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#gosh i love metaphors
alvodra · 5 months
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Felsenweich
Steter Tropfen auf Stein
Bin ich der Stein?
Werde ich geformt?
Ist das Wasser Wissen
Und das Ergebnis eine
Stets sich wandelnde,
unvollkommen vollkommene Struktur?
Oder ist das Wasser Druck,
Sorgen, Ängste, Last?
Und bin ich kein Stein,
sondern starr und zerbrechlich?
Werde ich geformt?
Oder werde ich gebrochen?
Bis nichts bleibt als Stücke
Und Erinnerungen und Leere.
Oder bin ich ein Gefäß?
Das Wasser beides, Wissen und Last.
Die Schale fängt es auf,
vermischt es,
bis beides untrennbar ist.
Und es wird etwas Neues.
Mit vielen Namen.
Erfahrung, Weisheit, ja.
Aber auch Persönlichkeit.
Die Schale fängt auf,
sie trägt.
Auch sie wird geformt.
Aber brechen tut sie nie.
Der Stein akzeptiert das Wasser.
Er ist beständig. Fest.
Ein Kunstwerk.
Die Schale ist im Stein.
Sicher. Fest. Unzerbrechlich.
Die Schale bin ich.
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trickstersaint · 7 months
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decomposition (dysphoria) // june 2023
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nuwildcat · 2 months
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Well I thought I was going to do a one and done meta for Man Suang but it turns out that I was wrong. Let's talk about ships and metaphors team.
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Water first comes into play right in the thick of our trouble. Khem has just threatened to go to Bodisorn with the documents incriminating Chat's father. He gives Chat two days to do something and then we get this delicious angsty moment:
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Chat in full existential crisis thinking back on a conversation with his father where he tells Chat that it's good that he doesn't want to be a civil servant.
And then he says this: But you must remember my words. It is ill striving against the stream. You will be ruined.
Luckily for Chat he gets a proper application of cat before having to deal with more drama when the fireworks explode.
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Shout out to Ruang for his stellar acting when that goes down.
But that's not the last time that we hear about a stream and when we get it again, we add boats.
I really like the way they chose to reveal information at the end of the movie, cutting between different scenes to give us the whole picture of what happens to our characters after Hong's dramatic reveal and our conflict resolution.
There are two distinct conversations that bring up the stream, one with Chat and Bodisorn and the other with Chat and Khem.
Chat and Bodisorn's conversation is threaded through from start to finish at the ending scenes of the movie. Starting with Chat trying to turn over the incriminating documents.
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There's a lot to unpack in that conversation but for now let's focus on the streams/boats.
Before this conversation is resolved we get Khem saying this:
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A steamboat is made for the sea. A sailboat follows the wind. And a row boat can plough through every canal and river.
Here Khem is calling himself a rowboat. The Phrai status he has chosen to keep, turning down the offer of a title and land, is no longer a symbol of his powerlessness, but instead how he plans to leverage and change his circumstances. As a dancer at Man Suang, he is going to build his own form of power instead of having it given to him.
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Adorably Chat shoots him some serious heart eyes at this statement but our boy is more than just smitten, he's charmed how they both think so similarly.
BECAUSE HERE IS THE THING. The conversation with Bodisorn that we start the end of the movie with? It happened before Chat and Khem have this talk.
Which means that Chat has already said this:
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My father always told me that it's ill striving against the stream. But I don't think so. Now Siam has steamboats that can strike against the stream, wave, and wind, right?
And then we cut directly to credits.
To the best of our knowledge, Chat and Khem don't discuss the warning that Chat's father gives him, which means Khem's use of the boat metaphor comes naturally.
If you're wondering where the relationship that Khem and Chat have post Man Suang stems from, I would argue that this moment, this conversation is one of the key sparks that could lead to the presumably romantic feelings we are being promised in Shine.
Two men, from completely different worlds, meeting due to circumstances and despite their differences, sharing a mindset. A core understanding, that with the right position and power, you can change the world.
Whether you are a steamboat or a row boat.
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itspileofgoodthings · 4 months
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ended up telling my mom “she’s a billionaire pop star … she’s also a songwriter I’ve loved for a long time. both of those things are true.”
#not a conversation I can have for a long time as it’s too uncomfortable#but it was good to push through and say it#it’s interesting. I will always have a deep emotional connection to Taylor and also always love her as a person and an artist#and she IS a billionaire pop star with all of the attendant choices that go with that#and as i’ve gotten older there’s just been way more distance#in terms of my need to defend her choices or agree with them or even understand them#I have grown less defensive of her (in a good way)#and I think am more able to just See What Is To Be Seen#without. again. feeling the need to take it all on as something I have to defend on behalf of someone I am Holding Up as an Example#I’m not holding her up? like.#idk if this makes sense#But I remember reaching this point where I was just like ‘gosh I hope she never writes a song that contradicts any of the songs’#‘upon which I have built this artistic vision’#‘of her and what she stands for’#and it was so funny because it was this TERRIFIED desire on my part to freeze time#and freeze Taylor#so that my reading would be true forever#just wanted to put her in a cottage on the top of a hill and keep her safe there forever#metaphorically but also literally!#and then I’ve just had to let that go#best believe she’s still bejeweled lol#that was for me TOO#and anyway her sheer prolificness made it clear I was never going to be able to keep this watchful eye on it all#it was just going to have to pour in and I was going to have to let it#and also on some level emotionally personally I was going to have to step back#and be less invested in a certain way#in a very real daily life kind of way#anyway after the eras tour was so funny because i had this strong sense that we were being SWEPT out of the stadium#with Taylor’s trademark Efficiency. and it was hilarious. Like yes yes the love and connection and talent is real#and Billionaire Pop Star has places to be and a crowd of peasants to manage!!! (I say this with love and a sense of humor) anyway
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topsyturvy-turtely · 2 years
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how john watson found his heart again
[sequel to how john watson lost his heart ]
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it's been two years since i've lost my heart.
two years of grief. two years of being lost. two years of darkness.
but it's okay, i've found her. she gave me a new heart.
it's not the same as my own but it does its job: it gave me life. it keeps me alive.
but suddenly you are back.
short version: not dead.
and you present me my long lost heart on a serving tray.
with your fake glasses, your fake mustache, your fake accent.
but my real heart.
right there in front of me.
abruptly i stand up. trying to hold back my anger.
alright. john. i'm suddenly realizing that i probably owe you some sort of an apology-
fist against the table.
two years.
keep it together, watson, i tell myself.
two years.
but how can i?
when the only reason to live is right there in front of me.
when the one reason i almost died myself was right there in front of me.
i thought-
not in the restaurant, watson.
i thought you were dead.
i died too that day. i have lost my heart that day. the day you died.
now you let me grieve...
i grieved for you, i grieved for my heart.
how could you do that?
HOW?!
the slightest sign of insecurity in your face. unsure of what to do with my heart on that serving tray.
right. before you... do anything you might regret...
a little laugh. suddenly i see my heart pumping. once.
one question. just let me ask you one question...
i recognize that my heart is starting to beat again. what is going on?!
can i- can i hug you?
and that's it. that's all it needed for me to push aside my anger. that's all it needed to open up my chest for you again.
and i realize that,
yes, she gave me a new heart, but that heart was just plastic. pretense. not the real thing. she hasn't healed the wound either. she had just put a giant band-aid over it.
and you hug me. you hesitantly put your hands around me.
you hug me, you hesitantly, carefully put my heart back into my chest.
and i cry. i cry right there in the restaurant.
i cry. you hold me.
and you ask if we should go home.
and we go home. your arms around me.
at home you put your hand to my chest. as if to make sure my heart stays in its place.
and i look up.
and you dry my tears.
and i lean in.
and we kiss.
and it's sweet. and it's melts away the grief.
and it heals. the wound that was left.
and we kiss again.
and every kiss,
is like a stitch,
making sure my heart doesn't leave,
making sure i live.
with my heart in it's place,
with you on my side.
and you make sure, i never have to chase
my heart again.
and you make sure, my heart will never have to hide
again.
----
[i hope i was able to kinda fix what i did in the first part here. sorry if this sucks.]
tagging some people who reacted to the first part - tell me if you want to be removed or added from/to my tagging list (kinda still trying figure out who to tag): @catlock-holmes @helloliriels @justanobsessedpan @boredsushi @fluffbyday-smutbynight @inevitably-johnlocked @hisfavouritejumper @rhasima @forfucksakejohn @ohlooktheresabee @turbulenttrouble @7arantellgrrl @ssmeowl123 @so-youre-unattached-like-me @totallysilvergirl @peanitbear @train-mossman @loki-lock @smulderscobie @timberva @grace-in-the-wilderness @chinike @pansherlock @the-smol-bean-libby-blog @jawnn-watson @whatnext2020 @ritorukurou @ace-of-sqates @supermarvlock79 @hedgehoglovesotter @sharkk7 @mood-is-bored @2smach @alliesway @eiressmurdock087 @viva--lapluto @skaihunter @nadinetook @hasenkind687 @plutoholmes @quodekash @chinike @fangirl6644 @riverwithoutbanks @autisticaspen @nathan-no @escapingthereality
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spookyscribe · 2 years
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A song on my playlist from today’s writing session. Gothic musicals always deliver for me when I need a dramatic song. 
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jinruihokankeikaku · 4 months
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室生犀星の『愛の詩集』からの「桜咲くところ」 (1918)
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Do you want your heart broken? Yes you do:
Someone is Calling Him Shorewards by @harlotofupdog
This fic will break your heart several times per chapter but you will like it! It's a glorious fanfic.
