#now? it's a bittersweet memory

[samsspambox]

Bittersweet Firsts

(a weird amalgamation of a case study, venting, and romance about dr. richter)

1k words.

"Do you remember your first love, Dr. Richter?" They ask him one day, nudging him with their arm.

No, he wants to tell them, he doesn't and will never care for that person while they're with him. But...

"I do."

It would be a lie, and he hates lying about trivial things.

"Tell me about them?" They ask, nothing but curiosity coloring their words, "Who caught the eyes of the great Dr. Richter before I did?"

He chuckled and pressed a soft kiss to the side of their temple, "They may have captured my heart then, but you have it now. I hope that my heart stays with you for the rest of our lives."

They smile and lean closer to him, humming in contentment, "Me too, but still. Tell me?"

He frowned, "It is... not a nice story."

"It doesn't matter," They tell him, grabbing one of his hands and giving it a quick kiss, "I want to know everything about you. The good and the bad."

"You truly never cease to amaze me, do you know that?" He tells her, his frown turning into a rueful smile.

"Yeah yeah, I'm the pinnacle of perfection and all that. Story?"

He chuckles, "Very well then. I was about 15 when I first met them..."

--

Even as a teenager, Vyn wasn't very well liked. He knew this, being the 'bastard son' of the duke even though he was born within a marriage. The only reason anyone tolerated him was because of his father, and he hated it.

His tutors had instructed his father to let him experience proper schooling after spending most of his elementary and middle school education within the walls of his home. It would benefit him, they would say.

Vyn scowled down at his lunch, stabbing a broccoli with a little too much force. No one would come sit with him, no one would let him sit with them. He was alone.

"What's that broccoli ever do to you?"

Vyn jumped in his seat and turned around. A young girl about his age was standing near him, a tray of food in her grasp.

"What?"

She sat down next to him, "You were stabbing that broccoli like it personally offended you. What did it do, sully your father's honor?"

He wrinkled his nose, "I don't think I'd actually fight anyone talking badly about my father."

"Yikes, I know that one all too well."

He couldn't help it, "Why are you here?"

"Because you looked lonely."

He paused to look at her and found that... she was being completely honest. She didn't look like those people who had sneered behind his back or those others who silently judged him.

"Vilhelm de Haspran."

He extended his hand. She shook it.

"Annabeth O'Connor. Pleasure to meet you."

--

Their friendship was cautionary at first. She was the daughter of a baron, the lowest part of the nobility and he was a child of someone not in the Church of Svart. Outcasts in their own right, but now outcasts together.

Vyn hated the notion of love at first sight. His father was a perfect example of why it would never hold.

But he still believed in love, and over the course of the year he started liking his new friend more and more until those feelings turned romantic. He liked her. He thought he loved her.

Vyn was never one to sit on his feelings. If he wanted something, he would ask. He had always been a person who was good with his hands. He would carve animals out of wood, make origami pieces, play the piano among other things. On a sunny day he made a beautiful paper rose to gift to her, the day he would ask her out.

"Annabeth?"

"Yes, Vilhelm?"

"Would you like to go on a date with me?"

She stilled, "A date?"

"Yes, a date."

"Oh. Uh. Sure?"

"How does Saturday sound?"

--

He had thought the date went alright. They went to a museum and walked around in the gardens, had lunch, the whole nine yards. Why was she avoiding him? Any time she would look at him she would stiffen up and turn in the other direction.

Gone were the days they would be sitting side by side in the library. She would join another group of people for lunch, leaving him alone. He got no response whenever he would text her, and in a last ditch effort he went over to her house only to get yelled at by her parents.

One day she had left a note in his locker, telling him to be patient and wait for her since she couldn't date him. He respected that, waiting patiently for the rest of his time at that school, but she never approached him again. He was alone, like always.

He didn't know what he did wrong. Well, he did. He knew exactly what happened: he fell in love. He made the same mistake his father made. He did the same exact thing, but he vowed that it would be the last time. He wouldn't be like this, like him.

