#fear of recapture

[honeycollectswhump]

„[…] He didn’t want punishment, he wanted soft touches and gentle hugs, and loving kisses. He couldn’t go back. He couldn’t handle it. He would surely break. Every small part of him would crumble away and he would become the dust underfoot. He would shrink away to nothing. He would flee his own still breathing body.“

no you don’t understand i nearly CRIED 😭 that entire monologue section is HEARTBREAKING I AM IN PIECES

„Never had he imagined that his soul could hurt so badly. There had been light after so much darkness and the darkness was all the more terrible for knowing he wouldn’t see that light again. Like fate had handed him love and kindness only so he could know what it was like to lose it. How much more would he be forced to bear?“

WAAAAAAAAAA *sobs violently* i don’t even have words. just tears 😭 i truly think if he were recaptured he’d break apart. he’s already holding onto so little and if that were taken away too….. which makes me all the more afraid that that is something you’d include in the story

„Ephraim tried to slow his sobs, but only managed to make them wretched little hitching things.“

just 😭 the fact that we see ephraim so utterly destroyed that he can barely control himself 😭 especially in front of hyrum 😭

„Hyrum’s small, crooked, questing hand reached out and grabbed at Ephraim’s arm, following it back to his shirt before weakly tugging. […] Hyrum curled up against his chest, and Ephraim could feel the tiny tremors that vibrated through Hyrum’s body.“

ephraim is such a comfort for hyrum i am 🥺🥺🥺 just. THEM <3

Clove: Part 11 - Unburied Grief

Masterlist

Part 10

Hey! Look at that! A vampire who is having a bad time!

Content: Werewolf whumpee, emotional whump, fear of going back, disassociation (?)

Vampire whumpee, laceration across the chest, curse whump, emotional whump, grief

...........................................

Hyrum didn’t know why they stopped on the hill, only that Ephraim stared at the cottage with widening eyes. He looked down at Hyrum and whispered, “Goldenrod, I need you to be very brave, okay?”

“What?” Hyrum asked, clutching his toy tighter to his chest. 

“I think there might be someone dangerous here. I need you to go hide in the village. I’ll come get you when it’s safe.”

Hyrum’s mind sparked with waves of panic. “What do you mean?” he whimpered, his trembling growing stronger. 

“Just go to the village. Please,” Ephraim said, gently propelling Hyrum down the slope. “Go.”

The urgency in Ephraim’s voice raised Hyrum’s thin hackles and he nodded before turning and running back down the hill, his heartbeat in his ears. 

The rattling of his toy did not cover the sudden scream of rage, nor the horrible shrieks and hisses of an angry vampire. 

Hyrum whimpered, running faster down the hill. He screamed as he tripped, his legs feeling like jelly underneath him and he rolled down the hill, limbs searching for some way to stop himself. 

He finally came to a stop in the dirt road when he heard more nightmarish sounds from the top of the hill, and that pushed him to his feet again. 

An endless stream of whimpers fell from Hyrum’s lips. He needed to stop. He needed to find somewhere to hide, he needed to be quiet. Jack would punish him if he was too loud. He would have to kneel on silver for hours if Jack heard him whimpering. Weapons didn’t whimper. He knew that. 

But there was a quiet voice inside of him that told him he wasn’t a weapon. One that smiled with a chipped fang and pressed kisses to the top of his head. 

Just as this thought was starting to pull him from his panic, someone touched him and he scrambled to get away, yelping and crying. 

“Hey, hey,” a deep voice said soothingly. It didn’t sound like Jack but it smelled human. “It’s okay, lad. Where’s Ephraim?”

Hyrum sobbed, pushing at the firm, though gentle hand that had wrapped around his arm. He was going to be taken and put in a dark room, he knew it. He’d get so hungry he’d start eating beetles and stones again. He didn’t want beetles and stones, he wanted berries and stew and bread. He didn’t want a cold cage, he wanted impossibly soft blankets. He didn’t want punishment, he wanted soft touches and gentle hugs, and loving kisses. He couldn’t go back. He couldn’t handle it. He would surely break. Every small part of him would crumble away and he would become the dust underfoot. He would shrink away to nothing. He would flee his own still breathing body. 

When Hyrum was picked up, arms around his torso to keep his arms pinned, he screamed. He had never before known anguish so terrible. Never had he imagined that his soul could hurt so badly. There had been light after so much darkness and the darkness was all the more terrible for knowing he wouldn’t see that light again. Like fate had handed him love and kindness only so he could know what it was like to lose it. 

How much more would he be forced to bear?

……………………………….

Ephraim stumbled into the village. The wound in his chest was deep and ached with each breath. It wasn’t healing like it was supposed to, and he could feel a small curse eating away at his flesh. It wouldn’t kill him, though it might leave a scar. 

Ephraim didn’t have time to think about scars, though. He had found Hyrum’s toy dropped at the bottom of the hill and picked it up, trying to find his little werewolf. 

“Goldenrod!?” Ephraim called, disregarding the fact that he was certainly waking people up. “Sweetheart, where are you!?”

“Ephraim!” 

The vampire spotted Anna stepping out of her house. When she saw the blood in the moonlight her eyes went wide and she firmly closed the door to keep her eldest from coming out and seeing it. 

“Stay inside. Everything is fine,” Anna said through the door before rushing to Ephraim, steadying him and pulling at his torn shirt to see the cut better. “Ephraim, what happened?”

Ephraim bore his teeth, a hiss escaping before he could find his voice. “There was a madman in my cottage. He was trying to take Hyrum from me.”

Anna only just managed to keep from covering her mouth as her hands were covered in Ephraim’s blood. “No! And he did this to you?”

“Yes. Have you seen Hyrum? I sent him down here to be safe.”

“I haven’t, but I did hear someone scream-” Anna admitted and Ephraim surged from out of her grasp. 

His voice broke as he called, “Hyrum!? Goldenrod!?”

Doors were opening all down the street, voices asking what was going on, but one person’s voice boomed over the rest. 

“Ephraim! He’s over here!” Guntar called. 

Ephraim practically melted with relief, stumbling over. Guntar caught him as he tripped on the first step. Ephraim felt the spell eat deeper into his chest and he coughed as it caught in his lung, gripping onto Guntar as he spasmed. 