Its about ghosts and the ocean and (at least the metaphorical ??) string of fate. Gosh I love it so much and drowning is kinda my thing but usually the other way round.
Still trying stuff out with digital painting but it's getting there. (Also I feel like this composition has been done to death (ha!) but it was fun to do!)
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ddejavvu · 7 months
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Hi Mei 🧡
So I have indoor/outdoor cats. The girl cat (Cleo) is a prolific hunter so everytime she appears at the back door I playfully go “Oh my gosh there’s a serial killer at the door!” How do you think Hotch would react to his partner making that joke one night while letting their cat in?
Ps. I love You
i love you too!
--
You're not thinking things through when you go to let your cat inside, having forgotten that the phrase you typically croon at her isn't one that your murderer-hunter boyfriend might not like. But you gush anyways, "Oh, no! There's a serial killer at the door!"
The nickname comes from the plethora of dead critters you've been delivered by your cat, countless mice and spiders and even a few birds that she shouldn't have been able to get her paws on. But she comes empty-handed today, or, empty-mouthed, and darts inside once you slide the door open.
Aaron is at your side in an instant. He doesn't have his gun on him, it's locked away beyond the reach of very curious kitties. But he's got brute strength, and the tenacity of a bull.
"Move," He demands, shouldering his way in front of you. You let out a grunt of surprise, but not of pain; he hadn't bumped you too hard. He scans the backyard, then casts a wary glance back at you, "Where?"
"What?"
"You said there was a serial killer at the door," He snaps, metaphorical hackles raised, "Where?"
"Aaron," You gape, dumbfounded, "The- my cat. She brings me dead things. So- I... I call her a serial killer."
He stands stiff for only a moment more, then in a second, all of the tension drains from his muscles. He sags in relief, then slides the door shut and rounds on you.
"Terrible choice of words," He grumbles, but despite the furrow in his brow, you know he's not truly upset with you. He's almost sheepish, which is a rare sight to see, but an endearing one.
"I'm sorry," You bite your lips together, tucking them into your mouth and trying not to laugh at him, "Aaron, I'm sorry, I didn't- I wasn't thinking, I just say it all the time!"
"You're gonna send me into cardiac arrest before sixty." He glares, "You tease me about being old, but I'm not old enough to die."
"I'm sorry!" You insist again, giggling despite your best efforts, and leaning in to kiss sloppily against his downturned lips, "I won't do it again. Or- I probably will, that's a lie. But you'll get used to it."
"Oh, I will?" He quirks a brow, finally relenting and breathing out a shaky laugh through his sheepish grin. He takes hold of your hips, pinning them to his own as he drives his nose against yours, "I should just get used to thinking my girlfriend is about to get axe murdered?"
"Axe murdered," You scoff, but you gladly accept the kiss he presses to your lips, letting him lean you back slightly on your feet so that his shoulders are your lifeline. "If there was a real murderer at the door, I wouldn't talk to them in a baby voice, Aaron."
"I don't put anything past you," He narrows his eyes, but keeps his face pressed to yours, so really it looks like he narrows one giant eye in the middle of his face, "You talk to Jack in a baby voice, and he's seventeen."
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skipper1331 · 8 months
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Which sister? // Alexia Putellas
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a/n: based off this request. Hope you like it:)
"Are you even listening?" Mapi asked her best friend who was watching you with googly eyes.
Alexias heart fluttered at the sight in front of her, you. Her eyes roamed over your figure, mesmerizing every detail, you were stunning. For her, it didn‘t matter If you were all dressed up, in joggers or in the training gear - you were the most beautiful girl in the world. Yet she had to admit, seeing you in the Barça kit made her heart skip a beat, skin tingle.
"Huh?"
"stop drooling and listen to me" the defender told her stern, Alexias hand flying to her mouth to wip it - no drool. "Gosh Ale," Mapi laughed, "that was meant metaphorically" the girl glared at her friend, sighing in defeat. La reinas crush on you was more than obvious to everyone but you. She held the door open for you, braided your hair every time, drove you almost everywhere around, she would even carry you if you were too exhausted to walk on your own.
She got it really bad, you just smiled at her across the pitch on your first day in Barcelona and then she knew it straight away. She didn't know you yet, but she knew it, she knew that she would fall headfirst in love with you.
And she did.
Over time, Alexia and you became great friends, hung out all the time and she even introduced you to her family. Her mother and sister were two of the friendliest people you had ever met, Alba maybe more flirty but still kind though.
Her mother spoke highly of you, about your good manners, your helpful and humorous nature - she liked you. At some point your status changed: you were no longer a friend and teammate of her oldest daughter but her third daughter.
-
Thursday evening - family dinner.
After weeks of Mapi trying to convince Ale to ask you out, they agreed to the deal that the midfielder would at least tell her family. So again weeks later, Alexia finally built the courage, for the first time ever, to say out loud that she was in love with you.
The conversation was floating by while Alexia held back. She was quiet most of the time, occasionally adding a humm or some phrase. She was so lost in her thoughts, thinking about the best way to admit that she like-liked you that it just bubbled out of her.
"I‘m in love with Y/n"
Alba choked on her food, dropping the fork as she stared with an open mouth at her sister, "what?!"
Eli with a big smile on her face, looked at Alexia, she always had a feeling that you were not just a friend to her - not with the way she looked at you, the hearts that arose in her eyes at every mention of your name.
"You can‘t like her!" her sister spat angrily. There was a wrinkle between la reinas brows as they furrowed, "¿por que?"
"Because I like her!"
Alexia was taken back - when did that happen? The Putellas sisters glared at each other, Eli‘s words falling to death ears. "Well then the fight is on. Let‘s see which sister she wants" the younger girl stated as she stood up, leaning on her arms to intimidate her sister. "Fight? She’s not a trophy to fight for!" The midfielder herself now stood up, also leaning on the table. The tension was thick, holes burning in to the head of each other, "as If you haven‘t gone after every trophy" Alba replied, refering to the numerous trophies Alexia had fought for. "Alba, say one more time she‘s a trophy and I‘ll smack you!"
That was the moment Eli disputed, her fist hitting the table, shutting up both of her daughters. "You," Eli looked at Alba before she pointed to the living room "this way". The younger girl grumbled under her breath as she stomped out, the mother turning to her other child "Kitchen"
"No mamá"
Alexia was mad, she didn‘t know If she was mad because her sister liked you too or because she refered to you as a trophy or If she was scared that Alba would win this fight.
In defeat, the midfielder slumped back on her chair, head resting in her hands. She needed a minute.
Calmed down, Ale looked at her mother with the most heart broken eyes yet not saying anything. The girl walked towards the living room, her mum close behind. Alba was sitting on the couch, arms crossed as she glared at the black screen of the tv. "Alba," her sister said in a firm voice, stubbornly she didn't turn around, her gaze fixed on switched off television, Alexia continued anyway, "I won‘t fight you. If you want her, ask her" confused, Alba turned to face the Barça player, why would she give up a fight? She‘d always fight for everything. "Just- just promise me to treat her right, okay?" The only thing Alexia did fight was against her tears in that moment.
She left straight after, not giving one of them the chance to say something.
She wouldn't fight against her sister, not when it involved something so important - you. She would rather have her own heart broken than to see you sad or miss out the chance of happiness with her sister. She loved you and Alba too much for that.
The happiness of her family and you will always be her first priority - no matter what.
-
Alexia avoided you. The sparkle in her eyes was missing - you were missing. When she talked to you, she held her answers short, partner drills she did with someone else and she would even avoid to look at you - her favorite sight.
In your eyes, she was a changed woman. A few days ago, everything was perfectly fine; the two of you joked around, she gave you a lift home but now? it was as If you were strangers.
It wasn't like you to confront her straight away, maybe she just had a bad day or week and needed some distance, some space. You weren't a confrontational person anyways, situations like that just stressed you out and triggered your anxiety.
You gave her the space you thought she wanted while she secretly hoped you would talk to her - the change in her mood and behaviour noticeable for everyone in the team.
In the meantime her sister shot her shot.
Alba
hola
wanna hang out later?
Weird. The younger Putellas had never asked you to hang out before, at least not without Ale.
Not thinking too much about it you agreed, the girl suggesting to met up at the little café, the three of you visited often.
Later that afternoon, you walked to the café which wasn‘t far from your home, wearing casual clothers. Subconsciously, you hoped that Ale would be there too and when you just saw Alba sitting at your regular table, your heart hurt a little. "hi" you greeted with a smile though, the younger girl giving you a longer hug than usually. "How have you been?" she asked, "you look really pretty by the way" she added, what was going on here?
The whole time you felt uncomfortable with the way she flirted with you or would touch your arm and hand. Something seemed to be different compared to the last times.
Each time something flirtatious came you would change the subject - Ale always being the new topic. It annoyed Alba while it made you smile, happy and calm. Alexia was your safe space and happy place.
Alba slowly began to realize that she never stood a chance. It had always been Alexia and you. The way your eyes lit up when you mentioned Alexias name, the way your smile would reach the corner of your eyes - why didn't she realize that much sooner? The connection the two of you had was deeper and more meaningful than anything she had ever seen before. So while Alba only had a crush on you, Ale loved you.
And clearly, you loved her.
Guilt crept though her body as she understood what pain she caused, Alexia not returning their mothers calls, your calls and her own calls.
She understood the pain in the midfielders eyes the day she made her promise to treat you right.
