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The Righteous Gemstones | 03.04 "I Have Not Come to Bring Peace, But a Sword"
#keefe and his many rings: lesbian behavior#keefe chambers#the righteous gemstones#the righteous gemstones edits#the righteous gemstones edit#trg#trgedit#trgedits#the righteous gemstones gifs#me shit#me gifs#keefe#sorry to crop taryn out#this took me way too long to gif#struggle street with this one
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‘Verse: Resistance Story: Unlikely Salvation, co-author @whump-sprite Timeline: Arc 4, Ariadne is established with the Resistance
Dev Tortures Ari, pt6 : Alex Sees The Footage [ First | Pt1 | Prev | Next ]
The subject line is empty. The email just reads “you ought to see this”. Alex reads the file name of the attachment and knows exactly what it is.
Government Torturer Forced To Apologise To The People She Hurt.mp4
He sits and stares at the email for a full minute, palms sweating. Ari never mentioned a camera.
“I don’t want to see this,” he says aloud to the empty room.
But he clicks anyway.
She’s not asleep but unconscious, face already tight with distress as she begins to come round. Alex’s blood boils just watching Dev set up, making a show for the camera. He recognises the knives. Taryn pulled them out of Ariadne’s arm, even the handles slick with Ari’s blood.
“Good morning,” Dev says, and Alex hurriedly turns the volume down. “Someone paid me to hurt you very badly.”
Alex watches as she tugs against the cuffs and tries to roll over, movements still sluggish and disorganised from unconsciousness. He watches Dev push a knife through her hand as if it were the most everyday thing in the world, and perhaps to Dev it is.
He thinks he hates Dev.
Tears come to his eyes at the little sound she makes at the twist of the knife. Alex remembers so clearly the shape of that wound, of every wound, the tears where the blades were turned in the flesh.
He puts his hand over his mouth when she first really cries out, to silence the sound he tries to make in response. He turns the volume down further, as low as it will go.
He doesn’t want to watch this.
But he can’t look away.
“... gonna …kill me?” she asks. Alex has to strain to hear the words but he can’t turn the sound back up, he doesn’t know when she’ll scream again. “No, wasn’t paid to kill you. Time for the next arm.”
There’s pure terror in her eyes when she sees the hammer. There is something sharp lodged in Alex’s heart, and something hot in his throat. She still wakes from nightmares where all her bones are broken, wakes helpless and reaches out for comfort. He can’t watch her go through the nightmare again for real.
But he can’t look away.
Mercifully, the video cuts forwards after the first few blows, after the first scream. Dev sits beside her, smiling a chillingly unfeeling smile as their fingers play over the back of her crushed hand. She’s not broken yet. There’s defiance in her eyes. Alex is so proud of her and so sick with hurt and so furious that she should have to be so strong.
“How are you feeling, Ariadne?” And when she doesn’t respond instantly, “Answer me.” But they don’t give her a chance, they twist a sickeningly broken finger before she can speak. Alex sobs listening to the muted playback of her scream. “I--” she forces out between gasps. Against his better judgement, Alex turns the volume up to hear what she says. “-- Scared. Hurting.” “Not desperate enough,” comes the verdict. She makes the most heart-breaking sound in response. “What do you -- wa-ant me to say?” she pleads. “No -- No I can --” “Begging would be nice.”
The video cuts again, before the rope can constrict around her shattered hand, before the camera can catch the sickening way it will deform the flesh. Alex healed the damage made by bone shards tearing through the soft tissues.
The next shot is lower resolution, cropped to a close up on her head and shoulders. Her head is tipped back, her face wet with sweat and tears. From the angle of her shoulders Alex knows how she’s strung up. He had a fair idea already but seeing it, seeing her face -- he feels sick, he feels faint, he feels like he’s breaking into pieces.
Where was Alex? She needed him.
“Please,” she whimpers. “I-I’m sorry… I am … I -- I a-am. I’m -- I’m -- so, so so-orry … am a-a, a mo-onster, I… I’m sorry … I’m sorry …”
Another cut, jumping forwards across her pleas.
“Do you deserve this?” asks Dev from out of shot. “Yes,” she answers. There isn’t even any hesitation. “Yes I --” sob “-- always.” Looking into her eyes, Alex knows that she believes it. “Good,” says Dev, the condescending praise of a torturer, like they’re a fed themself. “Good, say that again for the camera.” She sobs. Her head lolls. She can barely focus on the camera, but her haunted eyes bore right into Alex’s soul. “I -- deserve -- this.” “Always,” Dev prompts. “Always.”
