#side: matthew lynch

[thepynchfanfiction]

“Adam’s my boyfriend,” Ronan said quickly, the words had clearly been queued up. He kicked Declan’s shoe with his own, dropped his arms at his sides and silently headed into the church.

What the fuck.

--

5 times Declan was skeptical of Adam Parrish and 1 time he welcomed him into the Lynch family.

[clotpolesonly]

i really don't think we talk enough about Declan shunning Matthew when they were small. like, Matthew was dreamt up at maybe 1.5 years old? still a baby/toddler, with Ronan being 3 and Declan somewhere in the vicinity of 5. and Declan didn't have his lightning strike moment of revelation and start loving Matthew until they were old enough for Ronan (at least) to be competing in musical festivals. you can only be so young for those.

it had to have been years. YEARS of Declan stubbornly resisting any kind of bonding with this usurper child that spawned into his family. years of Aurora trying to coax him into loving Matthew the way everybody else did. yeeeeaaars of rejection and palpable resentment.

it's wild that we don't talk about that, or that we never see any mention of it in the text outside of that one flashback after Matthew's "death". i mean, it must have contributed to Declan's isolation within the family unit, and to Ronan's firmly held belief that Declan doesn't care about their family. how much of this does Matthew remember? was he hurt by it? i can't imagine he wouldn't have been, at least a little bit. does he remember more about it as he starts self-actualizing and really questioning things that he's let slide in the past? does he ever confront Declan about it?

Declan used to hate Matthew. and we as a fandom just. let that go.

[contrarianwitt]

random thoughts rereading trk part 1:

the prologue will always kill me… “this was the year he was going to die” gansey that is making me want to die wtf

the fact that gwenllian is described as putting a bunch of shit in her hair and wearing a bunch of different layers and blue keeps complaining. babe the only difference is that she’s tall

okay we do basically get confirmation that blue amplifies ronan’s dreaming! i wasn’t sure whether it was implied or stated

the money i would pay to get the scene where blue threw that guys (his names holtzclaw?) backpack over his car. like what even happened before that

“ronan’s jealousy of henry was visible from space” king he said three words to gansey. you’ll live. no wonder adam thought you were such an asshole at first i can’t even imagine

Adam “i usually don’t take sides but that’s bullshit” Parrish putting ronan in his place during the gansey v lynch divorce argument

uhhh i forgot just how much adoration adam has for gansey like at the end of the day adam really just loves him huh

“Adam rejoined Blue in the other side of the vehicle. He took pains to stare at neither her breasts nor her lips” yk what adam thanks for being honest bc yk gansey is repressing that shit! love how teenage boy adam is compared to the rest like he hides nothing

adam immediately clocking blueseys secret relationship so casually is so funny to me he’s really like “yeah i know you guys are dating and i know ronan is in love with me. so what”

matthew playing “lacrosse or some shit” is confirmation that aftg exists in this universe and that he plays exy !! no further comments

part 2 of trk reread

[variansgoggles]

Outsiders Musical characters and their real names also including actors names :)

Greasers

Ponyboy Curtis - Brody Grant

Johnny Cade - Sky Lakota-Lynch

Sodapop Curtis - Jason Schmidt

Darrel Curtis - Brent Comer

Dally (Dallas) Winston - Joshua Boone

Two-Bit (Keith) Matthews - Daryl Tofa

Ace Evans(?)- Tilly Evans Krueger

Steve Randle - Renni Anthony Magee

Socs

Bob (Robert) Sheldon - Kevin William Paul

Cherry (Sherri) Valance - Emma Pittman

Paul Holden - Dan Berry

Marcia Meyrink - SarahGrace Mariani

Beverly Jitney-Bush - Melody Rose

Clark (Brill) Brillstein - Barton Cowperthwaite

Chet Baker - RJ Higton

Trip (Terrence Dip) - Sean Harrison Jones (formerly Kevin Csolak)

Swings/Alts/2nd track characters

Greasers

Ponyboy - Trevor Wayne, Josh Strobl

Johnny Cade - Josh Strobl, Daryl Tofa

Dallas Winston - Daryl Tofa, Wonza Johnson

Steve - Jordan Chin, Andre Malcolm, Ryo Kamibayashi

Sodapop - Victor Carillo Tracey, Dan Berry

Two-Bit - Jordan Chin, Renni Anthony Magee, Henry Julian Gendron

Darrel Curtis - Victor Tracey, Dan Berry

Ace - Milena J. Comeau, Anna Bermudez

Socs

Bob/Cop - RJ Higton, Sean Harrison Jones, Barton Cowperthwaite

Paul - Victor Carillo Tracey, Ryo Kamibayashi, Sean Harrison Jones (?)

Cherry - Maggie Kuntz, Melody Rose, SarahGrace Mariani

Marcia - Melody Rose, Maggie Kuntz, Anna Bermudez

Beverly - Maggie Kuntz, Milena J. Comeau, Anna Bermudez

Chet - Henry Julian Gendron

Trip - Victor Carillo Tracey, Henry Julian Gendron

Brill - Henry Julian Gendron, Ryo Kamibayashi

Only Socs for the Rumble

Melvin - Melody Rose

Sergei - SarahGrace Mariani

Rogelio - Anna Bermudez

Glen - Maggie Kuntz

Martin - Milena J. Comeau

If anyone has further information I will update this thank youuu!! And if y’all have any Soc boy headcanons I will love you forever (I love Trip/Sean sm yet there’s nothing on him anywhere 😭 fun fact he was Action in 2021 west side story 🤭)

[lizpaige]

I really would to see more Lynch brothers/Adam interactions, if you’re up to it 🫰🏻

hiiiii anon tysm for the prompt! sorry it took a minute. i'm back at work so prompts will take me longer to get through. shameless plug once again for my fic, fáilte, which has some more lynch bros/adam interactions. but hope you enjoy some more Declan being sus of Adam! (and Adam helping Matty with his calc homework)

It was winter break and despite spending most of it in DC, they (Matthew) decided to spend a week at the Barns. Declan was only slightly surprised to see Adam Parrish's jalopy in the driveway when they arrived. He and Ronan were dating. That was also news that didn't surprise Declan... well, maybe a little.

Now, Declan sat in the living room in direct eye-line of the kitchen, where Adam was sitting at the round table with Matthew going over his calculus homework. Of course, Declan was pretending not to look, instead typing idly on his phone an email that was long overdue but his focus was on the kitchen. It started like this:

Declan found coffee in the pot early in the morning, although Ronan was not a coffee drinker. He poured himself a cup anyway, nearly jumping out of his skin when he heard a noise behind him. He turned to find Adam Parrish at the breakfast nook, coffee next to him, textbooks, pens, and an open refurbished laptop illuminating his freckled, exhausted face. He looked up for a moment, nodded to Declan, and then resumed his studying.

He wanted to make breakfast, but his stomach churned wearily. He wanted to make some toast, but the toaster always made him feel uneasy. Instead, he grabbed his black coffee, went into the living room, and sat silently on Aurora's old sewing chair, watching the doorway to the kitchen. Could he trust Adam Parrish? Maybe. Possibly. He needed more data.

Matthew bounded in sometime later, sleep rumpled and beaming. He had no qualms about disturbing Adam in the kitchen, waving and sharing a cheery "Hey, man!" before rummaging through the cupboards for cereal. Declan's coffee sat untouched and cold on the end table next to him.

