins in peace

One of my favorite scenes is when everyone in the group is trying to get Hiro to laugh and he does when piggy Caesar lands on Zeus’ face

Alfonse Goldstein:

My second favorite Goldstein because he’s just one big sweetheart

Him and Liz going to the hot dog stand for a date

His happy ending cg being one of my top favorites

Caesar Raphael:

Funniest moments when Caesar turns into his piggy form after accidentally kissing someone

Caesar being protective and protects Liz no matter the coast

Lucious Duller:

He’s an adorable bean

The scene where the “two” are dancing together is really cute as he’s finally able to get closure

I love how beautiful and scenic his happy ending cg is with the use of colors

Hugo Peers:

He’s such a good boi, not one of my favorites but still enjoyed his route

Seeing Vain more

The part where Hugo had to kiss Liz was one of the funniest moments simply because of how flustered she got but also from Joel’s reaction in the background of the cg

Hisoka Hagakure:

He is such a good boy as he is a ray of sunshine along with his familiar

Passionate fox man who wants to be the best merchant he can be

Wholesome content as his route was one of the best ones written

Willem Rembrandt:

Ummm very pretty dragonkin with long dark hair? YUS PLS! <3

He’s such a sweetheart as he’s just adorable

Lots of hand holding

Chap 7 cg is another one of my favorites because of how cute Liz looks while holding Rem in his plush form

Nox Noir:

Seeing/Meeting Rex for the first time

Persona 5 meets otome game

All the cgs where Rex is in them (personal favorite is chap 3 where both bois sleeping)

Though Nox being 110% serious about her from the moment he fell for her

The route that handled love rivalry the absolute best

[theloniousbach]

50 Years of Going to Shows, Pt. 9: Jazz in St. Louis

I am in the middle of my fourth year of attending shows at Jazz at the Bistro and it is a great joy to have this formative music back so centrally in my life, to make this my go to music, to think about music in jazz terms.  From that first Johnny Winter blues jam, I’ve always been drawn to virtuosic playing.  Certainly rock and ur-jam band guitarists were a start.  But I saw Norman Blake flat pick amazingly in those early years and later Celtic fiddlers and box players amazed me.  Chamber music but also Irish sessions have an intimate conversational aspect.  But it’s jazz that has it all.  I sensed that in the early 70s and it’s where I’ve come home to now.

I kept my eye on jazz before the Bistro, particularly through Webster University’s wonderful jazz faculty and their performances.  I would return to tried and true recordings, starting with Miles, Monk, and Mingus and Bill Evans at the Village Vanguard.  I knew I couldn’t miss Sonny Rollins when he played UMSL’s performing arts center in 2009 and had even better tickets for a return a few years later that he had to cancel.  He was vital, transforming from a tentative, slightly stooped old man into a flurry of ideas dancing lightly around the stage delighted in the choruses he unfolded for himself and others.  He had a guitarist (not a pianist), a trombone, drums and percussion, and Bob Crenshaw.  Standards and Ellington.  But it was a bit of a one off.

It has taken season packages at Jazz St. Louis for four years now to get the engagement and focus that I now have.It’s fitting that the first one was Bill Charlap and his trio.  That configuration is where I’m glad to start, going back to Oscar Peterson when I was 8.  I’m almost too vociferously anti-musical theater, except jazz musicians have done wonderful things with and burnished the Great American Song Book.  Charlap is one of our key curators.  But these aren’t museum pieces in his hands; they are a dynamic legacy kept alive by use.  There’s taste, drive, invention in tradition.  Just like that Johnny Winter concert in early fall of 1969, there was something I had to have more of.Next up was Vijay Iyer, also in a trio.  A different aesthetic but he worked a jam into Epistrophy, so tradition prevails.  And the piano trio’s elasticity continued to win me over.  The Bad Plus begins the year in St. Louis and we were where the rebooted when Orrin Evans replaced Ethan Iverson.  I saw them once with Iverson, couch toured that opening run of BP2.0, saw them last year and plan to see them next in January.  I started to get them seeing them live, seeing how the compositions work and how they work them.  I think they’re a little warmer and organic with Evans, just as smart and clever but grounded.  I’ve seen Benny Green swing hard and Cyrus Chestnutt do so as well but then throw in a good chunk of French Impressionism.  Emmet Cohen’s band was the foundation for an odd mix of horn players I wanted to see:  Marquis Hill and, for a second time, Melissa Aldana.  The five of them didn’t quite jell, but the Cohen trio is a working band I would see again.  Kenny Barron was a monument of taste and command and Chick Corea was impish, a grand old man of the music in spite of himself.  There were standards but also a glorious exposition on Paco de Luca’s Zyriab, pulling together the Arabic roots of Flamenco.  So, piano trios always with the Bad Plus, Christian Sands at the Sheldon Concert Hall down the street (where I saw Eliane Elias with Marc Johnson do wonderful Brazilian stuff but also some superb jazz evoking Bill Evans), and Connie Han ahead.

