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#in war torn places
itscrystql · 18 days
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what you have is what you accept
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im-yotsu · 7 months
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Inspired by this post
Yeah not even most of the outfits the sw women wear are as slutty as his boobs out look 💀
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seo-changbinnies · 9 months
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countdown to binnie’s bday
↳ d-2: changbin x star wars
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tvckerwash · 4 months
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I'm so conflicted on ct/innie leader because it's implemented so poorly that my thoughts always circle around to them being together not because they were truly in love, but because they were trying to use each other to accomplish their own goals.
ct couldn't take pfl down alone, and she needed help from someone who had a connection to those in power who she could give her information to so that something could actually be done. the innie leader was this key: his boss was the assistant to the chairman of the oversight committee, and with his influence she would be able to make a deal to hopefully keep herself out of prison (and maybe save her former teammates too).
the innie leader was the head of charon industries private security, and it was his job to ensure the safety of charon's assets. considering the destruction that freelancer was causing—and his inability to stop it—its safe to assume that he was probably in pretty hot water, and hargrove was not happy about how much money he was costing him. so, how does one get out of that situation? how about by getting your hands on some secret experimental tech, as well as information on valuable alien artifacts, and a way for his boss to get revenge on the man who's been fucking his stuff up?
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"Ship Wars = Ya'll are F*nig stupid."
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devourensarc · 20 days
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They spar, they tousle, and Wriothesley smirks as he pins the Harbinger on the cold metal floor of the Fortress. “Got you.” He grips Childe’s wrists with one hand above his head and the other hand wipes at the blood on Wriothesley’s lips. They spar, they tousle again, and they roll around on the floor like feral creatures play-fighting in the dirt. “Pinned you again~” Wriothesley chuckles, sitting atop the Harbinger once more. He leans down just inches from Childe’s face, breathing hard and grinning madly. “Don’t tap out on me, goofball. Come on. You can’t hurt me. Show me what you got.”
@icerberus
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Childe's blood thrums in his veins, his entire body electric as if he had called upon his Delusion. It sits untouched somewhere to the side in this fight, man to man, no Visions or weapons, just their fists and their bodies and, in Childe's case, their teeth. It's just the effect Wriothesley has on him, dragging him into that exhilarating rush that normally only an all - out battle for his life gives him.
But even in the heat of it, pinned under Wriothesley's heavier weight, still panting from the exertion of their fight, he doesn't fear for his life. Panting, flushed, their faces inches apart, he feels no fear at all — only the rush, the breathtaking freedom in dropping his act for their short time together.
But not letting go of it entirely. They fought, they left each other bruised and bloodied, but he still pulled his blows. Even when the hungry darkness stirred in his veins, he was careful not to let it swallow him, lest it swallow Wriothesley, too.
The challenge hangs in the sliver of air between them and sinks under his skin. He hesitates for a moment, but the moment his accepts, his eyes darken and his teeth flash in a smile.
If Wriothesley thought he could handle it, then Childe would trust him.
They go at it again, and this time, he does not pull his blows. He fights like the Abyssal creatures that had once tried to kill him — vicious, bloodthirsty, ravenous, honed by years of training into a graceful, deadly creature barely contained in human skin. Childe lets go, and it feels amazing.
When their spar comes to an end again, this time the Harbinger sits astride Wriothesley, hands curled around the other's wrists to pin them to the floor. Blood cakes his nails and splatters his face, from the new scratches decorating Wriothesley's skin. His own muscles ache, and already new bruises are darkening over his skin to join the others he'd earned today.
He stares down at Wriothesley, panting, and then a slow smile spreads across his face, sharp and satisfied. He leans down and nuzzles into Wriothesley's neck, teeth nipping at the column of his throat.
❝ Satisfied with what you've seen? ❞ he purrs.
