#and someone would come looking for her

[softquietsteadylove]

For Thenamesh Beauty and the Beast AU!

Thena and Gil are living peacefully until one day her past life knocks on the door. And they have something planned for Thena!

"Gil?"

"Yeah, hon?" he chuckled, standing from tending to the fire. But he came to a colder realisation as he saw what she did. "Who's this?"

"I thought you would know," she muttered back, also staring at the very short man at their door. She stepped back from it as the smaller figure charged right in, the tails of his very fine coat bouncing as he did.

"My name is Pip, good sir," he grinned at them. Thena gravitated back to Gil's side. "I have come in search of the Lady Thena."

Gil reached for Thena's hand. He had a terrible feeling about the well dressed little hairball addressing them. "And what exactly do you want with her?"

Pip barely gave him so much as a look. "Well, her family has been searching for her, sir."

Gil scoffed, finally getting the valet's attention. "How hard could they have been looking?--she was in the same place they left her for years."

"Decades," Thena added to her own circumstances for herself. She also eyed the small man with caution. "I believed that I was the last of our family."

"Well..."

Gil moved from holding Thena's hand to placing his hand on her back. She didn't seem particularly surprised to have - more or less - confirmation that she was the last of her family. He tilted his head at her. "You okay?"

"That is quite enough!"

Gil scowled at the little nuisance, now walking even further into his home without a care or so much as a welcome. "What?"

"You must unhand the lady!" Pip attempted to insert himself between them, only to find himself dodging Thena's swinging feet, like a horse shooing a pest.

She nearly kicked him right in the head. "I don't know you! You just came barging into Gil's home!"

He straightened his fine jacket, "my Lady, you are of noble birth. You cannot be left to associate with the likes of... "

Gil flushed faintly, half indignance, and half sheepishness. "I'm a, uh, a-a tailor."

"A tailor?!" the footman gasped in absolute horror.

Thena rolled her eyes at it. "I think you should leave."

He now looked even more aghast. "My Lady, please, I have been sent in search of you!"

"Sent?" Gil raised a brow at that. If Thena's family was all gone, then who had sent this little monstrosity to find her? He looked at Thena, who he could tell was resisting the urge to bare her teeth and growl at him.

"My Lord will be here shortly!"

"Huh?"

Gil had to laugh faintly. This little creep kept calling Thena her Ladyship, but the fact was that she had raised herself alone in a castle with wild ptarmigans and quails. She had even worse manners than he did.

"And then you shall be away to your wedding!"

The room came to a full stop, all the air standing still as the dust settled. Pip looked at both of them, seeming very happy to have delivered such shattering news. Thena looked at Gil, shaking her head.

"I-I don't-" she stuttered, looking truly afraid, as if storm clouds heavy with thunder were on the horizon. She took a step back in sheer reflex. "I can't-"

"Nonsense, my Lady," Pip laughed with what now seemed like a more threatening glee. "My Lord has been thinking of marrying you since he was but a boy. You shall be most happy with him!"

"They promised her when they were kids?" Gil said more sharply to the little butler staring at them. Thena anchored herself beside him again. Entirely subconsciously, he wrapped his arm around her.

"It is standard practice for noble families, sir."

Gil didn't take that tone lying down. "Eager to break that curse, huh?"

Pip bristled.

"Yeah, I know all about it," Gil tipped his chin up at him. Maybe he was saying too much, but he certainly wasn't going to let this little cretin drag Thena away, much less to some wedding (her wedding). "Generations of kids and they couldn't break it."

Pip straightened his posture, "we hope to be the remedy for that, sir."

"Indeed we do."

Yet another stranger let himself into the cabin, even more beautifully dressed than his valet. His hair was long and stood quite tall on his head. He certainly looked like a nobleman.

Thena tilted her head at him, visibly making a face as she tried to remember him.

"Thena," he smiled, not even glancing at Gil, "my love!"

Gil bristled. Thena moved to clinging to his arm.

"My beloved Thena, after all these years!" He continued to advance on them, unwelcome body language unheeded. He held his hands in front of him, a wide smile on his face.

"Decades," she added, although he looked so overjoyed to hear her voice that she clung to Gil even tighter.