Now, we’re Miles Davis’s hometown and folks know that.  The SF Jazz Collective came to the Bistro in 2017 with a program of his music (wide ranging—Tutu and Bitches Brew as well as Nardis for an acoustic ensemble) as well as compositions from band members in the ensemble.  It’s a grand concept—a four horn front line with vibes and rhythm section, with some general stability but it’s morphed over the years.  Everyone composes and arranges and they celebrate a composer each season.  Our band was Sean Jones, David Sanchez, Miguel Zenon, Robin Eubanks, Warren Wolf, Edward Simon, Matt Penniman, and Obed Calvaire.  They return to the Sheldon this year for an In a Silent Way tribute with mostly the same folks—so anther chance to see Sanchez and Zenon who were particularly impressive.  Russell Gunn evoked Miles’s Blackhawk set with Jimmy Cobb holding down the drum chair very capably at age 90.

After piano tours and Milesiana, there are tenors.  So I couch toured a conversation and partial set with Benny Golson—not quite in the room with a legend but a vivid experience.  I am intrigued and enthralled at the playing of Melissa Aldana who crafts vivid lines that fill space quite fully (she has some great trio work) with ideas rather than tone.   Her own quartet had over active drumming from Tommy Crane whereas the Emmet Cohen show pulled her in multiple directions (blusier, mostly) than she quite fit.  She is a star in Artemis, but shares the front line with Anat Cohen and Ingrid Jensen, but she is one star among many.  So I haven’t quite heard the ideal Aldana show.  But I am glad to keep trying.

I’ve been able to see Joshua Redmond twice.  As great as his tenor invention is, his band (with Aaron Goldberg) was what impressed me most.  The way longstanding bands like this (and Branford Marsalis’s with Joey Caldazzaro) think together is very special.  Marsalis and Caldazzaro would magically complete one another’s thoughts and both tenors took great delight in what their bands could do, soloing all the better because of it.  In these bands, but most of them, including the trios, I an struck with just how good drummers have become, really playing music beyond rhythm.  Allison Miller has a Jazz Night in America video on “melodic drumming,” so it was a treat to see her with Artemis, listening so hard but happily to inflect the music so well.  She was almost the one to keep one’s eyes on, except that Anat Cohen exudes such unbridled joy at all times.  Her quartet show was a real highlight of 2018-2019.  I am so glad she and Ben Goldberg are making the clarinet a modern jazz instrument.

Joe Lovano came through with the brilliant and adventurous John Scofield who plays with Phil Lesh and Warren Haynes.  I find myself shying away from jazz guitar preferring the piano.  But that was quite a show as was Scofield again with Jack DeJohnette’s Hudson project which jammed out originals and The Band/Hendrix/Joni Mitchell very well.  DeJohnette has quite a palette of drums and especially cymbals.  We were 4 rows back on his side so we had a literally ringside seat for that magic at the Sheldon.

I have made a point to hear the likes of Marquis Hill, Robert Glasper, Stefon Harris, and, most recently, Terence Blanchard to hear how hip hop is being incorporated into jazz as funk was in my youth and rhythm and blues was in the ‘50s.  My younger generation didn’t bring that music home, so I don’t have that sensibility.  But I would be an old fart in extremis if I didn’t welcome those influences.  That said, I am more intrigued with how SFJAZZ takes the essence of electric Miles into acoustic music than vocoders and loops and reverb.  But, every time these newer shows have lots to delight in, including drummers who move the beat around and are not confined by any strictures.

