#and/or when it suddenly becomes unclear what death even Means

[fancyfade]

damian: 2,4, 6, 8. babs and cass: 2, 4,6 , 8 , 11

2 Favorite canon thing about this character?

ahhh this one is gonna be so hard to think of. I mean in like all 3 cases it's "their personality" but XD Trying to get more specific than that

Damian: the gradual-ness of his character arc and how realistic his reaction to suddenly being asked to change how he does everything is written. Damian changes his behavior (no longer killing people) long before he changes his beliefs (it's OK to kill some people). We also see how he understandably cares about saving civilians long before he cares about preserving villains lives which makes sense both from a 'duh' perspective and from a 'logically damian would be raised to believe that he's saving the world' perspective.

I also like the general rough edges his character has, like even long after he's become very conventionally 'moral' I guess (like in Robin: Son of batman where he's like undeniably heroic and trying to make up for every bad thing he did) he still doesn't come across as super conventionally 'nice'.

Babs:

Her self isolation and bad-decision making tendencies have me captivated.

ok /j but :P I love how independent she is and how she responds to trauma and how we see her incredibly reluctant to reach out to people around her. I love when she approaches problems from a nexus of control even though she would hate it if people approached her problems from that POV.

She's a fun character who often does make missteps in her personal relationships but nevertheless always tries to correct them

Cassandra:

Cass I love her perfectionism and the way she approaches her problems. even though I mentioned in Damian's answer that I loved how gradual his character arc and un-learning assassin stuff was, I also love how sudden Cass leaving Cain was*. It works completely for her characterization.

Then the way she approaches her problem (of having killed someone) is completely all-in cass-y. Cass is trying to grapple with what she did as a child (and I saw some really convincing meta about how the guilt she felt from killing the guy was not necessarily due to seeing his pain, as she'd seen pain before, but due to not understanding his death, i'll dig it up soon: EDIT FOUND IT (link)). Her thing is very simple: she killed someone so she deserves to die. She won't kill herself, but she has very little regard for her own life and is perfectly fine going out saving people. and the way she approaches her guilt pre her Shiva arc often goes from a kind of projecting on people I think (where she projects her own guilt on the guy she breaks out of death row when the mother of his victim approaches her, she gives him back to go to his death, she returns a kid to her mom who is exploiting for her talents rather than her criminal father who loves her) and then when she's dealt with her own guilt she can address people in a way that does not quite have that specter of guilt hanging over her.

*tho important note: I don't think that Cass leaving Cain was her character arc, it's a backstory detail

4: f you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in?

I would put them all in a well-adapted live action movie so more people know about them :P Unless this is like straight up drop them into an already existing fictional universe, it's unclear. Like I like thinking of a 'Batfam as Jedi' AU for one tumblr post for example, but I don't really care enough about 'characters in alternate universe' to need to see it in a fully developed story. A lot of what makes them unique and fun is specific to the universe.

6 What’s something you have in common with this character?

Babs: Self isolation. Also wheelchair using :P

Damian and Cass: General perfectionism

8 What’s something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

Damian: Either uwu baby-ifying him so whichever fave can take care of him and protect him at the expense of his canonical competence or acting like he's a terrible person and any time DC writes character assassination for him it was IC because he's always a terrible person.

Cass: forgetting she exists, having her there to just prop up Tim or Jason (Jason ???????), diminishing her competence to prop up some batboy and act like they can easily 'hack' her abilities.

Babs: babsgirl stuff. also people who remember with perfect clarity every jerk thing she hdid and use it against her t osay she's a terrible person (instead of just like. a realistic person with flaws) but conveniently ignore when their favorite batboy did similar things, oftentimes without even trying to make amends.

11 Would you date this character? (just babs and cass)

I would not date either of them sorry ladies. I love you but i'm already mentally ill I don't need more people's issues and emotional constipation

ty for asks! Asks from here (link)

[soartfullydone]

Did you ever read ACOSF? What did you think of the twilight baby plot?

Everything I know about ACOSF I've learned against my will lol. One of my best friends kept a play-by-play of each chapter in a Google Doc, so she could spare me the reading experience but also so we could make fun of it mercilessly.

In all seriousness, I knew I was never going to subject my eyes to it directly because I hate Nessian with a burning passion. I one-hundred percent believe that Nesta deserves better than everything she got, and she should've been meaner actually. Even when I somewhat liked ACOMAF, I felt utterly indifferent to Cassian. Who is this bland rice cake taking up the space where Lucien should be? No good dialogue or anything out of that guy. And then SJM wrote Nessian into MAF with all the subtlety of a clown show, and it was over. Nesta hates him! Keep him away from her! If she doesn't kill him, I will!

Most baby plots are horrendous in fiction, and I hate them deeply also. They often reduce women to being pure idiots (why do I have morning sickness after unprotected sex? a mystery!) or they reinforce this false idea that women can only achieve ultimate happiness by having their One True Love's baby. Ah, the number of women I know who are stuck in unhappy marriages, their sense of self completely lost because being a Wife and Mother comes first! Can those things be fulfilling? Absolutely. But a lot of folks are selling a romanticized idea of both, and SJM is no exception here.

Because look at what the Twilight baby plot does. It takes away all of Nesta's power, asserts her feelings of worthlessness, and encourages her to be a breeder for Cassian, who never even told her he loved her in their romance book. It puts her firmly and forever under Rhysand's and the Night Court's boot. It confirms that Feyre has also lost all her agency, that the High Lady title is meaningless, that her found family and Court do not respect her, that Rhysand will lie to her and trap her if it serves him to do so. That, ultimately, her body does not belong to her and she doesn't have a choice.

What really gets to me, too, is that these two women have to change their bodies to accommodate their love interests, their supposed fated mates. Methinks if it was fated, if they really were perfect for each other, this kind of change wouldn’t have been necessary 🤔. But also if this really were a fantasy story with all-powerful magical beings, there’s no reason why Feyre’s pregnancy should’ve been so risky to begin with. Barring that, there’s no reason why a C-section couldn’t have been an option. It was drama for the sake of drama, pain for the sake of pain. All filler, no substance.

Everything surrounding the baby plot and Nesta's forced captivity prove ACOMAF for the lie it is, a romanticized idea about overwritten trauma and choosing the Perfect Guy because he can read your mind and tell you the things you want to hear. I mean, how else do we go from Feyre earnestly believing she wants time with her new love, that a child can wait, to a Feyre who can't think of a single gift to give Rhys besides the news of her pregnancy? (Cue him cumming to the sight of their unborn child. I will never forget, and neither will you, dear anon, I'm sorry. But I didn't write it!)

And idk, given how much pregnancy in general squicks me out despite being a woman myself, how much medical care for women generally sucks, how many people are going through such pain with miscarriages, unviable pregnancies, and unclear yet strict abortion laws... This ain't it, fam! If SJM wants to talk real-life application with her trauma bullshit, then let's talk real-life application! Because no one, not a single person, has an I Am Become Death magic sister who can pull a dying mother and their dying baby back from the brink where medicine and the law have failed them. No one can have their premie who can't survive on its own suddenly turned into a healthy six-month-old. Who does this plot serve? Neither the reader nor the characters benefited.

I genuinely can't understand how SJM, as a mother herself, could write something so tone deaf, without even being brave enough to explore this kind of fear and pain with any care whatsoever. If she wanted Feyre and Nesta to actually bond over something... Feyre's pregnancy and what that means as a human-turned-fae and a mother could have been it. That could have been something the sisters discussed and helped each other with, where they could have learned more about each other and their deeper fears as young women in a society that does not truly respect them. Both of them share in family trauma, for fuck's sake! Now here Feyre is starting a new family at great risk while Nesta is still guiltily mourning the one she lost! The dots are there!

But no. Instead, not even Feyre is allowed to learn the truth about her pregnancy until Nesta tells her, and then Nesta is painted as a villain for doing so. Feyre isn't allowed to have any real opinion or lingering fears or doubts about her fate whatsoever. Because none of this stuff really matters, especially not the trauma. It's about the fucking, rutting, animal sex. It's about the smirking males, their dripping seed, and their inability to be anything besides horny at any given moment. It's about the washboard abs. Hey, a sexy story would be just fine with me! I just wish SJM would fully embrace that (and also write it better lmao) and get off her "I'm God's gift to feminism" soap box. Maybe take off the girlboss shades, too, because ain't none of her female characters even living up to the shallowness of a girlboss. The narrative undermines and undervalues them too much.

Actually, I have to clap my hands to SJM for this baby plot. I've never seen one that destroys two main female characters in a single stroke before. That's how powerful Rhysand's dick is.

[karmarox]

The Lamb: Purpose and Emptiness

Don't mind me just rambling on more Cult of the Lamb headcanons/ideas. This time about the titular Lamb!

What if The Lamb, for lack of a better term, came back Wrong when they were resurrected. Was it because of the way they died? The revival process? The Crown's influence? Reaching their breaking point from trauma? Some other unknown factor? It's unclear, but they are, to put it bluntly, not quite normal, not quite fully there.

The best way to describe it: They've become "Detached". Nothing around them feels like they are really experiencing it. Their emotions are incredibly muted. They’re present but feel like distant twinges and reminders of how they should be feeling at the moment, instead of actual feelings (most of the time). They remember everything before their death, they remember who they are, know who they are, but they don't feel like the lamb they're supposed to be (which is why they explicitly avoid giving out their name or talking about their past).

Their eyes are black and almost void-like. They have a friendly, inviting smile as their default expression most of the time, but the only thing most people can read from their emotions is an intense, overwhelming Focus.

When it comes to making decisions, they're, again, very detached, going only by cost and benefit. Their more benevolent actions are decided almost entirely by the idea of "Being cruel here is unnecessary or would cause problems in the long term" instead of morals (at least, during the beginnings of the Cult/a large portion of the "base game" part of the story). This is why a lot of their doctrines can be a bit scattered/contradictory in nature.

They have trouble connecting to others. Everyone around them feels distant and separated, like there’s a wall or window between them. This doesn’t mean they don’t have empathy, though.

A part of their story, then, isn't just about growing the cult and freeing The One Who Waits (which they at first see simply as a matter of course and repaying their debt), but once a few key events happen, they also start wanting to restore their sense of self...