--

"Well, that's not very nice," they told him.

He cracked a smile, "I know. But over time I learned to look at it with a fonder lens."

"How so?"

"It was my first date. While the outcome was not what I wanted, I learned and grew from that experience. It is, as you say, bittersweet."

"Did they ever apologize to you?" They asked, grabbing his hand and playing with his fingers.

"She tried in later years. I did not give them a chance to apologize at the time."

"Why?

"Out of hurt, why else? And I was still a child, I still made mistakes."

They stayed silent for a second, "What would you do now? If they tried to apologize?"

"I would thank them."

"Thank them?"

He smiled, threading his fingers between theirs, "Yes. After all, without those series of events, I would have never met you. In the end, it was for the best."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. Now, would you like to go out to dinner? It is getting late. And, perhaps, you could tell me about your first love as well."

They smiled and playfully squeezed his hand.

Yes, in the end it was for the better.

[nattikay]

Kìyevame [speedpaint/timelapse]

So at last goodbye I will be happy just to have known you...

[behindthecodes]

Concept art of The Forgotten Valley

[enjoythesilentworld]

Wille's Month - Erik

day 7. @youngroyals-events <3

A story of siblings in three parts. rating: T (swearing)

“I used to egg him on…  to always… What’s the point of having a fancy car if you don’t drive it fast and feel the wind blowing with the top down? I told him that.” “Jag hetsade honom… alltid till att… Vad är det för poäng med att ha en sån bil om man inte gasar på och får känna vinden, liksom, och nercabbat. Jag sa det till honom.” (s1e4)

read below or on ao3.

One.  

“Come on, Erik!” Wille shouts, unfazed when the next branch he reaches for snaps off in his hand. He grabs the next one and tugs a bit to check, then pulls himself higher. Below him, he can hear his big brother struggling to keep up. 

“Wille, slow down. You’re going too high!”

Wille just laughs and keeps climbing. “Not too high, we’re not at the top yet!” 

It’s nice and quiet up here in the tree. The branches and leaves are thick enough that he can’t see the palace anymore, and that means their nanny can’t see them either. He’d gotten in trouble earlier that day for squirming around during some dumb meeting. Wille is seven, how can anyone expect him to sit still while the grown-ups talk about boring things? Up here, though, he feels free and happy. He feels alive. He’s not a prince, he’s a monkey or a squirrel, jumping from branch to branch. No uncomfy neck ties, no boring dinners, no scolding parents. He likes how his heart begins to race, but in a good way. It’s different than when he gets upset about something and he feels like he can’t breathe and his heart might burst. When he’s climbing a tree, or racing down a hill on his bike, it’s a good breathless feeling. 

He nears the top, and through a break in the leaves he can see out over the gardens. 

“You’ll never believe this view! Erik! Come on, climb faster! What are you so afraid of?” 

Erik grunts from beneath him, still a few feet below. Wille settles onto his branch and looks out over the blooming fields. From the shrubs, he sees two birds burst out and chase each other into the sky. As he watches them, Erik finally catches up until he’s just a branch below Wille, clutching the trunk with white knuckles. 

“Wille, we have to go back down. This is too dangerous, you could get hurt.” 

He shakes his head, continuing to look out from the tree. 

“Look at your pants, they’re a mess,” Erik chides. His voice is joking but turns worried. “I don’t want you to get in trouble again.”  

“At least come and look for a second,” he says. He doesn’t want to upset his brother. He doesn’t want to upset Mamma, either, but she seems to get angry with him no matter what he does. 

Erik climbs up a bit further and slips slightly, letting out a loud swear. Wille giggles and tells his brother he’s gonna tell on him for using a bad word. Sitting on a big branch, Erik sticks out his tongue at Wille then looks over the garden, too. They both rest there for a bit, catching their breath and telling each other jokes. 

“Do you want to go and steal ice cream from the kitchens?” Erik asks, breaking the silence they’ve settled into. 