"I think i have some explaining to do, y/n"
-
"Ale! Open the door!" you banged against her front door rapidly and firmly, your hand hurting from the force behind each knock. She was already in her sleeping outfit as she opened the door like she always did when you knocked. You looked out of breath, sweaty and face all red. "Did you just run here?" the Barcelona captain asked as she supported you to the way to the living room, placing you on the couch as she brought you a glass of water. "So?" she asked again, looking at you with the eyes she had when she was speaking to the team as their captain. You could only nod as you drowned the water, about to pass out. From the café to Ales home was a long way but you had to see her. As soon as Alba explained everything, you ran out of the café, leaving the younger Putellas by herself. Thinking back, it was a bad idea and you should‘ve listened to Alba as she offered to drive you.
"Tell me, what do you need?" Alexia said in a soft voice as she took a seat next to you, wiping the hair out of your face, "probably a shower" you replied yawning.
"Let‘s go" the girl lifted you up, carrying you like a child to the bathroom as your legs were wrapped around her waist, your head on her shoulder and her arms under your legs to support you. She placed you on the counter next to the sink, slowly starting to take your hair out of the plait and comb it, "i‘m going to get you some clothes" quickly, she took some random shorts and an oversized out her wardrobe before returning to you. "Here" she laid the clothes down, "take your time, i‘ll be waiting"
Stepping in to the shower, you let the hot water run over your shoulders down to your feet as your body started to relax. Taking your time but still showering rather quickly, you washed your hair and body. The smell of Alexia - her shampoo - filled the room, it smelled like home.
Ale was laying in her bed while she waited for you, many questions running through her mind. Why did you run to her home? Why did you knock on to her door like something happened? What happened?
As she heard the door of her bedroom open she sat up, leaning on her elbows, you looked cute in her clothes.
You had stayed over before many times, always wearing her clothes yet every time it made her heart flutter and cheeks blush. Alexia scooted aside as she patted on the free side of the bed. Join her. Making your way over, you flopped on the mattress, an exhausted sigh leaving your throat as you got more comfortable in Alexias bed. Both of you stared at the ceiling, neither of you saying a word. "Why did you run here? Where did you run from? What happened?" The questions bubbled out of her as she turned to you, your chest rising and falling in a normal pace. "Ran here from the café. I had to see you"
"From the café?!"
You hummed in agreement, "Alba asked me"
Ale‘s whole body tensed as she inhaled sharply. Did Alba ask-asked you? What did you mean? What did she ask you exactly? "You didn‘t tell me you had a fight with her"
it was your turn to face her, your arm supporting your head. She froze with fear. What was happening? "what are you talking about?" she wanted to play clueless but you knew better. You knew her and you knew now what happened at the family dinner, you knew everything. "Keyword: trophy"
"Don‘t" she whispered, laying on her back again, staring at the ceiling. Trophy, you were everything but a trophy to her, she didn‘t want to win you, she wanted you, to be with you. With a quick adjustment of your posture, you were at her side, leaning over her, to look at her. Her eyes were so beautiful. "You know, If I was a trophy-"
"You‘re not!" her voice was loud and clear, your heart melting while you ignored her statement to continue, "you would win me" her eyes grew wide, a shy smile covering her face as her cheeks burnt red, "Ale," your thumb traced along her jawline before your hand rested on her neck, "there was never the question: which sister. It's always been you, Ale, always" relief washed over the spaniards body, it was the confirmation she had to hear so dearly. Her hands cupped your cheeks, thumb caressing your them. "God, you‘re so beautiful" her eyes were full of hearts, her heart racing as her body was on fire, "I‘m so in love with you"
An upside down smile was written over your face as you got all shy under her compliment, confession and intense (yet loving) stare. You closed your eyes, slowly leaning down, her hands not pulling you in any way, it was all you. The midfielder watched every movement, only closing her eyes when she finally felt your lips against her own.
Sweet.
Your lips tasted sweet. She had often imagined the taste of your lips but wow they felt like heaven.
Even when the question arose: which sister? For you there had only ever been one answer, one sister, Alexia. The girl you fell in love with the moment you saw her tripping over her own feet on your first day in Barcelona.
—————————
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queerfables · 7 months
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Taking away the glass?
Oh gosh I'm actually so keen to talk about this so thank you for the opening!
Context: Responding to akaitsukicat's artwork of Crowley and Aziraphale separated by a glass wall, I said that the reason we're all such wrecks over their kiss is because after 6000 years in canon and 33 years in real life, that kiss was "taking away the glass".
The glass is a metaphor that media scholar Henry Jenkins uses to explain the appeal of slash, originally published in 1993. Here, "slash" refers to queer re-interpretation of heterosexual media, including transformative works exploring those readings.
This is what Jenkins says about the glass:
When I try to explain slash to non-fans, I often reference that moment in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan where Spock is dying and Kirk stands there, a wall of glass separating the two longtime buddies. Both of them are reaching out towards each other, their hands pressed hard against the glass, trying to establish physical contact. They both have so much they want to say and so little time to say it. Spock calls Kirk his friend, the fullest expression of their feelings anywhere in the series. Almost everyone who watches the scene feels the passion the two men share, the hunger for something more than what they are allowed. And, I tell my nonfan listeners, slash is what happens when you take away the glass. The glass, for me, is often more social than physical; the glass represents those aspects of traditional masculinity which prevent emotional expressiveness or physical intimacy between men, which block the possibility of true male friendship. Slash is what happens when you take away those barriers and imagine what a new kind of male friendship might look like. One of the most exciting things about slash is that it teaches us how to recognize the signs of emotional caring beneath all the masks by which traditional male culture seeks to repress or hide those feelings.
The vid I refer to, inspired by Jenkin's comments, is The Glass by thingswithwings. It's a beautiful vid, sad and hopeful and empowering, with a very moving commentary on fandom history. It was originally published in 2008, which is relevant to understanding the position it takes in the dialogue around queer relationships in media.
Here's thingswithwings' summary of the vid, as it appears on YouTube:
Henry Jenkins, speaking of the Spock death scene from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, said, "slash is what happens when you take away the glass." It has been said, in response, that death also happens when you take away the glass. ie, if you took away the glass Kirk would die of radiation poisoning too; the barrier between desiring men cannot be removed on pain of death. Homosexuality, or just loving touch between two people of the same gender, is equivalent to death in this media narrative. One of the interesting things about slash is the way it takes away the glass, then puts it back, then takes it away, then puts it back, often pleasurably. I think this is both problematic and powerful. It is problematic because it reasserts the impossibility of the touch (it fetishizes oppression in a negative manner); it is powerful - and good - because it dwells on and thinks about and removes the glass (it fetishizes oppression in a transformative manner). One of the interesting things about mainstream media is that it continues to put the glass back up, no matter how hard we try to tear it down. Queer desiring touches have been, and remain, imaginable but impossible. TL;DR ALTERNATE SUMMARY: THERE SEEMS TO BE SOME KIND OF INVISIBLE BARRIER IDK WHAT IT MIGHT BE
In regards to Good Omens, it's relevant that this entire conversation about homosocial relationships in media takes place within the 29 year period between the publication of Good Omens the book and the adaptation of the story to screen. The vid was created 15 years ago - which is to say 18 years after the book was published and 11 years before season 1 was released - and it talks about realised queer desire in mainstream media as being so impossible that it is equivalent to death. That is the kind of resistance that queer representation in pop culture has been up against, these last three decades.
Crowley/Aziraphale, as depicted in the book, is such a classic example of slash. I've seen some people who read the book in a contemporary context saying they didn't necessarily pick up on any subtext between the characters, and I suspect this is a mark of cultural expectations. Firstly, because the cultural references that the intentional subtext relies on have become obscured over time - see Neil Gaiman's explanation of the "consenting cycle repairmen" line. But more importantly because the audience's frame of reference for unintentional subtext has shifted, too. What is unsayable and which silences are emotionally loaded has changed over time. Even if you are intentionally using a queer lens in your reading, you might not see subtext in the same places that someone would even 10 years ago.
For example, take this passage from the book:
On the whole, neither [Aziraphale] nor Crowley would have chosen each other's company, but they were both men, or at least men-shaped creatures, of the world, and the Arrangement had worked to their advantage all this time. Besides, you grew accustomed to the only other face that had been around more or less consistently for six millennia.
On it's face, this line suggests that the relationship between the two of them is a matter of convenience more than desire. Maybe that's the intended reading and maybe that's how it started or how they justify their association to themselves, but taken together with how deeply they know each other and how they are always each other's first thought in a crisis, suddenly "neither would have chosen the other's company" sounds like an extremely British way to say they care about each other far more than they were supposed to. Plus, this is Aziraphale's take on their relationship, and it plays rather beautifully against Crowley's much simpler expression of the exact same sentiment:
Aziraphale. The Enemy, of course. But an enemy for six thousand years now, which made him a sort of friend.
To go back to Henry Jenkin's wise words, what we're seeing here is Aziraphale thinking about Crowley through the glass - through the "aspects of traditional masculinity which prevent emotional expressiveness or physical intimacy between men". If you came up in slash fandom at a time when seeing queer relationships in canon was unthinkable, you probably find it easier to identify the gap between how Aziraphale thinks about his relationship with Crowley and how their relationship actually functions. That gap was where a lot of slash lived.
You might say that the book shows Crowley and Aziraphale watching each other through the glass, and season 1 is them pressing up against it. They're still prevented from showing the full depth of feeling between them, they still hunger for more than they're allowed, but they are reaching for it. We see the history of their relationship developing through the ages. The unsayable is still left unsaid, but we feel the weight of it in everything they do. They come so very close but they still can't cross that threshold.
And then there's season 2. Within the text, Crowley and Aziraphale are not just pressing against the glass, they're actively trying to dismantle it. They're searching for a door to the other side. They're inspecting for weak points where they could cut their way through. And then suddenly they're out of time and out of options and the glass is still between them, and there's nothing they can do.
