#monochrome is my love but shes BORING nobody likes it

[ducktollers]

why am i so overflowing w drawing ideas while im at work and then immediately when i sit at my desk my head is empty and im like. Guess ill pick up my ballpoint pen and do my billionth gesture drawing of a dog and feel irritated

[r6shippingdelivery]

A small Tachanka/Kapkan ficlet I wrote for a Twitter friend. They requested “Tachanka and Kapkan moving in together, so they head to the mall to buy what they need, but they have a lovely argument because they have different tastes.“

You can also find the story on AO3, as always!

Maxim had never been to an IKEA before. In his little cabin, he had old and sturdy furniture he inherited from his grandparents, and occasionally he crafted some things he needed, like a stool or a small table. However, furnishing a whole apartment was quite different.

It was still a little surreal to think he and Alexsander were furnishing their new home. Theirs. It felt like a dream, a really good one for a change. Thinking about it was enough to almost make Maxim smile, despite his irritation with this shop. He didn't appreciate the labyrinthine layout, with the endless exposition displays that made him feel like he was trapped in a weird never-ending house. The background music was loud and distorted. It was terribly crowded too, which wouldn't really be a problem if it wasn't for how people kept pushing him. A particularly harried looking woman had driven her baby carriage over his foot, and Maxim had to bite his tongue to not lash out. At least she apologised, that was something not everyone did.

"What about this one?" Alexsander asked. His partner stopped in front of yet another living room display, a very bright and cheery one. Alexsander patted the couch arm. "Look, big enough to lie down and nap together, or watch a movie with the kids when they come visit!"

That was true, it was a big and sturdy looking couch, yet Maxim frowned at it. "That pattern makes me want to gouge my eyes out."

"What's wrong with it?" Alexsander asked, as if he couldn't see how the upholstery was the ugliest mustard colour ever, with brown and lime zig-zag lines. "When I suggested a red one, you said you liked brown tones better."

"Sasha, please tell me you're trolling."

"And what do you want, princess? A boring black or grey couch?"

Maxim crossed his arms. "First of all, those are classy! Second, I just want something that doesn't look like a 70s reject piece."

"Would it kill you to just have a bit of color in it?" Alexsander said, frustrated. "You're not supposed to get camouflaged on the couch if you sit on it."

That was a dig at Maxim's predilection to wear dark tracksuit pants and hoodies when he was at home, he was sure. But it wasn't part of their current issue. Maxim sighed and mentally counted to ten. He didn't want to argue right there. Besides, relationships were about compromise, right?

"We can have a colorful couch," Maxim conceded. "But! It has to be monochrome. And the red couch from before was discarded because it was uncomfortable, not for its colour."

"I knew you'd see reason!" Alexsander crowed, and Maxim hoped he'd be able to pick something in a muted shade instead of a garish hue.

They kept walking down the eternal and winding path of the shop, trying to find a suitable couch. The living rooms ended abruptly, though, giving way to bedroom displays and mattresses. They also needed one of those. Maxim sat down on the nearest bed before hastily getting up again. Too damn soft, he felt like the mattress would swallow him if he was to lie down.

On his part, Alexsander was eyeing different beds with a critical expression. "These all look like they would break down the first time we fucked."

Maxim looked around, just to make sure nobody heard that. However, on closer inspection, he was forced to agree with Alexsander. The bed frames looked weak. "Hmm, not for us, then. Maybe it would do for the guest room?"

"You mean the kids' room? Even worse," Alexsander chuckled. "Marinka likes jumping on the bed, I don't want her to break it and get injured."

Maxim grunted, sitting down on the nearest bed. He hoped to find something here, but so far they only had disagreements of opinion and pieces neither of them liked or wanted. Who would have thought that furnishing a new house would be so difficult… Nevertheless, this mattress seemed really good. And that was a point where both him and Alexsander had the same taste. He lied down and grinned. Yes, this was good!

"Hey Sasha, I think this mattress is a keeper."

Alexsander plopped down by his side and it felt right. Perhaps they didn't have a frame for it yet, but this was the most important part of the bed, yes? When Alexsander's arm brought him closer, he didn't even stop to think about it, Maxim snuggled up to him.

"Perfect, I can already imagine so many late nights and lazy mornings on this one," Alexsander said, the pleased rumble of his voice made Maxim so unreasonably happy he wanted to kiss him. In fact, he turned towards him and was about to get closer, when the background music was interrupted by a chiming sound.

"Dear customers, we remind you the displays are decorative and not to be used."

They looked at each other and Maxim let out a guilty chuckle. He was pretty sure this public service announcement was because of them. Certainly they got a bit carried away, maybe more than Maxim usually liked in a public place. Before he climbed out of bed, Alexsander surged forward to bestow a small kiss on his lips. It was fast, so much that it took Maxim a second to understand what happened. Once he did, he wasn't mad, despite his reluctance to public displays of affection. He was happy and feeling light, like he could float, and didn't bother hiding his smile while Sasha and him kept looking for the elusive perfect couch, and other possible furniture to argue over.

[curewhimsy]

Symphony Saga Resonate chapter 1

I was inspired!

Notes: This fanfic is like, a middle/high school-centric fic so my OCs are all middle/high school aged here (youngest= 12, oldest= 18)

Also everyone is gonna age by 6 years eventually 

AO3 link

——————

Can a dream change the world?

Can a song awaken the soul?

Does our universe truly have limits?

Why am I asking all of these questions?

We all each have a story.

We all matter.

If we all join together, how big of a miracle can we create?

The story of Resonate unfolds...

———

Queen Rainbow’s Point of View

In a world where color was scarce... wonder was draining from people’s souls, and warmth was fading from their hearts. The warmth in their smiles were waning... And soon enough, they weren’t able to truly smile any longer.

This world... was called Monochrome.

Being the furthest planet in its solar system from the sun, Monochrome was already quite a lonely place. But everything froze over when Obsidian stepped to the throne.

Monochrome was a painfully boring place, filled with progressively more boring people. It got to the point where the most boring, bitter person of all would automatically be crowned as royalty.

Her name was Obsidian, and she became the Queen of Misery. She did not believe in fun, happiness, or love. Her heart was made of coal. When she breathed out, thick black smoke would fill the air, despite her never being a smoker.

Queen Obsidian’s very existence would always pollute the air with negativity and gloom that would make people lose hope. She was so boring, that her presence would transform sugary donuts into regular old bagels with nothing on them. She was so boring, that her royal fanfare was played on a single off-key kazoo. She was so utterly dull, that she even sent Planet Monochrome into a thousand-year-long ice age after telling one terrible joke.

But worse than all that combined, the Queen of Misery was a selfish, spiteful, and joyless person.

Nobody exactly knew why, but Queen Obsidian hated music... Possibly because of how positive and fun it could potentially be, not to mention the sheer raw emotion and vibes it could could convey.

One day, Queen Obsidian heard a song. It was awful. She hated it so much, that she ordered it to be sent to the Nowhere Of Permanent Erasure Void, or “NOPE Void” for short, where it would be deleted from our reality.

Queen Obsidian wanted to erase all the universe’s music from existence this way, and for people to never make or listen to it again. Ever.

Knowing that Monochrome barely had any worthwhile tunes to get rid of, Obsidian began to target the music on other worlds.

And what better place to start than the magical, colorful planet known as Whimsica?

Whimsica, a charming, fittingly whimsical world filled with magic... It may ideally be peaceful, yet we’ve been attacked by Monochrome for years just for being so idyllic. Apparently, our bright, rainbow colors that can be seen from space are an eyesore for them.

This is also where I come in.

My name is Queen Rainbow... and I’m the Queen of Whimsica. I’m only 16 years old, which is... actually pretty old for a monarch of Whimsica, believe it or not!

Whimsica’s monarchs are usually children nowadays! That’s because we have a childish kind of “whimsy” in our hearts and an arcane sort of innocence to see the world through rainbow-tinted lenses.

A long time in the past, Whimsica had a very strict older queen who forbid the royals, even the ones in the future, from ever befriending commoners.

That queen used a spell, so if a royal was caught being friends with a commoner, they would fall into a long slumber. The length of how long they would sleep corresponded to how strong the royal‘s bond was to the commoner.

Recently, the spell was broken, however! So now I can befriend and hang out with all the common folk I want. To be honest, being that kind of queen wasn’t so great, it was a little lonely, and I always hated feeling so unapproachable... and responsible!

Well, to tell the truth, the eldest of the three princess sisters actually does most of the work. 18-year-old Celestine is the responsible and proper eldest sister. Lunette, age 16, is the middle sister, and a bit mischievous. The youngest sister is 14-year-old Stelle, and she... well... is a bit of a problem child.

Anyway. I had proposed a new course of action against what Monochrome is trying to do. The princess sisters and I, along with Celestine’s best friend Nikamowin, and even the two royal anthromorph cats, Sparkle and Twinkle, have been using our magical powers the best we could to fight against Monochrome’s Queen and royal force, and the monsters they use against us.

But I still feel we need more help. We need the help of magical musicians.

I’ve been beginning to practice making music so I could harness its positive energy and make my songs into magic that can defeat Monochrome’s negativity. Nikamowin is also a skilled singer and can use songs to help us, but I still feel we need to power of more music.

So I assigned a job to Sparkle and Twinkle. Their job now is to look for passionate musicians with pure hearts, who are interested in joining our force to help save music for the entire universe...

———

Haku Yowane’s Point of View

Location: Earth

I zipped up my backpack to the faint scent of dust around the house, tied my shoes, wiped my long bangs from my eyes, and got ready to step out the door to go to school. Another gray day.

Even though I didn’t live with her, my world felt so empty now. My heart felt so hollow.

It was the little things.

Rain pattering on the roof... once a cozy and quaint sound... now just a gloomy and sad reminder.

An old notebook... once a source of joy and closeness... now just cold and distant.

A stuffed cat... warm and beloved... now even more well-loved, and irreplaceable.

All these things I saw right before I left my house to go to school reminded me of her.

My grandmother.

She passed away three weeks ago.

Right before I began opening my door, I looked back, and saw Snowbell, the plush cat Grandma gifted me long ago, eyeing me gently from my table.

I decided I couldn’t go to school without Snowbell. I couldn’t leave her alone.

I picked up the well-loved plush and hugged her gently and sadly, and made my way out the door with her.

Snowbell was special to me.

At the age of five, I was quite meek and lonely, with a reddish nose and wobbly knees. I would catch colds often, and constantly be sniffling, which was how I earned the nickname “Sniffles”.

I was a bit odd. I had strange habits such as pretending I were a cat, even lapping milk out of a bowl at snack time. I liked to draw pictures and play make-believe at recess. I didn’t like strangers or crowds.

In school, I was usually scared and overwhelmed. Once during indoor play time, I sat in my own little corner away from everyone and drew on the walls. When my teacher found the drawings I had drawn on the walls, I got scolded. I spent the rest of the day crying and sniffling, not understanding why I was yelled at.

That was when my grandmother decided my imagination was just too big for such a little girl, so she bought me a friend, a stuffed white kitten, to talk to.

My grandma told me that Snowbell was a special friend, and she was always there to listen. So when I was sad, I would hug and talk to Snowbell and felt I wasn’t alone.

Snowbell was there for me through the good days, and the many bad days... She was there when I graduated kindergarten. She was also there shortly after, when I was six years old, when my parents divorced...

Before my parents divorced, my brother Dell and I were very close. He was technically my half-brother. My father, who I was never close with, already divorced a former wife before marrying my mother. Dell was the son of my father and his former wife. His last name was Honne, his father’s last name. My last name is Yowane, my mother’s last name.

Dell and I would always play and sing together. Even though I was clumsy and fail at his games sometimes, he was very patient and would comfort me when I cried. Sometimes my dad would randomly yell at or scold me. When that happened, Dell would always stand up to my dad and protect me. Even when my parents were fighting and yelling so loudly that I got scared, Dell and I would hide together and he would comfort me. He was truly an amazing brother.

However, when my mother and father divorced, my father insisted on taking us with him. My mother refused to let him take us. There was a huge custody battle over us, and eventually, a heartbreaking compromise was made.

Dell was going to go with my father. I was going to stay with my mother.

I just wanted us to stay together. But in the end, we couldn’t.

One morning after sleeping in, I went downstairs to see around half the furniture in the house gone and my father outside in the moving van. My dad was about to leave. He left me without saying goodbye.

But Dell... He waited until I woke up so he could say goodbye before leaving. I cried with such intensity that he turned around. His face right then shocked me. He was seven years old... but had such a grown-up expression on his face... I had never seen such an look on his face before. So much pain... yet so accepting of his fate.

He hugged me one last time without any words, until I stopped crying. Once my tears stopped, he pat my head, and made his way out the door.

I never saw my brother, my best friend, ever again.

Two years passed. I turned eight years old. My mother, now single, talking to her sister, had an idea.

My mother’s sister had a daughter, who would be my cousin. My mom noticed that without Dell, I was very lonely lately. So she proposed to my cousin and I to meet.

My cousin’s name was Miku Hatsune. She was six years old at the time. The same age I was when my parents divorced. The first thing I noticed about Miku was how cheerful she was, and how accepting she was towards me. I quickly became friends with her, and even though she came over only around once a month and I only got to see her those times, we were really close friends.

The day we first met, we played in the backyard. I was still very shy and awkward at the time.

A butterfly landed on a flower nearby, and Miku urged me to try and touch it. I did, and the butterfly flew away.

I instantly burst into tears.

“Why?” I said, through my tears. “Why does everyone leave me? Like Dell? And my dad? Why...?”

“Don’t cry, Haku...” Miku pat my head to try to cheer me up. It reminded me of when Dell pat my head to say goodbye... it kind of calmed me down.

To cheer me up even more, Miku began singing me a song. She taught it to me, and I began to sing it with her.

We began to sing together, and soon enough, we were surrounded by butterflies. We began smiling and laughing. It was a great memory.

“Miku?” I looked at her fondly. “Promise me you won’t ever leave me, okay?”

“Okay!” Miku answered, smiling.

But one day, around three years later...

My mother called her sister as usual... and every single trace of her, her husband, Miku, and even Miku’s little sister Mizu, had vanished without a trace.

When I heard this, I was devastated. I began to wait a little while... but soon it became apparent that Miku and her family were gone... maybe in a freak accident or disappearance... and weren’t ever coming back.

I remember sitting under a tree, and just crying.

After that, I really only had my grandmother. My mom was always kind of distant and neglected me emotionally.

My grandmother, however, was warm and understanding. She was also very fun and always made me smile. She was the most magical person I ever knew, because she always told me amazing stories. Sometimes I wondered how she even thought of them. I always told her perhaps she should become a writer and make them into books.

I was inspired to become a writer myself because of her. I used many of her stories as inspiration, because I thought she needed a lot of recognition. She also always wanted to be a musician, and so did I, but I was always much too shy. My grandmother couldn’t pursue music because of her health condition and age, sadly.

Now that she’s passed, I think I will try to fulfill my grandmother’s dreams in homage to her.

Thinking of these memories may have left me sad... but I’ll at least always have the precious memories of these people in my heart, even though I may never see them again. In memory of them, may I live my every day to my fullest.

[betelgeusessonajblog]

I shall be a dick cause I love you 😜💕 1 - 150

1. Who was the last person you held hands with?

AJ: Raph

2. Are you outgoing or shy?

AJ: Outgoing

3. Who are you looking forward to seeing?

AJ: Raph, duh he’s everything.

4. Are you easy to get along with?

AJ: Nah, not really haha

5. If you were drunk would the person you like take care of you?

AJ: Obviously he would

6. What kind of people are you attracted to?

AJ: Tough but caring, smart, funny, can pick me up when I’m down.

7. Do you think you’ll be in a relationship two months from now?

AJ: Without a doubt *holds up hand with wedding ring on it* 

8. Who from the opposite gender is on your mind?

AJ: Raven….I wanna save her…

9. Does talking about sex make you uncomfortable?

AJ:…HAHAHAHAHA!!!! no

10. Who was the last person you had a deep conversation with?

AJ:…Raph.

11. What does the most recent text that you sent say?

AJ:….Uuum….it’s just an ass pic I sent Raph before he ran into our room and fucked me senseless

12. What are your 5 favorite songs right now?

AJ: Don’t have a 5 fave songs tbh

13. Do you like it when people play with your hair?

AJ:…I…is my spikes hair….? cause no one touches them 

14. Do you believe in luck and miracles?

AJ: Yep

15. What good thing happened this summer?

AJ: Since this is 2020 and Summer hasn’t happened yet I’m gonna say last year’s summer was good. Lots happened though

16. Would you kiss the last person you kissed again?

AJ: That’s my husband so yes17. Do you think there is life on other planets?

AJ; Yes, I have an Alien son18. Do you still talk to your first crush?

AJ: Brock? Eh not since a huge fight me and Raph got into

19. Do you like bubble baths?

AJ: Never tried them I don’t think

20. Do you like your neighbors?

AJ: Me and, Raph live away from people so

21. What are you bad habits?

AJ: God….um…shit I know I have a lot but I’m struggling to figure it out22. Where would you like to travel?