“Anna!” Guntar said, “Get Margie.”

He helped Ephraim into the house as Anna disappeared into the darkness. 

Ephraim got his breath back, his healing pushing the curse away from his lungs where it became invested in his sternum. 

“Goldenrod. Where is he?” he asked quickly. 

“In here. I don’t think he knows where he is, poor lad.”

Ephraim pushed past Guntar, looking around wildly for the werewolf. 

He found him hiding under the well carved kitchen table. He was laying perfectly still, nothing to prove he was alive besides a faint twitch every now and then. 

Ephraim slid to his knees, pushing in to scoop the boy into his arms. Hyrum was limp, his head lolling back as Ephraim did so. The vampire pressed the boy’s head into the crook of his neck, pressing kisses all along the side of his head. 

“Goldenrod, I’m here. It’s okay, I’m here. Please, you’re okay, please, come back sweetheart.”

Hyrum twitched, his breath catching in his chest. He whined, high pitched and scared. 

Ephraim did nothing to stop his tears from running down his face, soaking into Hyrum’s golden hair. “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry. I-”

Ephraim choked on his emotions, sobbing in rhythm with the curse throbbing in his chest. He wanted to apologize for the terror Hyrum lived with every day, he wanted to apologize for not killing the man who had done this, he wanted to apologize to a fledgling who wasn’t here, who he hadn’t seen for just over 40 years. None of this would do either of them any good, so he cried into Hyrum’s hair while the werewolf fell asleep in his arms. 

“Alright, what’s all the fuss about?” a crotchety old voice asked. “Ephraim, I really hope you don’t mean for me to go under there to treat you.”

Ephraim tried to slow his sobs, but only managed to make them wretched little hitching things. 

“Oh,” Margie said, a softness entering her grizzled tones. “Ah, Guntar, could you help Ephraim out?”

“Yeah. I’m going to pull you out now, Ephraim.”

Guntar’s large hands pulled him and Hyrum out before the butcher gently coaxed Hyrum out of Ephraim’s arms. 

“I’ll put him in bed,” Guntar promised as Ephraim gathered himself to pull himself up into a chair. 

Margie pulled back his shirt, eyeing the wound and the curse that was starting to play across Ephraim’s ribs. She muttered something and the chewing pain that had been crawling through his chest faded as she stifled and put out the curse. 

Ephraim took a shuddering breath, moving to look at the wound in his chest and see how bad it was when Margie’s weathered hands cupped his face. He looked into the old crone’s eyes, unchanged from the beautiful woman she had been 50 years ago. 

“Ephraim,” she said softly. “What happened?”

Ephraim stared for a moment, captivated before he found his voice. “There was a man in my home. The one who……”

“I see,” Margie said, reaching for a rag to clean out Ephraim’s wound and see if it was healing. “He was there to take Hyrum, hmmm?”

“Yes,” Ephraim breathed. “I was going to kill him.”

Margie hesitated. “And you didn’t?”

Ephraim’s eyes burned as he looked away. “He.. ah, he said he knew where Ben was.”

Margie froze at the mention of her older brother, eyes wide for a moment before she narrowed them again, cleaning Ephraim’s wound a touch more fiercely. The softness in her voice was gone as she said, “Ben is dead. You said so yourself. You couldn’t sense him through the bond. That means he’s dead.”

“No. It means one of two things. He’s dead, or-”

“You don’t seriously believe in the fae courts, do you?” she replied harshly. 

“I’ve met the fae. Just because they haven’t been seen for a long time, doesn’t mean they’re all gone. The man said that Ben had been taken by the queen.”

Margie gritted her teeth. “Then Ben’s as good as dead. We can’t get him back, even if there was such a thing as a fae court. You should have just killed the fool.”

Hurt, Ephraim looked away, towards the room Gunter had taken Hyrum. “I’m sorry, Marigold.”

Margie ignored him, and finished looking at the wound. She rubbed some balm in and patted his chest. “Go sleep,” she said. “I’ll check your cottage in the morning. If that man could cast that sort of curse on you with just a cut, I can imagine he left some rather nasty traps for you.”

Ephraim nodded, standing up. He opened his mouth to thank her, but she was already gone, refusing to meet his eyes. He stood in Gustav’s house, exhausted and drained, and he let his clenched fists relax as he turned. 

Gustav was still in the bedroom with Hyrum. He was running his hand over Hyrum’s back over the blankets. He looked up when Ephraim entered and whispered, “Before you say anything, you can stay here for the night.”

“Thank you, Gustav.”

“Do you need something to eat before you go to bed?”

“If you wouldn’t mind,” Ephraim said with a weak smile.

Gustav stood up and Hyrum whimpered at the loss of contact. “I’ll bring the blood to you. Why don’t you stay with him?”

Ephraim nodded and sat in the chair, putting his hand on Hyrum’s head. The new hair and fur starting to grow in were already so much softer than the rest of it, and Hyrum seemed to enjoy it the most when Ephraim wiggled his fingers into his curls to find the softest of it. 

Hyrum’s small, crooked, questing hand reached out and grabbed at Ephraim’s arm, following it back to his shirt before weakly tugging. 

Ephraim leaned forward, but Hyrum didn’t stop pulling until Ephraim realized what the boy wanted. 

Ephraim sighed and slid into the bed, pulling the covers over both of them. Hyrum curled up against his chest, and Ephraim could feel the tiny tremors that vibrated through Hyrum’s body. 

Ephraim held the boy close, running and hand down his back silently. 

Gunter came back with a cup of blood, which Ephraim drank quickly before curling back up and closing his eyes, listening to Gunter leave and get settled again before falling asleep. 

………………………………..

“You shouldn’t go up there alone, Margie,” Anna said. She had come by in the morning with her youngest to pick up something for a cough he’d picked up to find the old woman preparing to go up the hill to the cottage. 

“I may be old, but I can take care of myself,” Margie replied. She was rather testy that morning. More so than usual though Anna wasn’t easily scared off. 

“I’ll have Josh go up with you.”