"Look, I don't-" Gil held out his hand to keep him away, but the guy just grabbed and started shaking it.

"I am Lord Eros of Titan, good sir," he beamed at Gil. "And I thank you for keeping my bride safe for however long."

Gil was still digesting the 'bride' part. He looked at Thena as she nudged him. He secured his hand at the bend of her waist. "Like I said, I-"

"You are a tailor, are you not?" Eros plowed right through his attempts to speak. He was still smiling, still exuding a certain charm. This was the way of a nobleman, Gil supposed. "The people in town speak most highly of you. Why, you shall have to fashion Thena's wedding dress for us!"

"What?!"

Gil levelled the taller but more spindly man with a glare, "I won't be doing that."

"Speak properly to his Lorship!" Pip raged from below them.

"Eros," Thena spoke up from Gil's side. "I'm not going with you."

"My sweet?" he finally - finally! - looked at her. Maybe he did have an iota of self-awareness as he took in her unsettled expression. He angled himself away from Gil and to her, despite their close proximity. "No need to fear, my dearest."

"I'm not-" Thena startled as Eros moved swiftly to brush his hand against her cheek.

"We shall-!" His Lordship snapped his hand back as Thena turned her head to bite his outstretched hand. All she really sank her teeth into was glove, but it did the trick. "Are you mad?!"

Gil smiled to himself. No matter how nervous Thena could be around strangers, she wasn't just going to let this bastard get away with something like that.

"I'm not going," Thena said more firmly, returning to holding onto Gil's arm. "I live here, now."

"With..." Eros' eyes dragged away from Thena and to Gil's scowling face, "him?"

"The tailor?"

"Yes," Thena glowered at both strangers, pulling Gil further back from them. "He actually found me, unlike you. He actually helped me with the curse, unlike you."

"Does that mean-"

"And he actually knows me!" she continued, shouting just to spite their little interruption. "So you two can shove off!"

The Lord and his little squire had obviously never been cursed at.

"My Lord, we must tend to your hand," Pip turned, beginning to usher Eros out the door. "If she has been living here with the tailor then perhaps she is...well...no longer reserved."

Gil felt as if he could wretch. But he kept his protests quiet; a small price to pay for having them out of his damn house.

Eros did relent to Pip's pushing and waving, although he looked over his head to Thena again. "I will return, my beloved!"

Thena just watched as the door was pulled. She listened to the sound of a carriage being jostled before hoof beats finally filled the air. She sighed, "of all the visitors."

"Are you okay?" Gil asked before the hoof beats were even gone. He rubbed her back, letting her wilt against him after the excitement/fright of it all.

She nodded, turning her face in against his arm.

"Hey," He whispered, moving to fully embrace her as she tried to ignore the issue for the time being. He let her dig her nails into his chest, kissing the top of her head. "It's okay. You're not going anywhere."

"Hm," she sighed sweetly, and he could hear her smile in it. Her tail would be wagging, if it could.

[ineed-to-sleep]

Blacked out in front of my tablet and woke up with sketches of my Touchstarved mc + Kuras my beloved. woops

[spacedlexi]

"sounds nice... having a partner"

[moeblob]

kitty kitty kitty

[rottengurlz]

"In the crooks of your body, I find my religion."

[ryllen]

my builder looks so similar with haru, i started to think they are long separated twins

[swordmaid]

i am wide awake thinking about that post canon jb au again when I should be sleeping …!!! such is the nature of the jbrainrot…

[lovesickeros]

☆ thrice the bell tolls

{☆} characters neuvillette {☆} notes cult au, imposter au, villain au, drabble, gender neutral reader {☆} warnings minor angst {☆} word count 0.9k

"Get in the water."

There is no trepidation in the voice of the Sovereign as he speaks, only pure contempt that bleeds into the very air until it chills their lungs – there will be no penance here. No redemption. He stands before them with apathetic indifference, and with his hands he shall draw judgement upon sinners without a shred of mercy, so heavy his gaze they cannot move. This land shall become the grave of gods – no, not gods, Archons. Transcendent..and fallible.

Horribly, humanly fallible.