AJ: I like travelling so yeah23. Do you have trust issues?

AJ; Not really just depends24. Favorite part of your daily routine?

AJ: Breakfast with Raph, it’s fun talking.25. What part of your body are you most uncomfortable with?

AJ:….my…scars…26. What do you do when you wake up?

AJ: Depends its usually Afternoon or some times morning27. Do you wish your skin was lighter or darker?

AJ: I’m monochrome, I’d like different scale colours

28. Who are you most comfortable around?

AJ: Raph29. Have any of your ex’s told you they regret breaking up?

AJ: No, Brock never said that once

30. Do you ever want to get married?

AJ: ALREADY AM!31. If your hair long enough for a pony tail?

AJ:…No hair32. Which celebrities would you have a threesome with?

AJ: Don’t know33. Spell your name with your chin.

AJ:…Bite me bambi34. Do you play sports? What sports?

AJ: Mostly Martial arts stuff35. Would you rather live without TV or music?

AJ: Ugh…neither36. Have you ever liked someone and never told them?

AJ: One guy years back but I didn’t know my sexuality then so…

37. What do you say during awkward silences?

AJ:…Nothing really just…38. Describe your dream girl/guy?

AJ: Raph39. What are your favorite stores to shop in?

AJ: I don’t really have a fave store to go to40. What do you want to do after high school?

AJ: I went to MU and that was a disaster41. Do you believe everyone deserves a second chance?

AJ: Some do…42. If your being extremely quiet what does it mean?

AJ: I’m thinking of something or i’m too down to talk43. Do you smile at strangers?

AJ: Not really no44. Trip to outer space or bottom of the ocean?

AJ: Been in space45. What makes you get out of bed in the morning?

AJ: Raph, without a doubt46. What are you paranoid about?

AJ: Fucking things up with my family

47. Have you ever been high?

AJ: No48. Have you ever been drunk?

AJ: Repeatedly49. Have you done anything recently that you hope nobody finds out about?

AJ: Nope50. What was the colour of the last hoodie you wore?

AJ: Dark red51. Ever wished you were someone else?

AJ: For years I always did52. One thing you wish you could change about yourself?

AJ: No scars….53. Favourite makeup brand?

AJ: Don’t use make up54. Favourite store?

AJ: None55. Favourite blog?

(Mun one: @thelostandforgottenangel cause she’s awesome56. Favourite colour?

AJ: Red57. Favourite food?

AJ: Hmm…Spaghetti58. Last thing you ate?

AJ: Raph’s ass *Sticks tongue out*59. First thing you ate this morning?

AJ: Cereal60. Ever won a competition? For what?

AJ: never61. Been suspended/expelled? For what?

AJ: ALMOST got Suspended/Expelled62. Been arrested? For what?

AJ: Nope luckily63. Ever been in love?

AJ: Currently in love with the man of my dreams64. Tell us the story of your first kiss?

AJ: God…that was way back in College me and Brock were talking then…we kissed after admitting we liked each other65. Are you hungry right now?

AJ: Nah I’m fine66. Do you like your tumblr friends more than your real friends?

//YEP 67. Facebook or Twitter?

Twitter68. Twitter or Tumblr?

Tumblr69. Are you watching tv right now?

AJ: Watching repeats of some old TV Shows70. Names of your bestfriends?

AJ: Besides Raph? Leo, Mikey, Donnie and, Raven71. Craving something? What?

AJ: Raph’s big cock72. What colour are your towels?

AJ: Eh white I think72. How many pillows do you sleep with?

AJ: Three73. Do you sleep with stuffed animals?

AJ: No, never had that kinda thing74. How many stuffed animals do you think you have?

AJ: None75. Favourite animal?

//Dog76. What colour is your underwear?

AJ: My jockstrap’s red77. Chocolate or Vanilla?

AJ:…Chocolate78. Favourite ice cream flavour?

AJ: Strawberry79. What colour shirt are you wearing?

AJ: Black80. What colour pants?

AJ: Also Black81. Favourite tv show?

AJ: The Walking Dead82. Favourite movie?

AJ: Rocky Horror Picture Show83. Mean Girls or Mean Girls 2?

AJ: Neither84. Mean Girls or 21 Jump Street?

AJ: neither85. Favourite character from Mean Girls?

AJ: Never seen it don’t wanna86. Favourite character from Finding Nemo?

AJ: None87. First person you talked to today?

AJ: Raph88. Last person you talked to today?

AJ: Roger89. Name a person you hate?

AJ: My mom90. Name a person you love?

AJ: Raph91. Is there anyone you want to punch in the face right now?

AJ: My Dad92. In a fight with someone?

AJ: Not currently93. How many sweatpants do you have?

AJ: None94. How many sweaters/hoodies do you have?

AJ: Um one or two95. Last movie you watched?

AJ: one of the Fast and Furious movies, me and Raph watched it last night96. Favourite actress?

AJ: Hmm….too many tbh97. Favourite actor?

AJ: Same as before98. Do you tan a lot?

AJ: Never99. Have any pets?

AJ: a shared pet with Raph, one I bought him100. How are you feeling?

AJ: Tired to be honest101. Do you type fast?

//Yes102. Do you regret anything from your past?

AJ:….people I met in MU….Breaking promises to people103. Can you spell well?

//not really104. Do you miss anyone from your past?

AJ: No105. Ever been to a bonfire party?

AJ: Nope106. Ever broken someone’s heart?

AJ: Yeah Brock’s with breaking my promise to never drink107. Have you ever been on a horse?

AJ: Nope108. What should you be doing?

AJ: Raph~

109. Is something irritating you right now?

AJ: Not being able to help Raven110. Have you ever liked someone so much it hurt?

AJ: Raph, without a doubt111. Do you have trust issues?

AJ:…No this was already mentioned before112. Who was the last person you cried in front of?

AJ: Raph113. What was your childhood nickname?

AJ….pass on that one114. Have you ever been out of your province/state?

AJ: Yep115. Do you play the Wii?

//Yep116. Are you listening to music right now?

AJ: Nothing currently117. Do you like chicken noodle soup?

AJ: No118. Do you like Chinese food?

AJ: Nope119. Favourite book?

AJ: Tomorrow When The War Began is one I love120. Are you afraid of the dark?

AJ: No121. Are you mean?

AJ: only when someone pisses me off122. Is cheating ever okay?

AJ: Never okay EVER123. Can you keep white shoes clean?

AJ: I don’t wear shoes124. Do you believe in love at first sight?

AJ: Kinda yeah125. Do you believe in true love?

AJ: I have that with Raph126. Are you currently bored?

AJ: Yeeeep127. What makes you happy?

AJ: My family128. Would you change your name?

AJ: Nah129. What your zodiac sign?

Libra130. Do you like subway?

AJ: Nope131. Your bestfriend of the opposite sex likes you, what do you do?

AJ: Turn them down 132. Who’s the last person you had a deep conversation with?

AJ…I Already said RAPH133. Favourite lyrics right now?

AJ: Don’t have any134. Can you count to one million?

AJ: Never had to135. Dumbest lie you ever told?

AJ:….too many tbh136. Do you sleep with your doors open or closed?

AJ: Depends tbh137. How tall are you?

AJ: 6′6138. Curly or Straight hair?

AJ: Don’t have hair so139. Brunette or Blonde?140. Summer or Winter?

AJ: Summer141. Night or Day?

AJ: Night142. Favourite month?

AJ: Dunno143. Are you a vegetarian?

AJ: Nope144. Dark, milk or white chocolate?

AJ: Doesn’t matter145. Tea or Coffee?

AJ: *Shrugs*146. Was today a good day?

AJ: Kinda147. Mars or Snickers?

AJ: Mars148. What’s your favourite quote?

Limits are meant to be overcome

149. Do you believe in ghosts?

AJ: I am one

150. Get the closest book next to you, open it to page 42, what’s the first line on that page?

AJ:…Spell shit

[iknowyoubutyoudontknow]

The Push

Sometimes all people need is a push.

Humans can do great things.

They like challenge and achieve things that could be impossible for every other race, the only problem that such intelligence brings is the constant need to doubt on themselves. So, some of them need a little push for their confidence, but when do you know its alright to give that push?

This Story will teach you.

My friend was always a bit shy, she grew up like this, so it wasn't a big Suprise for me that I needed to push her confidence a bit here and there.

So, she was happy, you saw it on her face, the way she smiled and how her eyes shone in the light. Her hair was kissed by the autumn leaves and her eyes shone like the silent sea itself. She wasn't skinny, not at all, but not fat either, average you could say.

But oh, oh, so complex inside.

Her grades were pretty good, except biology, but it wasn't something that made her feel stupid. Sadly the others didn't saw it like that, no, for them it was an excuse; to 'test' her, to give her the feeling of uselessness, breaking her confidence and innocence. To destroy the loving heart that held such warmth that it could burn you in such sweet embrance that it would be sinful.

The schooldays were long, tiring her ever so quickly, always stealing a piece of her once warm heart that it grew cold and heavy. She had me though, I tried my best, giving her the push when she really needed one, but I was still learning when to give it. So I sometimes miscalculated, giving it at the wrong time, making everything worse or madder, I still tried. For her.

But one Individuum just wasn't enough.

Her parents love her greatly, she was their only draughter, a gem for them. Always friendly and helpful, they tried to make it as easy as possible for her, knowing that school drew her engery.

Reading was her drug, to escape the gray that hung over the city and dive into the adventurous tales of a creative mind. Her eyes held a wishful gleam as they flew with practised ease over the pages. The soft music drowned out the stressful city life which poured in from the open window. In her mind danced characters to the songs, swung their body's to the melodies, collided with the bass and hold laughing onto each other.

But she was bored.

Days repeated, the same routine over and over again, so the colours were lost to faded, things became monochrom. She wouldn't stop though, she had plans. She wished for Freedom, for a life played with her rules, she as the game master and her daily life as game. A dog as friend, that's what she wanted. Someone to follow her without doubt.

Someone else to give her a push.

And no, no, she didn't want to hurt me with that, no, she was scared that she annoys me. No matter what I said, she just wouldn't belive me, but oh dear, I would give her a push every time she needed one.

Not long in the holidays and she visited her grandparents, they had a dog and lived more outside.

Guess what?

A miracle happened for her; she fell in love. It was so- Ironic, she felt free and wild, it's strong and soft at the same time, calling her in and pushing her away. So deep and sweet but at the same time Shallow and salty.

But she loved every second with it, although she grew sadder, knowing that she had to leave again, going back to the monochrome life, living her routine, reading books, getting good grades, feeling cold and useless, coming back to me.

Again, not because she doesn't like me, but I had at least a chance to survive the harshness of life, without her by my side. To me it would seem impossible. She wouldn't believe me when I tried to assure her otherwise. I still tried unwavering.

They don't like me, her parents I mean, but that's okay, at least I'm there for their daughter, so they accept our friendship, for her. We were friends for a long time, since kindergarden I believe, she was a very lonely child.

As she came back she told me about it, the feeling wich let her heart be warm once more, but she was sad.

Her smile faded and the once autumn kissed hair fell graceless over her shoulders it hurt me to see her like that. I pushed, in hope to get the smile I so loved back.

And I did the right thing.

She would go, travel back to her love, rewind time to once again lay in its arms, and she would stay. School isn't everything in life she said, books aren't either, forget the other students, her heart called, and she was overrun by emotions.

Nervous to see them again, scared they would reject her, panicked someone will stop her, but nobody did, because nobody cared, she loved every second of her short freedom.

And she stood before them, I still saw that she was nervous, her hands were sweating, the wind played with her hair as she looked down on hope to escape the eyes of other persons.

She needed a push, so I gave her one.

And then she fell.

Her love drew her in, holding her fiercely in an embrance of death without escape.

She kissed back and gave her air for them, not caring, for she was going home.

And so she drowned.

Because I pushed.

And at once I dissappeared

She had no need for a friend that was never even really there to care, Imagination is after all the minds strongest power.

[renywrites]

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Hello! I am back! I wrote a completely new Alternate Universe that... I don’t think it’s ever been done before. This is only part one of many.

So this is my baby. I love it dearly. Please enjoy with me.

If you don’t want to read the full thing here, you can find it on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18105458

***

Why are there so many songs about rainbows And what’s on the other side — Rainbow Connection

As far as Lance was concerned, there was only one side to a rainbow.

At least, that was what he had been taught. You see, he’d grown up on the one side of the rainbow - the one with the light and the color and the beautiful arches stretching over the city, as far as the eye could see. He lived in a city with buildings made of crystal, made for light to refract off them and fill the world with color.

The people themselves were bathed in color - dressed in beautifully colored clothes that complimented their rich and luxurious skin tones, hair that caught the beautiful colors of their world and took it as their own. Their eyes were luminous and their smiles bright. It was as though whatever had created them had harnessed the sun and the colors of the rainbow it had made their home to write them into being.

They learned in school about how to take these colors and put them to use; how to harness the power they’d been gifted and use it to better the world around them. Lance had chosen blue. It was the sweetest of the colors, cool and refreshing. They used it on the bodies of water around them, purifying and healing with it. Many citizens who wielded blue became nurses or midwives or caretakers. They were sweet and gentle and curious beings.

This curiosity was both a blessing and a curse. It often got Lance into trouble as a child. When he got older, he sated his curiosities with the vast collection of books in the city library and archives. He also went on excursions past the city lines when it got to be too much, but nobody knew about those. Not even his best friends.

But after he’d read all of the books he could get his hands on, after he’d learned about the same things in a hundred different ways in a hundred different author’s words - Lance got bored again.

It wasn’t until one specific librarian had noticed him sulking in the stacks that he had been given one particular book.

This was the day Lance McClain’s life changed.

***

“You really shouldn’t do this, Lance.” Hunk hisses for the third time that afternoon.

“Yeah, you said that.” Lance rolls his eyes, looking over at the yellow wielder. Hunk was nervously folding Lance’s basket of unattended clean clothes. He tended to fuss when he was anxious.

“I think it’s cool.” Pidge pipes up from where she was lounging on his bed. The green wielder was scrolling through her datapad.

“We don’t even know if what that book said was true - it’s a hundred years old!” Hunk insists. “I’m almost certain that it’s just some elaborate plan to kidnap unsuspecting victims!”

Lance rolls his eyes, packing a water bottle into his backpack and zipping it closed. “And what if it is true?” He challenges. “If it’s true, then there’s a whole other world beyond the borders of our city! I want to see it.”

“Of all things, why did you have to be blue?” Hunk bemoans, folding a shirt a little too aggressively. Pidge snorts.

“I’ll be back before school tomorrow.” Lance huffs. “And remember - I’m sleeping over at your house, Hunk.” He winks. “Bye!”

“Please be careful!” Hunks calls after him as he slides out the window.

“Bring me pictures!” Pidge hollers after him.

Lance grins, slinging his bag over his shoulder and heading toward the setting sun.

***

There are rumors of a place far beyond our borders — a place devoid of light and color and beauty. I have only heard of it twice, in hushed conversations and fearful whispers behind closed doors. Those who know of it call it the Monochrome, or the other side of the Rainbow.

It is said to be a place where the evil are cast out, but there is no evidence of this. I have looked extensively into our justice system, and there is no sign of anyone ever coming close to sending people there. It would be considered inhumane in our leader’s eyes.

Although many people seem to be afraid of it, I have not heard of any threats or worrying behaviour from the Monochrome and its people. As the devout scientist and explorer I claim to be, it is my duty to not only find this place, but learn everything I can about it and its people.

Wish me luck.

— Dr. C. Wimbleton-Smythe, Over the Rainbow

***

As the light faded from the sky, drained from vivid golds and pinks and oranges and replaced with silver and gold and navy of the richest kind, Lance found himself venturing farther from the city than he had ever been before. It was thrilling, but he couldn’t decide if that was a good feeling or not. He knew his mother was going to kill him if she caught wind of what he was doing, but hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.

He wasn’t paying much attention to the things around him. Or he didn’t until he realized that the colors of the sky were duller than they had been minutes ago. Upon closer inspection, he realizes that the color around him was fading. Muting itself. He looked down at his own skin, at his own clothes, and felt oddly out of place. He seemed a little too bright, a little too intense for this place.

Lance stops in a clearing in the trees, looking around. The ground drained from a muted green to a dull, drab grey. It bled into the trees, into the sky, into the land that stretched for miles before him. It doesn’t even occur to Lance to take the pictures Pidge wanted.

The color was gone, replaced with shades of grey and blacks and whites. Lance pulls out the journal he’d been given by the library, grinning and leafing through to the bookmark he’d left.

“The Monochrome.” He breathes, his fingers brushing over the yellowing pages.

“What are you doing here?”

The journal snaps shut between Lance’s hands and he jumps, whirling around to look at… a boy.

Well, not exactly a boy, he looked to be about Lance’s age. But that was where the resemblance stopped.

He was shorter than Lance, his arms crossed over his chest and his brow furrowed. His stance was defensive, his lips turned downward in a scowl. He looked angry, but that’s not why Lance found that he couldn’t breathe.