Other Notes under a Read More cause they're more scattered and spoiler-y and goes more into AU/full story territory:

-They get spikes of emotion whenever using the Crown’s powers, especially to its fullest, akin to adrenaline highs. This is why they get a bit of a reputation as an adrenaline junkie/battle freak and a passionate speaker during sermons/rituals, since those are the two primary times they're actually capable of emoting. (Although they don't really notice their own changes in personality) -The first time they were surprised by their own emotions was when Sozo died. They broke down over realizing they unintentionally helped kill someone they cared about (and broke down even more over realizing that they did in fact care). -The second time was when The Fox asked them to sacrifice Ratau. They actually considered doing it, but then suddenly felt so much disgust and self hatred over even the thought of killing someone important to them (and realizing that Ratau IS indeed important to them) that they nearly attacked the Fox and ran away before going into shock. --This probably ends up being the wake up call on them realizing they need help (and also leads to them opening up to Ratau the next day. Many feelings were had. Rat dad obtained.)

More lighthearted aside: They immediately held a Sermon and introduced the Marriage Doctrine after talking to Ratau about wanting to (re)learn how to connect the others. For a while they developed a "reputation" due to always saying yes to marriage proposals until Ratau gave them another talking to and carefully explained the misunderstanding and why doing this may be a problem.

-When it comes to the Bishops, the Lamb doesn't particularly feel anything about them. They never felt any desire for Revenge beyond a slight obligation. In their eyes, they avenged their species, fulfilled the task given to them, and all got a second chance after death, so they don't have a reason to hate the Bishops, and doesn't take how they feel about them personally. -Out of all the Bishops, only Heket and Shamura saw that there was something Wrong with the Lamb during their battles. Leshy couldn't see it, obviously, and Kallamar was too preoccupied dealing with his own issues. -When the Lamb invaded Anura, Heket felt even more disgust and hatred towards Narinder, thinking he revived the Last Lamb as some sort of husk/puppet on purpose. Killing the Lamb for good felt like even more of a moral obligation to her. -Shamura sees the Lamb's current broken state as just another in a long line of their own mistakes. Their words during the Lamb's invasion of Silk Cradle were an attempt to reach out, and as a Follower they feel a desire to make peace with and help them.

-Narinder takes a long, long, long time to notice their vessel/usurper has a problem. When he was chained up, he was too preoccupied thinking about his freedom and power. After becoming a follower, he was too preoccupied with his anger, desire for revenge, and thinking the Lamb had planned this all from the start. -Finding out the Lamb's true nature plays a part in him calming down and beginning to give the Cult a chance. He also starts wondering if their current warped state is his fault...

[lake-archive]

Chapter 42 - Dating Training

AO3 Link

Characters: Osamu Dazai, Eli (OC by @watersofcamelot)

Words: 1,460

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“Lesson one – How to ask someone out. You better pay attention because I’m not going to repeat myself.”

Osamu only nodded at that comment. His expression? Awfully eager, more than one might expect. Like some student sitting inside a classroom and ready to pay attention. To be honest he never really saw himself in that role, being anything but the type to listen… Unless it mattered. And this time? It really matters! This lesson could be deciding his entire future from here on out! And he sure as hell didn’t want to miss out on this! He couldn’t! Or everything would become a dark, cruel place… Living with eternal regret… The suffering would be unbearable…  Just kidding! Although, he would live in regret if he didn’t do something and just handed Chuuya the victory. It stung… Worse than any mosquito bite in the entire world. He had to do something about this. Osamu knew that. And he was going to.

That is what he had begged Eli for after all, having him stand in front of a blackboard. Apparently he had dragged it inside right in the morning. No, midnight. It was already morning. How? Well, the owner had given the boy some spare keys so he could enter the café at any time. He had even texted Osamu the evening before. ‘Come here before opening time. We’ll have an early lesson. You better come or I’m gonna double your tab.’

 A threat unbearable yet one that made Osamu get up earlier than one may be used to. Of course he had to be quiet and not wake up Ann and Ole yet he had managed… Though barely. Ann herself was a very heavy sleeper but Ole? He nearly woke up, judging from his constant wagging ears and him shifting around on his tiny cat bed in the corner. But luckily he was asleep the entire time. Perfect for Osamu to just sneak out and make a run for it, only to arrive in the café when the sun was still busy rising. And that was how and why the duo was inside Café Uzumaki when no one was around for the time being. 

“Ya want to be serious finally, don’t ya?” Eli asked, his gaze all dark, almost resembling a glare. He was standing in front of the blackboard, chalk in hand and eyeing the brunette man directly. It was unclear if he just was dead serious or perhaps he was ready to kill at any point. Then again, maybe it was kind of the same thing when it came to Eli. It was hard to say.

Though a quick nod came from Osamu’s head. “Yes, Sensei!”

“Ya wanna show Sis that you mean it?”

“Yes, Sensei!”

“Ya don’t wanna lose her to Choo–Choo!?”

“Yes, Sensei!”

“Then I got the perfect method to show her that you mean it. I’ll make it quick.” The black haired guy then turned around and scribbled something onto the blackboard with the chalk. It only was worth a few seconds yet there was only one word in big bold letters, all visible once he had stepped aside and underlined them with the chalk in his hand and read it out loud.

“ Ritual Warfare! ”

Anyone would look dumbfounded at the guy and honestly… Osamu was doing the exact same right now. Ritual warfare? No, really… “That’s something people do?” He asked.

“Yeah. Nothing says ‘I am serious about dating you’ more than walking up to your competition and fighting them to the death.” Eli was talking rather deadpan. It was hard to tell if he truly meant it or not. Yet him saying this without any hint of hesitation, let alone shame, meant that he at least meant it in some shape or form. And besides… It would get rid of Chuuya pretty easily. The logic of ‘he cannot win if he’s dead’ basically. A sound logic. Though… 

“You’re making me even more envious of Chuuya without even trying.” Osamu suddenly said, forming a pout on his face. “So basically he gets to die. Tch.”

“You wanna show Sis that you mean it or nah?”

“Wouldn’t it be quicker if I asked her for a double suicide? It’s a—”

“Outta the question.” Eli interrupted quickly, his glare going sharper than before. “You want her or not?”

That… Hah. This man was driving a hard bargain. Right, the point was to show it that he meant it. Every single word. Leading Ann on… He’s done it long enough. And he was the asking one for help in the end… How ironic, the guy who flirts a lot around asking the guy behind the counter who usually stayed all quiet unless spoken to or finding it absolutely necessary. But hey, that’s Osamu’s only option. Couldn’t ask Kunikida. That guy has never talked to a woman outside of work before. And his list for the ideal woman… We do not talk about that. So no one would want to know what his plan for the ‘ideal relationship’ is. Probably something old fashioned… If Osamu had to take a guess at least. 

“Yeah, I want her.”

“Then listen to me here. You will participate in ritual warfare, whether you like it or—”

“What is this about ritual warfare again?” The door had opened, the bell rang after all. The two men turned to the door right then and there, spotting who had entered… The waitress, lovely Shimeko. Though before Osamu could even greet her Eli spoke up right away.

“Oh, you’re already here Ma’am?”

She sighed. “Yes. I was about to prepare everything for the day.” She responded, her eyes scanning the surroundings and stopping shortly after starting, eyeing the blackboard right in the middle of the café. “For the last time, this isn’t a classroom.”

“Anything can be a classroom.”

“That–”

“It’s fine it’s fine. Eli–Kun is helping me out here and there~” Osamu decided to finally chime in. No harm in filling this waitress in, was there? “He’s teaching me how to seriously pursue a relationship~”

Shimeko eyed the two guys, her gaze wandering back and forth between them. The smile and the deadpan glare respectively. She seemed far from impressed yet she also wasn’t going to make a big fuss in the end. All she did was let out yet another sigh. She wasn’t surprised yet she also wasn’t really impressed either. “And the solution is… Ritual warfare?”

“Correct! You’re not just lovely but also smart~”

“Don’t worry Ma’am. I am going to teach him properly. Though due to Dazai’s profession, he probably knows how to break someone’s bones without hesitation.” Eli even added. “I’m just teaching him how—”

“Dazai–San, have you considered walking up to someone and asking them out on a date?” The waitress interrupted, not even allowing the barista to finish the sentence. Hearing that had Osamu stop that smile from his face. Or not exactly, he still had his lips curled upwards but… His eyes were empty from one moment to the next.

“No?” He responded. Honestly… That had not crossed his mind for even a second. 

“Of course you didn’t.” Shimeko put one of her hands against her forehead, shaking it yet again. The disappointment in her expression was more than visible. “Color me impressed that you are actually taking matters into your own hands… Even if it’s sudden. But all you have to do is ask her on a date and maybe slow down on your flirting habits.”

“It’s that easy?”

“It is…”

A moment of silence, no one dared to say a thing. Nor wanted to say a thing maybe. Osamu himself had processed this. The waitress seemed to know at least who this was referring to and maybe it wasn’t that big of a secret. So no need to explain who it was. Though she made it sound… Well… “When does ritual warfare come in?”

“It doesn’t.”

“I don’t have to fist fight Chuuya?”

“No.”

“Oh. So it’s that simple?”

“Yes, it is.”

“I had no idea.”

“Of course you didn’t.” She turned back to Eli shortly after, eyeing him awfully seriously. “Could you please bring this into the breakroom at least? The customers do not have to see a blackboard here.”

“Yes Ma’am.” Eli replied quickly, remaining as deadpan as he did the entire time listening. 

“Also what is it with you and ritual warfare? Please don’t throw it in at every opportunity you get. Especially when it comes to asking someone out.”

“You’re no fun sometimes, Miss Tanabe.”

And that was how Eli managed to waste Osamu’s time one early morning. Though it was maybe a little disappointing in hindsight… He would have loved to play along with Eli’s dating advice just a little longer.