As the audience, you feel that desperation. You feel that grief. And if you're someone who's been watching the glass go back up on every relationship you thought might stand a chance of tearing it down, it hits hard. You're longing vicariously with the characters, but you're longing for yourself too, to see queer desire made possible. To see queer touch made not just imaginable but real.
And then, with all hope lost, Crowley throws himself through the glass. It doesn't matter that it doesn't save them. They kiss and it changes everything. Queer desire is no longer up for debate. Queer touch is no longer impossible. They kiss and the glass shatters, entirely and irrevocably.
This is why it matters so much that they did kiss, even though the love between them was already undeniable. For thirty years, Crowley and Aziraphale were part of a media landscape that relentlessly reinforced the glass at every turn and flooded fatal radiation through any crack they couldn't fix. In a different context, that kiss would be less vital to affirming their relationship. But in the world we live in, with the specific history that this story has, I don't think anything else could have done what it did. The glass between these characters had been reinforced over decades, in a culture that made the barriers to open intimacy between men inescapable. Their kiss was what it took to break it.
And by shattering the glass, this story has fundamentally rewritten what is possible. It proves the rules preventing true affection between people of the same gender can be defied. Queer people are already becoming more visible in pop culture; we're no longer reliant on slash reimagining queer longing between heterosexual leads. But Crowley and Aziraphale's kiss is cathartic and vindicating in an entirely different way. It turns slash into intentional queerness. It takes a fetishisation of oppression vacillating between problematic and transformative, and finally stands up on the side of powerful, empowering transformation. It confronts the barriers that once rendered this desiring touch impossible, and breaks through them once and for all.
That's what taking away the glass means. That's what Good Omens did.
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oleander-nin · 7 months
Text
Horrortober Day 12- Stalker(Yandere Rise Donnie x Reader)
A/N, not important: Sorry it's short. I just... Couldn't. Any criticism is welcome, constructive or not. This is supposed to be a gender neutral reader, so if I screwed up somewhere, please tell me.
-Ollie
CW: stalking, recording without permission, planned drugging, planned kidnapping, dark themes, yandere themes
Words: 718
Summary: It's time to take you home
Donnie's gaze flits over the many screens, a deep scowl on his face. He couldn't believe you were up this late again, despite his advice earlier. You promised you'd get sleep. He had the texts open, looking at them before looking back at you across the cameras he had planted in your room so long ago. You were up again, a pencil in your hand with the other knotted in your hair and homework on your desk. Why hadn’t you come to him if it was giving you this much trouble? He would have done it for you in mere moments. It was an insult to him to not let him help.
Donnie’s frown deepens as he leans back in his chair, trying to decide how to move forward. You clearly needed his support, needed a guiding hand to set you straight. He was completely willing to do that for you, to set you a schedule and hold you to it. He would do anything for you. Gosh, he would love to do everything for you.
He continues to watch the screen, analyzing every movement and burning it into his retinas. He could take you home. Your area in his lab was set up, the blankets and pillows in the corner to your liking. He knew this because it was an exact replica of the ‘nest’ you had in childhood, thanks to the pictures Donnie salvaged off of your old phone. He had gotten everything perfect for you. A cabinet in the kitchen was full of your favorite snacks, the fridge stocked with food that could be turned to meals of your taste, and Donnie’s own room was set to match the temperature of yours. Everything was ready, all he needed now was you.
Donnie wasn’t sure why he had held out for so long. Maybe it was because you seemed so happy the other day when he texted you, or when you hugged him for a few seconds longer than normal after he gave you your new phone. He knew the adjustment to your new life with him would be difficult, and he wasn’t fully ready to give up seeing you smile so brightly at him just yet.
But seeing you in your room, textbook open at three in the morning with tears in your eyes? It broke his heart in two. You’d never need to study like that again once he took you. Your life would be one of comfort and love. He’d dedicate every hour to you, making sure you were as happy as you could be. Sure, you wouldn’t have your freedom anymore. He couldn’t risk you going outside and getting hurt after all, but that is all a necessary sacrifice. You were too precious to be cast into the world, to hold a job and be harassed by life itself. You were something to be treasured, something to be spoiled and kept safe. He didn’t care he would be keeping you in a box that you would never leave, as long as you were safe and by his side.
He would die without you. He would wither up and collapse, his own heart breaking. Donnie knew he was being dramatic, but he felt his metaphor to be true. Without you, he would be nothing, just as you were nothing without him. Donnie looks back at the screen, watching your head loll forwards as you fight the sleep your body and mind so desperately needed. From the angle of the camera, he could just slightly see the bags under your eyes. They had grown since you last saw him, and his heart panged with worry. That wasn’t good.
Donnie scowls, standing up and leaving his desk for a moment. He crosses his lab and enters the room, searching his drawers for the small pill bottle of Ambien he kept in them. He needed to be prepared for when you arrived, just in case you were awake and still struggling. He counts the necessary pills for your weight and sets them on the desk, prepared to force you to take them if needed. Once the small gift he had for you was set up, Donnie returns to the heart of his lab, grabbing his tech bō and spider-shell.
It was time to bring you home.
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petit-etoile · 5 months
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Astarion/Tav prompt (or Reformed Durge): "I would have you smile again. You will live to see these days renewed. No more despair." I know it's a Lord of the Rings quote but gosh if it doesn't remind me of them ;-;
this  is  the  end  of  the  world ( a  time  for  something  biblical  )
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pairing: astarion/tav wordcount: 5,219 content warnings: canonical mentions of death, spoilers for the dark urge storyline & astarion's act iii romance, graphic mentions of injuries, references to cann.ibalism as a metaphor for love, mental health issues & physical ramifications from the tadpole + rejecting bhaal, i highly recommend listening to the exogenesis symphony by muse other tags: canon compliant,  canon-typical violence,  character study,  introspection,  hurt/comfort,  whump,  canon temporary character death,  the dark urge as player character,  codependency,  religious imagery & symbolism,  p.orn with plot archiveofourown: here.
tag list: @azrielshadows1nger, @pandimoostuff, @faevi, @microskies, @foreverthemaraudersera, @queenofthespacesquids, @claryvoyantfray, @6doodlaang14, @anne-isnotokay, @itshimbotime, @yeeteth-the-raven, @sessils,@8-opossums, @worryknotdear, @abirdaboxandachippedcup, @ghosts-and-ink, @b4um3pfl4um3, @gunslingerorchid, @hypopxia,  @m0ssytrees, @erysione, @odette-attackattack, @catching-fire-in-the-wind, @ashrio20, @wills-mental-illness, @queenofcarrotflowers-s, @kirahlene be added to the taglist here
summary:  ‘Stay,’ Astarion says weakly. ‘I don’t want to be alone.’
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‘Your life is mine,’ he says, cruel eyes gazing at you. ‘Accept your inheritance, or I will reclaim it.’
‘I would rather die,’ you say.
His hateful eyes narrow dangerously. It was never a good idea to betray a god, nonetheless one who had created you so lovingly. His voice is a low growl when he dismisses you  —  and suddenly, white-hot pain shoots through your veins and threatens to swallow you whole. Bhaal raises his hand and your blood obeys.
‘You were made to conquer,’ he snarls. ‘To devour!’
‘I don’t need any of this,’ you spit out. ‘I don’t need you. The only family  —  I know are those who fight by my side! I will not be what you made me!’
The sickness in your belly surges until you think it will overcome you. You stagger forward until your knees hit the stone floor. Bhaal is forcing you to submit, to become what he had made Orin. This thing won’t have you, Astarion whispers against the curve of your ear. It won’t win. You’ve got this, darling. And I’ve got you. You want to believe him, but your blood-kin has done damage beyond repair. What were children beyond the sins of their father?
‘You reject my blood?’ Bhaal asks.
‘Yes,’ you whisper.
‘Then I shall reclaim it,’ he says, his promise a growl in his throat.
You were your father’s seed cultivated to perfection by determination and bravery. Now, you were nothing more than a disappointment to be snuffed out root and stem. You choke on the warmth in your throat. Your veins seem to have exploded beneath your skin. You sneeze, red oozing from every orifice.
‘I will make another who is worthy,’ says Bhaal, lifting his hand.
As he raises his hand, you are forced to kneel. Every single one of your muscles contracts in agony. The others might be shouting but you can hardly hear them over the roaring in your ears. Your blood is rejecting you. Festering inside your flesh like a disease. Like the skeleton carved into the wall, you weep blood down your neck. No matter how hard you try to close your eyes to prevent it, your rich ichor abandons you.
No, you want to tell him. The rot of his blood will end with you as it had with Orin. The abomination of murder will never set forth and harm another. You reach for the dagger at your hip and raise it, but the Avatar of Bhaal dissipates before you can strike. The weight of your body collapses  forward.
Like a wounded beast, you keen loudly, shaking your head as if that will free your ears from the blood inside of them. You were born from this blood. You were created by this blood to be who you are today. Rejecting it should be like a sin  —  but if sin is a seed, you have eaten it willingly from the hand of mortality. If Bhaal is to reject you, then you will reject his godhood.
You close your eyes as blood overtakes your sight. You press your forehead into the stone to fight your fever. You shiver and gasp. You gargle on the proof of vitriol and lean into the chilled floor, resigned to your fate. At least you wouldn’t become a mindflayer…
“No!” Astarion wails. Your heart shatters. ‘No, please  —  Not you!’