The music is supposed to grow.  And I get to watch it.

--------------------

This entry is the last one of this 10 part series this Fall celebrating the 50th Anniversary of concert going, marked by my second one from 11/4/69 with Led Zeppelin.  Yes, this is part 9, but, rather like the Beatles releasing Abbey Road before Let It Be (actually, not like those monuments at all), I have already posted a part 10 about the shows I didn’t see.  But, wrapping up with jazz makes a certain amount of sense.

[pythagoreanwhump]

My new OCs!

So this is the first “chapter” (I’ll actually organize these into a list later)

And well you are meeting two of them in this chapter... more descriptions come at the end I guess, I’m too lazy to actually write it into the story

Also most of it is gonna be disconnected, until at one point something important happens and it becomes coherent after that

But anyways, here it is. Enjoy!

———

It was only a minor blunder, but it had been more than enough. The enemy leader was an exceptional swordsman. Yes, Elias was one of the very best in this land, but he was severely outnumbered and absolutely exhausted. He had been at this for hours. Walking straight into an ambush was not something he had planned for today, and he knew that walking out of it wasn’t an option. He just wished he can take down as many enemies as possible before he died. A quick death, hopefully. His only regret was not being able to be buried in his homeland.

But just like everything else on that day, the way the battle ended had not been what Elias wanted either. The first thing he felt was the cold. The cold from the metal biting into his flesh, and then the chills all over his body as blood spurted out of the wound. It wasn’t long before the hot flash of pain followed. His hand moved to cover the gaping hole in his side as his sword clatter to the ground. The enemy leader took a step towards him. Elias tried to dodge, but he sank to his knees as his vision went dark.

He woke up, fully expecting to see the flames of hell before his eyes. It was definitely what he felt like. He felt a hand grab his bound arms roughly, pulling him to his feet.

“Name,” His captor demanded, the tip of a dagger pressed against his wound, threatening to push it in if he doesn’t cooperate.

Elias struggled to breath in. It doesn’t hurt as much as a broken rib, but he must’ve at least bruised a couple. “Elias,” He squeezed out the words.

“Oh, Elias, you know better than that,” His captor attached a chain to his cuff, “your full name, please.”

His breath caught in his throat as he felt his arms being pulled up behind him. He couldn’t see it, but from the rattle of the chains, he knew it must be attached to the ceiling. “Izmalov,” her blurted out, “Elias Arslanovich Izmalov.”

“Thank you,” his captor reached for a notepad. Leaning in, he hissed into Elias’ ear, “Well, Elias, my name is Oliver, and believe it or not, I work for the same people as you do. Now, don’t go thinking that that’s a good thing. All it means is that even if you break under the torture and starts singing everything they want to know, I won’t tell them. You will have no way at all to stop the pain.”

Taking a deep breath in, Elias braced himself for the pain that is to come. “You don’t have to worry about that,” He regretted it as soon as the words left his lips, he shouldn’t anger his torturer. “I won’t be talking.”

Oliver smirked. “We’ll see about that.” Walking behind Elias, Oliver pulled on the chains, bringing his arms into the air and forcing him to bend forward to relieve the strain on his shoulders. “Judging from your reaction,” Oliver’s hands did not stop tightening the chain as he spoke, “You have at least some idea what I’m doing. What do you say if I just left you here for a little while? Maybe I’ll go get some coffee.”

Elias groaned as he was forced to go up on his toes. It still wasn’t enough, he felt like his arms were being torn out the sockets. Deep breaths, he told himself, the pain is only temporary.

He could faintly make out Oliver conversing with another person down the hall, presumably over that cup of coffee he was talking about. It wasn’t easy to make out what he was saying, but he was able to hear a couple of coherent sentences.

“He is good,” Oliver remarked. “how many of ours did he take out?”

“Killed three, wounded over a dozen. How did he manage to do that? We had almost 30 people ganging up on him.”

“We did plan the ambush for his entire team, but honestly I’m glad he’s the only one that showed up. If he had the cavalry behind him, this could have turned out completely differently. But our intel was obviously flawed, and I’ll try to find out more from him. Hopefully we can nail the team too.” Oliver sighed. “Well, I better get back to work.”

Elias’ breathing quickened as the footsteps approached. He would really appreciate any change in position, but he knew whatever Oliver is about to do isn’t gonna be good.