“I don’t need your husband to-”

“Margie, you are taking someone with you,” Anna said sternly, and Margie glowered at her, trying to decide if it was worth the energy to keep arguing with the determined mother. 

“Oh all right,” Margie sighed and Anna nodded firmly. “Now, you’d better not go up alone.”

Margie grumbled as Anna gathered up her youngest and headed back out, leaving Margie to finish packing her bag with the things she would need to take care of any curses or traps she found. She hoped there was nothing too surprising up there. While she had a lot of practice with countering curses or even casting them, she was self taught and she knew there was a lot she still did not understand about magic. 

He left her house, taking her cane with her. She usually didn’t use her cane, but she had woken up with aching knees and there was no way she would be climbing up that hill without it. 

She walked through the main street of the village, passing by the shops and homes and making it out to where the dirt road thinned out. She was halfway up the hill before she heard someone jogging to catch up behind her. 

She smiled to herself and called out, “Slow this morning, aren’t we, Josh?”

Josh snorted as he caught up. “Only because Kate was throwing a tantrum. So, what’s the story? I know there was someone here who attacked Ephraim last night.”

“Indeed, and he’s a nasty piece of work. Throws curses wherever he goes, it seems. I’m here to try and clean up any traps or curses he may have left behind. Ephraim has enough going on without needing to worry about that too.”

Josh nodded. “Anything I can do to help?”

“Oh, yes. Trust me, I’ll put you to work.”

Josh smiled and looked up at the cottage. The door was open, a little askew on broken hinges, the inside yawning darkly at them. It felt so wrong to look into that friendly cottage and feel a strange prickle of fear on the palms of his hands. 

Margie sighed. “Yup. Lots of work to do.”

Part 12 - Coming soon

Clove Taglist: @wolfeyedwitch @the-blind-one-speaks @whumpsday @extrabitterbrain @inkkswhumpandstuff @honeycollectswhump @whump-blog-reblogs

[nippoisalien]

I recently finished playing Celeste and LOVE it very much i gotta draw fanart!!!!!!!!

[theres-whump-in-that-nebula]

A: “There’s nothing to be afraid of; please let’s just go to bed!”

B: “No! They’ll come back for me, I know it!”

A: “I won’t let them.”

B: “They’re too strong—“

A: “No they’re not.”

B: “YES THEY ARE, DON’T YOU GET IT?”

A: “[B], honey—“

B: “IF THEY GOT ME, THEY’LL GET YOU TOO.”

[jakeperalta]

the fact they made a we were liars tv show now I'm 26 and not when I was 14 is so cruel.... 14 year old me deserved it more than any of these tiktok teenagers who made it popular again

[arachngel]

polyships are sooooo fun but so unnecessarily hard to pull off 🚬🚬🚬

[skitskatdacat63]

Everyone was so nice to me with ocs the other day, I felt very happy ty 🤧 I wanna do another ask game at some point, either drawing or lore. Idk I'm just feeling very sappy randomly, it made me more self aware suddenly abt how much I love them <3

[nomdeerica]

seeking distractions by re-learning how to draw and sewing more, but also trying to reframe how I approach creative endeavors (writing) that are integral to my sense of self (writer) so that I have less yearly breakdowns about dreams, aging, accomplishments, etc.

[cayteecat]

errmmmm ingo wSnt in that at allllll

[ragnarockz]

I don't know why it took me 29 years to realize this but everything I have in my room that I collect are the things I had up until the time of my life where everything changed for the worst💔

[merchantziro]

DP x DC Writing Prompt: Phashpoint's Phantom

If you were to ask Barry Allen on his opinion regarding young Danny Fenton/Phantom, he could talk for hours about the young Halfa and his happy family of Ghost Hunters.

The boy saved the entire planet from the Disasteroid and became one of the Young Justice's most powerful supernatural hitters while his female clone, Dani, also proved to be a valuable asset to the Teen Titans as well.

When Barry returned after the events of Flashpoint, on an Earth that was similar but different to the one he left behind prior... Barry was devastated and believed that the duo of Halfas were gone alongside many other young heroes.

But that was until a few years later when now Flash looked at the screen with disbelief after the League was contacted by a government branch known as the Ghost Investigation Ward.

According to them a dangerous ecto-entity they had contained has recently broken out and are now considered a threat to the entire planet, they are to be recaptured at all costs.

Flash had a bad feeling the entire time he stayed silent, but felt his fears were confirmed when the picture of a familiar face appeared on screen, attacking GIW bases.

"...Danny?"

Flash knew a lot of his friends had changed after the incident... But he didn't want to believe if the young Phantom truly became a villain or not. He wanted to believe in the boy who was ecstatic when he first set foot on the Watchtower for the first time, but... Could he?

(Or... In the Post-Crisis Era of DC Pre-Flashpoint, a Post-Phantom Planet canon Danny became a member of the Justice League but was missing in the Post-Flashpoint Earth. However Danny was in his own rebooted history where things turned out differently in his life, with a life more like most fanon Danny incarnations where he is contained by a more competent GIW until he escaped.)

(Up to you with where Dani is during all this and if Danny is the same and remembers the last world because of some Clockwork related bullcrap or not)

[serpentface]

Armored war utosai and driver in a parade ~300 years before present, during the late 2nd Imperial Burri period.

The use of armor for cavalry utosai occurred fairly late in their ultimately brief (on the scale of a couple centuries) stint as mounts. The animals had natural armoring in the form of thick osteoderm covered skin along their back and sides, which was difficult to inflict injuries upon and sufficed for a long time against foes unfamiliar with/terrified by these animals. The skin on their faces and neck, however, was extremely sensitive. If heavily targeted, the pain could drive the utosai into a panic and turn them into gigantic liabilities. The implementation of this neck/face lamellar countered this weakness and partly restored the utosai's image of near-invulnerability, but came at its own costs.