That, Wille thinks, is the best idea ever. He nods excitedly. 

“Race you!”

He hears Erik shout his name, but Wille is already climbing speedily down the tree, not even bothering to check branches before jumping on them. Erik laughs from above and calls out for him to slow down, again. He’s nearing the ground and can tell Erik is gaining on him. His big brother is right behind him when he hears a loud shout and watches, helpless, as his brother goes tumbling the rest of the way out of the tree. 

“Erik!” Wille yells, scrambling down the last few branches.

Later, Wille sits on the edge of his brother’s bed with red, teary eyes. The cast on Erik’s arm is bright blue, one of Wille’s favorite colors but maybe not so much right now. 

“I’m sorry,” he murmurs, staring down at his hands and feeling terrible. 

“Hey,” Erik says, waiting until Wille looks up at him. “It’s okay. It wasn’t your fault.”

Wille shakes his head, ashamed.

“Plus,” Erik nudges him with his unbroken arm and grins, “I beat you to the bottom, didn’t I?” 

–

Two.

Somehow, they’ve managed to sneak away from both their parents and SÄPO, which isn’t really much of a miracle because Wille has gotten rather good at it. It is more of a surprise that it had been Erik who suggested it, rather than Wille. It had been the other way around their whole lives; Erik, always playing the part of responsible older brother and Crown Prince. 

He knew it was probably because things had been pretty shit, lately, and Wille had spent most of their vacation so far brooding. In his defense, everything he did seemed to get him scolded or dismissed. Something about the summertime made it worse. Likely everything amplified from Wille being trapped at the palace all day attending to princely duties, rather than being able to escape to school. 

Erik noticed, though, like he always does. Earlier that day, they’d spotted a cliff further down the coast where a group of people were jumping from. Wille had watched in jealousy from his spot at the lunch table, ignoring his parents’ stilted conversation about the state of the food. Catching his eye, Erik nodded towards the cliff with his head and quirked an eyebrow. Wille just shrugged, but a conspiratorial grin grew on Erik’s face, and he winked.

Now, they hike up a hill through low palm brush and rocky sand.

“Keep up, slowpoke,” Erik teases, striding ahead. 

The late afternoon sun is hot on the back of his neck and his feet slip in the loose sand as he walks. They grow nearer to the sea, though, he can smell it, so he speeds up. When they break the trees, the open air makes Wille grin. He feels the weight – of his mistakes, his title, all of it –fade away. Stepping to the edge of the cliff and peering over, he can think of nothing other than the rush of blood in his ears and can feel nothing but the pounding of his heart in his chest. 

“Woah there,” Erik says, grabbing Wille’s shoulder and pulling him back. “Don’t go tumbling off just yet. You’ve got to jump out, okay?”

Wille rolls his eyes and pulls his shirt off. “I know.” 

“Ready?” He looks over and sees his big brother – not the Crown Prince, his brother – crouch down, preparing to run. 

Wille grins. “Tre.”

“Två.”

“Gå!” he shouts. 

They each take three bounding steps forward, then launch out over the water. Wille feels so alive. He yells as they sail through the air and Erik whoops just before they both go crashing into the clear, blue water. 

-

Three. 

“Holy shit,” Wille gasps. “This is yours?” 

“Yep,” Erik says proudly, running a hand along the hood. The brand new car is sleek and perfectly polished, with dark rims and red lines down the gray body. 

“Can we take it out now?” 

Erik gestures with his head and climbs in the front seat. Giddily, Wille climbs into the passenger side and runs his hands along the leather seats, the shiny dashboard. “Holy shit,” he repeats. 

Grinning, Erik turns the key and the engine spurs smoothly to life. He revs the engine a few times. “I know right?” 

They pull out of the palace gates, and Wille directs his brother to a long, straight road his friends from school have taken him to before. He cranks up the music and leans his head out the window. This new school year has been a shitshow already and Wille is just happy to have a break. With the wind and the sun, speeding down the road, he can forget all of that.

