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inthedayswhenlandswerefew · 2 days ago

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The Keys Of Heaven [Chapter 5: Who Has Spoken Through The Prophets]

A/N: We're over halfway done, besties! Bless you for reading 🙏

Series summary: Three years ago, Father Aemond Targaryen performed a miracle. Now he is a cardinal, a media sensation, and a frontrunner to be elected pope. You are a nun who has been brought to Vatican City to assist with the papal conclave. But when your paths cross by happenstance, you must both reckon with your decision to join the Catholic Church…and what you want from the future.

Series warnings: Language, sexual content (18+ readers only), references to abuse and violence, volcanoes, bodily injury, death, peril, scheming, pining, some drugs/alcohol/smoking, Catholic trivia you never asked to learn, kangaroos!

Word count: 6.2k

🦘 A very special thanks to my Aussie slang consultant @bearwithegg and also her mum (any mistakes are mine) 🦘

💜 All my writing can be found HERE! 💜

Tagging: @mrs-starkgaryen @chattylurker @lauraneedstochill @ecstaticactus @neithriddle, more in comments! 🥰

🗝️ Let me know if you’d like to be added to the taglist 🗝️

“What name will you choose?” you tease Aemond as reporters stand on the other side of the glass doors, strobing flashes of camera clicks and the deadened drone of their voices as they recount his second miracle into their microphones, one take, two takes, wanting to get it just right. Aemond is clasping your right hand as he sits beside your hospital bed. Neither of you speak to the reporters, or talk to the doctors and nurses about anything except medical care; you don’t want anyone to be able to say the vow of secrecy was broken. But you are posing for the audience, you the nearly-lost sheep, Aemond the benevolent shepherd. You’re just happy you get to touch him. The nurses cleaned his blood from your hair and your face, and you wish they hadn’t. “You should bring back something really wonky and old school. A name that hasn’t been used in centuries. Maybe…Pope Zosimus?”

“Pope Dionysius,” Aemond says, grinning. “No unfortunate connotations there.”

“Pope Hilarius. You do have a great sense of humor.”

“Pope Simplicius.”

“Pope Valentine, so romantic.”

“Pope Telesphorus!”

“Pope Caius, wasn’t that a character in the Twilight movies?”

“Pope Peter,” Aemond says. “After the apostle and the founder of the Church.”

“You’re proud enough for it.”

“Even prouder than you think. I already have a name picked out.” This is a grievous fault, one that no good cardinal would admit to. But Aemond reveals things to you that are unfit for even the confessional booth. You have a concussion, Aemond has fifty stitches, and you are both wearing pale blue hospital gowns; you could almost be mistaken for a normal couple.

Beyond the glass, nurses are telling the reporters that their time is up and shooing them off, down the hall, down the staircase, out into the world where they will tell billions of people what they’ve seen: Aemond’s saintlike selflessness, his chaste devotion to his flock. You will be a footnote: A nun was nearly killed, a nun’s life was saved, now let’s talk about the man who performed a miracle in Saint Peter’s Square.

You can’t ask anybody what is going on within the brick walls of Vatican City, but you have caught the nurses exchanging whispers. A representative for the dean Cardinal Seaborn released a public statement that voting would be paused for three days, allowing time for the cardinals to reflect and pray on recent events. Priests hailing from parishes across the globe are giving sermons declaring that serious consideration should be given to the signs God has made so visible. The Third Miracle Challenge has gone viral on TikTok, documenting people achieving things they once thought were impossible (for example, waking up at 5 a.m. to go jogging, or calling to schedule their own doctor’s appointment). #SexyPope is trending worldwide on Twitter.

If he wins, I’ll never be able to touch him again.

Two nurses enter your room—you’re being held for observation for twenty-four hours, and will be released this evening provided no worrying symptoms develop—and yank the mint green curtains shut, the tiny metal hooks clanging on the rods. They give you a cursory once-over and then spend several minutes chatting to Aemond in their thick Italian accents: “Cardinal Targaryen, will you say a prayer for my sick grandmother?” “Cardinal Targaryen, what is your favorite psalm?” “Cardinal Targaryen, how do you learn to forgive people who have wronged you?” Then they skuttle out of the room and close the door behind them. No impropriety is suspected; Aemond is now above reproach.

I already have a name picked out, Aemond had said. Your eyes drop to the thin gold chain that holds his medallion, concealed beneath the scratchy blue cotton of his hospital gown. “Who are you wearing?”

Instead of answering, he leans in so you can see for yourself; his uninjured left hand sinks into the mattress, the remnants of the cologne he put on yesterday morning steal into your lungs, warm honeyed light like the flame of a candle, vanilla, cinnamon, amber. Your fingertips slip under the chain and follow it down to the gold disk, freeing it from beneath his gown. It’s Saint Thomas Aquinas, his name inscribed in an arc above his portrait. You hold the medallion in your palm as Aemond waits patiently; you like him this close, you don’t want him to leave.

“Pope Thomas,” you muse. “A papal name that’s never been used before.”

“He was a great thinker. He established the doctrine of natural law, which informed the rise of just legal systems, human rights, democracy.”

“And he is very, very famous. He’s worshiped by intellectuals.” You turn over the medallion. On the back is etched one of the saint’s quotes: The things that we love tell us what we are. You ask, only half-serious, perhaps afraid to be more: “What do you love, Aemo?” Power, fame, triumph, me?

He shrugs and smiles, small and crooked. “A few things.”

The disk glints in the midday sun that streams in through the windows. “Why gold?”

“Why not? It’s the best.”

“Greedy,” you say, releasing the medallion. Aemond hesitates before returning to his chair. “Thomas suits you. It was also the name of the apostle who was so skeptical of Christ’s resurrection. He had to feel the Lord’s wounds with his own hands before he was convinced.”

“And I have doubts,” Aemond says, amused, still smiling.

“Most people do, it seems.”

“You don’t?” A pause, a tad self-conscious. “About anyone?”

“I believe in the Faith, and I believe in you. But those are two very different things.”

Aemond looks down at his bandaged palm, meditative, perhaps even regretful. There’s no going back now. The whole world saw what he did.

“You weren’t like this before,” you say softly. “On the beach, you weren’t…” You stop to think of how to word it. “You weren’t as sharp, or as ambitious, or as…wrathful.”

“That was a long time ago. Twenty-nine years.”

You watch him, seeking. What is there beneath the surface? What runs through him like arteries of magma under the earth? “Do you ever go home to Nisyros?”

“Not if I can help it.”

“Not even with all your diplomatic missions and your interviews and your YouTube videos?”

Aemond looks at you, direct, hard, like it’s a warning. “No.”

“Did something happen there?”

“I told you. I never felt like there was really a place for me. Why would I want to go back?”

“But your family is still in Nisyros, aren’t they? You don’t see them?”

“They take the ferry to Santorini when they want to visit me.”

You consider this, tugging restlessly on your own medallion: cheap plain iron, a humble saint.

Aemond asks before you can say anything else: “How’s your head?”

“The codeine is helping.”

“You’ll have to be very careful when we get back to Vatican City.”

You are startled, unsure of what he means. Careful not to touch him? Careful not to want him?

Then Aemond clarifies: “You need plenty of rest each night. No physical exertion, no stress.”

You chuckle nervously. “Oh, right. Sure thing.”

“You still want to assist with the conclave, don’t you?”

“Defo. If they’ll let me stay.”

“I’ll insist upon it,” Aemond says. And Cardinal Seaborn will listen; who could question a living saint, an intermediary between mortals and God? “I overheard a nurse on the phone earlier. She was talking to Mother Maureen Ashwell from your convent in Sydney. It sounded like she was asking a million questions about you, trying to make sure you were alright.”

You smile wistfully. “I wish I could call her. Or text her, or send an email or an Instagram DM or something.” But you can’t without breaking seclusion. You’ll have so much to tell her when you return; you can be honest with her in ways you can’t with Rhaena.

“She seems like a very kind person.”

“Mother Maureen is a blessing to us,” you say, distracted now as you think of her, long dove grey hair always running down her back in a braid, oversized sweaters with cats or ducks or koala bears on them. You gaze out the window at the gleaming silver serpent of the Tiber, where Saint Beatrix fished out the bodies of her martyred brothers in the 300s. “The time she grew up in was very different from ours. She got pregnant when she was in secondary school, and her parents sent her into the bush to stay with her grandparents, and when the baby was born the nurses took him away. He was adopted out to a family someplace, but Mother Maureen doesn’t know where. She’s never been able to find him. She doesn’t even know if he’s in Australia. But she’s still looking, and she’s created all these resources for parents with similar experiences, databases and support groups and brochures made by pro bono lawyers so people know their legal rights. It didn’t make her bitter. She’s the most compassionate person I’ve ever met. And I think that’s so beautiful, when a soul endures something horrible and can still find comfort in the Faith. Can still use it to make the world better.”

But Aemond—scarred, faithless, his sins as loud to you as the roar of an ocean—just studies his bandaged right hand again, not saying a word.

~~~~~~~~~~

It is nightfall when a driver arrives at the hospital to take you and Aemond to Vatican City. You have been given clothes from the donation bin to wear until you can change at the Domus Sanctae Marthae. You look like you’re back at your relaxed convent in Sydney: maroon jumper, Levi jeans, pink Converses. Aemond dons a black button-up shirt and matching trousers and loafers, like he’s going to a funeral.

Cardinal Seaborn is there to meet you at the gate, or rather, he is there to meet Aemond; he gives you a wary glance and then, when Aemond shoots him a daggerlike stare with his head held high, Seaborn smiles accommodatingly.

“Brother, we are so glad to have you back among us,” Seaborn tells Aemond warmly, and reaches to pat his shoulder but then stops short, like he’s not sure if it’s proper to touch him, if perhaps Aemond might be too far above that now. You and Aemond follow Seaborn to the entranceway of the Domus Sanctae Martha. From the other side of the brick wall, you can hear that the crowds gathered in Saint Peter’s Square are singing Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.

Cardinal Seaborn escorts Aemond upstairs to his room, while to walk alone to yours. You change into a rose pink jumper and lavender skirt, then cover them with a white wool habit. In front of your bathroom mirror, you adjust your veil and snare pins into your hair to hold it in place.

I don’t want to wear this, you think, more clearly than you ever have since you’ve arrived in Vatican City. This isn’t me. This isn’t necessary to serve God. But ancient places have intractable rituals, and here you must oblige them.

In the dining hall, the cardinals are enjoying wine and water and bread and spaghetti with basil pesto. Nuns are scurrying around with pitchers and plates. When you and Aemond walk in with Cardinal Seaborn—you several steps behind the men—the over one hundred cardinals draped in red stand to applaud Aemond: his survival, his bravery, his miracle. The loudest cheers come from Aemond’s usual table, Kazi cupping his hands around his mouth like a bullhorn. Across the room, Jahoda and his companions are clapping listlessly with stony expressions.

Lucky sees you, frowns for only a fraction of a second, marches to the center of the floor. “Brothers!” he proclaims, and they will listen to him more than they would to any of the others, Cam because he is so young, Lando because he is so quiet and unassuming, Kazi because he is Kazi. “There has been much suspicion and slander levied against Cardinal Targaryen. Yet God’s design is always shown in time if we have the patience and the good sense to see it. Those of us who know his character and his spiritual gifts never doubted him. But for you who did, let now your consciences be soothed. God brought the cardinal and the sister close together in friendship, grounded in their mutual Faith, so that when she was in mortal peril Cardinal Targaryen would be there to save her from an agonizing death and reveal God’s enduring capacity to perform miracles to the world, to renew our Church, to bring countless lost souls back to the light...”

Rhaena sprints through the thunderous shouts and thumps of fists on tables, then halts with a jolt before she can crash into you, her runners squeaking against the tile floor. “Sorry, didn’t want to jostle you, mate,” she says, laughing, and she gingerly touches your head, your hair covered by your veil. “You good? You’re not in pain or anything?”

“I’m a little banged up, but she’ll be right.”

“You aren’t burned?” Rhaena inspects your face, your hands. “Cardinal Seaborn told us about the fire.”

“Aemo,” you begin, then quickly correct yourself. “Cardinal Targaryen got me out just in time.”

Rhaena’s mouth quivers, then she throws her arms around you and sniffles into your shoulder. And a memory comes back to you from across the globe: taking the guests staying in the shelter to Murramarang National Park to hike and see the roos, and as you were distributing tuna sangers for lunch Rhaena had asked you: Mum, do we have any Tim Tams? And she was mortified when she realized what she’d done, but you only smiled and replied: I can be your mum if you want.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Rhaena whispers.

“Me too.”

“And they’re letting you stay until the conclave is over?”

“Well I can’t leave you here alone with these dinosaurs, can I?”

Rhaena giggles, swiping tears from her cheeks. Now Sister Penny, Sister Helvi, and Sister Nuru have arrived to welcome you back too. Then Sister Penny, flustered and apologetic, asks if you wouldn’t mind helping and hands you a pitcher of red wine.

Aemond sits down with his friends. “Now you are mutilated just like Jake!” Kazi says too loudly, raising Aemond’s bandaged right hand into the air. From several tables away, Cardinal Jacob Green of Iran glares at him.

“They’re saying you will restore the Church’s numbers and more,” Cam tells Aemond, his eyes alight like torches behind his round glasses. “Cardinal Seaborn only told us the bare facts, but he cannot insulate us from something as massive as this. The people out in the square have been chanting your name all day. Good Lord, I can’t wait to get out of here and be able to watch the news and see the posts for myself.”

“It will be over soon,” Lucky says, beaming. “Two more days of deliberation, and then you’ll win the very first ballot. I guarantee it.”

“Unless you go belly-up like that fossilized nun, of course,” Kazi jokes with a wink.

Aemond smiles and takes his rosary out of a pocket of his scarlet cassock. It is red, just like the one you once gave him on the beach; but now the beads are ruby, not glass, and the chain and cross are flashing, polished gold. “I’ll say a few extra Hail Marys to be safe.”

“I’m relieved God has put his thumb so definitively on the scale,” Lando says, twirling pesto-green spaghetti onto his fork. “Now whoever is voting for me can stop.”

You tease as you refill his wine glass: “You know, Cardinal Almazan, there was a Pope Lando once. Way back in the 900s, I think.”

Lando chuckles and waves his hand. “Please Sister, do not speak it into existence, the notion is horrifying.”

“No one can stop Aemond now,” Lucky says in his low gravelly voice, satisfied, victorious, at peace. “You are a living saint. And you have no skeletons in your closet.”

Aemond nods, but is peering somberly down into his wine glass. “If I win, I’m giving you a position here at the Vatican.”

“And I won’t take it.”

“You will. I’ll make you. You can’t argue with Saint Peter’s successor.”

Lucky grins widely. “Sure I can. I’d argue with you anywhere.”

“Lucky, I need you to do this for me.”

“Why?”

Aemond is exasperated. “Because they are kidnapping and ransoming priests in Haiti. They murdered a nun last year. You can advocate for your country from here. You can organize aid missions and continue your calls for an international intervention to build stability there. You can make France fund it. I’ll support you. I’ll champion Haiti more forceful than any pope ever has.”

Lucky gnaws on a piece of bread, unmovable. “We are doctors of the soul. We must go where the disease is.”

There is the screech of a chair against the floor—deliberate, meaningful—and Cardinal Green stands. He walks slowly to Aemond’s table, as if gathering his strength. His hands are clutched together, five fingers on one, only a thumb left on the other. When he stops, his eyes sweeping around the table to acknowledge Cam, Lando, Lucky, and even Kazi, Aemond stares up at Jake uncertainly, touching his fingertips to the gold cross that replaced the one he snapped in half to free you from the burning car like Saint Catherine shattered the breaking wheel.

“Cardinal Targaryen,” Jake says, and the whole room is watching him. The nuns peek between refilling glasses and clearing plates. Cardinal Seaborn fidgets fretfully with his zucchetto.

“Cardinal Green,” Aemond replies tentatively, not knowing what sort of trap is being laid for him. Lucky is rapping his knuckles against the table. Kazi and Cam exchange a skeptical glance. Lando eats his spaghetti.

“I ask that you remember the Catholics of the Middle East,” Jake tells Aemond. “They are small in number, but their love for God is great, and they are so often in danger of persecution, torture, execution. Please do not overlook them.” Now his voice is tremulous, pleading. “Please do not allow the Church to forget them. Please do what you can to foster a just peace between all people there, Christians, Muslims, Jews. There is enough land for everyone. It is an ancient and beautiful part of our world, not a lost cause. Please listen when the people there speak.”

Aemond is so stunned that it takes him a moment to respond. “I will,” he swears.

Jake places his maimed hand on Aemond’s shoulder, and gasps ripple through the dining hall. Jake says: “I think you’re too young. I think you’re too at home in high places. But God has made His favor towards you so apparent, and His judgment is infinitely wiser than my own. Therefore, I submit to it.”

He’s surrendering. He’s withdrawing from the race.

“Thank you, Cardinal Green,” Aemond says, and to you he seems genuinely rattled.

Jake bows his head, then leaves the dining hall. Across the room, Jahoda wears a mask of stoicism, cracks splitting through porcelain. Auclair is glaring venomously at Aemond. Ferarri, his hair still ink-black but his face creased with deep wrinkles, turns to mutter something to Koppel and Nemerenco. If Aemond wins, they have lost the Chair of Saint Peter for two generations. Aemond is only forty-one. He could live another half a century.

When dinner is over, the cardinals flow in a sea of red out of the dining hall and towards the elevators. You and Rhaena are near the back of the crowd, specks of white in red currents.

“I hate this building,” Kazi is complaining to Cam as he puffs on his vape. “If I wanted to see sad rectangular architecture, I could have stayed in Poland...”

“Rhaena, I want you to know something,” you tell her as you walk together.

She is still buoyant, still so relieved that you are back. “Yeah?”

“Look...even if I ever wasn’t a nun for some reason, we would still be close. I would still see you all the time, we would still talk every day.”

Rhaena spins to you, alarmed, panicked; and now you see this wasn’t the right thing to say. “What do you mean? Why wouldn’t you be a nun?”

“I just...you know...life can change, and I never want you to worry that—”

“You’re thinking about leaving?”

And the terror and grief on her face is so frantic that you instantly shake your head and laugh, like it’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever heard. “No, of course not!”

“You have a concussion,” Rhaena says resolutely.

“Righto.”

“You don’t know what you’re saying.”

“Yeah, I might still be a bit gone.”

“Let me make you a cuppa for once,” Rhaena says, smiling, and zips off towards the kitchenette on the ground floor of the Domus Sanctae Marthae.

Dear God, what am I going to do?

Before you can follow Rhaena, Lucky splits off from the red river of cardinals and approaches you. Your thoughts still whirling, you knit your hands together and bow your head demurely.

“Cardinal Louissaint, thank you so much for what you’ve done for Aemond—”

“Sister,” he says, cutting you off like a blade. Then he leans in close so no one else can hear. You can smell cigar smoke and the vivid green of basil. His large dark eyes are not cruel but urgent, grave, imploring you to understand. “If you care anything for this conclave, and this Church, and this Faith, you will go back to Australia. And you will never speak to Aemond again.”

You’re so stunned that when your mouth falls open, at first nothing comes out—I’m sorry, I never planned for this to happen, I’m burning up with thoughts I never knew were possible, I can’t lose him again, I can’t stop—and he’s gone before you can find your words.

~~~~~~~~~~

Rhaena is snoring softly in her single-sized bed across the room, but you can’t sleep. You stare up at the unembellished wooden cross on the stark white wall, ghost-grey in the moonlight and crawling with shadows, wondering if you are a visionary or a traitor.

I’ll always want to help people, but I don’t have to be a nun to do that, you cannot stop thinking, voices in your skull like the intercessions of angels or saints. I could work for a women’s shelter, I could go back to school to be a social worker, I could be a foster parent, I could work at the Asylum Seekers Centre in Sydney.

And you could have a lover, a boyfriend, a husband, words you once thought would never again hold significance for you. You were a bride of Christ, the man of no vices, no deceptions and no pain and no threats. But now...

I don’t just want a chance to find someone. I want Aemond.

As quietly as you can, you climb out of bed, slide on your white wool slippers, and sneak out of the bedroom without disturbing Rhaena. In the hallway, the yellow incandescent lights are bright and the air is still and silent, the dry heat of the furnace, the cold sand-colored marble tile of the floor. You meander towards the kitchenette to fix yourself a cuppa, something herbal and caffeine-free, maybe chamomile or peppermint. Yes, peppermint would be Christmasy.

As the clock ticks on the wall, you sit alone sipping your tea at the same table where Sister Augustina died, and if she had lived then it would have been her accompanying Cardinal Bogdi Marcu to the airport, and you would never have been trapped in the car, and Aemond wouldn’t have been waiting by the gate to hear the crash and the panic of the crowd, and there would be no second miracle, and news of it would not have spread to cover the world like the flood Noah withstood in his ark, and Aemond’s victory in less than three days would not be all but assured.

What happens to me if he wins?

You’ll fly home to Australia with Rhaena, and you’ll spend the rest of the holiday season at the convent with Mother Maureen and all the other sisters, lighting candles, wrapping presents, baking bikkies, cooking ham and prawns and mince pies and Christmas pudding, playing games, singing the songs you miss so much here on the hushed island of seclusion...and then you’ll decide what to do next.

What happens to the world if he wins? Is it better, or is it worse?

Your peppermint tea is gone, but you are no closer to sleep. You wander out of the kitchenette, down the hall, and into an elevator. You are wearing only your pajamas—white with red and green stripes, and the crimson silhouette of flying reindeer—but no one else is awake to see you out of your habit, hair uncovered and body unclaimed by Christ. Or at least, you assume no one else is awake until you unlock Aemond’s door to find his room empty. You stare at his bed, perplexed; the sheets are tangled, and when you glide your hand beneath them there is still warmth clinging to the soft white cotton. You lift them to your face and inhale: cologne, smoke, sweat, something so familiar it feels like it has been with you your whole life.

Where is he?

You leave Aemond’s room, relock the door, and give it one last puzzled frown. His room is at the end of a hallway all by itself. He doesn’t even have a neighbor anymore since Cardinal Marcu returned to Romania.

You walk back to the elevator, then pass it when you notice the sealed room at the far end of the corridor, the door barred by a blood red ribbon and wax stamped with the Vatican seal. According to custom, it will remain untouched until a new pope is chosen. The late Holy Father eschewed the papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace—roomy, regal, a gem of the Renaissance—and chose instead to reside here in the same spartan guest house where he stayed as a cardinal, before his name was scrawled onto the ballots of over two-thirds of his peers and white smoke billowed from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel.

Fat pope, thin pope; will the next Holy Father be modest too, a man who strips away the gold trimmings and the dignified distance and the erudite speeches in Latin, and fades into the simplicity of a servant? Or will he be someone who reminds people of the ancient power of the pope: an emperor with over a billion subjects, a messenger chosen by God, the trustee of the Keys of Heaven?

By the sealed door is an altar of candles, white and red, still flickering, dimming, burning down to pools of wax in small clear cylinders of glass. Sister Penny, in one of her scatterbrained moments, must have forgotten to extinguish them. You blow the candles out one by one, then pick up a glass vessel full of melted red wax, hot and fluid like molten rock. You pull back your sleeve and then, tilting the glass carefully, spill drips of wax onto the underside of your forearm, where they dry into irregular splotches like blood drops. You close your eyes as the searing pinpoints of heat bite through you, remembering: his palm on your face, his tongue parting your lips, fire on your skin but an inferno below, blood turned to magma ready to erupt. Then you peel off the dots of wax, imagining that Aemond is the one doing it.