Even this partial armoring was ridiculously expensive (for mounts whose basic upkeep was already ridiculously expensive) and did little to counter growing fears that the shock and awe usage of utosai for heavy cavalry was more trouble than it was worth. Utosai had previously been driven by use of leg pressure and spurs on their sensitive neck, which was very efficient at commanding the animals while keeping the driver's hands free (often to perform archery). With the neck covered in armor, new driving methods had to be implemented. This was a trial and error process, with the use of reins seen here coming up as the most adequate substitute for leg commands (at the cost of the driver being able to go hands-free). It still was nowhere as intuitive to the animals, and no better solution was developed before the use of utosai cavalry died out due to being absurdly costly to maintain, taking a long time to breed and mature (and being heavily inbred and unhealthy due to their tiny founder population), and the discovery of surefire methods to panic them (setting mid-large animals on fire and driving them, screaming, in a utosai's general direction turned out to have a near 100% success rate). The utosai population itself died out in the aftermath, and they are now completely extinct.

Driving a utosai was considered a lowly position compared to fighting Atop a utosai (same went for chariot drivers) and was generally occupied by members of the sub-citizen caste that developed in the 2nd imperial period. Once utosai armor was implemented, drivers completely ceased to participate in fighting and their only additional function was reduced to bearing their unit's standards, though they were usually armored in actual combat and carried heavy daggers that could be driven through the utosai's spine in case of 'uh oh we're trampling our own troops' type emergencies (the neck armor put a wrinkle in this whole procedure too- there is an opening behind the back of the head but it wasn't easy to target in the heat of the moment).

The small population of Utosai brought to Imperial Bur roamed semi-freely and usually had to be recaptured as calves and hand reared before use. This was also the job of their drivers, who did the bulk of the taming, training, and maintenance for their mounts. Utosai were Fairly unaggressive for large non-domesticated herbivores and accommodated astonishingly well to handling and training, but this was still dangerous work that routinely claimed the lives of their caretakers.

---

The guy shown here is a feasible depiction of the historical poet Ünzhig ([ynʐig]) when he was in his early 30s. He had a very complicated life, starting out as a Hsem princeling taken to Titenegal as a war captive along with his mother when he was just a toddler. He wound up lacking use as a hostage but was spared, semi-adopted by a senior military officer who had grown attached to him, put to work as a stableboy but given the education of a nobleman, and eventually ended up as a full-fledged utosai trainer and driver. He was active during the fall of the eastern overseas half of the empire, though he himself never traveled across the sea and was mostly dispatched along the state's northwestern flank.

Ünzhig, having fallen out with his adoptive semi-father and growing fearful after nearly being killed in a (dangerously close to successful) peasant revolt, eventually deserted and fled to Hsemdan in hopes of reclaiming his birthright. He was immediately met with failure in this respect (few believed him and his blood father's line was no longer in power anyway), but found work as a scribe and eventually made a name for himself as a poet in the Hsem courts. On top of his formal work, he spent his twilight years extensively chronicling his life and the history he bore witness to. Most of his actual writings are lost three centuries later, but some transcriptions are still around and preserve detailed and accurate information on the now-extinct utosai. A great love for these animals is evident in this body of work, which provides a rare down-to-earth look at creatures that are otherwise mostly remembered as godlike and monstrous.

His most well known poem was written in old age, describing the memory of the utosai he trained and rode and her first and only calf (recounting her fierce defensiveness and gentle contact calls, and expressing melancholy at his own childlessness). It was a hit in the Hsemdan court and started being reproduced in song form by the time of his death. Transcriptions of the original poem are hard to find but many oral transmissions survive (though have been heavily changed by the passage of time) in the form of lullabies.

(Sketch layer of what's going on under the armor)

[rimatsu]

Ok convince me to reject caution and embrace delusion. Why are you so hopeful? 

the safe bet is definitely caution. but regardless of initial intentions, nothing is ever set in stone in the 911 writing room and that’s reason enough to remain hopeful. still, when people say the chances of a reconciliation are non-zero, i think that’s low-balling it. at the very least, we’re at 10% chance, 90% faith.

granted the interviews i (unwillingly) absorbed via osmosis don't exactly inspire confidence but again: 1) tim is fickle as the wind and writers can change their minds at the drop of a hat, 2) nothing that was directly stated by actors or showrunner contradicts the idea of a makeup arc, 3) if the breakup was intentionally designed as a temporary hurdle they’d imply otherwise anyway (oh god i sound like Them don't i.... this is a cry for help)

the reasons why 8x06 could qualify as a temporary split have been extensively discussed so i’ll try to be brief (spoiler: i failed) before tackling what i’d like to see in 8b. buckle up buttercup, i’m a yapper:

1) the breakup wasn’t written as definitive or unfixable. buck and tommy didn’t part because of irreconcilable differences or because passion/attraction fizzled out. if they wanted that door closed, tommy could’ve simply said he was uninterested in pursuing long term commitment with buck, that they’re not compatible in the long run — there: a clean, uncomplicated break. instead, we’re told that tommy desperately wants to be the person buck settles down with, but he’s convinced buck is propelled by the excitement of novelty, that he suspects buck is latching onto him for the wrong reasons, that he can’t allow himself to merge their home life together in fear he’ll never recover once buck wants out. the implications here being tommy is in love with buck already. for his part, buck came to the realization that he wants a future with tommy and immediately decided to pursue it because that's just the type of man he is: never one to do things by half-measures, seeing no value in waiting once his mind is made up. so there’s no conflicting desire there. they want the same thing: permanence with each other. the next two episodes also paint a strange picture if the goal is a definitive separation. buck bakes excessively in an attempt to cope when he never needed a coping mechanism following a breakup before, and we’re told several times that he wants to reach out — in fact buck was about to reach out until he was physically stopped. in total, 3 tommy mentions so far. usually we get the one and then buck moves on to greener pastures (abby notwithstanding, but she's an exception and not the rule, main character privilege and all). we were even deliberately shown that tommy considered contacting buck on his own. that's establishing regret and a desire for reconnection on both sides of the equation. again, that’s a never seen before: tommy is an outlier. completely unnecessary if the breakup is a done deal. whether they follow it through or not, the aftermath was written in such a way that there’s ground for a reconciliation if needs be

2) this is the first buck break up to happen during the first act of the season, something that’s normally reserved for the finale for maximum impact. why this distinction? strange placement for the end of a romantic storyline if you ask me.

