Top Final Sentences of 2022
I was everything I needed.
Xoài Phạm, from “The Greatest Pleasure”
He helped me find what I truly craved and identify what had been there all along: an unwavering sense of self.
Jennifer Chowdhury, from “In Pursuit of Brown-on-Brown Love”
Such an old, old memory, why should it make me cry?
Lloyd Schwartz, from “The Two Horses (A Memory)”
“I love you,” he whispered again, against the top of her head.
Mary Balogh, from Thief of Dreams
And he paused, in the space between inhalation and exhalation, and invited magic in.
Freya Marske, from A Marvellous Light
“Nothing I didn’t already know,
deep down.”
Dante Medema, from The Truth Project
It was a fine cry - loud and long - but it had no bottom and it had no top, just circles and circles of sorrow.
Toni Morrison, from Sula
For just a little while more, I think, let me hide here.
Jonathan Robbins Leon, from “The Same Kind of Monster”
In search of, an approximation:
desire of, love of.
Iliana Rocha, from “Elegy Falling Forward & Down“
I still crave the comfort of a hand in mine, the warmth of being claimed in the daylight.
Laura Bogart, from “A New Kind of Heroine”
And it is you, it is you
she is holding like an open book, well-loved, in her hands.
Eve Alexandra, from “Heroine”
We survived to whisper our names to each other even if we could not yet confess them to anyone else.
Anna-Marie McLemore, from “Roja”
And this is the story of how I am caught.
Margaret Owen, from Little Thieves
I’m trying to hold on to this rope, and I’m trying to let go.
Melissa Faliveno, from “Tied, Tethered, Unfettered, Free”
Imagine you don’t fit anywhere, not even in your own head.
Bassey Ikpi, from “What It Feels Like”
I look to the sky and feel her ghost.
Colton Haynes, from Miss Memory Lane
It would be nice if we could talk about how we went online, driven by some sort of longing, and why we stayed there, pushing that want outward, over and over, until it couldn’t be ignored.
Kaitlyn Tiffany, from Everything I Need I Get from You
Care tasks exist for one reason only… to make your body and space functional enough for you to easily experience the joy this world has to offer.
K.C. Davis, from How to Keep House While Drowning
I had become one of the people on the street who knew where he was going.
Andrew Rannells, from Too Much Is Not Enough
Until everything was sea and sky, and the falling was flying, and he realised he was laughing too.
Alexis Hall, from A Lady for a Duke
Under the wrack and wreck of what had come before, the sky was new, and I reached for it with a yearning eager hand.
Nghi Vo, from The Chosen and the Beautiful
My beating heart is still yours, the letter said, and I’ll be waiting for you.
Dana Schwartz, from Anatomy
It won’t last for long, but it’s beautiful for now.
Linda Oatman High, from December
She holds my hand as I leave them all behind.
Erica Waters, from “Stay”
And then I fall back into my sheets, still warm and crumpled, and close my eyes.
Alice Oseman, from “Hands Against Our Hearts”
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I’ve been thinking a lot about how Cass’ journey as Batgirl (more specifically after losing her abilities) directly relates to her perspective as a martial artist.
I’m convinced that her choices wouldn’t have been the same if she weren’t a martial artist. The thing is, when you love fighting, and when you’re good at it, you become addicted to a lot of things. To winning, to discipline, to having absolute control over your body, to enduring pain for the sake of greatness. And as someone who, same as Cass, lost all of that without consent because of someone else, I totally understand why when given the choice to be “mediocre for a lifetime or perfect for a year,” she chose the latter.
That’s what training is, after all. Your legs shake and burn to get that stance just right, your knuckles bleed because you can’t afford to let the skin get soft, you practice that kick a hundred times because you can always make it faster, harder, smoother. In the back of your mind, you know that you’re dooming yourself to the aches of the future, but you keep going because the idea of not achieving perfection is worse.
When Batman tells her “it doesn’t matter how long it takes, what matters is that you give it everything you’ve got”, the most painful part is that she had already given everything. Cass gave her childhood, her happiness, her sweat and blood. When Cass lost her abilities, it was the equivalent of dismissing all the sacrifices that got her where she was, like saying none of it was worth it. She was the best because she had earned it. So, even if she tried to achieve that same greatness again, the I could’ve been more would’ve haunted her forever. She would’ve mourned that potential for the rest of her life.
Lady Shiva herself is a martial artist, and she was perfectly aware of what had been taken away from Cass and what offering it back would mean. Refusing her offer was never an option. The proof?
Just look how happy she is immediately after getting her abilities back. She doesn’t even care that she’s going to die.
She’s great again, she has agency over her body again.
Her sacrifices matter.
Batgirl (2000) #9
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You know, I've been thinking. The stars in our world often look quite dim, especially in areas where there is light pollution. Suddenly, I'm imagining that in the Imposter!AU, the Creator looks at the stars at night, captivated by their brilliance. Perhaps Scaramouche or Mona (Whichever you prefer, you may also just write another character you think fits this scenario :D) find them. The Creator looks at them, then back at the stars.