“So,” Oliver took a whip off a hook on the wall, “Where was your team? Did they abandon you?”

“I don’t know,” Elias flinched, hearing Oliver crack the whip. “I got separated from them.”

The next crack of the whip came down on Elias’ back. His knees buckled beneath him and he felt all of his weight fall onto his shoulders. Somehow, he managed to only let out a pained groan.

“I don’t believe you. We set up the ambush knowing that you and your team would come through there.” Oliver circled to the front. “I believe it is in your best interest to start talking.”

“You said nothing I do can stop the torture, literally like, 2 minutes ago.” Elias retorted. Given his situation, he should be doing his best not to anger his captor, but he just can’t hold his tongue.

“You have great memory, don’t you?” Oliver chuckled. “Soon enough, you’ll be begging to tell me everything. I did say it won’t do you any good, but you will try nonetheless.”

———

Right... so... This is like semi-fantasy semi-historical-fiction??? There’s sort of a bit of magical realism in there, but I guess not enough to classify it as fantasy

It historically based, but it’s not actual history

But uh... Based on the Crimean war sort of I guess, but really has no connections to any actual historical events, just a general aesthetic from it. Oliver is British. Elias is from Russia, but he’s ethnically Tatar. As to his team... basically they are sort of like mercenaries, except they work for the government. In the sense that they are not officially a part of the military, so they don’t have to follow their rules. They get a mission, they get it done, and no one asks how. Elias’s captors, the ones that Oliver is undercover as a part of, are like antigovernment terrorist organizations. Will get more into that later

Now I actually failed worldbuilding quite a bit cuz I didn’t put any thought at all into it. So basically you have this awkward situation where guns are considered a rare commodity, and everyone just uses swords, but somehow there’s video streaming equipment, and the dark web is a thing

EDIT: yep so that’s an entire mess, eventually this turned into a whole other thing so,, yeah it’s set in the modern time now, this drabble can be considered an AU ish I guess.

[shatteredxglass]

@shipgambles​ commissioned:  9, 14, 17 for the lgbt asks! || LGBT+ Headcanons || ACCEPTING

9. How has your muse’s identity evolved to what it is now?

Elias’ identity has evolved slightly over the years, not so much his gender identity as he’s always strongly felt like a man, and he’s never changed his stance on identifying as one. His sexuality, however, has evolved quite a bit over the years as Elias has started to realize certain things about his identity. Elias used to go based off his aesthetic attractions, rather than his sexual and romantic attractions and at first assumed himself to be Bisexual since he aesthetically appreciated men and women equally.

However during early stage of his teens, he started leaning more towards identifying as asexual, because he came to realize he so far never actually formed a  crush or genuine attraction towards anyone. Though this was something he didn’t mention to his family, given the already unspoken controversy around his identity as a trans man. Though eventually, Elias started leaning more towards identifying as Demisexual.

This mostly came to be because of his singular friend growing up, Josiah Hawke (yes Elias did yoink this man’s last name). Elias actually came to realize he felt some form of attraction towards Josiah, and actually lost his virginity to him when the two decided to experiment together. Elias doesn’t exactly use the term Demisexual, but his time spent with Josiah did help him realize he can feel sexual attraction, and the small twinges of romantic attraction that come from having a crush on someone.

14. Has your muse ever secretly dated someone because they were afraid of what other people might think?

Nope! Cause that would require Elias to have actually dated someone in the past. Despite his experiences with Josiah, Elias never dated him publicly or secretly. The two had a mutual agreement to remain only friends, even as they experimented together, and as far as Elias is aware there was never any romantic feelings on either of their parts that would have warranted dating. The biggest secrets he keeps in terms of his relations with others are the occasional one night stands he’s had with other men. 

Though if he did date someone, in all odds he wouldn’t keep the relationship a secret from anyone besides potentially his family. But this depends on the person, how he feels his family would react to them, and if he feels that his partner would ever meet them in the first place.

17. Were there any people or characters when your muse was young that seemed to influence their identity?

There wasn’t so much a major influence as there was encouragement by one person in particular in his life. His eldest brother, Alois, who had always taken notice of his “weird” habits as a child and encouraged them wholeheartedly. See Elias used to love to mimic his two older brothers constantly as a child before he came out, and while Nikolaus would find it annoying, Alois loved it.