3) they're never going to replicate a LI that checks out as many boxes as tommy does, or recapture the romcom magic that was 7x04-7x06. and it's fine if they don't, not all endgame romances need to be the most memorable of the bunch, but it'd be stupid to let the remaining potential go to waste. it's undeniable, the show is nearing its end, i don't imagine they get renewed past s10. if they go the natalia route again and introduce a LI at the last moment, it's going to pale in comparison to the other viable option, one that has pre-established history and connection to buck/the 118. inadvertently or not, they set up an epic love story of intertwined fate. tommy has literally haunted the narrative since the pilot: one of the very first thing abby reveals is that she’s not over tommy breaking off their (retconned) engagement. as such, tommy has played a pivotal role in shaping buck into the man he is today: if tommy hadn’t transferred out to harbor station, buck wouldn’t have found his family and his life purpose. if tommy hadn’t left abby, buck wouldn’t have realized that emotional intimacy and romantic connection is what he seeks. if tommy hadn’t kissed him, a huge part of buck’s identity would’ve remained buried and unexplored. how are they possibly going to top a red string theory dating back 8 seasons? they can’t. i’m sure they’re aware of that.

4) why bring our attention to tommy’s admiration and envy for a tight-knit unit like the 118, on three separate occasions, if the ultimate goal isn’t to reward him and integrate him into the makeshift family?

5) idk what it's worth, if it's worth anything at all, but there’s been a substantial amount of displeasure voiced over their breakup. tommy is buck’s most well-received LI to date. they took a risk with the Big Bisexual Reveal and it paid off with increased engagement and viewership. if they were still debating a reconciliation, surely they've heard that at least some people will eagerly welcome a makeup arc with open arms.

i'm a broken record so i'm probably repeating myself but here goes my ideal timeline for the rest of the season (not a speculation, not wishful thinking, but a secret third thing):

i'm gonna operate under the assumption that the breakup happened solely so buck could be at his lowest for the kidnapping plot line with a minimal/reduced support system (no boyfriend AND no best friend around when his pregnant sister is abducted). in other words, i don't think buck will be in a place to venture back into the dating world by 8x09-8x10 quite yet (i don’t actually buy the buck-dates-the-serial-killer theory). he's handled the breakup fairly well but now with the kidnapping & eddie gone/in the process of moving, i assume that's when he really starts to spiral.

(if we get a fourth tommy mention here, i'd say it's a promising sign. it’d be a purposeful way to keep him in viewers’ radar after the 4-month break)

i think getting maddie back after a few days of fear and uncertainty will be a breakthrough for buck and he’ll make a conscious decision to move on from his funk by the end of 8x10.

ideally “jumping back into the pond” would take place in 8x11 to 8x13, starting with a comedic montage of buck in a string of various failed dates. this is the part of the season where i expect him to utter the word bisexual, probably when the topic of exes comes into play. every other queer identity in the show gets labeled and stated in no uncertain terms, but bisexuality is ever only vaguely implied (nancy in ls) or shown but not explicitly spoken (buck and eva). it’s frustrating. personally i choose to believe buck’s lackluster reaction to maddie’s questionable “how many men did she turn gay?” joke was intentional on the writers’ part. it was the perfect opportunity to reaffirm his sexuality but buck didn’t bc he's not fully in tune with his queerness yet. yeah he speedran through his coming out but recalibrating your entire identity after 3 decades of presumed heterosexuality is a complex process rifled with ups and downs. i hope it gets explored with more care and depth in future episodes.

supposedly we know two things: the fling is another form of coping mechanism, and it's short-lived. chances are it's going to be a woman, and i'd love for it to be a bi girl bc 1) yay bi4bi m/f representation, 2) he's dating someone who can intimately relate to his experience and can maybe offer some additional clarity where clarity is still needed.

my other preferred scenario is that he meets a guy who immediately clocks that buck is still hung up on his ex and not emotionally available for anything more than casual fun. basically give buck a sex friend who can expose him to the LA gay scene. if my memory serves me right, OS said he'd like to see buck in queer spaces. i would like to see it too (we could’ve had that exploration with tommy but i digress….)

long story short, he eventually meets someone he has chemistry with, but it's still not as easy or companionable or butterfly-inducing as it was with tommy. buck gets back home from the seemingly successful date and he just... starts baking — wordlessly communicating to the audience that he’s still plagued by Tommy Thoughts.

now if i put on my clown shoes, i’d say the bts pictures of the 217 engines suggest an upcoming bucktommy reunion on a call (surely they were made for a reason. right. RIGHT????), ideally in 8x14. i’ve babbled about it here, but the sparknotes version is:

- there's a 5 alarm high-rise fire requiring ground and aerial ops. tommy is tasked with delivering firefighters to the roof, including the 118. the chopper ride to destination is understandably awkward but professional enough

- tommy joins ground ops once he’s completed his maximum hours of flight. he ends up trapped in a pocket of rubbles with buck after a partial structural collapse. that’s when they hash it out. it’s not pretty: they’re on edge and exhausted and full of adrenaline and words aren’t sugarcoated or minced. but they’re honest, and afterward they understand each other’s perspective.

it has been said before, but i don't think buck registered the underlying message of the breakup. we know he doesn't handle rejection well, and it's likely he was so hyperfocused on being told no that he didn’t compute the “no matter how much i want to be (your last)” part. that’d explain the 118’s strange response to the split. if i was told “my boyfriend broke up with me because he thinks i'll eventually break his heart once i figure out he's not who i truly want” i’d strongly advise communication before calling it quit prematurely. but if my friend told me “my boyfriend broke up with me when i asked him to move in bc he doesn't think we'll last bc i don’t know what i want” i would trust that they relayed the correct story and i too would discourage contact.

anyway buck has stated that he doesn’t want to chase after someone who doesn’t want him before, but now he knows that wanting was never the issue with tommy, that the breakup was fueled by insecurities and fears and trauma rather than disinterest. at first, it’s presented as reaching a necessary closure: once the fire is contained, buck and tommy part way with another “see you around, buck. i truly hope you find what you’re looking for” and a bittersweet smile. except now buck has had another breakthrough, he’s full of renewed resolved and clarity, and he’s ready to fight for this relationship, so he shows up at tommy’s doorstep the next night and pleads his case.