"He's the worst! He gave us like 100 problems to do this break," Matthew said loudly, his mouth full of cereal. His voice always carried, even when he was trying to be quiet. In a stage whisper, he continued, "I haven't even started yet. Don't tell anyone."

Adam's mumbled reply was too quiet for Declan to hear, but Matthew's response wasn't. "You would? Gee, thanks, I completely forgot what we were learning so that would help."

Matthew left the room and came back with his calculus textbook, notebook, calculator, and pencil case. Declan narrowed his gaze and set his phone down in his lap. Interesting.

Adam Parrish seemed to be the type of person who would never do anything for free. What does he get out of helping Matthew? Points with Ronan? The better question to be asking is what does Adam get from dating Ronan? A lot. Too much. Could he be trusted? Where will Ronan end up when Adam inevitably gets whatever he needs and wants from him? Will Declan be able to pick up the pieces?

Declan needed leverage in case it came to that, but he knew very little that mattered to Adam. His family was out of the picture, Declan knew that after Ronan came to blows with Robert Parrish (and Declan's subsequent research into the emancipation case). Adam cared about Aglionby, but with the rate he was going, he'd easily make valedictorian. He cared about school; Declan heard a rumor that he applied to four ivy league schools, but he thought the number was a bit low.

Adam cared about Ronan. Or at least it seemed that way.

When Ronan came through the mudroom door into the kitchen after his morning chores, boots kicked off, mud up his forearms, his grin was shocking and foreign to Declan. His happiness was apparent and genuine and Declan could hardly remember a time after their dad passed that he saw Ronan smile like that. Ronan moved to the other side of the room and Declan couldn't see him, but he could hear the sink running as Ronan washed up before coming around to stand across from Matthew and Adam.

Adam said something too quiet for Declan to make out, and Ronan flipped him off, but Matthew laughed. Declan quickly grabbed his phone as Ronan started walking toward the door. "-fucking nerds, I'm going to shower and then make some pancakes, sound good?"

"Ooh, chocolate chip, please!" Matthew called.

Ronan stopped in the doorway of the living room, eyeing Declan for a second. Declan didn't look up, feigning focus, losing sanity. "Pancakes good with you?"

"Hm?" Declan was going to crack Adam Parrish. "Yeah, sure."

"Ooh-kay," Ronan said slowly as if Declan was the one being weird and not everyone else in this godforsaken house.

[catholic-character-tournament]

Round 4 - Catholic Character Tournament

Propaganda below ⬇️

Harrowhark

I'm pretty sure you've already got plenty of submissions for her so I'll just say she was raised in what is basically a cult (technically a nunnery but let's be real) dedicated to keeping the body of the thing that will kill God behind the rock. One of their prayers is actually "I pray the rock is never rolled away". Harrow is extremely devout as penance for her earlier heretical actions in the tomb as a child (spoiler!) so the Catholic guilt really comes through

imagine being a catholic nun and you meet god, but it turns out he’s a twitch streamer from new zealand who became god because everything got a little bit out of hand. and just before you met him you gave yourself a diy grief-fuelled lobotomy with the help of your best frenemy. imagine how insane you’d be. now multiply that insanity by nine. that’s the fictional love of my life right there.

she meets god. she’s not inspired

she’s number one practitioner of space Catholicism. The locked tomb is chock full of Christian (catholic) imagery themes metaphors etc. just look at her she’s got a bone rosary

They're Catholicism with extra bones. Everyone is a nun. They have what is basically a rosary made from knuckle bones. They technically worship the same God as everyone else, but they're waaaay more focused on The Body in the Tomb (Mary) and we get a moment where we find out that while everyone else prays the equivilent of The Lords Prayer, they're doing the equivilent of Hail Mary. And they paint their faces with skulls.

She thinks leaving dry bread in a drawer is taking care of someone. She's in love with a 10,000 year old corpse (the same one they worship). She spent ALL NIGHT digging with her bare hands to make sure a field had bones every 5 feet so she could fight her girlfriend - I mean, greatest enemy. Spoiler territory: She's been puppeting her parents corpses since she was 8 years old. Instead of grieving her dead girlfriend, she gives herself a lobotomy. She makes soup with bone in it so she can use the bone IN THEIR STOMACH to try and kill them.

The author is/was Catholic and the entire series had heavy Catholic overtones. https://www.tor.com/2020/08/19/gideon-the-ninth-young-pope-and-the-new-pope-are-building-a-queer-catholic-speculative-fiction-canon/ A good breakdown of how it's Catholic

Anti-propaganda (spoilers)

I love the Locked Tomb series but Harrowhark has daddy issues with God, had a childhood crush on God's cryogenic partner, and is in love with God's daughter, not to mention that she's essentially a bone-bender. The religion on her home planet exists in a way that is technically against the will of the canon in-universe God, even. All of this to say, Harrowhark is heretical at minimum if not an outright witch. Terrible Catholic. Burn her.

Ronan Lynch

Uhh fun fact he saw the devil flash his father once, and that's one of the reasons he goes to church on Sundays <3

context for this scene from book 2: ronan is in church with his older brother declan, younger brother matthew, and ghost friend noah "Joseph Kavinsky isn’t someone I want you being around,” Declan added. “Don’t snort. I’m serious.” Ronan merely invested a look with as much contempt as he could muster. A lady reached over the top of Noah to pat Matthew’s head fondly before continuing down the aisle. She didn’t seem to care that he was fifteen, which was all right, because he didn’t, either. Both Ronan and Declan observed this interaction with the pleased expressions of parents watching their prodigy at work. Declan repeated, “Like, actually dangerous.” Sometimes, Declan seemed to think that being a year older gave him special knowledge of the seedier side of Henrietta. What he meant was, did Ronan know that Kavinsky was a cokehead. In his ear, Noah whispered, “Is crack the same thing as speed?” Ronan didn’t answer. He didn’t think it was a very church-appropriate conversation. “I know you think you’re a punk,” Declan said. “But you aren’t nearly as bad ass as you think you are.” “Oh, go to hell,” Ronan snapped, just as the altar boys broached the rear doors. “Guys,” Matthew pleaded. “Be holy.”

Gay Catholic streetracing farmer. Consumed by catholic guilt NOT because of the gay thing but because he can Create things in a way he thinks should be only God's business. Will literally roll up to mass on sunday morning still drunk and bloody.

THIS GOTH KID IS LITERALLY GOD. This is a god trapped in the body of a Catholic teen and if he ever stopped feeling Catholic guilt he’d end the world!!. How is your confession every week that you creating a whole new being? Babygirl the God is coming from inside the house

eldritch entity from beyond the mortal plane wants to be a Real Human Boy, becomes a real (ish!) human (ish!) boy, goes to mass every sunday

Gay boy got his crush an apartment above his church so he could have his two favorite things in one place

gay. I'm not caught up the the series but I went through the tag when the latest book came out and I remember seeing a quote that said he worried if his boyfriend would make it to heaven when he dies because of his agnostic tendencies.