"They're very lovely, you know? The stars never shine this brightly back home. It's a lovely sight..."
They smile. "I'm happy that I'm able to see them, even if it's in another world. I appreciate you letting me look at them before I die."
Perhaps the character takes pause... And sits next to them.
It's a lovely night.
in the stars
word count: ~1k
-> warnings: violence, blood, both of those in your future so technically you’re not hurt yet, not written for mona mains, sorry, didn’t work with the plot :/ also diona/klee/qiqi/nahida/sayu mains are on thin ice with this one. questionable plot. barely edited.
-> lowercase intended
taglist: @samarill || @thenyxsky || @valeriele3 || @shizunxie
< masterlist >
the stars never lie.
mona clutches her catalyst to her chest, wide eyes turned to the sky. she whispers to them, hoping they’ll change, shift into something she’ll understand, anything.
they don’t.
her head lowers, inspecting the book. thrilling tales, the spine reads, the cover a simplified dragon with a sword through it. she tries to read into it, to try and pick apart the motives behind the weapon, but all it returns is a simple needlepoint.
a compass. one she’d followed ever since she caved into the pull on her catalyst, one she’d followed out of the city at dusk and into the plains, hiking up starsnatch cliff at its behest. her twin tails had lost some of their curl on the journey, her hat flopping sadly. it was late, later than she’d normally be awake, and she stumbled once on a rock before quickly catching herself, checking to make sure you hadn’t moved.
you, sat at the peak of the cliff. you, surrounded by cecelias, face turned to the stars. you, who turned at her short cry.
“are you alright?”
she couldn’t bring her hands to shift her catalyst into its attack position. her hands, free from their usual gloves, dug into the cover of the book, shaking both with the chill of night and with… she couldn’t tell, couldn’t pin whether it was fear or nervousness, or something else that blurred the line between panic and excitement.
“just fine, thank you.”
her voice was harsher than it should have been. she could tell you were being genuine, the way the water in the air shaped around you like it wanted to cling made that clear enough, the stars shining down on you as if you were the only being on the planet.
the stars never lie. so why were they saying you meant no harm?
you turned back to the stars, your hands shifting back to weave into the grass between the cecelias.
"they’re very lovely tonight. the stars, i mean. they never shine this brightly back home….” against her better judgement, mona glanced up. the sky was particularly clear, constellations shining down unhindered. “it’s a beautiful sight.”
orders from the knights echoed in mona’s head, orders extended from a god she’d never met. she knew the knights wholeheartedly meant what they said, truly believing the words they were told, but you…
hesitantly, she brought her hand in a circle in front of her, scrying for your constellation. you didn’t have one, unsurprisingly, and she relaxed slightly in the knowledge that you didn’t have a vision.. still, there was something strange about the empty space where yours would have been. swapping the sigils and rotating the outer edge, mona decided to read your future.
all the air was sucked from her lungs, the images depicted in the water making her mouth dry. the water warped and bubbled a dark color, as if it itself hated to show what it did.
you were on your knees, tight steel chains wrapped around you and latched onto hooks in whatever you were sitting on. in front of you stood the favored, the creator’s most prized, their weapon drawn. their form was taught with anger, nearly seething. it was strange, so uncharacteristic that it froze the astrologist in place for a moment.
no matter how fiery the disposition, vessels of yours were calmer after being wished upon, heart stiller for being by your side. they, the most prominent on your team of them all, should be at most handling such a severe situation with a tick in their jaw and quiet fury in their eyes, not…
she watched with sick horror as the favored attacks once, your chest caving once, twice with hitched attempts at breathing before you slumped over, blood trickling from your neck. the favored stepped back, weapon dismissed, and mona closed the illusion before it played any further. she hadn’t meant to look all the way to your death, only a few-
…only a few hours.
her hands shake where they’re still clasped in front of her, the remains of her scrying circle swirling in her palms. you didn’t even have a day.
she let the water fall, sending it towards the cecelias around you, willing them to stand brighter as she approached. she couldn’t bring herself to summon her catalyst, not now that she knew what your fate held.
the grass was damp beneath her, seeping slightly into her nightclothes. you didn’t say anything, simply passing her a flower that you had been twirling in your palms. she willed it to heal, restored the color to its petals and the strength to its stem, then passed it back. she had no use for it, not when you…
you chuckled as you took it, staring down at it for a moment before turning skyward once more. mona followed your eyes up, spotting a well known constellation directly above you. nearly perfectly straight up, glowing like a beacon, was the constellation of the favored, six stars making themselves prominent against the dotted sea of night.
“beautiful, isn’t it?”
she swallowed, eyes flicking down to you. you were still watching the stars, probably tracing the shape of the constellation above you. unknowing of what it spelled for your fate, unknowing of the warning written above you.
mona settled into the grass a little more, taking her hat off her head so it wouldn’t fall when she looked up again.
“indeed, it is.”
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