#but also the loving mother who is willing to sacrifice her sons for her freedom

[bookworm551]

Of Duty and Desire | Chapter 1 | Neteyam x Metkayina!reader

He glanced away for a moment and clenched his jaw. When he looked back at you, you could see the frustration burning in his face. "I just-" he paused, staring at you intensely. "I've never wanted anything as much as I want you."

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Summary: You are the tsakarem of the Metkayina, promised to Aonung, and you have settled into your role nicely. Everything is as it should be until a family of Omatikaya refugees arrives, and the eldest son causes you to reconsider everything

A/N: I have been working on this piece for a while, but I literally had to rewrite this like four times so whoops. I appreciate all the love on my last fic, so hopefully y’all enjoy this too :) also, after this part I’m aging up the characters lol. Part 1 of idk

Neteyam x fem Metkayina!readers

5.8k words

Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Epilogue

Freedom is oftentimes the sacrifice demanded by duty.

The privilege of choosing how to live one's life is swept away by the responsibilities one has to their family, their friends, or their people. You thought you understood the weight of duty when you became the tsakarem of the Metkayina, but you soon realized thereafter that the cost was higher than what you were willing to pay.

In the months following their arrival, you had gotten close to the forest children. You loved spending time with Tuk. She was bright and full of wonder, and she never failed to make you laugh with her occasional sassy remark. Lo'ak was determined and a fast learner, and you were constantly amused by his poorly-hidden attraction to your best friend, Tsireya. You became fast friends with Kiri due to her deep connection with Eywa and interest in healing.

But there was something about your relationship with Neteyam that was different from all the others. In the few short months you had known each other, your friendship had grown much faster than you had expected. He was kind and respectful, and he always knew how to make you laugh. He was as close to you as the friends you had known your whole life.

You had first met him one day rather unexpectedly after their arrival. You were under the cover of the healing tent when you heard someone approach from outside. You were surprised to find the oldest Sully waiting expectantly while gripping his wrist tightly. He dropped his grip in order to offer you the customary greeting of his hand to his forehead before immediately returning to hold his wrist again.

You offered the gesture back to him before asking, "Is everything alright?" He gave an embarrassed smile and said, "I touched a plant in the water with my hand, and now it burns. I was told to come here for a remedy." You knew immediately what it was, and you offered him a sympathetic look. Taking his hand, you inspected it to confirm your suspicion.

"We learn at a young age not to touch the sea nettle," you told him with a faint smile. "Think of it as a rite of passage." His lips turned upwards at your words. "Then I suppose I'm one step closer to becoming Metkayina," he joked. You chuckled as you searched for the treatment for nettle.

While he waited for you, he sat down on the floor and said, "I do not believe we have met before. I am Neteyam." You cast a brief glance over your shoulder with a smile. "I know who you are, Neteyam te Suli," you told him. "But you are right, we have not met. I suppose that is my fault, I have been very busy since you arrived." After finding the correct bowl, you sat down across from him and introduced yourself properly.

"You are the tsakarem, yes?" Neteyam clarified as you took his hand to inspect it for any remaining nettles. "I am," you confirmed, trying not to appear proud or arrogant in the title. "I spend much of my time here in the village. I have been able to become acquainted with your mother and sisters, though you and your brother seem rarely to leave the water."

Neteyam nodded with a small smile. "We have been learning so much," he told you. "It is all still so new to us." You hummed in understanding. "You seem to be adjusting well to the reef," you observed.

Before he could respond, you took the small bowl of oil and held it above his hand. "This will sting at first," you warned. He nodded, and you poured a small amount over his palm. As you had predicted, he tensed at the pain, and you could see the muscles in his arms flex reactively. He took a deep breath and relaxed as the pain ebbed away.

Carefully, you took your thumbs and rubbed them down his palm. "Let me know if I am hurting you," you told him quietly. He remained silent as you massaged the oil into his hand. You felt his eyes on your face, so you glanced up at him. He didn't look away, keeping his amber eyes fixed on your face, and he offered you a soft smile. You were only able to hold his gaze for a few seconds before becoming slightly embarrassed, and you quickly looked back down at your hands again.

"It feels much better," he said after a moment. "I'm glad," you replied earnestly. "I haven't touched sea nettle since I was very young, but I remember the sting of it very well." He nodded his head with an ironic grin. "I don't think I will forget this any time soon," he agreed.

You continued working the oil into his skin for a moment, and you still felt his eyes on your face, though you didn't look up at him again until you were finished. Dropping his hand, you said, "Try to avoid nettle in the future. We usually save the remedy for children, but I made an exception for you this time."

He grinned at you. "I am very grateful," he told you, placing his hand over his heart. "And I will take more care in the future." Smiling at him, you replied, "I hope so. I don't want to have to patch you up every day."

He looked at you in amusement. "I'm sure there are worse ways to spend the day," he teased. You shook your head with a small laugh. "Perhaps," you conceded. "But there are certainly more productive things to do as well."

"Thank you," he said as he moved to stand up. "I will see you later tonight?" You blinked in surprise. You saw him every night during the evening meal from afar, but since you had never spoken to him before, you were surprised at his forwardness.

"I suppose," you replied, then added with a smirk, "That is unless you hurt yourself again before then." He gave you a cheeky smile. "No promises," he responded playfully.

You saw the forest boy more often after that. Sometimes he would come in claiming to be searching for his mother and then stay and talk with you. Other times, he would come in with scrapes and cuts not severe enough to warrant Ronal's expertise, but deep enough to justify seeing you for help.

Sometimes, you wondered if he was getting hurt on purpose. You didn't mind though. He was sweet and enjoyable, and he always told you stories of himself and his siblings in the forest. You knew he missed it very much, but he hid his longing behind all the funny tales of his family.

One person who was wary of your friendship with Neteyam and his family was Aonung. He had his mother's distrusting nature as well as her pride, and as his intended mate, you knew he wasn't happy with how close you had become to them. He never said anything directly to you, but he would drop subtle comments about them when you were around. Whenever you were helping teach the forest children, he watched closely for how you interacted with them. You could feel the tension between him and the Sullys, and it all came to a head about two months after they had arrived at the reef.

You were sorting things when you heard a commotion outside. You looked out in confusion before Aonung pushed his way into the tent. You took in a sharp breath as you got a look at his face.

He looked awful. His eye was starting to swell, there was blood dripping from his nose, and dark purple bruises were beginning to form on his cheek. "What happened?!" You asked him sharply as some of his friends followed in behind him sporting similar injuries on their faces. Aonung didn't look at you, but one of his friends behind him chimed in, "It was the forest boys."

You scowled at Aonung. "What did you do?" You demanded to know. He shot you an irritated look. "You are accusing me?" he asked incredulously. Your scowl deepened as you glared up at him suspiciously. "Yes," you said. "I am." He scoffed at you. He wasn't afraid of your ire when he knew he had the privilege of being the son of the two clan leaders to protect him.

"They do not belong here," he told you. "I don't know why you are so fond of those freaks." His friends behind him muttered their approval at his statement. You turned your glare to them, and they immediately fell silent and looked away. Even if Aonung didn't fear you, at least they did.

"They are here under uturu," you said in a harsh whisper. "We must treat them with respect and dignity." Aonung rolled his eyes at your words. "Where is my mother?" he asked, ignoring your statement. You huffed an irritated breath. "Out," you responded crossly, walking over to where Ronal kept her store of medicines and other mending materials.

You pulled out a jar of ointment and handed it to Aonung. "For the cuts," you told him. "Now go." You pointed at the entrance of your tent resolutely, maintaining a level glare at him. He held your gaze for a moment before taking the bowl and walking away, his friends in tow.

You closed your eyes in exasperation. How could they all be so stuck up and stupid? You knew that Aonung took great pride in being the next in line for Olo'eyktan, but you had never seen him act so rude and self-absorbed. Honestly, it was embarrassing for you.

After a moment, you decided to go out to see if you could find one or both of the Omatikayan boys to apologize on behalf of Aonung. Stepping out, you headed over to where their family was residing. From a distance, you could see that Lo'ak was stepping out of the tent, his face downcast and irritated. He was still too far from you to try and call out to him, so you skipped briskly along the suspended walkways between you to try and catch up to him.

Despite your urgent pace, Lo'ak quickly moved in the opposite direction from you, but from their tent, Neteyam walked out into the light of the sun wearing a subtle smile on his face. Approaching his tent, you called out to him. He glanced up at you in mild surprise and offered a polite nod.

You studied his face for injuries, but besides a busted lip, he seemed relatively unharmed. "I know what happened with Aonung," you began. "Well, sort of. I am very sorry about him and his friends." He gave you a soft smile and shook his head casually. "It was not your fault," he said simply. "There is no need for you to apologize."

As he spoke, you noticed the fresh blood on his lip from his cut. "You are cut," you observed. "Come with me." You grabbed his arm to lead him back to the healing canopy, but he resisted, shaking his head again. "This is nothing," he told you gently. "I will be fine."

You didn't let go of his arm. "You have come to our home as guests," you said softly. "Aonung and his friends have treated you dishonorably. Please, let me make it right." You gazed up at his face imploringly, and after a moment, his face softened and he nodded. "Alright," he conceded and followed your pulling hand.

Entering under the cover of your canopy, you had Neteyam sit down while you took out a small cloth and a salve. Dampening the cloth with fresh water, you turned to where he was sitting patiently for you.

Taking his jaw in your hand gently, you turned his face so that you could inspect the cut better. Neteyam's eyes stayed on your face for a moment before glancing away to fixate on the tent walls. In addition to the cut on his lip, you also noticed some more purplish spots starting to form on his neck.

You traced your fingers over the forming bruises on his neck. Neteyam tensed at your touch, and his eyes quickly darted to your face. You pulled back your hand from his neck and said, "Sorry." He gave you a subtle smirk. "It doesn't hurt," he assured you. "Just sensitive."

"Ah," you said in a low voice, looking away from his eyes sheepishly. You started to clean away the blood on his lip. "What did he do to start the fight?" You asked him, changing the subject. He blinked slowly and shook his head. "It does not matter," he replied in a quiet voice, looking away from you.

Your grip on his jaw tightened slightly, and you turned his face back so he would look you in the eyes. "What did he do?" You asked again in a more insistent tone. You could see him contemplating, and you held his face and gaze in expectant silence.

"He was making fun of Kiri and Lo'ak," he relented. "He called them freaks." The grip of your hand holding his face tightened reflexively as anger burned in your chest. You closed your eyes for a second to regain your composure before turning his head back to continue attending to his cut.

"I am very sorry, Neteyam," you murmured earnestly. "He never should have said those things." In your peripheral vision, you could see that his eyes were fixated on your face, but you kept your focus on his lip. "You do not have to apologize," he repeated from earlier, trying to keep his mouth still as he spoke. "You have shown nothing but kindness to my family since we arrived."

You glanced up for a moment to meet his eyes. He was looking back at you with a soft gaze, and you became aware of how close you were to his face. You turned away from him as you felt your cheeks grow warm to pull out the salve you had. Taking a small swatch on your thumb, you brushed it gently over his lip. You could feel his eyes on you as you did, and despite your best efforts, you glanced up at them. A beat of tense silence passed as you looked at each other wordlessly, one of your hands holding his face while the other was tracing his mouth.

Worried that he may be able to hear your heart pounding, you thought desperately of something to say. "He is intimidated by you," you said finally as you dropped your hands from his face and looked down from his eyes. Neteyam cocked his head to the side. "Aonung?" He clarified. You nodded as you wiped the remaining salve off of your fingers.

"He is the son of Olo'eyktan," you explained, shifting to sit on the floor next to him. "There has never been anybody to challenge that status until now, but not only was your father Olo'eyktan as well, but he was Toruk Makto. We were raised hearing stories of him. Some sound too strange to be true."

Neteyam looked at you in curiosity. "Stories?" He repeated. "Like what?"

You smiled, somewhat embarrassed. "There are many," you said slowly. "He  was once a human, a warrior from the stars." Neteyam nodded his head slowly. "That is true," he confirmed. You thought back for more rumors. "They say he killed one of the Na'vi to possess his body," you mentioned.