Kid is like a dream warlock who creates psychic horrors and never goes to confession because why would he? and he’s gay

There are no words

basically ronan's powers are inherited from his dead father niall and it means he can bring anything from a dream into real life. so he's got this whole crisis about whether he is a living piece of blasphemy because men are not meant to have the powers of gods or whether he literally is god. which is not acceptable to him for a number of reasons but mostly because he hates himself. his love interest's name is adam and adam lives in a small apartment above a church which the book says focuses the objects of his worship neatly into one building. I love them both dearly. also, this entire page makes me feel like I'm going insane. Ronan Lynch believed in heaven and hell. Once, he’d seen the devil. It had been a low, late morning at the Barns when the sun had burned off the mist and then burned off the chill and then burned the edges off the ground until everything shimmered with heat. It never got hot in those protected fields, but that morning, the air sweated with it. Ronan had never seen cattle pant before. All of the cows heaved and stuck their tongues out as they frothed with the heat. His mother sent Ronan to put them in the shade of the cattle barn. Ronan had gone to the searing metal gate, and as he did, he’d glimpsed his father, already in the barn. Four yards away from him had stood a red man. He was not truly red, but the burned orange of a fire ant. And he was not truly a man, because of the horns and the hooves. Ronan remembered the alienness of the creature, how real it had been. Every costume in the world had gotten it wrong; every drawing in every comic book. They’d all forgotten that the devil was an animal. Looking at the red man, Ronan had been struck by the intricacy of the body, how many miraculous pieces moved smoothly in harmony, no different than his own. Niall Lynch had had a gun in hand — the Lynches had an enormous number of guns of all sizes — and just as Ronan had opened the gate, his father had shot the thing about thirteen times in the head. With a shake of its horns, the unharmed devil had presented its genitalia to Niall Lynch before bounding off. It was an image that had yet to leave Ronan. And so Ronan became a reverse evangelist. The truth burst and grew inside him, and it was laid upon him to share it with no one. No one was meant to see hell before they get there. No one should have to live with the devil. So many homilies on faith were ruined once you no longer required it for belief.

Our boy CHOOSES not to receive the Eucharist because he doesn’t believe he is worthy. The spiritual insight, the devotion, the fact that this teenager is worried he may have a mortal sin weighing on his soul…this boy isn’t just going through the motions, he’s putting work into this.

[sufferthesea]

Flash Fiction Friday #4 (The Raven Cycle)

Word: No prompt word was chosen for this fic, but it's titled "Similarities" on AO3.

Pairings: Adam x Ronan, past Adam x Blue, Blue x Gansey

Warnings: Mentions of past abuse

Adam often wondered who he liked first, Blue or Ronan. And if his liking of one influenced the liking of the other. As much as they would kill him if he ever admitted this out loud to either of them, Blue and Ronan were two sides of the same coin. Even if they couldn’t see it, or wouldn’t, Adam could. And he did, often. 

For one thing, they both had short tempers. The first time they met Blue, they had all been in Nino’s, and Gansey had volunteered to speak to Blue on Adam’s behalf, even though Adam had begged him not to. Adam could tell just from a single look that Blue was not interested in Aglionby boys. And he’d been right, for the most part. Blue had cursed Gansey up and down right there in the restaurant, not even worried that she was going to get fired. 

Maybe that was the first time that Adam realized, even subconsciously, that she was like Ronan. Ronan would drop f-bombs all day long without a care, except if he was in the presence of his brother Matthew. But if he were around teachers or parents or the other Aglionby boys? Ronan’s vocabulary was more colorful than the tiny rainbow bracelet he’d quietly added to his stack of leather bands not long after their first summer as a couple. 

A second thing they have in common is that they’re outsiders. Or outcasts. No, Adam is an outcast. He’s never fit in, felt popular or cool, never been welcomed with open arms by someone who didn’t want something from him. Blue had her own group of friends. She never tried hard to fit in. She actually worked out to stand out, which was something Adam could never wrap his head around. Ronan was the same. Ronan never tried to be like Declan or like Matthew. He never tried to be like Gansey or Noah or anyone at Aglionby. The only person he really tried to be like was his father, Niall. That was another thing Adam couldn’t wrap his head around. How could anyone want to be like their father? But Ronan’s father was not like Adam’s father. There were plenty of Robert Parrishes in the world, but Niall Lynch was not one of them. He was a good one. A good father, a good husband, a good man. Aside from all the scheming and black market stuff. 

And, Adam supposed, Blue wanted to be like her mother, Maura. Maura Sargent was an admirable woman. She was a better mother than his own ever was. She allowed her daughter to be unique, but also let her know that she was still part of something. Part of a family, part of a business, part of a community. Adam was part of a white trash trailer in a poor part of town, a punching bag, a doormat, a 5-minute sex session (if that) turned into an 18-year commitment. 

As rare as good fathers were, good mothers seemed to be even rarer to Adam. He could understand the abuse, to a point. He was worthless, wasn’t he? He was stupid, and he was a burden, and he was trying to be somebody he wasn’t when he enrolled in Aglionby and started hanging out with Gansey and Noah and Ronan (and, eventually, Blue). But his mother had been a different creature. She’d been silent most of the time. Or she’d asked Adam to appease his father. To apologize. To shut up and take it. To bow down at the altar of Robert Parrish’s rage and provide himself as a human sacrifice for an unobtainable redemption. Maura Sargent wasn’t like that. She had scrounged and bled and cried for her daughter. She had fought for her daughter. She had sacrificed herself for her daughter. And Gansey’s mother, and Ronan’s mother, and perhaps even Noah’s mother (though the information they had on Noah’s parents was as nonexistent as Noah’s heartbeat). All of them were good people, good women, good mothers. Mothers that would go to the end of the earth for their children. Mothers that would die for them. That would kill for them. 

A third thing, if Adam is still counting, is that Blue and Ronan always had their own sense of style. He supposed this probably fell under the second item, but he liked to count it separate. Blue’s handmade clothes and untamed hair and the car she shared with who-knew-how-many women. Ronan’s muscle tees and unkempt uniform and the tattoo covering his back, up his neck, black ink spilling across pale skin that Adam knows by heart now. No one could make Blue or Ronan wear normal clothes, even if they tried. In fact, the mere suggestion that their clothes weren’t normal would probably end pretty badly for anyone involved. 

But Adam wondered over and over again: who did he like first? Did he like Ronan first, deep down, buried under the trauma and fear and self-hatred? Did it come out twisted when he saw Blue, so much like Ronan in her spitfire attitude and unbridled rage? Or did he always like Blue, truly and honestly, but did it dwindle when he realized he wasn’t her true love? Was Blue the unlucky recipient of Adam’s projected love for Ronan? Just caught in the crosshairs of his identity crisis, among all his other crises? He hates to think that what he felt for Blue hadn’t been real. He did care about her. Still does. But he also hates to think that he had loved Ronan the whole time and didn’t even see it because he couldn’t accept that part of himself. (That was, he knew Robert Parrish couldn’t accept that part of himself. And he feared that Gansey couldn’t accept that part of himself. And he wondered if Ronan would ever – could ever – feel the same way. What if he didn’t? What if Ronan had been disgusted by him? What if he’d turned that rage onto Adam one final time, one final explosive time, and blew up every shred of a relationship between them? But it didn’t happen, and Adam had to remind himself that over and over again. He had to make sure he didn’t catastrophize, or else he really would go insane.) 

Adam could probably wonder about this his whole life. It became his version of the “chicken or the egg”, and it used to eat him alive. Blue or Ronan? Blue or Ronan? But it never mattered. He was never Blue’s true love, and he ended up with Ronan. Everyone was happy (at least, as happy as they could be given the circumstances), and they were free. Blue was free to love Gansey. Adam was free to love Ronan. And Adam could feel miserable for not being Blue’s first love, but he won’t, because he was Ronan’s. 