This boy was breathtaking in a way that Lance had never seen before. His skin was pale and unblemished, almost glowing in the dim moonlight. His hair was the color of ink, looping around his face in soft waves that brushed against sharp cheekbones.

Lance couldn’t quite make out the color of his eyes. He guessed they were some form of grey, because they were softer than the rest of his features, however wary and angry they were.

“Uh…” He chokes, after he remembers to breathe. What did he say to someone who looked so different yet also made Lance’s heart thump hard in his chest?

“What,” the boy repeats, stepping closer toward Lance. “Are you doing here?”

“I’m exploring.” Lance declares after he’d gathered his wits about him. “I read about this place in a book - I thought it wasn’t real! But, wow, look- it is! You’re real! Wait till Pidge hears about this, she’s gonna be so psyched! Can I take your picture?”

The Monochrome boy gives him an incredulous look, some of the defensiveness draining from his posture. “Excuse me?”

Lance grins, then extends a hand. “Hi, I’m Lance. I’m a big fan.”

His eyes flick from Lance’s hand to his face, uncertainty flickering across his face. He takes a step forward after a while, reaching forward and taking his hand.

The Monochrome boys touch is… well, normal. Lance wasn’t quite sure what he had been expecting. Cold? Calluses, maybe? Anything but the soft, warm grip that slid into his own, shaking his hand firmly. It’s gone as soon as it had come.

“Uh… Keith. I’m Keith.” He - Keith - says, the wariness giving way to confused curiosity. “What… are you doing here?”

“Exploring.” He says, holding the journal aloft. “So you guys aren’t a myth. There’s more than one of you, right?”

The apprehension is back. Keith edges away, picking at the hem of his shirt. “Why do you wanna know?” He asks, his expression pinched. “You aren’t a spy, are you?”

“What?” He blinks, looking down at his vibrantly colored self. “No! Besides, if I was, I would be the worst spy in the world. I don’t fit in here at all.”

Keith relaxes again, smiling faintly. How Lance — or anyone, for that matter — could have thought these people were cold and threatening was beyond him. Keith had the nicest smile he’d ever seen.

“No,” the Monochrome boy concedes. “I guess you don’t.”

The two of them stand in awkward silence for a moment before Keith clears his throat. “Well. It was nice to meet you, Lance, but I should…”

“Can I come back?” Lance interrupts, blushing faintly. “I mean… I know it’s probably weird I’m here. But nobody knows you exist! Or… I don’t think that anyone does.”

Keith smiles faintly, tilting his head to the side. “Why are you so interested in my people?”

Lance thinks about this a moment, brushing his fingers over the old, leather bound book that had taken him this far and brought him to Keith. He wasn’t quite sure why he’d come, let alone why he was so interested. There was just something about Dr. Wimbleton-Smythe’s genuine curiosity that had resonated with Lance.

He wanted to prove that these people were worth knowing about. Nobody deserved to be a long-forgotten myth. Especially not when they still existed.

So he answers honestly. “I’m not sure yet. But I’d like to find out.”

This makes Keith give him a wide, crooked smile. Lance finds he’d like to document that smile. “Okay.” The Monochrome boy agrees. “You can come back.”

“Thank you.” Lance breathes. “I can’t- thank you. Tomorrow? Here?”

“Tomorrow,” Keith agrees, tucking his ebony hair behind his ear, a hint of that smile tugging at his lips. “Here.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, then.” Lance grins. “Bye, Keith.”

“Goodbye, Lance.”

***

I have reached the part where our two worlds collide. The color has faded, like something has sucked the vibrancy away from this stretch of land. At first I thought it may be sick, but upon closer inspection, the foliage seems to be in peak condition.

This is a phenomenon that I have never seen before, and I can only hope to meet someone from this land who may explain it to me. That said, I have decided to stay on the edge of this land, in case these people are as hostile as they have been proclaimed to be.

I am optimistic and hopeful toward the future of my research and adventures.

— Dr. C. Wimbleton-Smythe, Over the Rainbow

***

“Pics or it didn’t happen,” Pidge scoffs the next day at school, leaning back in her seat and munching on her sandwich. It was one of the rare times she wasn’t typing away at her screen.

“I told you,” Lance groans. “I forgot! Plus he didn’t seem like the type who would’ve wanted his picture taken. I was being respectful!”

“It was safe though, right?” Hunk worries, not even blinking when Pidge reaches over and takes a handful of his chips. “He didn’t seem… I dunno, aggressive?”

“What? No! No, he was… Well, I mean, he was worried at first. But he was nice!”

“Did he seriously not have any color?” Pidge leans forward, her hazel eyes intense. “Like - just black and white? Like one of those weird pictures they keep in the museums?”

“Weird… pictures? Museum?” Lance blinks.

Pidge nods, pulling back and giving him a bored look. “Yeah, like the ones nobody goes to anymore? They have this weird section with black and white pictures.”

Weird pictures. Weird black and white pictures. As far as he knew, the cameras here had never been black and white. Maybe… maybe-

“Pidge, I need you to take me to the museum. Right now.”

“Now?” She asks incredulously. “Right now? In the middle of lunch?”

“In the middle of school?” Hunk yelps.

“Yes!” Lance springs out of his chair, packing up his bag haphazardly. “Right now, I have to go!”

“This journal is making you crazy.” Hunk says warily. Pidge only heaves a frustrated sigh, grudgingly packing her own bags. “Fine. But if I fail chemistry, it’s all your fault.”

“I can live with that. Now come on!”

***

The museum desk clerk looked bored out of her mind when she gave them their passes. “The exhibit is that way.” She points, popping her gum and tossing her bright pink hair over her shoulder. “Have a wonderful day.”

“Come on!” Lance walks as fast as he could, his long legs eating up the ground under him and basically leaving his friends behind. Which seemed to be fine with them; they were going to explore other places of the near-empty museum.

Sure enough, the black and white exhibit was tiny, but it was there. And right before the hall, there was a massive portrait and a plaque that read; This Exhibit was Founded by the Research of Doctor Coran Wimbleton-Smythe.

The man was a regal, expressive creature, with wild orange hair and an impressive mustache. He had a wide smile, mirth and wisdom twinkling in his blue eyes. He looked like he had seen the world and found beauty in all of it. Even in the Monochrome.

A thrill runs through Lance. He wanted to be just like Dr. Wimbleton-Smythe.

With a reverent, hopeful breath, Lance walks into the room that had long since been forgotten and looked over.

The walls held big black and white pictures, full of life despite the colorlessness. Coran seemed to be in every single one of them, vibrant still despite the lack of pigment. He had his arm thrown around a beautiful woman in one, his head thrown back in laughter, a drink in one hand. The woman was grinning, staring off just past where the camera was aimed. The plaque on the bottom read Midsummer Festival, circa 20XX.

The next picture was of a family, drawn close together, arms around one another. The mother was cradling a baby. At first glance, they seemed somber, but Lance had seen that expression on Keith, and somehow he knew that these people simply took everything seriously.

The room was filled with similar pictures. There were weddings, celebrations, funerals, or simply people going about their day to day lives. Dr. Wimbleton-Smythe had taken these people and painted them in the same light as the ones from Rainbow City. They weren’t different at all.

***

The people here are more lovely than anyone I have ever seen in even that of my own home. I find their lack of color to be more appealing than that of my own people. Their beauty is not found surface deep, but instead found in the kind way they treat each other and the loyalty that holds their society together.

I have found that the people in my own home, while they may be derived from heavenly color themselves, are vain and condescending toward that which they do not understand. And, as such, I have found that they do not understand the people of Monochrome.

There is such a deeply rooted fear of the unknown in my people. It closes their minds and hearts, poisoning their reasoning and clouding their judgement. I wish they would only get to know the lovely people in these towns to love them just as dearly as I do.

Dr. C. Wimbleton-Smythe, Over the Rainbow

***

“There’s a museum exhibit with pictures of your people.”

Keith looks up, surprise writ on his face.

They were sitting under a tree, the only one standing on the in-between. Keith had suggested they do it, after Lance had revealed he’d brought snacks and the Monochrome boy had admitted to never having tried the things Lance had brought.

“There is?”

Lance nods, giving him a small smile. “It isn’t very big, but… It’s there. Dr. Wimbleton-Smythe instated it a really long time ago. I guess nobody has bothered to take it down.”

Keith blinks, then tilts his head to the side. “How do you know about him?”

“Oh!” Lance turns, pulling the journal out of his backpack. “The librarian gave this to me after I read all of the books in the library.”

Keith snorts. “You read all of the books in the library?”

Lance smiles sheepishly, turning to hand him the book. “Yeah. I was a pretty hyperactive kid. It was that or get into more trouble than it was worth.”

The Monochrome boy chuckles, shaking his head and looking down at the book. A bit of hair falls into his face, and Lance has the urge to push it away from his face. He’d always been an impulsive boy.

Keith looks up when Lance’s fingers brush over his cheek and ear, his eyes wide and his gaze slightly awed. For a moment, they stare at each other, unable or unwilling to break eye contact.

But then Lance pulls his hand back, a brilliant red blooming over his cheeks. “Sorry.” He says quietly, glancing away from Keith.

He only looks up when a thumb brushes over his cheek. Lance jolts, surprised, and turns to see Keith with that same awed expression. It occurs to him then that Keith had probably never seen color — or at least not color as vivid as this before. So he leans into the boy’s touch, letting him trace over the slowly fading blush.

“Why aren’t you scared of me?” Keith whispers, looking up at Lance, his gaze troubled. Upon closer inspection, Lance realizes that his eyes are a muted purple, like some sort of smoky amethyst.

“Should I be scared?” Lance asks, just as quietly.

He gets a smile and a little shake of the head before Keith is pulling his hand away. Lance wants to pull him back, hold his hand there. But he doesn’t, instead watching as porcelain fingers brush over yellowed pages.

“I can’t read this.” He admits after a moment, looking up at Lance. “I don’t read this language.”

Lance laughs, taking it back. “Do you want me to read it to you?”

His heart flutters when he gets that crooked, happy grin for the second time. “Yes, please.”

***

I have fallen in love.

It isn’t with a woman, or a man, or anyone in between. No, I have fallen in love with this culture and harmony. These people feel like home. It hurts me to think that I have to go back to Rainbow City, but I also feel at peace with my decision.

The people who raised me need to know who these lovely, monochromatic people are. They need to hear from one of their own that these are not people who need to be feared, let alone casted out for the way they were created. I — we — owe it to this beautiful group of people to understand.

I have fallen in love. Irreversibly, irrevocably in love.

— Dr. C. Wimbleton-Smythe, Over the Rainbow

***

The sixth time Lance visits, Keith falls asleep against his chest.

Lance was reading to him, the sun still in the sky. Keith had settled under his arm to see the diagrams and sketches that filled the empty spots in the pages. Somewhere along the way, his eyes had grown heavy and he had fallen asleep against the boy from Rainbow City.

He hadn’t noticed, not at first. But when Keith stopped asking questions or making Lance pause a moment so he could study the sketches, he trailed off and looked down.

The Monochrome boy had his cheek pressed against Lance’s collarbone. His thick eyelashes brushed over his cheekbones, his lips parted as he breathes, soft and even. His hand was curled, his knuckles pressed against his cheek and holding on loosely to the sweatshirt Lance had thrown on.

He was lovely.

Lance could see where the Doctor had been coming from. Then again, he had seen it since the first time he’d bumped into Keith. And to think, before this journal, Lance hadn’t even known that someone as beautiful as the boy on his chest had existed.

He brushes a hand through inky locks, not daring to move an inch in case he disturbed Keith.

And after his foot fell asleep and the chill from the setting sun started to creep from the floor into his bones, Lance realized he might just be a little bit in love.

***

“My mom wants to meet you.”

Lance looks up from divvying out the fruit he’d brought, his eyes wide. “I… Excuse me?”

Keith looks away, rubbing his cheek in a gesture Lance had come to realize meant that Keith was being shy. “She… I’ve been talking about you, and… she wants to meet you.”

“You talk about me?” Lance squeaks, not quite able to compute. Keith talked about him! He could sing praises to the heavens, run a thousand laps around the city fountains, die happy in this exact moment.

And then he realized just what Keith had said, and his elation turns to slight fear.

“Your… mom wants to meet me.” He repeats, after Keith nudges him with a worried call of his name. He must’ve been unresponsive.

“Yes,” the Monochrome boy nods, biting his lip.

“When?” He asks, his voice faint.

“Um…” Keith smiles, shy. “Today? She said I could invite you to dinner. So.. want to come to dinner?”

Lance stares at him, his eyes wide. The silence drags for a long, terrible minute, before Keith pulls away, his face falling. “Unless you don’t want to, that’s okay- I get it. I’m- I’m me, and… that’s okay.”

“No!” Lance reaches over, taking his hands, shaking his head quickly. Oh, heavens, stars almighty, he was an idiot. “No. I’m sorry, I just- you caught me off guard. Of course I want to come to dinner. Thank you for inviting me.”

The Monochrome boy looks down at their hands, then back up at him, his smile hesitant. “Yeah?” He whispers, squeezing Lance’s fingers hopefully.

“Yeah.” Lance whispers back, taking a chance and leaning forward, pressing a soft kiss to this beautiful boy’s flawless forehead.

***

Krolia Kogane was the single most terrifying woman on this side of the border, Lance had come to realize.

He and Keith had made the trek into town, past a few dozen curious faces and polite smiles (he was certain he’d be met with hostile stares and terrified mothers pulling their children away. That’s what Keith would have been greeted with). They’d walked through the town, right to what seemed to be the biggest house in the whole place.

Standing in the doorway was Krolia Kogane, cutting an imposing figure as her son lead a Rainbow City boy up to her and into her house. And now she was sitting across from him at their kitchen table, her gaze inscrutable.

“So,” she starts, and he snaps to attention. “Keith tells me you’ve been visiting him.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Lance replies hastily, then clears his throat and adds, “He’s very nice.”

Krolia gives him the slightest of smiles. One of Keith’s smiles. “He is, isn’t he?” She looks toward the stairs, where Keith had disappeared to get one thing or another. She turns her gaze back to him, then sighs. “I don’t know what you know of our history, Lance, but the Rainbow folk haven’t exactly been the most friendly.”

“Yes, ma’am. I… I know a little of it.” Lance nods solemnly. He hesitates a minute, then lifts his gaze to hers. “I’m sorry.” He says softly. “I don’t want to hurt Keith in any way. I… I really like him.”

Keith’s mother studies him a moment, then smiles and sits back. “You look at him the way my husband used to look at me.”

And again that bright red blooms over his cheeks, warmth settling in his chest. He looks toward the stairs. “I really like him.” He says again.

The three of them spend the evening making traditional dishes and swapping stories. Tonight was the first night Lance heard Keith laugh without restraint and the first night he wanted to pull him close and kiss him.

At the end of the night, he gets that chance. They’re lingering on the border, standing in their perfect little in-between. Keith is stalling, dragging out their goodbyes with soft thank yous and his fingers twined around Lance’s.

When there’s a breath of silence, a moment with their eyes locked and the silence heavy around them, Lance leans forward.

Keith’s lips are soft and gentle, his breath stalling between them as his brain catches up with his body. His arms reach up, wrap around Lance’s neck. Lance puts a hand on the small of his back, pulling him against his chest and kissing him like it was the only thing in the world he wanted to do. Because, in all reality, it was.

They part with the promise to see eachother again the following night. And the one after that. And the one after that.

When Lance leaves, all the colors around him seems dull without Keith by his side.

***

“I think I’m in love with him.��� Lance says one afternoon, when all of his friends are hanging out in his room.

Hunk looks up, surprise flickering over his face. Pidge’s typing stops.

“What?” His best friends echo, almost in sync with one another.

“You haven’t even known him that long,” Hunk protests.

“We haven’t even met the guy!” Pidge huffs.

Lance rolls over on his bed, blinking at them. “Do you want to meet him?” He asks.

That night, Lance asks Keith if he wants to meet them.

“Will they like me?” Keith asks, worried as he looks up at Lance. They’re curled up in Keith’s bed, back to their usual reading sessions (or, rather, Keith’s daily naptime before dinner).

“Of course they will.” Lance smiles, smoothing his hair down and kissing his forehead. “I like you. They’re bound to like you — we have similar interests.”

“Okay,” Keith concedes after a moment of long and hard thought, snuggling back in. “Tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow.”

***

It wasn’t going well. Keith was flighty and nervous the moment he saw that there was three of them. He flinched when Lance took his hand, apologizing softly when he sees the concern on the Rainbow Citizens face.

Hunk was anxious as all get out; he had done some research himself, but of course he hadn’t borrowed the journal from Lance. All of the feedback he got painted Keith — sweet, soft, beautiful Keith — out to be a cold hearted monster.

Pidge had her own suspicions. This was displayed after tense introductions when she leaned over to Hunk and murmured, “He looks like a ghost.”

They hadn’t seen it, but Lance had seen his Monochrome boy crumble. He had felt fingers tighten on his own, heard the soft exhale.