Neteyam let out a small, surprised laugh. "That one is not true," he said, amused at the story. "The Sky People grew his body from the blood of his brother and Na'vi blood, and his spirit now resides in it." Your forehead scrunched in confusion. "The blood of his brother?" You echoed, perplexed.

He shrugged his shoulder nonchalantly. "I don't even fully understand it," he admitted. "But the important thing is that no, he didn't possess anybody else's body to become one of the People." You nodded faintly, still very confused about Neteyam's answer.

"What else have you heard?" He prompted. You thought back to the way you imagined Toruk Makto before he came here. You had thought he would be large and intimidating like Tonowari, but with an authoritarian attitude and little humor. It was almost comical how he really was just like any other Na'vi father aside from some small physical differences and his accent.

"I thought he couldn't speak in the Na'vi tongue," you added. "We all thought he spoke a strange language." Neteyam nodded again. "When he led the revolt against the Sky People," he explained, "he spoke very little Na'vi. His first language is called English."

You tilted your head at the funny word. "English," you repeated. He smiled at your accent and nodded. "He usually only speaks it with my family," he said. "Many of the Omatikaya can speak it a little, too." You smiled back before asking, "What does it sound like?"

Neteyam shrugged. "What do you want me to say?" He said in English. You couldn't help but giggle at the strange language. "What does that mean?" You asked. He smiled at you in amusement. "I simply asked what you wanted me to say," he clarified.

You hummed thoughtfully as you came up with a phrase for him to say. You looked out at the afternoon sun casting brilliant reflections on the water outside of your tent. "The sea is very beautiful," you said finally. He looked out at the water for a moment. "The sea is very beautiful," he replied before looking back at you and adding, "and so are you."

You tilted your head and eyed him suspiciously. The pause between his words sounded like he said something extra. "All of that means 'The sea is very beautiful?'" You questioned skeptically. He glanced away for a moment with a faint smile. "Not all of it," he admitted. He paused for a moment, and then he said, "I said 'The sea is very beautiful, but I miss the forest.'"

"Ah," you said, nodding in understanding. "It must be very hard for you to be away from it." He sighed, looking back out at the sea with a far-away stare. "It is," he agreed after a while. "It is so different there. The sounds, the smells, everything. I don't think I have ever spent so much time in the sun as I have here."

You laughed at his last statement. "What do you mean?" You asked. He pointed out to where a few large, craggy precipices jutted out over the water. "The trees where I am from are higher than those cliffs," he explained. "When you are in the forest, very little sunlight reaches the ground."

Looking out to where he pointed, you shook your head in amazement. "I cannot even imagine trees like that," you said in wonder. He turned to you with a soft smile. "I'll take you to see them someday," he promised.

You smiled up at him, but it quickly faded away. You shook your head and looked away from his face. "No," you sighed regretfully. "I am tsakarem. It would not be right for me to leave the reef." He hummed in understanding. "I imagine your intended would not be happy about it either," he commented, watching you for your reaction.

You shifted uncomfortably. "No," you conceded quietly, "probably not."

When he didn't respond, you glanced up at his face and saw he was gazing at you expectantly. "He is not entirely to blame," you defended gently. "He and I have a great responsibility to the clan. He has carried it his whole life, but I am still getting used to it." He gave a small nod in understanding. "I have carried it my whole life, too," he said, then added in English, "but it didn't make me into an ass."

You smiled at the strange words and shot him a quizzical look. "I said, 'It is a heavy burden to bear,'" he translated for you. You nodded in agreement, and you missed the wry grin on his face.

"It must be nice for you finally to be free of that burden," you reflected. He heaved a heavy sigh and shook his head. "Even though my father is no longer Olo'eyktan, he still holds the title of Toruk Makto," he countered. "It is one that will always follow him, and so it will always follow me."

He stared out at the water in contemplation. There was a pause, and Neteyam gave another sigh. You could see the weight of his family's legacy on his face, and you felt a sense of compassion for him. "A heavy burden," you repeated his words quietly. He didn't say anything, lost in his own internal musings.

Even though you knew that the expectations weren't quite the same, you felt that on some level, you understood the struggle of upholding the standard of greatness in life. Your parents were very proud of your status of tsakarem, and you felt the pressure of it from them as well as Ronal, whose expectations were higher than everyone else.

"I never understood how heavy it was until now," you commented. "But I accepted my role. You were born into yours." Neteyam looked at you carefully and tilted his head in curiosity. "You accepted it," he repeated, "but did you actually want it?"

His question caught you off guard. As you pondered it, you felt a strange mix of emotions stirring in your chest. Nobody had ever considered that you wouldn't want to be tsakarem. It was easy to get swept up in the honor and prestige and forget about the fact that you were surrendering many of the freedoms you had previously enjoyed in order to prepare yourself to help lead the clan.

Your throat tightened unexpectedly as you thought about his question. Neteyam must have noticed your reaction because he shook his head apologetically. "I'm sorry," he said. "I did not mean to upset you." His words snapped you out of your thoughts. You shook your head dismissively and gave a weak smile.

"It's okay," you assured him. "I just..." you trailed off, not sure of what to say. After a beat, he took your hand comfortingly. "You carry the title with great dignity," he told you reassuringly. "And you bring honor to your people."

Your chest warmed at his words, easing the strain of his earlier question. With a shy smile, you asked, "How do you say 'thank you' in English?" He chuckled at your question. "Thank you," he told you in English.

"Thank you," you repeated in his funny language. He gave you a warm smile. "You're welcome," he replied. "You're welcome," you echoed thoughtfully. He nodded in approval. "That was almost perfect," he complimented. You hummed at his praise. "You'll have to teach me to speak it perfectly," you told him. He smiled as he looked at you. "I will," he promised gently.

You felt your cheeks warm at his soft gaze. You had never seen eyes quite like his. They were a shade of yellow you had never seen before, almost greenish in the reflections from the water.  In the prolonged silence, you realized that he was still holding your hand, so you blinked and pulled it away gently while you desperately thought of something to say.

"Your cut will heal within the next couple of days," you said finally. He blinked as though pulled from deep thought and nodded gratefully. "You are very kind," he told you. "Thank you."

You smiled. "You're welcome," you told him, trying your best to accurately mimic the way he said the phrase.

He chuckled at your use of his language. "You're a fast learner," he praised and then sighed. "I should go find my brother," he added. You nodded in understanding, and you both stood up. Before he could leave, you said, "Please send my apologies to Lo'ak."

Neteyam shook his head with a reproachful smile. He brought his hand up to your face and tilted your chin upwards with his fingers to look him in the eye. "You need to stop apologizing for things you didn't do," he told you earnestly. Then, he dropped his hand and walked out of the tent before you could reply and before he could see the deep blush forming on your face.

Later that evening, you had taken Tuk out to feed the ilus. Waist deep in the water, you both giggled as the pod of ilus gathered around, swimming in eager circles around you. You and the young girl took turns feeding them one by one.

"I think this one likes me," Tuk giggled as one of the animals nudged her side affectionately. "Yes, well, that one is notorious for loving whoever has the food," you said with a laugh. Taking a fish from the basket, Tuk fed the cuddly ilu. "Then I'll feed him every day," she said with a bright smile.

From behind you, you could hear someone moving through the water. You turned and saw Neteyam wading out to where you and Tuk were standing. Noticing her older brother, Tuk called out, "Look, Neteyam! Come feed the ilus with us."

Neteyam offered his sister a quick smile before it melted into a more urgent look.

"Have either of you seen Lo'ak?" He asked. You glanced at Tuk, who looked back at you with the same confused look. "I haven't seen him since I saw you last," you told him. "Is everything alright?"

Neteyam glanced quickly at his younger sister before looking back at you. "It's probably nothing, I'm just looking for him." He started to walk back out of the water, and you could see the look of agitation on his face. You handed Tuk the basket of fish and said, "Here, you keep feeding them, I'll be right back."

You moved out of the water to follow after Neteyam. He must've heard you behind him because he slowed down and waited for you to catch up to him. Stepping behind him, you asked, "What's wrong?"

He shot you a worried glance. "I've looked everywhere. There is no sign of him, and nobody has seen him." Your forehead scrunched up at his words. "When did you last see him?" You asked. He gave a loose shrug and replied, "Earlier today, same as you."

"At your home?" You clarified questioningly. He nodded. "Yes, after my father told him to go..." he trailed off, and you could see that a thought had entered his mind. His worried face hardened into aggravation, his jaw clenched, and his head tilted as he fought to compose his anger.

"What is it?" You questioned in concern. Neteyam took a moment to close his eyes before muttering, "Aonung." Your stomach dropped a little bit at his name. Surely, he wouldn't have caused any more trouble than he already had.

Neteyam turned from you sharply and walked at a brisk pace towards the village. You struggled to keep pace behind him. "What about Aonung?" You asked, confused. Without breaking his stride, Neteyam said, "My father told Lo'ak to apologize to him earlier, and that was the last time I saw him."

A feeling of unease settled over you, and you prayed that Lo'ak was just off brooding somewhere instead of being in trouble. As you both quickly stepped across the beach, you caught Aonung's familiar form standing in the shallow water.

"You," Neteyam called out to him in a hard tone. Aonung had been staring out at the water towards the Sea Wall, but at the sound of Neteyam's voice, he whipped around. He was immediately defensive as Neteyam stepped up to him in the water.

"Where is my brother?" He demanded. Aonung scoffed. "He's your brother," he replied in a haughty voice. "Aren't you the one supposed to babysit him?" Neteyam shot the other boy a burning glare and took a step forward to get in his face, causing Aonung to take an uneasy step back. "I kicked your ass once already today," Neteyam stated. "I will do it again if I have to."

"Enough," you said firmly, not wanting a repeat of their earlier altercation. The boys didn't say anything, still holding each other's glare. "Aonung, do you know where Lo'ak is?" You asked. After a brief pause, Aonung's eyes glanced away from Neteyam over to you, and you saw the uneasy look he had.

Your stomach sank. "Where is he?" You pressed, feeling frustrated at his silence. You could see his hesitation before he finally relented, "I'm not sure. We...we left him at Three Brothers Rock."

You inhaled sharply. "Aonung," you whispered, horrified. He didn't look at you, the severity of his actions sinking in. Neteyam was a little lost. "Where is that?" He asked you, desperate to know where his brother was. You didn't answer him, still looking at Aonung in disbelief.

"How could you do that?" you asked quietly, and he averted his eyes. You glanced back at Neteyam. "It is way out past the reef," you said. "It is not close, and it is very dangerous for him to be alone."

At your words, Neteyam's face twisted in anger. He stepped towards Aongung again, but you had anticipated his reaction and moved quickly to stand between them and placed a hand on his chest. "No fighting," you told him sternly. "We need to gather a search party for Lo'ak, not waste time giving each other more injuries for me to tend to later on."

Both the boys stared at each other for a moment before Neteyam looked down at you and gave you a barely-perceptible nod. You let your hand drop from his chest and looked over at Aonung. "When did you leave?" You asked him.

He shook his head uncomfortably. "It's been a few hours," he admitted. You closed your eyes with a heavy sigh. Neteyam huffed a sharp breath and grabbed Aonung by the back of his neck. "I'm done with this," he muttered and marched him back to the village.

A search party was quickly organized. Several warriors and divers on skimwings and ilus assembled to search for Lo'ak. With the sun receding behind the planet, you and the rest of your friends were ordered to stay within the Sea Wall.

You saw Neteyam pacing anxiously on the beach, looking out for any sign of his brother's return. You walked up to him carefully. "I'm sure they will find him soon," you assured him, breaking him from his thoughts. He heaved a large sigh and looked out towards the water.

"I should have been with him," he murmured. "This wouldn't have happened if I had been with him." You looked at him with sympathy. "You can't blame yourself," you told him gently. "If anyone is to blame, it is Aonung." He didn't argue with you, and you both knew you were right.