Alex is going to kill them for this.
The video doesn’t show what Dev does next but it shows her reaction, her convulsion, her scream. Alex sobs and sobs in horror.
Behind him, the bedroom door clicks open.
He slams the laptop closed on instinct, whirling guiltily to face her.
“... that was me,” she says, looking shocked and fragile and vulnerable. “Yeah,” Alex admits, voice raw and choked-off in his throat. “I d-didn’t want, w-want to watch it. I couldn’t -- s-stop --” Her shocked mistrust melts into concern. “Oh, Alex,” she says, “I’m sorry.” As if she was the one watching him suffer. She steps forwards, a little hesitant, uncertain.
I deserve this, he hears her promise. I deserve this, always.
“You don’t deserve that,” he tells her, a flare of anger putting heat into his words. “You’ve suffered enough. There are plenty of feds who haven’t become a better person, but people, people, go after you because you're -- accessible, now,” his voice turns hollow, “… because of me. S’my fault.” “A-Alex, no.”
She reaches out and he lets her take his shoulder, lets her pull him in for a hug. He’s the one who’s shaking, and that doesn’t seem fair either. “I don’t want you to hurt anymore,” he tells her. It’s half a promise, half a plea. She hugs him tightly. “I know,” she says. “I know, I’m sorry.”
“I know them,” he says, “Dev. I’ll kill them.” She squeezes tighter, and he clings to her body. “It, it’s not your fault, Alex.” She sounds like she’s pleading too. “Not you hurting me, it’s not.” “Ari I -- I need you to know you don’t deserve that.” “I…” her voice cracks “... don’t want to hurt anymore either.” “You don’t deserve it,” he repeats more forcefully. “I’m sorry Alex.” Her shoulders shake. “I-I should listen to you, not… not people who want to hurt me I just…” “You d-don’t deserve it.” “O-okay,” she agrees. “I-I -- I don’t d-deserve it.”
She doesn’t sound like she believes. Alex doesn’t know how to make it better. All he knows how to do is hold her, and let her hold him in return.
[Next]
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One Chance part 4
Jurdan College AU - masterlist
*feel free to tell me anything you would like to see!! I hope you enjoy!!*
They woke up with limbs tangled up with each other. Cardan woke up first, and he was very, very confused at what he was seeing. He saw a peaceful Jude sleeping basically on top of him and he has no memory of how they ended up this way.
He gently nudged Jude, saying, “Jude, what happened?”
Jude looks up and sees him and untangles herself from him. She looks very startled.
Cardan gently asked, trying not to make her mad, “Do you have any memory of last night? Because I don’t even know how my party ended.”
Jude was speechless. She just ended up shaking her head, and put a hand to her forehead after realizing that her head hurt.
“Does your head hurt just as bad as mine does, Jude?”
“Yeah, probably.” Jude said in a groggy voice.
Cardan leaned to grab the Tylenol he has in his bedside drawer. While he starts to grab, he realizes that he has absolutely no clothes on, which makes him quite nervous.
“Uhm, Jude, I have no clothes on.”
Jude looks at herself and back at him, startled, “I don’t either. Did we, you know?”
“ I don’t know. I don’t remember nothing. I don’t even think I drank that much last night, but I still can’t remember. Are you, umm, sore?”
Jude thought about it and said, “No not really. I think we kissed because your lips are red and swollen. I’m sure mine are too, or at least they feel like it.” Jude told a half truth. His lips were red and swollen, but Jude lied about not being sore. She was quite tender, but she didn’t want to admit it. She was nervous because if they did go all the way, did they use protection?? Jude doesn’t take birth control because she has no use for it.
Cardan kind of looks a little more relieved. “Ok, I’m going to get up real quick and put clothes on and I would appreciate it if you would close your eyes.”
“Oh yeah, of course Cardan, I will.” Jude closes her eyes and Cardan changes and gets Jude clothes and puts them on the edge of the bed for her to change. Cardan does the same and closes his eyes so Jude would be more comfortable.
After they have clothes on, they are really awkward. They are friends- well attempting to be- but they don’t know each other very well.
Cardan is the first to speak up, “Well do you want to go get something to eat for breakfast with me? If you would rather just go back to your dorm, I understand. It’s been a weird morning.” He says with an embarrassed grin on his face.