He loved Elias trying to be like him, and often gave his youngest sibling his old hand-me-downs. Alois taught Elias a lot as a child, just based off the fact it seemed like Elias needed to know certain things. For example, Alois taught Elias how to tie his own ties, and given the age gap between them already whenever he was due to shave his face, would let Elias watch and mimic him in the mirror. Alois actually kept a small, turn down hand mirror on his vanity so that Elias could see himself whenever he’d mimic Alois shaving.

A lot of the time spent with Alois is what helped young Elias start to realize his identity at such a young age. Under the child’s logic of “why would I like doing boy things if I wasn’t a boy?”

[shima-draws]

Here we are...an entire year of art!! I think I’ve improved quite a bit and I’m really proud of my progress ^^

The last two years are under the cut for comparison! Along with a little reflection since I’m sentimental lol

Like holy CROW you guys can you believe how much my art has changed over the past three years? It’s crazy, right? I’m really shocked, looking at this...

Anyway!! Onto reflecting for this year~

January THIS WAS BACK WHEN I WAS MAKING NEW DESIGNS FOR TEAM STAR...I think I might redraw Shima’s now, seeing as it’s pretty much been an entire year since I did that one!

February This makes me really emotional since it’s when I first came up with the concepts for Elias, Gi-bot and Gifre...they mean a lot to me and are still my favorite OCs to date. I can’t believe it’s been nearly a year since their conception that’s so weird to think about hhh

March KEROFUYU IS A GREAT SHIP AND STILL VASTLY UNDERAPPRECIATED I actually didn’t have a lot of art for March so that’s why I went with this one ^^

April Aaah yes, the yearly Mother 3 anniversary art!! I want to continue the tradition;; while I’m not as into the game as I used to be it’s still one of my treasured favorites so I hope in future years I’ll continue to make anni art :’)

May This was when I was replaying PMD Sky again!! I made new designs for my team’s gijinkas and honestly the playthrough this time was fantastic so many good things happened hehe

June The infamous MBAV month...when I was rewatching the show and getting into Bethan again...it was a really fun time since I thought the fandom was dead but everyone came shouting in my inbox and it was glorious

July I was in the thick of ask-readyplayergaymers in July!! I haven’t touched the blog in a while (sob) but I really did like this piece, it’s very pretty :’)

August I got really invested in my Sim AU once more starting around August, and this went on for a couple months actually :0 I was really proud of this one but it didn’t get a lot of notes unfortunately hnnfghh but that’s okay haha

September I STARTED REWATCHING SONIC X IN SEPTEMBER and I made gijinka designs for Shads and Sonic and started throwing out my Sonris and Shadris art like crazy!! Also Casino Park from Sonic Heroes is my favorite Sonic level of all time so I really wanted to draw it as a background;; This was the first time I’d drawn like, a full-blown background so it was a lot of fun and it looks super nice so!!

October More Sim AU stuff! I remember this one was saved as a sketch for like, a month until I finally colored it. I love my boys so much hhhh

November This when I posted the Sim AU Masterpost (which needs to be updated again //shakes fists). I really like the scenery in that one too, it’s just #aesthetic amirite

December And lastly!! The most recent update...I watched BNHA this month and got SUPER into Tododeku! That particular comic took ages for me to do but it turned out really nice ^^

Overall it’s been a really productive year for me! I’ve improved by a longshot and I’m really really happy about where I’m at. From here I just want to keep getting better and better! Thanks to all of you who have stuck with me this year, and to those who are new, welcome, I hope you also continue to stick with me!

Happy New Year! 2018 is going to be even better!

[awkwardplant]

•Title: Grow Towards Light, chapter 1

•Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy (fantasy is later on)

•Summary: When spoiled Albin Lofgren is sent to Italy for his bad behavior, he is cursed by faeries and gains magical powers that he can’t use properly. (This chapter shows what he did to get sent to Italy)

•Words: 2629

•Work: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Og0Av9Qcc6YfcloU0hn9EdoyFwogmFtKd5WiE5vpZAk/edit?usp=sharing

•Note: this is my first draft, and I haven't written in a while

I’ll put the chapter under a cut in case the link doesn’t work. Please leave some constructive criticism! I’d love to know what you think :)

Grow Towards Light (Chapter 1)

“Hi Youtube, my name is Albin and- Wait, no, no. I can’t start with an introduction. I should play at the beginning, right?” Setting down his violin on a nearby chair, he walked over to the camera. He stopped the video, then started the recording again.