[bartonbones]

20 for the drabble for declan lynch or jamie tartt if ur still doing it!

okay this is cheating because i wrote this awhile ago and also have not answered the other asks but since you've given me a perfect opportunity to share it and becuase you said my super soldier sleeper agent trigger words (declan lynch) i simply HAVE to share a snippet from my google docs of unfinished unrelated declan lynch tangents. this tangent in specific is imagining that declan has been through a Situation and has been rescued by ronan (who has "never seen declan goddamn cry, and can't imagine it" and matthew, who is trying his best but only marginally more suited to help). please don't ask me hard questions like, why did he get tortured, or how, or when in the series, or anything except "what other drabbles do you have about declan lynch" bc i'm always happy to share and they will otherwise probably never see the light of day. anyway without further explanation here it is

Matthew wakes up to screaming. Well, not true. Matthew wakes up because something has bumped in the night and fallen to the ground and crashed and splattered, and then he hears the shouting—Declan, stop it, what the fuck: Ronan’s voice, angry, tired, indignant. And Declan’s, too, over and over: get off, get off, get off. 

It takes him more than a few rounds of this to remember why this feels strange. Matthew has been waking up to Ronan and Declan’s fights since he was old enough to understand what insolent child and fucking prick meant. It feels as much like the Barns as creaking floorboards and the smell of hay and grass and honeysuckle. Ronan’s shouting had always painted the walls in varying degrees of volume and profanity like doorway notches charting his height—when he was eight, you could hear him from the kitchen, and when he was twelve, he said fuck for the first time and meant it.

But it’s not Ronan’s voice that starts the alarm in Matthew’s head, that causes him to roll, backwards, out of his bed and onto his feet, standing and swaying and still exhausted, and listening with sudden and terrifying closeness. 

Get off, Declan says, across the hall in his room. Get off of me!  

But he doesn’t say it like he’s fighting back. Like Ronan is headbutting him into the wall or pulling at his arm, goading him into a proper wrestle. He says it over and over again and each time more hysterical than the last, shaking and scardecled. Matthew hasn’t forgotten anything that’s happened over the past week, but every day Declan has looked a little better—rounder, less pale, more sturdy, more likely to react to things with more than a dazed frown. This doesn’t sound like the Declan that told Matthew to go back to school this morning. It sounds like Declan back at the fairy market, blindfolded and open-mouthed, gasping for help. 

Matthew hits his shin on the door frame as he trips over himself and doesn’t register it. He’s suddenly sure that they’ve come back, found Declan asleep, decided to make up for lost time. He’s down the hall in seconds, throwing open Declan’s door like he had some sort of weapon besides fear and stubbornness. He needs to shout something, probably, a threat would be helpful, but when he finally gets a view of the room nothing falls out of it except a small, surprised squeak. 

No one has broken in. No one from the Fairy Market or otherwise is standing in the corner with a gun or a club or some other awful thing, and the only person holding Declan’s wrists behind his back is Ronan. 

“Ronan?” Matthew squeaks, again.

 He hates it when his voice goes like that, but he can’t help it. He didn’t get to choose what his voice sounded like when it was tired and terrified and confused. Maybe Ronan had, when he was small and dreamt him up. Maybe he’d been reading Staurt Little at the time. 

“Get out,” Ronan grinds out. “Matthew, leave.” 

Matthew doesn’t have to listen to Ronan, so he doesn’t. He steps closer, into the light provided by the lamp which is now turned on its side, base shattered, on the ground next to Declan’s head. Declan has his eyes squeezed shut and lips pressed hard against his teeth. His face looks pale and slick with sweat. It’s clear from the scuffle around them and the harsh, unforgiving way that Ronan has Declan’s wrists pinned to the ground that he and Ronan had been fighting, but whatever had happened, he isn’t fighting now. 

“Ronan,” he says, uneasy. Declan looks so still it’s like he’d stopped breathing, and if it weren’t for the rise of his chest, Matthew would be afraid that he had. “You should let go of him now.” 

Ronan shakes his head, not looking at either of them. 

“I can’t let him go,” he says. 

“He was asking you to,” Matthew says. “I heard it from my room.”

Ronan’s teeth are audibly grinding against each other. 

“If I let go of him,” he says, slowly, like he’s explaining this for the fiftieth time, “He will hurt himself, Matthew. Look at his fucking neck.” 

Swallowing, Matthew does. Instinctively as he traces the scratches—deep enough that there’s blood still pooling at the bottom—he puts his own palm against his neck, the other wrapped sickly and helplessly around his middle. It looks terrible. It looks like he had been trying to claw out his own throat, and it’s layered on top of old bruises that are just beginning to fade from a deep, horrible purple. It had to hurt, and hurt badly. Matthew presses his palm flat and feels the pressure against his throat and imagines how much harder he’d have to push for it to bleed and how much he doesn’t want to do that, and then imagines how badly Declan must feel if that’s what feels like a solution. 

Then he flicks his eyes from his neck back up to his face. 

If it is terrible to see Declan thrashing, screaming for help—which it had been, which it is—then somehow this is worse. All the fight is gone out of him, he’s not even pushing against Ronan anymore, or pulling himself away. Even his face, which moments before had been furious, if tight, had melted into something terrible. Quiet. Expressionless. Resigned. His eyes were still shut, but now tears leaked from the corners of them, rolling down his cheeks. Matthew shakes his head, upset now, worse from this than from the blood and broken glass. 

“Please stop,” he says. “I think you’re really scaring him.” 

Ronan growls—huffs, sort of. Indignant. Frustrated. Scared, although it’s clear he’s trying not to show that to Matthew. 

“He’ll hurt himself,” he repeats, sounding desperate. Matthew wonders how long this had been going on before he’d gotten woken up.  “You gotta believe me, dude.”

“But you’re hurting him, too.” 

[brimstoneandbooks]

The Dream Thieves - Book Review

“It's a bomb. Just like you.”  (This is one of my favourite quotes of all time)

Goodreads Summary 

Now that the ley lines around Cabeswater have been woken, nothing for Ronan, Gansey, Blue, and Adam will be the same. Ronan, for one, is falling more and more deeply into his dreams, and his dreams are intruding more and more into waking life. Meanwhile, some very sinister people are looking for so me of the same pieces of the Cabeswater puzzle that Gansey is after… 

CHARACTERS

General: A lot of exposition about the Lynchs. Four new recurring and important characters. Two of which I love (the Grey Man and Matthew) and two of which I hate (Cavinsk and Greenmantle)

Blue Sargent and Richard Dick Gansey III

(I did not put them together because they’re shipped but because they deal with similar issues.) Both Gansey and Blue seperately deal with some insecurities (Blue more than Gansey) and issues with Adam’s anger issues in this book, both needing to stand up for themselves without wanting to lose him as a friend. It’s incredibly sad because there’s a very real fear of Adam turning on them and very real necessity to stand up to him with real worry of losing Adam as a person and a friend, because we’ve come to love him over the past book and know how important he is to Gansey and Blue. Gansey and Blue’s friendship also progresses in this book with romantic hints (but still unlike what most associate with a love triangle, since Blue isn’t just indecisive. She knows she can only love one of them romantically, and she only does love one of them romantically). So, you know, a bit of Blue… Ga… Bluensy… Blansey… Gue… Hold on… Bluesey (Yes, I googled it-) in this one, if that’s what you’re looking for. 

Ronan Lynch

In terms of the plot, Ronan is the main focus out of the main cast. He is learning about his dream powers and his family, often resorting to desperate and reckless measures. But you also see him try to be a good friend, despite his flaws. His pet raven, Chainsaw is always following him around and I love her and the affection Ronan has towards her. It’s really interesting (and sad) to see the vulnerable sides of Ronan, revealed in this book and helps one understand him somewhat better as he also tries to learn to understand himself better. His character is incredibly interesting with him constantly trying to hide his feelings with anger but still trying to show his friends that he cares in his own way.