I’m sorry, you say. You close your eyes and remember the color of the sun in his hair. I didn’t mean for this to happen. This isn’t what I wanted. Your fingers curl against the stone, and then  —  There’s nothing. Astarion touches the sleepless bruises beneath your eyes with such tenderness you forget his strength. You lean your cheek into his palm and sigh sleepily, but even as exhaustion overtakes your body, you shudder. You’re afraid to sleep, to dream. You don’t want to hurt anyone else ever again.
‘You have to rest, my love,’ he murmurs. He allows you to lay on his hand as though it were a pillow. ‘When was the last time you slept through the night?’
‘I’m not sure,’ you confess.
‘I might be a sleepless creature of the night,’ Astarion says, ‘but you… You needn’t fear your dreams when I am here. I’ll protect you no matter the cost.’
‘And who will protect you if I sleep?’ you ask.
You must be frowning, because Astarion uses his other hand to soothe the crease between your eyebrows. He sounds so outrageously heartbroken that you want to cry. You don’t want him to think he isn’t a comfort… You haven’t slept beside someone in so long, and the warmth of his body has always lulled you to your dreams peacefully until recently.
Astarion swallows thickly. ‘I’m not afraid of you. I’m not afraid of this. I’m with you forever and always.’
But what if there isn’t an always?
‘There is always a future for you and I,’ Astarion vows. ‘Now sleep. He can’t control you as long as I’m around.’ When you open your eyes again, you’re greeted by the most beautiful man you’ve ever seen. His eyes are a soft cerise, and his cheeks are high and sleek, his lips plump and his hair soft and curled. An angel. You’re unable to control the way you reach your hand to touch his cheek, smearing a crystalline tear across his wan skin.
‘Who are you?’ you whisper, voice caught painfully in your throat.
‘Hush now, my love,’ he whispers. He presses a sweet kiss to your mouth, and when he pulls away, his lips are ruddy and wet. ‘Thank the gods… I thought I had lost you.’
Oh, you think. You remember now. This is the man from your dream… You try to recall the details of how you know him, but it’s hard to follow a train of thought. You turn from side to side. It’s so hard to move, to focus. Your limbs feel as though they are made of lead and marble. Everything aches. The tips of your fingers and your nails down to the little bones in your toes. Your head, though, is the only part of you free from intense pain. It’s as though a weight has been lifted from the veil of your memories. You rest your arm across your waist, too tired to keep it lifted.
‘Who…’ Your brows furrow in confusion. ‘Who am I?’
‘I know you were once a child full of life and love,’ the angel says to you, gently cradling your face in his hands. ‘I know one day you were afraid and unsure and half-mad. I know you stained the streets red with cruelty and devised a plan larger than all of Faerûn. But I know you are strong and that your heart is good. You saved the tieflings, and you saved the refugees, and now you will save the world that threatens to be plunged into darkness.’
You smile. ‘That doesn’t sound like me at all,’ you confess.
The angel shakes his hand, fingers pressing hard into your skin. His voice breaks. ‘But I know it to be true, so you must believe my every word. You are brave. You are kind. You are good. You are my love, and I know that I am loved by you in return. You are a protector,’ he tells you. ‘You have protected everyone, and now it is time to protect yourself. You have survived two gods and now you must survive a third.’
The knot in your throat grows larger with every word. You think you remember now. Yes, you can remember it all very clearly. You know the weight of his hands like baptism. You turn your cheek and kiss his palm, smudging his skin pink.
‘Astarion,’ you whisper.
Your love smiles down at you, your blood dribbling down his chin.
‘What happened?’
‘Let’s not worry about that,’ he shushes you, massaging the bruises beneath your eyes. ‘Come, let us get you cleaned up.’
‘I don’t think I can walk yet,’ you say. Admitting it makes you feel weak.
‘Don’t worry,’ Astarion says softly. ‘I can carry you.’
‘I will bloody your clothes,’ you say.
‘Bloody them,’ Astarion says. ‘I don’t care.’
Astarion does carry you. He carries you all the way back to the inn, to a private room just the two of you share. He orders a tub to bathe you in and then takes an hour to scrub your skin clean, carefully cleaning your gore from your hair and scalp.
You watch as Astarion passes a bar of soap against the skin of the top of your arm over and over again until it is red then pink then flesh. Then, he gently twists your wrist. He cleans the underside of your arm next, and your palm. He washes your fingers until they do nothing but shake in the cold air. You curl your fingers around his.
‘Was it hard?’ you ask him.
‘I will never forget the smell of your scent,’ Astarion replies.
He moves to wash the hollow between your collarbones, encouraging you to recline in the water. He washes your chest and your stomach until his grief washes over him in waves. His chin shakes until a sob escapes. He presses his face into your hair and wails softly into your crown. When he’s done weeping, Astarion returns to his cleansing. He speaks not of it again. There is so little of you left.
You often wonder how much of your brain is left between the parasite and the hole your father has left you. Sometimes Jaheira still looks at you as though the rot of your father isn’t entirely gone. You don’t blame her. You’re waiting for your control to snap. You were good once. You could be good again. You want to be good again.
Shadowheart smiles at you now. Lae’zel no longer frowns. Even Wyll has taken up eating beside you again when it’s nighttime and the adventure can go no more. Gale pours you an extra serving of wine. He says you need it. Karlach lets you hold Clive at night when Astarion goes hunting, and he goes hunting often now. It makes you wonder if your blood is vile.
Part of you wants to ask him if you’ve done something wrong. You’ve committed no crime, but you feel like you have. Your memories of before are slipping away. Your memories of now seem to do the same.
You wait in your tent that night for Astarion to return, your blanket pulled around your head and shoulders. You rehearse what you’re going to say. You want to reassure him you’re not angry. You just…feel loss. Empty. The loneliness nips at your bones like crows at carrion.
When Astarion slips inside, he looks guilty. It almost makes you want to change your mind, but you have to know. You feel as though you’re going mad. A flightless bird trapped in a cage. Like Dame Aylin trapped in Shadowfell. He refuses to meet your gaze.
‘Have I done something  —  ’
‘You,’ Astarion says through gritted teeth, ‘are perfect. Every time.’
You want to cry. ‘Then why do you avoid me?’
‘Avoid you?’ Astarion repeats incredulously. He looks at you now despairingly. ‘No, that isn’t what this is at all. I would never avoid you.’
‘You’re hunting more often,’ you say in a low tone, a whisper. Accusatory.
‘Can you blame me?’ he asks plainly.
It’s your turn to look away in shame. ‘If it’s too much, you should sleep somewhere else.’
‘I don’t want to be apart from you,’ Astarion says.
‘Then how do we fix this?’
‘You cannot fix what is not broken.’
‘Astarion,’ you plead. ‘Hold me or  —  I don’t know who I am anymore.’
Astarion wraps his arms around you before you can say another word. His lips are like a halo against your head. Each kiss he presses against your scalp is a prayer from a sinner. You turn your cheek, and he kisses you so passionately it makes your empty head spin.
You relearn who are you in his arms that night. And as he regales you with tales of your history, you think you can imagine them in your mind’s eye. He kisses your wrist. He tells you a happy memory when he kisses the curve of your belly, and when he kisses your ankle, he promises you that everything will be worth it.
It wasn’t you that was the problem. There wasn’t a problem, not really. Only an impiety he wanted to atone for. He struggles with telling you, but when he whispers it against your thigh, you understand.
‘Your blood,’ he says, voice strained. ‘I cannot escape the smell.’
‘I’m sorry,’ you say, but he shakes his head and his hair tickles your sensitive skin.
‘No, I  —  It is my shame,’ he confesses. ‘I’ll admit I’m a lech.’
Astarion struggles to put his words in a coherent structure. When you died, he was horrified and distraught. Only the gods know how hard he wept seeing you lifeless. Yet it was his vampiric nature that had betrayed him almost as much as your life’s blood had betrayed you. He felt hunger.
How could he be sad when he was so ravenous? Was he not an evil man, or is this what made him evil? That, in all of his beautiful tears and lamentation, the urge to devour you, bones and all, nearly consumed him? Your death was horrible, ugly, wretched. Your death was beautiful and coveted.
Astarion devours you again that night, mouthing and licking and sucking at your swollen core. He makes you a martyr in his grief. His tongue teases you over and over again. When you’ve climaxed once, Astarion seeks out to make you do it again until your legs are shaking violently and your voice has gone hoarse. He doesn’t take you that night, not in the traditional way, but he swallows you up regardless.
It isn’t until afterwards when he’s laying with his head on your chest that you understand his tragedy. It’s a misfortunate impossibility trying to grieve when you can’t stop salivating. Astarion thinks you’re horrified by the admission, but after knowing your past, it was hard to feel scandalized by anything.
You pet his curls away from his face, watching as he listens to the hum of your heartbeat. He might have it memorized by now, but each time it beats, Astarion’s eyelashes flutter with admiration. It is a hymn, a doxology, a liturgy that only he knows the words to. After all, he wrote them on your skin and immortalized them forevermore. He is so beautiful, you think, when there is no trouble to be seen.
You were once both trapped by your dark god’s design. You had set yourself free. You had sprouted the wings of a swan guided by the empathy you had planted in a garden as a child. It would be Astarion’s soon, and you would carry him in compassion until the thorn crown was placed upon his brow.
Astarion’s eyes are closed. In your perpetually confused state, you mistake him for having fallen asleep and resort to doing the same. The city becomes chilly at night and your skin is decorated with gooseflesh. He rises almost immediately and you try to chase after him, fingers piercing through a ghost.
‘I wasn’t going anywhere,’ Astarion says immediately. He drags his cape from the corner of the tent and lays it across your shins. ‘You were shivering.’