You take the elevator back down to the ground floor and then realize, when you are perfectly still, that you can just barely hear a mechanical humming coming from down the hall. Quizzically, you follow it. There is a small gym here in the Domus Sanctae Marthae, mostly used by geriatric cardinals who plod effortfully along on treadmills or lift 10-kilo weights in the bright morning hours. But now it is after midnight, and the rest of the building is slumbering, and someone else is afflicted with your restlessness.

When you open the door to the gym, you find only one person inside. Aemond is jogging on a treadmill, looking not at all like a cardinal: grey crewneck, grey trackies, white runners pounding on the belt. His clothes are damp with dark spreading pools of perspiration; rivers of it pour down his face. His sand-colored hair is wet. The thin gold chain of his medallion gleams against his throat. You let the door close behind you with a soft click.

Salt, you think dazedly, staring at him. Like the sweat on his sheets, like his blood on my lips.

Aemond looks up at you and raises his eyebrows, not breaking his stride.

You ask when you shake off your trance: “What are you doing?”

“Jogging, obviously.”

You glance down at his right hand, still bandaged. “Should you be doing that?”

“Well I don’t need my hands to run, Sydney.”

“Can’t sleep?” Just like me?

“Can’t sleep,” he agrees, breathing heavily. He hits a button on the treadmill and the belt slows to a stop. When it is motionless, he sits down on the side rail, slicking back his dripping hair, panting.

You go to Aemond, kneeling in front of him on the floor. As he mops the sweat from his face with his crewneck—momentarily revealing that he is wearing nothing underneath, vulnerable belly, sparse hair on his chest—you see that his eye catches on the front of your reindeer pajamas, no shapeless habit, no bra. You smile guiltily. “Sorry.”

Aemond chuckles. “No, don’t apologize. I have to practice resisting temptation.”

Because soon he’ll be the pope. “It feels real now.”

He nods, biting the corner of his lip, dragging his fingers through his hair again.

“Aemo, are you...are you alright?” Are you sure you want to do this?

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” Aemond says, his breathing still rapid, sweat still glistening on his scarred face. “This is all I’ve thought about for years. For decades. And nothing else could ever compare to it. I was so sure it was what I wanted. And when I was made a cardinal and I met Lucky and Kazi and Lando and Cam...I felt like I’d found the family I should have been born into. People who saw value in me. People who protected me. And their faith in me is so powerful. They’re so convinced I’ll be able to help the people they’ve spent their lives fighting for. But...”

His blue eye flicks to your face, and you know what you see there because it is the same thing that fills your arteries, your lungs, your skull: doubt. “Now you don’t know what you want.”

“You’re such an aberration,” Aemond says quietly, almost a whisper.

You reach for him, your right hand clasping his left, and beneath your palm his knuckles are warm and slick with sweat. “I feel drawn to you in a way that I can only understand as divine. If God brought us together again, there must be a reason.”

Aemond is tormented; there’s no way to know for sure. “For me to be chosen as the next pope by this conclave, or for me to leave?”

We could leave together, you almost say, a thought that stuns you in its clarity. Is that God’s design, or the Enemy’s? Is it a sin or a revelation, like Paul’s vision on the road to Damascus?

Aemond continues: “And there is one skeleton I’m worried about.”

“It can’t be bad enough to overshadow all of the good that you’ve done.”

But when he looks at you, the fear is radiant Aemond’s scarred face.

His miracle on Nea Kameni wasn’t real, you think without any evidence. If it was, he’d believe in the Faith. But how could anyone ever prove that? All the eyewitnesses told the same story. “Aemo, what is it?”

He still doesn’t answer.

Something else? Embezzlement, violence, coverups, a woman? And now there is a stab of envy, the point of a blade scraping around in your bone marrow, the notion of him loving someone who isn’t you and never will be.

“I have a son,” Aemond says.

You’re so shocked you fall over, catching yourself with your palms as you collapse to the cold white marble floor. “What?”

Aemond speaks slowly, like it takes herculean strength, like he’s lifting the world on his shoulders. “I have a son I’ve never met.”

That’s impossible. But of course it isn’t; cardinals have had bastards for thousands of years. Even some popes did, before modernity made such a thing almost impossible to conceal. “Who knows?” Lucky, Kazi, Lando, Cam?

“No one,” Aemond says. “Me and the mother. And you, now. Nobody else.”

“How old is he?”

“Twenty-five.”

Involuntarily, you’re shaking your head. That can’t be right. “You were…sixteen?”

“She was one of my Mum’s friends,” Aemond says. “I was home from boarding school for the summer, and…” He swallows noisily, he can’t look at you; he gazes at the wall, ashamed, haunted. “I felt terrible about it the whole time. Not because it was a sin…” No, he doesn’t believe in the seven deadly sins, first enumerated by Pope Gregory I, later defended and expounded upon by Saint Thomas Aquinas. “It was just wrong. I knew it was, I could feel that on a corporeal level, in my stomach, in my ribs. But I did it anyway.”

“You couldn’t consent to that.”

Aemond shrugs, as if it is a weak excuse. “I never said no.”

“It wasn’t your responsibility to.”

“Alys, she knew I wasn’t...” He gestures vaguely, decades-past horror he doesn’t want to revisit. “She knew I couldn’t handle it. So when she broke the news to me, she made it clear that she didn’t expect me to be involved. She told everyone the father was some American tourist she had a fling with. But I knew the truth. And I just wanted to get away from everything, that island, those people, who I was back then. And the Church was my ladder to climb as high as I could...and it’s also the one place on the planet where I could never be claimed as a father or a husband. I was never with another woman after Alys. I didn’t want to be. And then you showed up out of nowhere and it’s like...all the sudden, I don’t know who I am anymore. I’m that kid on the beach again. My whole life was erased and I’m back at the start, and I want to do everything differently.”

I know how that feels. “Do you know where your son is now?”

“Yeah,” Aemond says, and smirks at how absurd it is. “I found him on Facebook. He’s living in Athens, and he and his wife own a shop where they sell soaps and lotions made out of goat’s milk. They’re doing well, I think. They have a lot of five-star reviews. And they have two little kids, Andreas and Athena.”

“You have a family,” you realize.

Aemond winces. “Not really.”

“Do you want to meet them?”

“I never did before. It was my worst nightmare, the possibility that any of them might show up on my doorstep one day. Now...I don’t know. I have all these thoughts I don’t recognize.”

Voices. Visions. Revelations. “I do too.”

He gazes at you, the blue of his eye shimmering as you lay your palm against his cheek, ghost your thumbprint over the ridge of his scar, wish that souls could be stitched back together as cleanly as flesh. “I feel like we both left that beach and nothing was ever alright again.”

“We were just kids, Aemo,” you say gently.

“But I knew that I loved you.”

He stands, hands sliding into the pockets of his trackies so he won’t touch anything he shouldn’t. You watch him walk to the door and open it, thinking: Don’t go. Don’t leave me again.

Then he looks back at you from the doorway, and he sighs, and the weight seems to shed off of him and all at once he isn’t so sad. “You should return to your room now, Sydney.”

“My room?” you say numbly, and you are that nine-year-old girl sitting in the corner booth of a pizza place on the boardwalk, a song you won’t be able to remember drifting from the radio.

Aemond smiles, a slight taunting curl of his lips, the bend of a crescent moon. “Where else would you go?”

He passes through the threshold and vanishes, and all night you dream of oceans and fire and sand sieving through the gaps in your fingers.

#aemond targaryen x reader #aemond targaryen #aemond x you #aemond x y/n #aemond x reader #aemond targaryen x you #aemond targaryen x y/n #hotd fic #hotd fanfic

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daisybell-on-a-carousel · 23 hours ago

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Above all else Bruce Wayne is a freak about Dick Grayson and it should reflect heavy in Jason the son he got because he missed Dick so bad. I want Bruce to stumble hard trying to think of anything JASON likes and going for something vague, wrong, or something Dick liked. I want him off the mark 90% of the time. This does not help literally anything considering other characters use Bruce (Jason's father for two years) as a source of reference for what Jason was like.

If you ask Bruce about Jason he'll say something right but he's very vague about it and it's clear he doesn't know the details. Some generic teen boy interest. Or he uses it as an opportunity for a learning lesson to discourage a certain behavior in others even if it's not something Jason did. Calling Jason an angry reckless impulsive fighter is also how he copes, shifts blame, and holds onto memory of Jason for no one else to know all tied up in one confusing bow. Bruce is also incredibly unaware of consequences to his own actions

Bruce will always compare Jaybin to Dick he is so pleased when other's do it. Jason is not new in the mantle of the Robin he's meant to be Robin (Dick) and I want that to SHOW

Robin is what matters to Bruce. Jason figured he couldn't be in clubs because it'd get in the way of Robin and all the way in his death comic Jason believes Bruce only cares about cases. And would not care in helping Jason find his mother. And it's so vital to me that after all that time with Bruce- near the very end- that's what Jason believes. It's undeniable that the only way to be close to Bruce is to be with batman- the nightlife. But I want Robin tied tight around Jason too.

I want Bruce to ruffle Jason's hair and idly smooth it out to match Dick's without even noticing

It does not matter how much Jason himself is like or not like Dick- what matters is what Bruce will inevitably see

#bruce seeing jason with his hair dyed for the first time and mistaking him for dick forever altered Jason's life for forever and the worst #🎠🏚🌊#💥🌃🐦‍🔥🗡#🗞🎫🪽#ddcau #while is this so likg im just rambling #bruce voice: “oh wow hes just like my favorite :)”. *after Jason dies* “well he sucked at being my favorite anyway #VITAL that Jason himself is not Bruce's favorite. even if he IS it should just be as an extension of Dick and not as himself #jason todd #illntag othsrs if asked

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colorlessjay · 2 days ago

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I was thinking, there should be a Supernatural game. Like an open world one where you can do world or side quests/case or commissions.

John's journal could be where you can see the quests/case. Maybe there's a page there that's just all about the monsters you'll encounter.

Collect items to upgrade, maybe there could be a "this week's monster". The more stronger or boss level monsters can be, like, the Leviathans or other big bad ones they fought on the show.

Maybe there's like a thing or points where you can save up to unlock other characters.

Idk why you're telling me, a non-game developer, this, BUT

[Cracks open my idea book]

Hear me out

There are two games: The first one takes place from season 1 to season 2, and is more so a small-scale concept of the game

Think Phasmaphobia, but instead of just identifying the monster in one night, there are types of investigation you can choose from:

Stake out - Where you go to the scene of the crime and use John's journal and little tricks to figure out what monster you're up against. Not a guarantee you'll pinpoint the exact monster, but it's the least suspicious and you may find extra weapons

Interviews - You go around town talking to people, trying to find clues. You get WAY more information that you can cross-reference with the journal, and have the opportunity to visit shops and gain extra equipment. However, you have to keep suspicions low and avoid getting sussed out, which can lock certain interactions

Police Files - Sneak mission. It's repetitive, but a guarantee you'll get all the info you need to identify the monster. It is difficult, though, as it requires you to break into the police station, navigate it, avoid guards, get the files, and sneak back out. Getting caught is an automatic fail, so it's a high-risk, high-reward.

In the Investigation Section, you get the opportunity to explore and find collectables. References to the show during the era and added information in John's Journal

The next stage is the actual monster fight:

Depending on what you find out about the monster, you have to pack what you need in a single dufflebag, choose your next location (Graveyard, house, forest, etc.). If you guessed the monster wrong and chose the wrong location, it goes to a cut scene of the brothers going back to the motel after a bust, and another victim is taken. It gives you an extra clue as to what the monster could be, BUT your final score for the hunt does take a hit

If you DO pick the correct location, you then have to find and hunt the monster. I'm thinking a Silent Hill style fight. Maybe Death by Daylight esque where you either choose to fight the monster head-on, or sneak up on it

A game like this, I feel like HAS to be a multiplayer where one plays Sam and the other plays Dean. And you both work together to take the monster down

If you fail, it's just game over. If one of you gets deathly injured, the other brother has a chance to heal them (video game logic). The game only ends when you both die

If you win, it jumps to a cut scene of the salt and burn, where Sam and Dean recite to you what you did and your fuck ups. If you get a perfect hunt, instead of the salt and burn, you get a mini cut scene of the brothers eating at a diner, grabbing a beer, relaxing at their motel, or just on the road again.

Then the game repeats, randomizing what monster you get and where you are. And there's a difficulty slider that gives you more monsters to fight in one game, makes you remember random facts from the show itself to identify them, and forces you to be smart about your attacks

The second game, or more so the sequel to this one, would take place around season 8 and beyond, where they gave the bunker ad more allies

THIS ONE would be a semi-open world because I don't think it's a good idea to have a game that gives you the opportunity to explore THE ENTIRETY OF AMERICA

So, instead, you choose the location of your next hunt using the Map Table in the bunker, and it loads you to a small, randomized town/city in that state.

The bunker, I feel would act as home base that you can kinda decorate depending on if you play as Sam or Dean. You can decorate your own room, add collectibles to the walls, and utilize parts of the bunker

Unlike the previous game, you can upgrade Sam and Dean's skills. You can work out at the gym to gain strength (Makes your melee attacks stronger), read lore from the library (Unlocks new information about monsters), go to the shooting range (Better aim, stability and less recoil when using guns), or do fun activities like watching movies, cooking, or hanging out with NPCs like Charlie, Kevin, Castiel, and more (Improves social skills and gets you more information through interviews), or explore the towns outside the bunker and unlock certain cutscenes and character interactions. And more stuff like speed and durability

The actual hunting gameplay is similar to the first game, but with some major changes.

Instead of a monster of the week, you actually have a storyline to follow. Definitely a condensed version of the actual series' story beats cut into chapters/seasons. Each chapter has you fighting a big bad, be it the Leviathans, the British Men of Letters, Lucifer, and more. You have to investigate where they are, what they're up to, and what to bring to stop them, meeting new characters along the way, and having to fight minor enemies

It's definitely less replayable than the first game, focusing on upgrading Sam and Dean and defeating Chuck, the final boss. It's more story-focused, and I'm imagining something similar to GTA where people can and will definitely notice Sam and Dean acting off, and there will be times when you HAVE to run away and hide before the cops get you. There are more cut scenes, more customization on what the brothers wear, and where they can go.

Game two has a DLC where you can play as Castiel on his own, and it's a side story fetch quest where you need to go around trying to obtain certain ingredients for a spell

You get to fight monsters still, but you don't upgrade Castiel. You only have Cas' angel blade and grace as your weapons (Grace being used to either attack or heal yourself mid battle, but you have a limited supply. It replenishes over time). Your final boss is like a monster/villain we haven't seen in the show, and defeating it gives you a cut scene of Cas coming back to the bunker

Sam and Dean are all like, "Where have you been???"

And Cas just drops what he's got onto the table and says, "There was a road bump."

And it turns out they didn't need it anyway, so they store it in the storage room and the game ends with Cas laying in bed watching shitty TV

------

Anyways, thanks for listening to me ramble about a game that's never gonna exist

#dean winchester #sam winchester #castiel #spn #supernatual #video game that will never exist

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sombritas-des · 1 day ago

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I don't think Beheaded is someone who can handle the loss of a loved one well.

I mean, he's an asshole.

I doubt Beheaded will just make a grave and try to "live" when Drifter dies. He'll probably do something crazy/dangerous.

Okay, now I understand why they're doomed yaoi.

The dead of Drifter would be one of the first times beheaded feel grief since been immortal.

Even if I made a lot of references of beheaded taking drifter's body after his dead, they couldn't do it, the thought of having to Behead the one person if not the only that actually found the time to get to know them would bare down to him deeply. They'll fake the promise of using him, they wouldn't dare the though of feeling his body decai,of feeling his body grow even weaker, feeling his hands cold or a silent heart,of having to pretend they hold onto him like this to still feel loved.

I have this though that the day Drifter breaths for the last time beheaded would be a crumbled mass of emotions,they would take time to find a spot for him for sure, maybe something calm quiet somewhere he could have enjoyed pass an afternoon with them or a place they had shared memories, once the burials was done they'll keep things from him, the plate of his helmet,his collar even so why not the capes.

Drifter would have wanted them to stay with his weapons but I think the mere memory of using them again, would make beheaded crumble.

I have two ideas of how beheaded would deal with the situation, one of them is themselves getting lost in the despair so much they regect getting into a new body, instead they remain in the homunculus form , cramped and depressed over a corner in guardians base, their form cuddle up and sprawled over Drifter's cape and getti a dead grip over his collar, they stay like that for years of nor decades. The other, they'll get mad..but badly mad between been in the border of a catastrophe upon whatever comes cross to them, all their feelings would translate into anger or fury, they'll become something unapproachable, if you came near you'll perish in a blaze.

But all this scenario would circle...there's no scenario without the other.

They maybe retaliate,could be centuries or decades we can't know. But they'll spend the same time going back and forward to drifter's resting place, they place would always look tidy, just as he would have like it.

Drifter was their porpoise and without him, beheaded only knows one thing and it's chaos.

#ask sombritas #driftcells

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caldella · 1 day ago

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OMIGAWD.

I've uh, noticed a probably very intentional parallel today.

So plenty of us are aware of how the animators give Blitzø a couple very specific physical changes to his eyes when feeling emotional connection to another character (99% of the time Stolas).

We have the smaller eyes + line around them when processing concern (almost always only with Stolas I think - only other time I noticed is expressing fear at being caught stealing as a child):

And we have the 'light in the eyes,' which is almost always around feelings for Stolas but also appears in strong emotional moments, like with Barbie, or in his Sinsmas fantasy self:

Apology Tour goo-goo eyes, my beloved

I'm re-watching The Circus for dialogue reference and uh, I've realized they intentionally made those both traits he shares with his dear old scumbag dad.

Except when Cash uses them, they are specifically for getting excited about taking someone else' money:

And manipulating:

Two of Blitzø's most revealing/honest physical traits are ones Cash also has but uses specifically to manipulate and rip people off omg. His emotions only get heightened enough when it involves money, and he only shows the "light of love" as a fake act to get his way.

JFC animators, please. we can only find so many of your absolutely jam-packed parallels. 😭

#All aboard the Cash is Trash Express choo choo 🚂#helluva boss #helluva boss blitzo #helluva boss blitz #helluva boss blitzø #cash buckzo

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chongoblog · 11 hours ago

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GURREN LAGANN [EPISODES 1-6] REVIEW

So last night I watched Gurren Lagann with my boyfriend. I had tried watching it about 6-7 years ago, but I never got past the first episode for whatever reason. Tonight, I made up for that, and we watched the first 6 episodes, and I want to talk about it, because, like, I get it.

First of all, I've never properly watched a Mecha Anime. Never seen Eva, never seen Gundam, the closest I ever got was the Netflix Voltron, which I feel like I don't need to say much more past that. Sen has seen at least a few. He mentioned enjoying Eureka Seven, and specifically the protagonist (he also mentioned I'd like a character named Anemone in that one, so feel free to chew on that, E7 fans). So I won't really be able to analyze this from the perspective of a mecha anime, and there's a chance that some things I talk about aren't unique at all to Gurren Lagann and are just more reason for me to get into more Mecha Anime. (Trust me, I know people who will be more than happy to recommend Gundam anime for me). I'm also pretty new to Gainax, having only seen FLCL about a year or so ago. That said, I know about their reputations (in both positive and slightly less positive ways)

Anyway, now to actually talk about Gurren Lagann. I was going to talk about it episode by episode, but really the only episode that I feel like I need to discuss on its own (which you can probably guess) I can dedicate a section to later on.

So before I talk about the themes and story, I obviously need to give a shoutout to the animation. Turns out Gainax is good at animating. One trend I very much enjoy is seeing a scene that's just a still image with dialogue for a good minute and thinking "oh boy, they're really saving up the budget, huh?". And I hold the theory that part of the reason they made Lagann so drill-centric is because the animators just really wanted to animate the mechas being taken apart. A love of decontructing giant mechas from Gainax, if you will (Note to self: I need to watch Evangelion)

So the Themes. It's pretty blatantly a coming of age story. Every episode opens with "This is the story of a man who has yet to learn his destiny" (paraphrasing here). And the show really leans into it in a lot of different ways. I'm sure there's a few thousand essays out there about all the phallic imagery and Simon/Kamina's relation to sexuality (especially with Yoko), but I'd be remiss to not mention it (and how Yoko never explicitly states which character she is crushing on). My reading of the theme at this point in time is that Simon and Kamina are meant to be two sides of the same coin, possibly even the same person in this allegory, with Simon reaching his coming of age through Kamina. Hell, I think this could even be seen as a trans allegory (a masculine persona pushing Simon to grow into a man and aggressively wanting to "combine" into Gurren Lagann. Food for thought), although I imagine there's overlap between trans allegories and coming of age allegories.

Now before we continue, I feel like I need to talk about Leeron. First of all, I don't know what their deal is in terms of gender, since he's said something about being neither man nor woman, and asked to be referred to as a Queen, and uses he/him. Maybe it's a character that was meant to be non-binary, but the dialogue hadn't become advanced enough in 2007 to make that clear? Either way, Leeron being a big part of Simon's coming of age story is...interesting. In fact, it kinda adds to the trans reading, since a gender-ambiguous character's main function is to help manage and care for Gurren Lagann, which kinda be seen as Simon/Kamina's flamboyant presentation of masculinity, in the same way that gender exploration helps to make way for your ideal gender presentation.

So now I need to talk about That Episode. Episode 5. The one where they visit the village of Adai. What an episode. I'm sure there's plenty of debate to be had about who was right and who was wrong, and frankly it's not a debate I want to go into here. I think the parts that impacted me the most were when the High Priest (whose name escapes me atm) exited the Face God, saying how "he didn't know what he was doing" and later when he admitted he couldn't read. It was sort of beautifully tragic that he probably doesn't remember what led to the circumstances that kept them trapped underground (at least from what I can discern from the lore so far. There's still a lot of questions), but it's what he believes is right. I'm sure I could explain this better, and maybe I will another day. It made me incredibly happy to see Rossiu and the two kids accompany the group.

It also started to make me realize that Gurren Lagann is becoming a found family Katamari, which sheds the opening scene in a new light.

So yeah, this show is pretty damn good. Definitely deserving of the hype. Can't wait to watch more. My favorite Black Sibling is Kiyal (the fang is too cute). Who the hell do you think I am and whatnot.

#gurren lagann #long post #rambling

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couldawouldashoulda50 · 1 day ago

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Yes Day - Part Two (from the AU of William and Loren)

Part One of Yes Day is here

A/N: Just a continuation of Yes Day, where William returns from a road trip and heads straight for Loren’s house, in desperate need of some “quiet.”

This is an indulgent Part Two where they get to simply enjoy each other — pushing some boundaries of mutual pleasure, while staying firmly in that messy, intimate space that only they know how to navigate.

Word count <8k (ooof, sorry )

Warnings - I went a little heavier on the sexual content (oral, vaginal, anal play references, use of sex toys, rough sex, face riding)

18+ readers only please

Recap of the end of Part One: “You know,” he panted, pausing as his lungs tried to cooperate, “every time one of the guys on the team says how nice you are, I almost want to correct them.”

He turned his head toward her, eyes still heavy with post-orgasm haze.

“I should tell them you’re pure evil.”