“Ronan Lynch, keeper of secrets, fighter of men, devil of a boy”

Adam Parish

Adam is not having a good time. After having awoken the ley line in the last book Adam is forced to deal with unintelligable hallucinations and he has become unpredictable to his friends. He also has to deal his new living situations and under all the pressure, he deals with some anger issues. Adam is constantly tired and is constantly losing more hope, when all he wants is some time, not having to worry about money and freedom. His relationship with Blue progresses, for better or for worse (spoiler: for them as a couple, for worse, since Adam takes things for granted and doesn’t really think about Blue outside of wanting him to be his girlfriends and Blue feels hurt and wants to actually know him, causing her to break off the relationship. But for them as individuals I do think it changes for the better. Because although it might make them sad, I don’t think Adam is currently able to lead a healthy relationship and he needs to focus on himself. Relationships take effort, and Adam might just not be able to put in that extra effort right now. And Blue knows what she needs and deserves and I think it’s good that she’s standing up for it, even though it makes her feel guilty and sad and she doesn’t want to hurt Adam or herself). And Adam is put in difficult situations. His anger and other struggles are understandable, but that doesn’t mean that Adam isn’t held accountable, and I’m glad that the book at no point acts like trauma justifies all wrongs. Despite his changes, he is still unwilling to take any sort of hand-out and is determined to do things on his own terms, and he still won’t settle for less than he’s aiming for (i.e. college).

The Grey Man

The Grey Man is very interesting. At first I wasn’t sure how he would tie into the story and I assumed he would be an antagonist, actively and ruthlessly working against The Raven Boys and Blue, since he was following the same pattern as Whelk with there being a random adult character we don’t know, having chapters where the narration focusses on him. But he ended up being way more nuanced and I actually liked his character and plotline! He is a hitman with a fascination for anglosaxon literature. He has a mysterious relationship with his older brother that unfolds throughout the story (not in the sense that it progresses but in the sense that the reader learns more about them) in an interesting, though cruelly sadistic way (spoiler: from sides of the brother). It’s interesting to see the Grey Man’s mindsets and how they came to be. It’s also interesting to have a character who doesn’t let anyone know his name, with even the narrator keeping it secret. 

Joseph Cavinsky

Cavinsky is like that one annoying and mean kid in school who picks on everyone without reason and no one really knows why. He is impulsive, reckless, aggressive and homophobic as shit. He’s like Ronan if Ronan was homophobic, heartless, didn’t care about anyone and was a total show-off. I hate him and he genuinely has no redeemable qualities whatsoever. He is well-written to make me hate him with a passion, without actually wanting to stop reading whenever he shows up. 

“Noah had wandered down the aisle, but now he gleefully returned with a snow globe. He stood behind Ronan until he pushed off the shelf to admire the atrocity. "Glitter," whispered Noah reverentially, giving it a shake.” 

PLOT

Ronan trying to figure out his dream powers and his dad.

Subplots: Adam & Blue. Adam & Gansey. The Grey Man and other people looking for the Greywaren. The Grey Man & Maura. Adam dealing with his anger issues (sad).

TROPES/CLICHES

(Love triangle, kind of, since we’re made to expect that Gansey is destined to be Blue’s true love and yet she’s dating Adam, but that’s the thing. She’s not indecisive. She actively wants to choose Adam and love him. She actively reminds herself how she would never fall for someone like Gansey. She only has one love. But she is deep in denial AND she hasn’t actually fallen yet. It’s just foreboding. And by the end of the book she’s figured out and COMMUNICATED to Adam that he’s not her true love and she knows it); coming-of-age; true love(‘s kiss); prophecy; supernatural powers; strong female lead; hidden world/magic in the world; outsider/odd protagonist(s) (but like, they don’t put others down for not being like them. Blue just wants to find friends more like her, but she never puts anyone down for being “normal” unlike her); hitman; a character with dead dad taking after/being a lot like dad; journey to the past (not literally, just with Ronan visiting his old home); time isn’t linear 

WORLDBUILDING

Adam and the ley lines have both become unpredictable since they were woken by Adam. (The ley lines try to communicate with Adam but he still needs help from a psychic to understand them and help them.) (Same notes as book 1.) Ronan and others can take things out of their dreams but only Ronan, the Greywaren, can take things with permission without having to steal them and thereby hurt Cabeswater (which is in itself a dream). Things taken out of dreams still exist but turn off when the dreamer is gone (for example, Ronan’s mother who Neil Lynch took out of his dreams, and who fell into eternal sleep when he died, not waking up until Ronan put her in Cabeswater) and can’t turn on again until they’re in a dream again (like Cabeswater). There’s green and red pills (used by Cavinsky) and I’m not entirely sure what they do exactly but I think they’re what help Cavinsky steal things from his dreams, and they are slowly killing him as he does so. 

THEMES

Material inequality. Friendship/relationships in general (familial, platonic, romantic). Determinism (?). Supernatural. Victim of circumstance. Home. Anger. Trauma. Recklessness. Selfishness. 

“If you never saw the stars, candles were enough.”

GENERAL NOTES

All the characters deal with some sort of inner conflict, but not all are resolved (Adam’s anger; Ronan’s desire to go home and fighting his Nighthorrors; Blue’s insecurity, wish to belong and wish to use her potential and be more than a sidekick; Gansey getting sick of having to keep his friends together without them putting in much effort to do so themselves) I don’t really like love triangles much since they’re usually very one-dimensional. And this is technically a love triangle, since Blue is given the choice between Adam and Gansey. But it’s not „oh noo, I can’t decide“ it’s „well, no matter what I choose it would hurt and I actually know who I love, even though it’s not who I would choose if I had the choice“. And I also like that, no matter which boy it is, Blue knows what she deserves and stands up for herself. (Technically it’s a bit of a square, since Noah and Blue do kiss and admits he’d ask her out if he was alive. But he’s not seen as a real option since he is dead, and both Blue and Noah are sad about that. And so was I, because it makes you realise all the more that Noah will never get the opportunity to grow up. He’ll never be able to fall in love and pursue it. I’m not sure about the choice to have every boy who is attracted to girls have a crush on Blue, but I do see why they would individually fall for her, and it’s more than the one-dimensional “I like you cause you’re hot and not like other girls”. And the romance also doesn’t take over, which I find nice because I love the other parts of the story and wouldn’t want them to be sacrificed. I also love that the characters’ lives don’t revolve solely around romantic relationships but also platonic and familial relationships.) 

I would say that, although all of the characters have their own plotlines, the main focus is on Ronan, with the reader learning more about his dreams and his backstory, and Ronan learning more about himself.

[blogparanormalexpresso2stuff]

On May 12, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it had extradited from the United Kingdom, Michael Lynch, the former CEO of Autonomy Corporation, to stand trial in the Northern District Court of California, alongside the former Vice President of Finance at Autonomy, Stephen Chamberlain.

Among the numerous charges brought by the Justice Department were these:

“…between 2009 and 2011, Lynch and Chamberlain, and other co-conspirators, (1) artificially inflated Autonomy’s revenues by backdating written agreements to record revenue in prior periods; recorded revenue on contracts that were subject to side letters or other contingencies that impacted revenue recognition; and improperly recorded revenue for reciprocal or roundtrip transactions…”

As part of this alleged scheme to defraud, according to the Justice Department, “…Lynch and Chamberlain caused Autonomy to make materially false and misleading statements directly to HP [Hewlett-Packard] regarding Autonomy’s financial condition, performance, and business during the negotiations between HP and Autonomy leading up to the August 18, 2011, announcement by HP to acquire Autonomy for approximately $11 billion.”