What a cruel thing to be – neither god nor mortal, in the end. Their Authority a stolen, coveted thing, so easily taken in a blaze of fury that singes them to the bone, in winds so harsh it tears the breath from their lungs from the sheer pressure, in the way their hairs stand on end as if lightning shall smite them for their arrogance. Judgement has come for them, in the end, and no plea nor bargain can save them from it's justice – they shall be judged and they shall be sentenced.

"..I was willing to put aside your past transgressions – forgive your thievery of the Authority that is not your own – to see Their vision of harmony come to reality." He speaks with nothing but clarity and calmness that unsettles – as gentle as the serene pond illuminated by gentle sunlight, ducks drifting across its pristine surface and creating faint, brief ripples. Calm as the tide as it recedes from the shoreline. His eyes speak of the tempest – the raging winds and the harsh waves that will crash and break and ravage. There is a fury so turbulent it makes the wind go still, the earth erode and the water recede. "You do not deserve repentance when Their body bears the marks of your transgressions," There will be no mercy. They try to plead, to beg and bargain but they cannot speak – their cries go unheard just as Theirs were ignored. A horrifying irony.

"Self proclaimed Acolytes, all, yet you bathe in Their most divine blood and call yourselves Saints," He breathes in, taps his cane against the hardened earth, and holds his head high as he meets their eyes unflinching. Mercy, they think, for we are innocent – we did not know. "Sinners, to the very last. You tear at the flesh of the most Divine like wild dogs to sate your own hunger, for you know nothing else."

His voice is the toll – it echoes like the ringing of a bell, calling them to the water like a siren. It beckons, it demands, and it will not wait. The water recedes and he stands like a beacon among the shores – a bastion of light where it has been snuffed out.

His eyes witness their sins – heavy a burden he bears as he witnesses that which they must atone for. The cruel hand of an Archon as it spills the Divine blood of the very earth beneath their feet. He sees Their agony, feels it to the last. Every bolt of wind, every jagged rock, every bolt of lightning. Every single one he feels until he weeps – for Them, he weeps.

His left hand renders judgement – guilty. Their transgressions are grave, and no redemption can be found for such horrors they have inflicted upon the mortal vessel of the Divine. They have felt their sorrow, have felt Their pain, and he has found them guilty.

And with his right hand..he enacts justice.

"Let your sins be your anchor – let your sins weigh heavy upon your shoulders so that you may feel a brief flicker of the agony you have inflicted upon Them," He lifts his cane with a solemn resolve, tears staining the scales upon his cheeks. "I shall weep for you, too, for no other shall do so in my stead. Return, wretched beasts, to the earth and let it nourish Them where you did not."

And at his call, the waves devour.

Entire cities, entire nations – those who bear the sin shall drown in it's wake, dragged to the lowest depths where even the sun cannot breach. It takes and takes, claws and tears and rips at the bodies of the damned – it devours the world, impartial and unrelenting in it's judgement.

And Neuvillette alone weeps.

◇

"Neuvillette? Are you..crying?" Their voices makes him startle back to awareness, the briefest flicker of shame welling up in the empty space of his chest as he wipes away the tears that roll down his cheeks like drops of rain.

"It..appears so. Forgive me, most Divine, it seems I had a brief lapse in focus." He clears his throat, straightens his back, tries to ignore the pit in his stomach as he watches Their lips pull into a smile all too happy. He..he should be happy too, shouldn't he? He should. If They are happy, so should he be. His lips curl into a smile that doesn't feel like it fits on his face, but he delights in the way They smile wider when he does.

They approve, and that's all that matters, isn't it?

"It won't happen again, I assure you."

Their approval is all that matters.

So why does his chest ache so badly? He did as They commanded, he removed the stain upon Teyvat and ensured Their safety.

So why does he feel such sorrow?

The thought gnaws at him like the tides erode at stone, yet he cannot bear to burden his Creator with such..nonsense.

He will bear this weight alone until the day the waves come to claim him, too.

"Shall we visit the gardens today, Divine One?"