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[ria-writes-stories]

Loving danger

Ship: Dizzy Genre: Romance, Cotton, Angst Description: 'Meteor Shower, quick take cover' For @exotic-dinostuff TW: If you know meteor shower, you know why there is a TW but once again if u watched MD u should be- well- you know mentally prepared for this type of writing cuz you saw it visually more than once. Implied death Side note: why did Doll suddenly go from direct english to translated one aka russian and then (translation) text? Cuz there was a slight of a pov change, like the pov focused somewhat on Doll and then it switched to Lizzy, so it would make sense that Doll understands what she hears directly while others hear her speak Russian and then through the filter of their own mind then translate and understand her words -------------------------------

(No one's pov)

Doll and Lizzy found each other, once upon a time, it's unclear who first spotted the other, unclear when it happened, who took the first step, or if it was all arranged, but the two stuck together tighter than any other friendship or relationship around them. An unbreakable bond, but what made them as such…?

"Isn't fire so beautiful?" Lizzy said with a wide smile on her face, swinging her feet on the edge of the jumping goat in the gym. It was way past hours, and sometimes these two would stay late to exercise their moves for the next day, in truth it was an excuse to be with each other alone.

"What?" Doll asked confused as she looked at Lizzy baffled by her comment. "The fire. It's beautiful. It's in a constant movement of dancing and sparkling even when it's close to dying off. I wish my head could catch on fire like Braiden's." "?! Lizzy don't say that!" The way Lizzy spoke her words so casual, it scared Doll, terrified her to the grave. "Why?! It's not like I would melt! We live in an atomic-cold world! Plus, our materials are resistant enough to endure fire! Isn't it such a cool thing that the fire somehow maintains itself despite the temperature and lack of fuel? It's so pretty!" Doll looked at Lizzy more concerned than ever before. It wasn't unusual for Lizzy to sometimes say something out of the ordinary like that, but this statement, out of the blue, scared Doll more than anything else that Lizzy could ever speak.

As time passed, Doll's concern only grew further more, as Lizzy began to form a passion for meteors and asteroids, naming them as 'spectacular crackling space fires'. Doll couldn't help but ponder weather there was a deeper meaning behind this. Lizzy was a very stylish and fashionable girl, of course anything she found as aesthetic she devoted her time to it. Doll made all sorts of scenarios in her mind, nightmares and awful things was the result of it. Why was she tormenting herself like this? Lizzy was fine! She just…liked something a lot, even if Doll didn't understand it, that didn't mean that something was terribly wrong with Lizzy. Doll's main concern was that someone would find out and call Lizzy defect, which would be beyond soul crushing for the red eyed Russian drone, because she could be thrown to the mechanic, or become an outcast like Uzi. She didn't want that, she dread that, she couldn't help but tense up each time Lizzy brought up the subject, or anything close to it, like the sky and the stars. She would watch Lizzy talk, praying to all that she has dear that the girl won't slip her strange passion for fire and meteors.

It took a long time for Doll to get over it. She would ask herself why she panicked in the first place once all of her fears were gone. Perhaps that is what happens when you love someone so much. Maybe you start thinking silly things because you care about them so much, and these funny little thoughts made you care for that person even more, wanting to keep them as close as possible to ensure their safety and well being, and praying, begging on your knees, to this world, that you will be enough for them to live a long happy life, or at least your idea of what that is. She hoped and pray that her ideal life was the same as Lizzy's, so that when she wants the best for her, she can be ensured that indeed it is what Lizzy would also wants.

"If I am ever to die or become so old and shriveled with wrinkles that my system shuts down, I hope I'll get to see a meteor shower before it all!" "Lizzy, don't say such a thing." Doll scolded her with a concerned look on her face. The two were laying on Lizzy's bed, late at night with the lights closed, staring at the ceiling filled with glowing stickers. "Oh come on! It's possible! You saw Uzi's dad, that man has wrinkles! Like wow- and you know what? I think it would be really beautiful." "To be a wrinkled old lady?" Doll teased as Lizzy smiled and nudged her playfully. "Hardy har har!"

'If I am ever to be pass on from another reason other than my system wearing down, I want it to be a meteor shower'

These haunting words rang in Doll's ears as she watched the sight in horror. The sky was falling. The shiny stars were falling upon the earth, and they showed no sign of stopping. "Lizzy we have to go." Doll said panicked as she got up immediately, grabbing the girls hand and dragging her off, but the girl wasn't moving.

Her neon pink widened in excitement as she looked at the sky with a wide smile on her face, the same look she had at times when she'd watch Braiden's head catch fire.

"Lizzy! Come on!" Something was wrong. Doll could feel it in her core. She was slow, sloppy, as if her system was partially frozen. It made no sense. Was this fear? Was this what was happening? She didn't have time for such none sense! They had to get to safety! She had to protect Lizzy.

"Lizzy we have to get to safety!" Doll repeated as she began to drag the girl, forcing her to move, but her eyes stayed fixated on the sky, looking at it in an awe from this majestic sight. It is not always that you get to witness such a thing.

The sky was a beautiful bitter dark, enlightened by the many purely white orbs of light falling left and right like snow flakes in a storm, like rain drops in a rainy day, but there were a few, more special than the others, because they had a blue flame, and it was beyond hypnotic. It was an intoxicating sight, a sight that made Lizzy unaware of her own actions, filling her to the brim of her core, making her act outside of her survival instincts.

Doll was running. Running like never before in her life. Not for herself, not for her sake, but for the life of the last person on this cursed planet that she had left. For the last person that she loved beyond her grave and death. The last person she would give it all up for, if it meant that nothing in this world will ever draw out tears from her eyes.

Somewhere in the forest, they got lost… Doll's mind became numbed by terror, and Lizzy was stuck mesmerized by the sight before her. And somewhere in the forest Doll realized that Lizzy's grasp was no longer in hers. How did this happen? Doll stopped at once, looking at her hand, she just felt Lizzy let go, so she expected the girl to be at best just a few feet behind her, but she was so much further away, barely visible from Doll's vision. How could this be? How was this possible? She was holding her, just a few moments ago.

"LIZZY! TAKE COVER!" Doll screamed desperately as she began to run back, as she looked between Lizzy and the sky terrified. This wasn't happening, this wasn't happening, this couldn't be real, it couldn't, this had to be a bad joke, a prank, something, anything!

"LIZZY!" Doll shouted, but for nothing. A bright light and a loud noise, Doll leaped forward, she was so close to her, so very close and yet…

"Lizzy?! Liz-" Doll was on the cold frozen ground, as her head rose she saw a small pitch black rock with some melted snow around it, just a few inches away which made her cut herself off. She turned around to see where Lizzy was but her heart dropped in an instance, going awfully silent as the sight before her made petrified her, before she quickly rushed to her feet, forcing herself to snap out of this state as she brought the girl in her grasp, holding her on her lap and closely to herself with her arms. Her visor was blank, a huge hollow gap and a crack in it.

Doll gasped quietly, as she felt a dagger stab her in the throat, preventing her from speaking, as the pain grew more as tears sprouted within her eyes, she didn't notice the blind spot from her own vision, and as she looked closer to the girl she loved, she saw her reflection. She…was hit too, but then, how, how was she alive but… how was this possible? This made no sense- She'll fix it. She'll patch her up and she'll use the very string of her own soul if she needs to. There was no FATAL ERROR, there was nothing there- there was nothing, just like her parents, just like her at the prom when-

Doll gasped for air loudly as she bolted awake, jumping on her feet, and rushing to a mirror, she had an eye patch. No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Lizzy. Where is Lizzy, where-

Doll's body began to tremble as her vision got foggy and everything blurred out, as she tried to breath. This wasn't real. But it was, she could feel that patch on her eye, so then what happened? Why did she have one, where was Lizzy. Think, think, think… The AS… yes, that's why she had an eye patch… but then, where was- right… Doll left the colony long ago…but what if it wasn't a dream? What if…

Within the blink of an eye Doll was in Lizzy's bedroom. She was right there. Safe and sound asleep, or at least she used to be.

Lizzy got startled awake as she felt a sudden shift in her body, which wasn't caused by her… She woke up in the pitch black darkness of the night, being held tightly, almost painfully, by a face she didn't she'd ever see again. "Doll-?!" Lizzy asked baffled. Last time they saw each other Doll threw her off like a piece of worn cloth, so then why was she here? Was she here for revenge? Her sides hurt… but no. The girl was crying bitter tears, her breath shaky, trembling all the while she held Lizzy to herself as if she's just got her back after a terrible event. "Моя любовь. Моя любовь. Моя любовь." (My love. My love. My love)Doll mumbled over and over again endlessly. Usually Lizzy could understand her, but now Doll was talking too fast for her to understand.

All the fear that Lizzy felt was gone in the blink of an eye as she saw the dearest person from her life break like this. It was painful to loose Doll the first time around, when her mind became wicked and poisoned from the grief of loosing her parents, but she never thought she'd get her soul torn to shreds like that by the same girl twice.

"Doll. Doll calm down. Talk to me. Doll." Lizzy's attempts to calm her down were in vain. Doll didn't stop for a moment. Lizzy tried to clean her tears, but she couldn't. Because Doll held her closer, pressing their bodies against each other, whispering the same thing softly over and over, hiding her face in her neck as the same painful dagger stuck in her throat, trying to prevent her from speaking, but she didn't care, she couldn't care, it was the least of her worries now. She had to feel her. She had to know she was alive. She had to know she was well. She had to know she was there. She was so foolish to throw her off like that. Did she even thing of what could have happened? She didn't, but she should have. She had to make sure she-

Her trail of thoughts were cut off as a soft whisper shushed her gently, as a familiar touch caressed her face, as soft loving hands twirled their fingers in her hair, running through it, affectionately bringing her back to the real world, where they were both in each other's grasp, both conscious and breathing, both functioning and unharmed. "Shhhh, it's alright, it's alright." Lizzy whispered.

Once silence washed over, a voice spoke. "Do you want to go outside?" Once the murder drones were defeated, their favorite activity became star gazing since they were no longer in the threat of being hunted down. "Нет, снаружи опасно." (No, it's dangerous outside) Lizzy didn't know what Doll has witnessed or saw out there, it's been so long since they've been next to each other… "Alright…we'll stay here…we'll stay here." Lizzy said quietly as she kissed Doll's forehead softly as the other girl's grip stayed just as tight. They slowly began to drift to sleep within each other's comforting grasp, as the tears dried up and soft loving kisses were shared, with Lizzy kissing her cheeks and Doll kissing her shoulder softly. No matter what will happen in this life or another, they will forever be part of each other's soul.