“You’ve gotta gun it, Erik, that’s the whole point!” Wille complains once they get there, one long, wide road stretching ahead of them, not a soul in sight. “None of my friends have cars that are anywhere near as fast as this one. Come on. You have to.” 

Finally, Erik concedes and rolls the top down. As he picks up speed, Wille cranks the radio and stands halfway out of his seat, lifting his arms. He whoops into the air, grinning wildly as they careen down the road. His heart is beating out of his chest, and he can hear Erik laughing. 

“Faster!” he shouts into the wind. The engine revs and Wille laughs, closing his eyes and tipping his head back. Here, like this, he can forget who he is. He can pretend Erik is just his brother, and this is just a car, and they have nothing to do, nowhere to be.

“Sit down, Wille,” Erik calls out. 

He sits. “This is fucking awesome– Why are you slowing down?” 

Erik glances over with an apologetic frown. “We’ve got to go back, I have a meeting with Mamma soon.” 

Wille tries not to let his shoulders slump. He nods and looks away.

[prototypelq]

...do you think Dante ever realised how Vergil-like he was acting around Patty? She was quite obnoxious in the anime, did he ever think 'oh no is this what being Vergil felt like?', or 'was I ever this annoying?'...

Knowing Patty did him a lot of good, do you think it, per chance, also reminded him of happier times in his and Vergil's childhood when they just played together and annoyed each other all the time?...only to, of course squash those nicer memories the moment Patty leaves, because then the reminders of what he's done come crashing down....

[mysweetlouise]

(NOW PLAYING: MISERY

With Dark😈😈)

Darks thoughts rung as he came to, it felt like fuzz was unwrapping from their brain.

The demon ran his hand down the side of his face and winced. There was blood, darker than a normal humans but still identifiable as blood. How the hell- Lights began blaring in his memory, the growl of something hitting gravel, the stars watching as he lay on the cold floor; did he get hit by a car??

"How?" He muttered to himself, the blood now on his hands sticking his fingers together futilely.

The room was silent.

the light soon switched on outside the room, flooding underneath the door. there was a soft humming, and the door opened, a woman stepping into the room, carrying a tray. she paused in the doorway, watching him, then switched on the light, a beaming smile on her face. she was a small, slight person - pale, almost tired looking, with gentle green eyes and a small chip in one of her front teeth. her voice had the slightest hint of a scottish accent.

"oh, hello! you're awake! im sorry for not leaving any lights on, i thought it'd be easier to help you sleep - you'd need the rest, im pretty sure you broke that ankle of yours. but ive got presents!"

she gently sets down the tray near the bed - there's a bottle of painkillers, a mug of what looks to be lavender tea, a bowl of tomato soup, and a clumsily home baked chocolate cupcake.

[fluffypotatey]

Sorry for making my first question about Júhua about shadowpeach, but I'm obsessed. She knows about macaques entire codependent mess towards wukong cause of shadowplay (enjoyed the fic where she read him filth). But does she know about wukong's side? She known him a long time, but wukong doesn't really talk about himself or his failed relationships

no yeah, i know i mention it very briefly in the series but swk is pretty tight lipped when it came to discussing past relationships with her. mostly because a lot of their time together was during his 500 year punishment and he was coping horribly :) like all she would get is vague stories that swk could never finish and always had this bittersweet expression

also, literally the day they met was right after swk and Macky’s fight (such a fun introduction to the monkey king her mother was previously hyping up before lmao) so he was even more reticent in sharing that can of worms. especially when Júhua and her mother overheard the tail end of the fight

so Júhua knows that Macky meant something to swk but the specifics are still vague to her. is she able to read between the lines? yes, but she would still like to hear it from swk whenever he’s comfortable

[always-a-joyful-note]

Do you ever think about MEZZO'' and their character development and go insane? Do you ever think about how these two guys who grew up in opposite ways economically both came into the industry with broken families? Do you ever think about how they were so sure they would never get along beyond friendly coworkers but also both wanted to try so hard to get along well with the other? You ever think about how Sogo was so afraid to mess up that he constantly held himself back? Do you think about how Tamaki wanted to learn but had to push past his entire life of putting himself first? Do you think about how they supported each other during the other's reconnecting with their families and, when those families abandoned them, promised to stay with the other?