You sat down on the sand with a sigh, and after a moment, Neteyam followed suit and sat down beside you. "I have known him almost my whole life," you said as you sifted some sand between your fingers. "He has always been proud and stubborn, but he has never been malicious." You couldn't deny that Aonung's behavior towards the Sullys before had made you uncomfortable and disappointed, but this was on a whole new level, and you felt as though you didn't even know him at all.

You sighed again and looked over at Neteyam. He was staring out at the water with a blank gaze. You weren't sure what else to say. You couldn't assure him of his brother's safe return because there was a very real chance he was not safe. So, you just sat in silence beside him.

As the evening turned into night, Lo'ak eventually returned unharmed, much to the relief of you and Neteyam. After taking the blame for Aonung, an uneasy but not unfriendly relationship started between him and Lo'ak, and Neteyam put aside his anger for his brother's sake.

The next day, Lo'ak recounted how a lone tulkun had saved him from the akula the day before. After describing the creature who saved his life, Tsireya quickly realized that the tulkun was the outcast Payakan.

"I'm telling you guys, he saved my life," Lo'ak explained insistently. "He is my friend."

Everyone had doubtful looks, but Neteyam stood up with a jaunty smile and grabbed his brother by the shoulders. "My baby bro," he said lightheartedly. "The mighty warrior who faced the killer tulkun and lived to tell about it."

Lo'ak was not amused and pushed his brother's hands off of him. "You guys aren't listening," he huffed and walked away. You all called out to him, but he continued away in irritation. Tsireya followed after him, and the others all disbursed to start the day.

You remained sitting there, perplexed at what you had heard. Everyone in the clan knew about the dangerous, young bull who had killed both Na'vi and other tulkun, and Lo'ak's assertions of Payakan's innocence unsettled you. Deep in thought, you hadn't even realized that Neteyam had stayed behind until he asked, "What are you thinking?"

You blinked, startled out of your thoughts. You gave a short sigh. "Tsireya is right," you told him. "If it was Payakan, then your brother is lucky to be alive. Payakan is very dangerous." Neteyam looked out for a moment to where Lo'ak had stormed off. "He seems to think differently," he commented.

You shifted uncomfortably. "I do believe your brother sees Payakan as a friend, but there is a reason for his exile." You looked out at the water and shook your head faintly. "The good thing is that Lo'ak is safe," you told him.

He smiled at you warmly. "That is true," he conceded. "And I appreciate your concern for my brother. It means a lot." You shrugged and replied, "You are my friend. What concerns you concerns me."

He offered his hand to help pull you up. You took it, and he pulled you up effortlessly. After you steadied yourself, you moved to walk off, but Neteyam didn't let go of your hand. You looked up at his face questioningly, and he was staring back at you with a soft smile.

"I'm serious," he told you earnestly. "Your friendship means a lot to me. Thank you." His face was so sincere and his voice so heartfelt that you didn't respond for a moment. "You're welcome," you replied finally. He held your gaze for a moment, the corner of his lips turned upwards, before dropping your hand and walking away to begin the day.

As you watched him disappear, you couldn't help but wonder why it was exactly that your heart was beating so quickly.

Chapter 2

#avatar the way of water #avatar #neteyam fic #neteyam sully #neteyam x reader #neteyam angst #avatar fanfiction #neteyam x metkayina!reader #kiri sully #loak sully #tuk sully #jake sully #neytiri #aonung #tsireya #slow burn #forbidden lust #forbidden love #forbidden relationship

[alwayschasingrainbows]

What would have happened if

1. Katniss didn't volunteer for Prim, so Prim and Peeta compete in 74th Games.

2. Gale and Katniss compete.

3. Katniss and Peeta's brother compete. Before, he volunteered for Peeta.

The Questions :

A.What strategy would Haymitch made for District 12?

B.What would Katniss do to them? Would she become an ally with those 2 boys?

C.Who would be the winner in the end?

Thank you so much :)

@curiousnonny

Thank you, Nonny!

1.A) What strategy would Haymitch made for District 12 if Prim and Peeta compete in 74th Games?

I know it is going to sound very brutal, but let us be honest... Haymitch had to choose. And, objectively speaking, Prim - small, delicate and very young - didn't have any chances. If Haymitch took his responsibilities seriously (I am not sure if he would have had - I think he would end up drinking too much to numb the pain of losing a child so young and sweet as Prim, unless Peeta forced him to man up as he did in canon), he'd try to keep Peeta alive. But there is also another possibility... Peeta, who loved Katniss (even if she didn't love him in return), would surely try to protect Primrose, even if it meant risking (or sacrificing) his own life. Because Katniss loved Prim more than anything - so Peeta would do anything he could to make sure Prim made it.

Now the brutal part: I think neither of them would have survived.

1.B.) What would Katniss do to them? Would she become an ally with those 2 boys?

Irrelevant here (Katniss doesn't compete;). I think Rue and Prim would be allies. Peeta would have tried to protect Prim, so maybe he'd join the girls as well.

1.C.) Who would be the winner in the end?

I think either Foxface (if it wasn't for the poison berries, she had great chances, being so smart) either Cato.

2.A.) What strategy would Haymitch made for District 12 if Gale and Katniss compete?

Gale had great chances at winning. He was strong, brave, smart, and a great hunter. So was Katniss... But I think Haymitch would think Gale was more likely to win. He was physically stronger than thin and small Katniss. So I guess Haymitch's first choice would be Gale. That being said... here comes the controvercial part. Please, feel free to disagree.

I am sure that Gale would be Katniss's ally. They were great friends, he might have had a crush on her. But... Peeta's story of sacrifice wouldn't repeat itself. I mean, Gale would protect Katniss with all of his strength, but he and Peeta were in different situations. Peeta was the youngest of his siblings, a baker's son. His family would be fine without him - they would lose some of their income Peeta's cakes generated, but they wouldn't starve to death. Gale, on the other hand, was the main breadwinner of the family. He had three little siblings to support. Of course, his mother did absolutely everything she could to provide for the family, but let's be real: they wouldn't have survived if it wasn't for Gale's hunting. So while Peeta had a... freedom to sacrifice himself for Katniss, Gale's situation was more complicated. I think he and Katniss would have made a pact: whoever lives on, helps another one's family. So, as I said, both of them would protect and help one another, but not to such an extent as Peeta (who was 100% willing to sacrifice his life for Katniss, no matter what) did. Not because Gale hadn't loved Katniss - not because he hadn't wanted her to survive - but because he wouldn't have been able to allow himself to give away his life so easily. If he died and Katniss survived, his family would have been taken care of. If Katniss's died and he survived, he'd take care of both of their families. But if he had sacrificed himself for Katniss and she would have died as well - it might have meant that both of their families wouldn't make it. If Katniss had great chances of survival, he would die for her. But if she hadn't... I think he wouldn't risk the two of them dying.

The saddest part is the fact neither Katniss nor Gale would have had a freedom of choosing to die for one another. I think that they would choose to live for one another and to take care of thother one's family.

Now, back to Haymitch.

He'd probably choose Gale, who was a more likely winner. Since Gale and Katniss would have been allies, the eventual gifts from sponsors would be divided evenly between the two of them.

2.B.) What would Katniss do to them? Would she become an ally with those 2 boys?

She'd definitely be an ally with Gale!

2.C.) Who would be the winner in the end?

I think it depends. Gale and Katniss's duo would have protected one another until the very end. I know some people say Gale would have sacrificed himself - and I also think he would have tried to, but only if the final battle was to be held between him and Katniss (if they were the last ones). It is quite possible - together, they were unstoppable! I don't think Katniss's would have allowed him to do so (she'd try to stop him). I think she'd be willing to sacrifice herself, too, if they were the last ones left. Perhaps they would try the poison berries trick - perhaps something else, to try and scare the game makers (there HAD TO be a victor - the games were pointless otherwise).

So it is quite possible that Katniss and Gale would have been victors together.

If not, probably one of them.

3.A) What strategy would Haymitch made for District 12 if Katniss and Peeta's brother compete. Before, he volunteered for Peeta.

Hm, I guess Haymitch would wait a little longer to choose the one who had greater chances of surviving. Peeta's brother was physically stronger, but Katniss had brains and was a great hunter. I think Haymitch would would have chosen to protect Katniss, because she was more similar to himself...

3.B.) What would Katniss do to them? Would she become an ally with those 2 boys?

Not sure if she'd be ally with Peeta's brother. In my opinion, no. They didn't have anything in common. I guess she wouldn't want to kill Peeta's brother herself (because he volunteered for his brother and was from her district), but nothing more than that.

3.C.) Who would be the winner in the end?

Hm... tbh, not sure. Katniss had survived partly because of the "love story" success (she had gotten more gifts from sponsors, because Peeta made her more... likable in their eyes) and because Peeta had protected her. Of course, she had chances of victory herself - she was smart, capable of finding food, water and shelter. But Cato and the rest were after her (since her score was so high!) and she might have not have survived tracker jackers' attack, if Peeta wouldn't have helped her. Katniss herself admitted that Peeta had saved her life then.

Still, I would say that the three most possible victors are: Katniss, Foxface or Cato.

Thanks again, @curiousnonny!

#Thg #the hunger games #ask #question #qeued post

[indramond]

I'd be lying if I said I haven't been a hypocrite. I haven't always practiced what I preached. Yet I always find it interesting how others can be so comfortable in the blanket of their hypocrisy. But I love it even more when they get their karma for it. Case in point:

Years ago, I made the mistake of dating the much older brother of a girl I went to school with. We'll call him "William". He was 20 years older than me. We met through a mutual friend of ours. Everything started off okay. We went on dates, met each other's families, he would spend the night, and we were intimate with each other. Until he dumped me via text. He wouldn't tell me why and I cussed him out. I called him on the phone yelling and he hung up on me twice. I know I know...not the most emotionally stable thing to do. My sister got ahold of him and he told her why he was ending the relationship. He said I was deranged, he didn't think I was a good person or a good mother to my children. He didn't think I was someone that should be around his child. He had a son from a previous relationship that lived on the East Coast with his mother. We'll get back to that in a bit.

As upset and angry as I was, I had to do some serious self reflection. He was right that I wasn't a good parent. I was lax on guiding my children's behavior and didn't set good boundaries. I was also neglectful and disrespectful to my children...very very similar to my own mother's treatment of me. I will talk more about her in a future blog.

Well fast forward years later...I find out through a mutual friend that William and his now wife "Zasha" were arrested and charged with selling methamphetamines to a narc near a school! If I recall, both were convicted on all charges and sentenced to less than 5 years. I don't call if they got prison time or jail time and probation. William appealed his conviction but only two charges were dropped due to insufficient evidence. The main charges stuck. So this fool, who didn't think I was suitable for his son to be around, thought a meth head was an appropriate stepparent for his son. See, we never know what's really going on with people. What they really aren't showing you or telling you. I also found out that William had a habit of jumping from woman to woman. When I met him, he had just ended a 3 month relationship and engagement to another woman. That should've been a red flag right there! He got engaged to another chick 6 months after we broke up. They married but had the marriage annulled couple months later. Months later, he became engaged to his now wife and the next year was arrested for selling drugs with her. He even tried to throw her under the bus in his appeal to get his sentence and conviction overturned. Claiming that she was the one distributing the drugs not him. Along with using his psychological disorders as an excuse. It didn't really work. There was evidence to support the more serious charges of his case.

All in all, William was just an unhealthy person who was a hypocrite and a shyster. As well as most likely a drug addict. He may have even found another woman while we were dating and that's why he dumped me so abruptly. What gets to me is that he couldn't wife up his son's mother, but was quick to wife up other women he wasn't in long term relationships with. The fact he was willing to sacrifice his job, freedom, reputation, and life for a tweaker who was in and out of jail shows what a clown and pathetic excuse of a man he was. Probably still is...along with being a hypocrite.