Albin returned to his previous position. He nestled onto the chinboard, hands on the bow and fingerboard, and began to play. Was his timing off? Did it sound right? His mind ran rampant with worries. So much so, that Albin came back to reality with a jolt upon hearing a wince-worthy shriek of notes.

He stared into space and groaned like one does upon waking up far too early. Then played a random selection of notes in quick succession and stopped. Again, he restarted the video.

Albin sighed as he returned to his position. “The world hates me but I hate it more.”

Sometimes you need to power through life with sheer spite. That’s the advice most people would take. For Albin, it was every second of every day. Because teenagers have that much bitterness. And for good reason! He’d been awake since 9am (what an early time) during summer vacation. And now he was attempting to upload another hit single to his Youtube account. If by “hit single” you meant a song with less than 20 views, like his many other videos. One day he’d make it big! But until then…

Beginning his 470th recording of the day, he heard it sounded better than the past attempts. It gave him the confidence to put his soul into the music, sway as he played, and ignore the worries that swept his mind. A warm glow of happiness began to bloom in his chest-

“Albin! You’ve been playing all morning. Dad says it’s MY turn to use the music room!” His older sister barged into the room and he balked. Because sure, that interruption at a crucial time was fine. Totally fine!

Grinding his teeth, Albin once again walked over to the camera and turned it off for the final time that day. Another day of wasted practice. He made sure to glare at his sister. But she was too busy destroying his eardrums with terrible saxophone music. Well, he always thought it was terrible, but her music awards… possibly said otherwise.

“Hm.” Alice paused and tilted her head in thought. “You know, I’d rather play my flute today. Is it here? Have the housekeepers unpacked it yet?”

“I don’t know..? I don’t play flute so generally I don’t keep an eye out for it when I go in here. To practice my violin.” Albin raised his instrument and eyebrow. “Sorry your search has turned out fluteless.”

Alice and the rest of his siblings had recently moved back into the mansion. There were still plenty of boxes that needed unpacked. Alice left the room. (Terrible audience, a waste of a pun.) Albin couldn’t stay in there any longer, so he returned his violin to the instrument shelf and went to the garden.

He passed under the arch of purple clematis and tiptoed over the river stepping stones. When he reached the tiered fountain he noticed: someone was in his gazebo. They were on the bench and reading a book, wearing close-fitting dungarees and a white t-shirt. A gardener? They were on duty and they had the nerve to laze around?! Albin knew his dad didn’t pay his workers cheap, he was a nice guy like that. He was going to confront the stranger! But... his mum called his name from the mansion.

That person could wait to get their scolding until Albin had a full stomach of food. But now was the time he’d been dreading: sitting down at the table for a family dinner.

Albin was not a fan of the recent increase of people at the dinner table. 8 people in total. 5 siblings was far too many. The good thing though, was that Lax med Västerbottensost was on the menu. The chef served the dish with a lemon slice each time. He remembered when it was just him and his dad, and he would eat the lemon with a straight face to shock his dad. He bit into a forkful of salmon, savouring the cheese sauce drizzled on the fish.

Silver cutlery clinked and the others around him made conversation. Albin noticed that his older brother was showing his dad a video on his phone. Tch. What happened to “no phones at the dinner-table”? Worst of all, his dad was… smiling. Quite a lot. He focused his gaze on the table’s decorative topiary tree. In the metal vase his reflection frowned back at him.

“And coach says if we make it to the finals, we’ll get to go to America!” Noel beamed.

His dad clapped Noel on the back and gulped down a spoonful of peas. “That’s great, son! What a super match, so intense. You’ve got to teach me some of those tricks. What’s the one where you kick the ball behind you and get it into the goal?”

“Oh, the Scissor Kick! You’ve got good taste Pa.” they laughed together.