‘I’m not used to this  —  ’ Will my mind ever be the same? ‘  —  chill.’
‘I will be here,’ he promises. ‘Here, let me hold you for the night.’
You clumsily trade places with him, and he tucks your blanket and his cape around your body as tightly as he can. He kisses you passionately and you taste your familiarity in his mouth. It’s so sweet that you sigh. ‘I know what you did,’ Orin says hatefully, spitefully, cruelly. Her voice is like honey.
‘What have I done?’
‘Did you think I wouldn’t know?’ she asks. ‘Filthy rotten blood-kin undeserving of our father’s gift!’
You repeat yourself. ‘What have I done?’
‘You,’ Orin spits, ‘think your grey matter deserves to be loved! I should carve it out! I should make it disgusting and sticky again! Split it’s skull open! You foul traitor!’
Slowly, you pull Orin into your chest. You hug her and smooth her hair down her back. Her arms wrap around you begrudgingly until the lovingkindness causes her to rupture. She sobs into your neck hideously, clinging to you. She wails and she wails until you are both children again staring up at your grandsire for approval.
‘It isn’t fair,’ Orin tells you, hiccuping. She wipes her nose with her fingers. ‘It isn’t fair.’
‘I love you, blood-kin,’ you say. You kiss the top of her head.
‘Slaughter kin,’ she says sadly. She holds your hand with her snotty palm.
‘Sister,’ you say. In the coming weeks, your mind hardly gets better. Memories are still missing. You catch yourself gazing at the mirror longer than you expect to. You used to be so beautiful. It’s hard to recognize the face staring back at you. You touch one cheek and then the other. You turn your head and watch your jawline.
No, it still isn’t you.
You take the knife in your belt to your hair and begin cutting away pieces you don’t remember. You lean forward and smudge your eyes before sitting up straight and trying again. You recognize a part of yourself. You chase that feeling. You press your hand against your heart. You smile faintly. Astarion sobs so hard you think you might lose yourself. You’re at a loss of what to do. He’s alive but he keens like a dying deer. It’s supposed to be healing, you think. Cazador is dead. His reign of terror should end. Astarion is saved and he saved himself. You couldn’t be prouder of him.
Slowly, you step forward one foot after another. You collapse to your knees at his side. It’s easy to pull Rhapsody from his fingers. You drop it by his side. Slowly, as if in a dream, you hold him like you held Orin. Astarion sobs harshly into your collarbone and clings to you so tightly you might break.
‘I thought  —  I thought  —  ’ he cries brokenly.
I thought it would make me feel better, he says without saying. You shush him and pet his hair. Cazador’s blood smears against your cheek when Astarion burrows his face into your neck. You let him linger. You aren’t sure how long you sit on the hard marbled floors, but when you stand up, your knees creak so loud you’re almost insecure about it.
This time, it’s your turn to carry Astarion. He won’t let you pick him up, but you hold him by his waist. You carry him past your allies, past the onlookers who once saw you in opposition. You order the maids to bring you a bath, and as Astarion hiccups in the water, you bathe him.
You wash the taint of Cazador from his body. The soap cleans the dirt and the blood and the memory. You wash his chest and his belly and Astarion thanks you hoarsely. He looks at you, and his eyes are so wide and beautiful that you cry too.
Dying isn’t easy. It isn’t beautiful or romantic or a sweeping gesture. Dying is painful and hideous and ugly, and you have saved Astarion from a lifetime of torment. Rather, he did it by himself with your help. You swipe the soap against his cheeks and use a rag to clear it away. Astarion’s hair is somehow curlier when it’s wet, and you part the curls so they’ll dry without tangling.
Astarion watches you miserably as you towel his hair. You wipe droplets of water off his skin and slowly slide him into his smallclothes. He accepts your blanket and wraps it around his shoulders, staring at the wooden floor, at his feet.
‘Stay,’ Astarion says weakly. ‘I don’t want to be alone.’
‘I would never let you be alone,’ you say.
It isn’t what you bought the room for. Really, you only wanted to wipe the blood from his face but now, you climb into the sheets next to Astarion and hold him tightly. He doesn’t seem to want to talk about the future. He doesn’t want to talk about his siblings either or the thousands of spawn waiting to hang on his every word.
And you can’t even blame him. The gods know how long it took for your tongue to become free from the weight that held it still after you betrayed your father. Karlach said you talked a lot before, but now it’s hard to say anything without wondering if your words are in the right order. Astarion cries softly as if to not awaken you from your slumber, but you can’t fall asleep. You can’t toss or turn either, but dreams evade you.
Dawn peeks through the window. Dawn-bringer, Jergal had called you. You slide out of bed carefully then and cross the room. You draw the curtains shut. Astarion watches you curiously from where he burrows in the sheets. His brow furrows adorably when you climb back into bed and plaster yourself to his spine.
‘Ah,’ you say monotonously. ‘The sun is gone. I suppose we'll stay in until it returns.’
After a day of lounging, Astarion still isn’t ready to talk about what’s on his mind but he watches you do your favorite mundane mortal things with explicit interest. He has you read the book you’re reading aloud, and if it takes you a few hours to struggle through one chapter, he says nothing about it.
Every once in a while, another one of your companions comes to sit in.
Lae’zel tries to commend Astarion for his warrior’s heart without sounding stilted, but eventually she gives up on complimenting him to sympathetically let him know she understands. They had all seen Vlaakith. Karlach brings Clive by and carefully arranges him in the bed next to Astarion. She tells him that he’s fucking awesome and asks permission to hug him.
The touch nearly sends him spiraling.
Gale approaches in his usual manner. He brings Astarion a bottle of wine spiked with blood and lets him know he’s available to chat whenever Astarion feels up to it. Wyll spends thirty minutes apologizing for the bad blood between them, which is funny considering their bickering was hardly vitriolic. Shadowheart visits and gifts him a perfume that makes his lip wobble dangerously.
Jaheira, Minsc, Boo and Halsin come together solemnly. They might be the least offensive of the bunch. Boo gives Astarion a thousand kisses on his cheeks, and Jaheira finally tells them a story of her youth. Halsin has Astarion drink a potion, not because he’s injured physically, but because it should help with his pain. Minsc tries teaching you a Rashemen dance, but Astarion laughs for the first time that day and you do too.
‘It is good,’ Jaheira says, ‘to see you both smile again.’
You touch your mouth shyly. Your cheeks are sore. Astarion’s smile fades slightly but returns in full, timid confidence lighting his features once more. Halsin crosses the room and opens the curtains you’ve closed. The light douses the room in holiness, and you turn your face to watch the sunset, unafraid of what the future will bring.
‘That which troubles you will soon be over,’ she promises. She pats Astarion’s hand, and although she doesn’t say it, you know he’s her son. ‘You will live to see these days renewed. There will be no more despair.’
You’re both left alone again together. Astarion beckons you to the bed instead of your chair and you join him, carefully sitting atop the covers, a respectable distance between your thighs. You inhale carefully.
‘You did the right thing,’ you say. ‘Not completing the Black Mass.’
‘Perhaps I had inspiration,’ Astarion replies. ‘You had a chance to become the Slayer, a being more powerful than you could have known. But you didn’t.’
‘I betrayed my father,’ you whisper, staring at your hands. ‘And he killed me for it.’
‘And if I had completed Cazador’s ritual,’ Astarion says, ‘I would have become Mephistopheles’s whore. I refuse to bow to the whims of others. Being an Ascendent…was blinding me to the truth.’
You look at him curiously then. He confesses to you his sins. He has thought of ascending, and thought of it often but it was never to protect himself. After a certain point, he wanted to protect you too. Your Urges had been mistaken for something else then. A possession, an invasion. Astarion sought to exorcise you of your demons.
But when you had died and the diseased lifeblood fled from your veins, Astarion realized the truth. The ascension would not have helped him protect you. It would have tainted him. It would have contorted him. Rising above all other vampires, Astarion would have become cruel like those before him. He does not want to be cruel to you. He wants to learn kindness as you have. He reaches for it like he chases the sun.
Astarion takes you by the hand, smoothing your skin with his thumb over and over. His skin is cold beneath yours. You curl your fingers into his. He did not want to make you a slave, not again. Not to him.
‘You are the dawn-bringer,’ Astarion says. ‘Even if I never see the sun again, I am free.’
‘I love you,’ you say, voice shaking. ‘I’ll be with you. In the darkness.’
‘You fool,’ Astarion laughs affectionately. He leans across the distance and kisses your temple. ‘There is no darkness. You are daylight incarnate.’
You look at him sharply.
‘I’ve been thinking about something,’ he says. ‘It’s…been on my mind all day, but I think it’s time. Say you’ll come away with me.’
You and Astarion dress slowly. You would follow him almost anywhere, but this is different. There’s something to be done. You don’t dress in armor, and for that you’re almost grateful. You’re tired of fighting. You’re tired of seeing blood.
But it isn’t blood or anything blood related that Astarion takes you to see. One minute, you are wandering Baldur’s Gate at night, and the next, you’ve come to the hollow of a tree where a gravestone is coated in vines.
‘This…is where my old life began,’ Astarion tells you softly. ‘Beneath there, I was turned into a monster. But Cazador is dead now and I get to decide my own fate.’
Astarion tells you in painful detail about his transformation. How his wounds fused themselves shut but the pain never went away. He tells you about breaking through the wood of his demise and the fear that flooded his veins and how, just when he thought he had found his savior, Cazador had laughed wickedly with his cruel glowing eyes.
‘I was his,’ Astarion murmurs, ‘but not anymore.’
He kneels before you on the dirt before his tombstone and bows his head. The prodigal son returned home. The sight of it causes your heart to squeeze. You want to step away but you can’t. You’re afraid.