“Sure, I’ll go eat with you if you don’t mind. We have to get to know each other anyways.” Jude said with the same embarrassed grin.
Cardan nods his head and walks out to his gorgeous mustang. He, again, opens the door for her and Jude gives a small “thank you” as she gets in. Jude realizes at that moment that she is wearing her party clothes. She was uncomfortable in them so when Cardan comes into the driver side of the car she says,”Umm, Cardan, would you mind stopping by my dormitory? I would like to change into something more comfortable. It will only take like five minutes.”
Cardan nods his head and says, “Yeah I don’t mind.” He stops by the Insmire dormitory and Jude gets out. No longer than five minutes, Jude comes out with her blue jeans and crop top on. It looks like she brushed her hair too. Cardan was surprised she actually meant five minutes. He thought he would be waiting much longer for her to get ready.
When she joined him in the car, he asked, “Where would you like to go?”
Jude was not picky so she said, “Wherever you like is fine with me.”
“Are you sure? You can pick if you want. You are The Queen of the car today.”
Jude face had a light blush from his last words so she looked away from him and said, “I’m in the mood for some waffles so any place with waffles is fine with me.”
“Ok, I know where to go then.”
They were driving down the road and Jude couldn’t help but think of what he said. That she was The Queen of the car. So she had to ask, “So if I’m The Queen of the car today, does that make you The King of the car today also?”
He replied with the biggest grin on his face, “Oh honey, I’m the High King of this car everyday.”
Jude couldn’t help but blush at the words. She didn’t know what to say so she just snorted and giggled and Cardan giggled along with her.
They arrived about 10 minutes later to a place called Severin’s breakfast nook. They got out of the car and went in and sat at a table. It was a small, cute little place with only a few people there.
Cardan was the first to speak up because for some reason Jude was becoming super shy around him, “So tell me about you.”
“Umm, like what?” Jude asked hesitantly.
“What do you like to do for fun?”
“Well, I actually love fencing. My father, for all means and purposes, had us do classes since he adopted me and Taryn. Taryn hated it so she dropped out as soon as Madoc would let her, but I grew to like it a lot. It helps take my mind off of things. I actually have a fencing tournament coming up. If you're interested in coming” at that Cardan nodded and Jude continued, “Now, what do you like to do for fun?”
Cardan put a wicked grin on his face, “I like to sit down and look pretty.” Jude just rolls her eyes while he chuckles.
He continues, “But, no really, I like to just hang out with people. Drink wine. Lots of wine.”
Jude just nods her head as a waiter comes to get their order.
After the waiter goes away, Jude asks, “So why did you come to college? Are you not going to help with her father's multimillion dollar business?”
“I really don’t enjoy working with my father, but that is for another time to tell, I came to college to get pretty girls to forgive me.” Cardan said his last statement in the most serious tone he has talked to me like ever.
Jude blushed. Was he being serious? Jude didn’t know so she just retorted, “Sure.” With an eye roll added onto it.
Cardan just shrugged and said, “Well I can’t make you believe me.”
“Well, Cardan, earning my trust to believe you will not be easy.”
With a small wry grin he said, “I can tell. But I’m going to earn it.”
“And how can you be so sure?” Jude said with a questioning look.
“Because I’m irresistible.”
Jude gave him a hum in which he gave a low chuckle.
The waiter came with their food which Jude was internally grateful for. The conversation was going a bit awkward.
They were eating in silence until Cardan asked, “Tell me about your family. How are they?” Jude dropped her gaze and was just silent for a couple of seconds until Cardan noticed that that was not a good question to ask. “You don’t have to answer that. I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking,” he said while touching her free hand with his to get her attention. Cardan knows that her biological parents died. Everybody does. But for a moment, Cardan forgot.
Jude responded quickly, “No no, it’s not your fault. It’s not your job to remember. It’s just quite a sore subject to talk about still.”
Cardan nodded his head in understanding and they went back to eating in silence. Cardan really thought he messed this up. He was quite aggravated with himself. Cardan paid for their meal. Jude tried to argue about how she can pay for her own meal but Cardan said he was paying for it, and she was not changing his mind. Jude gave an exasperated sigh and was fighting a grin at the corner of her mouth. Cardan could tell which just made him smile even more.
They got to the car, and Cardan asked, “So would you like to go see a movie or go back to your dorm?”
Jude’s eyes went wide, “You really want to go see a movie? With me?”
