#to unearth and back again

[logarhythm-bees]

To Unearth and Back Again; ⛅Chapter 1

When Roman had pulled his brother aside after dinner, asking him to keep the resident lovebirds out of the way - Logan, Patton, and Janus in layman's terms- out of the way the next morning so he could have some alone time with Virgil, he’d been expecting Remus to act relatively normal about it. Invite them to play a particularly weapon-themed board game, or force them to make slime with him, potentially even bounce around ideas together. Something simple.

What Roman does not anticipate–but in hindsight, really should have, considering “simple” is a word that Remus typically tries to keep out of his vocabulary–is for Remus to kidnap Janus and leave them a cryptic note sending them on a winding quest through the imagination to find him. Roman isn’t seeing a chance to talk to Virgil alone as planned, everyone’s got tension they’re not quite ready to address, and Janus is missing. Oh, and Thomas comes on the quest too.

Bonds are re-found, re-forged, and re-evaluated, and Janus has a fun time at the Mindscape’s best-worst mind palace tea party.

Table of Contents | Chapter Two

See ronithesnail's absolutely wonderful art for this story!

The clouds overhead open up For the wicked and just all the same And lay low the hills, so to fill Every valley and vale to the brim

-Oh Sleeper, The Oh Hellos

In hindsight, Roman should have seen this coming.

The six sides had met up for dinner, Patton’s original spaghetti (and garlic bread!) recipe simmering on the stove when they all showed up in the mindscape’s common area. As they all took their seats at the table, Roman sat himself between Remus and Virgil. Dinner in recent times had been tense–Logan and Patton had entered a relationship, which had Roman and Virgil hoping that things would improve between their group–but soon they invited Janus into their relationship too, and the division between the sides widened even further. Roman and Virgil, sore from what Janus had done to them, began to separate themselves from Logan and Patton, and they seemed to drift away in return, yearning for their friends back but not wanting to force themselves back into their space before they were ready. Janus, too, cloaked in his secrets and hidden away from them, was not ready yet to try to build any sort of positive bond with them again. 

Remus, caught in the middle of it all, didn’t seem to mind his role as the new mindscape mediator–mostly because he did not mediate at all besides smashing things and talking about organs and generally doing things that would allow the other sides to agree on something, which was that he needed to calm down a little bit.

Dinner passed mostly in awkward silence, Patton and Logan trying to initiate friendly conversation and being met with curt answers from Virgil, and Remus occasionally interjecting with topics that were not appropriate for the dinner table and being politely reprimanded by one of the others. 

Roman, however, had tuned mostly out of the conversation. Inside his head, he was fighting a struggle of his own. In his distancing from Logan and Patton, he had grown closer to Virgil than ever, and realized something that had shaken his world. He loved Virgil. The swell in his chest was bigger than it had ever been before, his face warm from smiling after the time they spent together. The adoration in his heart was becoming ignorable, and he couldn’t be around Virgil without thinking of love, love, love.

There was something about it, though, that seemed so uncertain. He loved Virgil, no doubt about it, but saying he was in love with Virgil seemed–wrong, somehow.

He had decided, though, that he wanted to tell Virgil. Maybe when he confessed, it would make sense, and he and Virgil would be in love with each other and kiss and live happily ever after and ride off to the sunset on a horse while an orchestra swelled in the background.

Okay, maybe the horse thing was a little bit overzealous. But the rest of it was a foolproof idea. He wanted Virgil to know. Even if Virgil didn’t reciprocate–which Roman really hoped he did–maybe hearing it aloud would help him untie the strange knot of feelings in his stomach.

How to go about it, though? He could show up at his door with flowers–No, Virgil got too anxious about the flowers dying. Writing him a letter? No–letters could be misinterpreted so easily, and he didn’t want Virgil to think it was some sort of prank, or misunderstand the letter’s intention. Maybe a picnic?

A picnic sounded wonderful, honestly.

Roman smiled to himself. It was a great plan! He would throw a picnic for Virgil to tell him his feelings, and-

“Roman? Roman, you there?”

-they would get to spend some time alone, finally. Away from a certain trio.