[sippingdaisies]

So much of Irish literature is just ‘this woman is a personification of Ireland, you want to fuck her but she’s also your ma’

#cathleen nihoulhan i am looking directly at u #mad stuff altogether #like there are reasons for this #the first of course being that colonial literature feminised the countries they colonise and the native people to present them as weak #and therefore in need of colonisation #but this also served nationalist interests #Ireland is both the beautiful young maiden in need of rescue from the colonising power #but also the loving mother who is willing to sacrifice her sons for her freedom #but either way the women themselves do not get a voice #which is - surprise surprise - reflected in the history of Irish politics #irish literature #daisies.txt

[inukag-archive]

Hello! I’m looking for recommendations for a particular trope/genre: Feudal Era AU as @superpixie42 would say. Fics that are Canon-era (Inuyasha-world without Inuyasha plot) but are not quite canon-divergent or fix-it? I’m thinking along the lines of Out of The Woods (Miss_Dyana), Kintsugi, If We Fall Anyway (both Evilillusions), for example. Any other genre/rating is good. Thank you! 💓

Hey @anisaanisa, it's no secret this is one of Mod Pixie's favorite AUs, so thank you for the chance to put this one together!

Shelter by @lavendertwilight89 (E)

Summary: Song fic inspired Stuck with You and Shelter. Inuyasha has been alone most of his life and one moonless night he gets caught up with a young priestess. She saves him and he, in return, helps her. What he doesn't realize is, this priestess holds a lot of secrets which may or may not cost both of them their lives... 

--

Demon Nature by @shardetector (E)

Summary: He spoke low and gently, although his voice was gruff with his demon still so close to the surface, “You saved me wench, now I’ll repay the favor.�� With that, his muscles bunched in his legs as he sprung up and out of the well, a red blur in the night as he made his way through the forest to his destination. His precious cargo held safely to his chest, as he raced to save her with his demonic speed. 

--

there's no place (for us/like home) by guardianKarenterrier (G)

Summary: Slowly, excruciatingly slowly, Inuyasha starts to creep closer to the fire at night. Now that he's not so injured, he's begun to vanish into the woods and come back to throw down rabbits and once a badger at the side of the hut, and Kagome hasn't had to worry about finding enough to eat as the air starts to turn colder. He hardly ever talks to them, or at all, and he won't come close enough to touch- he never comes as close as he had that first day again, but he stays. She's not sure why he stays, but she's glad that he does. 

--

Comfort Food by @splendentgoddess (E)

Summary: Feudal AU one-shot. An ex-miko-in-training stumbles upon a seemingly human man alone in the woods during the moonless night. He seems all alone in the world - just like her. Goodness, when was the last time he had a decent meal? 

--

Half-Breed’s Wife by @gypsin (M)

Summary: On the night of the new moon, a runaway girl stumbles into Inuyasha's life. Little did he realize then what he would be undertaking by saving her. But when Kagome has nowhere else to go will he leave her to her fate Or will he rise to the occasion? And what will the humans think? 

--

Your Lying Smile by @dawnrider (M)

Summary: A beautiful day by the river quickly takes a turn, taking control of her life completely out of Kagome's hands. Her "rescuer" becomes something else entirely before she can get a word in edgewise. A Feudal-esue AU 

--

We Are Family by @theladyofthewest (T)

Summary: Imagine a world in which the Inu No Taisho lived to raise his sons together, as brothers. Inuyasha never had to learn to survive on his own, he never met Kikyo, never heard of the Shikon Jewel. Now imagine if Kagome fell into this world instead of the one she did in canon. Imagine if she and Inuyasha had ... parental supervision. 

--

Oblivion @meggz0rz (M)

Summary: Feudal-era Japan. A war to the death between youkai and humankind. Kagome, rebellious daughter of a noble family, is not about to let her grandfather sacrifice himself in battle. So she takes his place, dressed as a boy and ready to fight to survive. But in love and war, things are rarely as they seem, and there is a spy in the army ranks who just might be Kagome's downfall... 

--

Everybody Wants To Be An Inuyoukai by @superpixie42 (T)

Summary: A birthday one-shot for kstewdeux very vaguely based on the plot of the Aristocats. When Kagome, newly widowed with a newborn son, is named the heir of her mother-in-law's enormous estate things suddenly go from bad to worse. She's drugged, kidnaped, and left for dead on the side of the road. With the help of some unexpected new friends, Kagome finds herself questioning: does she even want to make it back home? 

--

The Shogun’s Daughter by @shnuggletea (E)

Summary: Kagome's father passed away when she was just a child but his Shogun status still makes her a valuable bride to a Lord of lands that border their village. Lord Inuyasha Tashio is pushed by the council into marriage, assured his new bride was an excellent choice. All their fears and anxiety are amplified when they meet. 

--

Timeless and Forbidden Love by lunalibro (M)

Summary: Once, a long long time ago in Japan, demons and other horrid monsters out of nightmares roamed the lands. Wars were never-ending, famine, death and bloodshed abound. Admist this chaos, there lived a great priestess named Midoriko who was renowned throughout for not only her incredible power and fighting prowess, but also for ethereal beauty. She defeated countless demons and staved off many dark evils as the protector of humankind. Eventually, Midoriko fell in love and birthed twin daughters. The eldest was named Kikyo and the youngest was named Kagome, While alike in looks, the sisters were complete opposites. Naturally, these girls inherited their mother’s immense powers. From a young age, Midoriko trained them in combat and in the spiritual arts. The sisters grew in strength and looks. However, Kikyo’s powers had matured far greater than that of her sister’s. Midoriko decided Kikyo shall be the one to take her place as the new protector of Musashi. From then on, Kagome would find herself living in her sister’s shadow. Maybe with the help of a young half-demon named InuYasha, Kagome could realize her worth and possibly fall in love in the process. A forbidden love that will last throughout time. 

--

Beauty and the Hanyou by mishelledor23 (M)

Summary: Inspired by Beauty and the Beast, but Inuyasha style! The terrible half-demon prince Inuyasha is under a fifty-year old curse that keeps him trapped inside his castle. Can Kagome, the reluctant miko-in-training become his friend? Maybe even his love? InuXKag, MirXSan. Lemons and language in later chapters! 

--

For Better or Worse by Anime Wildfire

Summary: Kagome, priestess in training, turns her life upside down when she saves the life of the half demon Inuyasha… and accidentally finds herself bound to him via pesky subjugation beads. This is not how she thought her day- or her life- was going to go.

--

By the Match, Not the Flame by @goshinote (M)

Summary:  Inuyasha is a hellbent hanyo on a mission for revenge. Kagome is a wanted miko on the run. Their intentions align in more ways than one, but secrets abound between them as they partner up during their travels. With an inevitable and impending betrayal looming over them, the pressure rises with every day they spend moving closer to the enemy’s clutches.

--

A Private Affair by JeremyMarsh (T)

Summary:  During a simple patrol operation, Inuyasha, a general in a war between demons and humans that has been going on for two years now, goes all the way across enemy territory to reach the village where his betrothed lived before the conflict broke out. Here he is discovered by her younger sister who intentionally reveals something to him that she shouldn't have.

Shocked, Inuyasha decides to embark on a new and dangerous mission that could cost him his life or worse.

--

Koi no Yokan by @keichanz (E)

Summary: Koi no Yokan: The feeling when you meet someone that you’re bound to fall in love.

A prince discovering a deeper meaning to seemingly random hordes of bloodthirsty demons. A young woman unwillingly sold to a brothel by uncaring relatives, frightened and alone. How could these two circumstances possibly be related?

We are also including the works Anisa mentioned in the ask for those who are unfamiliar

Out of the Woods by @dyaz-stories

Summary: After the murder of Kikyo, the local priestess, the villagers start leaving offerings to the forest's god, who they think they've angered. Kagome, called to the village to replace her cousin, finds out, too late, just how far they're willing to go when they use her as the month's sacrifice. She decides not to go down without a fight — except that, instead of an angry god, she finds herself faced with a hungry half-demon, who's very annoyed he won't be getting a food offering for the month. “What the fuck are you doing here? Where’s my food?” “Oh I’m sorry, am I not a sacrifice satisfying enough?” 

--

Kinstugi by @soliska

Summary: AU. Failing to be chosen as her village's miko, Kagome had resigned herself to a humble life. An unexpected summons returns her to the city where she's forced to reconcile the taught virtues and the spiralling, warped reality created by those that abuse their power. She holds the key to repairing the fracture between humans and youkai, and the freedom of her new hanyou friend.

--

If We Fall Anyway by @soliska

Summary: What if the shikon jewel didn’t exist and Naraku never came to be? What if Kagome fell down the well anyway and met a gruff, young inu-hanyou. Would they still become friends? What would be their story? A tale told in snippets. 

#inukag archive #feudal au #inuyasha #inuyasha fanfic #inukag fanfic #fic rec #anisaanisa

[lawrenceop]

HOMILY for The Annunciation of the Lord

Isa 7:10-14. 8:10; Ps 29; Heb 10:4-10; Luke 1:26-38

The renewal of the whole cosmos pivots on this moment, on the Fiat, the humble and trusting assent of Mary to God’s plan of salvation. As soon as Mary says ‘yes’, the eternal Word of God takes flesh in her womb; the Son of God unites himself to our humanity, and so human nature is elevated to divine heights; and God enters human history and place, coming alongside us in all our human joys and sorrows, sharing the pleasure and the pain of our humanity. Thus Scripture says: “You who wanted no sacrifice or oblation, prepared a body for me”. Because of Christ’s Incarnation, the human body is now the locus of salvation; the place wherein the struggle against sin and temptation, and the offering of the human person to God takes place. Hence, Hebrews also says that God willed that we are made holy “by the offering of his body made once and for all by Jesus Christ.”

Through the grace of Christ, Mary too, from the moment of her immaculate conception, offers herself, body and soul, to God. Mary is made holy through her fiat, the gift of herself to God, such that she is ever obedient to his Word, ever open in faith to God’s will. Thus, when the angel announces that she will conceive miraculously by the power of the Holy Spirit, she says ‘yes’, and so she, the All-Holy Virgin offers her body, her virginal womb, to become the sinless dwelling place of God the Son. In her own body, then, Mary becomes the locus of salvation, as she becomes the new Ark of the Covenant, the Bearer of God to all peoples.

As the body, the whole person of Mary is open to God’s Word, so we say that her heart, the immaculate heart of Mary, is ever open to God’s will, always at the service of God who is Love. Hence Pope Benedict XVI said, “The Heart open to God, purified by contemplation of God, is stronger than guns and weapons of every kind. The fiat of Mary, the word of her heart, has changed the history of the world, because it brought the Saviour into the world - because, thanks to her Yes, God could become man in our world and remains so for all time.”

Yes, the history of the world, has been changed from the moment of the Annunciation onwards. And, indeed, the whole of creation which had been at war and enmity with God has been reconciled to God, and so peace is restored between God and Man because of the Incarnation, because of the assent of the Immaculate Heart of Mary to God’s peace plan. As such, in every age, peace is promised us if we will turn to God once more, if we will consecrate ourselves and our world to Mary’s Immaculate Heart, which means that we seek, by the power of God’s grace and the intercession of Mary, to become totally open to God’s will, totally obedient to his Word, totally offered up to his service.

Pope Benedict thus taught that “since God himself took a human heart and has thus steered human freedom towards what is good, the freedom to choose evil no longer has the last word. From that time forth, the word that prevails is this: ‘In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart; I have overcome the world’‌ (Jn 16:33). The message of Fatima invites us to trust in this promise.”

Today, in consecrating the world and particularly Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, therefore, Pope Francis and the world’s bishops in communion with him, and all of us as faithful Catholics, are putting our trust in God’s promise, a promise brought into focus anew by Our Lady of the Rosary at Fatima. This is the promise that by the grace of Christ, the Risen Lord who has conquered sin, suffering, and death, shall so convert souls that God’s Word of peace, God’s Word of Love, will reign in our hearts and move us to freely choose that which is good.

So Pope Francis said “Let us prepare ourselves to live a day of prayer on the Solemnity of the Annunciation, asking the Mother of God to lift up the hearts of those who are afflicted by the cruelty of war. May the Act of Consecration to her Immaculate Heart bring peace to the world.” This is our prayer today, and this is our belief, that in God’s will, in doing his will, we shall truly find peace. So Scripture says: “Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.” Or as Mary says: “Let it be done to me according to your Word.”