Loren chuckled and rolled her eyes. She leaned over and kissed along his chest. “Who doesn’t need a little bit of evil in their life every now and again?”

William circled his arms around her, pulling her on top of him. “Just letting you know…” he smiled, biting his bottom lip, “You’re in for so much trouble once I catch my breath. I’ve got an evil side too.”

⋆✧˚₊‧⋆✧˚₊‧⋆✧˚₊‧⋆✧˚₊‧⋆✧˚₊‧⋆✧˚₊‧⋆✧˚₊‧⋆✧˚₊‧⋆✧˚₊

Welcome to Yes Day - part Two.

Loren laughed but her smiled faltered when she caught the mischievous glint in his eyes. His face, with his model good looks and naturally sensual expression had her tightening in anticipation for any part of William’s body that he was offering.

She tried to regain control of herself, but as she straddled his waist, the urge was overpowering as she opened her legs wider to lightly grind on his cock.

"What kind of evil?" she murmured, biting her bottom lip before trailing open-mouthed kisses along his chest.

When she circled his nipple with her tongue, William jolted beneath her, a quick, involuntary movement that made Loren smile against his skin. Emboldened, she licked the other nipple, slower this time.

“Jesus Loren -

He lightly smacked her ass before grabbing hold of both cheeks while he brushed his lips along her jaw.

"With the way you've been treating me today with that mouth of yours," he said, nipping lightly at her earlobe, "I think it’s only fair I return the favour…."

Her heart was racing - the man made her so fucking giddy.

He leaned back slightly, hands sliding down her sides shifting himself and rolling her slowly off of him before his head nestled into the pillow. He smiled at Loren as he patted his own chest.

"Climb aboard….”

Her mouth was slightly agape, her eyebrows raised. "Climb...aboard?" her chuckle did little to mask her hesitation.

He gave her a look — with this wicked little smirk — and gently grabbed her hand since it was clear she needed some encouragement.

He guided her fingertips to his mouth and lightly flicked each tip with his tongue. “Feel that? That’s a little preview - feels good, no? As you ride my face. I promise, you’ll love it.”

Loren’s face burned red as she watched him continue to tongue her fingertips. “Mmmm…. so I’ll be riding the moustache express then?”

He cocked his eyebrow. “Oh yeah…that’s right - ride the moustache express…”, he said in this sinful lowered voice. “Up you come…”

She giggled a little at first but it was soon replaced by a bashful, almost shy expression.

"I've, um... I've never done that before," she admitted, eyes lowering to his lips first and then back to his eyes.

His teasing softened instantly. He cupped her jaw and eased her mouth towards his.

"All you gotta do," he said, voice low and smooth, "is bring that delicious pussy over top my mouth."

Loren flushed —hearing him say that to her, with his eyes turning a steel-blue, sent a jolt of arousal across her belly. It was as though she could already feel his tongue between her legs.

Loren hesitated, her hand running nervously along his chest and abdomen.

"I just... it's different. It's...like….hovering," she said quietly. "I feel...weirdly kind of exposed."

William leaned in and kissed her, slowly and reassuringly. He rested his forehead against hers.

“It’s not that different from when…you know - I pin back your legs,” William said just before he kissed her, the tip of his tongue slowly stroking hers “….and go down on you. Let me show you how much I love the way you taste. Every part of your body is stunning. Let me show you how beautiful you are,” he purred.

He lay on his back again, shifting almost excitedly into position. He made this sound - like a tsk tsk with his mouth…like saying “giddyap”, all with this grin that should be illegal.

“How you make peer pressure so hot, I’ll never know,” the mock accusation making him chuckle.

In one fluid movement, Loren shifted, kneeling beside him before climbing over his torso. Her tank top was barely hanging on — stretched completely out of shape from everything they’d already done — and she figured if she was going to expose herself, she might as well go all the way.

Looking up at her, at her round breasts, her still tanned body from her last modeling job, he was sure she’d never looked more stunning. He had the same thought five minutes ago, and 5 minutes before that. He actually should thank his brother for sending him that dumb message which nudged William to Loren’s house instead of going home.

He wet his lips slowly, a wicked, cocky grin spreading across his face as she shimmied forward, straddling his chest.

"Closer," his voice was low and rough as his hands roamed around her waist to her stomach.

Loren’s nervous excitement radiated through her - her heart raced and her thighs trembled as she edged forward — she was close enough now to his mouth, the feeling of his hot breath almost tickling her clit.

"Fuck William, I’m not sure…I know what your mouth can do when I’m on my back but….what if I need to...what if I need to tap out?" she joked weakly, failing to hide her nerves. "I’m worried this might be too much for me to handle."

He could feel her already tensing in anticipation, his cock was rigid with the thought of the first swipe of his tongue in her folds. “You’ll be okay…just hold on to the headboard and you’ll be fine.”

William didn’t give her a chance to second-guess herself. He half-hoisted her up by her hips, dragging her over his face.

“Oh my God—William—” she whimpered, her thighs instinctively tightening around him.

But he only growled low in approval, locking his arms around her legs to hold her exactly where he wanted her.

She knew that headboard was the only thing that would keep her somewhat sane and grounded. The first sweep of his tongue against her clit made her jolt, she gasped a strangled “holy fuck” unable to stop it even if she tried. Her body was already reacting to the fleeting stimulation from his mouth and tongue. Loren arched her back and he responded by pulling her down further onto his mouth.

The fucking obscene sounds that boy made - in between, inside, all around her pussy - made her tense and clench every muscle group from her bellybutton down to her knees. If him making out with her pussy wasn’t enough, his beard growth added an extra layer of stimulation….stimulation so intense she thought she had dislodged the headboard from the bed frame.

Her hips jerked and bucked a little as he held her in place. She clasped her one hand tightly over her mouth trying not to sound like a yipping coyote. Her other hand acted as though it was independent from her body and couldn't figure out what to do with itself. It gripped his hair, twisted her own nipple, pressed against the wall above the headboard, and grabbed his forearm.

She knew it was going to be too much. It always was when he ate her out. But he loved it so much, and lately… it felt like she’d spent the whole fucking season in training camp — crying for his cock less, and cumming on his face more.

But this angle was new still, and she found herself overstimulated and completely ruined.

“Fuckfuuuck Will - Jesus fucking Christ….I caan't…I -”

Loren looked down towards his face which seemed to be happily smothered and shimmering with her juices. His grip was loose enough to allow her to rock back and forth but that action set her thighs into a steady tremor.

The mustache express - his mustache express was mighty. Her head almost whiplashed backwards, the ends of her long waves dancing just above his bellybutton.

"W-William," she gasped, the words barely audible past her thighs that covered his ears.

His only response was when he hummed against her clit, sending vibrations straight through her.

“Fuck - Whhil-yum - so good,” she breathed in huffs on each syllable. Her thighs were trembling alongside the erractic muscle movement in her ass cheeks.

She nearly fell over trying to dismount him and tap out, but his grip tightened around her thighs, keeping her right where he wanted her, refusing to let her shy away.

"You tap out," he rasped roughly against her flesh, beaded with spit and arousal, "I'll just pull you back down. Just hold on beautiful girl, I promise I got you. Tell me when you're gonna cum.”

If she thought he might let up — that he’d give her a second to collect herself — she was dead wrong. He pulled her pussy down against his tongue that flicked rapidly against the hood of her clit. It was wildly tormenting in the best, most pussy pleasing way. Her ass and thighs clenched hard as one hand gripped his hair and the other clung onto the headboard.

William’s one hand had let go from her hip and he jerked himself steadily. His other hand was clamped around her waist as she rocked almost uncontrollably.

“I’m so close—fucking so close…” she gasped, the words tumbling out in a hoarse wheeze. Her eyes bulged with overstimulation, her entire body shaking with the relentless shockwaves of his tongue.

When he finally loosened his grip on her, it was not a signal that he was done. He wanted tangible proof of him sending her to the edge of sanity.

William guided her off his face, giving her a break from his loving oral assault on her pussy. He positioned her on all fours but it wasn’t long before her top half collapsed and her forehead was pressed against the mattress as her hands clung to the sheets.

William knelt behind her, kissed and licked her folds once more before he gently pressed his middle and ring finger against her entrance. He smoothed his other hand over the sheen of her gorgeous round ass cheeks, giving them each a light slap that rippled on contact.

Loren was still panting, her body trembling in aftershocks, soft muffled moans slipping out without any control. Her sun-kissed skin glistened, outlining every contour of her back and the gentle rise of her ribcage. It made his head swim — watching her twist and writhe in anticipation, her thighs quivering, hips subtly shifting like her body was already begging for his fingers before he even curled them inside her.

His two finger tips were drenched from his saliva and her arousal. He took her patented move of raking his fingernails down her back just as he inserted his fingers. He knew the sensation had gone straight to her core — her hips tensed more, squirmed more, and she gasped a resounding, breathless “Holy fuck…” into the mattress.

William held his fingers steady, curling them rhythmically as he waited to find that spot. Her body told him when he did—sharp little shocks from each perfect press of his fingers made her arch her back and spread her legs wider, pressing harder against his touch. Kneeling at her side, his fingers deep inside her while his other hand massaged her breast, William increased his pace. Muffled shrieks escaped from beneath the mane of hair covering her face. Her thighs trembled and tensed, nearly straightening with the intensity.

She almost crawled away, but William held her waist firmly in place. He could feel her walls clenching hard around his fingers. "Loren—it's okay," he soothed. "Just relax. Just let it happen... I want to see you—"

Before he could finish, it happened. A sudden splish against his wrist, then a thin stream sprayed up his forearm, dripping onto the sheets and down her thighs.

Loren cried out, her whole body convulsing as her arms and legs gave out completely, collapsing onto the mattress. William didn't stop—he eased her through it, his fingers working gently while her hips jerked with each aftershock. He watched as she soaked his arm once more, her softening whimpers floating above her. He slid his fingers slowly from her core.

He moved her hair from off her face and neck - her body, still buzzing with her release - and leaned towards her ear.

"That was so fucking hot," he whispered. "You don't even know. Look at you. Fucking unreal."

Loren was still shaking, her cheek pressed to the sheet, eyes fluttering.

She didn't say anything—couldn't—but he caught the tiniest, exhausted smile curve at her lips.

He was stunned looking at her, his cock throbbing and desperate to feel her from the inside.

He smoothed her hair up to expose her long, beautiful neck. "Fuck, you turn me on so much... can you handle a little more from me?"

A slight nod coupled with a moan and tiny wiggle from her hips was his response.

He straddled her upper thighs, hovering just enough to spread her legs wider. Lately Loren had asked for him to run the tip of his cock between her folds repeatedly until she was almost begging for all of it inside of her.

He wasn’t about to disappoint — not when she loved being edged like this. He'd make her beg for it, just the way she liked.

He gripped the middle of his shaft - the head of his cock hard but somewhat pliable as he smoothed it up and down between her slit.

Goddammit - the sound of her moans was pure sex and surrender.

His eyes soaked in all the gorgeous details of her body.

The two indentations just about her ass cheeks. The definition between her shoulder blades and her biceps as she lay with her arms above her head.

Her round ass that he had marked many times before - still showing some redness from his grasps and light spanks.

“Do you want it?” William asked, his voice low and gentle.

She had been lightly grinding against thr mattress moaning, sighing his name.

“Oh my God, yes William. Please,” she whispered.

William pressed the tip firmly against her entrance, watching as her knuckles turned white from gripping the sheets.

Slowly he slid himself in, his mouth dropping open from her tight stretch.

Loren's brows furrowed as her lips parted at the sensation.

“Mmmm - fuck, William,” she breathed.

He held himself steady, as he slowly moved his cock inside her, each thrust coaxing a fresh gasp from them both.

The angle — her arms stretched out, his hands anchoring her hips just right — felt incredibly intimate and primal.

Like an elegant version of Wild Kingdom sex.

As his pace increased, he shifted his hands — one reaching behind to grip her calf, the other squeezing and massaging her ass cheek. It was all hip motion — the way he drove into her pussy, her slickness coating his shaft with every thrust.

She moaned into the mattress as he shifted his hand placement, gripping beneath her waist to pull her hips up in time with his thrusts. Each deep stroke pushed her closer to another orgasm. Each thrust elicited a “holy fuck” from her — like holy fuck, she couldn’t believe how fucking good it felt.

“Harder,” she gasped. It was barely more than a whisper.

William hesitated for a beat — like the word threw him a little — but he was more than up for it.

“Yeah?” he murmured. “You want it harder?”

Her only answer was another breathless, “Holy fuck, William,” followed by a soft, desperate: “Yes… harder, please.”

But before William obliged, he had an idea.

He spread her legs wider, adjusted one to bend at the knee, then leaned over and reached into the drawer beside the bed.

Loren caught the movement and smiled, gathering her hair as she shifted slightly onto her side.

William leaned in, his mouth brushing her cheek.

“You’re fucking incredible,” he murmured. “I want you to come — come really hard for me again.”

He handed her the air pulse stimulator.

Loren turned it on, nestled it gently around the hood of her clit, and exhaled shakily — just as William slid back inside her.

The quiet buzz of the toy was immediately drowned out by the sound of her moan — long and aching moans— as he began to thrust again.

She rolled slightly, body stiff and shaking, not quite on her stomach — more like she was straining to hold herself together. Every muscle was tense, clenched with too much sensation. Her toes curled, ankles flexing involuntarily as if her whole lower body mechanics were trying to process the overload.

“Please,” she whispered — like it physically hurt not to have his cock driving into her and filling her up.

William planted one hand at the back of her neck, the other gripping her hip, and started to fuck her — hard, relentless, like he was trying to pound every moan from her lungs. Her body rocked with each thrust, high pitched little gasps breaking from her lips, the toy still pulsing at her clit.

Loren shifted the stimulator just slightly hitting a spot so good that within a handful of seconds, she cried out that she was about to cum. It rocked her so hard that she sobbed into the mattress from pure ecstasy and release. The problem was the clit stimulator was still lodged against her sensitive nub and William had to pull it out from under her and hold her body from bucking him right out of her.

He slowed his pace, easing himself deep inside her with one slow, deliberate thrust. His hand brushed her hair away from her face, fingers gently tucking the strands behind her ear as he leaned in close.

Loren was moaning, whimpering into the mattress — a quiet barrage of breathless “oh my god's tumbling from her lips.

“Hey,” he whispered softly, right against her ear. “You okay?”

She barely managed a nod — her body still quivering, lips parted, completely overwhelmed. She couldn’t speak. She couldn’t even think. Her body had a mind of its own.

That next deep thrust? She felt every inch of him. All the way in. So full it almost scared her.

William’s breath hitched. She was gripping him like a vice. His restraint completely gone as he quickened his pace again.

“Fuuuck, baby,” he groaned. “Holy fuck, Loren…”

Then came the grunts — low, drawn-out, primal.

“Uuuuuuuurghmph— Uuuuuurghmph— Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurghmph—”

He couldn’t stop. Couldn’t slow down. Not when she felt like this. Not when she’d just come so hard she couldn’t speak.

His hands clasped around her waist, his blonde hair falling around his face as he grit his teeth, his cock just about to erupt inside of her. Her pussy gripped him so tight it nearly sent him spiraling. When he bottomed out, buried as deep as he could go, he felt it — the pulse of each hot pump of his cum spilling into her, again and again, his body shuddering with every surge. He had to take a moment, blinking away the high — not even noticing he was unconsciously kneading one of her ass cheeks with his hand.

He looked down at her limp body, eyes tracing the slow rise and fall of her back as she breathed.

When he smoothed his hand along her spine, she jolted and gasped.

Fuck. She was still like a live wire.

Yes Day had already wrecked her.

There was no way Loren could ever get used to the powerful orgasms and how they left her in their wake. Her mind was clear, but her body was still lost in a physical paralysis that nearly blew William’s mind every time.

Sure, he’d always known he had a certain sexual prowess — confirmed by all the lovers that came before Loren — but this? This was on a totally higher level.

He slid next to her, mindful not to graze her too lightly — instead using warm, grounding touches. He reached for the stimulator still buzzing above her head and held down the button to turn it off.

He kissed her shoulder, then the hair on the back of her head.

"Loren?" he asked softly. "You doing okay?"

She nodded weakly, forcing out a quiet mumble. "Just need a few minutes."

He smiled and kissed her head again.

He didn’t say it out loud, but God — he couldn’t stop thinking about how much he loved her.

—

William grabbed some sustenance from the kitchen — the light salmon and avocado snacks Loren had prepped before their sexploits began. He balanced a tray with relative ease as he climbed the stairs to the bedroom, where Loren was still lying in a sort of upside-down starfish pose.

Setting the tray down on an ottoman she had next to a plush club chair, he grabbed some water - he gulped down a glass first before filling it back up for Loren. He smiled - oddly proud of the rumpled mess of the sheets, and well - his girlfriend too. He wasn’t sure if this is what she had in mind when she had cheekily declared this Yes Day but he’s in it now.

And if he was being honest?

He still had a few ideas cooking for later — once they’d had a chance to catch their breath.

Loren was slow to rise, padding naked to the washroom. William’s eyes followed her - a glint of pride and maybe even some mischief, watching as she stumbled a little, eventually bouncing off of the trim around the door with a soft “ouch - motherfucker” escaping her mouth.

When she returned, William had started stripping the bed, so she grabbed fresh sheets from the linen closet. She half giggled and half groaned about how gingerly she was moving as she tried to stretch the fitted sheet over the mattress corners.

It seemed like such a nothing moment — the two of them making the bed together, climbing onto fresh sheets with a platter of food Loren had made with adoration that morning.

The dogs were quick to return to the sanctity of the bed (they clearly knew when it was safe — and when their humans were otherwise occupied).

They caught each other up with a few stories, mixing in some innocent gossip — something the two didn’t often indulge in — and it usually ended with one or both of them shrugging and thankfully saying, “Not my problem.”

After a shared shower, they prepared breakfast together, walked the dogs, and happily sank into Loren’s living room couch to watch Season Three of Full Swing — something both he and Loren shared a mutual interest in.

Midway through the first episode, Alex called, wondering when William would be arriving home and if he was on his own for dinner. Loren, though she had no choice but to be within earshot of the conversation, tried not to pay attention to their fast-paced dialogue in Swedish. She could catch the gist, but some portions were still a touch beyond her understanding.

Until she heard her name — a couple of times.

She tried not to react, but William nudged her with his elbow, a grin pulling at his mouth, as if to say: “Oh yeah, we’re totally talking about you.”

After the call ended, William shook his head and chuckled. If for nothing else, his brother absolutely made him laugh over the most nonsensical things.

William had been sitting between Loren’s legs, but he shifted to turn toward her face.

“You okay if we head back to the city tonight?” he asked. “Alex is sick of Chipotle and all the places he goes to all the time, so he’s really hoping you’ll make that shrimp udon thing you did before.”

He grinned. “In his defense… it was really fucking good.”

Loren nodded, a soft smile spreading across her face.

“I can imagine he’s got a good appetite now. I’m willing to bet he’s taken full advantage of having the condo to himself... it was nice of you to let him have it for a little longer.”

William’s eyes trailed from hers, down to her mouth, to the indentation in her neck... where he leaned in and pressed a kiss.

“Well, I guess I should be honest... I wanted to punish him a little by coming straight here. And don’t get it into your head thinking I don’t love your house — I do love coming here — but yeah... it was partly to teach him a little lesson.”

Loren raised her eyebrows, surprised at the admission. 97% of the time, William and Alex were thicker than thieves.

“Should I ask?”

William slid down further, leaning his back against Loren.

“He was out drinking one night with some friends, and he left me a voice note saying some stuff that I guess just rubbed me the wrong way.”

Loren was confused but stayed quiet. She kissed the top of his head, gauging whether he’d continue.

“He said maybe next time I’m on the road, you could stay at the condo — sort of... cook for him.”

Loren tilted her head.

“Sounds about right,” she murmured, her lips brushing his hair.

“He said he had... another craving,” William added, voice low. “I’d prefer not to repeat it fully, but his words were... ‘sharing is caring.’”

Loren cocked her head.

“As in... you sharing me with him?”

William slid his hand under her thigh.

“Bingo.”

She paused, processing, then said lightly:

“Wow. Okay then. Horny bugger.”

William chuckled.

“That’s tamer than what I thought you might call him.”

There was a lingering silence - not uncomfortable in the least but William sensed the wheels turning in Loren's head.

William spoke softly. “Did that bother you - what Alex said? I don’t want you to feel like you can't say something about him to me.”

“I'm guessing that was the drink talking…maybe it was a slow night for him,” Loren huffed with a smile. She remained quiet for a moment.

William gently squeezed her thigh. “I can feel the questions bouncing around in your head. You can tell me…tell me what you’re thinking about.”

Loren blushed. “I'm thinking that there's a least one or two ladies….or how ever many that probably had the time of their lives being tagged-teamed by the Nylander brothers.”

William listened for a twinge in her voice that might indicate she was hurt by the notion. All he heard was her quiet acceptance — the silent acknowledgment that there might be a lot to unpack when referring to his past sex life.

She was quiet, though.

“I hope you don’t think less of me… or Alex,” William said carefully. “But yeah, there were a few times.”

Loren’s heart raced a little at the thought. “I had assumed,” she admitted softly, her cheeks flushing — mostly from the images it conjured in her mind. “Given how close you two are, it makes sense that there were times.”

She wasn’t lying. Loren was more curious than anything. She found herself… almost envious of the women who’d been so carefree, so open to something like that — something she’d never allowed herself to consider before William.

William knew Loren’s body count — she’d never mentioned or even alluded to more than one partner at a time. Still, he sensed a hint of curiosity in her tone.

“You’ve never had any kind of… ‘some’ — like a three or a foursome or anything?” he asked gently.

Loren shook her head. “No,” she admitted, sounding a little embarrassed. “I don’t really know what it was back then… I didn’t really know or understand much beyond the basics — and I probably wouldn’t have been willing to try either, I guess. I just know now I’m… curious. About different ways to give pleasure, and I—” Her voice trailed off.

William shifted, turning to look up at her face. Her cheeks were flushed almost hot pink. “That you…?” he prompted softly.

Loren groaned, dropping her head back in defeat. “I didn’t want to tell you, really — unless you noticed something different, but with your road trips lately, I haven’t been able to show you…”

She was rambling, her body tensing under his hands.

“Loren — tell me what?” Even William was starting to feel a little nervous.

Loren’s head tilted back as she sighed. “It’s just… you’ve had a lot of partners and so much experience — and I haven’t. So… I signed up for a few private sex workshops with a lady in the city… to keep, you know — learning how to fuck you better…”

William’s eyes widened as he processed her words, he was totally stunned. His cheeks flushed as he turned to look at her. His heart swelled, it ached with a pride and appreciation for her. “You signed up for… sex workshops? For me?”

The flush in her cheeks burned hot as she bit her lip. She covered her face and groaned into her hands. “It’s silly, I know. I mean… you’ve had so much experience, and I just… I wanted to—”

He cut her off, gently pulling her hands away from her face.

“Loren? Loren….hey….look at me,” he coaxed softly. When she did, he kissed her so slowly and so deeply that her core literally ached for him.

He spoke softly, stroking his thumb against her cheek. His gaze was filled with adoration for her.

“I never… would’ve thought anyone would do something like that for me.” William paused for a moment. “I hope I never made you feel that you were anything less than perfect - experienced or not, that’s what it feels like being with you.”