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quietzones · 9 months
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beezebelb and gabriel going off to alpha centuri because crowley said they should is so funny. like you just gave the honeymoon plans you booked years in advance to your ex boss and your partners weird colleague that you hate. and you did this even before your own proposal flopped
#like did you let them have it because you want to stay on earth? with aziraphale? running away no longer the ideal?#you two can have it we’ll find someplace else to settle#a place where aziraphale can keep the bookshop and the food and the humans he likes and you can keep the car and be with him#and perhaps one day you’ll drive to the countryside and find yourselves a cottage#really hasnt it always been about preserving what aziraphale loves?#after all you always have what you love so long as you’re with him#doesnt really matter to you what happens to the earth. just that you can stay as you are and for aziraphale to keep the things he loves#and after everything you’ve done to preserve these things. the bookshop. the earth and its people. his goodness and morality.#out of love and devotion to your one person. to keep what you two have for eternity. for aziraphale never to be unhappy or without you#as you cannot be without him#when he says nothing lasts forever it all becomes meaningless doesn’t it?#these acts unappreciated. everything you’ve built together torn down. the struggle to keep such a relationship alive become futile#subverting war between your opposing kinds and thwarting the apocalypse so you two can stay together and not be parted?#well actually all you've done to protect the earth and what it represents. to reject the woes of heaven/hell. its all been for naught.#all you’ve done for love didn’t matter. didn’t make a difference.#even the bookshop will cease. something you thought would keep aziraphale there — with you — when you alone aren't enough to make him stay.#what was once ‘my own side’ had become ‘our side’ and now it’s just you once more#what is left for just you when you’ve built everything around being an ‘us’. always just ‘us’#even if earth burned and everything aziraphale loved went to waste - there could still be 'us'#off to alpha centuri where you’d only have eachother#that would be enough for you wouldn’t it?#even though it wouldn’t last#you both hold onto naive hopes#running away together would solve everything. one kiss would solve everything#so you must’ve been saying to yourself: whats the point of saving whats doomed to fail?#whats the point of loving when nothing lasts forever#gomens#qzth
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prettyboykatsuki · 1 year
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Do you or have you ever had like official OCs? And if so can we know about them🥺
I technically have a few because I have a few fictional stories I write so if you're curious about the others you're always welcome to ask !!
But my main one is a character named Moros (this is his business name, at least) and he's from a race of Giants and a prisoner of war. He's an assassin turned mercenary. His real name is Suleiman.
He's an incredibly worrisome person and holds a lot of guilt for his past. He's awkward around things that are small and delicate (children and animals) which is troublesome because he's recently acquired a small human child of his own. He thinks it's a baby but he doesn't know anything about human lifespans so he isn't sure.
He likes stone tools and the warmth of bear skin. When he's not actively taking on a job he eats a lot vegetable soup. His best friend is a barkeep and a mage from academia that don't get along. He's very dear to me
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helmarok · 1 year
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that's where she got the curls from!
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niishi · 1 year
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man I am so over ppl being terfs and listening to terfs and being brainwashed by terfs and not questioning it for one single solitary second. and not caring to educate themselves when someone calls them out for it. it's very obvious when anti feminist rhetoric comes from men, but people trust it and take it as bible when it comes from women when in reality those women are supporting inequality and anti feminism just as much as sexist men. they might not be making as big of an effect, but the energy is the same. they're holding hands. I feel like trans men understand the intricacies of this situation the most and maybe if y'all wanna know more you should follow some trans men who talk about terfism and transandrophobia and how hatred of men is a violent anti feminist psyop
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wowitsverycool · 2 years
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hating someone you were born into loving is very easy, a form of rebellion. i imagine hating someone you at one point chose to love is much more difficult, the destruction of such a lovely portrait you’ve painted.
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asteriskheart · 6 months
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new and redone bond tags 4/?
#➥ the star. ┊ let us go hand in hand and walk this field of stars as all our fears melt away.#➥ the star. ┊ this constellation of our precious moments strung together looks just like home.#➥ the star. ┊ the light bled from our veins as the distant star on the sunset horizon collapsed.#➥ the star & strength. ┊ underneath the countless stars these sparks ignite to light up our night.#➥ the strength. ┊ our paths diverge but every road leads home; let us meet with our usual words on the usual street.#➥ the strength. ┊ even if we gotta risk it all right now; a pair of sunflowers blooming on the edge.#➥ the devil & knight of swords. ┊ war torn streets and laughter line this brotherhood of ours.#➥ the devil. ┊ there you sit and smile bright; a breath of calm at the center of my raging storm.#➥ the sun. ┊ blank moments line pages of a fleeting story; maybe there are no words for us.#➥ the hanged man. ┊ pull this thread connecting us; i'll push too deep & fall right back to you.#➥ the hanged man. ┊ i watch the world from on high and look down on you behind glided bars of my own making.#➥ the hanged man. ┊ the mortal guise of love and the sun pave the darkest of bloodied roads.#➥ the hierophant. ┊ i've craved blood since i tasted yours; a maddening kind of hunger that brings us to love.#➥ the hierophant. ┊ shadows settle on the place that you left; minds troubled by the emptiness.#➥ the hierophant. ┊ light and darkness intersect in a moment’s flicker and tread a reckless line.#➥ the magician. ┊ let us walk on through a red parade and shed all that once defined us.#➥ queen of cups. ┊ though the world may seek to forget; your name is forever etched into my star.