The end

[roses-in-the-shade]

For your born in death au, does anybody else know about Ingo? Like Elesa maybe? And if not, how do they react to Emmet gaining a brother over night?

In this case how do the parents react when they find out Ingo is alive now?

Also this au is very cute and cool I like it a lot!!!

Thank you for the ask! And I'm verrrry happy you enjoy my AU!

Ohhhhhhh, boy, oh, boy, the boys' parents are absolutely shocked! And also are now overcome with very, very many feelings! The first one after shock is relief, of course. They had, to begin with, convinced themselves that Ingo had passed on. It was the smallest comfort they could offer both themselves and to Emmet, but that's all it was. A comfort. They were distraught as well when Emmet told them that Ingo was gone without any explanation. It was difficult for them to lose their son all over again for a second time, and then to regain him a second time too lifted a burden off their hearts they had meant to bury away.

The second, well. In the end, it's difficult not to get past how unbelievable it is, to finally meet their formerly deceased son face to face, after years and years of never being able to see the physical evidence of his existence, so it's more disbelief, but they get over that quickly when the full family finally gets to have a group hug with Ingo included. It involves a lot of sobbing, a lot of holding, clutching, cradling, a lot of staring. In the end, everything settles down into simple love and happiness. Their parents are just glad to finally have their other son back, even if it was after a long continuous cycle of hurting and healing for them. They do everything they can to get Ingo settled into his new life in modern day Nimbasa, he has their full support.

On the topic of who knew about Ingo from the start, almost nobody! For the longest time, only Emmet and the boys' parents knew about Ingo. Emmet had a hard time making friends, both in adolescence and in adulthood, so there weren't many people Emmet would end up trusting enough to divulge that sort of secret to, when it finally settled in that he shouldn't go flapping his lips about being able to see his dead brother.

Although. When he was younger and getting help from a small number of special needs therapists, he may have quite possibly blabbed a bit before he started to keep his mouth shut about Ingo. Not that those therapists ever said or did anything about it. That was way above their pay grade. Definitely not their business.

For Elesa, this is something I was a little unclear on. I personally headcanon that the boys only met Elesa later on in life, after getting their careers started. They weren't childhood friends or rivals. What this means for my AU, I believe Elesa never knew about Ingo before his disappearance. Emmet and Elesa were only friendly acquaintances at first, despite Ingo's best efforts to persuade Emmet to interact with her more (Ingo wants Emmet to have more friends). Sometimes Elesa would challenge the Subway for a spot of fun, or sometimes Emmet and Elesa would reference each other on battle tactics, since they both have a fondness for electric types.

I think Elesa would notice how Emmet tended to space out, how he might stare at a specific area to his side, or how she would accidentally interrupt a conversation with nobody every so often. But Emmet would wave everything away as getting lost in his head or just talking to himself to work through things better. Elesa let Emmet brush off her curiosity. They didn't know each other incredibly well, but she let herself assume his eccentricities were just another of his charming points. (She knew better, but it wasn't her place to push.)

Then things went a little catastrophic. Emmet suddenly started a hiring process for a new face to manage the Singles line, and his public appearances outside of his duty to the Doubles line and Multi line began to decline. His cheery exterior seemed to become much less genuine and much more of a front. The media picked up the new gossip, and it didn't take long for Elesa to take notice that things were going downhill.

Elesa reached out to Emmet. Checked in, asked if everything was alright. (He wasn't alright, he would never say. She knew.) She started inviting him to hang out more often. ("It's been a while, Emmet! I want to catch up with you, why don't we grab some lunch together during our breaks in the next few days. Your Joltik project was electrifying to hear about last time, I'd love to learn more!")

Emmet does try to hold her at arms length. At first. But he knew it'd look too conspicuous to keep giving her weak excuses, so he would end up accepting her offers for company eventually. And then he would keep doing it. It's hard to say no after a certain point. With Ingo gone, with how he's isolated himself in his grief and obsession, he's just. So lonely now. So lonely, it's painful. Elesa eased the loneliness a little bit.

But the knife's edge that was Ingo's absence only slipped in further over time.

And one day, Emmet broke down.

When Elesa finds him in shambles in his apartment (after days of no word from him, days of waiting for him to respond to her texts, days of radio silence, why did she wait so long), that's when everything spilled. Emmet told her everything.

Emmet told Elesa about Ingo, and she believed him immediately.

Later, when Ingo comes back, she's stunned. And then his first impression of her upon meeting her again is her impulsive fist to his gut for unintentionally leaving Emmet on his own (and wow, she definitely felt that in her knuckles, he's actually real, she's not hallucinating), and then immediately attempting to aggressively befriend him in a similar fashion to how she aggressively befriended Emmet. Ingo lasts a grand total of five seconds before his kicked puppy demeanor transitions to utterly flustered.

[vanbredevoort]

--- PSA

What REALLY happens to Lydia in Thanedd

Hello! I'm briefly going to explain what happens to Lydia during the Thanedd coup in the books, in a comedic fashion bc if I think about this seriously I might combust internally and not in the fun way. i guarantee you'll laugh once. if you don't, a stick figure artwork of your muse will be given in compensation.

Be warned of: spoilers from thewitcher books (Time of Contempt) / mentions of death, blood and suicide (if that's a trigger for you, please do not read) / constant and i mean an absurd amount of stabbing jokes.

Thanedd has two sides. The 'defenders of the North + their kings' and the 'traitors who allied with Nilfgaard and put pinapple on their pizzas'. They put the traitors in dimeritium shackles, AKA Francesca and Vilgefortz bc he apparently poster boi of betrayal and knightly costumes. SUDDENLY there's a fight, and one of the fighters is Lydia.

The fight stops because Lydia dies. It is IMPLIED that she went van Stabbyvoort and did the thing herself, because daggers are pretty and they're prettier when they're INSIDE UR HEART. Red is a pretty color too. EVEN PRETTIER WHEN IT STAINS THE HALLWAYS AND IT'S YOURS.

Lydia was to give time to Vilgefortz to get resistant to dimeritium, bc he's a mighty powerful god / cutest kinda deranged dictator wannabe, and there's no better way to do so than idk killing yourself.

Why go to such lenghts? Because she loved him like a lot. the book describes her love as 'silent, stubborn and relentless'. She was in love with Vilgefortz, went hearteyes every single time, and that love made her lose stuff in translation, as in:

vil was like 'gimmie time!' lyd went all 'instructions unclear will stab self'

This makes a good show and with good show I mean shit festival, because it was supposed to be all political mambo jambo. No deaths. Triss is like YOOOOOOOOO WHY CORPSE IN MY LIVING ROOM WHO CORPSE OOOOOO FUCKED UP FACE CUTIE NOOOOO.

So Lydia's death forces everyone to take a good look inside their little tiny ugly hearts and go 'yeah we kinda fucked up, didn't we' not because they care about lydia but because, and i might sound repetitive but THE COUP WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DONE WITHOUT KILLING PEOPLE. it was a political affair. a sorceress with a fucking dagger stuck to her tit is not political.

Tissaia blames Philippa. No one wanted any deaths.

LYDIA'S DEATH SETS THINGS IN MOTION. It marks the separation between Tissaia (who ends up killing herself after the fiasco) and Philippa (she literally goes like 'lyd be dead? oh daaaaamn'). it helps vil. it makes tissaia lift the ban on polka dots and using magic there.

Vil, now free because his assistant decided to become a human pin cushion, went to tor lara bc child of the elder blood with the power to bring the armaggedon of evilness and evil looking elves yada yada, and Geralt says GET THIS MAN OUT OF MY LAWN.

Vil is all 'let us go togetherrrrr ♥ we can hold hands while we stop thE PANDEMONIUM OF ICE AND BAD STUFF.exe, she's probably scared let us sing dora the explorer songs together'

And geralt is like 'do you know what's a good idea? let's talk about LYDIA AND DEAD LYDIA. IN THIS THREE HOUR PRESENTATION I WILL EXPLAIN WHY IT IS YOUR FAULT SHE WENT GUESS-I'LL-DIE.PNG'

Bad choice. like really bad choice. like 'i need to heal in brokilon bc i got fucked up real real bad' bad choice. everything was fun and games until he blames vil because of lydia's chest jewerly and accesory. so vil does the sensitive thing and pulls out a baguette and teaches geralt a lesson on humility and baguettes.

lydia is not your average villain power corrupted evil bundle of doom. lydia is a girl who loved too much, and allowed that love to kill her. it's fucking poetic.

[kyriolex]

I find it quite odd, how people think Himawari will be affected by Eida's Diablos Ex Machina and become Sasuke 2.0 and go on a revenge path to hunt and try to kill Boruto. What the heckie?

(Yes people believe that Himawari being affected by Eida's powers and going psycho killer mode)

Lmao First of all, we're talking about NARUTO and HINATA'S Daughter here. She's a perfect mix of the 2 characters who would NEVER go down a revenge path

We're talking about the Daughter of Uzumaki fucking NARUTO, the same guy who forgave Obito, the man responsible for the many deaths including his own Parents, and even called him "The Coolest Guy"

The Daughter of Hyuga fucking HINATA, who never hated Neji, even calling him her Brother, even when he was in the midst of trying to kill her.

What the hell would make them think Himawari would become anything like Sasuke let alone go down a cycle of hatred? 🤔

Also Himawari's name literally means "SUNFLOWER"!

Imagine a Blood Lusted, Revenge Thirsty character with the name Sunflower 🌻

The characters in the Naruto Franchise have been proven to have names that define the type of characters they are.

"Hinata" for example means "A Sunny Place". It was deliberately given to her to match her character. She tends to pop up when Naruto is in a Dark point of the story and it was also a subtle clue that she and Naruto were the endgame pairing since Naruto represents the Sun

Another example is "Itachi" who's name means "Weasel'. "Weasels" are often a name given to people known for being tricky and deceitful. Not only is Itachi a Genjutsu user but is also a Traitor to his own Clan

Why would a character named "Sunflower" go down a dark Sasuke route?

Even ignoring the fact that Kishimoto himself said that the idea of a girl with a "Sasuke-like personality" sounds terrifying to him. (It's the reason why Sarada takes more of Sakura's traits) it also sounds really OOC to me, for Himawari to suddenly go full Avenger just by going off of Kawaki's words without anything else to back it up, even if she is affected

We've seen how Himawari acts when secrets are being kept. She's not dumb.