Whenever we unite ourself to these words of Mary, and we offer ourselves, our bodies, our whole hearts to God and his will, then our world is renewed, and we are lifted up closer to God. This is what consecration to God through Mary entails; this is what we do today, choosing to walk in God’s ways of love, trusting that, as the angel Gabriel prophesied, Jesus’s “reign will have no end” for his is a reign of truth and life, a kingship of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love, and peace.

#consecration #immaculate heart of mary #peace #Fiat #obedience #annunciation

[lady-star-strings]

DNF/Georgebur PotO & LND AU

Okay, to begin with, thank you so so much for giving me the chance to blab about this @dtvibez because I’ve always wanted to work with this AU, but I’ve just never had the characters to do it with and my musical nerd heart is thriving right now. Alright, anywhodilydo, geek-out over, let’s get into it - just a warning kiddos, this is gonna be a long one so strap in and hold on...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Roles

To start off, let’s address the roles here for how I believe these plots would fit best with the characters involved - it’s purely up to individual interpretation, but these are my thoughts as an in-depth lover of these musicals.

Obviously, our dear George is the leading lady Christine Daae in this story, that was pretty much a given - let’s just be honest here guys, he’s the simp-bait through and through and if that wasn’t Christine, I don’t know what was. Meg - Christine’s friend - and her mother Madame Giry I’m going to combine and make Fundy for reasons I shall disclose later in this post, and Sapnap will have a role to discuss later down the line too, just lemme get there. Now as for the love interests, I can easily say that Eric/The Phantom is Dream and Raoul is Wilbur in this situation. Some of you might be questioning why it wouldn’t be switched because Raoul was her childhood friend and Eric was a gifted musician, but I have answers for you ahead on that, don’t you worry~ ;)

Phantom of the Opera Arc

After studying under Dream - or the Nightmare of the Opera as people prefer to call him - for years to be the star singer he was always destined to be, George is finally granted the chance to do so when some strings are pulled behind the scenes to give him a leading role in an opera. There isn’t anything George wouldn’t do for his Angel of Music after giving him such a chance at success, and Dream is practically preening with pride over how astounding his Georgie has turned out to be. Before Dream can whisk George away in triumph, however, his childhood friend Wilbur shows up out of the blue to shower him in praise and remind him of the puppy love they shared as children before George moved to the opera house. George is smitten with nostalgia, to say the least - it’s nice to put a face to the affection for once.

Needless to say, Dream is hardly pleased with this turn of events and actively tries to keep George not only away from Wilbur, but also to himself because George is quite literally all he has in the world - not even his music can compare to how much George means to him. Of course, the way he goes about this is hardly morally right and only serves to drive George further and further away from him and into Wilbur’s arms as a safe haven from all of the horrors. In the end, though, even after so much heartbreak and all the terrible things Dream’s done to keep him hostage as his muse and love, George finds it in his heart to forgive him for being how the world made him to be and genuinely offers to give up his freedom if it means he won’t be alone in that darkness anymore and Wilbur won’t die.

As expected, Dream realizes he really can’t do that George when it comes down to it - he simply loves him too much to force him to stay if it means he’d wind up hating him for it in the end. He’d rather let him be free and live the life he’s been dreaming of with Wilbur than have him stay and live the rest of his life resenting him. Even so, George is surprisingly hesitant to leave and can only offer to return the wedding ring Dream gifted him as a final goodbye and a silent show of his remaining love for him before he let’s him go in return and goes off with Wilbur. Following that night, Dream disappears from the opera house altogether, never to be heard from again...

Love Never Dies Arc - *SPOILERS*

...Or so the story goes in Paris 10 years ago. Little did anyone know, Fundy actually helped Dream steal away from the opera house when the mobs came searching for him and was unyieldingly by his side as they made their way to America for a fresh start. Once there, Dream - with a little seedy behind-the-scenes help from Fundy - founded a successful side show on Coney Island where he and others like him such as Sapnap and Punz - Miss Fleck and Dr. Gangle - are able to live freely and are treated with respect for their unique traits. Fundy has actually taken to training under Dream to be a successful singer in his own right with a well-known show in the attraction, his only goal to gain Dream’s favor and hopefully prove he’s able to replace George in his life. Dream unsurprisingly has no interest in anything of the sort and still actively mourns the loss of his muse - not even his music brings him joy anymore because it only reminds him of what could’ve been, and Fundy will never be his Georgie despite how much he insists otherwise.

But Dream is a clever thing, and he winds up securing a contract for George - who is now married to Wilbur and is raising a 10-year-old son with him - to come perform at the side show for one last performance. George takes the contract with little to no thought as to the odd pseudonym on the paperwork because Wilbur has lost himself to gambling and alcohol over the years, and they’re desperate for money to survive. At first, George is irate and somewhat heartbroken to learn that Dream’s been alive after all these years, especially after how their lives have turned out following the one night of passion they shared before he disappeared. He admits he still loved Dream when he left and would’ve gone with him, but because he thought they couldn’t be happy and left without him, that ship has long since sailed. They both wish things could have been different, but also accept that what happened happened and all they can do now is move forward with the choices they’ve made.

Much to everyone’s immense shock, though, George’s son is actually Dream’s and not Wilbur’s - a fact which Dream deduces on his own after connecting the dots between his age and musical prowess. Unfortunately, the child is terrified of Dream’s true face just as George once was and after getting the truth confirmed about the child’s real parentage, he begs for him to never know. George ultimately blames himself for what’s happened, and although he can’t take back not telling Dream of their child and the fear said child feels toward him, he swears to perform for him one last time to make up for it before they return to Paris to avoid hurting him further. Meanwhile, Dream vows everything he’s worth in the world to be the child’s once he’s gone even if he can’t be his father, and Fundy isn’t happy to hear that in the slightest because he will have nothing after all the sacrifice he’s made for Dream. All of the sleazy deals and late nights in his dressing room plying people for Dream’s success, and he will get nothing - his mind is just too fragile to face that reality at this point without doing something rash.

Naturally, Wilbur has no clue about any of this at first and makes a drunken deal with Dream regarding George - if George sings for him, he and the child will stay with Dream and Wilbur will leave. If George doesn’t sing, he and the child will leave with Wilbur with all of their debts wiped away as not to burden their family further with his problems. Wilbur then proceeds to try his best to convince George to stay with him by using nostalgia yet again since he now knows who the child belongs to as well, but in the end, George realizes that although he may have loved Wilbur at one time, his love for Dream transcends all that and has never once wavered despite everything they’ve been through. Throughout everything, Dream has always been there waiting for him and wants nothing more than for George and their child to have the life they deserve - Wilbur lost all of that a long time ago. George makes his choice, and Wilbur leaves as promised with the acceptance that he while no longer makes George happy, Dream does and he’ll take care of him - but the child, however, leaves with a distraught Fundy seeking to “right his problems.”

They manage to catch up to Fundy in time to avoid disaster, but not completely as he still views George as the reason he could never be happy with Dream and winds up fatally shooting him in the midst of a mental breakdown. Dream can do nothing but hold George - the man he loved and was finally loved by in return  - as it’s revealed to the child who his real father is, only for him to flee the scene in horror of the truth. For once, Dream is at a loss for what to do because there isn’t any more time for them to have their happy ending and he hasn’t any idea what to do about their child without George. In his dying moments, George soothingly reminds him of one simple fact: Love never dies, and the best thing he can do is just live and give everything he can for both himself and the child now as all they have is each other. With a final kiss, George slips away and a sobbing Dream is left cradling his body when the child and Wilbur - who he ran to find to help George after he was shot - arrive on the scene. 

Dream isn’t cruel. He understands how Wilbur must feel in the same situation, so he allows him to mourn the loss of George in his own way with the child as he contemplates whether or not he can continue on. While he debates what to do with himself, the child slowly comes to him unafraid and willing to face the man he now knows to be his father in a new light. In his eyes, Dream can see George, and that’s more than enough for him to stay just a little longer in the world.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sorry if that’s a lot to process and read through, but it was a lot to get out and I wanted to be crystal clear on things as not to confuse people. This is for the most part just hitting the main plot points of the musicals, however, tweaking and adjustments and further deep-dive analyses can be done now that I’ve gotten the main idea out of the way. I definitely don’t want to stick too strictly to it myself and want to tailor it more to the SMP events and characters, but I’ll save that for later since it’s already super late and I should be writing my fic instead.

Happy writing kiddos, thank you for letting me indulge myself with this concept and I hope you enjoyed it~ <3

#don't sleep won't sleep #sleep is for the living #poto & lnd AU #dreamnotfound #georgebur #phantom of the opera #love never dies #dream #dreamwastaken #georgenotfound #wilbur soot #fundylive #fundywastaken #sapnap #punz #you don't know how happy i am to finally mess with more musical junk #this is honestly one of my favorite ideas surrounding them

[pretimasafghanistanlitblog]

“Ten Interesting Afghani Novels”

1. Under the Persimmon Tree by Suzanne Fisher Staples

Intertwined portraits of courage and hope in Afghanistan and Pakistan Najmah, a young Afghan girl whose name means "star," suddenly finds herself alone when her father and older brother are conscripted by the Taliban and her mother and newborn brother are killed in an air raid. An American woman, Elaine, whose Islamic name is Nusrat, is also on her own. She waits out the war in Peshawar, Pakistan, teaching refugee children under the persimmon tree in her garden while her Afghan doctor husband runs a clinic in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan.

Najmah's father had always assured her that the stars would take care of her, just as Nusrat's husband had promised that they would tell Nusrat where he was and that he was safe. As the two look to the skies for answers, their fates entwine. Najmah, seeking refuge and hoping to find her father and brother, begins the perilous journey through the mountains to cross the border into Pakistan. And Nusrat's persimmon-tree school awaits Najmah's arrival. Together, they both seek their way home.

Known for her award-winning fiction set in South Asia, Suzanne Fisher Staples revisits that part of the world in this beautifully written, heartrending novel. (goodreads.com)

2. Words in the Dust by Trent Reedy

Winner of the Christopher Medal and a "heart-wrenching" Al Roker's Book Club selection on the Today Show.

Zulaikha hopes. She hopes for peace, now that the Taliban have been driven from Afghanistan; a good relationship with her hard stepmother; and one day even to go to school, or to have her cleft palate fixed. Zulaikha knows all will be provided for her--"Inshallah," God willing. Then she meets Meena, who offers to teach her the Afghan poetry she taught her late mother. And the Americans come to her village, promising not just new opportunities and dangers, but surgery to fix her face. These changes could mean a whole new life for Zulaikha--but can she dare to hope they'll come true? (Amazon.com)

3. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan's last thirty years - from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to post-Taliban rebuilding - that puts the violence, fear, hope, and faith of this country in intimate, human terms. It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives - the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness - are inextricable from the history playing out around them.

Propelled by the same storytelling instinct that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once a remarkable chronicle of three decades of Afghan history and a deeply moving account of family and friendship. It is a striking, heart-wrenching novel of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love - a stunning accomplishment. (goodreads.com)

4. Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra 

Since the ascendancy of the Taliban the lives of Mosheen and his beautiful wife, Zunaira, have been gradually destroyed. Mosheen's dream of becoming a diplomat has been shattered and Zunaira can no longer even appear on the streets of Kabul unveiled. Atiq is a jailer who guards those who have been condemned to death; the darkness of prison and the wretchedness of his job have seeped into his soul. Atiq's wife, Musarrat, is suffering from an illness no doctor can cure. Yet, the lives of these four people are about to become inexplicably intertwined, through death and imprisonment to passion and extraordinary self-sacrifice.

The Swallows of Kabul is an astounding and elegiac novel of four people struggling to hold on to their humanity in a place where pleasure is a deadly sin and death has become routine. (goodreads.com)

5. The Pearl That Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi

Afghan-American Nadia Hashimi's literary debut novel is a searing tale of powerlessness, fate, and the freedom to control one's own fate that combines the cultural flavor and emotional resonance of the works of Khaled Hosseini, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Lisa See.