in 8x15-8x16, we see them readjust to being a couple except this time, it's with the knowledge that they both want serious in the long run. maybe they discover facets of each other previously kept under wraps for the sake of 'keeping it light and breezy'. also they fuck/fade to black on screen (this is imperative)

the last two episodes are focused on the closing disaster, whatever that might be. in this hypothetical timeline, we get a few more glimpses of domesticity. maybe even establish the setup for a move-in next season when bucktommy discuss buck’s lease.

you can have the helicopter crash as a treat for s9. once they're truly settled with each other and it's bound to be more devastating.

voilà <3 apologies and congratulations for your perseverance if you made it this far. the answer was never supposed to be this lengthy or tangencial oops can you tell i’m obsessed. terminally ill even

[astrocafecoffee]

•Healing through marriage (Based on Groom pc) •

✨For entertainment purposes only, enjoy ✨

☞ Masterlist

☞solar return observation

☞Groom pc obs. Part 1

☞Groom pc obs. Part 2

•. •. •. •.(☉｡���)•. •. •. •.

🌹What to check?

- check your Chiron in your groom persona chart , where it falls in.

🌹Why Chiron?

- Chiron is associated with our deepest wounds and our capacity for recovery . In your groom pc ,it can show how you fs will heal your inner child/ your trauma through marriage.

Let's go ~

❤️ Chiron in 1st house : Your fs may heal you through unconditional acceptance. They may love and accept you for who you are, flaws and all, helping you overcome self-doubt and low self-esteem. They could provide a safe space for you to express your emotions, validating your feelings and helping you process past wounds.Their empathetic nature may help you feel understood and supported, especially during difficult times.

❤️ Chiron in 2nd house: your future spouse may help you overcome financial struggles, debts, or insecurities, teaching you healthy financial habits and empowering you to achieve stability. Their presence in your life could help you recognize your inherent value and worth, transcending material possessions or external validation. They might empower you to take charge of your financial life, making informed decisions and breaking free from dependency or fear.

❤️ Chiron in 3rd house: your future spouse may help you express yourself more clearly and confidently, fostering open and honest communication in your relationship. Their influence could help you quiet your mind, reducing mental chatter and increasing focus, allowing you to tap into your inner wisdom. They might teach you to recognize and manage your emotions, developing emotional intelligence and empathy.

❤️ Chiron in 4th house:your future spouse may help you resolve unresolved issues with your family, fostering understanding, forgiveness, and reconciliation. Their presence could help you build a strong emotional foundation, providing a sense of security and stability.Chiron in the 4th house can indicate wounds from childhood; your partner may help you heal and integrate your inner child.

❤️ Chiron in 5th house:your future spouse may help you overcome creative blocks or insecurities, fostering self-expression and artistic growth.Chiron in the 5th house can indicate a need to reconnect with childhood joy and creativity; your partner may help you recapture that spark. They might help you heal from past relationship wounds, teaching you to love yourself and others in a healthy, empowering way.

❤️ Chiron in the 6th house : Your future spouse's influence could help you establish a sense of structure and organization in your daily life, making you more efficient and productive. Chiron in the 6th house can indicate a need to integrate your mind and body; your partner may help you develop a greater awareness of your physical and emotional needs. They might help you find a healthy balance between work and personal life, reducing stress and increasing overall well-being.

❤️ Chiron in the 7th house: Your future spouse might help you overcome past relationship traumas or wounds, teaching you to form healthy, empowering partnerships. Their influence could encourage you to examine your own role in relationships, taking responsibility for your actions and growth. With Chiron in the 7th house, they may help you find a balance between independence and interdependence, recognizing the value of both.

❤️ Chiron in the 8th house:Your future spouse may help you overcome fears or insecurities around intimacy and vulnerability, creating a safe space for deep connection.Their influence could guide you in exploring your shadow, acknowledging and integrating repressed aspects of yourself. With Chiron in the 8th house, they may facilitate transformative experiences through intimate connections, helping you rebirth and renew yourself.

❤️ Chiron in the 9th house : Chiron in the 9th house can indicate a need for continuous learning and growth; your partner may inspire you to pursue higher knowledge and wisdom.They may foster a sense of curiosity and wonder, inspiring you to ask questions and seek answers.Their presence could help you recognize the interconnectedness of all things, fostering a sense of oneness and unity with the universe.

❤️ Chiron in the 10th house: Your future spouse might help you discover your life purpose and passion, aligning your career with your soul's mission. Their influence could help you overcome self-doubt and imposter syndrome, recognizing your value and expertise.They might inspire you to redefine success on your own terms, prioritizing fulfillment and happiness over external validation.

❤️ Chiron in the 11th house:Chiron in the 11th house can indicate a need to embrace innovation and progress; your partner may encourage you to think outside the box and pioneer new ideas.They might help you expand your professional and social network, connecting you with like-minded individuals and opportunities.They may help you overcome feelings of isolation or disconnection, integrating you into a larger community.

❤️ Chiron in the 12th house : Chiron in the 12th house can indicate a need to confront and heal subconscious wounds; your partner may support you in this process.They might inspire you to develop greater compassion and empathy, understanding the struggles of others.Their influence could help you recognize and break free from self-sabotaging patterns, releasing limiting beliefs and behaviors.

-----------------✨------------------

Hope you enjoyed ❤️

- Piko ✨

[ninibeingdelulu]

"I'm right here"

plot- an argument with depressed geto CLICK ME

"I can't believe you're being like this!"

Suguru's voice cracked with frustrated accusation, slamming his textbook down with enough force to make you flinch.

"It's like you're purposefully trying to drive a wedge between Satoru and me just because you're jealous!"

You felt your hands ball into fists at your sides as that familiar spike of molten defensiveness surged through your veins.

How dare he diminish your concerns so callously after everything you'd been through together? As if your feelings were some trite, immature flight of fancy rather than the genuine loneliness you'd been grappling with lately.

"Jealous?" you scoffed, tossing your pencil aside with a heated glare.

"You really think I'm that petty? That this is just me throwing some pathetic tantrum over not getting enough attention from Wunderkind Geto?"

Suguru opened his mouth - undoubtedly to fire back with another biting remark - but you barreled forward, finally allowing the dam holding back weeks of bottled resentment to burst open.