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umabloomer · 7 months
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I got a job at a Ukrainian museum.
On the first day someone asks me if I have any Ukrainian heritage. I say I had ancestors from Odesa, but they were Jewish, so they weren’t considered Ukrainian, and they wouldn’t have considered themselves Ukrainian. My job is every day I go through boxes of Ukrainian textiles and I write a physical description, take measurements, take photographs, and upload everything into the database. I look up “Jewish” in the database and there is no result. 
Some objects have no context at all, some come with handwritten notes or related documents. I look at thick hand-spun, hand-woven linen heavy with embroidery. Embroidery they say can take a year or more. I think of someone dressed for a wedding in their best clothes they made with their own hands. Some shirts were donated with photographs of the original owners dressed in them, for a dance at the Ukrainian Labour Temple, in 1935. I handle the pieces carefully, looking at how they fit the men in the photos, and how they look almost a hundred years later packed in acid-free tissue. One of the men died a few years later, in the war. He was younger than I am now. The military archive has more photographs of him with his mother, his father, his fiancé. I take care in writing the catalogue entry, breathing in the history, getting tearful. 
I imagine people dressed in their best shirts at Easter, going around town in their best shirts burning the houses of Jews, in their best shirts, killing Jews. A shirt with dense embroidery all over the sleeves and chest has a note that says it is from Husiatyn. I look it up and find that it was largely a Jewish town, and Ukrainians lived in the outskirts. There is a fortress synagogue from the Renaissance period, now abandoned. 
When my partner Aaron visits I take him to an event at the museum where a man shows his collection of over fifty musical instruments from Ukraine, and he plays each one. Children are seated on the floor at the front. We’re standing in a corner, the room full of Ukrainians, very aware that we look like Jews, but not sure if anyone recognizes what that looks like anymore. Aaron gets emotional over a song played on the bandura. 
A note with a dress says it came from the Buchach region. I find a story of Jewish life in Buchach in the early twentieth century, preparing to flee as the Nazis take over. I cry over this.
I’m cataloguing a set of commemorative ribbons that were placed on the grave of a Ukrainian Nationalist leader, Yevhen Konovalets, after he was assassinated. The ribbons were collected and stored by another Nationalist, Andriy Melnyk, who took over leadership after Konovalets’ death. The ribbons are painted or embroidered with messages honouring the dead politician. I start to recognize the word for “leader”, the Cyrillic letters which make up the name of the colonel, the letters “OYH” which stand for Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN in English). The OUN played a big part in the Lviv pogroms in 1941, I learn. The Wikipedia article has a black and white image of a woman in her underwear, running in terror from a man and a young boy carrying a stick of wood. The woman’s face is dark, her nose may be bleeding. Her underwear is torn, her breast exposed. I’m measuring, photographing, recording the stains and loose threads in the banners that honour men who would have done this to me. 
Every day I can’t stop looking at my phone, looking up the news from Gaza, tapping through Instagram stories that show what the news won’t. Half my family won’t talk to the other half, after I share an article by a scholar of Holocaust and genocide studies, who says Israel is committing a genocide. My dad makes a comment that compares Gaza to the Warsaw Ghetto. This gets him in trouble. My aunt says I must have learned this antisemitism at university, but there is no excuse for my dad. 
This morning I see images from Israeli attacks in the West Bank, where they are not at war. There are naked bodies on the dusty ground. I’m not sure if they are alive. This is what I think of when I see the image from the Lviv pogrom. If what it means for Jews to be safe from oppression is to become the oppressor, I don’t want safety. I don’t want to speak about Jews as if we are one People, because I have so little in common with those in green uniforms and tanks. I am called a self-hating Jew but I think I am a self-reflecting Jew.