In Kabul, 2007, with a drug-addicted father and no brothers, Rahima and her sisters can only sporadically attend school, and can rarely leave the house. Their only hope lies in the ancient custom of bacha posh, which allows young Rahima to dress and be treated as a boy until she is of marriageable age. As a son, she can attend school, go to the market, and chaperone her older sisters.

But Rahima is not the first in her family to adopt this unusual custom. A century earlier, her great-great grandmother, Shekiba, left orphaned by an epidemic, saved herself and built a new life the same way.

Crisscrossing in time, The Pearl the Broke Its Shell interweaves the tales of these two women separated by a century who share similar destinies. But what will happen once Rahima is of marriageable age? Will Shekiba always live as a man? And if Rahima cannot adapt to life as a bride, how will she survive? (Amazon.com)

6. Shooting Kabul By N.H. Senzai

In the summer of 2001, twelve-year-old Fadi's parents make the difficult decision to illegally leave Afghanistan and move the family to the United States. When their underground transport arrives at the rendezvous point, chaos ensues, and Fadi is left dragging his younger sister Mariam through the crush of people. But Mariam accidentally lets go of his hand and becomes lost in the crowd, just as Fadi is snatched up into the truck. With Taliban soldiers closing in, the truck speeds away, leaving Mariam behind.

Adjusting to life in the United States isn't easy for Fadi's family, and as the events of September 11th unfold the prospects of locating Mariam in a war torn Afghanistan seem slim. When a photography competition with a grand prize trip to India is announced, Fadi sees his chance to return to Afghanistan and find his sister. But can one photo really bring Mariam home?

Based in part on Ms. Senzai's husband's own experience fleeing his home in Soviet-controlled Afghanistan in the 1970's, Shooting Kabul is a powerful story of hope, love, and perseverance. (goodreads.org)

7. Green on Blue: A Novel by Elliot Ackerman 

Aziz and his older brother Ali are coming of age in a village amid the pine forests and endless mountains of eastern Afghanistan. They are poor, but inside their mud-walled home, the family has stability, love, and routine. One day a convoy of armed men arrives in their village and their world crumbles. The boys survive and make their way to a small city, where they gradually begin to piece together their lives. But when US forces invade the country, militants strike back. A bomb explodes in the market, and Ali is brutally injured.

To save his brother, Aziz must join the Special Lashkar, a US-funded militia. As he rises through the ranks, Aziz becomes mired in the dark underpinnings of his country’s war, witnessing clashes between rival Afghan groups—what US soldiers call “green on green” attacks—and those on US forces by Afghan soldiers, violence known as “green on blue.” Trapped in a conflict both savage and contrived, Aziz struggles to understand his place. Will he embrace the brutality of war or leave it behind, and risk placing his brother—and a young woman he has come to love—in jeopardy?

Green on Blue has broken new ground in the literature of our most recent wars, accomplishing an astonishing feat of empathy and imagination. Writing from the Afghan perspective, “Elliot Ackerman has done something brave as a writer and even braver as a soldier: He has touched, for real, the culture and soul of his enemy” (The New York Times Book Review). (barnesandnoble.com)

8. Caravans by James A. Michener

First published in 1963, James A. Michener’s gripping chronicle of the social and political landscape of Afghanistan is more relevant now than ever. Combining fact with riveting adventure and intrigue, Michener follows a military man tasked, in the years after World War II, with a dangerous assignment: finding and returning a young American woman living in Afghanistan to her distraught family after she suddenly and mysteriously disappears. A timeless tale of love and emotional drama set against the backdrop of one of the most important countries in the world today, Caravans captures the tension of the postwar period, the sweep of Afghanistan’s remarkable history, and the inescapable allure of the past. (barnesandnoble.com)

 9. A Cup of Friendship: A Novel by Deborah Rodriguez

From the author of the “bighearted . . . inspiring” (Vogue) memoir Kabul Beauty School comes to a fiction debut as compelling as real life: the story of a remarkable coffee shop in the heart of Afghanistan, and the men and women who meet there - thrown together by circumstance, bonded by secrets, and united in an extraordinary friendship.

After hard luck and some bad choices, Sunny has finally found a place to call home - it just happens to be in the middle of a war zone. The thirty-eight-year-old American’s pride and joy is the Kabul Coffee House, where she brings hospitality to the expatriates, misfits, missionaries, and mercenaries who stroll through its doors. She’s especially grateful that the busy days allow her to forget Tommy, the love of her life, who left her in pursuit of money and adventure.

Working alongside Sunny is the maternal Halajan, who vividly recalls the days before the Taliban and now must hide a modern romance from her ultratraditional son - who, unbeknownst to her, is facing his own religious doubts. Into the café come to Isabel, a British journalist on the trail of a risky story; Jack, who left his family back home in Michigan to earn “danger pay” as a consultant; and Candace, a wealthy and well-connected American whose desire to help threatens to cloud her judgment.

When Yazmina, a young Afghan from a remote village, is kidnapped and left on a city street pregnant and alone, Sunny welcomes her into the café and gives her home - but Yazmina hides a secret that could put all their lives in jeopardy. As this group of men and women discover that there’s more to one another than meets the eye, they’ll form an unlikely friendship that will change not only their own lives but the lives of an entire country.

Brimming with Deborah Rodriguez’s remarkable gift for depicting the nuances of life in Kabul, and filled with vibrant characters that readers will truly care about, A Cup of Friendship is the best kind of fiction - full of heart yet smart and thought-provoking. (Amazon.com)

 10. In the Sea There Are Crocodiles By Fabio Geda

What would you do if, when you were ten, you were left to fend for yourself, and, in order to survive, you had to undertake a harrowing journey all the way from Afghanistan to Italy?

In early 2002, Enaiatollah Akbari’s village fell prey to the Taliban. His mother, fearing for his life, led him across the border. So began Enaiat’s remarkable and often publishing five-year ordeal—trekking across bitterly cold mountains, riding the suffocating false bottom of a truck, steering an inflatable raft in violent waters—through Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, and Greece, before he eventually sought political asylum in Italy, all before he turned fifteen years old.

Here Fabio Geda delivers the moving true story of Enaiat’s extraordinary will to survive and of the accidental brotherhood he found with the boys he met along the way. In the Sea There Are Crocodiles brilliantly captures Enaiat’s engaging voice and humor, in what is a truly epic story of hope and survival, for readers of all ages. (barnesandnoble.com) 

[afni-fics]

In Hindsight: Chapter 4: Fifteen Years Earlier... Chained

In Hindsight: Chapter 4: Fifteen Years Earlier... Chained by C_R_Scott Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Tim Drake/Tam Fox, Jack Drake/Janet Drake, Janet Drake & Tim Drake, Jack Drake & Tim Drake, Lucius Fox/Tanya Fox, Tim Drake & Tam Fox Characters: Tim Drake, Tam Fox, Janet Drake, Jack Drake, Lucius Fox, Bruce Wayne Additional Tags: Tim Drake-centric, Family Drama, Family Secrets, Family Feels, Childhood Friends, Childhood Trauma, Childhood Memories, Childhood Sweethearts, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Good Parent Janet Drake, Bad Parent Jack Drake, no beta we die like robins, Bruce Wayne Tries to Be a Good Parent

Previous Chapter | Masterlist | Next Chapter

Story Summary:

What if bleeding out in a Middle Eastern hotel room was not the first time Timothy Drake-Wayne and Tamara Fox met? What if they were actually childhood best friends, but life and circumstance forced them apart for years to the point of forgetting each other?

Concept/Prompt: What if Tim Drake was originally raised by his maternal grandmother for the first eight years of his life due to "circumstances" involving his biological parents? What if Tim's grandmother was also the next door neighbor and occasional sitter for Lucius Fox's family?

Chapter Summary: Susan Klein and her daughter have just returned home after spending the last five hours at Gotham Children's Hospital with her barely two-year old grandson. A breaking point is about to be reached.

"Why don't you leave him?"

"I still love him."

"He threw a glass at you while you were holding your son!"

"It was an... accident."

"Timber has six stitches and a bottle of prescription pain meds that don't care if it was an 'accident' or not, which we both know it wasn't!"

Though Susan and Janet were trying very hard to stay quiet as they whispered to each other outside the closed door to Timothy's bedroom in Susan's home, the Klein matriarch struggled to control her volume as the conversation persisted. Recognizing this, she took a step away from her daughter to recompose herself.

Then she motioned for the stairs with a sharp snap of her hand.

As she led her only daughter into the kitchen, they both heard the old grandfather clock chime the midnight hour. They had only just gotten home from Gotham Children's Hospital thirty minutes prior.

"Janie," Susan started as she started filling a teapot with water. "This can't keep happening." After setting the pot on the stove, she leaned against it heavily as she before finally turning on the heat. Then she finally looked at her daughter. "This is the third visit to the ER for him in six months."

Janet Drake nee Klein sat at the breakfast table with her face buried in her hands. "I know."

"Someone's going to report this to CPS soon, if they haven't already tonight."

"I know!" Janet snapped, though the sob in her tone cut any heat that might have initially been behind the words. She bowed her head. "I know," she murmured sadly.

Susan studied her daughter with a critical eye. "You say you can't leave him because you 'love' him, but I know you Janie. What's the real reason you won't leave him?"

Janet shook her head before burying her face in her hands. "He won't give me a get. He won't let me divorce him, and he threatened to fight for full custody of Tim if I force a hearing before the rabbinical court."

As the tea kettle started whistling, Susan venomously cursed the name of her monstrous son-in-law. How DARE he use her daughter's beloved faith as a weapon to against her!

As she turned off the stove and pulled the tea kettle up so she could pour the hot water into her teacups, Susan's mind was working. A solution formed as she watched the fragrant bloom of auburn seep from the teabags into the clear water. It was not an ideal solution. However, while she couldn't do anything her agunah daughter, at least not in this moment, perhaps...

"Janie. I know you're chained to Jack, but would he care if you left Timothy for me to raise?" Susan looked at Janet with grim resolve as her daughter raised her head.

Though her initial expression was stricken, slowly it smoothed over into a stoic resignation. She wiped the tears from her eyes. "I can convince him. It wouldn't be hard." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Timber deserves to grow up safe and free and-" Tears welled up in Janet's eyes again. "-and in a house full of love without fear."

Susan set a teacup in from of her daughter, then bent close to hug her tightly. 

Author's Notes:

The Klein household is one of Jewish faith. Janet's religion was always very important to her growing up and into her adulthood. So when she married Jack, it was a traditional Jewish wedding ceremony.

Unfortunately, because it was a traditional Jewish ceremony, seeking a divorce is not a simple matter for her as the wife. In order for her to get a divorce, in keeping with her religion, she needs her husband (Jack) to "grant" her the divorce with a document called a "get" of his own free will. Without the "get", Janet would be unable to remarry, and any children born afterwards with a different man would be considered illegitimate in the eyes of her faith.

In this AU, Jack is an abusive controlling husband, and he refuses to allow his wife to leave him. This has made her an "agunah" or "chained woman" who is now trapped in her religious marriage to Jack.

However, while Jack refuses to allow Janet to leave him, he doesn't really care for his son. Since Tim is so young, Jack actually resents how much time Janet has to spend focused on the boy rather than him. So when Janet offers the option of sending their son to be raised by her mother, so they can have the "freedom" to spend more time together just the two of them on archaeological digs and other work projects, Jack is open to the idea because Janet is voluntarily offering to put focusing on him above caring for Tim.

This, of course, isn't really the case. Janet's primary concern is Tim's safety and wellbeing. She doesn't want to risk her son getting abused (or worse) by Jack, and she is willing to sacrifice her own safety and happiness to make sure he grows up safe and loved, even if she can't be there for him.