“Pidge,” Lance says, aghast. “He can hear you.”

She has the decency to look sheepish. “Sorry.”

After an hour of agonizing small talk and mediating from Lance, he’d given up and told the group he was getting tired and that they should probably head home. But once they’d started off, he hung back.

Keith holds it together for a few minutes after they’re out of sight. But then his lip starts to tremble and his fingers twitch.

“Oh, Keith,” Lance breathes, pulling him against his chest, just in time to catch a weak sob against his shirt.

“I’m sorry.” He gasps wetly. “I’m so sorry.”

“No, no. It isn’t your fault. You haven’t done anything wrong. I forgot… just how much my society has been taught to pretend yours doesn’t exist.”

He feels Keith try to form words, and he feels his heart break when all he comes up with is another sob. So he holds him, until the tears are dried and he can kiss those trembling lips.

“I want to take you to my parents.” He whispers, stroking his cheek, brushing away the tears. Keith looks up at him, smoky eyes wide and dewy. “I want to show the world — my world — just how much I love you.”

“You do?” Keith asks, and smiles.

“I do.” He tilts his head up, pressing his lips against his forehead and lingering there.

“Tomorrow?” Keith whispers.

Lance smiles against his skin and nods. Tomorrow.

***

A life well spent is, in my eyes, one spent devoted to easing the suffering of others. I believe I have had a good life. A wonderful life, even. Though I was unable to change the minds of many people, those who listened made a great difference, and I hope that one day, it may change this world for the better.

My life as I have known is nearly over. My bones are fragile, my health even more so. The rest of my life may be spent in a bed, but I am surrounded by loved ones and filled with happiness.

I hope that you, my dear reader, have gained something from listening to the ramblings of an old man. I hope that your life is filled with as much wonder and beauty as I was able to find. I wish you well, in your studies and your happiness.

Dr. Coran Wimbleton-Smythe, Over the Rainbow

***

The walk through town stops many people, gathers much attention, earns stares and murmurs from people who happened upon them. But Lance walked proudly, Keith at his side. And Keith was glowing, hardly paying attention to the people around him as he took in all of the color with childish wonderment.

“It’s so beautiful,” He had said in hushed tones the moment they entered the city.

“Not as beautiful as you,” Lance had answered.

Now they were stepping into his house, into Lance’s life. With his many brothers and sisters, with his mother cooking dinner at the stove, with the house full of the memories he’d carried with him for his entire life.

“Lance! Where have you been? I need you to come help with dinner, Veronica is-” His mother rounds the corner, then stops, her eyes falling on Keith.

Lance steps forward, Keith’s hand in his. “Mom,” He says, with a voice that promised them both an eternity of tomorrows and an abundance of love. “This is Keith.”

[anonymoushouseplantfan]

Do you think IF this tour is a major letdown, her sugars maniac following might decrease? And media reporters might finally start reporting that she needs major help with engagements? Basically what are your predictions if this tour is real letdown, coz I see a major possibility for that, due to main reason being no participation in engagements. It's alright for 2-3 days to just stand and do photo ops, but maintaining public interest for continues 16 days without ANY participation is impossible.

I think the hardcore sugars are here to stay, and I expect they will get more and more rabid as Meghan flounders. That has been my experience so far. 

I suspect the tour will be meh, but I doubt the media will report that she “needs major help.” Her problem isn’t that she can’t show up and shake hands. Her problem is that the planned tour stops mind-numbingly boring, the clothes are repetitive, monochrome and ill-fitting, and all she does is hold hands with Harry and pose. Yes, there’s always a chance that there will be a major disaster, but I doubt that as they will be surrounded by people whose main job is to keep that from happening. I think their main problem is boredom. Meghan is by far the most repetitive royal I have ever seen, and I used to bitch about Kate’s lace dresses nonstop.

When I think of what made Will and Kate’s first tour (to Canada) amazing, I remember how Kate picked Prince Edward Island based on the Anne of Green Gables books, and how professional she looked in her navy Smythe blazer (Canadian brand!) as they boarded the plane. The Cambridges positively embraced the official events, attending a citizenship ceremony, Canada Day, and the Calgary Stampede. Kate looked amazing in her recycled engagement dress and red maple leaf hat and she rocked the maple leaf brooch like nobody’s business. She wore Canadian Erdem freaking everywhere (tbh, they weren’t that bad back then), posed with Anne of Green Gables, and even dressed up like a Calgary cowboy. 

Yes, they had cute couple moments at the helicopter training, the French cooking classes in Quebec, and the sea dragon race, but what I remember most about this tour was that it was a celebration of Canada, including its natural beauty, history, and diversity. LOL, and the “Marilyn moment,” of course.

Kate launched her tour with a bang, with sources telling the DM that she’s personally chosen Prince Edward’s Island because she loved the Anne books. I remember this causing quite a stir at the time and this is still one my favorite parts of their Canada tour.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/beloved-anne-of-green-gables-beckons-the-duchess/article2084268/?from=sec431

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/the-royal-consorts-royal-request/article598927/

It’s a stark contrast to the Harkle schedule release, which left people scratching their heads as to why they’d picked some of the stops and why they were skipping out on Invictus. I’ve been wondering why I have such a strong feeling that this tour will be a dud, and I think the underwhelming release of the schedule is part of it. This does not feel like a celebration of Australia, or event the Commonwealth. It feels like a celebration of Meghan and Harry.

[writingtostaysane]

Prolouge

I finished it and I’m just gonna go ahead and post it. I didn’t do too much editing since I’m a bit tired rn and I currently don’t have a beta.

Word count: 5013

Taglist: @flyingsassysaddles , @ask-the-new-columbian-colonies, and @dustjacketdreamer  

If you want to be added to or removed from the taglist, just message me. Currently, I’m only tagging the people who liked/reblogged the post about the taglist. 

Now here’s the chapter.

---

It was a warm day in May when Elise had asked Annie that fated question. The pair had been walking home from school, chatting on and on about a wide variety of topics, as they often found themselves doing. There was a slight breeze and the branches of nearby trees were swaying back and forth, causing leaves of an assortment of colors to glide through the air gently. As they walked, they would occasionally stop and stare at the view, the idyllic scene providing a sort of calm happiness to the girls.

Halfway through their route was a park that they often stopped at. Today they sat on a yellow bench underneath a willow tree in the middle of the park and talked about whatever was on their mind. Annie hadn’t been assigned any homework that day and neither had Elise, so they had time to spare. Underneath the willow tree was a spot favorited by the girls, and today was no different, the hanging branches giving them a sort of privacy to just enjoy the day.

The conversation had gotten on the topic of love for whatever reason, and it seemed that Elise had a lot to say. Always having been a passionate person, she could go on and on about something that meant something to her and somehow never boring her audience. It’s one of the traits that made her so popular at school. It was also one of the many reasons Annie adored her, but she wouldn’t say that out loud.

“I’ve never known why people believe in love at first sight. If you love someone, it’s not for their looks alone, right? It’s for all their strengths, all their flaws, all the things that add up to them as a person. Their smile, their laugh, that one quirk no one else has. Personality, brains, interests, looks too. There are so many things to love about someone. And being in love is loving all of those at the same time,” Elise had been saying.

She paused in her thoughts and turned to face Annie. The girls had been sitting side by side, and now the sudden movement brought them to sit face to face. This way Elise could get Annie’s attention better as she talked or at least that seemed to be the motivation. Either way, the sudden proximity made Annie very aware of how cute Elise looked in the afternoon light. The girl in question sighed and continued.

“Or maybe it’s not. I don’t really know, I’ve never had a relationship before. I’m still looking for The One, as people put it,” she winked, “But I’ve heard all about love from friends and family, and honestly, it sounds amazing. And it’s different for each person! Some people get this wistful expression on their face when they’re speaking about their love. Others speak of love as if it has wronged them in some way. These people are usually people who have been through a misfortune in love. But those who have suffered in love can also be sullen when it’s mentioned. It’s a bit heartbreaking to watch.”

The conversation had taken a sort of depressing turn, so Annie tried to think of something to change the topic slightly.

“Have you ever been in love?” Annie blurted out, only realizing what she had said a second later.

Elise stared at her in shock.

“I mean, I know you said you had never been in a relationship, but outside of that have you ever, well, how would you phrase it? Oh, I know.” Annie looked right at Elise and said, “Have you ever had a crush?”

At this, Elise’s shocked demeanor relaxed and a smile played at the edges of her lips.

“Well, I guess you could say that. There is definitely someone I favor right now. And in the past, I have had a few people I crushed on. But currently, it's more like someone I hold very dear to me even if they do not feel the same way. It's more like love than a schoolgirl's crush.  Then again, the feeling is more like I feel like I'm supposed to stay with them forever, even if I might not love them fully right now. Like a soulmate, I guess? It might seem silly, but I do believe in soulmates. It's nice to believe that there's someone out there that you're destined to love with all your heart and soul. What do you think?"

While she said this, Elise slowly moved to take Annie's hands in her own, in a gesture that Annie could not understand. But as Elise looked into Annie's eyes, she asked that fated question.

"Do you believe in soulmates?"

---

Annie didn't know how to answer that. She had never given it much thought, dismissing it as wishful thinking. But if someone who she held so dearly was so passionate about the topic, that might give her incentive to think about it more.

So that's exactly what she did. After their conversation the girls went their separate ways, Elise heading to her house and Annie to hers. While walking, Annie went over everything she had ever heard about soulmates. The different kinds of soulmates, soulmate marks, people not seeing color before meeting their soulmate, everything. Most of it she dismissed as local legends, but some of it was still based in truth. There were cases of people claiming to have monochrome vision before meeting their 'soulmate' as they always referred to them. But nobody could determine if their word was real. Shaking her head she decided to continue to mull it over at a later point in time. She still couldn't decide if she believed in soulmates.

At this point, she had reached her house. It stood tall before her, sturdy and worn with love. Her family had been living there for generations, and she hoped to live there when she grew up.  Annie walked through the front door into the small kitchen where her brother Davis was doing his homework and her dad was cooking dinner. It was peaceful. No drama, nothing confusing, just home.  She dropped her blue cloth backpack at the door and grabbed her phone from its place charging on the counter. Her plan was to research more on soulmates to see if something could help her make up her mind. Turning to walk upstairs to her room, it hit her. She could just ask her parents. They were one of the best matches she had seen in her life, they fit perfect together. Almost as if they were soulmates. Looking over at her dad, she decided to ask him later since he was busy with preparing food and her mom was still at work. For now, she would have to settle for her original plan of surfing the Internet for information.

Once in her room, she closed the door and got her laptop from where it was sitting on her desk. Settling down onto her bed, she grabbed a blanket and threw it over herself and then got to work. There were several resources that she could check.

First, she started by searching 'What is a soulmate?' on Google. The first result was the dictionary definition: 'soul mate; noun;  a person ideally suited to another as a close friend or romantic partner.'  That was a start. So that was how she found herself spending the next hour researching soulmates until she was called down to dinner by her dad.

When she walked down the stairs, she saw that her mom and brother were already at the table. Greeting her mother, she took her spot next to Davis. Her dad served the meal and they started to eat. Halfway through the meal, Annie decided to ask the question she had wanted to ask when she first got home.

"Mom, Dad, I have a question," she asked.

Her parents both turned toward her, giving Annie their attention.

"Have you ever considered yourselves soulmates?" she asked tentatively.

They looked at her for a second, before looking at each and smiling.

"You could say that. I may admit that I thought that when I was younger when we had just started dating. It was so magical. We fit so well, it seemed to be almost too good to be true. Every time I saw your dad my heart fluttered and I felt a sort of admiration. Even before we were together, when we were just friends, it always felt right to be with him. Like it was destined. The feeling hasn't died over the years. If anything it's gotten stronger. It's nice to think we're soulmates. For all we know, they could exist. Even if science doesn't have any proof of them, sometimes it's a good idea to have some faith in the magic and the mystical. You never know. Fate could have stuck you with a person as wonderful as your dad," her mom answered, going off on a little tangent.

Her dad gave a little 'aww, babe!' quietly and leaned over to peck Annie's mom on the cheek. This caused her brother to pretend to gag at the obvious PDA. The whole family had a laugh at this and dinner continued in a pleasant manner.

Annie had a slightly alarming thought rush to her mind when she heard her mom's answer. The feeling her mom had described when she was younger and in love with her dad was familiar. The admiration. The rightness. The fluttering in the heart. It was all so familiar. Then she realized why.

It was what she felt every time she was around Elise.

Whenever she saw the other girl her heart fluttered, her face heated up slightly and she felt a sort of admiration past the feeling friends have for each other.  As her mom put it, it felt so right to be around Elise. Even if she just realized it now, Annie was hopelessly in love with her friend. But that realization made her ask herself,

Are we soulmates?

---

A few months after that fateful day, the girls were once again walking home from school. This time it was fall and the color scheme of the trees lining their normal route had shifted the pink to red. It was the beginning of a new school year and for the 15-year-old girls, it was the start of a brand new school. They had just finished their first week of high school. The cool fall air provided a cool breeze and they were having fun talking about whatever came to their minds. But Annie kept thinking of a certain day that she couldn't get out of her head.

"Hey El, do you remember that day last May if you asked me if I believed in soulmates?" Annie asked, using the nickname she had given her best friend and crush.

"Yeah. Of course I do," came the reply.

"Well, I never got to give you my response. And I finally have my answer."

Elise looked at her, waiting for what she was going to say.

Annie took a deep breath, "I do believe in soulmates. And I think I've found mine."

Elise smiled happily at her answer. It looked like it was the one she wanted.

"Who?" she asked.

Annie took a deep breath.

"You," she replied.

At this Elise stopped. Nobody said anything for a few agonizing seconds. Annie panicked, repeating the same thought over and over in her head,  'I messed up. I messed up. I messed u-'

Her thoughts were broken by a small laugh. It was followed by another one and another one. The cute, bubbly laughs kept coming as a smile grew on Elise's face. Annie was hurt a bit, but also confused. Why was she laughing?

Elise turned to her, a look of adoration on her face.

"Really?" she asked Annie excitedly, "It's really me?"

"Yes," Annie said quietly, shocked at the excitement.

"This is so great! I never thought you would reciprocate what I felt. And to that extent-" Elise's smile grew until she was practically beaming, "Oh, this is wonderful!"

She attacked Annie with a hug and then let her go only to pick the other girl up and spin her around. There were smiles on both of their faces and they were both laughing with joy. Once they had calmed down, Elise took Annie hand in her own.

"So, what do we do now?" Elise asked as they continued to walk, "We both like each other. Should we be girlfriends?"

"I would like that," Annie said, a smile still on her face.

"Then it's official. You're my girlfriend, and I'm yours. I'm so happy!" Elise stated giddily, "Oh! Does this mean I can kiss you now? I've wanted to do forever."

"Yes. That means you can," Annie said with a laugh.

At that, her newly dubbed girlfriend hopped up and down in joy. Although it didn't seem that she was going to act on her wishes right away, as she continued walking. The pair headed down the path leading to the weeping willow that they had visited that fated day. To any passerby, a happier couple could not be seen. Happiness radiated off of them. It was truly a sight to be seen.

While they were walking, Annie spotted her other best friend Cameron. A sweet and caring person, they're known for having lots of friends and always being available if you need someone to talk to, even if they don't know you. Annie had known them even longer than she had known Elise, and that was saying something. Cameron spotted the pair immediately and walked over to them.

"Hey. You two still walking home?" they asked.

"Yeah. We had a small detour," Annie replied.

"I can see that," Cameron gestured to their clasped hands and smirked.

Annie blushed a bit at this and Elise gave a small giggle.

"So, what's the scoop? You two dating or what?" Cameron pried.

"Yup!" Elise replied excitedly.

Cameron's smile widened and they hugged the pair tightly.

"I'm so happy for you two! So who confessed first?"

Annie smiled embarrassedly. That was the only answer Cameron needed,

"You go, girl! Did you use that cheesy plan with you answering the question Elise asked that you told me earlier in the middle of gushing about her-" she teased.

"CAMERON! YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH RIGHT NOW!" Annie half-shouted with a red face, not one to take teasing that well, even from a well-meaning friend.

Elise giggled and Cameron burst out laughing at the outburst.

"Aw! You were gushing about me, babe? That's so sweet," Elise cooed, still giggling.

Annie didn't know it was possible for her face to get any redder, but it did.

“Can… can we just move on? I’d prefer not to go home looking like a tomato,” she said.

Elise gave a slight giggle.

“Of course.”

And so the three spent the rest of the afternoon together, talking and laughing.

---

Annie was on her way to the library when her phone rang from inside her coat pocket. She took it out and pressed 'Accept', a bit distracted by the fall colors which were still as beautiful as ever. A soft smile on her face, she answered with a 'hello?'

"Hello. Is this Annalise King I'm speaking to?" A friendly voice replied.

A bit surprised at the use of her full name she responded, "Yes. And who is this?"