[wildstar25]

MiqoMarch Day 30 - Of The Seventh Dawn

"When I was very young, my aunt would often put me to bed with stories of her adventures with my late parents. They explored nearly all of Aldenard together, just the three of them; getting through every obstacle as a team, and caring for one another like family along the way. As I closed my eyes and drifted to sleep, the same question echoed in my mind: "Would tomorrow's dawn bring someone with whom I can do the same?" After so many lonely years I had but nearly given up on finding such things for myself. How lucky am I, that at the very last moment I was finally given an answer."

[shayberri789]

Something about how in chapter 4 of trc Adam is insecure about the fray on his second hand sweater, and how it's a symbol of his background and insecurities, and how most people don't notice it, and if they did, they didnt think better of him for it

And how Blue saw it immediately and it was something she liked about him, a girl too good at seeing the vulnerabilities of other people, but Adam didnt want someone to see his insecurities, didn't want someone to acknowledge that life

But Gansey did. Gansey needed someone to see him at his worst and love him for it, and blue did that

And how Adam needed someone to see him at his most unruly, and encouraged that

And Ronan makes Adam loud

[dawningfairytale]

ocean: i accept your whole gay thing, i just don't get it

noel: okay. i'll regret this, but what part don't you get?

ocean: why would you prefer men over women? i'm straight but i could never imagine being with a man... like... that. women are infinitely more attractive. why would you make your life harder for a subpar mate?

noel (internally):

noel (internally):

[happyk44]

PJO: we need to recognize the value of the minor gods. The Olympians are important, sure, but the minor gods do a lot of work in maintaining and assisting the pantheon, have their own kids and deserve to be seen and valued just as much

HoO: Back at it again with Olympian-only nonsense!

[samarecharm]

Love being able to write. I can do whatever i want. I can make Ryuji interact w Lala-chan and u literally cant stop me.

[nellasbookplanet]

Okay I've talked about the tragedy of Laudna now let's talk about the tragedy of Imogen.

It’s been a while, but her moment in the Feywild truth exercise where she says "I think I’m tainted. I don’t know if I want to save gods that don’t love me" has really stuck in my mind. The thing is, I don’t think she’s specifically talking about the gods here, but rather summing up and projecting her entire experience as a ruidusborn. She isn’t thinking "Why aren’t I the gods' special little princess? Why haven’t they come to save me specifically?? You better love me or I'll let you die" (which we have seen does seem to be a common attitude in the Vanguard) This is her fear of being against her own will tainted by something evil. Her fear that, despite knowing how wrong it is, part of her longs for the power and belonging that comes with giving in to Predathos. It’s knowing that this thing is the antithesis of the gods, and that no matter what she does and how much she opposes it, it is still part of her. And because of that, the world doesn’t love her. Her mother left, her father can barely look at her, her own body will betray her with feelings and powers she doesn't understand, her community ostracized her, her allies view her with suspicion, the gods will not lend a hand in their own rescue when she asks despite Imogen putting herself and her loved ones in danger for their sake.

And Imogen is tired. Tired of being the bigger person, tired of resisting. Logically she knows the gods don’t hate her specifically but it ads up, and as the lure of Predathos does promise love and belonging part of her wants to give in because why should she risk so much to save a world that has never once tried to save her.

And that’s where she, as well as Laudna, get so interesting. They have deeply sympathetic reasons for their doubts and flaws, as well as for why they value each other so much higher than the entirety of Exandria (tl;dr because they have only ever gotten genuine understanding and unconditional love from each other). But that doesn’t mean it isn't flaws. It doesn’t mean Imogen, if she hadn’t met Laudna and the Hells first and realized the harm the Vanguard is causing and that their promises are ultimately lies, couldn’t have been drawn in by the Vanguard's ideas. It doesn’t mean they aren't wrong in blaming gods for bad things in their own lives, or in demanding special treatment. But it’s deeply understandable, which is the very reason they and people like them're such excellent targets for the Vanguard to convert. And once in the Vanguard, it doesn’t matter how tragic and sympathetic you are, you are still doing evil.

[teeth-draws]

“What do you mean he’s scary!! Look at him!”

— taking artistic liberties to scrunkle the face of @shepherds-of-haven’s Blade Bronwyn - a man with 0.6% body fat lol

[sunmoontruth-stiles]

I need a completely rewritten teen wolf series with Derek Hale as the main character. I think it would heal me.