I don’t know how to articulate how it feels to be handling objects which remind me of Jewish traumas I inherited only from history classes and books. Textiles hold evidence of the bodies that made them and used them. I measure the waist of a skirt and notice that it is the same as my waist size. I think of clothing and textiles that were looted from Jewish homes during pogroms. I think of clothing and textiles that were looted from Palestinian homes during the ongoing Nakba. Clothes hold the shape of the body that once dressed in them. Sometimes there are tears, mends, stains. I am rummaging through personal belongings in my nitrile gloves. 
I am hands-on learning about the violence caused by Ukrainian Nationalism while more than nine thousand Palestinians have been killed by the State of Israel in three weeks, not to mention all those who have been killed in the last seventy-five years of occupation, in the name of the Jewish Nation, the Jewish People — me? If we (and I am hesitant to say “we”) learned anything from the centuries of being killed, it was how to kill. This should not have been the lesson learned. Zionism wants us to feel constantly like the victims, like we need to defend ourself, like violence is necessary, inevitable. I need community that believes in freedom for all, not just our own People. I need the half of my family who believes in this necessary “self-defence” to remember our history, and not just the one that ends happily ever after with the creation of the State of Israel. Genocide should not be this controversial. We should not be okay with this. 
Tomorrow I will go to work and keep cataloguing banners that honour the leader of an organization which led pogroms. I will keep checking the news, crying into my phone, coordinating with organizers about our next actions, grappling with how we can be a tiny part in ending this genocide that the world won’t acknowledge, out of guilt over the ones it ignored long ago. 
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devourensarc · 28 days
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“Hey there, big guy.” Wriothesley smiles up at Foul Legacy. “Bleh~” He sticks his tongue out at him playfully. 👁️👅👁️
@icerberus
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The glassy orb fixes upon Wriothesley's face, the expression under Foul Legacy's mask inscrutable as ever. Its stare drags on for several moments, and then. . .
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❝ Bleh ~ ❞ Its mask splits open and it sticks out a long, pointed tongue.
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byakugoseal · 1 year
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tag dump: broken & updated tags part i
#morgs tag dump#✖main verse║war-torn child you were made to hold brawls between your knuckles & bury old friends & old memories beween your ribs#✖one piece verse║on days when the sky is painted grey i feel like there’s nothing worth forgiving#✖kny verse║from a tender age i was cursed with rage came swinging like a fist inside a batting cage#✖fairy tail verse║plunge the knife; bare my soul; scrape my ribs;#✖anbu verse║& death is the only god who comes when you call#✖pre-canon verse║you know better than anyone how to cry in silence for things gone by#✖genin verse║she went from porcelain to iron to steel#✖shippuden verse║the sun has been extinguished & the moon has fallen / there goes the light of our turbulent world#✖gaiden verse║& you keep telling yourself / there is no smell of war in me / but why else would this feel like madness#✖hokage!au verse║there will come a time when you might have to decide who lives & dies out there it’s a terrible responsibility#✖bleach verse║fear is what beats inside your heart in the place where life used to be#✖modern verse║life is a series of moments you wish your ribs could take back#✖bnha verse║i carry a body full of secrets & my bones align the universe within me#✖shipping call║well i won't die for love but ever since i met you you could have my heart and I would break it for you#✖mains call║i’d be lying if i said losing you was something i could handle#✖exclusives call║could we remain quiet on earth & bear it the war we make inside#✖inbox call║she screams for heaven’s help but heaven has always been deaf#✖starter call║tell it anyways for little words can sometimes mean life or death#✖plotting call║i’ve got to learn something from my mistakes instead of establishing a new record to break#✖affiliates call║peach blossom has a colour that does not ask my sins#✖ask memes║when the local language is violence be fluent
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evielmostdefinitely · 5 months
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Imagine how distraught snow would be if his wife had a really rough time giving birth to their child where she’s coming in and out of conscience and there’s blood and he’s terrified she won’t make it like his mother leading to him hating the baby for a little bc of how badly his wife was recovering sorry for the angst! Ignore this if uncomfortable <3
forever winter |young!coriolanus snow x capitol!reader|
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prompt: as requested, troubles with child birth leaves coriolanus very cold towards your son.
contains: angst. mentions of parental death, blood, complications during birth. darkish coriolanus. kinda fluffy-ish end?