"Sue. I'm a receptionist at the local hospital. I'm calling to inform you that Elise Meyers was hit by a car last night and is currently residing in our hospital. She's in critical condition with a few traumatizing injuries such as damage to major organs and several broken bones. It doesn't seem like she'll survive past the next week," the receptionist explained solemnly.

Annie couldn't believe what she was hearing. Elise, dying? That couldn't happen. It won't happen! But it would and Annie couldn't handle that. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes and a anger swept through her. She wanted to scream and kick and cry her eyes out all at the same time. But doing any of those things in the middle of the street would be extremely embarrassing and her having a fit of any kind did not seem justified in her eyes. Instead, she sucked it up and continued with the conversation. She just had too many questions. They were all swirling around in her head. But only one would come out.

"Can I see her?" she asked, voice breaking.

"Yes. Of course. I'm so sorry honey. Of course you can see her. She was probably very special to you. A good friend, or perhaps more. I won't pry. You will have all the time you need with her. I promise," the lady over the phone reassured.

The comforting words helped calm down the seemingly endless tears with the promise of being able to see Elise, but there was still that silent thought Annie didn't say aloud. All the time you have to offer me with Elise will never be enough to say goodbye.

Once the call ended, she abandoned all her plans to go to the library and slowly trudged home, wallowing in her own misery. For now, she was sluggish and slow from the sudden rush of emotions that had exhausted her, but she would soon find herself in a frenzied panic over the thought of saying goodbye to Elise. She sat down at a bench in a park, under that towering willow tree where this entire emotional rollercoaster had started. And now it felt like she was just on an extremely long downhill ride. Annie was numb and felt like her emotions had escaped her in favor of this emptiness.

Suddenly she felt an overwhelming sadness wash over her and all she could do was sit there, head in her hands and cry. And cry she did. A soft sniffling was all that could be heard from her as tear after salty tear rolled down her face and fell to the ground. She was shaking and her crying got louder, bit by bit, until sobs were racking her body and she couldn’t stop the streams of tears rushing down her face. Annie brought her knees up to her chest and hugged them tightly, burying her face in them to muffle her cries of despair.

She stayed like that for a while. A few people passing by gave her strange looks, but no one bothered her. The sun rose higher in the sky and eventually, she stopped crying. She untangled her legs from the position she had been in for a few hours and stood up. Looking at her watch, she could tell she had been here for way too long. She probably looked like shit and she wasn’t exactly ready to go home yet. Annie didn’t feel empty anymore, but she still felt numb. She knew more emotions were to come, but for now, there were none there. Exhausted and hungry, she decided to get some coffee and maybe a pastry. When she got to the cash register and was about to order, the cashier spoke.

“Sis?” the cashier said in a soft voice.

Annie was confused for a second until she focused on the cashier. It was her brother. She had forgotten he worked here. Shit. Her eyes were still red. He was going to think she had been bawling her eyes out (which she had), but she didn’t want him worrying about her. She lowered her eyes a little and responded.

“Hey, Davis.”

“Are you okay? You look terrible,” he asked, concern in his voice.

“I don’t want to talk about it right now. I just want to order some coffee.”

“Of course! Sorry, I’m just worried. How about you order and I take a break to talk to you while I’m not on duty?”

Annie thought it over. She did want someone to talk to, but she didn’t want to distract Davis from his job. But if he was taking a break, it wouldn’t harm his job if he talked to her for a bit.

“Ok. I guess that can work. Now can I get my usual and a buttered croissant?”

Her brother gave her a smile and ringed up her order. Once she had paid and gotten her food, she went to sit down at a table in the corner where she wouldn’t be bothered. After a bit Davis walked over to her table and sat down.

A small silence ensued.

“So, what’s wrong?” he asked cautiously

“Everything,”  she responded dryly.

He sighed and shook his head, “Annie, that’s not what I meant and you know it. I’ll give it to you straight. Your eyes are red, you look like you’ve been crying all day. What’s. Wrong.”

Avoiding eye contact with her brother she started, “Well I was walking to the library and I got a call informing me that-” she started tearing up again, “that Elise was hit by a car. That she was in the hospital, and she isn’t going to survive,” she broke down crying quietly, not able to speak about the subject anymore.

Davis’s eyes widened in shock. He went over to his sister’s side of the table and hugged her tightly.

“I’m so sorry Ann. I wish there was something I could say or do to make you feel better.”

She looked up at him and smiled sadly. Burying her face in his shirt, she cried until she calmed down. Thankfully, their location in the corner didn’t draw too much attention.

Davis sat down at his seat again once Annie was ready to talk again. He seemed to be thinking about something, until he finally spoke.

“Sis, I know all you want to do is continue crying all day, but that’s not going to help you deal with this. So here’s an idea. How about you go visit Elise in the hospital?” her eyes lit up at this, “You could be with her in her final moments and you would get a chance to say goodbye. You were probably already going to do this, but why not do it now? I’ll tell Mom where you are, don’t worry.”

She responded with a nod and a small ‘good idea’ before grabbing her bag to head out the door. She was about to leave when she turned around and hugged Davis tightly one more time.

“Thank you,” she said to him quietly.

And like that, she was out the door and on her way.

---

Her mind had been absent while she asked to borrow her mother’s car, getting permission with the promise to bring it back unscathed. On the road, she directed all her energy in not crashing on the way to the hospital. Racing through the city as fast as driving laws would allow her, she was getting more and more anxious to see Elise. What if she’s in a coma? What is she doesn’t remember me? What would I do?  She quickly stopped that train of thought, it was too ridiculous, but continued to worry about other possibilities. She just couldn’t help herself.

When she got to the hospital, she parked the car and all but sprinted through the parking lot and up the stair to the front door. Forcing herself to breathe normally, she waited a moment before walking in, not wanting to look too desperate to see Elise as she would if she was panting and out of breath from running. The receptionist at the front desk smiled at her politely and asked what she was here for.

“I’m here to see my friend Elise Meyers.”

The receptionist smiled sadly at her, as if pitying her in some way.

“Of course sweetie. She’s right down the hall in Room 13. Just a thing you should know before you go in. We haven’t told her that she’s not going to survive past next week, to make her final days somewhat enjoyable. I didn’t get the doctors full intentions with not telling her she’s going to die, but I assume it’s to spare feelings. Telling someone they’re dying is always a tough conversation. The parents know, of course, and so do you. I wish you luck, hun,” the lady informed her softly.

Annie nodded solemnly and walked down the bleak hallway to Elise’s room. There wasn’t too much decoration, just a picture or two. The atmosphere of the hospital didn’t help her mood much, but there was nothing she could do to prepare herself for what lay ahead of her. Seeing Elise.

Once she got to the door, she took a deep breath before opening it. Inside Elise was lying on a hospital bed surrounded by several machines, talking to her parents.  They all looked up at her when she entered. There was a bit of a silence before one of them spoke.

“Annie? Is that you?” Elise asked in a small voice.

“Yeah. It is. How do you feel?” Annie said with a smile that felt a little forced.

“A lot of things hurt and I’m really hurt, but it could be worse,” she replied

“That’s good. Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Meyers,” Annie said turning to Elise’s parents who both gave her a small nod.

They both looked tired, like they hadn’t slept all night, and like they might have been crying.

“Hello, Annie. Would you like to sit down? You can take my seat. We were just leaving, we need to go home and get a little sleep. I don’t want to leave Elise, but she insists that we take care of ourselves,” Mrs. Meyers said as she got up.

Annie watched as they left, before turning to Elise. She didn’t say anything, just dragged one of the chairs over next to her bedside and sat down in it. She took one of the other girl’s hands in her own.

“You worried me. You worried me sick, going and getting yourself hurt. And hurt so badly!” she says quietly while squeezing her girlfriend's hand a bit too tightly.

Elise gave a small laugh, “I didn’t mean to worry you, babe. Would I do something like this on purpose?”

“No. But, I-” she was tearing up shit, “I don’t want you leaving me…”

She didn’t want to say anything about Elise dying, but she couldn’t help it. It hurt so much. She didn’t want to lose her, but it was happening whether she wanted it or not. And Elise didn’t even know about it. She would die clueless. Clueless but happy. And Annie intended to keep it that way. She knows her heart wouldn’t be able to take it if her girlfriend was anything but happy in her last days.

Said girlfriend looked confused at her statement, “Leaving you? Who said anything about leaving you? I’m gonna stay right here, silly. Don’t you worry!”

Annie gave her a small smile and brought the other’s hand up to her mouth and gave it a little kiss. This prompted Elise to blush lightly and give a little laugh at the display of affection and teased her a little before giving her a little kiss on the cheek. The two girls continued to flirt and tease and just bask in the company of each other, one of them trying to ignore heavier topics on her mind in favor of spending time with her girlfriend. Occasionally a nurse came in to check on Elise, but they were mostly alone.

It wasn’t until several hours later, when it was almost evening, that their chatter died down. Annie’s eyes were starting to droop and she was having a harder time focusing on things. It had been an emotionally exhausting day for her and she felt ready to drop. But she wasn’t ready to leave Elise. So she stayed next to her bedside, holding her hand silently, listening to the ticking of the clock on the wall. Eventually, she fell asleep without realizing it. When she woke up, she was still holding her girlfriend’s hand and was still in the chair she had been sitting on. Although it seemed someone had draped a light blanket over her. Must have been one of the nurses taking pity on her. Looking over at the girl next to her, she noticed she was already awake, watching her with a smile on her face.

“Mornin’ Sleeping Beauty.” Elise said to her, “Did you sleep well?”

Annie rubbed her eyes and sighed, “No. I had a nightmare.”

“A nightmare? About what?” she asked worriedly.

“You,” she replied, not meeting her eyes, “You were in the hospital, just like now, and I was here with you. And then you died.”

Elise stared at her in silence. So she continued.

“You died and I couldn't take it. In the dream, I broke down crying and I was screaming about something I can’t remember. I just couldn’t bear losing you. That woke me up and I couldn’t fall asleep for another few hours. Finally, I got some dreamless sleep and then woke up. When I first woke up, I thought the dream had been real and that you were really dead...”

More silence followed until Elise lifted her hand to cup Annie’s cheek to comfort her. She spoke softly, “I’m not gonna die. I’m going to get better-”

Annie couldn’t take this, she started crying. It wasn’t true. She knew it wasn’t true. But Elise was saying it like it was the truth because it was her’s truth. She forces a smile on her face, “I love you, Elise. I want you to get better.”

“I’m really gonna get better for you. The nurses said so,” her girlfriend responded, taking hold of her hand and squeezing it.

“I believe you. I wanna hear it one more time.” Annie smiles fakely and brightly, crying so much.

“I’m gonna get better for you.” Elise smiles as the beeps of the heart monitor slow and the hand that Annie didn’t hold went limp.

[counterspelling]

I saw Solo a while ago but I was talking about it again with a friend so here we are

SOLO SPOILERS

I think for me it boils down to a few things. I walked into it thinking it was a wholly unnecessary movie and nothing that happened in the next two hours changed my mind. Like, of all the prospective SW movies, this was the least interesting to me. Han is one of my favorite characters of all time but I didn’t expect his prequel to tell me anything I don’t already know about him and Disney had already proven that they fundamentally misunderstand who he is as a character. And weirdly, Disney always takes a little from the EU but this was probably the most? Han was raised on the streets in a gang by someone who used children to steal, Han joined the Empire to become a pilot, Han spent years estranged from a woman he loved and then she chose an organization over her love for him, the Falcon has more than one droid “brain,” the Kessel Run includes a black hole/gravity well that you have to skirt. On the one hand, it’s a backstory I’ve always liked for Han. On the other hand, seeing them pick and choose stuff from the EU is frustrating, and stuff like Hera naming her kid Jacen and bringing back Thrawn (and the 9 casting spoiler) while I’ll never get to see Jaina or Winter again is really disappointing to me (GIVE LEIA HER SISTER BACK!!!!!!!!!!).

Second, I just really, really, really don’t care for Aldric Ederwhatever. I think he’s a black hole of charisma and charm and he didn’t sell me on being Han in any way, shape, or form. I just found both his performance and the writing incredibly underwhelming. Watching him act was like watching cardboard emote. I was way more interested in Lando and Chewie, and they didn’t get nearly enough to do. Chewie was probably my favorite part of the whole movie.

Third, this movie had two women and they killed the woc in the first 30 minutes, and Qi’ra proceeded to spend the next two hours staring woefully at Han telling him he would ~never understand what she’s done~ without ever actually giving any backstory to what her life has been like. The narrative never cared about her enough to actually tell us about her character. Her backstory was in looks and suggestions which would have been a subtle way to play it if there had been a payoff at some point.... except there wasn’t. We still don’t really know anything about what she’s done or who she is now, except that she chose power over her love of Han. Which I’m not criticizing her for, we just end the movie without ever really knowing her because the movie portrays her pretty exclusively through the lens of Han. I’m still not sure if she chose not to go with him because she thought staying was the only way to keep them both alive or if it was genuine ambition on her part or, most likely, a combination of them both. They wanted Qi’ra to be ambiguous and layered, but without actually SHOWING US MORE OF HER STORY I couldn’t get invested. I think they could have done so much more with her. We got the broad outline of an interesting character, but because this movie was so intensely focused on creating a mediocre Han that they didn’t really bother to develop anyone else, the writing for her and Lando just wasn’t there for me. Plus, the only time two women ever speak is Qi’ra and the Gwendoline Christie droid and all they talk about is ~romance troubles~ so uh... not a great look. Also, not even the female droid gets to live through the movie! I’m pretty fucking tired of Star Wars’ treatment of women.

Han/Qi’ra overall was pretty abominable to me. Han is in love with her, they get separated and he gets out of the life, and then he spends the next three years just living his life in the Imperial Navy? Without ever going back? And after a three year separation, you can still love someone but you can’t still be IN love with someone you haven’t spoken to in all that time because you’re both different people. They paralleled a Han/Leia scene which really pissed me off. I mean I’m biased so there was no way I’d personally ever be into Han/Qi’ra, but this was a pretty bad way to write in in my opinion anyway.

Overall the movie was just incredibly bland to me. Right down to the monochrome color scheme, which was super boring. Then there was bringing fucking Darth Maul back into movie canon because I CANNOT ESCAPE HIM NO MATTER WHERE I GO. He finally fucking dies again in Rebels and yet HERE IS AGAIN. I have to watch fucking Padme die of a broken fucking heart and yet Darth Maul’s still out there living his life after getting fucking cut in half and falling down a shaft while women die in droves for fucking manpain. Also, killing Aurra Sing offscreen? For fucking Woody Harrelson’s nobody ass? Ugh. I want them to remember that the larger Star Wars universe exists, but not just to kill YET MORE WOMEN for singular lines to try and turn assholes into badasses.

I don’t think it was egregious in the way that TLJ was, it was just... not Han Solo, for me. It felt completely soulless. I’ve seen some positivity about it so if other people liked it, great. But I think OT Han was basically lightning in a bottle. You could recast young Luke or Leia and I would be skeptical but it could be good. But 1980s Harrison Ford is absolutely essential to Han in a movie for me, and I think I just can’t get past that.

[sunwukong-stoaway-blog]

Oh shit, 3AM, time for a hot take on the FNDM from the perspective of someone who’s drifted in and out of it for years now. And yeah, spoilers, it involves Sun, the Bees, and experience therein.

We do need a few things set for the record before I dive further in. First, there is indeed a difference between normal Bee fans and flat out Wasps. Y’know, the psychopathic harassing jerks. There is also a segment of the Blacksun fndm that is more than happy to be as harassment heavy and take things too damn far. The problem in judging which is bigger is that you’ll only ever see the size of whatever groups you happen to be in contact with, which means if you’re a normal fan of one side, you’re likely to only see the hate-filled opposite side. And if you’re removed, then it’s a roll of the dice whether you see Wasps or... whatever the BlackSun equivalent is. And whichever side is bigger, they both still exist, which is the main problem. Now let’s take a stroll down memory lane and acknowledge a few things.

First and foremost. The Bees as a ship only exists as it does because people were throwing the first characters on screen at each other and held to them. This was true of Ruby and Weiss after the Red and White trailers, then true of Blake and Yang after the Black and Yellow trailers. We didn’t know anything about any of these characters, (in fact it completely flipped Ruby and Weiss’ personality traits, making Ruby a cool and aloof sniper chick and Weiss a soft melting princess) but the ships were already cemented and beloved by the community.

This kept going into the first season proper. Sure, we had alternate blends of ships, like Ladybug, Freezerburn, and Monochrome. Even Enabler, Ruby/Yang if anyone remembers that incestuous ship, before it was burnt to the ground by canon. But Whiterose/The Bees were the biggest game in town. Seemed to be backed by the canon too, to an extent. All the characters introduced were paired off and sent on their way, including JNPR, but this didn’t stop FNDM from laughing and enjoying themselves. (One particularly popular joke during the Jaune Arc was snickering that Yang and Blake were doing the do offscreen instead of running for help, for instance.) It didn’t matter Yang and Blake didn’t have a single conversation that didn’t end in Blake snubbing Yang and Yang writing Blake off as a “lost cause,” they were the pairing and nobody else was around, so, that was canon. And then episode 15 rolled around.