Her cheeks were still burning. “You never made me feel that way. The opposite in fact. I just wanted to keep building confidence, for both of us really.” She lifted his hand to her mouth and she kissed a line from his palm down along his wrist. “You’re already so good - the greatest…for me anyway. I just wanted to make you feel the same….or at least in the same ballpark,” she giggled a little self-consciously.

William shifted on the couch to turn and face her. He knelt between her legs and gently slid her body down and lowering himself back between her legs.

Ballpark? he muttered the thought to himself.

William pressed his forehead against hers. “But I noticed… when I first got here, when you climbed on top of me… something was different. The way you moved… it was—fuck, I definitely noticed. It felt unreal before but yeah…definitely next level.”

He teased her lips, his breath hot against her mouth. “I was thinking about it when I woke up,” he whispered, his cock already hardening as he slowly against her. “It made me so fucking hard just remembering it.

He kissed her, a little harder, a little more urgently. Her hands gripped his hips slightly as he continued to rub his erection between her clothed slit. She then grabbed his ass and began to reciprocate the movement, her breathing jagged as she silently begged for his cock.

He broke from the kiss - not abruptly, just to look at her. She opened her eyes - she gazed back up at him, leaving them both breathless with the force of their feelings for one another.

He leaned his forehead back on hers. He wanted to be the one to keep exploring her desires.

“Do you like the thought of having more than just me inside of you?” William’s hand moved up her shirt, his thumb grazing over her nipple.

Loren hesitated. She had to get her thoughts and words just right.

“I mean… yeah, I think it would feel… incredible. But…” she smiled shyly, her cheeks flushing even more. “It would be really hard for you to be in two places at once though. I don’t want anyone else touching me the way you do.” She kissed him and caressed his lips with her thumb. “I’m sorry if that makes me a little less wild than….the others, the other women that were more willing.”

William looked at her again. Her honesty was not just endearing. It was a total fucking turn-on.

“Lo - you don’t need to apologize.” William’s voice lowered, his tone thick and husky. “There’s still a way you could feel that…two cocks inside of you. You can maybe start with me in your mouth - and ride your dildo. I would love to watch the way you move in the mirror of your bedroom.”

A flash visualization of what that moment might look like - Loren deep-throating William while her dildo penetrates her? A nervous-excitement mixed with intense arousal travelled across her lower belly.

She smiled and nodded before she kissed him sweetly. There were moments like this where Loren felt that her gratitude for William was endless. These moments where she felt secure and cared for, Honored.

Loved.

It was a far cry from years ago, when affection was replaced with aggression. The appearance of love masked deception. Sex was, at best, unfulfilling — and at worst, not worth the memory of the emotional wounds it inflicted.

William helped Loren up off the couch, and as she stood, her eyes immediately zeroed in on the obvious bulge in his sweats.

He caught the look. His smirk gave way to a soft chuckle.

He knew immediately that if she let herself indulge in what she was clearly imagining — dropping to her knees to engulf him the way she always wanted to whenever he was hard — they’d never make it upstairs.

“Not yet, lilla snuskis (little pervert) — it’ll still be there when we get to the bedroom,” William purred in her ear, his voice low and teasing as he gently directed her toward the stairs.

Loren’s pulse raced, her cheeks blazing hot as they entered her bedroom. She felt a tangle of excitement and nerves flip-flopping and bouncing inside her. The idea of losing herself in something she’d only recently admitted — even to herself — that she thought was hot… and doing it with William? She wasn’t ashamed to admit it was a little nerve-wracking.

From behind her, William slid off his sweats. Clearly, it was optional underwear day, too — he simply wasn’t wearing any.

He ran his hands up from her shoulders, pausing briefly at her breasts. He groaned softly as he teased her taut nipples through her shirt. Loren placed her hands over his, her head falling back onto his shoulder. She could feel his cock pressing hot and hard against the curve of her ass.

His thumbs hooked into the waistband of her cotton shorts and pushed them down, far enough to expose her pussy. His middle finger wasted no time sliding between her folds.

Clearly, she’d been waiting for him — still — even after he’d fucked her to the edge of sanity earlier.

“Show me where you want me,” William murmured, pressing kisses to her neck.

Loren hesitated, her heart pounding high in her throat.

Then she told herself:

Trust him. Show him. Love him.

She reached behind her, her hands smoothing up his thighs.

“Over there in the chair — is that okay?”

“Mmmmm-mmph,” was all she heard from him as he devoured her neck.

He broke away from her, striding to the plush club chair in the corner near the bed. He rolled the large ottoman out of the way, pausing for a brief moment — thinking it might make a good surface for a quick fuck later. But that could wait for another day.

Meanwhile, Loren retrieved a body pillow she used sometimes when she was missing William (in all sorts of ways), her Cowboy Bill clone that was just a touch longer than William’s, and her other clit stimulator.

William watched her quietly gather the essential supplies, alongside two towels — one for her to kneel on, and one for… well, everything else she hoped would happen.

She padded gracefully over to him, kneeling down to unload her arms. Placing the folded towel just so, she crawled closer to where he sat, his legs splayed and his still-hardening cock resting against his lower torso.

She removed her tank top, leaving her completely naked, kneeling before him. A quick glance over her shoulder confirmed that the mirror he had moved showed her perfectly. William’s eyes devoured her — how her hair fell just above the dimples at the base of her back, the curve of her waist.

That apple-bottom ass of hers that he loved to grab.

She turned back around, her eyes gleaming with worship as her focus settled on his cock.

She wanted to taste it — to feel it in her mouth so badly. But she also felt he might enjoy a little tease, a bit of edging, just before she opened her mouth to lead him to her tonsils.

Her hands and nails traveled all over his lower body. The slow grazing along the back of his calves sent a twitch through his shaft, and William leaned his head back with a moan.

Then her tongue did some traveling. So did her lips, brushing along the insides of his thighs.

William lifted his head, watching as her hair splayed across her back, her hips weaving in an almost mesmerizing pattern.

Loren gingerly lifted his shaft upright, the tip glistening with arousal.

She pointed her tongue and licked a long strip, starting from the base of his balls and tracing up along the length of his shaft.

She stopped at the tip and looked up at William, her eyes locking onto his, holding him captive.

A smirk spread across her face. “This—” she motioned to the glistening head of his cock “—is the literal tip of heaven.”

Then she fucking winked at him, and it felt like he’d just been hit with the sexiest one-two punch of all time.

Talk about heaven. The hot, wet sensation from her mouth sealed around his cock, her tongue dancing and teasing along the tip, charming more of his taste into her mouth. The moans and the occasion throat “glucks” from her as she invited him deep into her mouth. The deep groans from him as he watched her reflection. Loren was moving her lower body like the only thing she was missing was the sensation of her pussy being filled.

She pulled back slightly, her full lips cover in gloss, and glanced up at him with that playful smirk — her eyes expressed this line between mischief and innocence. That look said everything: she wanted to hear more out of him and fuck, she wasn’t going to stop until she got what she wanted. Loren was loving every second of it. William’s jaw tensed, his teeth pressing down on his bottom lip as body jerked from the wickedly intense sensation from Loren’s mouth.

He gave in finally to allow his fingers to thread through her hair, gathering it at the sides like she does when she dances. He held her like that — gentle but firm — as tousled strands dangled in front of her face as she continued to play with his member.

Their eyes connected and remained locked on each other - it was connection yes, but more like communicating their mutual depth of adoration and desire.

When Loren plunged her mouth onto him again, William could feel his orgasm beginning to tighten his insides as he gripped her hair a little harder. He focused on her reflection again - her full bottom exposed with her on her knees, her head bobbing up and down in front of him. Watching her ass made him start to salivate. He wanted to see ripple as she rides his cock clone. He wanted to kiss it, suck on the meaty parts of her cheeks, lick her from behind. Fuck, they way she fucks him back in doggystyle.

“Baby - Loren….let me watch you ride that dildo. Let me see you cum on it,” William quietly commanded through a grunt.

Loren had almost forgotten about the “other show” — him getting to watch her ride her Cowboy Bill clone while her mouth worshipped the real thing.

She slid her mouth off his shaft, intentionally letting lines of saliva stretch and break. She licked her fingers, using them as lube to slick the shaft of her dildo.

William watched in the mirror as she lowered herself onto the thick girth, moaning, “Holy fuck,” while holding onto his thighs. She knew the pillow well — it provided that perfect balance of firm and soft, ideal for riding her toy.

Soon, William saw exactly the kind of things Loren had been picking up from her sex workshop.

Her mouth was already back on his cock, her hair a tousled mess in his lap as she sucked him from a different angle. The vibration of her moans and the relentless pace of her head bobbing were almost unbearably erotic as she fucked her toy.

Every so often, the tip of the dildo hit a spot that made her buckle and hold on base of his cock. His shaft would slide out of her mouth and she’d let out a guttural “Oh my fucking god William”.

Within seconds, her mouth was back on him and without breaking from him again, she reached for her clit vibrator, turned it on and slid it between her legs.

Oh my god - that’s my girl he thought as his head fell back.

No sooner had that thought crossed his mind, Loren - while licking his balls - reached for his hand, placed it on the back of her head. Her voice was low, smoldering. “Kontrollera mig, älskling…” [control me baby]

He could have shot his load right there.

He gathered and lightly gripped her hair from the nape of her neck to the back of her head. It wasn’t like she needed the help at all — she was already magnificent — but this version of her, shuddering from her own pending orgasm, was next level hot sex.

As her own orgasm slammed into her, she shrieked — mid-deep throat — her body shuddering uncontrollably. She slid her mouth off him, her forehead falling against his abdomen as her body quaked from the force of her climax.

William smoothed the hair away from her face and asked her if she could get up onto the ottoman. She let out a soft chuckle and nodded her head. She was a little wobbly as she slid the dildo from her and then rose up to stand.

His cock bounced as he stood, sliding the large upholstered ottoman in front of the chair.

Loren climbed onto the ottoman, positioning herself on hands and knees. Her head fell forward, her long mane of hair cascading down as she waited for William to get comfortable behind her.

He kneaded the tops of her ass cheeks with both hands, smoothing them apart with a gentle but firm touch, spreading her wider.

“Älskling — do you want to try two cocks? Me in your pussy and the other in your ass?” William murmured, his voice low and full of desire.

She did… but she knew that either cock would probably be too big for her after being out of the anal game for years.

“God, William… I would — really… you’re so fucking amazing… but I think it might be too big for me to ease back in with — today at least,” she said breathlessly, her voice trembling with both desire and honesty.

“Maybe we’ll have to have Yes Day to Anal Play next,” she giggled weakly.

She heard William chuckle behind her. “Okay — let me know if you change your mind.”

She lifted her head, catching both of their reflections in the mirror. She smiled, biting her lip as William ran the tip of his cock through her folds before sliding back in.

She knew he was close, the deep thrusts growing more rapid, his hips slapping hard against her ass.

Loren arched her back, feeling another orgasm coil and tighten, her pussy clenching around him.

William teased the tight ring of her asshole, slick with his spit as he drove into her. Loren gasped, clenching even harder, her voice breathless. “God — slide your finger in… please.”

He positioned his thumb, pressing in, hooking the tip for extra sensation. He fingered her ass as he fucked her harder, watching her face in the mirror — brows furrowed, mouth agape, eyes struggling to stay open.

She reached back, gripping his forearm as he pulsed his thumb into her ass a few more times. Then he grabbed her arms, pulling her upright, holding her tight as he drove into her.

Just as William’s grunts turned louder and ragged, Loren’s thighs trembled violently, her cries spiraling into a loop of his name.

He gently released her arms, gripping her hips as he crossed the finish line, groaning incoherent Swedish into the air as he head fell back.

Loren’s orgasm teetered on the edge — she fucked him back, grinding hard until her own release tore through her, her voice muffled into the fabric of the ottoman as her body collapsed.

The room fell silent, apart from their heavy breathing.

William stood first and pressed the heels of his palms into his eyes and chuckled.

“Fuck, Loren…you’re a fucking weapon.” He leaned over and pressed kisses all along her body. “You okay, älskling?”

She covered her eyes with her forearm. Her grin, however, gave him all the information he needed to know.

She responded anyway with “I still want more.”

William stood there, slightly shocked. “Seriously?”

“Mmm — no. Can’t think. Can’t walk. I talk like I’m hammered.” She paused, her voice teasing.

“You do quality work, my friend. Shall I pencil you in for Friday at 2:00 for our Anal Play Day?”

As he carefully lifted her off the ottoman, William let out his sweet little laugh. “Pencil me in, älskling,” he murmured, pressing a kiss to her temple. "We'll set up one of those automatic feeders for Alex and we'll just make it the whole fucking weekend."

⋆✧˚₊‧⋆✧˚₊‧⋆✧˚₊‧⋆✧˚₊‧⋆✧˚₊‧⋆✧˚₊‧⋆✧˚₊‧⋆✧˚₊‧⋆✧˚₊

#william x loren #nhl fanfiction #william nylander smut #william nylander imagine #william nylander fanfic #william nylander fic #hockey romance #nhl fan fiction #nhl romance #wn88 imagine #nhl hockey smut

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bluemoonpunch · 3 days ago

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🌟 ARMY 2025/2026 Outlook Reading

[Performed: April 27, 2025 / Posted: May 25, 2025]

INTRODUCTION To start off this very exciting and fun event that will lead us into the BTS reunion and anniversary, I’ve done a reading here that focuses on the outlook for the ARMY fandom on its own. This may center on the massive soul group that exists within ARMY, but regardless, it will lay out the ebbs and flows that we all may experience within the community over the next year.

As a way to include both the energy of the reunion and to mark the anniversary as a point of reference, this reading focuses on the timeframe between June 11, 2025 and June 13, 2026. In total, there are seven sections to this reading which include:

Overall Energy for The Entire Year

Overall Energy for The Second Half of 2025

Overall Energy for The First Half of 2026

Energy Signature Reading for The Point of Reunion with BTS

Timeline Layout for The Second Half of 2025

Timeline Layout for The First Half of 2026

A Pick-A-Card Section with 4 Groups To Choose From — Intended to provide more personal messages for the individuals engaging with this reading. Covers an energy check for whichever group you choose and provides a Warning and a Blessing to look out for over the next year, as well as highlighting the phase of progression the group will be in along with advice or guidance on how to work with and through that progression.

SIDE NOTE At the very beginning here, I do want to mention something that I’ve been getting for the mass global collective since about April or May of 2024, and that is a certain kind of “hump” or a turnover that is to occur in the middle of 2025. The way it looks in my mind is like a literal hill in the middle of the year, being marked by a “deadline date” of June 28th, that has the potential to carry the world over into a new flow of energy entirely. As I’ve been seeing and hearing it, it comes across as the second half of 2025 being very different energetically to the first half of the year, and the experience of the second half of the 2020s overall being very different from the first half of the 2020s, which was more so connected the pandemic and the lasting effects of it.

This hump is defined by what has been called a “make up test,” where a decision that was left up to the mass collective to make as individuals over the course of the pandemic, or more specifically over lockdown, is being given. Over the pandemic, the collective was given a choice geared toward self-liberation where all systems that humanity operates through were temporarily paused over the lockdown and people had the chance to see ways toward freedom as well as ways to balance with these systems. The people who made “the right choice” were the ones who took it upon themselves to see lockdown as an opportunity to start new hobbies, work on their health, establish a presence or career online, or simply become more enmeshed in their own mind, body, and soul overall. The ones who made the “wrong choice” were the ones who sat around with the mantra of, “I can’t wait until everything goes back to normal,” which considering how much everyone has hated everything over the last decade and a half, it is a wild thing to say, but it was said out of fear and discomfort so we can’t fault people too much for that.

The main issue was that not enough people chose the right choice, so while a massive amount of people did in fact experience that liberation, it was only on a personal level and was not a majority that would inevitably pull the rest of the collective over into a new flow of progression for the mass collective. You can think of it like this — If there are ten people trapped in a room with loose chains around their necks and two people managed to take them off, those two people would experience liberation, however, they would not be able to exit the room as they are still tied to the other eight people present. If seven out of those ten people were to get their chains off, these seven people would be able to not only experience personal liberation, but also open the door to the room and walk out, having enough collective strength to pull the remaining three people out of their chains and out of the room all together.

Along with all of this, this seems to be a matter that will not only set the second half of the 2020s into a new gear, but also lay the foundation for what we collectively experience in the 2030s, which currently looks undefined and even blank for myself and a lot of other people on a certain level as a collective choice has not been made yet.

Choosing liberation for yourself may be purely a matter of belief, a matter of understanding around free will and your ability to control your life and overall experience on this planet. Superficial limitations as well as still attempting to follow and play into systems you claim to hate without much effort put toward changing how you interact with them or the degree to which they influence you seem to be the primary factors at play here.

Self-liberation occurs first in the realm of belief. If someone has the ability to influence what you believe of yourself or the world around you, you are already susceptible to the effects of manipulation and control. If you willfully, in spite of having the capacity and capability to make better choices, put yourself in relationships, systems, environments, or situations that cause you stress, pain, anxiety, and a great sense of hopelessness, such as doom scrolling, coming online just to argue, or seeking out people who hate and complain about everything just as much as you do in order to validate your current experience rather than seeking something or someone out to help you change the current situation, you are pulling your own chains tighter and tighter around your own neck.

There is a matter of distortion at play as well where when someone has the ability to affect how you see the world or yourself, they can distort your sense of reality. When your sense of reality is distorted, the way you present yourself can start to deform into something centered around conformity, or in other words, you have the potential to lose yourself. When you lose yourself, your projection toward other people, how you show up in the world, inherently contributes distortion, as in, you become a distorted figure, a distorted consciousness in the lives of people around you. In this way, without intending to, you distort the reality of other people.

Again, one of the first steps to self-liberation, as well as self-actualization, is to reclaim your own mind and sense of control over how you see the world and how you see yourself.

I don’t know exactly how, or if this will be relevant to this outlook reading here, but this has been one of the more prominent things that has been coming through over the last year and considering this June 28th deadline, or this turning point is just around the corner, I thought I should include it. Keep in mind, this “deadline” is not a matter of needing to have everything established and switched over by then, this is just a point in which the energy begins to move differently, and the rest of the year may be dedicated to catching that wave. It’s just an energetic shift now but over the rest of the 2020s we’ll see more and more tangible opportunities, both on a personal and collective level, for liberation.

NOTES But anyway, let’s start with the actual outlook reading. A lot of really interesting stuff came out here that made me quite excited to see how ARMY evolves going forward, so this is one that I’m very excited to share, but I need to give you some of the notes that I took while I was in meditation preparing for this reading.

“Revival.”

One of the very first things I heard and saw when tapping into the collective flow of the soul group, or the higher ARMY collective, was the word “revival.” This was something that was coming through for BTS as well, and in terms of what I was seeing for BTS specifically, I’m quite certain that in the near future, specifically around the time of their first official comeback or group tour, I will need to do an assessment and observational reading to see what the heck is going on with the Soul Body.

Basically, as I was seeing it, back in 2018/2019 when the Soul Body untethered itself and the individual souls of BTS started to operate entirely on their own, this trickled down and manifested as the certainty, as the guarantee that they would be able to successfully establish themselves as individuals in the public eye, creating their own solidified streams of energy and consciousness on a higher level that would be capable of carrying more fine-tuned transmissions for their own individual soul groups, which make up the mass soul group within ARMY, as well as the mass global collective. They’ve done this, initiating it officially in 2022 when Jin left for the military, establishing a very physical separation that was able to be perceived and therefore solidified in the conscious space.

I mentioned somewhere a while back, I can’t remember if it was in an official reading or if it was just in an answer to a question on Tumblr, but I did mention that as the souls of the Soul Body separated, there would be division in the soul group where people who gravitate more toward certain members would kind of follow that separation and we would see more defined, smaller communities or soul groups forming in that way. When BTS separated on a physical and conscious level, ARMY as a whole followed suit and, in some capacity, has divided itself and has been operating in a split manner. Unfortunately, this seems to have created some toxicity in the fandom as well as a lot of “gaps” or cracks in the floorboards where certain influences have created odd dynamics, odd social rules, and restrictions to where ARMY just isn’t functioning the way that it used to.

Luckily, with this “revival” thing, I was seeing that when BTS comes back together, ARMY will also come back together. There will be a slow but sure processes of the fandom solidifying into its original form and beginning to act in a more balanced and unified way. This absolutely does not mean that suddenly there is no room for solo support, but rather it’s like people will wake up to the toxicity, take note on it, and learn from it, allowing more and more people to go forward with both group and solo support without the added toxicity of viewing the members as being each other’s competition, or trying to pit them against each other in order to fight amongst ourselves as fans.

What had me interested in the Soul Body was the fact that it was looking like the Soul Body itself was going to “come back to form,” but slightly in a new way with new “non-obstructing tethers.” If you’re unfamiliar, the Soul Body is a higher structure that the souls of the members have been a part of, and were originally one within, for literally forever basically, and they sat within that body in a way that resemble the seven main chakras in the spine. They stand in the order of:

Namjoon — Crown

Yoongi — Third Eye

Hoseok — Throat

Jimin — Heart

Jin — Solar Plexus

Taehyung — Sacral

Jungkook — Root

When the Soul Body was healed in 2018 and put back into its proper form, they were literally stacked together top to bottom. Then, in 2019 the separation began, as it was intended, and the tethers between them began to break down. This was observed in multiple readings in that time, which you can find, along with pretty much everything about the Soul Body, in an archive post that I made a few years ago here: Complete Record of The BTS Soul Body Map and Healing

With the element of revival, there’s an interesting backtracking where, back in 2019, the Soul Body separated, which assured the separation and solidification of the guys in the physical, conscious reality, and now, their physical and conscious reunion, which I saw being “officiated” only when they are established as being back together in the mass public eye, either through an official comeback or a tour, they will trigger the Soul Body to come back together. So, it went from the higher aspects affecting to lower, to now the lower aspects affecting the higher.

What was interesting is that rather than taking a form where they stacked top to bottom, it looked like the souls would sit side-by-side. In the same order, but running left to right. And I was seeing that they would not have their tethers, or bindings between them, but instead, they appeared to be held together by this magnetic force. It’s like when you try to shove two magnets together on the wrong sides and they have that repulsion force to them. It’s like that would be between the souls, keeping them from merging, but there’s an opposite magnetic connection holding them in place as well. It’s more like they would be revolving around each other, keeping in line through a gravitational pull of sorts.

This odd orbiting was highlighted for me as showing DNA strands forming without those little lines in the middle, as well as an image of ropes being tied to metal pipes. With the original tethers, they were the same material, looking more like skin that fused together between the individuals creating a singular structure that could move around, but ultimately could not separate or operate individually. Here, this is suggesting that what holds them together will not be something that fuses them, but just anchors them into an equal standing with each other.

So, again, as BTS comes together, so do their souls, and ARMY seems to follow suit within a revival or reunification of the collective community.

“Can we go places?”

Another thing I heard was a young girl’s voice saying, “can we go places?” This was registering to me as newer fans, newer members of ARMY who are part of that inner soul group, but have not actually experienced all seven members working together, and have not experienced ARMY operating all together. It was quite an innocent and eager sounding tone, wondering if when everything is back in order again, if we'll be able to go places, if we’ll be able to do these big amazing things and see the guys, all together, do these big amazing things. There was an element of these newer souls in the soul group literally hanging out and wondering when and where the development will occur, wondering why they’ve just been kind of sitting here all this time and not having that unified progression they were expecting to have as part of this soul group.