Coriolanus knew the horrors of childbirth. He knew the dangers, the risks. He’d seen the blank stares of a new mother rocking her baby, eyes blank and distant like she’d been through war. He’d heard the solemn whispers in a dim room, quiet and hushed, darting eyes that looked everywhere but the casket- sometimes two. His own mother had been torn from his grasp at a young age because of it, and for a while, he was sure he’d never let his own wife experience it. 
Then he met you. 
You who lit his world up from the inside out, who he rose only each day to see- to love. You who cradled a baby at your engagement announcement, a friend’s newborn, held him so naturally and delicately that it ignited something inside Coriolanus. He wanted a dozen babies with you, he decided at that moment that he’d do anything to make it happen. 
You’d blossomed so naturally, swelled up overnight. Round belly and a glowing demeanor- it was addictive to Coriolanus. How he’d brag, boast proudly to anyone who’d hear it- his wife pregnant, he couldn’t be happier. 
All those fears, worries, were replaced with new ones. Horror stories about infants, toddlers. His own consuming thoughts about being a father. The idea of childbirth was nothing but a fading thought to him. That had been in the war, technology was better, he was in a better place. Your father had ensured his darling daughter would have the best of the best- you always did. The best doctors, the best birthing suite, the best nursery- the best. 
But money couldn’t buy your own body betraying itself at birth. It didn’t stop the bleeding, the paling of your skin as you fluttered in and out of consciousness. 
You’d grunted like an animal, tearing yourself into two for hours, cursing Coriolanus’ name, begging him to make it stop, crushing his hands with your legs up in the stirrups, pushing your baby out. 
Coriolanus was in awe of you, though he’d never get the chance to tell you. How you’d willed yourself to hurt yourself, inflict that selfless pain to bring life into the world. It was positively poetic. 
He’d been so overjoyed hearing your babies gargled cry, the nurses announcing its gender- his gender. His son. A boy. A beautiful boy, wailing and delicate and covered in matter that Coriolanus didn’t even care about when he held him close to his own chest. 
“What is it, Coryo?” You muttered, eyes drooping, chest heaving with aftershocks of pain from the birth. 
“A boy, my love.” Coryo’s eyes shone with tears, lips pressing together to conceal it. “It’s a boy. Our boy, my darling.” 
“A boy…” Your speech was slurred, head lolling back onto the pillow. 
Coriolanus noticed for the first time how still the room had become, his son’s wailing the only sound. The nurses and doctors, once chipper and gleeful, now bearing a sickly paleness to their face, eerily quiet. 
“What? What’s wrong?” Coriolanus snapped, eyes wide, frantic, bouncing around the room. “What’s happening?” 
“We-We can’t find-” The doctor’s voice shook, ducked between your legs in a pile of crimson. Coriolanus’ stomach turned violently. 
“She’s bleeding. We-We can’t find where the bleeding is.” The nurse whispered. 
“What?” Coriolanus snapped. “Bleeding? H-How can she- Find it!” The baby wailed over the sound of Coriolanus’ demanding barks. 
“President Snow, we-we’re trying our best-” 
“-Try harder.” Coriolanus sneered, clutching the baby closer to his chest. “If anything happens to my wife, I will single handedly ensure your bloodline ends with you. Each of you will know what it feels like to lose your family too if you lose her.” He spat, sending the nurses and doctors into a fearful frenzy. 
The newborn wailed, doctors shouted, and Coriolanus’ ears rang, his chest too tight, painfully tight. He couldn’t lose you, he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t survive that loss. His eyes fell to the screeching baby beneath him, scrunched face and wailing gums. How was he to raise this baby without you? 
Anger boiled through his chest at the sight of his son- his fault. A cowering nurse, frozen in shaking fear in the corner, watched him carefully as he stormed towards her. “Take this.” Coriolanus sneered, shoving the baby in her arms. 
He hated the feeling, the helplessness that consumed him as he stood, wide eyed and shaking hands he clenched into fists. 
Somewhere, somehow, the doctor found the bleeding, stopping it with a triumphant cry. “Get the blood, get the blood!” He shouted, head hooked over his shoulder. “Infuse it now!” 