In the first episode of Academy Arc she saw right through Kawaki lying to her about being on Mission and attempted to confront him about it

Later on she spied on him and Naruto conversating about the mission

Hima is the type of character who would ask questions first, look into things herself, and then take action

Her automatically deciding that Boruto needs to die doesn't sound like Hima at all.

I mean, even Shikamaru "smartest boy ever" Nara has fallen under Eida's jutsu, so I don't think intelligence or perceptiveness alone would prevent Himawari from resisting it. There's some mystery factor to the resistance, and it's unclear yet if she has it or not.

If Himawari falls under Eida's spell, I agree that she's unlikely to go into revenge mode immediately. But I could see her becoming a tracker-nin to find Boruto and attempt to talk-no-jutsu him the same way Naruto tried to do with his "brother" Sasuke. I don't know if Himawari would automatically believe Boruto's explanation, but she'd at least hear him out.

But knowing Kishimoto, there will be some contrived misunderstanding to push her into Byakugan Berserker mode anyway, solely so he can draw her and Boruto fighting. Then Toneri will show up on the sidelines, make some analogy to Hiashi and Hizashi Hyuuga, and monologue about the nature of fate.

[adamwatchesmovies]

Escape Plan: The Extractors (2019)

While I didn't enjoy this film, that doesn't mean you won't. No matter what I say, the people involved in this project did it: they actually made a movie. That's something to be applauded. With that established...

I must be completely fair in my review of Escape Plan: The Extractors by admitting I saw it by mistake. I thought I had selected the first movie on my player, not the third. If this picture redeems itself by completing nuanced character arcs or tying up previously-introduced loose ends in a way that pleases fans, I can’t say. What I can tell you is how forced a sequel this feels. Did this movie begin as something completely different? Was it tweaked in post-production to trick audiences into watching it? Sure feels that way.

Daya Zhang (Malese Jow) is kidnapped by mercenaries. Her bodyguard (Harry Shum, Jr.) seeks security expert Ray Breslin (Sylvester Stallone) for help. Daya is indirectly familiar to Breslin. He knows her lover and former bodyguard, Shen Lo (Max Zhang). The kidnapper is a familiar face from Breslin’s past as well: Lester Clark, Jr. (Devon Sawa) is the son of Breslin’s corrupt ex-business partner. He wants revenge for his daddy’s death and the captured heiress is just the thing to lure Breslin into a trap.

It takes a long time for what Escape Plan 3 is actually about to become clear. We have… how many heroes? There’s Daya’s current bodyguard and her former bodyguard. Why they want to save the woman is pretty straightforward. Breslin's name was on the flash drive left behind when Daya was kidnapped so obviously, he's invested too. As for the villain, Lester Jr. wants money. That's why you kidnap people - at least, most of the time. Eventually, it’s revealed Lester Jr. doesn’t actually care about any ransom. He just wants Ray to come and face him. See what I mean about two random plots stitched together? This is made more obvious when Lester Jr. kidnaps Abigail (Jaime King), Breslin’s girlfriend 37 years his junior. Breslin has never met Daya before. If he gets to her before the kung-fu bodyguards do, she’ll have no idea what’s going on.

While I haven't seen Escape Plan, I know the premise from the trailer. This is NOTHING like it. There’s no prison to escape from, unless you count Lester Jr.’s base of operations: a dank, rusty, run-down prison with no guards - but inmates in every cell. It’s hard to believe this place would have running water, much less an internet connection, which makes a scene in which the baddies take one of Daya’s employees, hand him a laptop and instruct him to hack into her family’s financial account particularly hilarious. And they just leave him in the room alone! He could be doing anything on that computer!

None of the film's problems feel as brutal as the camerawork and direction. Any potentially exciting scenes are transmogrified into eyeball garbage by the confusing camerawork. You can’t tell what’s going on half the time and the editing makes it unclear whose objectives are what. You’re bored, just hoping this catastrophe will end soon. Suddenly, there’s a big fight. You think the movie’s over. Escape Plan 3 has you fooled. That guy who just died? It wasn't the main boss. It was some henchman the camera made you think was important… by accident!

I once dated a woman whose father would watch any movie starring Steven Seagal. He didn't care that the former action star hasn’t had a movie worth mentioning since 1992. He was a fan and would make it a priority to watch any Steven Seagal movie. If you’re that sort of person, then Escape Plan: The Extractors practically has your name on it. Otherwise, this is a movie you’ll be unsure actually exists even after having finished it. (March 27, 2020)

[sleepyselkiesiren]

All my Faves are Dead

I’m feeling suuuuper ill rn and thus have decided to reveal my curse to the world:

All my favorite characters die. Usually within the first act and/or within 15 minutes of me realising they’re my fave. My partner never lets me live this down.

I am compiling a list of them below the cut because A. spoilers for more stuff than I can possibly tag and B. it’s loooooong

Sitka, Brother Bear

Mr. Arrow, Treasure Planet

Tadashi, Big Hero 6

King Harrow, the Dragon Prince

Tala, Moana

Benja, Raya and the Last Dragon

Ellie, Up

Casita, Encanto

Tarzan’s parents, Tarzan

Koro-Sensei, Assassination Classroom

Mel, Lost Song

Yugiri, Zombieland Saga

Ben, Umbrella Academy (many, many times, in fact)

Bucky Barnes, MCU

Fili, The Hobbit

Matthew Cuthbert, Anne of Green Gables

Leslie Burke, Bridge to Terebithia

Morganna, Merlin

Achaka, King’s Quest

Connor, Detroit Become Human

Beckendorf, Percy Jackson

Alex Fierro, Magnus Chase

Whiteout, Wings of Fire

(No Images)

Henry Clerval, Frankenstein

Morningtide, Starsight

Beth, Little Women

Tom Robinson, To Kill a Mockingbird

Aaaaaaand that’s where my braincell peters out because apparently I accidentally deleted my list XD Who knows, maybe I’ll add more later as they come to me

All drawings taken from the official Wikis

[grubloved]

Lily Alexandre is speaking to the camera, mouth close to the microphone, tone even and measured:

LILY A: "We turn movements into logos. We turn real people into icons, and erase their human-ness in the process.

No one has been more thoroughly mythologized than Marsha P Johnson and Silvia Riviera, leaders of Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.) and participants in the Stonewall uprising -- especially Marsha, whose image has taken on an almost messianic weight in the years since her death. An invocation of everything holy.

A widely spread account presents Marsha as the heroic black trans woman who threw the first brick at Stonewall, igniting the gay liberation movement. The truth is more complicated, as truths often are.

Marsha never identified as a trans woman, she showed up to the riot hours after it started, and it's unclear whether anyone threw a brick. Outside her activism, Marsha was also a whole person, and a fascinating one. She was a performer, and deeply religious. She was a caregiver to a man dying of AIDs complications while herself HIV positive. The myth of Marsha is an all-timer, and we can learn from it, but the full story offers so much more insight.

If anything, I think that's actually why younger white queers avoid engaging with it, and avoid engaging with our history in general. With her life history fleshed out, Marsha doesn't seem so far away anymore. These details that were peripheral to the myth become impossible to ignore. How she was a sex worker. How she was described as mentally ill and prone to lashing out at people. How she was intermittently homeless.

Suddenly, Marsha and Silvia remind easily scandalized white queers of people we know and treat poorly. Transfemmes of color. Sex workers. Homeless addicts. Heavily traumatized people. People who speak out and don't take shit, even when it would be polite to."

[ Clip of Silvia Riviera, a mic clutched in one hand, bent forward slightly, shouting into the mic with all her energy, "I have been thrown in jail, I have lost my job, I have lost my apartment -- for gay liberation! And you all treat me this way?!" She jabs a finger at the crowd with her free hand. "What the fuck's WRONG with you all?!" Her audio fades out as she straightens, tosses her hair.]

LILY A: And Marsha and Silvia's detractors, those who marginalized them, jeered at them -- suddenly they remind us of ourselves.

[Silvia switches hands, has gathered herself upright, one hip cocked. She gestures again. "You're all very brave now," she says. She turns away, lowers the mic for a moment, as the crowd erupts in boos, hisses, and yells.]

LILY A: "The space between past and present collapses. It becomes obvious that when we villainize traumatized members of our community, we're also villanizing our trailblazers. That complaints about drag queens and the male-assigned among us are complaints about Silvia and Marsha, whether or not they mean to be. That the queer internet's puritanical, optics-above-all moral code would condemn these militants as a "threat to children", and ban them from any Pride events we have a say in.

Lily Alexandre, "Why is Queer Discourse So Toxic?", June 30, 2022 <- click for link

[thefirstknife]

OK... So I was told when I first started getting into lore that back in D1 there were lore tabs (called grimoire notes or something? IDK, I only started getting into lore once D2 was out) that said specifically guardian's could have children. But then I also got conflicting information that there is no such thing. Now I know that you, personally, have stated that we don't really know. So I guess what I'm asking is, do you think there's merit is literally reading every single grimoire note from D1 to see if there's anything that could tell us one way or another? Because I'm the crazy who will do it and hate my life cause, I'll be real with you, the old stuff was a little dry. Also, if you know what lore tab they might be thinking of that is actually ambiguous, but 'seen in the right light' could be misconstrued as saying definitively they can have children. Also is there lore that would have started the thought process that they /can't/ have children, because that actually seems kind of a stretch to suddenly jump to. I would be more likely to believe they CAN then they CAN NOT as they are brought back from death perfectly fine and healthy. So unless there's lore saying they CAN'T then I'm a little baffled by it. Sorry if this was meandering? Also, thank you for reading through that trainwreck of stream of consciousness xD

Old grimoires don't go into this question so you won't find much digging through them. It hasn't been discussed much back in the day, not that I can remember at least.

This has always been up in the air. Guardian health and body-status in general. Like, how .... "alive" are they really? Given that they're immortal and paracausal and all that. We don't have any firm answers, but there have been some hints recently actually.

For example, in the second lore page from the new lore book, Triage (still not available on Ishtar but linking for the future), Safiyah doesn't let Zavala's Ghost heal him and instead she shows him how to tend to the wound. That means that Guardian bodies still work relatively normally, as Zavala was bleeding and his wound acted like it would for anyone else. He just has a Ghost that can patch that up quickly.