I then was trying to connect a bit higher, connect to higher elements of the soul group specifically to see if I could get anything of importance or interest for this reading to share. Not surprisingly, it’s a hard contact to make as, for one, BTS’ Guides do look in on the soul group within ARMY, but they are not of any influence. It’s kind of none of their business what goes on within it, but they check in as the flow and balance of the community has an immense effect on BTS themselves. Then, Guides of the souls within the soul group… There are literally millions, so that just felt like walking through a crowded city and screaming, “does anyone know anything about anything?” No response, obviously.

I did get a few little blips, but as these were Guides I was not really familiar with and did not have a typical line open for, I wasn’t getting things super clearly as some of them were attempting to speak verbally. I’m still very bad when it comes to hearing things, only catching bits and pieces, but I’m top notch when it comes to the visual reception.

Lucky Rabbit

The first thing I saw was a rabbit statue. It was a tall skinny one with long ears, standing up on its back legs. It was made of stone and was just sort of shoved in my face. Rabbits in general symbolize good luck, and rabbit statues are used to represent luck, fertility, and general abundance. However, when I was looking this up to try and find out what I could have been being shown, I saw that the typical rabbit statue associated with these things is one that is lying down, a “resting rabbit.” I then looked up what it means when a rabbit stands on its hind legs. It said that rabbits do this mainly when they are just scoping out the place, checking for predators or their friends, but there was an interesting specification made about pet rabbits doing this as a way of communicating with their owners for attention or food. Something about this stuck with me and gave me the sense that this is ARMY, the energy on a higher level kind of building up.

Visually, I was seeing it as the stone rabbit lying down being ARMY from 2023 through to now, and the standing stone rabbit is ARMY as the guys have started to leave the military. The rabbit is still stone, it’s not fully in motion just yet, but when all seven are back together, I have a feeling this visual will proceed to either a stone rabbit jumping, or a full flesh-and-blood rabbit running, showing the energy in the fandom having become extremely stimulated towards elements of luck, abundance, and expansion.

“We’re opening doorways here.”

I then heard a Guide — again, one of many — say, “We’re opening doorways here.” As in, “We’re in the middle of preparation here. We’re preparing doorways.” This was interesting as it does seem that the mass collective on a soul level, or their Guides at least, are actually preparing for some kind of flux that will be experienced on a higher level, which may be something experienced on a conscious and physical level too. As I was seeing it, it looked like the doorways were being opened to allow energy and new souls in, as well as allow souls out.

“They cut off…” “…don’t know where the Universe is.”

When I was asking for an explanation on who’s coming and who’s going, I heard a broken response saying, “They cut off…” and, “…don’t know where the Universe is.” The first response, “they cut off…” was elaborated on visually to show members of the soul group who were very much supposed to be part of the soul group having cut themselves off or separated from the community on a conscious level when the frequency of the collective started to fall. Essentially, on a higher level, they were no longer in resonance with the soul collective of ARMY, and on a conscious level, they no longer enjoyed the community as it felt a bit more toxic, separated, or just not what they were able to vibe with anymore. Some of those souls are being prepared for a return and an element of healing as they may have lost some level of connection to themselves or their own vibrancy in the process.

Side Note: I find the timing of all of this very interesting as well as the first initial transmission that was put out to call the soul group together was the song “I Need U” in 2015. We’re celebrating the 10-year anniversary of this song as well as the HYYH era this year which carried the first waves of active transmissions for the soul group and collective. There really is a feeling of resolidification, of energies being called back, raised up, and returned to where they were before. I do think this revival period is going to be something very noticeable to a lot of people.

The, “…don’t know where the Universe is,” referred to individuals who have become part of the fandom over the last few years, potentially going back to 2020, who have contributed negatively to the structures and dynamics of the community, to the point where they have pulled the frequency of the soul group itself into lower levels. To say they don’t know where the Universe is, is to say they don’t know where their place is, they don’t know where they are, they can’t see the bigger picture, they can not feel the deeper connection within the community, they’re not, and never were, fitting in, and therefore are being prepared to be ushered out.

This would have to do with the revival aspect, something I was seeing as a body having a wound flushed of infection, cutting off infected tissue, and healing very quickly afterward.

Now, here in the first section of the reading, which covers the overall energetic projection of the entire year between June 11, 2025 and June 13, 2026, we’re seeing a progression that begins with a re-solidification between ARMYs and BTS. At the very top, the beginning of this timeframe is highlighted with Alchemy and the Third Eye. Alchemy reflects down into The Vow card where I was seeing the golden edges of the card moving inward to eradicate the darkness, suggesting illumination and a heightening of energy or frequency.

This illumination and higher frequency then lend to the Third Eye opening, a collective awakening of sorts that, for one, relates to The Vow being seen, a promise now known to have been kept. I was seeing this going back and forth between ARMY and BTS as BTS, upon their return, will know for sure that ARMYs really didn’t leave, and ARMYs will know that BTS hasn’t really changed in a way that’s left them unrecognizable personality wise — something both sides have continuously expressed concern and fear toward since the beginning of their enlistment periods.

The Third Eye is also relative to the revival period of ARMY where, through Status, there seems to be this collective awakening to what ARMY is, or what it’s really supposed to feel like. I was seeing the golden light of The Vow coming together in the entangled hands in the image, a representative of the soul group within ARMY that sits underneath the flying white bird, a representative of BTS on a higher level as the soul body, which becomes the golden diamond that we see the two figures standing within in Status. It’s the initiation of this cleansing period or a time in which people start to remember what being a member of ARMY really means, what it’s supposed to feel like, and there may start to be a more noticeable separation between people who are here for the group and people who were either meant to be here temporarily, or people who weren’t really supposed to be in the space to begin with. In other words, there will be a noticeable difference between dark and light, between those higher frequencies and lower frequencies.

To further explain, it would seem that, in relation to the soul group, the reunion will cause an upswing in frequency which will, on a higher level at first, separate the soul group from casual spaces, and then separate the casual spaces or fans from people who were causing the frequency drop in the first place. This could then be experienced over time as even more chaos or conflict in the fandom in some communities as these differences and separation become more visible, talked about, and operated against.

The Status card anchors the higher energies of The Vow, Alchemy, and Third Eye down into the more conscious and physical spaces. Here, with its association with Jupiter in Taurus, I was seeing a general expansion happening where as certain people begin to leave, new people start to come in, and old people who have been away from the community start to return. In general, in this period of cleansing and alchemizing, it will not, in the long run, be perceived as a time of loss in the fandom as those who leave will be replaced by those who are returning and then added onto by new people who start to come in through those open doorways. The fandom will start to feel bigger as well as more spaced out, like there’s more room to breathe, and a general lightness to everything that builds up over the rest of 2025 and into 2026.

“Exodus.”

In the middle set, we move into something that feels very much like the actual cleansing process, and with this I heard the word “exodus.” Very dramatic. At the very top, there is Romantic Love bouncing off of and playing into Friendship down at the bottom. I was seeing the white bird in The Vow, which was symbolizing BTS on a higher soul level, lining up with the bird we see flying over the two figures in the image of Friendship. The way the bird flies in and seems to blow the grass aside to reveal the two figures feels like this higher energy coming in and finding people who have been hiding. There’s also a sense of this connecting back to the Third Eye where we can imagine the tall grass having been blinding the figures before but now, with the return of the bird, the grass is blown away and the illumination can occur. On another level, I was also seeing this as being a seeking of souls who have separated from the soul group, a time when people are being called back to the soul group on a higher level, and back into the community on a conscious and physical level.

In the center, with The Medallion, this is where I was hearing the word “exodus.” If we look at the image, the medallion hanging down, glowing with a golden light, is the image of The Vow, or more specifically, it is the image of BTS and ARMY together again on a higher level, it’s representing the unification of the soul group and it being raised into a higher frequency again. In the image, we can see a hand in the darkness, trying to grab onto the medallion. I was seeing this as being the ones who will be “shaken out” of the community and out of the soul group. On a higher level, it is just a matter of frequency where the soul group vibrates higher, which elevates the community as a whole, and those who have settled into or who have actively contributed to lower frequencies just won’t be able to hang on. They’ll be vibrated out on a higher level, and in various ways, just be brought to separate themselves from the community on a conscious and physical level.

On a conscious and physical level, this removal of negativity could come from these people just not really vibing with BTS when they’re all together and choosing to leave on their own, they could also be recognized by ARMYs who have been revived to be negative influences and actively be cut off or disconnected from the community to the point where they just fade out of awareness and lose their influence, or it could be a very active effort on the part of ARMY to reclaim the fandom from toxicity, an effort to return to the old functioning of ARMY where it operated in a more balanced way, and therefore a more direct effort to expose and expel negative people becomes a trend.

The combination of Romantic Love and Friendship points to this being a time when true and honest friendship that is felt on a deeper level is being prioritized over more superficial connections that could be based more on followers, influence, or perceived power in the community.

“Undefined.”

Finally, towards the end of this timeframe, mostly in the timeframe of the first half of 2026, there is a wobbly mess of energy that is completely unreadable. This seemed less settled in the space of ARMY and more connected to something with BTS. I requested some clarification on this and all I got back was the word, “undefined.”

Typically, when doing outlook readings, it is always good to remember that while there may be predetermined experiences and predetermined destinations for everyone when they come into the human experience, we are ultimately at the mercy of our own free will. Free will is supported on all levels, held a bit like a sacred law, and therefore Guides are always on alert when it comes to choices that can cause detours from the designated path. You can think of it as a GPS system where you have your starting point, you have your destination, and before you even start driving you can see your entire journey mapped out. However, anything can happen once you actually start driving. The weather could cause you to have to pull over to the side of the road, your car could run out of gas, you could get caught behind someone who is driving quite slow, all of which can affect your estimated time of arrival. There could be major traffic, a car accident, or road work that forces you to take an alternate route. Taking an alternate route, willfully deviating from the original map, is the exact same thing as a person making any and every choice they could ever possibly make. Every choice leads you onto a new road but, just like a GPS system, your Guides are quick to reroute your journey to ensure that even while you are on that detoured path, you will ultimately make it to where you, as a soul, wanted to end up.

Right now, as I’m seeing it, the elements of 2026 are very up in the air due to choices that need to be made by all members about things that haven’t even been presented to them yet. There’s a waiting game happening on a higher level with this, and because of that, ARMY is also kind of in a blind spot here with what I’m trying to read.

So, with the cards, there is Realization over The Shapeshifter with Optimism down at the bottom. The Shapeshifter is that undefined energy, this sort of “prepared but waiting” energy I was getting from their Guides who, as soon as they make their choices, will jump into action and reroute their course to make sure they get to where they need to go. Realization is sort of hidden here, being quite literal with the idea that this image or projection of the future this far ahead can’t be realized but will be in action at some point.

The Optimism card is for ARMYs, a kind of comfort that is coming through to say, “continue holding an optimistic outlook, continue to hold a higher vibration, hold your illumination.” It’s a good thing to remember that ARMY, especially the soul group, affects BTS just as much as BTS affects ARMY on a higher, energetic level. Holding optimistic outlooks for them, upholding the vow of support and presence for healing, expression, and self-realization will help to ensure positive progression on both ends.

Moving onto the overall energy of just the second half of 2025, we see some pretty awesome stuff here starting with this big wave of what felt like some kind of nostalgia. This could be playing into the HYYH anniversary as well, especially if we think about revival in the fandom with old fans returning, potentially to revisit HYYH. I was feeling this like stepping into a cool, air conditioned house after being outside playing in the summer as a child. There’s some kind of comfortable stillness alongside a cool down that feels very safe, like returning home.

The first set there marks the reunion again with The Mentor and Friendship. The Friendship card is carrying the same signature that it was in the previous section, representing a higher level of connection and exposure occurring where it feels like people being brought back into the community and illuminated as the frequencies of the community begin to rise.

The image of The Mentor, with the owl flying overhead, mirrors that of the bird in Friendship, as well as the bird we see in The Vow. Again, all of these represent BTS, especially on a higher level. This seems to be mainly focused on the point of reunion and the initiation of the revival.

In the center, there’s something quite cool with the reversal of Control and The Queen, bringing in a lot of Yin energy, a fresh Divine Feminine flow, seeming to be the initiation of the exodus period. In the image of Control, we see the figure of the personified Saturn sitting with his feet on the world, with a red snake wrapped around it. As he is sitting inside the golden diamond, this brought me back to Status and the point in which ARMYs, especially those in the soul group, would sort of be reminded of their own status or of what ARMY is really supposed to be like and feel like. In the image of Control, especially with Saturn and Capricorn’s association with The Devil card, I feel that this represents the negative influences and dynamics that have been present in ARMY, across the mass collective of the fandom. Especially with the idea of his feet being on the Earth, keeping it from spinning, keeping it low to the ground and in a heavy space, I do think this represents the individuals, or just the energy in general, that we see being shaken off in The Medallion.

In the image of The Queen, as we reverse the influence of Control, we see the red snake that was entrapping the world in Control, be grabbed onto and be drained of its energy, of its power, its color, and lifted up and out of the way. As the Control card reverses, it puts the world, or the mass collective of ARMY, above these heavier influences and allows it to spin, allows them to move, allows it to raise its frequency again.

Just the same, in the image of The Queen, I was seeing the golden full moon in the background to be like that of The Medallion, while the white flower blooming down below feels like, on some level, a flag being planted on “reclaimed land,” or a reclaimed system of energy that is in the process of being purified. This image of the flower also brought to mind the use of flowers in HYYH and could be connected back to the revival as well as that wave of nostalgia.

Following this flow and purification, playing quite well off the idea of an influx of Yin or Divine Feminine energy creating a fresher, more open space, we have The Creator with Assertion. I was seeing this as a surge of creativity moving through the fandom, but more specifically, a lot of ARMYs who had either stopped sharing their work, or ARMYs who were too afraid to start sharing their work, suddenly feeling quite confident, inspired, and eager to share their creativity within the community. There could be something quite inspiring coming from BTS that causes this, but I’m really seeing this occur within the fandom on its own. Without as much focus, attention, or loyalty being put into negative contributors and toxicity, there is more general support occuring in the fandom and a lot more people who contribute positive elements to the fandom, especially through creativity, may experience a rise in popularity.

With Assertion specifically, I’m seeing the knight as ARMYs while the dragon is a carry over of that red snake — it’s showing ARMYs with newfound confidence actively fighting for themselves and their right to express themselves as individuals in the fandom. This could be showing that element of liberation where individuals may be breaking away from more restrictive communities within the fandom and making a foundation for themselves by sharing their own work or ideas.

Going into the overall energy of the first half of 2026, there is a noticeable drop in the energy, but it feels to be holding the same shape. In my notes, I described the energy as “getting loud, pressure in the ears,” as well as describing the image of going inside to an air conditioned house in the summer as a child becoming a dark and stormy day where you are forced back inside. I described it as the nostalgia carrying over but carrying a blue hue rather than a golden one.

I also marked the progression of The Mountain, which is number 33, to The River, which is number 34, through Agape, or through unconditional love. There’s some kind of pressure here that seems to require unconditional love to move through. In relation to ARMY, going from the rocky, unmoving Mountain, to the gentle flowing River feels like this could be a continuation of the exodus period, but more so at the tail end of it where there is effort to heal. There’s a sense of needing to find your footing through Agape, a necessary patience needed at this time for everyone involved.

In relation to BTS, the element of Publicity and Affair in the center could be quite literal denoting a reveal of a relationship, or a rumored relationship causing quite a chaotic response which may be highly publicized. With this, there may need to be an extra amount of support and patience expressed by ARMYs in order to help both BTS and ARMY as a community move through this with grace.

On a higher energetic level, I’m seeing The Mountain with Power being a point of establishment or reveal. The doorway with the sun in the moon in Power mirrors the illuminated opening to a cave at the top of The Mountain. Even the Power card has mountains in the background that feel reminiscent of the Third Eye awakening through The Vow. With the woman lying underground in Power and the figure standing at the opening of a cave in The Mountain, there is this sense of people starting to come out, starting to unearth themselves and be seen under a new kind of illumination.

In the center, I’m not really feeling any higher relevance to Agape, Affair, and Publicity, making me think this really is a more superficial matter, something that would be tangible or observable in some way, which may be why there is that sense of dropping into a slightly darker or heavier space. The frequency will drop temporarily as there may be a burst of external focus and turmoil in the community around this. Again, it just needs to be moved through with Agape, with unconditional love, and it will pass over smoothly.

The River, as it progresses through from The Mountain, feels to be mirroring a bit more of what I was seeing with The Shapeshifter where the flow of The River, as well as the broken images shown in Vision where we see half a sun, half an animal, and only one eye, feels to be undefined but in motion. Something is being conjured up there, something centered around turning the hard and unmoving mountain into a soft and flowing river.

The Devotion card underneath Vision is carrying the exact same signature as Optimism in the overall energy for the entire year, where ARMY is being encouraged to simply hold a positive outlook for BTS. Here, Devotion is asking for just that, devotion, or support that plays off of Agape with patience and unconditional love. It seems in general, both BTS and ARMY will need support at this time.

Looking at the projected energy signatures around the point of reunion with BTS, there’s quite a lot going on here that seems to point to a pretty epic initiation for elevation and progression that goes both ways between BTS and ARMY.

First off, in the center as the main foundation of the reunion, we have The Starborn, which was bringing to mind again the element of revival, which can be read here as rebirth. The Starborn inherently registers as being a pretty high up energy, reflecting a kind of charging of the soul that then triggers the egg to begin hatching, or in this context, reflects a charging of the soul group that begins to crack the eggs of the individuals on a conscious and physical level. For some, this could feel like a literal birth, or a renewing of the self that comes out of nowhere. For others, this could feel a bit more like a personal evolution, like a butterfly coming out of a cocoon. Others may experience this as a sense of shedding skin, which is something that could connect back to the exodus period and feeling like, within the community, you are shedding negative influences and becoming lighter.

On all ends, there is this feeling of being charged up and out of a space of restriction or perceived limitation, represented by the egg, and coming out into a higher, lighter space where the connection to the soul group, and the community in general, is something that can be felt quite clearly.

Above The Starborn, the center focus is channeled through Gemini, with relevance to communication. This is very interesting as I was seeing Gemini, and the connection to the 3rd House, bouncing off the Spirit 3 at the bottom next to the Fire 7. These seem to be reflecting three different levels of connection, two of which center on back and forth communication while the other reflects a back and forth stimulation of energy that is deliberate and potentially consciously initiated.

Gemini and the Spirit 3 point to direct “face-to-face” communication which could be referring to the first group livestream where BTS and ARMY are interacting with each other through the chat. On one level, through Gemini, there is vocal communication occurring through direct lines, such as the live stream, while the Spirit 3 is about direct soul connection. On a higher level, the souls of BTS will be communicating and reengaging with the soul group within ARMY.

The Fire 7 marks deliberate stimulation of energy, like friction building up heat to eventually create a spark. The number 7 in progression is a stimulator, but unlike the number 8 which is self-sustaining, the number 7 represents energy that needs to be actively stimulated in order to keep its head up. It is in the space of effort and deliberate action toward a goal. As communication is occurring on both the soul and conscious level, I see this Fire 7 representing an element of the individuals present experiencing some kind of sparking where their souls are directly connecting to the conscious level that generates inspiration and joy, and most importantly, elevates the overall frequency.

So, essentially, while experiencing this collective situation, your souls are going to take the opportunity while you are actively engaging in a higher frequency, to connect and potentially establish a point of integration. This could be one of the things that lends to personal revival, rebirth, as well as what could be the starting point of self-actualization and more open creative expression within the community.

The number 3 and 7 together come to the number 10, which is a point of higher transition as we can envision the number 1 as an individual moving through the portal of infinite potential that is represented by the number 0. This reflects the energy of The Fool in tarot, the starting point that is undefined with a hint of chaos as it is unclear of where things are going. I feel this could also reflect the aspect of the hump, or the “make up test” I was seeing for the mass collective splitting the 2020s into two very different energy flows. Essentially, the point of reunion will charge the soul and lead to, for those who embrace it, a level of inspiration that may bleed out into many areas of your life and thus seem completely unrelated, but ultimately is tethered to your progression and development within the soul group within ARMY.

The Earth number 30 and the Raido rune that lay over the top of The Starborn do reflect integration within these spaces, something that was visually represented to me as the physical body, connecting to Earth 30, being inside the egg, symbolizing a locked in or restricted state of being. The individual soul, represented by Spirit 3, enters the body or the conscious levels, through the collective stimulation of energy and rising of frequency on all levels within the Fire 7. Once it is occupying the body or the consciousness, everything starts to move and expand, causing the egg to crack and break away.

Raido is the chariot, which rings back to The Chariot card in tarot, a symbol of a person in full alignment and on their higher path. The number 30 connecting to physicality through the Earth element, specifying the 3 as communication and 0 as a point of transition or a conduit, displays to me the initiation of soul integration for a lot of people.

At the very bottom, in the center, there are the keywords “pleasure with purpose,” and “love.” This reiterated to me that the superficial joy and excitement that people will feel, the love they will be generating on a conscious and physical level at the point of reunion will have a purpose much higher up and beyond what may be perceived on lower levels for both the individual and the collective. Love, pleasure, and joy are some of the highest frequencies that can be generated by the human consciousness, and with so many people coming together for the reunion, there is sure to be quite an effect on a higher level.

On either side of The Starborn, we have two sets of projected energy that blossom out of the center and seem to create an undefined ripple effect that continues to move outward, reflecting the influence of BTS on the soul group, the soul group’s influence on the overall community of ARMY, and the influence of the ARMY collective on the general public or mass global collective. It’s registering as undefined past a certain point as the energy will be carried and distributed out in very different ways by many different people.

On the left side, we have the Wunjo rune leading us into the set defined by the Crown Chakra, Relationships, Inspiration, the 10th House, and two Air 10s, along with the keywords “learning” and “observing.”

The Wunjo rune is associated with joy, excitement, celebration, community, pleasure, belonging, success, and festivities. It brings to mind the 3 of Cups which shows friends dancing and drinking together to celebrate their abundance and happiness. As this is the gateway into the left section, it feels as if this is a bit more of what will be experienced collectively all together between ARMY and BTS.

At the top we have the 10th House, which bounces off the two 10s that came out together. The repeating 10s play off of the Fire 7 and Spirit 3 and suggest a space of initiation and transition, but in relation to the 10th House and the keywords of “learning” and “observing.” I really can’t help but think about the way Saturn, the gatekeeper of the 10th House, observes individuals as they progress from the 7th House, through the 8th House, to the 9th House before being tested for entry into the 10th House. Something in this feels very connected to the dark night of the soul, elements of the Saturn Return, and something relevant to Saturn changing signs this year, going into Aries on May 25th before retrograding back into Pisces until February 14, 2026 when it returns to Aries where it will be until 2028. As Saturn moves into Aries, it initiates a new 29 year cycle through the zodiac, which, on a collective level, could lend to the beginning of new cycles for everyone, especially in terms of systemic function.

With there being a focus on Air energy with the two 10s laying over the Crown Chakra, it feels connected to the evolution of the conscious mind, something of an expansion in the conscious space, that on some level, feels like a reward or even a gift for having made it through a difficult period of lower vibration. For BTS, this could register as their time in enlistment as well as the separation, and for ARMY this could refer to the division in community and state of lower frequency. Something has been observed here and there feels to be, in a manner of an open doorway, access being granted to a higher level, access being granted through the Crown Chakra that is established through connections in Relationships, both within the community and to BTS.