#tim drake#tam fox#tim/tam#red robin#fanfiction#wip#rr: in hindsight#batfam#batfamily#lucius fox#bruce wayne

#rr: in hindsight #tim drake #tam fox #janet drake #tim/tam #red robin #fanfiction #wip #batfam #batfamily

[atopearth]

Nightshade Part 1 - Ishikawa Goemon Route

I'm superrrr excited to play Nightshade! I've always been so curious about it so yayyy! Enju looks so cool and cute too. Toriumi Kousuke voices Chojiro? Okay, I love him already, and it seems like he's a big brother figure too, I love those🥲🥲 I have a soft spot for overprotective bodyguard types like Gekkamaru too though, he's so loyal! Maybe to the point of it being detrimental to the both of them though, since when Enju trains, he protects her lol, and he doesn't go out on a lot of missions because he wants to protect her. I guess the good thing about it is that this is of his own free will. I guess it's interesting that Enju is the symbol of peace between the Iga clan (that was mostly decimated by Oda Nobunaga) and the Koga clan (who was the Iga's rivals and ended up taking in the remnants of the Iga clan) due to being the daughter of the Koga clan master and the late Iga clan master's sister. Ohh Chojiro is Momochi Tanba's (late Iga clan master) son! I wonder how he feels.. Wow, Kando (Enju's father) looks so fierce and cool. I guess Gekkamaru protecting Enju isn't completelyyyy his free will, considering it was what Enju's deceased mother asked of him and he's kept his promise to this day. Awww Chojiro recommended Enju to come along for the mission! Exciting! I can't imagine having to go on a mission for 8 years, I wonder if Enju and them will even recognise Kuroyuki. I can't believe Kuroyuki was sent on the mission when he was 8 years old! That's just crazy.. Aww Kasumi is so cuteee, her crying at everyone leaving on a mission was so sweet. Lmao at Chojiro telling Enju and them that the mission will always come before their lives and Gekkamaru completely dismisses it later by saying it doesn't matter to him since Enju will always be his top priority.

Kuroyuki definitely seems like he has a lot of baggage with him, but I guess that's to be expected when he was dumped on a mission at such a young age, and if he's coming back alone, that means for all these years, he must have been really lonely. He never got the support of others like Enju and them did. For some reason, I really like Kyara's voice, I should check the VAs. Okay, omg no wonder why lol, I loveee Hayami Saori~ WHOA, I'm in for a ride, Tsuda Kenjiro voices Hanzo? I'm looking forward to that. Oh nooo, Midorikawa Hikaru voices Goemon?? I don't like Goemon's looks, but I guess I'll love his voice regardless😂 Right now, he kinda reminds me of Tamahome from Fushigi Yuugi lol. Even though Enju's naive, I really did like how she took back the girl's money bag from the thief and gave it back to her naturally. I'm kinda interested in "Goro" (Goemon), he looks sleazy (lol) but he seems to be quite mature? Oh, their mission is to find the next place Goemon will rob? I know Goemon is a "good" person because he only robs officials who are corrupt and don't treat the citizens properly, but that's about all I know haha. I guess it's understandable why Ishida Mitsunari needs to capture him if Tokugawa Ieyasu and other council guys are coming, it would be pretty embarrassing and shameful to not be able to catch a single notorious thief, and it doesn't help that Toyotomi Hideyoshi is getting older and the council elders have considerable influence. Btw, lmao at Kyara trying to cook with her weapon😂

Wow, Ieyasu is beautiful~ I love his looks🥺 I didn't realise that guy was Hattori Hanzo until I heard his voice a bit more though hahaha. Anyway, yeah, Enju throwing a shuriken to save Ieyasu (when he used himself as bait) was definitely reckless and silly as a shinobi, but I can't really dislike her for it, because she's not someone who can just ignore that. Considering that Hanzo is the strongest/top Iga ninja, and is tasked with protecting Ieyasu, is he a part of Koga now or is he independent? Honestly, I always took Kuroyuki as a flighty guy so when he stood up for Enju (when Hanzo called her a burden if they were to take her along to kill the guys after Ieyasu) against Hanzo, I was a bit touched. Ieyasu is really kind to think about the shinobi who died protecting him from the assassin, it is pretty saddening tbh. Enju catching Goemon was pretty cool, I think he really let his guard down and didn't want to hurt her though. I knew Hideyoshi was going to die and Enju would be accused as the killer, but it's kinda sad since Hideyoshi seemed genuinely happy and impressed with her. Anyway, considering how important Hideyoshi is, I'm surprised they even let him be alone with Enju with no guards at all?? Or any ninjas to protect him or anything?? I like the idea of Goemon "stealing" her away, so she's not escaping and causing more trouble for the Koga clan, but I wonder what will happen to the clan... I mean, Ishida's missions were what kept the clan going so... Anyway, I forgot that Goemon was an Iga ninja, that's certainly interesting, and he left before the Iga clan was basically destroyed so hm~

Aww Enju and Goemon traveling together, pretending to be husband and wife and holding hands is so cute~ I love how Goemon speaks his mind and tells her she's cute, because Enju is definitely super cuteee. Lmaoo when the innkeeper thought they were siblings. How heartbreaking to hear that Enju's father disowned her... It's probably what he needed to do to protect the rest of Koga, but yeah that would hurt. At least Gekkamaru is adhering to what he said before and is ready to discard everything to protect Enju. I agree with Goemon and his choice to leave the village though. I mean, it's respectable and crazy how dedicated and loyal shinobi are to their mission and to their villages, but shinobi literally live for all that and nothing else. It's admirable, but it's also such a saddening way to live? Especially since so many of them die so frequently for their missions. I'm personally glad Gekkamaru is doing this for Enju. I guess in a sense this journey is a blessing in disguise (as long as no one dies) because it will help Enju think about how she wants to live. She's always been stuck in her village "protected" by everyone just because she's the symbol of peace, so rather than appreciating her for who she is, people only look at her as a symbol that needs to exist, yet Enju feels like she needs to "repay" them for treating her so kindly when they basically imprison her in the village and bind her to it in a sense to make themselves feel better. Not saying they're not nice people but the whole ninja village thing isn't really great when it comes to anything about freedom and choice, so it's nice for Enju to now see things with a different perspective. It was cute how they both said to each other they would be a good wife/husband. As for Mokichi, I was suspicious when he insisted on going to the festival alone with Enju, but I do feel bad for her. I know Enju is very careless, too naive and kind for her own good, but I honestly wish to see her continue to see the world in a nice way because it's saddening otherwise I guess. I'm surprised Gekkamaru didn't follow them at all though, like it's still dangerous!!

I was wondering what Kuroyuki was doing this whole time considering he's just like his brother Gekkamaru in terms of how much he wants to protect Enju, but it seems like he was trying to look for her too! Oh.. Goemon wasn't even born into Iga, he was sold there and used as disposable pawns when needed and trained harshly to the point that if he couldn't take it, they would just dump him. Honestly, Goemon hasn't really made my heart flutter much haha, but when he got angry and asked Enju whether she wanted to live or die (when she thought maybe she should stop running so she wouldn't trouble the others anymore), and then when he told her that he would stay beside her until the end, I couldn't help but feel touched. He's not optimistic enough to think that they will definitely survive, but he's not willing to give up, and is willing to do whatever he can to stay alive alongside her and I think that's sweet. Goemon patting her head as she enjoyed the soothing view of cherry blossoms was nice. Enju has really gone through a lot these days so I'm glad Goemon is always trying to help her relax a bit. Whaaat?! Goemon was the Fuma leader?? Oh...Goemon escaped from Iga when he was 8 and somehow or another ended up at Fuma.. I guess Goemon hates killing because of the amount of people he's killed before, and knowing how "easy" it can be with the ninjutsu he learnt as the Fuma leader... It's nice how comfortable they've gotten with each other that they can even sleep side by side together now lol.

I honestly don't really trust Mitsunari, and really don't know if this "goodbye" with her friends will really be for the good. I mean, even on the off chance Mitsunari has good intentions, other people in the castle don't. Anyway, I really liked how forward Enju was in wanting Goemon to stroke her head, and he even kissed her on the forehead~ Goemon is a flirt but he's always so polite and careful with Enju, it's kinda cute. Honestly, the last bit with Goemon pretending to kill Chojiro and them etc was pretty... meh? Like, it was obvious what was going to happen, especially with the gold and him giving it to people lol. I guess something nice and interesting was that Enju will continue to hide from the public eye since she's supposed to be dead, so she'll be traveling with Goemon from now on. Kinda cute how Goemon is more open with his affections. The bad ending was quite nice, I liked how it was Enju who gave up on living because of everything that happened, and because of that, Goemon ended up using the ninjutsu he hated so much to kill the Elders for causing all this to happen, and forcing an innocent girl to lose the will to live and basically sacrifice herself.

Overall, while I do like Goemon's personality, I find his route very lacklustre. I think the biggest problem with Goemon's route is that it's very focused on Enju and her escape from the Elders and how Goemon helps her with that, supports her and that's how they end up bonding by both encouraging her and understanding the desire to live for oneself rather than romance. There were cute moments that I enjoyed between the two, but I don't feel like I learnt much about Goemon as a thief or even as the Fuma leader. They talk about his past and why he hates it all, but it doesn't expand on it which can be okay, but the story doesn't expand on the current him as Goemon either. All we ever learn about him is the superficial stuff like he's a good thief with a crappy past, and that he's a flirt lol. I just feel like since it was his route, I wanted to learn more about him, because other than his desire to live without being tied down to stuff like villages and stuff, and hoping that people like Enju wouldn't have to sacrifice their lives for stuff like that, I'm not sure anything much happened. Like, I wanted to see more of the ramifications of how it was for a shinobi clan to lose their master, how Goemon's "betrayal" towards the Fuma went etc. So yeah, kinda disappointing. The bonus scenarios and stuff were nice though, especially when they chatted about little Chojiro back in the day being cute hahaha.

#hyakka hyakurou #nightshade

[nomimits7]

Cold Phoenix | 1

Title: Cold Phoenix

Pairing: FBI BTS x Gang/mafia member (named) reader

Genre: Mission au, FBI au, Gang au

Warnings: Angst, manipulation, riddles (sorry), betrayal

Summary: Being born as the Taboo child between the good and the bad of this world, Zebah grew up believing she was just another one of the stolen. But just like the moon that needs the sun to shine, seven FBI agents enter her life with the promise of freedom. Before long Zebah realizes she is just another pawn in the game of Mafia vs. FBI. Will Zebah ever learn to trust the seven men that betrayed her to get what they wanted? Will she ever believe the truth behind her own birth? Or will Zebah fall alongside her family that lied to her from the start?

A/N: This story is told in the third person. Try to guess who the narrator is! Also this is my first time writing in this style. Please do tell me what you think. Should I keep to it or not?? The bold words are flashbacks of past scenes. The normal words are what the narrator tells.

@kookmin9795land​ Hope you like it 

*-*

“It’s done. Mommy made the big bad mistake go away. Now, remember what mommy said. You made this mistake…” The woman with grey hair points to the new-born baby in her son's arms “and whatever mommy had to do in there is your fault. If she ever finds out about her true identity, mommy will have to ‘fix’ that to” The woman concluded as she exited the hallway, ordering some of the bystanders to clean up the mess. She was the wife of one of the most feared mafia bosses out there. Ruthless and heartless, even towards her own son's breaking heart. No amount of tears could break her, even if she silently felt joy seeing and holding her first grandchild.

“Don’t worry angel, even if you might never know the truth… Daddy will always love you and protect you from afar” He whispered close to his newly born daughters’ ears. Regret and sadness the only available emotions as he watches the others remove the love of his life’s lifeless body. A silent sacrifice to save her life. A sacrifice she would only come to hear about when it’s far too late. His mother has removed the sun in his dark life, fortunately, he had his daughter to fill the void, even if she, like the moon, would only reflect her mother's brightness.  

Growing up in the mafia Zebah always thought she was one of the stolen. You see there were just too little children born into the mafia to maintain sufficient numbers, so some of the mafia leaders decided to steal what they needed. Reinforcements. At first, they stole teens, they were young and could learn fast, but they also had grown to the extent where they wouldn’t forget their past lives. They would rebel against the mafia, causing more problems than fixing them.