No more mincing words or letting things fester until they'd reached this ugly, toxic fever pitch.

"I'm worried about you, jackass!"

You shoved off the couch, gesturing wildly as the torrent of pent-up emotions flooded free in a tumultuous rush.

"That's all I've wanted from the start! For you to actually let me in about what's been eating you up so badly lately that you've become a total goddamn stranger!"

Suguru seemed to visibly deflate somewhat under the brunt force of your outburst. But that brief hesitation was rapidly replaced by the familiar stubborn set of his squared jaw and narrowed onyx gaze which indicated the imminent eruption of his own fiery temper.

"Oh, so now you're my therapist?" he sneered, bracing his elbows on his knees as he leaned forward in your direction with acerbic challenge.

"Sorry I've been such an inconvenience while busting my ass trying to actually secure my future instead of wasting time with teenage melodrama!"

You shook your head in disbelief, throwing your hands up as another harsh bark of laughter cut through the tension like a serrated blade.

"Un-fucking-believable...Is that seriously what you think this is about? Me being petty over you 'wasting time' with dumb high school bullshit?!"

Suguru simply glowered in stony silence, the muscle in his clenched jaw visibly twitching.

Waiting for you to either continue your tirade or offer more proof of your apparent delusions over the state of things between you.

Well, if he wanted you to spell out the tangled knot of anguish and confused longing festering in your chest with stark clarity...Then so be it.

"I'm in love with you, you arrogant prick!"

The confession exploded out of you with enough volcanic force to make you immediately slap a hand over your mouth.

Yet once uncorked, there was no recapturing the deluge as it raged on, raw and unfettered.

"And it's been ripping me apart watching you spiral so far down in this pit of darkness without letting anyone in to try and pull you back out!"

Suguru looked as though he'd been struck across the face.

All residual ire seeping away into slack-jawed shock and visceral vulnerability cracking those steely exterior walls you'd slammed against so fruitlessly in the past.

His throat bobbed in an audible gulp, those intense obsidian eyes you used to lose yourself in now swimming with a thousand different conflicting emotions roiling in their tumultuous depths.

The sudden, stark silence stretching between you was enough to buffer even the frantic hammering of your pulse thundering past your ears.

The fear of obliterating one of the most important relationships of your life in that combustive outpouring constricted around your throat like a vise of pure dread.

Then, after what felt like an eternity...Suguru's expression shifted again.

His features settling into an almost haunted kind of resignation piercing directly into your very soul. When he spoke, his typically unflappable baritone emerged cracking and subdued - the most naked glimpse you'd ever witnessed of what laid beneath the surface he fought so vigilantly to repress.

"I...I know..." he confessed in a gust of breath barely above a whisper.

One shaky hand scrubbed over his face, refusing to meet your wide-eyed stare. "Fuck, I've known how you felt and I-I kept pushing you away so I wouldn't hurt you more by—"

The strangled catch in his throat cut off whatever fragile truth seemed to be teetering on the precipice of being laid bare between you.

Suguru's free hand balled into a fist clenching the material of his pants until his knuckles bored white while haunted shadows flickered across his downturned visage.

Never before had you witnessed him look so...utterly wrecked. So excruciatingly human under the weight of inner demons you'd never known to be lurking underneath it all.

Not until they'd already carved out pieces of him you might never get the chance to recover.

But you couldn't allow either of you to retreat into that isolating darkness anymore. Not after clawing your way this deep into the open wounds between you both.

Too many regrets were already trailing behind in your wake...

The deafening silence hung thick and palpable in the wake of Suguru's shattered admission.

You could practically taste the roiling torrent of unspoken truths and anguished vulnerability thrashing violently just beneath the surface he was struggling so viscerally to repress.

You knew with every fiber of your being that if you didn't reach out in this pivotal moment, the fragile threads binding you both together risked snapping under the immense strain.

And you refused to let that happen - even if it meant wading blindly into the shadowy depths of whatever demons were currently carving him hollow from the inside.

Tentatively, you bridged the couch cushions separating you and laid your palm overtop that trembling fist clenched with white-knuckled force against his thigh.

Suguru flinched slightly at the contact, but didn't immediately recoil away. Emboldened by that microscopic victory, you gently pried his fingers open to lace them through your own in silent invitation.

"Suguru..." you murmured, injecting as much tender reassurance into his name as humanly possible.

"Whatever it is causing you so much pain...you don't have to keep shouldering it alone anymore. I'm right here, okay? I'm not going anywhere."

His jaw clenched spasmodically, those turbulent eyes still steadfastly averted from meeting your concerned gaze.

You could see the muscle twitching in his cheek from the sheer force he was exerting to keep that impenetrable mask locked firmly in place.

But you refused to relent, rubbing the pad of your thumb soothingly across his knuckles in hopes of coaxing him to simply breathe. To open himself up even a sliver after all this time...

"Please," you implored, daring to shuffle closer until your thighs were a hairsbreadth from touching.

Until that painfully unguarded expression was directly in your line of vision, begging to be witnessed without judgment or reprimand.

"Let me help carry this for you, 'Guru. You've been alone with this anguish for too long..."

Finally, finally , some of that tightly wound tension began leeching from his hunched shoulders as if the words had sliced through some of those invisible restraints shackling him down.

Suguru raised his other hand to rake shakily through his tousled raven locks, unravelling before your very eyes.

When his gaze at last lifted to lock with yours, the sight of those inky pools swimming with so much naked, harrowing vulnerability physically winded you.

"I'm so afraid..." he confessed in a ragged whisper thick with shame and trepidation.

His hand convulsed where you clutched it in your lap as if the admission had torn open a fresh, gaping wound inside.

"I've convinced myself I have this grand purpose to dedicate myself to completely, but there's a part of me that wonders if it's all been an excuse...a distraction from facing how truly lost and messed up I've become."

Tears glistened in those haunted obsidian depths and your heart shattered at the sight of Suguru's meticulously constructed walls crumbling before your eyes.

The instinctive need to pull him into your embrace and chase those demons away was near overpowering.

Yet you resisted, allowing him to unfurl at his own pace without outside influence. Simply being the steady presence and supportive tether he so clearly needed more than he'd realized.