Coriolanus wasn’t sure he could remember how to breathe. Memories of the two of your: the moment you met, the first date, his shaking hands asking for yours in marriage, the way you beamed under your veil at the altar, the same glow that you had when you told him you were pregnant. It could all be gone so easily. Had his father felt this way? So helpless? 
Maybe that’s why he’d been so hardened and resentful, so he’d never feel attached- never allow himself to feel so helpless. 
Coriolanus decided he couldn’t blame him, sitting in this chair, watching as you rested. The doctor said there’d be a lot of that in the coming hours. That you’d gone through trauma and you needed time. He wanted to rip you from the bed, shake you until you awoke and told him you were ok. He needed to hear it, maddenned himself with the need for it. 
Instead, he sat. 
Coryo sent the baby out to the nursery. He knew your parents, Tigris, everyone waiting would be thrilled to see the baby boy. Coryo just couldn’t muster the feigned excitement now. The site of his own son made his stomach turn, fear soaked repulsion settled deep in the pitt of his own core. 
Somewhere in the night, you awoke. A rustling and a groan that had Coriolanus snapping out of his dazed sleep, head tucked to his shoulder, slumped in the chair beside your bed. 
“Don’t move.” Coryo commanded, eyes a kind of bright, frantic wide that had you stilling. 
Your throat burned, head dizzy with the medicine they’d pumped into your system. Coriolanus’ hands shook as he brought you the water, hand cupping your jaw gently to feed it to you. You blinked, bleary with confusion. “You’re alright, my love.” Coriolanus' heart swelled, suffocatingly in his own chest. You were alright. 
“Coryo,” You croaked, throat tight, rasping from before, you were sure. You remembered the birth, most of it anyways, the blurry memory of your baby in Coryo’s arms before your memory failed. “The-The baby… Is he alright? W-Where’s my baby?” 
“He’s with your parents, my love.” Coriolanus’ hand smoothes down your matted hair, sticky with dried sweat. “Nevermind him. How are you? Is anything wrong? Do you need anything? I-I’ll call for the nurse.” 
You shook your head, looking around the room. The sheets were clean, your gown clean, but you felt an achy soreness splitting you in half. “What happened?” 
Coriolanus felt the lump in his throat grow, strangling his words in his throat. “Y-You had some complications, darling.” He swallowed the burn of his own tears down in his throat. “You were bleeding but they stopped it.” 
You blinked, unmoving, soaking in the details of your injury. Coriolanus watched you with a studying glare, eyes scanning for any tiny, minor infliction that something was wrong. “Is-Is the baby ok?” You whispered, eyes shining with fear when you met his gaze. 
“The baby’s fine.” Coryo snapped, harsher than he meant to. It alarmed you, your eyes snapping to his carefully. He took a deep breath, holding your hand carefully into his own, thumb running over your knuckles. 
“He’s fine.” Coryo said, softer this time. “I need to know how you are. What do you need from me, my love? What can I do to make it better?” 
You squeezed his hand lightly, your strength weaker than normal. It made Coriolanus’ spine tingle with shooting chills of concern. “I want to see my baby.” You whispered, head leaning against Coryo’s shoulder. 
“No,” Coriolanus shook his head furiously. “No, you-you need to rest, and-and not be bothered by the baby-” 
“-Coryo,” Your eyes rounded, so pitifully pleading Coriolanus would have walked through fire for you if you asked him to. “Please? I just want to see our baby.” 
And how could he say no? He couldn’t, so instead, Coriolanus called the nurse in. Your parents, proud grandparents, holding the baby, tutting over you. Everyone flitting about the birthing room, Tigris even gleaming with joy at the birth of her nephew. All except Coriolanus, who watched in the corner of the room, a stoic look on his face. 
You looked positively radiant, glowing with joy as you held your son. As if that baby hadn’t nearly killed you, Coriolanus wanted to scream the reminder to you, but he didn’t. He wouldn’t dare upset you, risk upsetting you in front of your family. 
“Coriolanus,” Tigris’ soft voice pulled him out of his thoughts, brought him away from his own sinking, heavy feelings of disappointment. “Are you alright?” 
“I’m fine, Tigris.” Coryo’s voice was tight, firm and forced, like the look of awkward contentment he tried to paint across his features. 