Roman looked up to Patton as he called his name. Patton looked at him, head tilted in concern and a considering expression on his face. “Are you okay? You’ve barely eaten.”

Roman flinched. What business of it was Patton’s what Roman was getting up to in his head? 

None, that’s what.

“I’m just fine,” Roman said, sharpness like swords laced in his tongue, and a hurt look crossed Patton’s features. Roman only felt a little bit bad.

Janus looked at Roman, who only scowled more as he shoved a forkful of spaghetti in his mouth. Patton’s cooking was one of his favorite things, normally, but now something sat so bitter on his tongue. 

What good was it being made with love, if none of it was meant for him?

Roman slumped in his chair, fighting back the tears that stung in the corners of his eyes. There was a weight on his lap, suddenly, and his eyes flickered to the source of it, tears becoming harder to hold when he recognized Virgil’s hand, palm up for Roman to hold if he wanted.

Roman took it, squeezing it gently, and Virgil turned to look at him in his peripheral vision, something so soft in his expression that it made Roman feel, for a moment, that everything would be okay. He ran his thumb over Virgil’s nails, painted black that shone purple in the light, rather a lot like him.

Managing to bring himself away from the tears with Virgil’s (kind, kind and brave Virgil) hand touching his own, Roman looked down at his plate and stabbed another mouthful of spaghetti with his fork as the table fell quiet for the remainder of the meal and the gears in Roman’s head started turning again. By the time he had finished his spaghetti and (admittedly, delicious, not that he was ready to say that to Patton) garlic bread, Roman had a very simple four-techinally-five-step plan.

Step one: 

Get Remus to distract the other sides for the morning so Roman and Virgil would be uninterrupted.

Step two:

Set up a nice picnic for the both of them.

Step three:

Invite Virgil to breakfast in the living room.

Step four:

Confess. 

Step five (optional):

Kiss Virgil, or invite him on another date maybe.

It was foolproof! Right?

Right.

As the sides stood up from the table, collecting their dishes and returning them to the sink, Roman followed a little ways behind Remus. As the other sides headed to their rooms for the night, Roman caught Remus’s arm, and did something very dumb. “I need your help,” Roman asked.

Remus grinned.

“Tomorrow,” Roman started, “I want to invite Virgil to a picnic, here in the mind palace. I don't want Logan, Patton and Janus to see and interrupt. Can you maybe keep them out of the way?” He paused. “Preferably non-violently?”

Remus’s eyebrows raised and he snickered a little bit. “Finally getting your act together, are ya, Ramen?” He inspected his nails overdramatically in an act to be nonchalant, carefully looking at the edges of the chewed black paint and acrylic plastic. 

“Roman,” Roman said indignantly. “Close enough,” said Remus, rolling his eyes and waving a hand at Roman flippantly. “Alright, I’ll bite.” He smiled, showing off a beam of sharper-than-average teeth. “Literally if they let me!” He closed his mouth, smirking and squinting, looking rather a lot like a shark, or a piranha inspecting its prey. “But what’s in it for me?”

Roman sighed.

“Here,” he mumbled, pulling a crumpled dollar bill out of his pocket. “The one and only mindscape dollar. Do with it what you please, but please don’t destroy it or do anything weird to it, Patton will cry.”

Remus grabbed it out of his hand with a hunger, inspecting it like a bloodhound for a moment and then holding it up to the light and cackling. “Oh, that’s the real thing alright! You’ve got yourself a deal.” He brought his hand up to his mouth, about to spit in it, but Roman very quickly snatched it away to shake it. “We can make an agreement just fine without any…unsanitary substances,” Roman said, grimacing, giving Remus’s hand another firm shake before quickly pulling it away before he could try anything else. 

“But it’s so much more fun,” Remus groaned, flopping onto Roman’s shoulder, who quickly shoved him off. “If you say so,” Roman replied, dusting off his costume.

“I do!” Remus grinned. “And speaking of fun, I’m gonna go snort some crushed-up Warheads with your precious dollar bill!” Remus waved it around, sniffing it and wafting the air around it like it was a particularly fancy glass of wine. He laughed again, rubbing the dollar on his face. Roman cringed, but let out a breath and started towards his room. “Have fun with that,” he sighed, taking the first step onto the stairs. “But don’t forget, I’m not giving that to you for free.”