"This isn't necessary," he says, but lets her continue. She produces her hooked needle, the hemostat, the polypropylene thread. Tools that fit easily in her hands; precious resources for an immortal man.

"I'm going to close the wound," she says, and touches his arm lightly with a gloved hand. "I will make six sutures. It will take four days, maybe five, to heal."

So without using a Ghost, a Lightbearer needs the same type of medical attention and healing time. This suggests to me that their bodies still work exactly the same.

As for children.... It's a very tough question to answer because even if Lightbearers' bodies work normally otherwise without a Ghost (need to be healed, can scar, become disabled...), bearing children is a whole other thing.

There is only one direct mention of this, but it's unclear. Iron Forerunner class item from Season of the Lost:

"You'll never have a son," his Ghost had said, "but it isn't too late for you to take an apprentice."

This is Saladin's Ghost telling him to take Zavala as an apprentice because he will never have a son. Does that mean that Saladin, as a Lightbearer, physically cannot have a son? Or that he as a Lightbearer should not make children because he will outlive them? As I said, it's unclear. We can't tell if this is something that's just phsically impossible or if Saladin's Ghost is just telling him it would be a bad idea to have a biological family given that he's immortal.

Or maybe it's just Saladin himself who simply cannot have children? As in, maybe he couldn't have children before he was a Lightbearer too.

This is interesting also because we now know that Zavala had a family with a mortal woman. And lore on Tymbal Lucidae mentions also that he had a son. However, it does not specify if the child was Zavala's biological son. Frustrating.

At first I thought that the previous lore for Saladin was as clear as they could get with telling us that Guardians can't have children, but this new lore with Zavala is making me question that. Obviously, Hakim (Zavala's son) can be adopted, but the ship lore mentions that Zavala was there since the child was an infant. The framing makes me think it's not an adopted kid:

Early evening stretched out before him; his son's infant silhouette traced into the violet sky. The air thrummed with the cicada's song. Hakim traipsed through the meadow as a child, stood a boy, and flickered forward through adolescence in rotoscoped evolution until, when he stepped in front of his father, he was almost a man. Zavala laughed to himself with prideful disbelief at the sight of his son.

We will likely get more info on this through the Triage lore book, but we'll have to wait a few more weeks. And hope that Bungie gets a bit more specific about whether or not Zavala actually had a biological child.

We'll have to wait to see the full story of the Triage lore book and Zavala's life with his family to get more answers. And that is IF they give us a direct answer. At this point, it all hinges on how they tell us more about Hakim and whether he was Zavala's biological son. Only that, for now, will fully answer this question for good.

[kythed]

what love tastes like

terushima yuuji x reader

synopsis: in which you learn that falling in love tastes like monster

--

“Taste,” he says. He holds the cold rim of a freshly opened can to your lips, and first it’s metallic, salty, but then it’s sweet. 

You take a sip. 

“So you’re telling me you’ve never tried Monster before?” he asks, taking a drink himself. The two of you are sitting on a park bench across the street from a gas station. He licks his lips-- the silver ball embedded in his tongue winks at you, a shallow token of youthful rebellion that somehow seems more significant on him. 

“Never. I’m more of a Dr. Pepper girl.” You reach for the can again, letting the saccharine liquid sloshing inside coat your tongue. It’s really too much for me, you think. But of course, you won’t tell him that. 

“Not anymore,” he says, and he slips a firm hand around the back of your neck, pulling you towards him and daring you to look away with a wicked grin-- it’s attractive, to say the least. “Now you’re my girl.” 

You’ve barely parted your lips to respond before his mouth is on yours, tongue halfway down your throat, and you’re whimpering into the kiss as he snakes a hand down your back and presses your body to his. The whole ordeal tastes like Monster and feels far more energizing than the packaging promises. 

Within your first day of meeting him, Terushima Yuuji has already claimed you as his own. 

And you’re okay with it.

--

He’s about as healthy for you as the Monster is-- which is to say, not at all. 

In your next couple months of dating him, this becomes apparent. He takes you to the edge of the woods at twilight and lights your first cigarette, laughing as you take a draw and end up coughing. Plucking it from your fingers, he holds the cig high as smoke curls into the hazy sky and eventually melds with the faintly orange cumuli. “Guess it’ll take a little practice before you can smoke with the big dogs, huh?”

You flush and snatch it back, determined to prove your aptitude for defiance. By the end of the night, you can blow smoke rings-- he applauds, and for some odd reason your heart swells at his lazy grin. 

(The next kiss tastes like tobacco and novelty.)

He shows you each of his tattoos, some of which peek out from underneath his clothes, some of which aren’t exactly visible to the onlooker’s eye. There’s a tendril of ivy climbing down his forearm, a flock of wild cranes taking flight from his left shoulder. A dark silhouette is on his chest, kneeling low to who knows what. You trace the image of an unlit candle on the back of his neck, asking what it means-- for a millisecond, his mouth tightens into an expressionless line, but then he laughs. “Why, you want one too? Let’s go to the parlor then.” 

When you decline, he takes a permanent marker from his bedside table and prints a small label on your inner wrist. ‘Mine’ it says, accompanied by an oddly appropriate smiley face. “Then this will have to do.”

(This kiss tastes like ink and enigma.) 

He brings you to a decrepit manor on the outskirts of town-- legend has it a young, newly wealthy couple purchased it twenty years ago, unaware its foundations rested on a centuries old cemetery. The spiteful spirits drove them to the brink of madness. The sort of madness that could only be alleviated by the resounding finality of death. 

“They were found hanging from their bedsheets in the west wing,” Yuuji whispers to you, his breath tickling your ear. An unwanted tremor runs from your head to your high-tops. You don’t believe in ghosts, so it must be because you’re cold. (At least, that’s what you tell yourself.) “I want that kind of love.” 

You turn, surprised to see his expression remains entirely serious. “The kind where you die for one another?”

“The kind where you die with one another,” he corrects, wistfully gazing into the dingy bay windows protruding from the manor’s anterior. 

You remain silent. 

“Life is just an accumulation of bad decisions, and love is just an accumulation of bad decisions you make with another person,” he muses, still peering at the grandeur of the lonely estate. He turns to you, a dangerous glint in his eye. “Wanna make a bad decision with me?” 

The next hour is spent in the modest company of Yuuji, a couple of baseball bats, and the empty halls of a long dead house. There’s no one to witness the two of you shattering each dusty antique vase save for the portraits on the wall. Soon, their frames, too, receive a violent visit from a vindictive bat, usually accompanied by Yuuji’s unadulterated glee and a resounding whoop. 

You’re not a fan of destruction. Especially not the destruction of rare, precious items reminiscent of a life bygone. Yet, it’s exhilarating to indulge in it, to swing your bat with a meaningless vengeance and watch as whatever priceless heirloom that evoked your baseless wrath fractures into pieces. You demolish a set of fine china found in the dining room cabinet and Yuuji gathers you into his arms, kissing you fiercely (it tastes like some sort of perverse, seductive joy, rosewater mixed with ashes). He chuckles into your mouth when you push your tongue into his, retribution for your first kiss many weeks ago. It’s deliciously gratifying. 

If Yuuji is right, and love is just a mosaic of bad decisions and desire-- maybe you’re okay with that. Maybe this is all I really need, you think, watching Yuuji from the corner of your eye on the drive home. Yellow street lights cast irregular shadows on his angular features, lending him an otherworldly sort of beauty. 

“What is it?” he asks, without taking his eyes off the road. One of his hands inches up your inner thigh, giving it a quick squeeze before retreating to the responsibility of the steering wheel. 

You hesitate, just for a second. An unseen force constricts around your throat; you banish it with a hard swallow. “I love you.” 

One second passes. Then two. 

He says nothing the rest of the ride home, and you sit in mortified silence, watching traffic blur by with glassy eyes. You must’ve misread this whole thing. You’re just a fling Yuuji plans on discarding whenever he grows tired… your mouth goes dry with regret. 

When you pull up in front of your house, he walks you to your front door. You can hardly stand to look him in the eye. 

“Well, thanks for today,” you say, examining your shoelaces with false interest. “I had a lot of--”

“I love you, too.” 

Startled, you look up. “I- what?” 

“I said,” he says, stepping close, putting a hand beneath your chin to tilt it upwards. Your body is eclipsed by his larger one, and you’re overwhelmed with the sudden urge to hide from his penetrating gaze. “I love you, too.” 

A beat of silence.

“Oh,” you breathe, and, suddenly, his lips are on yours, kissing you fervently— but this time, it’s chaste, it’s… loving (and it tastes like honeyed laughter). Only for a second though.

Then his hands are on your waist, fingers gripping hard enough to leave bruises; he’s aflame with a hotblooded passion-- your body is his Holy Grail and your mouth is its rim. He leads you into the hallway, fumbling to close the door behind him. You gasp when he pushes you up against the wall and harshly sucks at the sensitive skin beneath your jaw, your nails digging into his back through the thin fabric of his t-shirt. 

“I love you,” he mumbles, painting your neck with a line of ardent kisses, trailing from right below your ear to right above your collarbone. “I love you, I love you, I love you.” 

--

There’s something a little too tender in the way he caresses your face the next morning to wake you after he’s slipped his clothes back on, in the way he smiles softly at your bleary eyed confusion, in the way he holds you in his embrace a fraction of a second longer than you hold him in yours before saying goodbye. 

Terushima Yuuji may play the part of a reckless delinquent, but he’s not your average troublemaker. There’s something inscrutable behind his gaze, even as he sprays obscene graffiti on stop signs and shoplifts alcohol from the neighborhood drugstore, a walking cliche of hoodlum culture. 

There’s something a little too careful about the boy who claims to be careless. 

Yuuji is still fun, of course. He takes immense pride in being fun. He invites you to one of his friends’ gigs, some sort of grunge-esque affair with a heavily pulsating bass line and a preponderance of cheap liquor in red plastic cups. The drummer winks at you during one of the songs-- later Yuuji slugs him in the jaw, taking a few hits in the process, and makes a show of kissing you sloppily while the poor drummer nurses his rapidly forming bruise with a pack of frozen peas. (The kiss, of course, tastes like blood and pride.) 