Everything broke down with episode 15, though not all at once. It introduced Sun and Penny, and FNDM wasn’t entirely sure what to do with them. Some, like myself, found the new characters and their dynamics fun and interesting. Some, on the other hand, declared immediately that Sun was a rapist/stalker/murderer/assassin of the White Fang, sometimes all at once. Some people had been a little bored of Jaune by this point but Sun was the first morally good character the FNDM declared a monster, and to this day, has received the roughest ‘welcome.’ And, among the accusations, the declaration that Sun was nothing but a genderbend of Yang for a hetero ship. And so the tensions began to mount.

Bear in mind, up until this point the Bees had grown to be the de facto biggest ship in the FNDM. Nothing against Ruby, Weiss, or Whiterose, but Blake and Yang were the most mature/adult of the team, and consequently, got the most attention, desire, fanart, et cetra. Now here comes the first character to make contact with Blake in a definitively different fashion and connect with her. Without question, they saw Sun as a threat and an excuse to attack the show for not giving them the Bees. Hell, it’s no surprise they even shipped him with Penny (Optimal Primates) for a time, just because they debuted the same episode, to try and get him ‘away’ from Blake in the fandom’s eyes. The response to Sun by these proto-Wasps, otherwise known as ‘the entirety of the Bees at the time’ was swift, overwhelming, and nothing short of cruel. Especially when they started harassing Sun RPers, those who defended him, liked him, and so on. People who drew those first few pieces of Blacksun art were flat out attacked and screamed at to shut down their channels. (Similar attacks started appearing at this time too at artists for other pairings, noticeably Ladybug.) And for a time, that oppressive and painful atmosphere was reality.

Then, I put up a post pointing out how little canon the Bees actually had, and compared it to Blacksun. In V1? This was an overwhelming difference. I outright called the Bees a “Ghost ship,” a ship that had absolutely no basis in canon yet sailed anyway... And attacked others. Needless to say, this was not taken well by the proto-wasps.

It didn’t matter that I actively shipped Whiterose, passively Ladybug, and eventually Nuts & Dolts. It didn’t matter if what I said was true, that the emperor had no clothes (or canon.) All that mattered to these people was slamming me down and declaring me to the world a homophobic monster for not shipping their ship. To do everything in their power to break my spirit, break my connections with people, and break any place I had in this fledgling FNDM of comfort. All for their blatantly bullshit moral highground arguments. 

This went on for a good three weeks after that first post. Round the clock attacks, harassment, and vile displays of power. It really did break me, all things considered. That much negativity drove me into a deep depression, to the point I could barely leave my dorm room in university for food, let alone class. I’m still hesitant to use the term for fear of it’s overused impression, but this made the Bees ship into a full on trigger for me. Triggering every emotion of fear, depression, and anxiety that constant bombardment thrust upon me around the clock. To an extent, it still is such a trigger, and so I can admit without issue I’m biased.

Thankfully, it did all have a silver lining. I became a lightning rod of hate, but the heavy atmosphere was broken. Bees no longer were unchallenged rulers of the FNDM, and people legit began to call out the behavior of these proto-wasps as full on bullying, or at least stopped acting like the Bees were canon. There was room to move forward now. But... of course, it didn’t stop there.

V2 rolled around. On the one hand we got Yang and Blake having the first dance, as well as actually having a real conversation on screen and developing some kind of unique bond, flimsy as it may be to some. (Seriously, Blake’s having severe overwrought depression and anxiety over Adam and the White Fang, Yang makes it about her. Yeah, that can show solidarity for the cause, but it does little to assuage Blake’s issues. I do see it as a good scene, but it’s still not a great relationship.) On the other hand, we were confirmed halfway through the year, and thanks to Sun/Neptune being cut from that last part of the Paladin fight, Blake had to be the one to ask what Yang’s Semblance was. ...Yeah. Half a year of being partners. And she doesn’t canonically know yet what Yang’s Semblance is. Hell of a partnership, yeah?

And on the other side of the coin. Sun and Blake had their full on dance, came to it as a date, and it included Yang stepping aside to give Blake to Sun. This on top of meeting Sun’s team for the first time and solidifying his place as being right there with RWBY and JNPR. ...And to counterbalance, we got Neptune. Seriously. Wasps had Neptune pegged as Sun’s “actual girlfriend” from the second his name was dropped. Then the design came in, they declared Neptune FtM trans, and that Sun was dating him. I mean, clearly, right? Then Neptune actually showed up, he turned out to be the most aggressively straight-showing guy on the show yet, and the FNDM HATED him for it. Pitched him into the same bin as Sun right then and there, while shouting they’d be a better couple than the alternatives. (This also ended up, for the first time, generating enmity from Monochrome shippers for Sun. Before, Blacksun and MC shippers were effectively “ship and let ship” considering both had suffered under the Bees, but since that stranglehold had been broken after V1. Now Neptune came to town and fucked that peace up too.) Seriously. Just like the Bees, Seamonkeys only exists as a ship because the FNDM slammed the characters together without a clue what they were even like. Same as with Optimal Primates, remember?

Overall, V2 ended up being more or less like the aftermath of V1 the whole way through. Salty and bitter Wasps bickering and yelling about Sun even being in the same frame as Blake, trying to reaffirm their position, while everyone else just relaxed, some bitched about Jaune existing, and others enjoying the moment. ...Then V3 happened.

V3 was a powderkeg of moments for both Blacksun and the Bees. From the fingerguns/blushing/”dork” scene, to Blake tearfully holding Yang’s... one remaining hand, to the questions of where Blake was going after the ending. And consequently, the ship-to-ship combat had grown once again. Things like editing the fingerguns scene into a gif of Weiss proposing to Blake, or conspiracy theories that Sun was a mole for the WF hiding in plain sight, or just generally arguing back and forth over how important Blake holding Yang’s hand and Sun’s poppy love song were. The thing was, by V3, enough new fans of the series drawn in to all the Bee fanart that didn’t have the Wasp mentality existed to properly differentiate between the two groups. And consequently, some would-be Bee fans were surprised when their open appreciation for the pair was met with negativity and disdain by those who were used to liking the Bees being associated with far worse. The Wasps still existed, without question, but their presence muddied the waters and turned what was once a straight-forward fandom war into messy, vile person-to-person conflict, with bystanders dragged into the fighting. This, to my knowledge, is where the wasp-equivalent of Blacksun fans ended up coming to be, unable to differentiate between the Wasps that they hated and the Bee fans that they shouldn’t. In short, V3 was the most divisive and painful of the seasons for this warfare.

As we approach the modern day it should be noted that the longer the show runs, the less and less these ship-to-ship combats make an impact on the FNDM as a whole. This is a good thing, realistically, but it comes from an unfortunate division in the FNDM in general, with camps splitting off into effective echo chambers, and generally only interacting to spit hatred at each other.

V4 was easily the single lowest point for all of the Bees. With Blake and Yang canonically split apart, and Sun hanging around Blake full time as her only traveling partner, the Bees had effectively nothing to do but sigh and hope for a reunion soon. The Wasps, on the other hand, eagerly took to instead tearing into Sun’s character again, this time jumping on the questionable decision to shadow Blake and keep her safe, and characterizing it as flat out stalking... even without full knowledge of the situation. The Wasps just painted the scene as “Sun has spent months following Blake in a coat,” and a large part of the fandom picked it up in turn. Then, as a follow-up act, decided to screw with Sun a different way and ship him with, of all people, Kali, or Blake’s mom. Yeah, it was creepy and fetishism, and had no purpose other than to break Kali’s implicit acceptance of Sun as a partner for Blake into bizarre OOC lust. It’s telling that there was far and away more porn and pure shipping for Sun/Kali than Ghira/Kali for a while, despite the Bees laughing to themselves that “of course YANG would be accepted by Ghira, unlike Sun~.” Legit, Sun/Kali was just another attempt at slamming Sun together with the nearest character that wasn’t Blake. Just like Penny. Just like Neptune. But, V4 was the volume of personal growth and discovery for each of the main cast... And consequently, this journey down each of their four paths was panned by many “rwde” fans for not having the inter-team connections they wanted. Funny how the volume most about each member of RWBY and their personal stories gets panned as the one least about them. Whatever. All of this led to V5, however, and where we are now.

And where we are now is... Right back to how we were in V3. With giddy Bees squealing over Yang and Blake exchanging eye contact and words, while Wasps re-characterize Sun’s connection to Blake (including pushing her back to the team that she ran away from because it was time to reconnect and he knew that) as “pushing Blake to be with Yang.” It’s kind of absurd, right? Well... That’s what this FNDM war has been to me. Just absurd.

I’ve watched wasps shout down Micheal Jones because they don’t like Sun being close to Blake. I’ve seen wasps countless times call out RT as queerbaiting for not giving them the Bees right fucking then. I’ve heard directly from Wasps that it doesn’t matter to (the ones I talked to) whether any other LGBTQA+ people/ships/focuses appear or are naturally featured in the show, unless the Bees are made canon, they believe RT lied to them.

And that astounds me. RT did not lie to you. Either you were lied to by fans from that Trailer era, the original proto-wasps, or you lied to yourself. You were told the lie that the Bees were canon, had to be canon, needed to be canon or something was wrong. That Sun is a monster. That you are owed anything. Hard fucking stop.

So where does all this leave us? ...Hopefully, understanding that this fighting has been going on for far too long, and is over far too little. I want anyone in the FNDM who has ever been affected by the ship wars to read this, to share this with others with similar experiences, on either side of it. Because ultimately, I’m only on one side, and I’d love for Bees to give their take on all this. To get both sides to come to an agreement to ship-and-let-ship, to put to rest the anger and frustration and fear of the other side that fueled Wasps and, perhaps, myself for so long.

This shit’s gone on long enough.

[abubblingcandle]

The Last Jedi Defence

Right here I go, because I am fed up with people slating Rian Johnson for what he did with Episode VIII. 

Lets start with the fact I am a massive Star Wars fan and a massive Stormpilot shipper! Also a massive Poe Dameron fan. Also I do think there were bits I would have loved to see in the film and there were things I would have done differently. But the middle film of a trilogy is so hard to do right as JJ revitalised the franchise with his typical nerdiness and explosions but that wasn’t what this film needed. Everyone wanted something different, that was never going to happen. You can’t please everyone.

1: “Poe Dameron shouldn’t have been demoted” - Lets start here, Poe Dameron is a soldier but in war time you have to follow the orders of your commanding officer. In that first fight Leia knew they would lose their bombers if they continued, she (as the GENERAL) made a hard decision. Yes that may have come and kicked her in the ass later but there is no doubt that she weighed up the risks and made the best decision she could. And looking at the outcome of that mission, they were one second away from losing the fight, what if Paige hadn’t caught that remote? Then they would have all died and it would have been for nothing. Poe took that decision into his hands and had to face the consequences. Later you see how useful the bombers would have been in another fight, it was Poe’s recklessness in not following the chain of command that cost them those ships. If Leia cannot trust that Poe will follow her command on a mission she ordered, then she cannot trust him as a commander. 

2: “Poe Dameron was treated badly”: now I partially agree that if they had just told Poe the plan then he wouldn’t have staged a mutiny etc and may have been able to help but he had just been demoted. In her eyes he was a Captain and all the other Captains would have been expected to stay with their troops and await orders. Poe trusts Leia with his life and he should show that trust to the person Leia chose to lead. It was like they said, hope should be there even when you can’t see it. He should have also brought his plan to the Vice Admiral in stead of sneaking around.

3: “Luke was out of character”: Luke had been through unbelievable trauma; he tried to kill his nephew (in a fleeting moment of fear but still tried) and that set of a chain of events that created something worse than he had fought so hard to destroy. If that was me I would hide so no one else would be hurt by his emotions. Also standing on the top of that hill to throw his lightsaber over the edge was the move over dramatic Luke Skywalker moment ever.

4: “Luke‘s death was unnecessary”: It shocked me too that it was how he had to go. But this is a reset, Mark Hamill had already said he wouldn’t be back for Ep IX and if he stayed then the response would always be “well Luke can always fix it”. Also imagine how much power it would take to hold that projection from the island, he must have known that he wouldn’t be able to keep that up and chose to go out on a high to save his Padawan and sister and keep the hope alive. There’s no better way to die than that.

5: “We need to know Snoke’s background”: Rian’s explaination was what I thought. In terms of the plot, that doesn’t matter. He had a grand total of 30mins screen time and was just a plot device to bring Kylo to the head of the first order in an angry fashion and to show how all the strings were being pulled and how Kylo hated it and took over. It would not fit, maybe a conversation with Kylo? But Rey wouldn’t give a flying fuck who this villain is as it wouldn’t effect her, he’s just a bad guy.

6: “Rey’s parents can’t be nobody”: To me that was amazing, doesn’t anyone else get bored with “oh she’s the daughter of this major character who is either now dead or kept it hidden for mystery reason”? Having her being from nowhere makes her better in my eyes, the force isn’t only in the skywalker family and Rey’s background is tragic enough without adding the fact that Kylo is her brother for some unknown reason? 

7: “Kylo isn’t a good guy and shouldn’t be played with sympathy”: Why should you be sympathetic? It is revealed that snoke was planting the conflict in his mind and as soon as that was no longer being stoked he killed his master, tried to turn Rey to his side, tried to kill Luke and the rest of the rebellion. All the things you may even slightly feel sympathetic for were fake.

8: “Finn shouldn’t have needed to have forced labour explained to him as he is a black man”: He’s a stormtrooper, all he knows is things he worked out for himself and what they told him. In his mind the first order force labour as they are the bad guys. The bad guys are in monochrome and hate fun and pretty things. The good guys are full of colour and happiness. This place is full of colour and happiness it can’t be bad. Rose explained that to him and he got it and made the link. In starwars the ‘racial’ element isn’t in skin colour it is in species and where you were born (outer rim etc.)

SO yeah in general, I would have written it differently and it has its flaws but that doesn’t mean it is a shocking bad film. It had to be subtle and clever and that it was.

Please feel free to reply or comment, I love a good debate and there are probably things I have missed!

[tellytantra]