‘There is nothing left of the person I was before,’ he tells you. ‘I am free to become who I want to be, free to start a new journey. I have all the time in the world to figure out who I am and what I want, but I think I know.’
‘I love you,’ you say again. ‘You’re what I want.’
‘You were by my side through all of this,’ Astarion says, eyes glimmering in the moonlight. ‘And now I want you to christen me. Inaugurate me here on the site of my rebirth.’
This is another dream. You hold your hands over Astarion’s head and sprinkle imaginary water over his head. His eyes close instinctively. Love washes over him, something golden. You kneel down and pluck a flower from the earth and it does not bleed. Relief floods your veins. For once, you touch something and it does not rot. Carefully, like a ghost, you slide the flower into Astarion’s hair and watch as his crimson eyes spill open with tears and devotion.
Astarion kisses you, and for the first time in a long time, he presses his body against yours. He takes you that night in the dirt. His leg is tucked under yours, his cock against your core, his lips never leaving yours. Astarion recites verses in your ears until you burst with ecstasy, tightening around him so much that he can hardly move. He cradles the back of your head to comfort you as he drinks your blood. He cradles your head tonight because he loves you.
‘I am yours,’ he whispers against your skin, ‘and you are mine.’ You aren’t sure when or how Astarion has the time, but he presents you with a gift the night before the world ends. He wears a matching flower from his grave pinned to his armor at all times now. And on his hand, a ring with a silver band. He slides one over your finger as well and kisses your palm as you slowly realize what it means.
The family you’ve chosen throws you a celebration. The next day, Dammon arrives and shows you your repaired armor now dyed white.
You cry for hours out of happiness. ‘This could be the last chance we have for this,’ you whisper to Astarion.
Everyone keeps telling you that a light has returned to your eye, but you don’t see it. It isn’t until you’re laying naked with Astarion again, his skin pressed against yours, that you think you can see it too.
Astarion fucks you tenderly until you’re sore, and you cry and plead sweet things against his shoulder while he holds you safe in his arms. When the pleasure becomes too much and your spine arches from the mattress, he pulls you into his lap and holds you safe against his chest. You kiss him until your lips are sore.
 ‘Your life is mine,’ Astarion murmurs. ‘You belong with me, my love.’
‘I’ve never been happier,’ you moan weakly.
He has taken you again and again this evening. He doesn’t say it, but Astarion is afraid of what tomorrow might bring. You have outsmarted gods and men. You have found goodness where there was nothing but darkness. You refuse to be afraid now.
‘We were made to conquer,’ Astarion says. His mouth is like a fire across your cheekbone. You shudder around his cock.
‘Take my love,’ Astarion commands you, so you do.
You kiss a ruby bruise into his neck, and Astarion fills you with a grunt. He doesn’t part from you. He guides you back down into the sheets and burrows against your body as if determined to climb between your ribs. You smile. Astarion has already made a home in your bones and flesh. He has eaten the rot from your core and recreated you anew. You were not his sin but his salvation. Perhaps he was yours too.
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callofdudes · 8 months
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hi dude. I came with a new idea! How do Ghost, Konig, Roach, and Alex react to the reader doing the belly dance? It's like they saw it by chance. But it's not a vigorous oriental dance, Rather as if the reader is dancing lightly, in a white silk and long ankle-length oriental skirt, gracefully draping her waist from side to side.
It will be neither too long nor too short, can you write headcanons please?
Have a nice day 🌊
Here ya go @greenkiki sorry it took me so long 😅😅
König 🐙
Would either run away in terror at what he just saw thinking seeing something like that was completely illegal. Or he'd be dragged in and just sit there watching you with awe.
No in between.
He's just drawn into the way the skirt moves and your hips and how everything just flows together. It's amazing to him.
Belly dancing isn't terribly popular in Germany or Austria so it's one of the first times he's actually seen it in person. If he'd ever seen it at all.
He was surprised to learn you weren't in pain shifting your hips like that, even when it was slow.
He's a bit of a poetic and you can't tell me otherwise. This man has metaphors left and right for the way you dance and flow around like the breeze or the ocean. The way you look so calm and happy while you do so.
When you do show him fast, competitive belly dancing you scare him.
"See, it's like this. It's really easy-"
"Oh my gosh your hips- stop it stop! You'll break something!"
You laugh and keep doing it as König tries not to look but also looks because how can he not??
It's slightly horrifying, but in a good way. The way you can move like that is hypnotic and almost ensnares him into feeling his heart beat out of his chest while watching you.
But he definitely wants to keep watching. And you do. He's so drawn he'll sit on your bed and just watch you as you practice. Slow rhythmic dances. It really is... Amazing.
He absolutely loves watching you. I mean, he's just genuinely and purely infatuated with it.
And he's probably too nervous to ever speak it, but there is a tiny part of him, a part inside him that doesn't just want to sit there and watch you.
He wants to touch you, to feel the skirt on your waist and his hands on your warm hips as you dance around in his arms. Geez... this has unlocked new things inside him.
Roach 🪳
I bring you the world's best hype man. He'll clap and smile at you, his eyes twinkling and you can see his eyes scrunching a little.
When he first sees you, he's quiet enough that he can watch from the crack in your door. He is also intrigued, and just watching you. It's so interesting and it looks fun. He watches the way your hips move and how you look so happy and in the zone, it's pretty. Very pretty.
And in common Roach fashion if you're wearing a skirt with the little beads and shiny reflective disks, he's all over that. We been knew.
After you're finished the song Roach will burst into your room with happy clapping and some bsl clapping as well, bouncing around and looking at the outfit up close before you can even register the man is in your room.
"Roach?? Hey buddy, what- what did you see??" You were a little flustered he found you like that but Roach is all smiles. He flicks the little beads and feels how soft the skirt is.
And how you moved. Twirling his finger ad to excitedly ask you to do it again.
And he sits on your bed and watches you as you do. It's just so cool, and pretty.
"Do you like it?? When I do this?"
He nods, pointing to your belly button and poking it, making you blush again. "Well, thank you buddy."
He's hype man. Anywhere and everywhere, hype man. You must share these talents with the world.
He is always trying to get you to show him, to see if you can do it in regular clothes or your military gear. One time after a victory, he even tried to do some dance moves himself.
As you can imagine it didn't look that great. But he tried!
He's baby, but remember, even baby has a few secret thoughts of his own that he's... storing for later.
Ghost 💀
In the spirit of sharing your talents with the world, Roach has dragged you to his best friend in the whole world, who also shall appreciate your talents.
You're a little embarrassed to say the least when Ghost raises an eyebrow as Roach gets him to sit and points to you. In your outfit. Roach just... purely wants to share what you can do, and that is what truly makes your cheeks heat up.
And so you do, a little dance with some music on. Ghost acts completely disinterested, he doesn't look like he cares. There is a part of him that wants to reach out and touch those hips. A small inkling inside of him that wants to be behind you, to hold you and let you guide him around while you do... whatever heavenly thing you're doing right now.
There is nothing innocent about it. Roach wants to show him this and doesn't expect Ghost to take it in a whole new light.
After the fact he does run into you one time in your room when you're dancing. He can't help himself slipping into your room and running his hands just briefly, the tips of his gloved fingers over your skin.
"You are one intriguing gal, aren't you?"
You blush, your movements still, but Ghost gives you enough room to continue.
"Think you can teach me?"
"I think I possibly could."
Yeah, this man isn't going back. Sorry but there is new brain chemistry for him to consider. Especially since he's genuinely never seen a dance like this. In his entire life. Which is probably one of the reasons he's so attracted to it.
But hey, let's be honest, if it was anyone else, he'd still walk away.
Alex 🦿
Saw it but chance, and from every incident now on, sees it by choice 😤
Look at him, innocent man, walking to the barracks all alone when he hears this music. The music he's never heard coming from your room. Interesting, the song is kind of catchy. He was going to ask you about it when he approached your room and saw you.
Oh.
Oh.
He's not disrespectful but can you get any more beautiful?? He was barely hanging on to his resolve for these missions by threads and now there is nothing.
You look absolutely stunning. Genuinely how you move is beautiful and you look to be enjoying yourself a lot.
He doesn't have the courage to approach you, but he just stands there, watching you. He can't take his eyes off you.
Until the song stops and you turn around for some water, only to notice him... now to you it looks creepy because you can only see one half of his face.
"Alex?? What... are you doing there??"
"Huh? Me, I wasn't standing. Doing nothing. Nuh uh."
You scoff lightly. "I mean... you can come in, if You're not going to be weird about it."
"Me?? Weird??" He's already in your room with the permission. Sitting on your bed and getting comfy. "I am never weird..."
Ah, those next 30 minutes of watching you dance and be in your happy place is a blessing for him.
You're beautiful to him. He just absolutely loves the way you move, the way your body shifts. And he was a fool to think that he'd discovered everything there was to you.
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m1ssunderstanding · 4 months
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Get Back Rewatch 55 Years On: Day Six
Paul and Linda: walk in. Me: Panics in bisexual
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He’s so weird. He’s been carrying her purse, gives it back, then tries to change his mind again and the look she gives him. ‘You’re very cute, but I can carry my shit.’ 
But the “Linda’s a cameraman.” Rare Paul feminism moment. Slow clap.
And then instantly, “I’d better go and put in some piano practice.” You fucking addict. Linda, what are you getting yourself into, girly?