“Oh, I won’t forget it,” Remus laughed, and then he winked at Roman, and before Roman could question what his brother might mean by that he had disappeared from the kitchen and sunk out to his room.

“Weirdo,” Roman said, rolling his eyes, but smiling to himself as he went to his room and got ready for bed. Staring at his ceiling with his head on his pillow, he tried, bouncing around the excitement in his chest, to get himself to sleep.

Remus couldn’t phase him from this. He had big plans tomorrow, after all.

[fawnforevergone]

what absolutely floors me is the way "Unknown (Nth)" is the song for Treachery, and yet is more about betraying ourselves rather than being betrayed. hozier says that, when the break-up happened, it felt as though his lover was chewing on his heart while it still beats, but he can only blame himself because entering a relationship is acknowledging the chance it may fail and still going through with it. AND THEN HE SAYS "i'd walk so far just to take the injury of finally knowing you" - meaning he would do it all again with the knowledge of failure because isn't that what he risked in the first place anyway? ,,,"Unknown (Nth)", the weapon that you are-

[hope-inthedark]

Andrew Hozier-Byrne I am in your fucking walls

[First Light by Hozier]

screencaps from @ijustliketoedit and @morgangalaxy45

[colesawicn]

i love you songs about loss and grief and longing with water metaphors I LOVE YOU BOTH SO MUCH

[hopeinthebox]

tagged by loml @cordiallyfuturedwight for the monthly breakdown. i might like you less now that you know me so well. tagging some crushes @aprylynn @thvinyl @monismochi @kimtaegis @banghwa @eoieopda @pauls-mccharmly @letmelovekoo @visionsofgideontheninth @kimchokejin if you feel so inclined 💜

[i-like-rocks22]

Don't mind me, just listening to 'Francesca' by Hozier and curled up in a ball imagining it from Orion Lake's POV.

[khepiari]

Why is Hozier making me read so many books?

What am I to do with all these layered lyrics of Francesca? I have to channel all these emotions he made me go through in some way! I also want to reread Dante’s Inferno! I also want to paint the walls of my room with his words! I also want to crawl on the ceiling and eat his lyrics!

I will have to write another song fic it seems! 🥹😤🫠 because I can imagine my Luffy singing this for my Law!

“Heaven is not fit to house a love

Like you and I”

The fuck am I to with these words! Its the definition of every love that was/has/ will be dubbed as forbidden!

Come on Andrew! You are me making crazy here! Again and again with different songs he has drummed what Keau Reeves said:

“I'm not a fighter I'm a lover. No-no, because if you're a lover you got to be a fighter. Because if you don't fight for your love what kind of love do you have!”

Loving someone is still the greatest act of rebellion! Oh Andrew! I will write another LawLu fic!

[ronanlynchbf]

tagged by @lesbianjudasiscariot to post 3 albums i've been listening to recently THANK YOUUUU MWAHH

Praise a Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) by Yves Tumor / Ibn El Leil by Mashrou' Leila / Unreal Unearth by Hozier

tagging @henessy @adamnsey @bonivers @parrishh & @mnwlk if u want to — as always, no pressure <3!!!!!

[kamwashere]

"I know you."

"You do not know me."

[logarhythm-bees]

To Unearth and Back Again - ⛅- Table of Contents

Pairings: Lomoceit, Queerplatonic Prinxiety

Warnings: Fantasy violence featuring minor amounts of blood

Characters: All of the Sides and Thomas, Her Royal Majesty Highness Queen Garbage Can

Fic Summary: When Roman had pulled his brother aside after dinner, asking him to keep the resident lovebirds out of the way - Logan, Patton, and Janus in layman's terms- out of the way the next morning so he could have some alone time with Virgil, he’d been expecting Remus to act relatively normal about it. Invite them to play a particularly weapon-themed board game, or force them to make slime with him, potentially even bounce around ideas together. Something simple.