Even the image of Inspiration feels a lot like an access point where we see the figure, who I was envisioning as having hatched out of the egg, dancing toward a house that is only accessible to her after she crosses over the symbol of Mercury, representing communication, connections, and a level of clarity. The house in the background was making me think of Saturn’s House, the 10th House. Saturn’s House, as he is the gatekeeper and maker of karma itself, is a place that you need to earn access to by detaching from conformity in the 7th House, moving through the depths of your own soul, healing trauma, insecurities, and fears in the 8th, before experiencing a self-reinvention and rebirth through the 9th. Saturn watches you the entire time you make this journey, throws obstacles and curveballs your way to test you to be sure that you really deserve a space in the house of fame, fortune, and self-sustaining stability. The 10th House is also where you can find your access to your higher calling, your purpose work, which when accessed through the 10th House can start to look like or be incorporated into your lifelong stable career. With this, there is a lot of money and influence on the table and because of that, Saturn wants to make sure that you not only deserve it, but that you can also handle that kind of influence as it will affect others in the long run.

You have to earn access to Saturn’s House, but that certainly doesn’t stop people from worming their way in under the floorboards and taking advantage of what is available there. The people under the floorboards contribute corruption, abuse of power, and highly unjust and inherently unstable practices to the world. Every decade or so, and certainly at times of a new cycle, Saturn fumigates the house and, through karmic justice, exposes those who made it into his house without a proper welcoming.

I’m seeing people dancing toward the front door with illuminated heads, all together, speaking excitedly, and on some level, very aware of where they are about to go. On a higher soul level, there is a recognition of achieving a higher state of being that will be locked into place. It’s coming down to the idea of the souls all recognizing that the separation was the greatest drop in frequency that has been experienced in the soul group, it was the collective fall into the 8th House, experienced in varying ways on a conscious level within the community. There is an initiation with the revival and exodus periods that mirrors that of the 9th House, where I’m seeing the woman in the image, within the red background, being before she fully steps over into the 10th House. Something tells me the actual point of entry will be in 2026 when Saturn moves back into Aries and stays there for good, which could mirror on another level as a proper establishment of reconnection with BTS, such as an official comeback or tour, or just an element of timing where it is the official first full year back with BTS.

On the right side of The Starborn, the Laguz rune leads us into a space governed by the Third Eye, Determination, Originality, the South Node, an Air 1, and the keywords “jumping lives,” and “farmer.” This side feels much more connected to the conscious level experiences of the individuals in the soul group that will experience this uprising or revival. The Third Eye connects back to the spaces of awakening, while Determination is an influx of higher energy that lends to inspiration and a fueling energy to move and make changes. The Air 1 laying over Originality, which features a man with a bird flying over his head, connecting back to the birds symbolizing BTS as a source of inspiration, stimulation, and guidance, also bounces off of The Creator and Assertion, denoting a lot more people becoming confident and eager to share their work within the community, as well as people becoming more bold and self-driven in their lives overall. With the connection to Mercury and the 11th House in Originality, the Third Eye, and the Air 1, this feels very specifically like the initiation of a new conscious level perspective, a level of clarity that helps people to see their way forward more, to the point where certain things that once seemed impossible to do are suddenly quite easy and not as scary.

The element of “jumping lives” plays off of Determination with the image of the fish swimming and leaping up a waterfall, Inspiration with the woman preparing to cross a threshold into the house, the egg hatching in The Starborn, and the idea of the soul groups’ Guides actively opening doorways for souls and energy to come and go. There is a dramatic shift happening here on this end that is centered in the mind and how the mind connects to the collective or the outside world for the individual. The reference of “farmer” refers to someone who is curating land, planting seeds, and in the process of building up a self-sustaining system. In numerology, the archetype of the farmer lines up with number 7 with the deliberate stimulation or curation of crops with the intention to become self-sufficient or self-sustained which would move up into the number 8 with the full harvest, full abundance and satisfaction being achieved in number 9.

With the South Node present, I feel a bit of a callback to that Saturn energy, or more specifically a watchful eye being put on personal challenges and how you handle them, how you choose to balance the imbalances you face in your life. How will ARMY choose to balance the imbalances in the community when more people start to become more outspoken about toxicity in the fandom? How will you as an individual balance the engagement and influence when and if you come to realize that the negative state of the community has affected you personally? In your personal life, how will you choose to balance your most authentic identity with standards and expectations of the world around you? How will you choose to balance your soul awareness with your conscious mind?

On all levels across the board, there are themes of revival, rebirth, ascension, awakening, upgrading, inspiration, expression, and connection coming through here with the point of reunion between BTS and ARMY.

Moving onto the timeline for the last half of 2025, I started with July so we can see the flow of the whole month, as well as to allow time and space for energies to settle in the second half of June.

In July we have the reversed 3 of Pentacles and the reversed Page of Swords, followed by The Devil in reverse and the 5 of Pentacles in August. These are both much more focused on the conscious level engagements of the community showcasing the beginning of shutdowns in communication and the extinguishing of certain voices in the fandom. The reversed Page of Swords shows the cut off in communication occurring in a small way, ways that may not be noticeable at first, possibly just many individuals on their own beginning to block or disconnect from certain people they no longer feel connected to or inline with following the reunion. This could be between ARMYs who are actually here to support BTS in addition to solo support and the fans who came and stayed only to support a single member and are outwardly expressing their dissatisfaction with the group being together.

The reversed 3 of Pentacles could be a matter of certain networks, update accounts, and larger fan accounts that are usually working together or operating within the same confines or system of rules starting to separate for similar reasons. The image of the 3 of Pentacles in the Tarotwave deck shows computers that are seemingly glitched out, which makes me think of Discord servers, private group chats, and other forms of hidden group connections breaking down or being dismantled. Again, in July, this feels a bit more like a smaller, or at least quieter breakdown in dynamics within the greater community.

In August, there seems to be another call back to the exodus period where there is a much more tangible, much more noticeable breakdown of connections and perhaps even a level of social exile occurring as ARMYs aim to rebuild and preserve prior dynamics of the fandom and communities to a more balanced and open state where everyone is comfortable and embraced. The reversal of The Devil is the takedown of power systems within the fandom, taking away the influence of certain people or groups who contribute negatively to the community. There is more noticeable monitoring or mindful assessment towards where and how arguments or fighting within the community begin.

The 5 of Pentacles mirrors The Medallion where we see the golden forms above with people seeming to fall or sink into shadows below. In the image, we’re seeing people in need walk past a church, but in this context for ARMY, alongside the reversal of The Devil, it feels more like a social exile where a bunch of “devils” are being cast out of a “holy” or “sacred” place.

Following this, there is a major upswing in energy, a complete turnaround as we go into September and October. In September, we have the Ace of Cups with The High Priestess creating a major influx of flowing Yin energy, something that feels like a cooling cleansing energy coming in to clear out any remaining lower frequencies on a higher level. This also feels like a point of expansion which could include more people returning to the soul group or new people being brought in. Depending on how this plays out, this could be a quiet time in the fandom as this does feel very centered on the higher soul levels, but as this does seem to trickle down into the physical and conscious levels in October, there could be something going on triggering major excitement, inspiration, and intuitive processing.

In October, we get the Ace of Cups from the other deck with the Wheel of Fortune. Here, there is definitely something going on regarding inspiration and heightened excitement, with the Wheel of Fortune really seeming to move and generate a lot of stimulation in the community. This really seems to be a high point in the rest of 2025.

Following this, there seems to be a bit of an issue going on in November and December that looks like it could relate more to BTS and have an effect on ARMY at this time. In relation to BTS, I often get the 8, Page, and Ace of Pentacles in relation to their work, specifically albums, and here we have two of those cards present, but there are swords separating them in an odd way. What I’m seeing is very specific, so it would be better to take it as a symbolic standing of the energy presented here rather than what is actually going to happen or what is happening.

As I’m seeing it, the 8 of Pentacles shows BTS working on something or having been working on something for quite some time that is meant to be released. But then, we have the 7 of Swords, which portrays an individual sneaking into an enemy base and stealing their swords. Something sneaky is happening here, and it was being shown to me as someone who works with BTS in some way attempting to steal or sabotage the work that they did. This could come through as someone on their team stealing or messing with their work, or this could even be, in relation to Swords, communication, and connections, a showing of the media being seeded with rumors or negative reviews in an effort to invalidate or crush their success and influence.

November is the height of this matter and seems to hold quite a bit of tension, although, this may not be something that is extremely visible as I’m seeing it happen behind closed doors, in offices. However, this could be something that happened a while back and just now comes to light in this time as well. Either way, there are pieces missing for ARMY, we will be missing a lot of details.

Moving into December, however, the Ace of Swords alongside the Page of Pentacles, casts a new light and seems to refresh something. I was also seeing the Ace of Swords standing as a defense to the 7 of Swords, protecting the Page as he presents his pentacle, his work.

Basically, it lays out in such a way where it seems like there could be some kind of effort to keep BTS from putting out their work, or when they put out work, there’s effort to discredit it in some capacity. It’s fought against through the Ace of Swords which can be public verbal response, ARMY defense on social media, or the Ace of Swords could even be reflecting the sword of Justice, implying legal action if this is a matter of defamation or stealing.

Over the timeline, I added some Sprinkles! which are little pieces of fortune-cookie-sized papers that have hand written words and phrases on them, front and back. I literally have a couple thousand of them now, and they work amazingly well at adding additional context, focus, and messages to a reading when they are cast over the cards.

Over the month of July with the reversed Page of Swords and the reversed 3 of Pentacles there is a Sprinkle! that says, “life beats like poetry,” which refers to recognizable repeating cycles of occurrence or behavior. In this context, this highlights the element of people being more aware or more willing to acknowledge the toxicity in the fandom and choosing to step out of one negative repetitive flow in order to move back into a positive flow, or a more positive version of the community.

In September with the Ace of Cups and The High Priestess, there was “888,” “trips with friends,” and the number “10.” The numbers really elevate this and affirm that this set is reflecting something quite high on the soul level and even gave me the sense of things feeling quite “trippy” or otherworldly in relation to how people in the soul group and in the wider community actually experience this. Something about it even made me think of time travel or experiencing some kind of timewarp, which could have to do with the elements of nostalgia I was feeling and perhaps something to do with the anniversaries of the HYYH era.

Finally, the issue between November and December has quite a bit of added info here. Starting with the “Aries” indicator over the person in the image of the 7 of Swords, this was coming through as designating a singular individual, or a singular group that are acting with self-serving intent. There’s something a bit chaotic, spontaneous, or aggressive in their actions. It’s ringing true to an inflamed ego or an effort to “go to war” with the group in some way. This is then followed by “broken connections” laying between the 7 of Swords and the 8 of Pentacles which seems to confirm that there is some kind of direct connection between BTS and the person of the group displayed in the 7 of Swords. I was also seeing this as potentially connecting to the idea of people who have been shaken out of the fandom, or people in the fandom who do not like BTS as a group aiding in some kind of sabotage.

Following that, “split realities” lies between the 7 of Swords and the Ace of Swords, which made me think again of defaming comments in the media, or some kind of lie or rumor being created that ARMYs may have to fight against. There seems to be an effort to destroy or mar the image of BTS in the 7 of Swords, requiring ARMY to help uphold the true image.

Then, there is the number “22” over the Ace of Swords, which really felt like a reflection, or a mirror being held up by the Ace of Swords, as if Justice’s sword was being used to force the perpetrator to look at themselves and face their own wrongdoings. The sword reflects both ways though, showing the lies that are being told on one side, and the truth of BTS on the other.

On the top and bottom of the Page of Pentacles, which represented BTS making it through to the end of this matter and having something to show for it, there are two separate sprinkles that seemed to come together to say “you have my full support to do whatever you need to do out of fear and ego.” This felt like something that would be said to BTS by ARMY, with ARMY saying that they support BTS and their decision to take action now and precautions going forward in order to protect and preserve themselves, their image, and their work as what led to such actions was observed to some degree and understood by the majority.

Moving onto the timeline for the first half of 2026, we have a layout of a progression rather than a month-by-month timeline as the energy here is undefined and therefore specific occurrences couldn’t be read. As this is mainly based on matters with BTS and decisions they will be prompted to make at a later date, I requested information for this part of the reading through one of their Guides and what I got is actually pretty interesting.

Everything we see here is essentially the outline of what they, their Guides, want to happen for them, the path they are hoping everything moves down, with a highlight on the end of The Fool being in reverse over the hazy choices of the 7 of Cups, reminding us that this is just an outline, not something that is initiated or in play at all as of right now.

At the beginning with The Hanged Man over the 4 of Swords, there is hope for a period of rest and disconnect to seemingly, “help settle the soul,” as I was hearing it. This would trickle down into ARMY as well following the revival and the influx of higher frequencies. This would essentially be a time of integration and stabilizing of these energies simply for better stability.

This is then followed by the Ace of Swords which is the lowest point of the outline as it anchors into the conscious space. Specifically, there is some kind of passing down of transmissions happening here with something much higher dropping down some kind of inspiration or calling to BTS in the form of the Ace of Swords, which is then dropped down and handed to ARMY. With the image of the 6 of Pentacles showing a man giving out many coins, it feels like this could resonate with the release of a new album, or the beginning of constructing a new album or series of albums that will carry hefty transmissions for the soul group.

In the very center, there is a major peak point that was highlighted as being the main goal, or the destination that their Guides need to get them to regardless of how things play out with their decisions. In this set we have the Wheel of Fortune with the 10 of Cups and Ace of Pentacles down below. This is marking the release of something, but it goes beyond an album or a tour, it’s something quite significant and something that was being marked as an opening to the next ten years. Whatever this is, the success of it will ensure the next ten years of BTS as a group operating at high degrees. There is an active conduit situation here with the Wheel of Fortune being the higher soul or higher unconscious, the 10 of Cups resonating with the higher subconscious, while the Ace of Pentacles plugs into the physical and conscious space.

The Star over the 7 of Wands is not part of the progression, similar to the reversed Fool and 7 of Cups, but rather is an added note. I don’t know entirely why this is relevant unless this has something to do with the issues in November and December, but this is marking preparation for the protection of BTS on higher and lower levels. BTS are represented in the 7 of Wands with the Star being their Guides casting a collective field of protection over all of them while facing what is displayed as jealous outrage and efforts to knock them out of their higher standing. The use of the 7 of Wands pulls in the reference to the progression within the suit of Wands:

The progression begins with the 6 of Wands who is returning home from the battle portrayed in the 5 of Wands. He is victorious and celebrated by many other people. This card is associated with fame, glory, and pride. In the 7 of Wands, we see the same man being attacked, caught off guard by an ambush of people who, from down below, attempt to knock him down from his higher position. In the 8 of Wands, we see the sticks they’re all using go flying, unclear of whether they’ve been knocked down or if they’ve been thrown upward at the man. In general, the 8 of Wands represents energy moving and stimulation, so it is meant to be unclear of which way they’re going, and with that, we’re left with the 9 of Wands where we can’t really say if he won or lost the battle.

As he is in possession of all the other wands and is maintaining his higher position, we can assume he won, however, he is shown to be injured and he has taken those wands and built a wall around himself, imprisoning himself in his own paranoia as he keeps watch, constantly on edge and anticipating another attack.

For BTS, their Guides are trying to ensure that they avoid this self-imprisonment and paranoia, and therefore want to protect them from experiencing the 7 of Wands, ensuring they stay in the space of support and celebration showcased in the 6th. However, as we know, it’s kind of impossible to ensure other people aren’t going to try and do harm to them on some level, so they are marking it as a significant effort that they are making to prepare for necessary protective measures on both a higher soul level and on a conscious and physical level. I believe this was included in this outline as a call for ARMYs to be prepared as well to protect BTS on a conscious and physical level, to come to their defense when necessary and to help them hold that higher position. This could connect back to Optimism and Devotion in previous sets.

With the efforts on a soul level, I feel the need to remind people that when souls come here to occupy a human form and live out an experience where they have a tremendous impact on the world and are known, seen, and heard by many people, and are meant to influence the collective in a positive manner that aims to evolve the human consciousness back to it’s enlightened state, they can experience quite a lot of spiritual and physical fuckery that aims to limit or completely stop them from actually being able to have that effect. This was one of the reasons the Soul Body was attacked and thrown out of balance years ago. It was in an effort to collapse their energetic structures on a soul level so that they would not be able to do the work that they were meant to and influence the world and their soul group as intended. It’s an interesting coincidence that back when the soul body was under attack, it was in the same period of time where they were experiencing a lot of trouble and had begun considering disbandment.

Continuing on, there were only a few Sprinkles that came out for this set, the first being “growing pains,” and “that’s not real,” over the Ace of Swords specifying the transmission they are hoping to deliver. I was seeing this being connected to elements of their Saturn Returns, or perhaps something to do with the entrance to adulthood, entering their 30s. It’s an affirmation of sorts towards aging and growing up not being as painful, but more beautiful than what we may be led to believe. I’m sure it’s a lot more complicated than that, but that was the more faded projection I was getting.

Then, over the Wheel of Fortune there is “sparking purpose” and then over the Ace of Pentacles and the 10 of Cups there is “crazy difference.” This is simply showing that whatever the heck this is supposed to be will be something quite unique or different from what is expected, or the effects of it will be a crazy and unexpected change. It is rooted in purpose and higher calling, suggesting potentially a kind of magnum opus for BTS.

Then, finally, at the very end, there is “Bold + Highlight” over The Fool in reverse, and this was just that particular Guide I was connecting with reminding us, literally emphasizing that this is just an outline of what they are hoping to happen, not what is currently projected or in line to happen because, as with the 7 of Cups, the progression going forward, especially into 2026, requires the guys to make a particular choice about something. Until then, there is only a vague outline laid out with a to-do list attached to it.

PICK-A-CARD That’s all I have for the ARMY collective outlook reading, but following this I did a Pick-A-Card style reading for those of you who find this reading and want to have a slightly more personal outlook for the year ahead. These groups designate different energy streams that different people fall into, mainly based on the state of progression going into the next year. The information in the readings may reflect the influence of energetic flux connected to the soul group or to the ARMY community but mostly is intended to be applied to your personal life. Remember that these readings cover the timeframe from June 11, 2025 to June 13, 2026. Take some time to meditate on it, or use your intuition to choose one of the four groups and follow through to get your reading.

GROUP 1 GROUP 2 GROUP 3 GROUP 4

If you’re not interested in the extra readings and would like to end here, thank you for being here, thank you for your consideration, and I'll be back soon with another reading!

XXXX

Website Links!

ARMY 2025/2026 Outlook Reading Post

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#ARMY #bts #btsarmy #namjoon #bts rm #yoongi #suga #hoseok #jhope #jimin #seokjin #jin #taehyung #bts v #jungkook #tarot reading #oracle reading

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riniworld · 2 days ago

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Welcome back! I hope that your exams went well, I am cheering for you! 🥳

I was wondering if you could write a short story about Taron x general!female reader, but if the reader were a member of Taron's countrie's army instead of an enemy nation?

Devotion

warnings|| mention of scars and injuries. not proofread!!

reference|| general, you.

a/n|| you're so sweet I'm cryingg, thank you my exams went well eheheeheheh—anyway, yall gonna see taron in his emperor mood, and i think i got a little carried away in the end....

amidst grunting and the clanks of swords, you walk watching the soldiers training, your eyes catching on everyone—looking for someone who might need assistance, but you couldn't get the feel of a pair of eyes locking into you away, which was there one, you lift your head to meet the amused look of the emperor,the one who you devoted your life to. you nod at him and went on your way.

taron was leaning lazily on the window frame, a galss of red wine in his hand stirring it mindlessly while his eyes followed your every move. it was normal wasn't it? to be that intrigued by you, why wouldn't it be, you're his dear general, the one who supported him in every battle he went to, his secret of success.

beside, seeing you all high and mighty in the training field is definitely a sight for sore eyes, for a few minutes that is, until you start correcting some lowly soldier's posture, putting your hands all over their body, makes taron strangely thirsty for a blood splash, so he sip from his wine, because that's what he can do for now.

all of this preparation was for an upcoming battle, taron despite being a newly crowned emperor has already taken on thirteen kingdoms but that couldn't satisfy his desire for control, so he declared war on the fourteenth, while most of the time they gave up on the spot and gave in their land, this one showed resistance, much to taron's enjoyment, he'll love a good challenge.

speaking of challenges, it has been sometime since he sparred with someone who put up a fight, and the only one who did was his sweet sweet general—you, and a brilliant idea just formed in his mind.

putting the wine glass on the table, he took his sword and hurried down to the training field, excitement's filling him at the idea of sparring you again, like old times, when you were a personal knight of his in his prince days. ah the nostalgia, at that time you were solely his.

as he step out of the doors that lead to the training field, he grimaced as the sun hit his face, he put his arm in front of his face shielding his eyes as he searched for you, the few soldiers who noticed him kneeled down with a greeting, but he paid them no mind, his brain is solely focusing on spoting you, and oh the smile he had when he did.

he walked uo to you, his chest puffed out with a wide smirk on his face "general." he called out, with that commanding tone of his.

your attention immediately turn to him, as you realized he's standing in front of you, you kneel down on one knee "your majesty."

"let us spar." he didn't waste a minute.

you stand up, looking at him with a solid expression as you nod.

the soldiers emptied a spot for you two, each one has drawn his sword out, you will be lying if you said that you're not feeling nervous, it has been some time since you last sparred with him, and you don't know if it acceptable to use all of your strength against your emperor.

sinking in your worries you didn't notice taron moving that until he was close enough, thanks to your quick reflex you were able to parry his strike.

"what is the matter, general?" he says your title with clear mockery. "you are quite distracted, do not hold back." he gets in position again, but this time giving you a chance to prepare yourself.

the spar was mostly swords clanks against eachother, no one of you used physical attacks, and as expected it ended with him winning when he landed a small cut on your cheek. knowing him, he would be all smug and high of himself about winning anything, but he was rather frowning and walked out of the field with a bad mood.

you were standing in front of the mirror in your room, putting on a clean cloth with herbs over the cut, you can't stop thinking of whether you had done something to make the emperor act like this, have you hit him by accident?

as you finished sticking the cloth over the cut someone knock on your door "yes?" you answer. a muffled voice came from behind the door "his majesty is requesting you in his imperial study." "i will be there." you say.

you pat the cloth on your cheek a few times to ensure it's stability then you put on your coat and hurried to his majesty's study.

"come in." he says when you knock at the door, as the permission is granted you enter and you were met by taron who was sitting behind his table, piles of paper around him and a feather pen in his right hand while he was looking through the papers.

"your majesty." you stomp your leg to the ground, standing tall "you requested my presence."

taron looks up at you and his frown deepened "yes." he say gruffly "inform me about the battle plan."

you expected him to ask for that so you had already brought the necessary papers that the positions of the soldiers is drawn on.

"based on the information we gathered about the past of the land's army, that what we came up with." you explain as you handed the papers to him.

an awkward silence fall between you two while he was observing the plan, you saw that as an opportunity to ask him about his bad mood earlier.

"your majesty, may i-" "you are dismissed." he cut you off, which only made you think you did something wrong more, after a brief pause you bow and leave the study, leaving taron with his thoughts and frustration.

a few days later you were in the line of the kingdom preparing for the war, everyone was in position, at the front stood you and taron on your horses, before you was the enemy army, and for a decent kingdom they weren't small in number.

"your majesty, if i have the permission to say, i think it is best if you were to stay behind." you said while inching closer to him.