Ensnared " Bhai, have you thought about the video compose for your latest album Yaadein? Your sponsors were asking about it to your director, and he mentioned, you said you wanted to add your inputs on the lead pair's character" " Yes, Aaliya, thanks for reminding, it had completely gone off my mind! What would I do without you?" Abhi replied smiling warmly at his adorable little sister, who returned the smile with her head bent low. "And you too!!" he said suddenly looking towards the door, from where Tanu walked in, smiling indulgingly at the Rockstar. "But why her too bhai? Am I not your only princess?" pouted Aaliya like a child and Tanu gave her a cold stare that went unnoticed by Abhi. "Well, her too, because, she is the love of my life, and she makes me want to live this dream, this stardom, bigger and better! She fuels my ambition Aaliya. You both and Daadi complete my world" said Abhi in a slightly emotional tone. He still remembered how these three ladies had walked into his hospital cabin, white as chalk. Daadi was stoically silent, Aaliya was hardly meeting his eyes, and his Tanu? She was slightly shivering, maybe because she had just come out of the shock of almost losing him? At first Abhi was surprised, he had never officially introduced Tanu to Daadi, how was she here with her? But he realized, his accident must have shaken Tanu enough to come up and tell Daadi about his and her relationship. And as they said, every cloud had a silver lining, it looked like Daadi had comfortably accepted her as Abhi's partner! Abhi hadn't exactly understood how perturbed Tanu was at his accident, until she came up to him and asked him to marry her, so she can always be with him and take care of him! He tried to knock sense into her head, wasn't she the highflying ambitious super model, who never gave two hoots to marriages? And how serious was this accident anyway? Why was Tanu so panic-stricken? He was only just pacifying Tanu to reconsider such a big decision, when Aaliya had come in and structured his thoughts, she had told him how Tanu truly realized the depth of their bond in his absence and had been next to Daadi throughout, just to ensure she was well - she was filling up for him in everyway he needed and nobody does that, unless the commitment means something to them! Abhi was surprised. He had thought about it a great deal, and shortly after that had decided to give up his bachelorhood for the sake of the only woman who seemed to fit perfectly in his, Aaliya's and now Daadi's life. "Bhai! What are you thinking?" the question brought Abhi out of his reverie, Aaliya looked concerned and Tanu suddenly looked tensed as she muttered, " Do you remember something Abhi?" He only laughed seeing their concern. "No ladies, it's nothing. I was just thinking about the album leads. Can you both stop being so worried all the time? I am fine!" he replied cheerfully. Both seemed to calm down after that. "So what have you thought about the leads Abhi?" Abhi looked up and saw Purab walking in through the door and joining them. He slightly nodded at Aaliya and didn't look at Tanu. Abhi had seen Purab give Tanu a cold shoulder ever since he gained consciousness, but he didn't take it seriously, he knew deep down, Purab also hoped like his Daadi that he settled with a girl away from the industry. It was apparently for Abhi's own good. But he knew, if Daadi could get along with him marrying Tanu, Purab would too, in a matter of sometime. "Aww love birds, can't stay apart for a moment can they" cooed Tanu loudly, and Abhi smiled, while Aaliya blushed. Yes, Purab and Aaliya spent a lot of time together these days, but something looked off. Purab didn't seem like the same man, his emotions never reached his eyes. And like earlier, he couldn't see that spot of affection for Aaliya, in his eyes. He had tried asking both Aaliya and Purab about this, but both maintained that all was well, and he was over-reacting - he was not sure though, nowadays-even Daadi didn't look as radiant when he discussed Aaliya and Purab's upcoming wedding. Something was not right! " Abhi where are you lost?" asked Purab concerned. " No, its nothing. So, yes. Lead characters for the music video...Purab I was thinking we will pick some exceptionally beautiful model this time, she will represent timeless beauty..." began Abhi. "Abhi do you have a cast in mind?" interrupted Purab. Abhi shut his eyes to concentrate on his muse, how must the woman with such beauty and radiance be? Somehow, he wasn't getting a clear face in his mind, but he could almost imagine her features, like he has touched them. " Soft curls that falls on her delicate shoulder, a fragile physique, light as feather, her skin as flawless as porcelain, clear innocent childlike eyes ..." "And...?" he heard Purab whisper. Tanu and Aaliya looked slightly surprised, what was so out of ordinary about this description? "...and eyes, hidden behind a thick glass frame..ordinary clothes, maybe in monochromes? full lips, very loving, very caring, someone who touches the soul once and owns it for life..." his voiced trailed off. "Someone like the lady you pulled up from the crowd in your last concert Abhi?" Purab whispered in urgency, barely able to contain his glee. "What non-sense bhai - what you described in such a plain jane, how will such a lead pump up your sales?" came Aaliya's practical voice and Abhi awoke from what felt was almost a trance. "Yes, yes" stuttered Tanu in agreement with Aaliya, "If you need someone beautiful, I can play the lead Abhi" she added hopefully. " Abhi wants someone simple and beautiful Tanu, not a gorgeous super model such as you!" smirked Purab. But all this went unnoticed by Abhi, he was surprised. He was sure this was not what he had in mind when he said his lead should be beautiful! Then what was this? Who's glimpse did he see? And the lady he pulled up from the crowd during his performance? Yes his description of physical attributes did match hers. But she? She was a boring bespectacled woman! She was a "chashmish" for crying out loud, he wasn't concerned about her right now. He was more intrigued by the incomplete and scattered portrait his mind weaved at the mention of beauty, who indeed was she? "Abhi, do you want me to find out about that lady and call her for an audition?" Purab spoke so softly that Abhi could barely hear him. "What? No. No, Purab, Aaliya is right, she is too simple..never mind..she doesn't fit here" he replied still sounding distant. Aaliya and Tanu sighed in relief.  " Something tells me this video will be different and will break the beauty stereotype of Indian women Abhi. It's a fresh idea, let's at least give it a shot? One audition for her?" pleaded Purab. Abhi thought about it. The concept was new indeed, and who knows in auditioning such woman, he might meet the mystery woman who just teased his senses? "How will you find her though?" asked Abhi ruefully. "I had caught her name once she came down from the stage, someone had called her by the name of Pragya. That's enough, leave the rest on me" replied Purab cheerfully to Abhi and left with a look that made Aaliya and Tanu jittery. " Okay, I want to see Pragya on Monday, in my studio" he called after Purab. God knows why Purab looked so triumphant suddenly! "Pragya..hmmm" he muttered as he left for the balcony not noticing Aaliya and Tanu anymore. "Too bad Tanu, it will always be her!" Aaliya whispered. Aafrah

http://jodifiction.blogspot.com/2020/03/abhigya-os-ensnared-kumkum-bhagya-kkb.html

[curewhimsy]

So I updated my summary of my Whimsica series Foibles.

It’s  still very messy and incomplete, but that will change with time as I get more ideas.

Sumi’s situation is inspired by Daughter of White, yes. Also yes, it kinda did become a fantasy version of A Dreamer’s Journey.

———

The Forest of Resonance is a tropical rainforest in the magical land of Whimsica where it is perpetually summer. The forest is inhabited by elven people, or elves. It never is cold in the forest, nor does it ever snow. Nobody who inhabits the Forest of Resonance is able leave it, or else they will begin to die slowly as long as they are outside of the boundaries. Everyone in the forest has hair/eyes that are blue, green, or somewhere in between. Even when they age, the hair never turns white. But Sumi Shizumi, an albino, was born with white hair, and is ostracized because of it. Sumi Shizumi was born on an unusually cold day for the forest. She was born with white hair and purple eyes, and everyone began to treat Sumi as a mistake and a cursed child because of it. Sumi’s single mother who was a pianist, Setsuko, passed away shortly after birthing her, leaving Sumi an orphan. Sumi’s mother cared deeply about her child. Her final wish was for Sumi to live on and have a happy life, despite her looking different. However, others would soon mistreat Sumi. Sumi had been living with an adoptive mother since then, who frequently treated Sumi as inferior. Sumi’s adoptive mother then died when Sumi was 17, leaving her to live on her own. Sumi grows up as a very lonely and apologetic person, despite having an incredibly gentle and benevolent nature. Sumi also has an adventurous spirit. She is a writer, she loves books, and had always heard stories and legends of life outside the forest. She has always longed to see all the amazing sights from beyond the boundaries. Sumi is not only ostracized for her white hair, but also her strange powers. Everyone else’s powers are related to plants and summer elements. Sumi’s powers are related to ice and are rather wintry. They are also very hard to control, and more like a curse. Before Sumi’s discovered her powers, nobody had ever heard of snow. When they first saw the snow that happened because of Sumi, they panicked. They thought that Sumi had done something bad to the usual rain. The key to Sumi controlling her powers is confidence. But since Sumi has been mistreated her whole life, finding confidence ends up being an immensely difficult quest for her. Ever since she was little, Sumi also wanted to be a singer (like her upperclassman Liu) but she’s never had the courage, not even to join the sing-along program at school. She avoided singing with the other kids in music class out of fear of being criticized, and sat alone in the corner. Sumi wanted to play the piano the way her mother did. She took a lesson at age 12, but she was clumsy at it. The pianist in her village was very harsh, also mistreated Sumi, and refused to teach Sumi any further due to being a “nuisance”. This damages Sumi’s self-esteem further. Kiri is a girl who secretly always wanted to be comfort Sumi and be her friend, except she felt like a powerless bystander. Kiri did comfort Sumi in secret by giving her uplifting notes in her locker and mailbox when nobody was around, essentially becoming Sumi’s secret friend. However, Kiri felt like she could not reveal herself, because then she’d be mistreated too. One day when she is 22, Sumi is having a particularly horrible day. That night when she sees a shooting star from her treehouse, she wishes for someone, anyone, to be her friend. Sumi’s emotional feelings that night were so strong, it caused a blizzard to plummet the forest. The crops begin to die and everyone chases Sumi out because of what she did. The elder of the forest says that Sumi won’t die when she’s away from the forest, because the forest was never where she belonged in the first place. This hurts Sumi deeply, hearing she never belonged. What hurts even more is that Sumi doesn’t seem to feel weaker once she’s away from the forest, meaning the elder was right. Sumi takes this opportunity to run away, to somewhere outside the boundaries where she’d be happier. However, word gets out, and Kiri is worried. She follows Sumi in secret, even risking her own death. Meanwhile on Earth, we have Reina Coda. Reina is a girl who finds her life boring and disappointing. She is a singer and pianist, but recently she lost her passion and reason. Reina became a nihilist who believes her life is meaningless. She desires and longs for a reason to keep living. One night, Reina goes to sleep after a long day... and mysteriously wakes up in another world. In fact, this is Whimsica. Reina wakes up in an unknown place, wanders for a while, and finds Sumi, who is running away. They have a conversation. Reina’s hair is black, which Sumi comments on. All throughout her life, she had only seen people with blue or green hair, and never a different color, such as black as the night. Sumi asks where Reina is from. Reina mentions she’s from far away, and that she’s lost. Reina is initially aloof and a bit standoffish. She isn’t good at consoling Sumi, who is so diffident. But she comments that Sumi’s hair is beautiful. This changes Sumi’s life. She had never thought of herself as anything more than worthless and ugly, and it was all because of her hair. Having it being called beautiful changes Sumi’s world. They go on a journey together. All sorts of adventures. Sumi’s journey is to find acceptance. Reina’s journey is to find a way back home. Throughout the story, many things happen. They even both gain powers to transform into magical girls and fight monsters through fulfillment (mentioned later). Sumi ends up making her previously uncontrollable ice powers useful. They become friends, though it takes them a while to get close. Sumi ends up trusting Reina, and tells her secrets and dreams. Sumi wants to be a singer and pianist. Reina, who is experienced in both, offers to teach Sumi. Eventually they discover an old house. They decide to make it their home. Coincidentally and much to their delight, the house mysteriously has a piano in it. Reina uses this to start Sumi’s piano and voice lessons. Sumi is clumsy at both at first. This discourages her immensely. Eventually, Reina unintentionally hurts Sumi’s feelings by telling her that she lacks confidence. Reina claims That Sumi won’t be making it far as a singer without such a crucial characteristic. Sumi breaks down into tears and has an emotional outburst. She runs away and hides. Reina apologizes, but Sumi still feels hurt. This stems from Sumi’s low self-esteem and past rejection. Reina eventually gets to understand Sumi’s feelings better, and realizes how her words were hurtful to Sumi. Reina finds Sumi. She then tells Sumi she understands her better and apologizes again. She tells Sumi that everyone has things they need to learn, and that it doesn’t make Sumi awful or hopeless. Sumi and Reina have a poignant moment that brings them closer together. Reina confesses to Sumi that she once was shy as well. Reina gradually opens up more throughout the story. We end up finding out why she is a nihilist and is so standoffish. Reina’s parents died, and her step-parents are always arguing and eventually divorced, leading Reina into thinking life is meaningless. Eventually during their journey, Sumi and Reina stumble upon a colorful Land of Misfits. Legend has it, to reach this land, you have to be someone running away due to being mistreated for being different. Then, if you are lucky, you will come across the Land of Misfits. A long time ago, all the people and creatures who ran away had found each other and built a safe haven where everyone is accepted. However, villains from the evil planet Monochrome want to destroy the Land of Misfits, because they don’t think that the Misfits deserve to be happy. Monochrome doesn’t believe in happiness. They also want to corrupt Whimsica to make the entire universe boring and hopeless to their liking. Monochrome villains spread despair, and have the power to harness negative feelings and turn them into monsters. These monsters hurt people physically and emotionally, and spread negative energy. Reina, along with the people in the Land of Misfits, tell Sumi that she doesn’t have to be sorry for being different. They tell her that it’s not her fault. Once Sumi hears that it isn’t her fault, and finds out there are Misfits with stories like hers, her entire world changes. For the first time, she doesn’t feel alone. Eventually, Sumi even finds out about hair dye, but she declines the opportunity to dye her white hair that she’s been ostracized for her whole life. She is pressured into doing so by the person selling it, but Sumi stands up for herself and claims there’s nothing wrong with being different in the first place. This is part of her character development. Sumi now realizes all the unfair treatment she’s been through. She wants to stand up for all misfits. Out of spite, she refuses to change. It’s a little thing, but it shows how much Sumi’s confidence had developed. When Sumi finds out about Monochrome, she is shocked and appalled that they want to destroy a land filled with all the people that are different. Though Sumi is timid, she wants to make a difference. She slowly builds her self-worth and confidence, and her magic gets stronger and more controllable as a result. Sumi and Reina also find they can cast magic with music. Sumi and Reina also end up, along with some Misfits, joining an exploration team, in order to explore Whimsica, combat Monochrome’s negativity monsters, and look for a way for Reina to return home. It gets to the Sumi eventually fulfills herself. In Whimsica, magical transformations, complete with an outfit and a special weapon, are unlocked when the user “fulfills” themself. This can be through overcoming an obstacle, or having a substantial moment of bravery. In Sumi’s home forest, fulfillment was said to only happen to the “truly worthy”. Very few people in the forest had been able to. Reina eventually fulfills herself when she gets over her feelings that life is meaningless. Being with Sumi teachers Reina that life is precious. And that’s all I have for now I guess. But they do save the Land of Misfits after an epic journey. Without Sumi’s courage and kindness, the Land of Misfits would have never been saved. Sumi goes from bein At the end of the story, Reina says something corny like “Maybe the real journey is deep inside of us all.” But it shows how much her view on life changes. Though eventually there is a sad ending where Reina has to go back to Earth and say goodbye to Sumi forever, but she’ll never forget her. But Reina is the person who changed Sumi’s life and gave her strength. Perhaps Sumi needs to find the strength to go on without Reina, yet treasure her memories. It is thought that Reina can never return to Whimsica. During the time Reina is gone home, Sumi becomes an accomplished magical girl. She also becomes a vocal coach, because she wants to help people reach their dreams the way Reina had helped her. One of her students is very shy just like her, so Sumi tells them the story of her and Reina, and how she was shy and hopeless once. Meanwhile, Reina is extremely depressed at home and wishes she could at least visit Sumi once again, who had given her life meaning. However, she is grateful. Reina will never forget how she felt when she was with Sumi. Eventually, four months later, Reina gains the ability to go back to Whimsica. She finds Sumi again, and eventually they get married.

[bellamyrrhlynn-blog]

Writing for Holly!

I found this little rough piece I wrote ages ago when I was first workshopping Holiday. I think the concepts for her parents (Veery and Marv) were one of the rare first ideas that I actually really liked and didn’t change, along with her colour changing. And yes, she is the daughter of a bird and a fishman and is thusly, a Siren (’; Gotta love the cartoon logic! 

Also, there’s some good descriptive stuff in there for the 3 parts of the isles and I think I have another unfinished snippet that focuses more on the casino. I think it’s an example of some more of my improving work, which is a nicer way to put it; I wrote this around the time where I wanted to get back into writing after university sorta stopped me in my tracks for a bit.

But enough of that! Enjoy the read cheries x

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Isles of Inkwell. There’s something for everyone and everyone for something. A bizarre assortment of people and creatures and anything you can imagine in between that, from crockery and knickknacks to phantoms and plants, all with big, round eyes made up of bright, robust colours, lived throughout the three isles, talking, walking and gawking together all the while with shenanigans and hijinks a-plenty going on around them. Things that would defy YOUR expectations, but here, bursting into smoke and sparks, thoughts and words materialising in cloudy bubbles above your head, changing shape, changing size and making your wildest imagination come to life in a flash ‘n’ bang of red or blue or purple or green? That could all happen in one hour of a sunny summer afternoon and nobody would bat an eyelid. What’s the problem? It’s Inkwell Isle!

On the first isle, you’d find the verdant fields of the forest where the best and worst parts of Mother Nature’s concoctions grow together. Quiet, small, but with that inimitable charm of the countryside. Over the bridge, on the isle of the outskirts of the city was The Carnival, or The Carnivisle if you wanted to be cute with it. (Most people don’t wanna be cute with it) It didn’t always use to look like a bigtop wonderland. It looked a lot more like what you’d expect when you heard the word “outskirts”. Rundown to the point where the isle itself was starting to crack and tear at its edges. But when the Carnies came in and settled there, building up their stations and just doing what they did best, people genuinely wanted to see them perform and it wasn’t long before the isle got a new lease on life. Sometimes it’s hard to imagine that it hasn’t been there forever with how well everyone’s accustomed to it.

But the city. Ah, the city. The third and largest isle of the three. That cultured flare with seaside air. It was as bright and colourful as its residents and you couldn’t help but love it. Well, most people couldn’t help it. But near the shore of the beach on a little house that would go unnoticed for the most part, there was one person who didn’t have to work too hard to be bored with her surroundings.

This person- she- woke up every morning, the conductor of nature right outside her window trying to harmonize birdsong, salty air and the burning hum of the rising sun. Every. Single. Morning. It got old. Fast. She got washed and got dressed every morning, her solace was that for a couple of minutes or mere seconds, running water or fabric would muffle the cheery buzz.

That person is Holiday Tune. Yes. I know. She has more strange things about her than an ironic name. For example, on this particular morning, where everything, as described above, was no different, Holiday got up, got washed, got dressed and headed downstairs to catch her parent’s eyes. Her mother and father, as usual, met her with expectant smiles that they had to force not to let very obviously fall and falter as they saw that their daughter was still, after a whole year, still black and white.

Not in minds set, not in views, but literally, physically, undeniably monochrome. With the darker colours of her person; her short, wavy hair, her lips, the tie, sleeve suspenders, suit pants, waistcoat and shoes of her uniform being black and the lighter parts being, you guessed it, white. Her skin was a cool grey as mentioned, along with her eyes, both of which if caught in the right moment, right before a blink, would appear to flicker and gleam like a soft shiver of static. She certainly caught looks, not helped by the fact that she looked pretty… Person-looking. Now, that’s not to say humans in appearance were that strange, but with how few of them there were on the isles, they were decidedly peculiar, to say the least. But for Holiday, the strange thing was that it didn’t seem to make sense why she was so person-looking, with legs and arms and a human-looking face…

“Holly honey, you simply have to talk to Tia about getting a new uniform, you know, like a special circumstances uniform, maybe one with a little bit more col-” her mother started, taking her by her arm gently to lead her down into the kitchen. Holly interrupted her before the dreaded “c” word could get its second syllable.