He teaches you how to use a switchblade-- “Just in case,” he says, wrapping his hand around yours in an effort to show you the proper grip. In exactly what situation you’d be forced to use a switchblade remains unclear, but when you ask he just laughs and shrugs, spinning the knife in between his slender fingers. “You never know.”

(He tells you a story of a fist fight years ago and lifts his shirt to point out a pale, faded scar-- the other guy brought a knife concealed in his sleeve. You then agree it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.)

The two of you trespass on the regular, scaling fences and picking locks to dip your feet in private pools, to run barefoot on the soft grass of a golf course late at night, to explore taped off tunnels and underpasses. 

All of it is fun, all of it depicts your relationship as something accidental, something reckless, the convergence of two beings as coincidental as the convergence of the two cells that provoked the Big Bang. 

But your intimate moments, the faintest imprints in between the lines, tell a different story. One onlookers don’t see. 

They don’t see how Yuuji places a hand on the small of your back to guide you over a crosswalk, or how he pours a coffee and carefully blows on it before bringing it to you. They don’t see how he laughs when you laugh and smiles when you smile. 

They don’t hear what he whispers to you under the sheets-- sweet nothings that would make Cupid himself blush-- as he touches you slowly, purposefully, following your curves deliberately as a sculptor molding clay. 

They don’t feel his kisses, delicately placed on your lips, your neck, your stomach and thighs. They don’t feel his eyelashes fluttering on your cheek as he allows himself to rest with you in his most vulnerable state. 

It’s during these moments that deep secrets are so shyly exchanged in the sleepy haze of late nights and early mornings. He bares his soul to you in all its imperfection (you suspect you are the only one to have ever seen it in this state). He shatters himself bit by bit like the vases you splintered so long ago, offering you the fragments so you can gradually piece together the entire portrait. 

“You know how I told you my dad taught me how to fight?” he asks one of these times. Your head is in his lap as he strokes your hair ever-so-lightly. You nod, looking up into those sweet brown eyes-- they look sad today. “That’s only half true. He didn’t teach me, but I had to learn because of him.” 

You take his hand and brush your lips over his knuckles, humming softly, and he takes this small act of comfort and stores it away like he always does. 

I’m sorry. 

“I’m scared of trying to be someone different than I am now, but I want to be. I wish I could be.”

You can. 

“I’m sorry for getting you into so much trouble these days.”

Don’t be.

“I think we should run away, just you and me. We could make it, you know.”

I know. 

Of course, all good things come to an end. You know that. 

You just aren’t anticipating something so good to end so soon-- as suddenly as Terushima Yuuji becomes yours, he disappears. 

One morning, he’s sleeping in the bed next to you, and the next he’s gone without a trace. Literally. He leaves behind no extra t-shirts, no stray sock or phone charger, no note. You pad down the hall, ducking your head into each room.

“Yuuji?” you call. “Is this some sort of joke?”

It’s not. 

You call his phone and reach his voicemail. Hey, this is Terushima. Not available right now, probably busy doing somethin’ stupid or taking a piss. Leave a message if you want. 

The sound of his voice grows more and more painful to hear over the next six months. At first, you call every day, then every week, then every month. At month six, you’ve stopped calling at all. If he wanted to answer, he would. You don’t even know why you’ve kept it up so long when he obviously left for a reason. 

So, you pick up the pieces of your broken heart and cobble them together again. It’s not a graceful recovery, but it’s a recovery, and that’s what matters. The gaping hole he left is gradually filled by your family, your friends-- you don’t go on a single date, but that’s okay. (You’re just not ready. You tell yourself that you will be, someday.)  

Soon, you’re whole again. As you discover, there are ways to find yourself other than falling dangerously in love with a dangerous boy. 

You run into him one day, eight or so months after his disappearance. You’re filling your car at a gas station, and at the park across the street, he’s sitting next to a girl you don’t recognize. She laughs at all his jokes and sips a can of Monster he offers her. As if he can feel your stare, Yuuji glances over and catches your eye. He jogs across the street, dodging traffic, and you two exchange tentative pleasantries before the conversation comes to an uneasy rest on the taboo-- why he left.

It wasn’t because of you, it turns out. At least, not really. You were just the catalyst.

“I was the problem,” Yuuji says, laughing, though the smile doesn’t reach his eyes. “You remember how I once told you I thought love was making your bad decisions with someone by your side?”

You nod, and the wound has scabbed over enough for you to remember it lightly, with a slight curve of the lips.

“You showed me that wasn’t true.” He tugs on the collar of his t-shirt absentmindedly, not quite meeting your gaze. “I started wanting to make good decisions instead. And that just wasn’t me. Love isn’t for me.”

“It could’ve been,” you say simply. He stares at you, momentarily unable to form a response. Then he laughs it off, a sound you used to adore that now sounds harsh and grating. 

“Maybe someday,” he says, but his expression tells you otherwise. It tells you how scared he is of ever being that person.

The thing about love is that it gives you something to lose. It gives you a reason to make good decisions. It gives you something to fear for. 

As he turns to leave, Yuuji freezes in his tracks. He throws a look over his shoulder. “Just for the record-- it hurt. Leaving. I did love you.” 

You smile. It’s a genuine smile, but it’s sad, too. “I know.” 

And the thing about fear is that some people can’t bear it well enough to let themselves love someone. 

You watch his retreating back for a brief moment before climbing into your car. It’s not until you’re halfway home that you realize you’re crying. Tears roll down your cheeks into your lap, staining your jeans. 

You hope he comes to love that new girl, the one he’s sharing a Monster with. You hope she loves him back with all her heart. You hope she spends hours and hours picking through his pieces and reassembling him from the bottom up. You hope she comes to find that his kisses taste like tobacco and novelty, like ink and enigma, like rosewater and ashes and joy. You hope that, to her, those kisses never taste like regret. 

You hope that this time, he’s scared. But not so scared he can’t let himself stay.

[katnissmellarkkk]

Yes, I know. It has been forever and three days since I updated this fic. But don’t worry I didn’t abandon! But since it’s been a while, if you want to go back and re-read the first three chapters, they’re on AO3. But if you’d rather just read a quick recap of the events so far, here it is:

- Peeta found Katniss after she blew out the arena at the end of Catching Fire and before the Capitol hovercraft found him, causing them both to be captured.

- Snow played tricks to get Katniss to cooperate and said Peeta was dead.

- Katniss loses her cool and tries to scratch Snow’s face off like she did Haymitch’s in canon.

- Snow later revealed Peeta was still alive but badly injured and promised to save him if Katniss did what he wanted.

- Katniss was reunited with Peeta but Snow’s head guard comes to make Katniss pay for attacking the president.

-

Marcus unlocks our cell door once again and tosses it open, with the flick of only two thick fingers. "What're you doing here?" I find myself asking, the volume in my voice raising as he comes closer and closer. His eyes, which appear black in the dim light, are trained solely on me. "What do you want?" I demand again, so exhausted and so hungry and so close to fracturing apart entirely.

"What?" He smirks at me, and then at Peeta, as if he can't believe we didn't already anticipate his arrival.

But when he tries to take another step closer to me, Peeta grabs my hand and pushes me behind him, attempting to shelter me from the petrifying male with the rotten gleam deep in his eyes.

He's not fast enough though, he couldn't possibly be. Marcus is swift as the wind and rips on my arm until I'm thrown directly into the concrete wall. My back, thankfully, took the brunt this time.

The awful man peers down as his smile grows larger, flaunting a mouth of crooked, silver and gold implanted teeth.

"Oh I'm sorry? Did you really think you'd get away with scratching the face of President Snow that easily?"

-

Everything becomes a blur so fast. In a matter of moments, everything around me, everything inside of me, becomes distant and unclear and covered by a deep haze.

Marcus lets me go at first, letting Peeta grab me again, not putting up a fight for reasons unknown to both of us. We don’t spend any time at all pondering it though. We don’t the luxury.

Peeta is holding me behind him when the chaos starts. That’s the very last thing I can clearly remember. Peeta’s arms are tight around me, stretched backwards as if he possesses the power to cage me away from any predators headed our way. I tell myself that I should try to do something, that it should be me shielding him, that my wish to save his life in the arena still stands now inside Snow’s mansion.

But our attempts and desires are all in vain. Everything me and him try to do is irrelevant, like a fly trying to fight a human’s hand from crushing it to death. Like the deer I hunt in the woods, who try to run and protect themselves a split second before my arrow pierces their hearts wide open.

Maybe this whole thing is nature’s revenge on me for murdering countless animals.

Every defense we put up is fruitless, as in the blink of an eye, three more large — unnaturallylarge — men join us in the cell too and they have long needles in their hands and muscles no normal person could ever dream of, and they outnumber us. Even on our best day, even in the greatest shape of our lives, these men could break us with their bare fist.

Peeta is stuck with a needle first and almost instantly collapses. Against his will, he falters to the ground, his eyes and hands twitching as he lays against the cracked concrete floor, immobile from whatever they injected into his bloodstream.

And I don’t have time to even cry his name. I barely have a second to process what just happened, to fear that he’s really dead this time — I mean, after all, how many times can he almost die and then pop back up again?— before I’m suddenly grabbed and yanked and stabbed with another syringe, containing a different kind of concoction.

The world becomes unbelievably foggy after that. It’s almost as if a gray-blue film has been cast over my vision, as if I can’t see things clearly any longer, as if my ears are plugged and my mouth is stuffed with cotton and my eyelids are unbearably heavy.

But the weirdest part of all is that I can still feeleverything. I can feel absolutely everything as the scariest guard, Marcus, drags my limp body across the ice cold floor and down the narrow hallway. I feel it as he handcuffs my wrists too tight to the wall and a large drop of water splats from the ceiling above.

Read The Rest On AO3

[church-history]

Sts. Perpetua and Felicitas - Roman Martyrs

Sts. Perpetua and Felicity were Christian martyrs who lived during the early persecution of the Church in Africa by the Emperor Severus.

With details concerning the lives of many early martyrs unclear and often based on legend, we are fortunate to have the actual record of the courage of Perpetua and Felicity from the hand of Perpetua herself, her teacher Saturus, and others who knew them. This account, known as "The Passion of St. Perpetua, St. Felicitas, and their Companions," was so popular in the early centuries that it was read during liturgies.