It has been reported that Lynch made approximately $800 million on the sale of Autonomy to HP.

Both Lynch and Chamberlain were acquitted on all charges on June 7, following a jury trial that lasted three months.

Less than two months following the trial, on Saturday, August 17, Chamberlain was out running in Cambridgeshire, England and was hit by a car. Chamberlain died of his injuries after being hospitalized.

Two days later, on Monday, August 19, Mike Lynch, Chamberlain’s co-defendant in the Justice Department trial, died when his “unsinkable” 184-foot sailing yacht sunk to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Sicily during a storm that failed to harm other nearby yachts.

Making these deaths all the more suspicious, two other individuals involved in the criminal trial died in the sinking of the yacht: the Chair of Morgan Stanley International, Jonathan Bloomer, who had been a witness for the defense; and the attorney for Mike Lynch during the trial, Chris Morvillo, of law firm Clifford Chance.

The statistical improbability of four people connected to one criminal case dying within 72 hours in two separate unusual events is raising eyebrows.

Equally suspect, there were 22 people on board the yacht with 15 people surviving, including 9 members of the 10-member crew, who made it to a life boat. Other survivors in the life boat included Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares; the Managing Partner of Lynch’s venture capital firm, Invoke Capital, Charlotte Golunshi and her one-year old daughter; and Clifford Chance lawyer Ayla Ronald and her partner, Matthew Fletcher.

The seven deceased victims from the sinking of the yacht were Lynch; his 18-year old daughter, Hannah; Bloomer and his wife, Judy; Morvillo and his wife, Neda; and the yacht’s chef, Recaldo Thomas.

To put that more starkly, the crew had a 90 percent survival rate while the other passengers had a 58 percent survival rate.

Reuters is reporting this morning that Italian prosecutors have opened an investigation and have conducted multiple interviews with the Captain of the yacht, James Cutfield. Maritime law places the safety of the ship, crew and all passengers as the responsibility of the Captain.

For unknown reasons, the Captain was able to make it to the lifeboat while six of the seven who died were trapped below deck in cabins or hallways, where their bodies were eventually located by divers. The chef was reportedly found floating in the water.

Lynch’s life had been a living hell for the five years before the tragedy on the yacht. Prior to his acquittal in June, he had been living under house arrest for a year in a townhouse in San Francisco, with guards watching his every move.

On April 30, 2018, the former CFO of Autonomy, Sushovan Hussain, was separately tried and convicted by the U.S. Department of Justice in the same U.S. District Court that heard the case against Lynch and Chamberlain. Hussain was convicted of one count of conspiracy, fourteen counts of wire fraud and one count of securities fraud involving Autonomy’s sale to Hewlett-Packard. Hussain served five years in prison.

Another company in which Lynch’s venture capital firm had invested money following the sale of Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard was Darktrace, a cyber-security firm which was packed with people from the U.K.’s intelligence agency MI5 and the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). In 2023, the short-seller, Quintessential Capital Management, published a lengthy report alleging claims against Darktrace that had a familiar ring to some of the charges brought by the Justice Department against Autonomy executives.

Quintessential Capital’s researchers wrote this about Darktrace:

“Our opinion is based primarily on numerous transactions we detected during the period leading to DT’s [Darktrace’s] IPO seemingly involving simulated or anticipated sales to phantom end-users through a network of willing resellers. Darktrace seems to have repeatedly used marketing activities to channel funds back into its partners as payment for apparently fictitious purchases. These alleged channel stuffing and round-tripping activities seem to have even involved shell companies in offshore jurisdictions….”

Hewlett-Packard is no boy scout either. The company was scandalized in 2006 when Newsweek broke the story that it had spied on its own Board of Directors and journalists, illegally obtaining their phone records in some cases to ascertain with whom they had been in contact.

[iammistressofmyfate]

My Bodyguard AU for Pynch sort of turned into an original piece...the characterizations were becoming too different that I was like "I can just make them something original"

But I've been toying with a Boxer!Ronan AU that's more Lynch brother centric with some Pynch and Jordeclan tossed in. I just really like writing sports AUs apparently

More about Boxer!Ronan below! CW // discussion of substance abuse and death

Ronan was a successful amateur boxer with his eyes on the Olympics

Declan is his trainer

They have a falling out when their father dies of a drug overdose. Declan grew up seeing his father's substance use where Ronan and Matthew only really knew a sober Niall. Everyone has a lot of big feelings.

Ronan fires Declan and Declan lets him.

Ronan ends up getting injured, which is just fuel on the fire. His dad is gone (so is his mom, several years earlier), he is no longer speaking to his brother, and his hopes and dreams of an Olympic medal are gone

Ronan spirals but with the help of his friends and manager, he's able to right his ship. He's sober, working as an instructor at the woodshop at the local college in their art program and does boxing lessons on the side at Calla's gym. He works with other amateur boxers and does free classes with troubled teens

Ronan meets Adam while in the ER after getting clocked in the face by one of his students who moved too soon. He needs stitches. Adam is the doctor on call. He stitches Ronan up and Ronan fell in love with him the moment he walked into the exam room. Ronan keeps showing up to the ER after his stitches are removed because he wants to see Adam and Adam eventually confronts him. Ronan says he'll leave Adam alone if he goes out with him on one date. Adam says yes (because Ronan IS hot and works with troubled teens so he must have SOME redeemable qualities and isn't always insufferable) They go on a date and hit it off and are engaged in "present day"

Meanwhile, Declan married Jordan and they have two kids. He works as an art dealer. Matthew is the bridge between his brothers and has been trying to get them to reconcile for years. All of the Lynches have been in therapy (because this is fanfic and because I say so)

Adam has noticed how much Ronan seems to miss boxing. During Adam's night shifts he comes home to an empty house on several occasions and finds Ronan at the gym, boxing. They talk about Ronan trying to get back into the amateur circuit and making another go at the Olympics.

Ronan mulls this over. Talks to Calla and his old manager. They think he could pull it off. If not a medal, at least qualifying. Ronan calls Declan. They have an awkward conversation but agree to meet up. They get lunch, catch up, and Declan says he'll think about it.

Declan thinks about it. Jordan encourages him. She knows how much he enjoyed coaching Ronan, how much it meant for both brothers to be that close. Declan agrees to coach Ronan.

>Insert various training montages and boxing matches here<

Ronan qualifies for the Elite team and goes to the Pan Am Games. He wins silver in his weight class, which means he has a ticket to the Olympics. Cue lots of crying and hugging and celebrating. His comeback story is picked up and followed. He does some interviews. This was obviously more than just boxing. This was Ronan and Declan making amends.

Ronan works his way through the prelims to the semifinals, to the quarterfinals, he's in the last bracket for a podium spot. Does he medal...? He'll get at LEAST bronze...

Anyway, as much as I love writing Pynch, I do love a good reconciliation story between the Lynch brothers.

[sir-griswold-of-macelwain]

In the Kemal Pamuk episode, Mary hunts and Edith is visiting churches with Matthew. But where's Sybil?