"Everyone told me I was destined for greatness after awakening to my talents...That I possessed a gift entrusted to rectify this curse plaguing our kind."

Suguru's voice had descended into a hoarse, halting murmur as the floodgates burst completely open.

Each gravelly syllable etched in anguish carved into his very marrow.

"But deep down, I've always been so goddamn afraid of failing. Of disappointing everyone and being seen as the fraud I've convinced myself I must be for harboring any weakness or-or..."

His words finally failed, fading into a ragged exhalation torn from his very core as he lifted his imploring gaze beseechingly to yours.

"God, why am I like this? Why does any of this matter when all I've wanted is to open my eyes and see you smiling back at me without all this bullshit driving us apart?"

Your throat constricted wordlessly, scorching tears blurring your vision at the utter desolation contorting Suguru's features into the most wrenching expression imaginable.

Here was the strongest, most indomitable person in your life bearing the very depths of his shattered soul before you in total surrender.

And you instantly knew in that pivotal, crystalline moment - there was nowhere else you could ever fathom being that wasn't by his side.

Providing the steadfast strength and acceptance for those fragmented pieces until he felt whole enough to stand on his own once more.

There would be more tears, more shards to sift through together in confronting this pervasive darkness slowly consuming him from the inside out.

But the first painful, cathartic step had been taken. And you fully intended to never allow Suguru to slip backward into that isolating abyss ever again.

So you did the only thing left to reassure him he wasn't alone in this monumental fight for his very sense of self and purpose.

You surged forward and pulled him into your fiercely protective embrace - cradling his shuddering form flush against your chest as his own quiet sobs finally shook loose in heartrending waves.

"I'm here...I'm right here, 'Guru..." you whispered over and over into the downy strands of ebony hair tickling your lips.

"We're going to get through this, I swear it..."

Your shared tears and ragged breaths mingled achingly between your twined bodies as a new, mended path forward gradually unfurled with each passing heartbeat.

From the ashes of everything you thought you'd understood about him and the conflicted world he inhabited...

Bound now by the decision to walk whatever darkened road stretched ahead completely united in purpose and love at long last laid bare - come what may.

[whumpacabra]

Dogs of War

WIP | ??? Words

Another AU set in my Freelancers Universe, diverging just before the canonical end of the Swansong Arc. (It's a good point in the canon for divergent plots, alright?)

Wolf's patient, dogged determination has paid off - his handler is off-base, his medical escort will have three guards, and there are three American volunteers who should be eager to play a part in this escape attempt. He hopes they are - because none of them are getting out of this alive if they get caught.

Military setting, captivity, escape, on the run, medical treatment, assumed dead, fear of recapture, betrayal, angst (with a happy ending?), referenced torture and noncon

Trojan

Sheep's Clothing

Judas Goat

Shellshock

Forged

Carsick

In-Between

Gas Station Snacks

Good as New

Rinse and Repeat

Reckoning

Bite the Hand

Dreams and Doubts

Kettled

Interrogation

Manifest

Bad Karma

Watchmen

The Jester

Tied Down

Cooperation

Fumble

Fiddlesticks

Go Fetch

Instigator

Peace and Quiet

The Devil

Soured

Agent

Good Acting

Hellsent

Whispers

Catastrophizing

Regrets

Delve

Hush

Undoing

DOD

AWOL

[coreytaylr]

100% legit totally real facts about the historical stede bonnet

no the title is not a lie these are really REAL bc believe it or not, somehow the show made our stede MORE competent than the real one

sources: Real Pirates podcast (ep1, ep2, ep3, ep4, ep5), Dirty Sexy History podcast (with jeremy moss, bonnet's biographer, who LOVES the show, and said it changed his perspective on bonnet's and blackbeard's relationship PLUS he has the stedesrevenge handle on twt)

the library on the revenge was a real thing. the man really did that.

running away from his family to be a pirate

paying a salary to his crew

SHOWING UP IN NASSAU IN FRILLY GENTLEMANLY CLOTHES AND A POWDERED WIG

before bonnet's capture, he ran his ship aground and that's how the english caught up with him BUT the two english ships also ran aground (😭), so they fought each other with their flintlock pistols from behind their ships (until the tides turned and dislodged the english ships first. rip)

adopted an alias when he started pirating so people wouldn't know it was him but he raided ships near Barbados (where he's from), so that didnt turn out well. his solution? burning every ship from Barbados

he only succeeded in his early days bc merchant ships knew they would get off easier if they surrendered

ATTACKED A WARSHIP that whooped his ass so bad he almost died. the remaining crew steered the ship to Nassau where he met blackbeard

blackbeard stole the revenge from him but "allowed" him to stay on BB's ship (either as a guest or as a prisoner, it's not clear, but he def wasn't a crew member bc he didn't have any chores)

he was seen on deck running around in his gowns 😭😭

BB eventually reinstated him as the captain of the revenge and they sailed together for a while

"there is a 4 month period where stede and blackbeard kind of disappeared and no one really knows what they were doing" 👀

BB allowed bonnet to raid on his own which lead to him getting his ass beat by the Protestant Caesar. BB then proceeded to HUNT DOWN THE PROTESTANT CAESAR while flying the RED FLAG (which meant no mercy to anyone on board)

bonnet would raid ships and take what provisions he needed and give the other ship what he didn't need (essentially the library raiding scene lmaoo)

BB betrayed bonnet by raiding his ship and marooning his crew while bonnet was off getting a pardon

SO BONNET SWORE REVENGE AGAINST BB who was at the time, the most feared pirate

this led to him adopting another alias - "he also changes his name, at the time he goes by captain edward's. which is really interesting, I don't know if that's an homage to, you know, edward teach, but.. captain edward's with an "s", that's as if he's.. a possession of captain edward" ONCE AGAIN 👀👀👀👀

HE ESCAPED PRISON BY DRESSING AS A WOMAN

after escaping, he was promised a sloop by some rando. when the rando didnt deliver, bonnet "WROTE HIM A STRONGLY WORDED LETTER REPRIMANDING THE MAN"

that letter led to him being recaptured 😭😭

he was hanged while holding a bouquet of wilted flowers