“We are trying to become friends, aren’t we?”
Jude nodded as she said, “Ok, I would love to see a movie with you, Cardan Greenbriar. Just as friends.”
With a wicked smile plastered on his face, “Friends. That has a nice ring to it.” All Jude could do was smile and giggle back.
Jude didn’t mind going around and doing stuff because it helped take her mind of what could have possibly happened last night. She knew if she was alone she would sit and dwell over it.
They went to the and watched an action movie. Which both of them loved. While they were watching the movie, Jude got really cold. Cardan seemed to notice her shivering, that she tried to hide, so he took off his jacket and put it over her shoulders. She was happy because she was freezing and now has a jacket, but she didn’t want Cardan to get cold.
She mouthed to him, “Are you sure?”
All he did was nod and he moved the middle divider between them up so he could sit closer and put his arm around her shoulders. Cardan could tell she tensed up so he looked at her with a worried look and started to take his arm back, but Jude patted his forearm to let him know that it was okay. And Jude was happy. Wrapped up in Cardan’s body heat, taking in his scent.
After the movie was over, He took her back to her dormitory. She got out of the car, and said, “Thank you, Cardan. I hope you had as much fun as I did.”
“Believe me, I did. Thank you for letting me take you.”
With that they exchanged smiles and went their separate ways.
Jude couldn’t believe the Cardan she saw today. The one who has been giving so much
effort to change. The Cardan Greenbriar she wants to be friends with. When she got dropped off, she actually thought that she would miss him if he never did this again.
Jude had to tell someone what happened so she called the only friend she could trust, Bomb.
The Bomb answered, “Hello Jude, how are you?”
“Bomb, you're not going to believe what happened yesterday and today.”
She went on to tell her the full scoop of what had happened. The Bomb was speechless. “Oh my gosh, Jude that’s crazy.”
“I know. I don’t know if I should call this good or bad? It worries me that he is just setting me up to get destroyed. But in the back of my mind I want to think that he is actually doing this from his cruel, and kind of sweet heart.”
“I don’t know either. Just don’t have your expectations high. And be careful, don’t drink again.”
“Trust me, I’m not”
What Jude didn’t tell Bomb is that she woke up naked to a naked Cardan. What she didn’t tell Bomb is she doesn’t remember if they went all the way or if they used protection if they did. What she didn’t tell Bomb is that they both woke up with swollen lips. Jude wanted to keep these facts to herself. She felt like if she didn’t admit them, then they couldn’t be true. She would push it from the back of her mind like she does everything else that hurts or confuses her.
And what she definitely did not tell Bomb, was that she enjoyed waking up to Cardan. And she enjoyed the little bit of kissing they did that she vaguely remembers. She thoroughly enjoyed him.
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#jurdan#jurdan fanfic#The Folk of the Air#the queen of nothing#the wicked king#the cruel prince#cardan x jude#jude x cardan#tfota fanfic#tfota#jude duarte#cardan greenbriar#king cardan#queen jude
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Something keeps jumping out at me after reading about all of the repeating storylines. Rebecca's story is also repeating. The 1st time around she lost the baby (abortion), Robert (to Chrissie), and her family(because she left). Cut to now, and she's lost the baby (I'm thinking there was no baby, but she thought there was), Robert (think she finally realizes that it's not happening), and her dad is upset with her, and we know he's going to be dying soon. I'm thinking maybe she has a breakdown.
All this time waiting for a Robert breakdown which never came, only to have one for Rebecca instead… Typical. (I jest haha, Robert’s characterisation during the reveal was perfect.)
This is exactly it though, anon! What I’ve been thinking is Rebecca had an abortion, realised Robert wasn’t going to choose her over Chrissie and booked a one-way plane ticket somewhere… Now Rebecca has found out there isn’t going to be a baby (I completely agree that she was never pregnant but believed she was), realised that Robert is never going to choose her over Aaron and once again booked a one-way plane ticket with no intention of coming back… Of course we know she’s going to come back but we don’t yet know the reason why. (Unless I’ve missed something??) You know, anon, I would love some kind of breakdown if it meant her just snapping and admitting to playing games etc. :P But ultimately, if it meant her character started to make a little more sense, then it could only be a good thing in terms of the narrative I think.