In the year 203, Vivia Perpetua, a well-educated noblewoman, made the decision to follow the path of her mother and become a Christian, although she knew it could mean her death during the persecutions ordered by the Emperor Severus. Her surviving brother (another brother had died when he was seven) followed her leadership and became a catechumen as well, meaning he would receive instruction from a Catechist in the Catholic Christian faith and be prepared for Baptism. 

Her pagan father was frantic with worry and tried to talk her out of her decision. At 22-years-old, the well-educated, high-spirited woman had every reason to want to live -- including a baby son whom she was still nursing. We know she was married, but since her husband is never mentioned, many historians assume she was already a widow.

Perpetua's answer was simple and clear. Pointing to a water jug, she asked her father, "See that pot lying there? Can you call it by any other name than what it is?"

Her father answered, "Of course not." Perpetua responded, "Neither can I call myself by any other name than what I am -- a Christian."

This answer upset her father and he attacked her. Perpetua reports that after that incident she was glad to be separated from him for a few days -- even though that separation was the result of her arrest and imprisonment.

Perpetua was arrested with four other catechumens, including two slaves, Felicity and Revocatus, and Saturninus and Secundulus. Their instructor in the faith, Saturus, chose to share their punishment and was also imprisoned.

Perpetua was baptized before taken to prison. She was known for her gift of "the Lord's speech" and receiving messages from God. She tells us that at the time of her baptism she was told to pray for nothing but endurance in the face of her trials.

The prison was so crowded with people that the heat was suffocating. There was no light anywhere and Perpetua "had never known such darkness."

The soldiers who arrested and guarded them pushed and shoved them without any concern. Perpetua had no trouble admitting she was very afraid, but during all this horror, her most excruciating pain came from being separated from her baby.

The young slave, Felicity was even worse off, for Felicity suffered the stifling heat, overcrowding, and rough handling while being eight months pregnant.

Two deacons who ministered to the prisoners paid the guards to place the martyrs in a better part of the prison. There, her mother and brother were able to visit Perpetua and bring her baby to her.

When she received permission for her baby to stay with her she recalled, "my prison suddenly became a palace for me." Once more her father came to her, begging her to give in, kissing her hands, and throwing himself at her feet. She told him, "We lie not in our own power but in the power of God."

When she and the others were taken to be examined and sentenced, her father followed, pleading with her and the judge. The judge, out of pity, also tried to get Perpetua to change her mind, but when she stood fast, she was sentenced with the others to be thrown to the wild beasts in the arena.

Perpetua recanted how her brother spoke to her, "Lady sister, you are now greatly honored, so greatly that you may well pray for a vision to show you whether suffering or release is in store for you." Perpetua, who spoke to the Lord often, told her brother she would tell him what happened the next day.

While she prayed, Perpetua was shown a golden ladder of the highest length, reaching up to heaven. On the sides of the ladder were swords, lances, hooks and daggers so that if anyone did not climb looking up on Heaven, they would be severely injured. At the bottom of the ladder laid a large dragon to try to scare those journeying up away from Heaven.

Perpetua first saw Saturus go up. After he reached the top of the ladder he said, "Perpetua, I wait for you, but take care that the dragon does not bite you." To which she replied, "In the name of Jesus Christ, he will not hurt me," and the dragon put his down his head.

Perpetua traveled up the ladder and saw a beautiful vast garden with a tall man with white hair dressed like a shepherd and milking sheep. 'Thou art well come, my child," he said to Perpetua, giving her some of the curds from the milk. She ate and all those around her said, "Amen."

Perpetua woke from her dream with a sweet taste still in her mouth. At once, she told her brother what happened and together, they understood they must suffer.

Meanwhile, Felicity was also in torment. It was against the law for pregnant women to be executed. To kill a child in the womb was shedding innocent and sacred blood. Felicity was afraid that she would not give birth before the day set for their martyrdom and her companions would go on their journey without her. Her friends also didn't want to leave so "good a comrade" behind.

Two days before the execution, Felicity went into a painful labor. The guards made fun of her, insulting her by saying, "If you think you suffer now, how will stand it when you face the wild beasts?" Felicity answered them calmly, "Now I'm the one who is suffering, but in the arena, another will be in me suffering for me because I will be suffering for him."

She gave birth to a healthy girl who was adopted and raised by one of the Christian women of Carthage.

The officers of the prison began to recognize the power of the Christians and the strength and leadership of Perpetua. In some cases, this helped the Christians: the warden let them have visitors -- and later became a believer. But in other cases, it caused superstitious terror, as when one officer refused to let them get cleaned up on the day they were going to die for fear they'd try some sort of spell.

Perpetua immediately spoke up, "We're supposed to die in honor of Ceasar's birthday. Wouldn't it look better for you if we looked better?" The officer blushed with shame at her reproach and started to treat them better.

There was a feast the day before the games, so that the crowd could see the martyrs and make fun of them. But the martyrs turned this all around by laughing at the crowd for not being Christians and exhorting them to follow their example.

The four new Christians and their teacher went to the arena (the fifth, Secundulus, had died in prison) with joy and calm. Perpetua in usual high spirits met the eyes of everyone along the way. We are told she walked with "shining steps as the true wife of Christ, the darling of God."

When those at the arena tried to force Perpetua and the rest to dress in robes dedicated to their gods, Perpetua challenged her executioners. "We came to die out of our own free will so we wouldn't lose our freedom to worship our God. We gave you our lives so that we wouldn't have to worship your gods." She and the others were allowed to keep their clothes.

The men were attacked by bears, leopards, and wild boars. The women were stripped to face a rabid heifer. The two were thrown out and attacked, but the crowd cried out they had had enough. The women were removed and clothed again. Perpetua and Felicity were thrown back into the arena to face the gladiators.

Perpetua called out to her brother and other Christians, "Stand fast in the faith, and love one another. Do not let our sufferings be a stumbling block to you."

Perpetua and Felicity stood side by side and were killed by sword at Carthage in the Roman province of Africa.

Sts. Perpetua and Felicity are the patron saints of mothers, expectant mothers, ranchers and butchers. Their feast day is celebrated on March 7.

https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=48

[bubby-paws]

[ORR] Ikemen Prince: Beauty and Her Beast - Chevalier Mitchel Route Review.

[EDITED, I wrote the first version of this at 5 am so it was so unclear, that I decided to edit it!]

Hello everyone, this is our first route review for Otome Games that I have personally played. For today, we will talk about Ikemen Prince: Beauty and Her Beast which is made by CYBIRD. 

MAIN PLOT: You are an ordinary citizen of Rhodalite that works in a bookstore, living life through the stories written in books. One day, your pure heart caught the eye of a Royal Minister turning you into 'Belle'. Your job is to discern which of the 8 Princes are worth to be the next King of Rhodalite. With their own charms, any blossoming love will be doomed by the Clause 99 of Belle's Covenant.

MAIN ROUTES: 1st Prince Jin Grandet, 2nd Prince Chevalier Mitchel, 3rd Prince Clavis Lelouch, 4th Prince Leon Dompteur, 5th Prince Yves Kloss, 6th Prince Licht Klein, 7th Prince Nokto Klein, and 8th Prince Luke Randolph. Minister and King's Regent, Sariel Noir and, Your Butler, Rio Ortiz.

Currently, Clavis, Luke, Sariel, and Rio's routes are not yet released.

My first ever route in this game is, 2nd Prince Chevalier Mitchel. He is the cold character in this game, portrayed as cruel, cold, beast and lack of human heart, his route definitely intrigued me the most.

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THIS ROUTE!

Chevalier Mitchel is one of the first characters in Ikemen Prince that is introduced during the prologue. Honestly, his type of character is the one which I am very attracted to especially in terms of personality. I just like how stories go with a personality like his.

In the first part of his route, you shouldn't expect anything romantic of sorts with him. Chevalier is described as cold and very beast-like (aggressive, no mercy, and no heart), although a very common archetype in Otome games, I like how his character is written compared to the other ones I have played before.

The background of Chevalier is heavy and deeply rooted in his childhood, as said by Prince Clavis, the 3rd Prince, Chevalier had no heart since he is a kid. This means his attitude became very hard to discern from Belle's point of view. Especially when Belle is starting to see the human heart within the 'beast'.

There are parts in the story where I, as the player of the game, even wondered if I did choose the right route as the introduction to the game. I felt like it was too dramatic, too complicated, and like he was a bad character to choose which is exactly what Belle felt like in the story. To see the human heart within Chevalier as a character and suddenly being greeted by his brutality on how he decides to do things for their Kingdom is definitely a rollercoaster.

One of my favorite moments in the story though is the part where he is seen during the memorial of the soldiers that passed because of the war he caused. Acted tough as if he didn't mind the death of those soldiers when in reality, he wanted to remember each and every name that has died for their Kingdom and to continue to become the best leader for them. This is the part where Belle also starts to realize what he is.

He has a human heart but choose to pretend he doesn't have it!

I like the fact that this route isn't the usual 'bad guy became good' story, since he has been this way as a kid, it took a long time for Belle to change his heart. To be able to listen to his people instead of acting on what's best for the Kingdom regardless of who he hurt. Belle made him realize that there is, after all, a middle way when making a decision for the Kingdom and its people.

This route definitely didn't have a generic ending either, I chose the Romantic Route for the ending because I genuinely can't handle any more drama from his route. Either way, the ending is that Belle and Chevalier followed the Clause 99, even when both of them have strong feelings for each other.

They are not together for a year, pretending to be happy for each other even when they are apart. Prince Clavis, as annoying as he is in this story, became an important part of them getting back to each other after a year. The ending was nice and actually pretty sweet especially the epilogue.

To be honest, there is a part of me that wishes there was a choice for a sad ending, where they both don't end up together and find lovers of their own. But, the ending was sweet and not rushed at all.

If I have anything bad to say about this route, it probably is that Prince Clavis is annoying, he is an essential part of his route for it to actually happen but his character is annoying for me. Other than that, it's a good route and I would recommend it to anyone, maybe not as a first route though, it is very stressful!

Anyway, that is it for this route review. I am now doing my next route which is Yves Kloss, the 5th Prince! I will tell you my thoughts about him when I do finish his.