I assume she's not hunting because Robert would have probably asked Lynch to keep an eye on his youngest rather than his oldest, but is she not hunting because she's too young (and hunting is a bit dangerous/different from simply riding), because she's too young (and wasn't presented, so she's not at social gatherings) or because she chose not to (because she doesn't like seeing animals die or something)?

thoughts, downton abbey side of tumblr?

[rose-of-oz]

For the if they were canon ask game: 🎬 + Rosaline Craven, please??

@dancingsunflowers-ocs ✨💖✨

Anything for my Ro baby, and for you, Alexandra!! (Also gonna tag @luucypevensie since she’s Rosaline’s godmama. <3)

HOW THEY'D BE INTRODUCED:

So I don’t think Rosaline would really be properly introduced with a name and everything until Order of the Phoenix, but I can see her continually popping up in the background of various shots, walking around with Pansy or sitting at the Slytherin table in the Great Hall or glaring at Ginny’s back if she’s part of a conversation. There would probably also be a scene where the focus is on Harry and a conversation he’s having while he’s with the Weasleys, but you can sort of hear Ginny in the background complaining about a Slytherin girl who seems to think they’re in some kind of competition, and you know who that is…

WHO THE FANDOM SHIPS THEM WITH:

Definitely mainly Ginny, but I can see people also shipping her with Pansy, since we all love a good friends to lovers arc, or even Luna, since they develop something of an unlikely friendship once Rosaline starts getting closer to the people around Ginny.

WHY THE FANDOM LOVES THEM:

I think for a lot of the same reasons the fandom loves Draco - child of a rich pureblood family of Death Eaters who doesn’t actually want to be a part of what their parents are making them do and who’s secretly in love with the rival they made for themselves - but since Rosaline actually gets her redemption arc in canon, they might even like her better (😅). I also think a lot of people would love her sense of style and her impeccable comebacks.

WHY THE FANDOM HATES THEM:

You just know there would be people who hate her for “breaking up” Harry and Ginny and “turning Ginny gay,” even though that’s obviously total bullshit. I also think a lot of people would call her redemption arc unrealistic or hate her because she’s kind of naturally snarky and bitchy, because you know how people get when female characters are like that.

WHAT THE CAST RELATIONSHIP WOULD BE LIKE:

Camila Mendes seems to be super sweet and funny, so I think she’d get along great with the cast! I definitely think she’d be good friends with Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, and obviously she and Bonnie Wright would do a bunch of cute interviews together.

WHAT THEIR AUDITION SCENE WOULD BE:

Likely the scene where Rosaline approaches Ginny and Neville about joining Dumbledore’s Army during sixth year, where she gives a little speech about wanting to right her wrongs and not wanting to be on the wrong side of the war anymore. It’s an emotional moment that touches on a lot of her motivations and who she is as a character, so I think it would be an important scene to have for auditions and see which actress can nail it.

DEPENDING ON THE FANDOM, WHO THEY’D BE AT PRESS TOURS/COMIC CON WITH:

Likely either the actors for the Silver Trio - Bonnie Wright, Matthew Lewis, and Evanna Lynch - or even Tom Felton, since they do play the two prominent Slytherins in the story.

IF THEY SPOIL THINGS:

I’m sure Camila would never!

IF THE SHOW/MOVIE HAS ENDED, IF THEY’RE HAPPY WITH THEIR CHARACTER’S ENDING AND THE ENDING AT LARGE:

Definitely! By the end of the story, Rosaline has escaped from under her parents’ thumbs, proven herself to be a better person than she ever thought she was, and finally in a relationship with the girl she’s been pining for. A pretty good ending, if you ask me.

send me 🎬 + an oc!!

[saywhatjessie]

Get in the Water

Day twelve of the Advent calendar! Using this list. Day 12: Nice swim after lunch Fandom: The Raven Cycle - Pairing: Pynch .6k[Ao3]

It was Christmas at the Barns, Adam and the Lynches having gorged themselves on Brunch and holiday cheer. Jordan was there, by nature of Declan being there, but Hennessy was out in some place or other on some mission with Farooq-Lane. Jordan explained she didn’t celebrate Christmas and Ronan explained that, even if she did, she would much rather be playing her sexy cat and mouse with Carmen than spend any amount of time with Declan.

That did mean, however, that when Ronan suggested they go for a swim in the hole in the fields, no one immediately jumped on his idea with enthusiastic support.

Fucking wimps.

“Ronan, no,” Declan said, exhausted.

“Ronan, yes.” Ronan replied, easily. Matthew cackled.

Adam was way too used to Lynch family shenanigans but Jordan was still a relatively new player.

“Come now, Pozzy, it’s not that cold.”

“Well, now you’ve done it,” Declan sighed. “If I thought Ronan just wanted to run in like a polar bear thing that would be fine. But now, if he goes in, he’s not coming out until he loses some toes.”

Ronan waved this away. “They’ll grow back.”

“Yeah?” Adam raised an eyebrow. “How?”

“Like a starfish.”

“You’re not a starfish.”

“I could have starfish DNA. How do we really know?”

“Mor!” Adam called, his voice reaching into the kitchen were Mor A Corra and The New Fenien were doing their own private Christmas thing. “Were you thinking of starfish when you dreamed Ronan?”

There was a pause and then Mor’s voice just said, “No.”

Adam raised his eyebrow at Ronan.

Ronan pushed him over. “Asshole.”.

Matthew cackled again. Adam smiled and pulled himself back up to Ronan to kiss the side of his jaw.

“You could probably dream yourself some new toes,” Jordan said, frowning thoughtfully. “You have to be touching it to pull it out, right? So if you dream yourself with a full set of functioning toes and then wake up with them on your feet, would you have new toes?”

Adam hummed. “That is a fascinating school of thought. I mean, with that, you could dream yourself horns. You could dream yourself wings. But then I guess the problem would be undreaming them. Because you could probably dream something to add to your body but undreaming it might get messy. Lots of potential for body horror.”

“Yeah, wouldn’t that be something? Never dealt with body horror before.”

Adam elbowed Ronan. Ronan kissed the side of his head.

“Well I wanna swim,” Matthew said, grinning. “I won’t let my toes fall off.”

Ronan grinned. “Fuck yes. Matty, I’ll race you.”

Matthew immediately jumped up, already shedding his clothes.

“At least bring some towels so you don’t freeze on the walk back!” Declan called but Matthew was already out the door. He sighed. “I guess I’ll get the fucking towels. Jordan, will you help me?”

“Yes, love, I’ll help bring towels down. But I am also going to jump in.”

Ronan grinned, reaching out his fist to bump her. She bumped it back, her smirk looking like Hennessy’s.

Declan just sighed again.

Ronan got up pulling Adam with him. “You swimming, Parrish?”

“Obviously,” Adam said dryly. Because he is the one who dug the swimming hole with Ronan in the first place. The one who climbed into shopping carts and let Ronan drag him behind the BMW.

People thought he was the responsible one and it was hilarious.

Ronan kissed him, just long enough for Declan to make a long suffering noise, and then he pulled away. “Come on. I gave Matty a head start but I bet we can still jump in before him while he’s psyching himself up.”

“You mean I can jump in,” Adam said, and then he was sprinting out of Ronan’s arms, out the doors, and into the field.

Ronan let loose a joyous cry and followed.

[lizpaige]

As a prompt: any sort of lynch brother post-Greywaren debriefing please! There was so much just left hanging…

hiiii ty for the prompt! shameless plug for my fic fáilte which has some post greywaren lynch brothers moments in chapter two. hopefully you like this snippet, it takes place after Matthew has walked all the way back to the Barns so not quite post-greywaren but expanding on that chapter that left SO MANY loose ends.