“Actually, we’re going on a farm in Scotland.” “I’d love to find a . . . a farm.” I wonder at what point he showed it to her. So far, they’ve done the dirty weekend in LA, Christmas in Liverpool and Portugal, a stay in New York, and now London. Have they done the Mull of Kintyre at this point? Oh, boy. Today might be the Paul and Linda show for me, folks :/
Why does she look like a loving mom watching her daughter’s dance audition? 
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Paul taking Mal’s advice on “Standing” VS “Waiting” 
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“I feel the most relaxed around Ring.” Linda/Paul/Ringo threesome fic when?
Ringo again with the EXCELLENT taste in jackets. That blue is So pretty. With the black velvet collar. Immaculate. 
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“There’s enough obstacles without putting them in the song” is the most Paul quote ever. It’s like his artistic mission statement. The surface read of Paul’s songs is that they’re just these weightless, meaningless, pretty nothings. But the real read (part of) is that they’re meant as comforters, bolsterers, flashlights, and silver linings. 
He does love a good pair of hands, doesn’t he?
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He really is showing off for her, though, here. When Linda hasn’t been here, has Paul ever just sat down at the piano and run through all his new songs? Not even close. And it’s so immature and so lovely.
“It was like a comedy, when I heard it.” Proceeds to sing some of the most heavy, blue lyrics. The above comment on Paul’s music notwithstanding, I must admit there are also extreme levels of emotional repression going on. 
“Castle of the King of the Birds”!!!!!!! First of all, who is the "king of the birds" if not Paul McCartney? It’s so extremely beautiful. Achingly so. When I fist heard it, I was like “where have I heard that before?” and when Peter Jackson pointed out that it’s the Top Gun theme? How many songs out there are actually Paul McCartney’s illegitimate children? Like, be Lennon/McCartney with me, for a minute here, and translate this sexual metaphor into musical terms. Paul just jerks it a bit, and before he can even finish, about ten people are pregnant from a drop of his precum and ten magical star children are born who he has no idea of. Does that make any kind of sense at all to anyone?
Honestly love the political version of get back. And clearly so does Yoko. That’s the most I’ve seen her get into a song they’ve written, like, ever. Hey, guys. I have an idea. Maybe you should ask the actual immigrant for ideas on your pro-immigration song. Just a thought. 
 When you’re trying to flirt with your new GF but your ex keeps making you giggle
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A vignette of Lennon/McCartney’s writing process. Paul: trying to make up some lyrics. John: makes a joke lyric. Paul: puts it in and it works better than what he had. John: 
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John: I’ll be taking me shirt off. Paul: definitely not picturing it at all
Okay but my hot take is that the first two verses at least of “Came in through the bathroom window” are a diss track at Jane. Seriously though, it’s got to be one of my many underrated favs to come out of these sessions. Also, they’re so in love doing this one, my heart can’t take it. 
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“This isn’t daddy’s tea, is it?” And Yoko just, without skipping a beat, says, “No.” Girl, I know he’s the one calling you mommy in bed, don’t lie. 
It’s the mutual caring of it all, you know? How he’s sitting in her lap while playing with her hair. How he makes her laugh and she buries her face in his tummy. Gosh, she’s gonna love that tummy for almost thirty years. And while the breakup is heartbreaking, isn’t that lovely to think about? 
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George, you should’ve made a Bob Dylan cover album. He sounds sooo pretty. 
Ah, yes. The “Just Let it Be, love. He’s not going to leave you.” Dream Song. Which John does not look enthusiastic about. And then it becomes “Well, you said he wouldn’t leave me, mama. But, you know, he went and did it.”
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Peter Jackson, WHERE is that Linda/Yoko dish session audio, you absolute monster! Those are Not small-talk faces. Would I rather listen to what they’ve got to say than hear one of the twentieth century’s greatest masterpieces come to be? Yes. Yes, I would.
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ellena-asg · 1 year
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@neanderthal-pessimist
Babe, you asked about Danny's suicidal thoughts/attempt so here it is.
In 1x18 there is a moment when Danny and Steve have a talk with FBI guys and later, when boys are alone, Danny is devastated by the news about Matt's financial crimes and Steve's "what if Matt is really guilty?". Danny wants Steve to have faith in Matt (or: Danny tries to still believe in his own brother, he wants to be loyal) and there's his confession.
Very dark and painful confession: once Danny thought about suicide (and I guess/interpret that he TRIED to kill himself - and that's why Matt was always there, was there almost 24/7).
Why? Because of damn Rachel. No, it wasn't because of the divorce (he could live without her, he would be happier without her and his mental health would be much better when she's away from him). It was because of Rachel's plays. GRACIE. She used Grace against Danny, she wanted to ruin his fatherhood. She took Grace away from him and was like "You'll lose her, Daniel. I swear" ("I'll punish you, Daniel"). Once she and her mother behaved in toxic and abusive way towards Danny and then, after divorce, Rach ruined Danny's mind again. She knew well what would hurt him, what would really hurt him. She knew well that Grace was Danny's everything. Danny's forever-love. Rach knew where to hit so she hit.
So in 1x18 we can see all Danny's pain. All painful memories. It's a double pain cause it's about Gracie and now also about Matty. Matty saved him. We can say about Matt many things but yeah, he saved Danny's life. He helped Danny to be strong again. He helped him to fight for Gracie. Danny almost lost Grace, almost lost his life (literally and metaphorically) and in this moment he fears that he will lose his brother - a brother who helped him so much.
Gosh, Steve's face. He's shocked. He's terrified. He tries to stay calm but he can't - he's shaking inside. His Danny, his beloved Danny, his angel, best friend, his best human ever, sunshine of his life... Danny almost died. Almost killed himself. Danny. Suicide, fuck. Yes, Steve understands Danny's loyalty and love for Matthew BUT THIS. SUICIDE. Steve can't think about Matt now. He is focused on Danny. On Danny's old pain. He can't believe that his boy tried, thought... His strong, "there's always hope" boy... Fuck. No. God, why? Why Danny had to suffer? Why Danny has to suffer? Oh, Steve knows well that part of the pain is still there - cause Rachel still wants war. She is still mean to Danny. Her smile can't hide it. Steve knows her. He observes. He listens to Danny and believes Danny, not her.
Steve is pissed off. He was pissed off earlier when he saw Rachel's games. When he heard Danny's bitter words, Danny's fears. But now Steve has such a face like... It's the face "I wanna go back to the restaurant and...". Shout at Rachel. Tell her that she's the worst. Gosh, Steve looks here like he wants to punch her. He can't do this, he knows (plus: he doesn't want to ruin Danny's fatherhood). But in his mind he is punching her. He is shouting at her (well, maybe one day he will tell her, one day he will punch her with his bitter words, one day when Danny and Grace are safe).
Steve is here (and always will be) for Danny. He touches him. This touch is like a touch of guardian angel. And in the end he is looking at Danny and there's so much love and concern in Steve's eyes. Rachel can't hurt Danno anymore, no fucking way, he thinks.
It's such a strong scene. Danny opens his heart. Oh yes, Steve is the only one - Danny lets only him to know. To know about the darkest moment in Danny's life. Danny knows that Steve will understand. That Steve will treat this seriously. Steve is like him. And Steve is the opposite of Rachel. There's no shame, Danny. Steve loves you. Your pain is his pain. All what is yours is his.
I love that they're together SO MUCH. They're together so it will be all right. They're strong together. So strong.
I'm not a fan of Matt but it's so good that Danny had him around. Matt saved Danny and all what he did for him as a brother... It's touching. It's beautiful. All that beer, all those talks, all this time... Thank you, Matthew Williams. You saved an angel.
But... I can't believe that this Matt, this Matt that saw his brother's pain, deepest depression, that witnessed Danny's suicidal attempt... Why the hell Matt still tries to be nice (SO nice) to Rachel? Why the hell he wants her around Danny? (and Grace) Why the hell he invited Rachel for his family dinner with Danny and Grace? Why the hell he told Danny "You love Rachel, I see this"?! Why the hell he behaves like he wants to see Danny and Rachel together again (knowing well about Danny's pain and seeing well how much Steve means to Danny)? Why sometimes he behaves like HE is in love with Rach? (well, sometimes she looks at him like "I chose the wrong brother" so... hmm...).
And Rachel, geez. Why show's plot is on her side? Why no one sued her for what she did? She's guilty. She (and her mother) ruined Danny's mental health. After divorce she ruined Danny's mental health even more. Her toxic/destructive behaviour (and using Grace in her war against Danny) was the cause. Her behaviour and toxic deeds, her "I'll take Grace" pushed Danny to suicide attempt. Why didn't she face any consequences? Why are people still kind to her? Why the hell Grace lives with her? Where's "I'm sorry, Danny?" (oh, okay, there's no apology cause Hollanders are never sorry, right?).
Six months. SIX MONTHS! Six months full of deepest anxiety and depression. Six months WHOLE of that. Six months without light. Six months, for six months Matt tried to change Danny's mind. For six months there was a danger - that Danny would do it. I can imagine Matt's fear when he went to work and for those few hours per day Danny was there alone... Six months with darkest thoughts. And before and after that? Still dark. She made/makes Danny's life dark (and Steve's too, by the way).
Where's the law? Where's the justice for Danny? What an irony - he fights for other victims' justice but he as a victim got no justice.
Yeah, I know. Writers hated Danny. And Lenkov wanted Danny/Rachel so badly...
"I would not have gotten through that"
It hurts. It's blood-curdling. Danny, our bamf!Danny said that. It's generally scary to hear such words. To see other person's pain and feeling of total loss. Gosh, I can't 😭 This line kills me. It kills my heart.
(Thank you, Matthew for saving the life. Thank you, Steve for saving this life again. For giving Danny a real good life, safer and colourful. Life full of love).
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