"why, you take me for a little warrior?" he said, not looking at you.

you look down "no, your majesty, i simply meant it would be best for your safety."

"do not concern yourself with such things, general, here you are but a simple warrior, it is not within your power to question where i stand."

"yes, your majesty." you say defeatedly.

he paid you no further mind and went straight up ahead to the middle of the field—that was the sign to start the battle. which ended in your favor after three months, obviously, because taron being there is an enough proof that you were to win, though it did cost soldiers from both sides, and an injury on your right arm.

but if you were to be honest it was all your fault, because everyone fears the emperor, wars rarely happen and when they do, you always keep your mind and focus on him, being his past personal knight you couldn't ignore the feeling of needing to protect him, habits die hard after all.

now returned to the castle again—after taron claimed the land as his—your injury is nothing more than a scar, and scars are nothing new to you, your body is covered in them so it doesn't bother you as much, but you can't say the same about a certain someone....

it's one in the morning and you were summoned to taron's chamber, that a first, usually it's his study and not that late.

granted permission you enter, the room is dimly lit by an oil lamp on his bedside cabinet beside it was a bottle of wine, taron was sitting at the edge of his bed,he was wearing a red silk robe, lazily tied on his waist by a black sash not much covering his chest, his right leg was put up close to his body to rest his arm on it, and a golden glass of wine in his left hand.

you bow your head awkwardly "your majesty?."

taron took a sip from his glass before speaking "how is your injury?" he asks casually.

"it..it has fully healed, thank you for your concern, your majesty."

he simply let out a hum before taking a final sip from his glass and sit it on the cabinet, then he walks slowly your way "pray tell me.." he begin with a soft tone, but it gets more intense as he continue "what got into your head?"

as he gets closer, you take a step back that until your back hit the large wooden door behind you, and taron stopped a few inches away from you—one step more and your chests would touch.

"pardon, your majesty?" you ask, your voice came out small from the suffocating atmosphere in the room.

"why are you acting like i am still a little boy, general?." his tone is biting, full of frustration, when you open your mouth to answer he lift his hand in gesture for you to stay silent, so you did.

"i have noticed...how you hesitate in our spar.." his hand went up, you close your eyes not knowing what are you waiting for—you open them when you feel a soft touch on your cheek, his thump caressed the spot that was cut during your spar with him, although it has faded completely, he seems to remember it's spot. "which resulted in you getting hurt" he continued, his tone growing soft along with his eyes, a brief silence fall on you two as he kept his eyes focused on where his thumb is, then his hand trail down slowly, opening the buttons of your coat slowly.

"and during the battle you were focused on me, tell me, do you see me that incapable?" when he opened four buttons or so, his left arm went on your shoulders and down, bringing the coat down with it until the scar on your arm show, a shudder went up your spine at the sudden loss of fabric or maybe because of his feather touch despite his hands being rough, he traced the scar with his fingers, noticing the others along your stomach and shoulder.

"it is my duty to protect you, your majesty." you say in a low voice only he can hear.

he let out a soft breath, lowering his head down on your shoulder, his long brown hair tickling the exposed parts of your body—he landed a soft kiss on a scar on your shoulder and you don't know if you should panic or stay still, but you did the later anyway.

"you will not hold a sword anymore." he said that casually, like he wouldn't close all the doors of your freedom after this.

#yandere #yandere x reader #yanderexreader #yandere oc x reader #yandere oc #yandere oc x y/n #yandere x y/n #yandere x you #yandere oc x you #yandere imagines #violetvase

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vidorgoggles · 2 days ago

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Weird misconceptions regarding Terra Grayson and Marky Murphy

(TW: Spoilers from some of the last issues of the Invincible comic, and references to a SA plotline)

Hey there.

I unfortunately don't use this blog a lot, man. But today we've got a curious think to speak about, 'cause this is really a case to study of how a fandom can collectively create some fanfic and turn it canon in their heads lmao.

Outside of jokes, this is a post about two characters who debut in the later part of the Invincible comic, the children of Mark: Terra Grayson and Markus 'Marky' Murphy.

These two are secondary characters in the part of the comic they appear in, but obviously get focus for being part of the Grayson family. If you ask me, I dig them both.

Terra is generally a fun character with her violent child antics, and it's thanks to her that we can get my favourite moments of the comic: Mark being a dad! ❤️

(Remember, child Terra loves violence)

Marky, on the other hand, unfortunately suffers from being related to a certain plotline of the comic, which I am not going to mention because everyone knows about it due to it being the most common spoiler. I want to speak a little bit more of that plotline another day, but since it's not the subject of this post I'll do a quick tldr: I generally find it very underdeveloped and I also think it's overhyped by the fandom due to morbidness, even though I understand why it's conceptually important for some people and respect their feelings.

But, apart from that, Marky is a character who had some good moments in the two final issues, and that has a lot of potential which I would like to see explored, if only in possible one-shots in the future or fanfics.

Now, since both Terra and Marky are characters from the final issues of the story, there are many random YouTube shorts and the likes spreading misconceptions about them (happens with everything related to the final issues, trust me). I consider it a real shame, since, as I have said, both characters are interesting to me, and I really would prefer the vision the fandom has of them to be as little tamed as possible. That's the reason why I have decided to make this post.

With that introduction done, let's go to the misconceptions:

'Terra hates Marky'

To explain to anyone who doesn't know the context: in the final issue of the series, after certain events end in Mark becoming the ruler of the (reformed) Viltrumites and deciding to leave Earth, Marky stays in the planet alongside his family for reasons I will explain later (it's related to other misconception). A particular consequence of this is that Terra and Marky grow up in different planets, although Mark and his family still visit Earth occasionally. During the final issue, Terra's whole life from childhood to adulthood is shown in two pages:

And since we don't see much of Terra and Marky's relationship afterwards (because unfortunately, even if I like them, they're just not much developed characters due to how rushed the final issues are), people have just assumed her opinion on Marky never changed.

I just don't think this is the story's intention: Terra is purposely being framed as immature (like any child) in many these panels. Of course a heated child would be mean, but that doesn't mean they would do the same as a fully grown adult.

Now, I think something that fuels this misconception is the reader's point of view. We know that later in the story Marky is very emotionally affected due to discovering the way he was conceived, so knowing that, in retrospective, 'He's not my brother!' seems like a bigger deal than it actually is. But in-story, neither Terra nor Marky knew of that by that point. Hell, we see Marky's reaction to Terra's words: he's just mildly annoyed, because the comic just sees this as what it is, a children's discussion.

And here Marky is also mean to her other half-sister, Molly. Do we assume he hates her for all his life too?

Now, if I may guess about Terra's feelings about Marky as an adult. I just don't think they know each other that much. They have grown apart, in literally different planets. She isn't close to him, but I don't think she hates him. I think this is supported by the next time she meets him in the comic: she barely recognizes him and calls him by his full name, Markus. To me, this just expresses distance between them.

And Terra and Marky not feeling close to one another is just very logical when one thinks about it. They were both raised in different planets, by different families, of course they would be distant. Terra's 'He's not my brother!' is the mean child version of expressing that idea to the public, in my eyes, not the setup for a life-long hatred.

'Marky hates Terra'

This one has some truth to it, to be fair, but I still think some people ignore any and all nuance about it.

In the final issue of the comic, this (unfortunately not followed on) moment happens just after the prior page:

Where yes, Marky heavily implies he is jealous towards Terra. However, I feel people in the fandom generally fail to take into account that the moment lets very clear this is far from Marky's most emotionally stable moment. Hell, he's saying far worse things about himself than about Terra. And he's also clearly regretful about many things he's done and said right afterwards.

Marky does have some negative emotions towards Terra? Yes (although not even that strong, again, he's feeling worse about himself). Do they stay there when he's calm and cold-headed? It's up to us to decide, but given that the last panel tells us that Mark and Marky are going to deal with their trauma and heal with time, I would like to think Marky just abandoned them eventually in any case.

'Mark abandoned Marky on Earth'

I especially blame the comic itself for this one.

One could start thinking this is related to a delicate subject, and perhaps start a discussion about forced parenthood, reactions to trauma or something similar. I may like to talk about how the comic handles those issues one day (I think it has problems related to that), but don't worry, today it won't be necessary.

Remember when I said Marky stayed on Earth for plot reasons? Well, those reasons are that his adoptive (and real) father, Scott Murphy, wanted to stay on Earth when Mark decided that the Viltrumites should leave Earth:

Mark himself expresses that he wanted Marky and his family to come with him, but he had to respect Scott's decision or else he would be literally kidnapping them:

And by the way, if you wonder, at this point of the comic Mark is not uncomfortable at all being around Marky. He lets him play in his house in the page above. Before he was also perfectly fine personally explaining him everything about Viltrumites (Marky didn't know beforehand) and afterwards he takes his time to say goodbye to him and his family:

And look, Mark is a flawed character (and I love him for that), but if I have to defend him and say he did the right choice in something, is in this. He didn't abandon anyone, he allowed Marky to live with the man who raised him before Mark was even able to know Marky existed, the one who Marky himself rightfully calls his real dad.

Now, you may be wondering where Marky's abandonment issues come from then? Well, Mark started visiting Earth far less at one point. I think the implications of issue 144 are a simple 'he's very busy', although I would like to think things like the fact that Debbie, William and more people must have died by the point Mark and Marky fight has something to do with him not wanting to visit Earth anymore. We can assume that a Marky with self-esteem issues due to learning how he was born and with no context of why Mark left him on Earth would (wrongfully) assume it was his fault, especially taking into account that by that point in time Scott and Debbie must be dead. Again, I wish this was more developed than it is in the actual comic.

Unfortunately, the comic fails to remind anyone of all the facts I have mentioned in the pages after the Mark and Marky fight, so of course people just take Marky's words in those pages at face value despite them being contradicted in the very same issue 144.

'Terra is an spoiled brat'

This one's just curious to me. It may be because I have a particular definition of 'spoiled', I guess, but I just fail to see this.

Mark doesn't really 'spoil' Terra in my eyes, to be honest. And I am not saying this to deny the flaws of a character I like or anything, he's far from a perfect character and I love him that way, but I just genuinely don't see this.

Terra's childhood is a pretty regular first world childhood with loving parents to me. I don't see how Mark lacks any discipline or is irresponsible as a father. In the two pages I have shown that sum up Terra's life, we can see him doing basic parenthood stuff like denying her things she shouldn't have (those adorable lava puppies), telling her things she needs to do (him telling her to learn how to fight would be the equivalent of an irl parent telling their children to do their homework) or scolding her when she's being immature (when she's mean to Marky).

I don't know, if someone wants to give me reasons for this, I'll listen, because nothing I have heard about this really convinces me.

'Terra never suffered/faced any difficulty in her life'

Um. Objectively incorrect statement, I don't what I can say about it lol.

Well, I lied. When discussing about this, I was told once 'But it was only this, though', because she was being compared to Marky, so trauma olympics I guess. I will elaborate more why this weird competition some people make up between Marky and Terra goes against the core themes of the comic at the end, but for now let's move on.

'Terra hates her father'

Alright, so at the end of the comic there's a certain conflict started by the Coalition Of Planets against Mark's Viltrum Empire:

And we later get to see Terra's reaction to it:

Which yes, feels like an underdeveloped (I know I am saying that a lot about events here, but it's just true lmao) father-daughter conflict, which I think is not very interesting due to how little it matters.

However, I can confidently say that people assuming Terra hates her father over this are just wrong. In fact, this conflict it's solved in the very next pages.

And even in Terra's page with Ursaal you can tell she feels bad for disagreeing with Mark due to her mannerisms and facial expressions, so this is just a little not much relevant part of the story blown out of proportion by some people lol.

It's even a little infuriating for me because, as I have mentioned, Mark relationship with Terra is one of my favourite things about the story, so I really dislike how YouTube Shorts and the likes spread misconceptions about it.

'Terra and Marky will compete to see who succeeds Mark as the ruler of the Viltrumites'

None of them seems even particularly interested in doing so from my point of view. Terra has issues with the way the Empire is going, shown by her page with Ursaal, and Marky spent his entire childhood light years away from them.

If you ask me, there may not even be a future ruler of the Viltrumites. Mark had to take the responsibility after his father's death because Nolan feared that without someone guiding them in the ways of compassion, they may fall in their old ways again. After Mark's rule, with a new generation of Viltrumites led in the right direction, they may not need a single ruler anymore.

But outside of personal readings, I have seen that people spreading this misconception usually prefer Marky to be the successor, which leads me to my final point.

Closing thoughts

The ending of the Invincible comic, with its many, many flaws, it's overall heartwarming and usually satisfying to me, but I think some people fail to see why.

It's not a happy ending because Mark has become stronger. It's not a happy ending because he's now a ruler. That's a responsibility, not a prize, and not even one he wanted to have before Nolan told him. It's a happy ending because he is trying to make things better, and because he's happy with his family despite all the difficulties he has faced.

And I point this out because it's important to understand why I am really annoyed by these misconceptions.

Some people have seen Marky, a clearly traumatized young man, and the answers they have for it is: give him something he can win. They want him to become the ruler of the Viltrumites, and may as well do it by winning an imaginary competition against his mean, spoiled half-sister who always had everything while he had nothing, never suffered a day of her life and is also ungrateful to everything her father does for her (I really hope I have showed why it's much more nuanced than that in this post).

Despite how little screen time it gets, the comic already has an answer to Marky's trauma, what he needs: time, healing. While the comic didn't manage to develop it nearly as much as I would want, I just hope people can see it once this misconceptions are gone (hopefully when the show reaches this point of the comic).

#invincible #invincible spoilers #terra grayson #marky murphy #mark grayson #invincible comic #TW: references to SA

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aemiron-main · 20 hours ago

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Brenner is 000- He Sure Is! (Matthew Modine Tell Us What You Know)

So, I was staring at the lab tvs (for art reference of all things), and I noticed that Captain Brenner is listed as “Subject 000” on the TV screens:

And I immediately thought of what Matthew Modine said about how he thinks that Brenner (specifically in-show Brenner) could be 000:

And now I’m staring at that vs a.) this post I made where I talk about the weird overlap between Captain Brenner, Don Melvald and Richard Brenner and b.) another post I’ve been working on regarding Captain Brenner and the bizarre overlap he has with Richard Brenner, the Doppelgorgon, Vecna, the MF, Vecna Vision Brenner, and one particular version of Massacre Henward.

And the whole “you have to be your dad,” thing from TFS re: overlap between in-show Brenner and Captain Brenner (especially with Welcome to Marwen being confirmed inspiration for ST & being referenced in TFS & both in-show Brenner *and* Captain Brenner having direct parallels to Captain Mark Hogancamp, who wasn’t ever actually a WW2 Captain at all, but instead, had this whole fake world where he believed he was.)

And then that ^ vs another post I’ve been working on regarding the references to crossing between worlds in TFS & how while I don’t think TFS is “real,” in the typical “hey this is normal and real and canon,” sense, I do think that live theatre & constantly having actors cross from the audience onto the stage is an odd choice for something that’s entirely fake. “TFS isn’t real/is likely some sort of NINA situation,” and “TFS isn’t entirely separate from in-show and there’s some weird crossover stuff going on there,” can coexist, especially in the context of my beliefs re: “I (obviously) don’t think nina is Real TM/the real events of 1979, but I DO think that nina has weird crossovers into reality/affects reality & has a ton of word for word parallels to wolverine travelling into the past to change the future in xmen: days of future past, and that TFS’ crossing between worlds stuff falls into that category of ‘not Real TM but also not entirely separated from reality’.”

After all, when Henry says “It’s not real, I’m normal, I’m Henry Creel,” we all sort of laugh and go “right, buddy. You’re Not normal, and you’re likely Not even Henry, considering all of your Edward coding-“ but why stop there? Why do we (myself included, obviously) question/“disagree with” those two parts of the phrase, but not with the first part?

And I’m saying this ^ as someone who’s been on the “TFS isn’t ‘real’” train from the very start- and who is still on that train, which I’ll explain (at least a little bit) in a moment, because I obviously still don’t think it’s fully real/I think it’s just as real as nina is- but the thing is, I think that nina is more real than it seems.

After all, what better way to get someone to do something (something like killing, even) than to have them believe that it’s not real and that therefore, there’s no actual consequences?

After all, if Brenner wanted El to believe that nina was real, in order for her to “fully re-experience,” her past or whatever, then why the hell did he tell her at the very start that it’s “a memory”? Why shatter that illusion of realism at the start? Why talk to her through the speakers? Shouldn’t he want her to fully believe that it’s real?

Unless, of course, it’s not just a simulation/just a memory, and DOES have actual consequences in the real-world, and therefore, El wouldn’t be willing to attack Henward and open the gate in the process (something Brenner was very eager about/was his desired result), because she’s the type of person who would want to change that fate for him/I don’t think she would have done it if she knew that it wasn’t just a memory, ESPECIALLY if it’s something that didnt actually happen in 1979/only happened Because of what present-day El did in nina, and therefore, wasnt something that she ever did IRL/in a situation where she believed that what was happening was real.

And also, why say that you two are going to “journey into the past” together? That’s the sort of thing/the idea of Brenner somehow also crossing into nina (in some way) that has me staring at whatever weird crossover is going on between in-show Richard and Captain Brenner.

And isn’t it odd that Virginia’s the one who pushes the “it’s not real,” stuff on Henry, and then is also the person that Henry kills (with the Mindflayer’s involvement of course)? It lowkey feels a little bit like there’s a connection there re: “Henry, at least on some level, doesn’t think this is real/his grasp on what is vs isn’t real is slipping, and therefore is more likely to do things like kill Virginia (the person who is specifically associated with the ‘it’s not real’ stuff) than he would be otherwise.”

But I’m just rambling incoherently and getting ahead of myself, since of that is a topic for another time and for another post.

Anyway! Just some thoughts!

#stranger things #the first shadow #dr brenner #captain brenner

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yanderenightmare · 1 day ago

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helpdesk! How do you go about writing a story? like, regarding plot points and climax and all that. i know you covered it a bit in a previous helpdesk, but i'd be really interested in a full walkthrough if you're feeling up to it!

i know these helpdesk posts must take a lot of time, so thank you so much, they're really interesting and helpful!!

On The Recipe of a Good Story

Thank you, and terrific question!

♡ The Recipe of a Good Story!

There are a million ways to write a story.

Good stories, however, usually follow a recipe.

Now, there are plenty of different versions of this recipe, some may include a few more steps than others that only stick to the core acts, but they’re all more or less the same.

The recipe I’m about to divulge is one I've made for myself. It consists of several of these recipes, all of which I studied over the years while getting my bachelor's degree in copywriting.

ACT ONE—we’re chilling mostly…

♡ Foreshadowing!

In Foreshadowing, there will either be a sneak peek of the future or a scene from the past. This is one of the few optional steps, which I'll explain later, but first,

Examples:

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring:

Galadriel explains the story of The Ring.

I’m including this here for reference. The book doesn’t start this way, but with Exposition/Introduction, which we’ll cover next.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone:

Dumbledore is standing outside the Dursleys' with McGonagall. Hagrid arrives, and they drop baby Harry off on the Dursleys' doorstep.

Again, I’m including this here for reference. The book doesn’t start this way, but with Exposition/Introduction.

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith:

The classic Star Wars newsletter rolls down the screen, telling us how Sith Lord Count Dooku and General Grievous have kidnapped Chancellor Palpatine, and how two Jedi Knights are leading a mission to rescue him.

Despicable Me:

“Someone” has stolen the Great Pyramid of Giza and replaced it with a blow-up fake.

Again, this works in the film, but it would be hard to have made it work in a book.

Bad start, but honestly, I wouldn’t recommend starting with foreshadowing. A flashback or a glimpse of the final act may sound meta and cool, but having one in the very beginning can throw the reader off, so I’d advise against it unless you know exactly what you’re doing.

I’d say it works better in movies and series, such as the examples above.

That’s not to say flashbacks should never be included in books, but I think they’re better off being added later in the story where they can provide context while also being supported by context.

♡ Exposition/Introduction!

Here, the MC and their current situation are introduced. The audience is shown what the MC cares about, and something valuable that can be put at stake is created, thus giving a glimpse of the MC’s fears. This is how most books and movies start.

Examples:

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring:

Gandalf arrives in The Shire, and we meet Frodo and Bilbo. The Shire is setting up for Bilbo’s 111th birthday. Bilbo tells Gandalf that he plans to leave and that he’s passing The Ring on to Frodo. Bilbo explicitly says that Frodo loves and wants to grow old in the Shire, so having to leave the Shire or anything that puts the Shire at risk would be Frodo’s biggest fear.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone:

We meet Harry Potter, who lives with his aunt, uncle, and cousin, who treat him poorly. It’s hinted and shown that Harry has magical powers. In contrast to Frodo, Harry doesn’t have a place he cares about. Here, the fear is staying with the Dursleys. And his wants are to have friends and a real family.

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith:

We know from Episode II. Anakin, like never before, is itchy to be fully let off the leash and is annoyed with the Jedi Council for not recognizing him as the chosen one. He and Obi-Wan are like brothers. Anakin and Padme are married in secret—another reason behind his annoyance with the Jedi, given that they don't allow Jedi Knights to have personal commitments. Anakin has developed respect for Chancellor Palpatine, with whom he shares another personal commitment.

The Avengers:

The Avengers are introduced one by one. Cap tells Nick Fury that they should have left the Tessaract in the Ocean, hinting at his fears of history repeating itself. Banner expresses a fear of becoming the Hulk. Tony wants to spend time with Pepper, meaning not putting on the suit for a while. Natasha fears losing Hawkeye. Thor fears Loki causing havoc on Earth and wants to bring him home to Asgard.

Despicable Me:

Gru is introduced, and we get to see his despicable personality. He has minions and an old man named Doctor Nefarious living in his basement. He’s giving a slide show of everything they’ve managed to steal in the last years. It’s made clear that he didn’t steal the pyramid, which also shows his fears, given that his reputation as the best villain of all time is at risk. To fix this, he says that he plans to steal the Moon with a little help from the bank.

In short, who the character is, what they want, and what they fear should be established here in the Expo/Intro.

♡ Inciting Incident!

A happening that gives the MC a new goal, motivation, opportunity, or that triggers their fear, thus setting the plot in motion. In other words, either something valuable is put at stake, or something valuable is now achievable.

Examples:

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring:

With some hesitance, Bilbo leaves The Ring to Frodo.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone:

Harry receives a letter inviting him to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith:

Chancellor Palpatine gets kidnapped by Count Dooku.

The Avengers:

Loki arrives through the Tesseract. He takes control of Hawkeye and Erik and runs away with them and the Tesseract.

Despicable Me:

The Inciting Incident here is actually in the opening sequence, where Vector has stolen the Great Pyramid of Giza. This has already made Gru anxious to one-up him, even though he doesn’t know who this other villain is.

♡ Plot Point One!

As a result of the Inciting Incident, a new development ensues.

Examples:

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring:

Gandalf discovers it’s the One Ring and tells Frodo that Sauron’s Ringwraiths will come for it, triggering Frodo’s fear that the Shire will be destroyed. Gandalf explains how he can’t take the ring himself, and that Frodo must keep it and journey with it to the Prancing Pony, where he’ll meet him after he’s visited his old mentor. Sam, who was caught eavesdropping, joins Frodo, and they leave the Shire together.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone:

When Harry doesn’t reply to any of the letters, Hagrid comes and collects him, then helps him get ready for school. Meanwhile, we learn more about Harry, Voldemort, and the wizarding world.