⚠️tw for discussion of ronan’s canon suicide attempt aka night horror attack from pre-trc

After Matthew returned to the Barns, the Lynch brothers spent the evening in the living room, huddled close on the L-shaped couch. Everyone was exhausted but no one wanted to sleep for fear that the others wouldn’t be there when they woke up, for fear that this was all just a dream.

“So you’re not real either?” Matthew asked, but when Declan snorted, he quickly amended his question. “I meant not a real human.”

Ronan shrugged. “I don’t really know how else to describe it, Matty.”

Matthew considered this and the other details Ronan had shared about the sweet metal sea, about Adam and what he told Ronan he looked like. It was a lot to take in and conceptualize. Ronan wasn’t sure he really did yet. Declan shrugged and took it in stride as if he knew all along, which both infuriated and exhausted Ronan.

“Wait, so does this mean you don’t have internal organs either?” Matthew asked, clutching a pillow to his chest.

Declan laughed and then clutched his side in pain. “Jesus Christ. That’s what you’re worried about?”

“I think I do?” Ronan answered sincerely. “When I was in the hospital after that night horror fucking shredded my wrists, the doctors didn’t ask you about missing organs, did they?”

Declan looked between his brothers incredulously at the direction of this conversation. “Uh no? But they didn’t X-ray you so… could still be missing some stuff in there.”

Ronan looked back at Matthew with a shrug as if to say, well there you go or well we’ll never know. Matthew hummed, considering this before his eyes widened in recognition. “That was a dream that did that to you? I thought you—”

“Shit, yeah,” Ronan winced. There was a lot they kept from Matthew all these years. There was a lot they kept from each other. He hadn’t told Declan in so many words either, but he had told him he hadn’t meant to hurt himself so maybe Declan connected the dots. “Sorry.”

“Okay, so I need us to make a pact,” Matthew sat upright, tossing the pillow aside. He held out his pinky. “No more lying to me anymore, got it? Actually wait, no more lying to each other.”

“Matty—”

“No, I’m serious,” Matthew held his hand in between his brothers, pinky still outstretched for a juvenile, but contractually binding swear. “No more lying. We tell each other everything.”

“I hate your shoes,” Ronan said petulantly before putting his pinky in. “They’re really ugly, man.”

“Yeah? Well I hate your dumb music.” Matthew looked expectantly at Declan to join in their truth telling and swearing.

Declan sighed and put his pinky in. “I don’t like your boyfriend, Ronan.”

Ronan smirked. “He doesn’t like you either.”

They curled their pinkies together in promise and sat back, letting the weight of that promise and the knowledge of the last few weeks, months, years settle in the space between them. Declan leaned his head back on the couch and closed his eyes. He needed more pain killers. He needed more sleep. He needed some antacids.

After a while, he spoke, eyes still closed. “You don’t have to be born to be human or be worth something. You’re both real to me. Internal organs or not.”

The room was silent for another moment or two. Declan opened his eyes to see both his brothers staring back at him.

“Thanks, Deklo,” Ronan said sincerely. Matthew had tears in his eyes, or maybe that was Declan’s own vision swimming.

[catholic-character-tournament]

Round 2 - Side A

Propaganda below ⬇️

Ronan Lynch

Uhh fun fact he saw the devil flash his father once, and that's one of the reasons he goes to church on Sundays <3

context for this scene from book 2: ronan is in church with his older brother declan, younger brother matthew, and ghost friend noah "Joseph Kavinsky isn’t someone I want you being around,” Declan added. “Don’t snort. I’m serious.” Ronan merely invested a look with as much contempt as he could muster. A lady reached over the top of Noah to pat Matthew’s head fondly before continuing down the aisle. She didn’t seem to care that he was fifteen, which was all right, because he didn’t, either. Both Ronan and Declan observed this interaction with the pleased expressions of parents watching their prodigy at work. Declan repeated, “Like, actually dangerous.” Sometimes, Declan seemed to think that being a year older gave him special knowledge of the seedier side of Henrietta. What he meant was, did Ronan know that Kavinsky was a cokehead. In his ear, Noah whispered, “Is crack the same thing as speed?” Ronan didn’t answer. He didn’t think it was a very church-appropriate conversation. “I know you think you’re a punk,” Declan said. “But you aren’t nearly as bad ass as you think you are.” “Oh, go to hell,” Ronan snapped, just as the altar boys broached the rear doors. “Guys,” Matthew pleaded. “Be holy.”

Gay Catholic streetracing farmer. Consumed by catholic guilt NOT because of the gay thing but because he can Create things in a way he thinks should be only God's business. Will literally roll up to mass on sunday morning still drunk and bloody.

THIS GOTH KID IS LITERALLY GOD. This is a god trapped in the body of a Catholic teen and if he ever stopped feeling Catholic guilt he’d end the world!!. How is your confession every week that you creating a whole new being? Babygirl the God is coming from inside the house

eldritch entity from beyond the mortal plane wants to be a Real Human Boy, becomes a real (ish!) human (ish!) boy, goes to mass every sunday

Gay boy got his crush an apartment above his church so he could have his two favorite things in one place

gay. I'm not caught up the the series but I went through the tag when the latest book came out and I remember seeing a quote that said he worried if his boyfriend would make it to heaven when he dies because of his agnostic tendencies.

Kid is like a dream warlock who creates psychic horrors and never goes to confession because why would he? and he’s gay

There are no words

basically ronan's powers are inherited from his dead father niall and it means he can bring anything from a dream into real life. so he's got this whole crisis about whether he is a living piece of blasphemy because men are not meant to have the powers of gods or whether he literally is god. which is not acceptable to him for a number of reasons but mostly because he hates himself. his love interest's name is adam and adam lives in a small apartment above a church which the book says focuses the objects of his worship neatly into one building. I love them both dearly. also, this entire page makes me feel like I'm going insane. Ronan Lynch believed in heaven and hell. Once, he’d seen the devil. It had been a low, late morning at the Barns when the sun had burned off the mist and then burned off the chill and then burned the edges off the ground until everything shimmered with heat. It never got hot in those protected fields, but that morning, the air sweated with it. Ronan had never seen cattle pant before. All of the cows heaved and stuck their tongues out as they frothed with the heat. His mother sent Ronan to put them in the shade of the cattle barn. Ronan had gone to the searing metal gate, and as he did, he’d glimpsed his father, already in the barn. Four yards away from him had stood a red man. He was not truly red, but the burned orange of a fire ant. And he was not truly a man, because of the horns and the hooves. Ronan remembered the alienness of the creature, how real it had been. Every costume in the world had gotten it wrong; every drawing in every comic book. They’d all forgotten that the devil was an animal. Looking at the red man, Ronan had been struck by the intricacy of the body, how many miraculous pieces moved smoothly in harmony, no different than his own. Niall Lynch had had a gun in hand — the Lynches had an enormous number of guns of all sizes — and just as Ronan had opened the gate, his father had shot the thing about thirteen times in the head. With a shake of its horns, the unharmed devil had presented its genitalia to Niall Lynch before bounding off. It was an image that had yet to leave Ronan. And so Ronan became a reverse evangelist. The truth burst and grew inside him, and it was laid upon him to share it with no one. No one was meant to see hell before they get there. No one should have to live with the devil. So many homilies on faith were ruined once you no longer required it for belief.

Friar Tuck

If you use the picture of furry friar tuck from the Disney Robin Hood, bless you 🙏