Pa. More like: Pathetic. What a suck up! He couldn’t believe his dad was so easy to impress. Football? Anyone could kick a ball. Albin didn’t know what the Scissor Kick was, but it most likely looked cooler than it actually was. Sneaking a glance at his phone, Albin remembered he hadn’t been able to get a good recording of his violin that day. Damn Alice and her saxophone/flute nonsense.

Now all he had to do was sit there and eat. That was no fun. He could show his dad one of his older videos, one he hadn’t seen... But his dad was listening to Juni talk about some science fair she was going to attend.

Albin shrugged, pulling his iphone out anyway and laid it on the table so it played his song. It was a cover of his favourite TV series’ intro song. You couldn’t tell it was an anime song since it was being played in violin. (And everyone knows that a violin lead makes any song sound socially acceptable.) He continued eating as the song played, glancing at his busy dad every few moments.

But the song played the entire way through, and his dad hadn’t even looked at him, let alone spoken to him about his music. He turned the volume up and skipped to another song.

“Albin,” he perked up at the sound of his name. “What have I said about phones at the table?”

Albin’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “But Noel was showing you something on his phone-”

“Don’t give me cheek young man.” His dad chided.

He rolled his eyes. “Fine, fine.”

Turning the music off and slumping in his seat, he put his phone back into his pocket. Half a salmon left on his plate. And two spoonfuls of peas. Eh. Albin wasn’t hungry anymore. He excused himself from the table and slipped outside. Telling off that do-nothing gardener would cheer him up.

The stranger was exactly where Albin had left them. One leg off the bench and swinging it, as if they were in a hammock on a Hawaiian beach. Albin marched closer with a speech about hard work on his tongue. The person slapped their book shut and turned to face Albin: it was a boy who looked a little older than him.

“The youngest one from the mansion, huh?”

His surprise at the voice had Albin stop in his tracks. He slowed to a walk and peered at the boy. The dungarees he was wearing weren’t even dirty, they were a spotless blue denim. This guy hadn’t been working at all today!

“And you’re the lazy gardener, I suppose?” he challenged.

“What? No.” The boy turned away, reopening his book. Black, wavy hair rustled as he moved. “I don’t work here, my mum does. She couldn’t find me a decent ‘babysitter’ so I have to hang out here this summer.”

“You dress like a gardener though.”

The boy smoothed down his front and clicked his tongue. “That’s just my aesthetic. Bohemian, hipster, or something like that.”

“Sure, okay. Anyway. How did you know who I am if you don’t work here? Did your mum tell you about me?” Albin asked.

He felt like he was falling behind with every word the boy said; it was a race to see who was the coolest. Albin didn’t have an aesthetic. A denim hoodie and tan-brown skinny jeans didn’t fit into an aesthetic. His style was preppy or casual at best; and that was terrible.

“Sure did. A right goody two shoes with all the staff, even if you do have an attitude with ‘lazy’ people. You baked them all cookies last Christmas and gave a dreidel to someone, or something.” He clicked his tongue again.

Albin shrugged, not accepting that description of himself. “It’s an act. I can be rebellious when I want to. Like a few minutes ago at dinner, I had my phone out at the table. There’s a no phone rule.”

The boy walked out of the gazebo and stood in front of Albin. His blue eyes bore into Albin’s brown ones. “My name’s Elias. Been kicked out of every high-school in the county. I can teach you how to actually be rebellious. You in?”

Albin glanced away for a few moments. Could he really teach Albin how to be rebellious? Elias sure did seem the type to know. Albin wanted to learn: what was more rebellious than disobeying your dad? So he nodded.

Elias smirked and his eyes gleamed as though ice had glazed them. Albin knew that he had already lost whatever race he’d been imagining.

A few minutes later, Elias was opening the door to the music room and gesturing for Albin to go in. The dim light from beyond the two windows was the only light-source. Guitars lined the walls and the grand piano stood at the far end of the room like a silhouette. Despite everything he could see, the room looked empty.

Albin continued the conversation from their walk to the mansion. “It was so much better when it was me and my dad, you know?”

“Can’t relate.” Elias mumbled.

Then he picked up Alice’s flute, taking it out from its case. “This is your sister’s right? The one you said kicked you out the music room?” Albin nodded.

Elias handed him the instrument. “Break it.” He said.

“... What? Are you insane?”