While we’ve touched on these parallels with Rebecca’s backstory though, I’m afraid I’m going to go on a slight tangent but it absolutely fits to this analysis in my mind haha. Because @itwasjustmisplaced and I have been discussing Rebecca’s wardrobe choices a lot, as you do, because we’ve noticed some patterns emerging…
Now this discussion began when we registered the significance of the dress Rebecca wore in the hospital episode when she left - it being the same one that she was wearing at the party on Aaron’s release day…when she found out she was pregnant. (You see the tragically ironic circle if she then found out she hadn’t been pregnant at all at the hospital?) Now, Taryn and I have since come to the conclusion that Rebecca’s only worn this dress four times, and each time something potentially significant to the current storyline has happened:
10th Nov - The most significant thing that happened with Rebecca herself was Robert interrupting Diane’s protest at Home Farm and humiliating Rebecca (for show supposedly) and then her getting all in his face in front of his family. But something significant happened with Vadam who have been linked to Robron continuously… Vic went to hospital where she revealed she thought she might be pregnant, found out she wasn’t and was told her symptoms were probably due to stress because of James and Holly etc. Potentially foreshadowing Rebecca’s current situation?
12th Jan - Lachlan’s trial. As far as I recall, nothing pregnancy related happened in these episodes. But what did happen was Lachlan v Lawrence which we know is cropping up again, and the constant mention of Lawrence’s will and the fact that he isn’t Lachlan’s biological grandfather… (Which I would assume will feature heavily soon if John Bowe is making the distinction between Lawrence’s biological daughter and non-biological daughter in interviews…) And the White family talking about putting all of this behind them and making “a new start”… The very words that Aaron and Robert used on -
6th April - … Just a few moments after Rebecca has discovered she’s pregnant. And which she lingers to listen to…
29th May - Rebecca goes to the hospital where she finds out something, before she leaves the country, upset.
Rebecca wore that yellow dress in each of them. Which may not seem that significant, but the outfit she wore during Maxine’s reveal episodes was the exact same outfit she was wearing on the night of The Incident. And as far as we can tell, she’s only worn this outfit on these two occasions. I have no idea if this much thought has been put into the wardrobe choices (I’d like to think it has) and whether there’s any significant meaning behind any of this, but the connection has to be intentional at least.
But within theory realm, not only is that significant dress yellow, but a lot of the outfits Rebecca wears are yellow. Just like Holly and Nell, who were also brought in as temporary plot devices (Holly’s return at least). And I’m getting a little bit carried away with the connections I’ve made between Rebecca and Holly, but if you or anyone wants to go down that path too then I’d recommend rewatching that opening montage to the episode where Ashley died which showed Holly in her yellow dress (in relation to Jai and Nell), and Rebecca wearing yellow, separated only by Holly’s brother Adam and Rebecca’s sudden BFF Vic, all accompanied by that poignant and potentially foreshadowing quote about not knowing what little time people have and being kinder to people who have always been kind to you… Just a couple of weeks after Rebecca said about Holly “the good always die young”… I’m not saying Rebecca might die while wearing a yellow dress in late September / early October, but… There’s some connection. I just don’t know if it’s intentional…
Anyway, the significance of yellow? If you look it up, there’s a whole load of meanings this colour can stand for, so I’m just going to pick out a few:
Positivity, hope, youth, fun, joy, loyalty - Everything it was implied Rebecca was before she arrived when she was pitched as the good White?
Freshness and spring - Like the birth of a newborn child?
Cowardice - This is why I’ve gone on this ridiculously long tangent, anon. Because we’ve established the parallels between Rebecca’s story now, and what’s happened in her past. She herself admitted that she tends to “run away”…
Betrayal - She slept with her sister’s boyfriend/fiancé, she came to the village specifically to betray her family for this man, had a DNA test done without Lawrence’s knowledge, slept with her supposed friend who had recently got married to her other supposed friend (I’m not even mentioning Ross)…
Deceit - “I’ve lied to everyone”…
I don’t know if any of this means anything in the slightest, anon, but your thoughts on the repeated arc of Rebecca’s story matched my own which are now tied in so intricately to this weird connection I’ve made and can’t seem to let go of haha, so I just thought I’d throw it out there… I’m sorry this was such a long tangent analysing costume choices in the world of Soap and that it took so long for me to get to my actual point haha!
I really don’t know what the plan is for Rebecca - breakdown, dying, baby - but I feel there is definitely something…
#apologies for only now getting around to replying to this anon#and for my absurd rambling about wardrobe choices and clothing colours haha#the realms of neverending theories and overanalysis#SSW Theory#The Theory speculation
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