Just....MEZZO slowly becoming this thing between a real friendship and a family. Not best friends, like they said once, but maybe unbreakable friends

[mlobsters]

little wolf-skin boots and clove cigarettes an erotic funeral for which she's dressed her perfume smells like burning leaves every day is halloween

#goals

loving you was like loving the dead (it was like fucking the dead)

spotify

[placeinthisworld]

ngl it feels free to have finally escaped from the swiftie brain rot train……i feel content

[shinylittlewrittings]

DP Promt!

Tw: mentions of death and the consequences of it. Not explicit or detailed, but still.

So it's been a few years, the Anti-Ecto acts have been abolished, the Fenton Parents arrested for all the trouble they've caused and so on so forth. Whatever you want.

Our story starts when team Phantom(Danny, Sam, Tucker and Jazz) take the (trusted)authorities down to the basement to shut down The Portal.

Right before they cut the power Danny stops them. Not to keep the portal open, just to give them a warning that he has his suspicions of what may still be there. Of course he gives no indication of what his suspicions are.

The power is cut and they watch as the tear in reality gives a few pulses before it softly collapses in on itself, pretty anticlimactic.

Then the stench hits them like a freight train. When they can finally look through the tears in their eyes... they see Danny's body.

Danny, didn't survive the accident. He's not a halfa because he's half-dead-half-alive, he's a halfa because he stopped dying right in the middle of forming. He's very much a ghost, he's just too connected and tethered to his body to the place of his death to finish forming. This is how to comes out he's Phantom.

Please ignore tags

[rjshope]

Just in case, i'm still here x)

[feroluce]

Obsessing over the new ingirida / nobokai possibilities in pokemas after the pla update because oh my goddddddddd

Just. Irida hanging out with the twins for a few days in Pasio, getting to spend time with them and even become friends, and realizing that this really is Ingo, but it's not her Ingo, at least not yet. But she doesn't really have any way of knowing what to do about this, and she can't stick around long enough to figure it out. She has to go back.

Irida very seriously taking Ingo's hands in hers and looking up at him and telling him that if he ever finds himself at a loss somewhere and with nowhere to go, come to the pearl clan. Come find her. She'll help him, she swears it.

Ingo finds it a little odd, but she says it so sadly (plus there's a cute girl holding his hands dbkxjske) and so sincerely that he can't really bring himself to ask about it. Ingo nods and tells her yes, ok, he promises he'll come find her someday, they'll see each other again.

And Irida looking as though she might cry as she stands in front of the rift, telling Emmet to please, please, take good care of Ingo, spend lots of time with him... Treasure all of it, don't take it for granted, ok?

[darubyprincx]

[Image IDs in alt text.]

some thoughts on the nature of change

[krtri]

YOURE THE REALEST PERSON EVER FOR TRANTHARRY POSTING!!!!!! ive been saying this since day 1. You get me. Thank you. Cheering and screaming.

omg thank you so so so much 😳😭🫡 i almost felt bad for the spam at first but idk trantharry make me crazy!!! like it started with me like “i think they could kiss. for the laughs.” but then i gave it some thought and like… i think they could be really compatible! they have several common interests, they’re both SOOOOO divorced, trant would know how to help harry get and stay sober, harry could maybe become the father that stepped up (emphasis on maybe), i think they’d both be total total freaks, trant would actually be interested in how harry’s mind works, they could be so annoying together, etc etc etc. 🥰

[peridoxikal-redux]

This was made shortly after Akira Toriyama's passing was announced to the public. It's undeniable he had a major effect on my art and work, so, since im bad with words, i wanted to show my gratitude in an art piece.

Rest in peace, legend.