“You… You haven’t held your son.” Tigris hesitated, voice dropping softly so the others wouldn’t overhear. 
“I don’t wish to hold him right now.” Coriolanus sneered. 
“He is your son, Coriolanus.” Tigris hissed, her voice dropping to a low hush in the room, terrified you or the others might hear. 
“And he almost killed her.” Coryo’s eyes flashed to Tigris’ in horrified rage. “Nearly fated her as my sister did my mother, and if you think for one second I am to be happy at that, then you are-” 
“-Coryo,” Your voice croaked, still weak and tired. It made his heart lurch, attention on you in a second, already walking towards your bedside. 
“Yes, my love? What do you need?” Coriolanus muttered. Normally, he’d be embarrassed, showing such affection especially in front of your parents, but he hoped they’d pardon his vulnerability in the moment, given the circumstances. 
“Look at him,” Your eyes shone with love, pure adoration, as if you weren’t cradling the very thing that almost killed you. It made Coryo sick. “He’s beautiful, isn’t he?” 
Coriolanus looked down at the small newborn, wrapped in swaddles, eyes closed and lips twitching with the faintest whimper of a cry. He looked so much like you, so much like himself- the perfect blend of the two of you taking your lips but Coriolanus’ nose. 
His heart swelled with pride before he could help it, lips curling in a half smile. He’d grown weak, Coriolanus decided, softened by you and your love. He should be disgusted by the baby, despise him and reject him like an animal in the wild would. But he couldn’t bring himself to it. 
“A fine young boy.” Your father boasted, nodding proudly. “The two of you should be very proud.” 
“Yes,” Coryo swallowed around the lump in his throat. You leaned into his touch, shifting the baby so he could better see him. 
“Any idea on the name?” Your mother hummed, moving beside you. 
“I still think Cyrene would be fitting.” You’re beaming, beautiful and proud when you meet Coriolanus’ gaze. “What do you think, Coryo?” 
“Yes,” Coryo nodded. “I think that would be a fine name.” 
“Cyrene Snow,” You cooed, pressing your nose to the baby’s, pressing a gentle kiss there. Your eyes brimmed with tears when you met Coriolanus’ gaze. “Do you want to hold him, darling?” 
“Are you getting tired?” Coryo watched you carefully. “Do you feel alright?” 
“Yes,” You nodded. “I don’t want to hog the baby. Want you to have a chance too, darling.” 
“That’s alright.” Coryo shook his head politely, suddenly very aware of your parents and Tigris’ gaze on him. “You hold him, my love.” 
You frowned lightly. You knew something was off with Coryo, the tightness in his tone, lips falling in a flat line. You waited until later, when Cyrene lay in his bassinet, your family all gone for the night, just you and Coryo in the birthing suite. 
“Why will you not hold him?” You asked through the still darkness. Coriolanus' eyes snapped to yours fiercely, startled by your tone. 
“Excuse me?” 
“Our baby.” You groaned when you sat up, Coryo rushing to your side. 
“You need to be careful-” 
“-You won’t hold him, Coriolanus.” You gripped his arm, eyes shining in something new- something Coryo wasn’t certain of, but it made his stomach twist. “Why?” 
Coriolanus swallowed, the lump in his throat suffocating him. “The last time I held him,” Coryo’s voice was soft, rasping in the quiet room, barely above a whisper. “You nearly died.” 
The room was still, far too still for either of you to find comfort. A harsh, shocking truth for the both of you, sickening and cruel. Your near damned fated reality, Coriolanus’ worst fears, the peaceful baby resting in the bassinet besides the two of you. 
Pressed into the side of your hospital bed, Coriolanus held you carefully, a stilled reminder that you were still there, that you hadn’t left him. The icy wall he’d built high for his son melted with every soft coo and whisper you gave him, a reminder that you were still with him and would be. 
When Coryo finally held Cyrene again, when he’d stirred awake and you were asleep, he turned to the window overlooking Panem’s Capitol, eyes shining with tears- of regret, joy, pain? Even Coryo wasn’t sure, but he rocked his son to sleep carefully, promising him that one day, he’d have what Coryo had. That he wouldn’t leave him the way his father had, that he’d keep him safe, teach him how to keep you safe.
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