What Roman does not anticipate–but in hindsight, really should have, considering “simple” is a word that Remus typically tries to keep out of his vocabulary–is for Remus to kidnap Janus and leave them a cryptic note sending them on a winding quest through the imagination to find him. Roman isn’t seeing a chance to talk to Virgil alone as planned, everyone’s got tension they’re not quite ready to address, and Janus is missing. Oh, and Thomas comes on the quest too.

Bonds are re-found, re-forged, and re-evaluated, and Janus has a fun time at the Mindscape’s best-worst mind palace tea party.

Chapter 1 / Oh, Sleeper Chapter 2 / Go The Distance Chapter 3 / King and Lionheart Chapter 4 / Where'd It Go Chapter 5 / We Just Got A Letter/Open Chapter 6 / Hey, Runner! Chapter 7 / Somebody's Watching Me Chapter 8 / Sugar, We're Going Down Chapter 9 / The Unbirthday Song Chapter 10 / You Matter To Me Chapter 11 / For One And All Chapter 12 / While the Moment's Good Chapter 13 / Wild I Am Chapter 14 / The Inventor's Daughter Chapter 15 / I See The Light Chapter 16 / Turnaround Chapter 17 / Grow Chapter 18 / Lost In The Woods Chapter 19 / Reflection Chapter 20 / Liar Chapter 21 / Diamonds Chapter 22 / I Have Made Mistakes Chapter 23 / Light In The Hallway Chapter 24 / Theseus Chapter 25 / Thus Always To Tyrants Chapter 26 / Hallelujah Chapter 27 / Queendom Chapter 28 / Stella

[despair-ninja-everything-agency]

God, reminds me that I wrote a (currently unfinished) fanfic for my Ryuenix AU. The idea was that Karuma has been in the Naruhodo line's possession up until Phoenix and, around after Dual Destinies, he decides that he'd give it back to Asogi's descendant (I named him Gisei Asogi), only for him to be killed and Phoenix to be framed. Apollo had to defend him in court.

In context, before this trial, Ryunosuke being Phoenix's ancestor was NOT common knowledge due to past prejudice he and his family faced in the area he lived in when he was little so his parents decided to ditch the Naruhodo name and became the Wrights, trying their hardest to be accepted in the American society and not mentioning their Japanese heritage (despite how famous Ryunosuke was). I figure that, despite the anti-Japanese sentiment and anti-immigrant were not enacted in Japanifornia as it is irl, there'd still a bit prejudice against Japanese people due to WW2. Because of this, Phoenix has an internalized fear of rejection if he were to out himself as Ryuichi Naruhodo (an unfounded fear in the current state of Japanifornia but still).

So like, in trial, Apollo initally managed to capitalized on the fact that the supposed killer was someone named 'Naruhodo R.' and not Phoenix thus having little to no motive on the case, only for the prosecution (I wrote Simon in the fic) to reveal his birth name, pulling him back as the suspected culprit.

That's as far as I wrote, but I remember the actual killer was Gisei Asogi's Western wife Mina Discree. I forgot her motive but given the pun in her name, I think it has something to do with xenophobia. Or that she viewed the Naruhodo as unworthy of Karuma but has little love for Gisei that's why she killed her husband to implicate Phoenix idk

Afterwards, Phoenix wasn't found guilty and ended up sending Karuma back to the living Asogi family members in order to maintain good relationship between the two. I can see that the Naruhodo-Asogi relationship started to deteriorate after a certain generations, only rekindled recently by Phoenix and Gisei's generation.

[residentrookie]

do you think i'd give up? that this might have shook the love from me? that i was on the brink? how could you think darling, i'd scare so easily? now that it's done, there's not one thing that i would change. my life was a storm since i was born. how could i fear any hurricane?

me the whole fucking song:

francesca / hozier

[encrucijada]

listening to in the heights and trying to feel something while cooking dinner at (almost) 1am

[racooninatrashcan]

Waited till 8pm lit a candle and sat in the dark to listen to unreal unearth. AND WHEN I TELL YOU HET ATE THIS ALBUM UP MY GOD.

HIT ME WITH YOUR CAR

[pansycas]

Was looking thru old procreate files and found this dean doodle, and figured I’d share it bc I think it’s cute

[bravevolunteer]

it's been long enough that i can say this again, i firmly believe there was NOTHING holding michael there when he got scooped