“And a good morning to you too mama, how’d you sleep? How’re you feeling? Myself? Very well and very well, thank you for asking.” Holly gave her mother a grin, suppressing an eye roll and filling her voice in with just the right amount of cheek to make up for it. A little trick she learned from the master of putting up with the matriarch herself: Marvin Marlin, her dad. She caught eyes with him and shared a knowing wink, the scales on his moustachioed face practically shining to make up for the grin he was hiding behind the morning paper. Problem was, Veery Songbird’s sharp round eyes caught everything and with a famous loud sigh and a ruffle of her mahogany coloured feathers, she narrowed her eyes and twittered over to the gulping merman at the table.

“She gets that salty tongue in her head from your fishy side you know Marv, nothing but silver on a birds tongues I tell ya.”

Holiday watched her dad, flick out the paper in a fluid motion, his sharp teeth curling up into a smirk. Oh no.

“Papa, you’d better be trying to fashion that flimsy thing into some sort of shield if you’re gonna open your mouth again.” Holly quipped, fashioning her breakfast out a single buttered piece of bread that sat on a plate for her on the table.

Marv shot her a despondent look, and his scales seemed to ripple as his skin became a pastel, melancholy blue, “What? But I had a good one this time too.”

“Good one to get your butt out of this house fish boy.” A wing came out to knock sense into the back of his head, Holly was always amazed that her mama still managed to find a way to hiss with a beak.

[olin-trops-blog]

Title

I watched the snug evil hellborn who’d just crawled out of the forbidden hole only two hours ago sit down and make tea. Her hair was darker then I remember, in fact it was black.

And her eyes that were supposed to be yellow, activated with power are no more. When she was younger it was beginning to get lighter, her eyes were hazel. Her bloodline was said that but the age of 14 she would have activated her powers. Now her eyes were pitch black indicating that I was gone and their was no hope of her getting it back. She’s now 23 and she’s worse then her heart felt damsel in destress self.

She’s weak.

“I see you’ve already gotten dressed. Changed clothes and cleaned up. So where is the other you pulled out of hell.”

“Purgatory, she’s cleaning up.”

“You know Systina, I never thought the day would come where you would not only escape the inescapable but drag someone out, breaking the rules of purgatory and defeat the monster that the leader of purgatory sent in after you. You used to be so, small and well-“

“Weak, Except. I’ve been there for years. Much has changed from when I was younger. I see you staring at my eyes. You wonder why they are this way? Perhaps I’m still weak.” I watched her eyes drape down to her tea. She was silent.

Surprising to me her eyes looked calculating. She was beautiful. Her eyes were dull compared to mine. My eyes were blue while hers were brown.

My skin soft while hers were a rough texture. Her dark skin matched her mother, her skin was pretty and matched along with her eyes and hair perfectly. Maybe I was envious, despite her being weak. Mortal even, she was no longer if her family’s legacy. She couldn’t hold up her title. Maybe I would take her weak family and transform it into what it was made to be before she ruined it.

I might not be if her blood but they need order and I need underlings. She too will bow to me.

“I am here on behalf of my sister. Maybe you haven’t noticed but after you left things have also changed. I’m not sure you can survive out there like we do.” She couldn’t, she would need my protection. Traitor, and give me her title as goddess of the lybrithinols.

“I’m pretty sure the conditions of purgatory are much more pressing then the crisis you are facing. Their is a reason it is named the forbidden hole. It’s a place for traitors. Once you get in you can’t get out. And not to mention you can’t get in unless someone of a monochrome bloodline puts you there. I was sentenced to eternal torture by the very person I love. Isn’t that sad?”

Isn’t it sad? She says but her face hold no emotions. Not like when she was younger full of life. She was much older then me. She has changed.

Her face hasn’t changed emotions, her eyes held nothing. Not even a weakness. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking, feeling. Calculating. She used to be so easy to read. I wasn’t sure if something was on her mind or not.

If she was in a trance thinking of something I wouldn’t know. It seemed like she was in a trance but she didn’t stutter in her words. She asked me questions without hesitation. About nothing in particular so I had no hints.

Usually she would ask about how is everyone doing, ask about people and what’s changed. She said nothing, it was evident that she didn’t care. It would help her in no way, it wouldn’t benefit her so why should she care.

Didnt she want revenge? Against those who wronged her and dethroned her of her family thrown and her right as goddess of rebirth? And her soon to be title as goddess of light,life,and love?

“Don’t you want revenge? Against those who tossed you aside? Systina, I can protect you. I can protect you in this world. Only if you will relinquish your title.”

“I already told you no.”

“What?” I’ve never asked her, never. I just came up with this. What does she mean already?

“My apologies. I no longer want the title but I’m not as irresponsible as to leave it in your aid. Sylvite.” I stood up. She continued to stare at her tea, not moving a muscle.

“You think you can stop me? I’ll beat you and then I’ll take your crown. You’re weak and useless. You could never-“

Her cold gold eyes caught mine. “Sit down.” Her voice was commanding. I sat down, immediately. Was it fear? No, she controlled me? How? Hi body but a goddess is able to do that? Not even a regular goddess?

Her eyes, they weren’t yellow they were gold. Nobody ever said anything about gold eyes!!

“I’m giving the title to my brother. After all my own people betrayed me.” She held up her family ring and it vanished. It should be on whoever’s finger she relinquished the title to. Her brother now knows that he has the title of leader in his fingers. “He should have a taste.”

Her brother wanted nothing more then the title and was willing to betray his own sister to get it. What he didn’t account for is that the person she loved would get to her kingdom first, have her people turn on her and throw her into the forbidden hole.

She did nothing wrong ever, being forced into this life when two fallen and forbidden gods fell in love was banished to earth but they hit her combining with her. The only reason they colided with her is because The was next in line for the goddess position.

Her father banned his secret mistress from the castle. Seeing He new he had a daughter but knew she was powerless, made her flee his kingdom.

Her mother then abandoned her in the street. She faced, horrible, horrible, horrible things.

Unspeakable things, the things that are ultimate sins. That would make the devil both proud and upset.

She is the product of sins. Looking at her now you would never know how broken she truly is, even after what happened to her she smiled. Now she can’t even manage that.

“I’m not broken, saying I’m broken can imply that that very thing can be fixed.” Her eyes fixated upon me.

“I am fixed.” Her eyes bore into mine and I could tell she is to be feared. She is the devil and whatever she is steering. It’s not going to be good.

“Now go warn your people of my return. I intend to let them know that I have come back. You tell them now because if I tell them.” She leaned in close. “Then it’s going to be one hell of a blood bath.” I vanished just like the ring as her fingers ring a snapping sound.

“So What was that about? I heard it all.” Lily jogged her way downstairs.

“The little girl, she asked me to relinquish my title and in return she would help me get revenge.”

“And?”

“I rejected. Why would I need such a thing? When what I’m brining is much worse.” For the first time a smile crept on her face. Not a kind forgiving one.

A grin, a evil smile. Twisted along her mouth, on a face like hers it didn’t seem to belong there. But then you look into her eyes, and then a frighting chill crawls up your spine.

And your know, her bite is much worse then her bark. Far, far, far worse.

[vdbstore-blog]

New Post has been published on Vintage Designer Handbags Online | Vintage Preowned Chanel Luxury Designer Brands Bags & Accessories

New Post has been published on http://vintagedesignerhandbagsonline.com/yrsa-daley-ward-people-are-afraid-to-tell-the-truth-fashion/

Yrsa Daley-Ward: ‘People are afraid to tell the truth' | Fashion

If you’re afraid to write it, that’s a good sign. I suppose you know you’re writing the truth when you’re terrified.” These words in black type on a white background make up one of poet Yrsa Daley-Ward’s Instagram posts. This monochrome snapshot of her innermost thoughts has more than 5,200 “likes”. That’s more than double the number she gets for any pictures. Daley-Ward spent her late teens and early 20s as a model struggling to pay her rent in London, working for brands such as Apple, Topshop, Estée Lauder and Nike. She still models today. Ironically, however, it was the image-obsessed medium of Instagram that enabled her to pursue the written word.

“I always was a writer,” she explains today in a thick Lancashire accent, sitting in a downtown Los Angeles restaurant close to where she lives. “But I was depressed [in London] and that made me choke. Modelling is an interesting profession because it teaches you so much about here…” She points a finger at her face. “But not here…” she sighs and points at her heart. “You become introverted, you disappear into yourself.”

‘I didn’t fit in. I wanted to be white, have different hair, know my father, not be religious…’

Daley-Ward’s debut collection of poetry, Bone, is anything but introverted. Aptly titled, it’s a visceral read candidly documenting her religious upbringing, sexuality and mental-health battles. It flew out of her in three months, as she chronicled her bad love affairs, sense of isolation and feelings of inadequacy – an uncomfortable, uninhibited read. Daley-Ward is a self-confessed firestarter and has a colourful past. She doesn’t watch TV and prefers to go to the pub to drink Guinness and “chat to old men about their lives”. When asked to give her age, she refuses. “Men don’t get asked,” she barks.

She finds the notion of being objectified irksome. In a bodycon dress today, she tells me she’s been cat-called “seven times” en route here. “Why the fuck? Look at the patriarchy, look at rape culture. I don’t need to be subjected to what men think.” With her poems she cuts through that, deep into the parts of herself that she feels have been overseen by superficial, homogenous norms.

Bone was initially released in 2014 through Amazon’s self-publishing arm. It’s since been expanded for reissue via Penguin. Daley-Ward’s 116,000 and growing Instagram fanbase was key to that. Having followers like pop star Florence & the Machine and Hollywood actor Ellen Page also helps.

Daley-Ward read everything she could get her hands on as a kid: Roald Dahl, Spike Milligan, Shakespeare. As a young, black, LGBTQ female, she’s often said that she feels “invisible”in the literary world and maintains that poetry has a long way to go to diversify itself.

“Have I seen change? Yes and no,” she says. “There’s a lot more to do. If it wasn’t for the internet how would I have got the book out? How would I have got a publisher? If I went to a publisher armed with Bone and zero internet following…” She tapers off, suggesting they’d have looked right past her. “I didn’t know what to expect. I just persevered.”

‘The queer space is varied and intricate. Every story I have is a story a friend has’: Ysra Daley-Ward. Photograph: Platon for the Observer

Alongside the African-American poet Nayyirah Waheed, Zimbabwean bard Tapiwa Mugabe and Nigerian writer Ijeoma Umebinyuo, Daley-Ward, who is of West Indian and West African descent, is part of a small, elite community of black writers who are breaking down barriers. “It’s lovely to see women of colour poets,” she says. “Old poetry can be so inaccessible. Not just for people of colour but for people who aren’t super erudite, who don’t read, don’t love Shakespeare. Some people just want to connect with feelings.”

The melting pot of Downtown LA is a far cry from home in Chorley. She was born in the northern town after her Jamaican mother (a nurse) had an extra-marital affair with a Nigerian man who came to the UK to study, leaving his wife and children behind. He died before Daley-Ward was old enough to meet him.

From the age of seven to 11 she was sent, with her younger brother, to live with her grandparents. They were Seventh Day Adventists. Daley-Ward describes them as “strict religious fundamentalists”. “From sunset on Friday we couldn’t do anything until sunset on Saturday,” she recalls. “During the week everything was monitored. We didn’t go outside except to see my cousins.”

‘Sex work is common among models. It’s not standing on street corners – you have boyfriends who are very rich’

Growing up fast, she was ingrained with certain gender expectations; rules that existed to be broken. “They’d tell me that a girl should be able to run a house. Every Sunday my grandma and I would be on our knees handwashing all the clothes. I learned how to clean, sew and cook. I never make my bed now.”

At the time, Daley-Ward bottled up her frustrations. When she returned to live with her mother, she was left to raise her brother while her mum worked night shifts. “Things changed completely,” she remembers. “There was all the freedom where we once had no freedom.”

As well as the liberation that came with her own sexual awakening, she gained a more rounded perspective on a woman’s place in the world. Her mum’s boyfriends weren’t always the most desirable choices. “She was the one with the money, working hard. She never received help from men, ever.” That gave birth to a sense of staunch independence in her, combined with a streak of disruption. “I’m a quiet, introverted person, but I was very internally rebellious.”

Conflict continued to bubble up inside her; she was acutely aware of not fitting in in Chorley. “I was a black girl living in a market town, alien to everything. There were so many things I wanted to be other than what I was. I wanted to be white, have different hair, have parents who were home, know my father, not be religious. When I watched TV, everything from Disney to Coronation Street, there was never a representation of me.” She would write to disappear into different realities.

Soon enough, however, she didn’t need prose to whisk her away. There was a man – an older music teacher. He was married. He left his wife for her. “It was a torrid, crazy time,” she recalls, awkwardly avoiding the conversation.

‘When I was 20, I was in knots. There’s no cage now’: Ysra Daley-Ward. Photograph: Platon for the Observer

She left Chorley and moved to Manchester en route to London, as the pull of big multicultural cities became exhilarating to her. “I was going out dancing to reggae and African music, buying jollof rice made by someone other than my grandma.” The honeymoon period was short, though. She lost her mother in 2007. (She doesn’t say how she died but implies that her lack of quality of life contributed.) Working as a jobbing actor and model, struggling to makes ends meet, she fell into depression. Writing was unimportant when there were bills to pay. “The grind got to me. I was lonely and had no real support in the world. None. I felt awful every day. I didn’t want to get out of bed.”

The discrimination she experienced in the fashion industry made matters worse. Repeatedly she’d fail to get jobs she was more than qualified for. “This is not a face that sells in England,” she says. “They say that black models sell fewer clothes than white models. That’s stupid. Fashion just doesn’t want to be diverse.” To survive, she had to find other avenues. “I was a very enterprising young woman,” she says coyly. “Learning what to use to get by.”

I ask if she’s alluding to sex work. She laughs. “It’s the most common thing in the modelling industry, especially at high levels. I’m not talking about standing on street corners. You have a boyfriend for two months who’s a millionaire. In that situation you’re safe, eating caviar, drinking champagne. There are other situations that are considerably less safe and less consensual. It’s a reality for so many women in the entertainment industry and we’re told not to talk about it.”

In desperate need of salvation and in search of more secure modelling jobs, she moved to Cape Town where there was, she says, a guaranteed market for black models. She was 24 years old with £200 in her pocket. The experience made her rich in a way she’d never have anticipated. While there, she came across a spoken-word evening. The task was to write a poem about family discord. “I thought: easy!” she smiles. Her performance brought rapturous applause. She went again and again. Every week the audience grew.

“In acting and modelling I was so busy expressing what somebody else wanted that I’d completely shut down my own voice,” she says. “I didn’t have any mirrors. When I was 20, I was in knots. I couldn’t speak my reality to anybody. There’s no cage now. Lots of people are afraid to tell the truth. But I don’t care. It’s fucking boring otherwise.”

Ysra Daley-Ward as a toddler with her mother and brother. She says her mum ‘never received help from men, ever’. Photograph: @yrsadaleyward

Today, Daley-Ward lives between LA and London. Her audience has grown far beyond Cape Town. One poem, Mental Health, has made fans of people who have never given a thought to poetry. During a reading in south London, a man came up to her in tears. “He asked me to send it to him. I thought nobody was listening,” she says. She’s also become a poster child for the undermined, particularly the LGBTQ community. Despite writing about her relationships with women, she refuses to make her sexuality a big deal, insisting that her poems relate to people of all sexual preferences.

“I’m writing about common experience,” she says. “The LGBT community are my friends. The queer space is varied and intricate. Every story I have is a story a friend has. When I talk about a woman that you can’t get out of your head even though you know she’s going to fuck you over… Hello?! That represents 10 people I know.”

In an age of technology, the fact that Daley-Ward has built a platform for literature out of social media is perhaps her biggest act of rebellion. Next, she’ll release a memoir. “There’s nothing left unsaid,” she laughs. Titled The Terrible, it’s “The truest thing I’ll maybe ever write.” Where it will take her remains to be seen. “I move through the world at an alarming rate. Next time we speak I might be in New York,” she says. “I’m in the midst of a change. I keep dreaming about it. Something’s about to happen.”

Bone by Yrsa Daley-Ward is published by Penguin on 26 September, at £9.99. To order a copy for £8.49, go to bookshop.theguardian.com

Fashion credits: (from top) Daley-ward wears dress by Alexander McQueen; coat by Givenchy; and jumper by Prada. Fashion editor Jo Jones; hair by Jerome Cultrera at L’Atelier NYC using Oribe Hair Care; make-up by Linda Gradin at L’Atelier NYC using MAC Cosmetics; fashion assistant Bemi Shaw

Source link