“Nope, I've seen several psychologists. I’m mentally well, thank you for asking.”

Albin shook his head, running fingers through his hair, and he tripped over his own feet into a music stand. “You can’t be serious.” The stand rattled as he steadied it.

“Trust me. You’ll feel so much better. You won’t get caught, promise. Besides, you’re rich enough to replace a little flute. Right?” He circled around Albin and rested his hands on Albin’s shoulders.

“All those years with your dad, forgotten by him like it was nothing.” Elias whispered down into his ear. “Brothers and sisters, walking around here like they’ve always lived here. Treating you like a nuisance. A mother you can't stand for bringing all this chaos into your life, for turning you into a ghost in your own home.” He stood at full height. “Break the flute.”

The flute seemed to buzz under his fingertips, he was crushing it in his hands. The blood wasn’t reaching his fingers. His heart echoed in his chest.

“What if,” he breathed, “What if they hear it?”

“That’s why-” Elias’s hands left a swish of cold air on his shoulders as he left his side, searching the room. “We use a cushion in these kinds of situations.”

He began to walk, not quite aware of what he was doing. “The chair, at the back of the room. It’s cushioned.”

“Go then.”

“But-”

“Stop making excuses. That’s how you prevent yourself from living.” Elias clicked his tongue. “I’m only telling you to do this because there’s a lot of built up emotions in you. Gotta get them out somehow. And what better way is there than this to also get revenge on your family?”

Albin’s eyes widened.That’s what this is? Revenge... The word repeated itself, cascading down the walls of his mind. He lifted the flute up into the air, no backing out now, it hurtled towards the chair and crashed down with a thwack-

It didn’t break.

“Well, it’s dented, but we want it broken beyond repair.” Elias grabbed the flute from him. “Good try though.” he brought his knee to the instrument and snapped it in half. Just like that.

Then he began to tear off the valves, one by one. Albin could only watch in dull shock. His mind was still surging with the word revenge and a million other thoughts. What would Alice’s reaction be? How would everyone find out? What if someone had heard them? Albin glanced around, no-one but Elias was in the dark music room with him.

“There, that’s it done.” Elias dropped the instrument onto the floor. “Now let’s get out of here, through the window.”

“B-but this is the second floor!”

“I’ll catch you.”

Albin stumbled after Elias as he walked towards the window. “Are you serious?!”

“Always serious, kiddo.” Elias said. “Make sure you roll or you’ll break an arm!”

The next day, everyone in the mansion knew of Alice’s broken flute. She’d been sobbing and wailing through the corridors for hours on end. She refused her dad’s -Albin’s dad- offer to shop for a new flute. She missed every meal. When the butler was bringing her dinner to her room, Albin asked if he could do it instead. He wandered from the kitchen to her room, knocking on her door. His arm twinged in pain from the previous night’s fall.

“Alice? It’s Albin, do you mind if I come in?” He opened the door when there was no reply.

Alice was laying face down on her bed. She looked so small, in comparison to the white walls and high ceiling that made the room feel endless. Everything was displayed on shelves or tucked away in drawers. You could say it was Instagram ready. A small sob teared through her again, greeting him in the saddest way possible. He set her plate of comfort food on the nightstand.

“My instrument… they broke my instrument!” Alice cried into her pillow. “She was my lucky charm, i-if I had her I would always win my competitions...” She sat up to face him, glittering streaks of tears running down reddened cheeks. “There’s no flute that could replace her!”

“...Her?”

“My flute! Georgia!” Albin didn’t understand the point in naming an object, but he didn’t say this out loud. “It’s not fair. Who the hell would do this to her?!”

“I don’t know… I’m so sorry this happened.” Albin coughed away the lump growing in his throat.

Alice began to talk about the awards she’d won, told him stories about the competitions she’d been to. She hugged him, trying to pull him in as tight as possible. But he tapped her back and kindly pushed her away by the shoulders. Yeah, he wasn’t a fan of hugging people he barely knew. Alice returned to hugging her pillow.

But the best part: she had no idea it had been him and Elias. And she’d wallow in sadness long enough for him to catch up, and win some awards of his own!

That night he found Elias in Albin’s gazebo once again. He ran towards him in exhilaration, and shone a troublesome smile when Elias waved at him.

“What’s next?” Albin asked.