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith:

The Jedi Council dispatches Anakin and Obi-Wan to save Palpatine.

The Avengers:

Cap, Stark, and Widow go after Loki. They’re not working as a team yet, but they manage to capture him nonetheless. Then, Thor comes and they all have a mini-fight, during which Loki does not seize the opportunity to escape.

Despicable Me:

Gru goes to the bank to have his plan of stealing the moon sponsored, but the bank tells him to come back when he has the Shrink Ray.

♡ Fun & Games!

These events don’t have to be fun or include any games, but act as a bridge where the MC goes from A to B, either literally or figuratively. There’s usually a mini-plot going on here where the MC is investigating, searching for, or journeying towards something.

Examples:

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring:

Frodo and Sam begin travelling to the Prancing Pony. They get intercepted by Merry and Pippin, who end up joining them in a turbulent turn of events. Once they get to the Prancing Pony, Gandalf isn’t there, so they decide to wait for him.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone:

Harry attends Hogwarts and meets Ron, Hermione, and Malfoy. He gets sorted into Gryffindor. Harry has fun at Hogwarts—attends classes, learns to fly, and saves Hermione from the dungeon troll; they’re all good friends now. He also gets the cloak of invisibility for Christmas. Harry and company are investigating the Philosopher’s Stone and start suspecting Snape of wanting to steal the Stone.

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith:

Suspicions about Chancellor Palpatine are rising within the Jedi Council. Anakin, who has been groomed by Palpatine, becomes even more annoyed with the Jedi Council.

The Avengers:

Many convos are held on the hellicarrier. Stark is infiltrating SHIELD’s system, trying to get to the bottom of what they were using the Tesseract for. Inspired by Stark, Cap investigates on foot. Widow goes to interrogate Loki. Banner is studying Loki’s scepter, with Stark’s help.

Despicable Me:

Gru tries to steal the Shrink Ray, but Vector beats him to it. Gru then tries to steal the Shrink Ray from Vector, but fails. Gru develops a plan to steal the Shrink Ray using the Girl Scouts as a distraction, and so he adopts them. By using the girls as a distraction, Gru manages to steal the Shrink Ray, and he and the girls go to Super Silly Fun Land.

♡ Rising Suspense!

This is where the plot usually thickens and tends to happen simultaneously with Fun & Games. Things are becoming increasingly more dangerous, risky, convoluted, or secretive—tensions and suspense are rising. Here, the MC will try to solve or escape their problem, exploiting opportunities and falling for temptations, thus increasing the risk factor.

Examples:

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring:

Frodo struggles to resist the call of The Ring while the crew gets hunted by the Ringwraiths. And by accidentally using the ring, Frodo leads the Ringwraiths right to them. Enter Aragorn, who helps them.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone:

Harry finds the Mirror of Erised while exploring the castle, using it to fill the gap made by his dead parents. Also, due to their dislike of Snape, Harry and company rule out the possibility of there being any other culprit.

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith:

Palpatine keeps whispering in Anakin’s ear, further sowing his doubts and turning him against the Jedi.

The Avengers:

Stark and Cap uncover that SHIELD was using the Tesseract as a power source to make weapons. Widow discovers that Loki plans on unleashing the Hulk. None of the Avengers are cooperating. They’re all being secretive and arrogant, thus blind to the fact that Loki is successfully manipulating them all.

Despicable Me:

During his efforts to steal the Shrink Ray, Gru has grown attached to the Girls. He even wants to postpone stealing the moon so as not to miss the girls’ ballet recital. Doctor Nefarious has expressed concerns about this, but Gru is being wishy-washy both about the girls and the moon operation.

ACT TWO — shit’s about to get real!

♡ Pinch One — Conflict!

The accumulated suspense leads to trouble, confrontation, or the MC hitting a snag.

Examples:

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring:

The Witch-King stabs Frodo with a Morgul Blade. Arwen and Frodo are getting chased by the Ringwraiths, but she handles it. Still, Frodo nearly dies, but thanks to Arwen and Lord Elrond, he wakes up in Rivendell, only to see that Gandalf is there. Gandalf tells his story about Saruman’s betrayal and his grand escape.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone:

Harry and crew are caught outside the castle after dark and get sent to detention with Malfoy.

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith:

Padme is pregnant. Which is complicated given that Jedi aren’t allowed to have relationships. Also, Anakin keeps having dreams of Padme dying during childbirth. Palpatine tells Anakin that he knows of a way to save Padme.

The Avengers:

Loki’s scepter is causing everyone to bicker, keeping them distracted and disorganized. Everything is going according to his plan.

Despicable Me:

Doctor Nefarious decides to give the girls up as they’re distracting Gru from his goals.

♡ Midpoint!

A turning point where the premise changes—a big event that makes it harder for the MC to keep their fears at bay. Either things take a turn for the worse, the Bad Guy becomes stronger or closer, or things prove more difficult than what was once believed.

Examples:

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring:

Because no one is fit for the job, Frodo volunteers to take the ring to Mordor. The Fellowship of the Ring is formed, and they set out on their journey.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone:

Harry meets Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest, but is saved by Firenze, the Centaur.

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith:

Because of his conflicting loyalties between the Jedi and the Chancellor, as well as his own selfish desires, Anakin is denied the rank of Master, further turning him against the Jedi.

The Avengers:

A brainwashed Hawkeye attacks the helicarrier, and the unprepared and disorganized Avengers are thrust into even more chaos.

Despicable Me:

Gru goes to space and steals the moon, only to realize that the girls are more important to him.

♡ Pinch Two — Conflict!

Following the Midpoint, there’s even more trouble or something the MC has to do.

Examples:

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring:

The Fellowship is struggling to cross the Misty Mountains because of Saruman's hexing. Frodo decides they’ll go through Moria, where they get attacked by goblins and a Balrog. Gandalf battles the Balrog.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone:

There’s a Quidditch Game. “Snape” is hexing the broom and thus is proven to be the bad guy, as the trio has suspected all along.

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith:

Mace Windu confronts Palpatine. Palpatine is shown as a full-blown Sith lord. Anakin arrives at the scene.

The Avengers:

Widow has to run away from an unleashed Hulk. Thor comes to the rescue, and they fight. Widow finds Hawkeye, and they fight. Meanwhile, Stark and Cap are working on fixing the turbines.

Despicable Me:

Gru has to hurry back to Earth to get to the ballet recital on time.

♡ Plot Point Two!

The conflict ends with a big bang!

Examples:

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring:

Gandalf gets snagged by the Balrog's whip, telling the others to run before he’s pulled down, falling to his “death”.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone:

Harry and company go to tell Dumbledore that Snape was the one hexing Harry’s broom, but he tells them not to worry.

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith:

In order to protect Palpatine, Anakin “kills” Mace Windu.

The Avengers:

Loki “kills” Agent Coulson and escapes.

Despicable Me:

Gru’s too late, the ballet recital is already over.

♡ Low Point!

This is the part where the story comes to a pause. All action is at a standstill. Suffering from the last defeat or lured into a false sense of safety, the MC is swimming in his feelings, not yet having decided what he should do next.

Examples:

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring:

The Fellowship mourns Gandalf and is dealt a massive blow in morale. Frodo is doubting whether he can do this, and even tries pawning The Ring off to Galadriel.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone:

Harry and company are left at a loss as no one believes them about Snape, Voldemort, and the danger the Philosopher's Stone is in.

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith:

Head spiraling, Anakin is still torn between the Jedi and Palpatine, second-guessing his decision to have murdered Mace Windu.

The Avengers:

The Avengers mourn the “death” of Agent Coulson and are dealing with doubts and shame over their poor actions.

Despicable Me:

Dejected, Gru sits down on the seat that was saved for him, holding a note left there by the girls, only to find out that Vector has taken them.

ACT THREE — THE FINAL ACT — this is it, guys!

♡ New Plan!

The MC pulls themselves together and makes a new plan.

Examples:

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring:

Instead of taking The Ring, Lady Galadriel restores Frodo's conviction, and the Fellowship continues its journey.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone:

Harry and crew decide to stop Voldemort and “Snape” on their own.

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith:

Prompted by his promise to save Padme, Anakin decides to side with Palpatine.

The Avengers:

The Avengers suit up.

Despicable Me:

Gru goes to get the girls back.

♡ Point of No Return!

The MC is backed into a corner and forced to make a hard choice, either to face his biggest fear or run away. This is where a character either achieves True Self or falls to the Dark Side. Meaning: they either conquer their fears or succumb to them.

Examples:

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring:

After Boromir tries to steal The Ring, Frodo understands that he can’t trust that the others won’t be affected by its powers, and plans to go off on his own.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone:

The chess game leaves Ron injured with Hermione staying behind to help him, and Harry comes to terms with the fact that he and he alone has to continue.

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith:

“Execute Order 66.” Anakin slaughters the young padawans and everyone else in the Jedi temple, fully embracing the Dark Side.

The Avengers:

Loki succeeds in opening the portal, and things go from a skirmish to a full-blown alien invasion, forcing the Avengers to work as a team.

Despicable Me:

Gru gives up the moon in exchange for the girls, proving that they’re more important to him.

♡ Pinch Three — Crisis!

The final conflict ensues, the biggest pinch yet. It’s a full-on crisis.

Examples:

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring:

The Orcs catch up to the Fellowship. Boromir is killed, and Merry and Pippin get taken.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone:

Harry arrives at the scene without any fucking plan.

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith:

Obi-Wan lands his ship to confront Anakin, and they argue.

The Avengers:

While fighting the Chitauri, the Avengers are desperately trying to figure out a way to close the portal.

Despicable Me:

Vector keeps the girls anyway, and Gru must continue the chase to get them back.

♡ Plot Twist!

Something extra to keep the excitement. This is not always necessary.

Examples:

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring:

Sam follows Frodo, but can’t fucking swim.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone:

It was never Snape, but Professor Quirrell. Voldemort was underneath his headpiece all along. The Stone is in Harry’s pocket.

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith:

Anakin chokes Padme with the power of the dark side, accusing her of siding with Obi-Wan.

The Avengers:

On top of everything, there’s a fucking bomb on the way to New York City.

Despicable Me:

The effects of the Shrink Ray are temporary, and the bigger the objects are, the faster they go back to their real size, meaning it’s only a matter of time before the moon reverts back to normal.

♡ Climax!

The stakes have never been higher. The MC must figure something out quickly.

Examples:

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring:

Sam is about to drown.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone:

Professor Quirrell attacks Harry.

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith:

Anakin chases Obi-Wan, but comes up short as Obi-Wan has the high ground.

The Avengers:

After a failed call to Pepper, Stark decides to fly the nuke up through the portal anyway. Wanting to wait for Stark to come back, Cap makes a tough call and orders Widow to close the portal before the bomb blows.

Despicable Me:

Edith and Agnes have jumped. Gru tells Margo to jump, promising her that he’ll never let them go again.

♡ Finale!

The final outcome of the MC's decisions.

Examples:

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring:

Frodo saves Sam and allows him to join him.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone:

Harry defeats Quirrel and Voldemort for now and passes out.

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith:

Anakin loses to Obi-Wan, getting his legs cut off, then is left for dead in the lava.

The Avengers:

New York is saved! The Chitauri all die when the nuke blows up their mothership. And despite the odds, Stark makes it through the portal before it closes.

Despicable Me:

Edith jumps, and Gru catches her. They watch the moon climb the sky up to its rightful place.

♡ Celebration/Funeral!

It’s a wrap! Here, there might be a celebration, a grim funeral, or something like that.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring:

Sam and Frodo continue their journey to Mount Doom while Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli go after Merry and Pippin.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone:

Harry and Dumbledore talk when Harry wakes up. Ron and Hermione are shown safe and sound. Points are dealt, Gryffindor wins, and the banners change. They all go home for the summer break.

The Avengers:

The news shows people's reaction to the Avengers. The remaining A on Stark Tower is symbolic of their triumph.

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith:

Padme dies from heartbreak while giving birth to Luke and Leia. Anakin becomes Darth Vader, and Palpatine tells him that he killed his wife in his rage.

Despicable Me:

Gru, the girls, the minions, Doctor Nefarious, and Gru’s mom all celebrate under the moonshine.

♡ The Final Kick!

Especially in a franchise, there’s a set-up for the bigger oncoming story, there might be one last little plot twist, someone we thought died, actually survived, someone we thought survived is revealed to be wounded or sick with something, or just any old regular cliffhanger or teaser. Other times, there’s one last little funny scene.

Examples:

The Avengers:

The Avengers eat Shwarma as a team.

Despicable Me:

Vector is shown in space with a bubble helmet.

But, as with the optional Sneak Peek of the Future or Past Events, this one also works better in movies, and is another one of the few steps that are optional.

♡ Messy Recipe…

Now that we've covered the full Recipe of a Story, it's time to get cooking. Meaning, there’s room for a bit of switching up the order without it completely fucking up the final outcome.

As in Despicable Me’s example, the Inciting Incident happens before the Expo/Intro. Similarly, as was stated, Fun&Games tends to happen simultaneously with Rising Suspense, while other times Fun&Games slowly merge with Rising Suspense, or they’ll come across as two clearly separated parts of the story.

Also, regarding Foreshadowing. In movies, this can happen at the start before anything else, like in the examples. But as I mentioned, this doesn’t usually happen in books. Foreshadowing in books, in the form of flashbacks or flashforwards, tends to happen after we’ve gotten to know the characters better, where either will be supported by context and supply context.

Then, there’s the case of identifying the Low Point. As was listed, this can be anything from a sense that all hope is lost, where the MC seems to have given up, or that the MC is lured into a false sense of peace and safety, where things seem to have gone back to normal, a calm before the storm, only for something to prompt them back into action.

For example, in a romance, this is the point where the MC seems to have accepted that they just weren’t meant to be, only to be reminded of their love somehow, and thus being inspired to take action.

But there’s an important definition here that I must stress; the Low Point is defined by a lack of action, a standstill where the rest of the story is uncertain, not the MC being sad. That being said, however, it usually does entail the MC being sad and feeling defeated, but that isn’t the distinction.

For example, in The Batman, with Robert Pattinson, the Low Point comes after the Riddler has been locked up in Arkham. The bad guy has been captured, the action comes to a stop, and Batman is thinking it’s all over, there’s a false sense of safety, only for Riddler’s real plan to be revealed, forcing Batman to make a New Plan.

Another thing to discuss is the Point of No Return. This is the part of the story when the MC makes that defining decision, achieving True Self, or failing and falling to the Dark Side. Meaning, they either face their biggest fear or succumb to it.

This is, of course, referred to as the True Self and the Dark Side because of Anakin’s story in Revenge of the Sith. Usually, we see characters achieve their True Self, triumphing over their fears, but in the Tragedy, we see them fail to do this. For example, if Anakin had turned against Palpatine after understanding that he was Sith, then he would have achieved True Self, as we see him do in episode six, Return of the Jedi, when he decides to help Luke.

Not me nerding out, but before watching the movie, we think the title Return of the Jedi refers to the Jedi as a whole. However, given that Anakin returns from the dark side to the light, becoming a Jedi again, it gives a hidden meaning to the title, referring to Anakin specifically. This would then make the title itself one huge foreshadowing spoiler.

I mean, as a storyteller, you gotta love Star Wars.

However, back to the significance of the Point of No Return, and whether MC achieves their True Self or falls to the Dark Side.

As I said, MC falling to the Dark Side is very uncommon. That being said, though we see it in Revenge of the Sith, we actually also see it in The Lord of the Rings as well, where in the final movie, Return of the King, Frodo falls to the Dark Side when he decides to keep The Ring for himself. If it weren’t for Sam, or ultimately Smeagol, the entire story would have been a Tragedy.

But yes, anyway, in most stories we see the MC achieve True Self, not falling to the Dark Side. However, I should make clear that the Dark Side, though sounding very evil, doesn’t have to be evil in a literal sense.

In a romance, for example, the MC’s issue is usually a fear of commitment. Here, achieving True Self happens when they conquer that fear and choose love. The Dark Side would be them giving in to that fear and letting the love go.

And so, the True Self and the Dark Side don’t refer to good and evil, but to the MC either conquering their fears or letting their fear win.

Moving on! Following the Point of No Return comes the Crisis. Then the Climax and then the Finale.

Short stories and novellas, however, don’t always follow the recipe all the way to the Finale. Sometimes they'll drop off right after the Crisis or the Plot Twist, and let the rest be up to the reader to decide. Otherwise, the outcome of the Crisis will be hinted at, therefore leaving no need for the final Climax and Finale.

But most of the time, I’d say no matter how short the story is, it should and will follow this recipe.

Take, for example, one of my short stories: Sex Therapist Nanami:

ACT ONE — we’re chilling, mostly…

Expo/Intro: The reader’s fear of sex and intimacy is causing her issues, which she wants to fix.

Inciting Incident: To fix her issues, the reader starts seeing Doctor Nanami.

Plot Point One: Nanami diagnoses the reader with Virgin Anxiety.

Fun & Games: Nanami “helps” the reader to overcome her anxiety.

Rising Suspense: Nanami’s “help” turns out to be sketchy as fuck.

ACT TWO — shit’s about to get real!

Pinch One — Conflict: Nanami tells the reader that her anxiety is due to never having seen a real cock before.

Midpoint: Nanami shows the reader his dick.

Pinch Two — Conflict: Feeling uncomfortable, the reader wonders if Nanami is right.

Plot Point Two: The reader listens to Nanami and touches his cock.

Low Point: There's a false sense of safety before more of Nanami’s real intentions are revealed.

ACT THREE — THE FINAL ACT — this is it, boys!

New Plan: The reader realizes she doesn’t want this anymore.

Point of No Return: The reader tells Nanami to stop.

Pinch Three — Crisis: Nanami ignores the reader.

Plot Twist: The reader sort of enjoys it.

Climax: Nanami puts the reader in a full nelson and gives her the real thing.

Finale: Nanami finishes in the reader’s mouth.

Celebration/Funeral: The reader feels violated and terrified.

The Final Kick: Nanami divulges the rest of his plan to institutionalize the reader.

♡ The Seven Basic Plots by Booker

This is also something interesting you can look into.

After having read many, many, many great works, Christopher Booker came to the simple conclusion that there only existed seven plots in which a story can unfold.

But that can’t be true, you might say, and you’d be right. “I was waiting for the bus, and then the bus came,” is also a story, and a plot not accounted for in The Seven Basic Plots.

However, it would be safe to say that “I waited for the bus, then the bus came,” is not a very good story, as it doesn't follow the Recipe of a Good Story.

Booker argues something similar, that every great story ever written falls into one of these seven basic plots:

♡ Overcoming the Monster

The protagonist sets out to defeat an antagonistic force, most often evil, that threatens the protagonist, the protagonist's homeland, or both.

Examples:

The Avengers and Harry Potter are examples of this. Another good example is Jaws.

♡ Rags To Riches

The poor protagonist acquires power, wealth, a mate, or all of the above, loses it all, then gains it back, growing as a person as a result.

Examples:

Many children's stories follow this plot, but I think the best example is Bruce Almighty.

♡ The Quest

The protagonist and company set out to acquire an important object or to get to a location. They face temptations and other obstacles along the way.

Examples:

The Lord of the Rings belongs here. And, I’ll be brave and say that most heist movies fall into this category as well.

♡ Voyage and Return

The protagonist goes to a strange land and, after overcoming the threats it poses or learning important lessons unique to that location, returns with experience.

Examples:

The Hobbit, and all your favorite children’s stories, such as Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and Narnia, also belong in this category, as well as Back to the Future.

♡ Comedy

Comedy features a light and humorous MC with a happy or cheerful ending. But comedy is about more than just humor. It refers to a pattern where the conflict becomes increasingly chaotic, with many confusions, misunderstandings, and awkward moments, but is finally made plain in a single clarifying event. Here, the MC’s triumph in the plot is highlighted.

Examples:

The majority of romance films fall into this category, such as Just Go With It, Forgetting Sarah Marshal, Bridget Jones Diary, and My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

♡ Tragedy

The protagonist is a hero with a major character flaw or commits a great mistake, which is ultimately their undoing. The protagonist's unfortunate end is especially tragic because it’s the fall of a fundamentally good character.

Examples:

Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith is the best example of this. But there’s also Bonnie and Clyde, Hamilton, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and The Great Gatsby.

♡ Rebirth

An event forces the protagonist to change their ways and often become a better person.

Examples:

Despicable Me and A Christmas Carol are the best examples, but there’s also The Beauty and the Beast, as well as The Secret Garden. And Even Almighty.

A Combination of All Seven!

Of course, many great stories end up combining a bunch of these.

Take, for example, The Lord of the Rings:

From Frodo’s POV, it’s a Quest to destroy The Ring in Mount Doom. You might argue he’s Overcoming the Monster, but given he’s not actually fighting The Monster, i.e., Sauron head-on, it’s not fulfilling the requirements of that trope.

Aragorn, on the other hand, is Overcoming the Monster, by fighting the Orc army. He was also meant to be fighting the actual Sauron in the final battle, but they switched him out with a big troll. Which sucks—it would have been so epic if he fought Sauron.

Then, from Saruman's POV, it’s a Tragedy. As we see in The Hobbit, Saruman was morally good, but unfortunately, he was consumed by his fears and fell to the dark side, then paid the price.

This is also the case for Smeagol, who fell under the power of The Ring. And, as mentioned earlier, it was or would have been the case for Frodo as well. If it weren’t for Sam, the entire story would have been a Tragedy.

We can also look at The Hobbit for further reference:

From Bilbo’s POV, it’s a classic Voyage and Return. But from the dwarves' POV, it’s a Quest to take back their Homeland. The Pale Orc has the same Quest, also wanting the Lonely Mountain as a strategic stronghold for a returning Sauron. Bard the Bowman of Laketown is Overcoming the Monster, i.e., Smaug the Dragon. And from Legolas' POV, it’s actually a Rebirth—where he starts off acting like his father, and ends up becoming more like the Legolas we know and love from The Lord of the Rings.

I’m a huge nerd when it comes to all of this, and think it’s really fun looking at movies or reading books and categorizing them.

However, from an objective POV, I’d say The Seven Basic Plots are less important than The Recipe of a Good Story, as whatever story you end up writing, it will naturally fall into one of Booker’s seven tropes no matter what. It’s more or less inevitable.

But that’s not the case with the recipe. As with good food, if the recipe is poorly followed, then the story has a high chance of failing.

♡ How Do I Cook?

I’d say this recipe often comes naturally for writers who’ve been writing for a while. Even without ever having seen the recipe, they already follow it intuitively. This is, of course, because after having seen or read hundreds of movies, series, and books, this recipe has already integrated itself into the way we want a story to unfold, making us subconsciously follow it without even realizing it.

And so, no, I don’t start all my stories with plotting in all these points from Expo/Intro to Inciting Incident and the Finale—as that sort of just happens by itself.

However, any time I see one of my stories not scratching the itch for some reason, I’ll use this recipe to see where it is that I’m lacking. And so, it’s definitely not a bad exercise.

I also think there’s a lot of merit in doing this exercise with movies or books you really enjoyed, as the answer to why that story was so satisfying is most likely hidden in how they followed the recipe.

So, I’d definitely recommend trying it out!

♡ NIGHTMARE'S HELPDESK

#nightmare's helpdesk #writing advice

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