Soon the age decreased, toddlers were kept under lock and key and even baby cribs had alarms on them. People started living with the fear that their child would be next. Once Phoenix took them, they would never be seen again. The only time they would be found, is when they have already reached skeletonization.

Once the children were old enough to talk and walk properly, their training began. From handling knives to shooting with their eyes closed. They were trained to become the best of the best. The best at hiding, the best at stealing, the best at killing. Even though they knew children would sometimes make mistakes, they treated it as a game of baseball. Strike one was a warning, strike two a punishment, and strike three meant you were out. Out of the mafia and out of society. How they killed off these recruits depended on the day, but luckily Zebah never got to experience such an event. She barely had one strike to your name.

It’s been sixteen years since her training started and twenty-one years since she started breathing. Zebah was ruthless and feared amongst the mafia members. Even some of the rival mafias kept their distance from her. She was still young, but since her skills surpass most of her seniors, Zebah quickly became a favorite. Even her best friends and partners in crime envied her position. Alex and Ray barely left her side. Even with her skills, they knew Zebah was still just a young girl stuck in the mafia world. Physically feared but mentally broken. All of them were, their upbringing wasn’t exactly normal.

Most of the mission they were sent on went without fault, but they were still learning. This fact alone was why the big boss never sends them on ‘more important’ missions. The risk was just too high, the FBI and even some rival mafias would take any chance they got to take down Pheonix, even if they would have to deal with Z. Luckily they always failed, and as cocky as that sounds that may be exactly what lead to their success in the end. One thing nobody realized in the beginning was just how fragile the minds of the young ones are. Phoenix simply focussed on the hardcore stuff. They barely trained their minds to withstand temptation. This was one of the biggest mistakes Phoenix could ever have made.

So why this is important you ask? Well, you see every story has a start and the very birth of the taboo child leads to the downfall of Pheonix. She might have been born and raised in the mafia, but her heart was pure and believe me when I tell you she wanted out. None of her friends shared her desire and Zebah learned that the hard way. Now I won’t bore you with the boring stuff, so I’ll cut to the very boys who granted her, her freedom. I have to warn you though, this story doesn’t have the usual ‘enemies to lover’ enigma. This story includes heartbreak and betrayal with a dash of blood for taste.

You won’t believe me when I tell you that it was seven FBI agents. You heard me right, seven FBI boys. These seven were compiled of three hackers and four specialists. Now I know in the FBI all of the agents get trained in how to handle a gun and how to investigate and all that nitty-gritty shit. But here’s what sets these seven men apart. Their leader is a genius. Not in the sense of he can solve a crime within 5 seconds, no he’s extremely smart in the strategic sense. I think he mentioned once he had a degree in philosophy or something like that. The oldest hacker came from a criminal background. Both his parents were cyber thieves and they taught him everything he knows. One of the specialists was a chemist, the other two are experts in human behavior. The other two hackers just did it as a side job to get through college.

So in short, these individuals make up one heck of a team. Maybe that’s why their superiors gave them the mission to take Pheonix down. But the funny part of this whole story is that they never made a move. It was like they were the mafias and were waiting for their target to slip into their trap. At the time Pheonix didn’t even know they had a new target on their backs. Typical if you consider what idiot the leader was.

“Boss. We worked through the entire list of known mafia members and identified 3 candidates we can consider as possible insiders. All male, all young and naïve” Hoseok said as Namjoon walked into the office. This was not great news. Naïve-ness leads to failed missions and that’s one thing they could not afford. They had an image to maintain after all.

“You know that’s not a good start at all, right? We need insurance. Someone willing to take down the only family they know.” Yoongi casually stated as he cleaned his weapons. None of the profiles were stable enough to use. They all held the risk of failure. Some of them the members were too high up and other members were to low down to trust. It was nearly impossible for them to find an in.

“Maybe we’ll find something tonight. There’s a small gathering down at the docks and if my sources are correct, there will be a deal going down.” Seokjin said gaze still firmly attached to his screen.

“And how do we know your sources can be trusted Jin? People lie all the time to get what they want” Namjoon asked somewhat frustrated that his team’s not getting anywhere. It’s been a whole week since the big man told them to take Pheonix down and the man wants answers. Nothing made Namjoon more pissed off than someone nagging him for progress, especially in a high-profile case like this. Taking down Phoenix would be considered one of the most impossible tasks to ever cross an agent's desk. Many have tried in the past, and all have failed.

“Seriously Joon? I’m a hacker for goodness sake. I saw the text messages with my own eyes. Before you say anything I know it’s illegal that’s why I had Kookie send in an anonymous message leaving the tip for us to follow” Seokjin said as he finally made eye contact with a ‘shocked but not surprised’ Namjoon. He has done this before, once a criminal always a criminal. Seokjin, like the others, lived for the thrill.

If there is one thing you should know about this group of seven it’s this, they play by their own rules. I still believe that if it weren’t for their leader to keep them in check or his ability to legalize their actions, they would have been very cunning criminals.

Part 2

A/N: I know its short but there’s a reason...A good one. Let me know if you want to be added to a taglist! thank you for reading <3 

#nomimits7 #bts #bts x reader #Zzzz #named oc #ot7 #ot7 x reader #namjoon #seokjin #yoongi #hoseok #jimin #taehyung #jungkook #zebah #mafia #gang #fbi #whatever other tags writers use

[party-of-rpg-muses]

A Dichotomy Between Yuna and Seymour

I’ve been wanting to go over this for a good while. Honestly, the idea came to me while replaying FFX and I noticed that Seymour and Yuna have so much in common, and so much different. So I’d like to go over that.

First, let’s start off with Yuna. Born to a human father and Al Bhed mother. Her parents believed that their union would bring the two races together in harmony. However, this caused both sides to despise the two for their marriage and disregard the child as well. Yuna’s mother was disowned by her family while her father, Braska, was cast out of the clergy. When she was 4, her mother was killed by a Sin attack, causing Braska to go on a pilgrimage to slay Sin, during when she stayed in Bevelle, the Yevonites looking down on both of them. Her father for marrying an Al Bhed and Yuna herself for being the daughter of an Al Bhed. Eventually, he succeeded, but at the cost of his own life and as a result, Yuna lost both of her parents.

With the coming of the Calm, Yuna was taken to Besaid Island, where she was raised by the villagers as one of their one, especially forming a bond with Lulu, Wakka, and Chappu. As time passes, Sin returns and Yuna decides to become a Summoner like her father.

And now for Seymour. He was born to a Guado father and human mother. Their marriage was meant to foster more positive relations between the Guado and humans, but instead, it caused both races to hate the child and view the young Seymour as an abomination. In hopes of calming the masses, Seymour’s father, Jyscal, had his wife and son flee to Baaj for safety. However, she knew she was going to die soon and rather than leave her son alone, she decided to become his Final Aeon in hopes of him gaining the trust of humans and Guado.

The two journeyed to Zanarkand before meeting with Lady Yunalesca. Thus, she became Anima. But so upset by losing his mom, Seymour abandoned his pilgrimage. Once Sin was defeated by Braska, Seymour was able to return home, where he was welcomed with open arms.

As for their personalities, Yuna is a very kind, caring, polite young woman who will do anything to help others, even at the detriment of herself or her journey. And yet, she’s incredibly soft-spoken and struggles to raise her voice in any regard or let people know what she thinks, especially if it’s a disagreement. No matter who she meets, she does what she can to see the best in people while remaining hopeful that, despite Sin being eternal, people can find some level of peace, even if its temporary. She’s even perfectly willing to end her own life, especially if it means bringing people hope.

Seymour appears as a friendly individual who’s just as willing to help people, even breaking Yevon’s teachings if it means fighting a common foe or bringing people together. But in truth, Seymour is completely nihilistic and sees death as the only absolute, as well as freedom from Spira’s eternal suffering. At the same time, he sees himself as a martyr, someone willing to make a great sacrifice for the sake of others.

Both Yuna and Seymour suffered greatly during their early years; being half-human and their births (while still being born out of love) hoped to bring peace between the races; Yuna’s uniting humans and Al Bhed and Seymour’s uniting humans and Guado. But they only wound up being rejected by both sides and treated with disdain from all but their parents. Even Yuna’s uncle wanted nothing to do with his sister’s family. Not to mention, both lost a parent, which greatly affected them. Yuna lost her father and while we never see any interactions between them, it can be assumed that Yuna was very close to her father. And Seymour lost his mom, his only companion when they were effectively exiled.

But where they differ is in their upbringings and how their respective parent’s death affected them. When Braska died, it was to save Spira, protecting Yuna by extension. Not to mention Yuna spent much of her life in Besaid Island, where she was treated with love and respect from everyone on the island, even having somewhat of an extended family in the form of Lulu, Wakka, Chappu, and Kimahri, none of them treating her poorly because she’s half-Al Bhed (or at the very least, Wakka didn’t know). And her father’s sacrifice brought him adoration and respect from all.

With Seymour’s mom, she allowed herself to become her son’s Final Aeon, costing her her life in the process. This was in hopes that by defeating Sin, Seymour would finally be accepted and loved by the rest of the world, but taking away her son’s only companion and leaving him alone with a creature that only does his bidding that is in perpetual pain. It wasn’t until Braska’s Calm that he was finally allowed back home, but by then, he already dealt with a lot of pain and suffering, the death of his mother being a big one for him.

If you think about it, the two are more alike than they seem, being half-human and half-non human with their birth being reviled by both sides and growing up surrounded by Yevon. But where Yuna differs is that her upbringing had more positive influences. Though she still had to deal with death (particularly the death of her father and Chappu), she always had people around who cared for her and supported her when she was down.

With Seymour, even his own father seemingly rejected him and his mother, and his mother become a fayth in an attempt to give him happiness, only to have the opposite effect, turning him nihilistic and convinced that death is deliverance from suffering and the only path of hope for Spira.

It’s also worth noting that Seymour doesn’t treat Anima as if it was his mother, but more like a familiar to follow his commands. Yuna, however, treats her Aeons with compassion, such as petting Valefor or catching Shiva’s cloak. And when summoning Anima against Seymour Omnis, Seymour reacts with disappointment (”You would oppose me as well? So be it.”) rather than confusion; again, seeing as this is his mother as an Aeon.

Yuna and Seymour are opposite sides of the same coin. Overall, if things were just a little different, Yuna may have turned out a bit more like Seymour and Seymour would have turned out a bit more like Yuna.

#Final Fantasy X #Seymour Guado #Yuna #FFX Yuna #Final Fantasy X spoilers

[satonthelotuspier]

Jiang Cheng

The Boy Who Couldn’t Please Everyone - or - The Boy Who Was Failed by Everyone.

So, the absolute core of Jiang Cheng’s existence is his family; there’s not much arguing that he and Jiang Yanli are the same in that respect.

And the theme of his life is being pulled in myriad directions by myriad people for their own ends. No one ever just let Jiang Cheng be Jiang Cheng, until maturity made him his own man, and by that point he was a bitter, twisted version of himself who had gone through too much.

From the moment Wei Wuxian came into their lives Lotus Pier was shaped to accommodate him. We all know Jiang Cheng loved his dogs, but Wei Wuxian was scared of them, so they had to go, I don’t need to explain to pet owners/animal people how heartbreaking this would have been, especially to a small child, he had to share his bedroom, his private safe space, and his father showered Wei Wuxian with the affection and attention and regard that he never ever seemed to give to Jiang Cheng, his own son.

I’m not for even a second saying that Jiang Fengmian shouldn’t show affection for Wei Wuxian, it’s entirely possible to love someone not of your own blood as you do your own child, but if you don’t give the same attention and regard to your own child just because of the woman whose womb bore him, (if we believe what Yu Ziyuan accuses him of), then you’re a pretty shitty parent. Perhaps we should take what an estranged wife says with a pinch of salt, but in the end Jiang Cheng still felt like his own father didn’t love him as much as Wei Wuxian, which means he was a failure as a parent. 

Jiang Cheng is unarguably emotionally insecure, probably as a direct result of his parent’s marriage and their attutides to him.

Basically Wei Wuxian’s arrival was the start of a lifetime cycle of loss, always linked back to Wei Wuxian, starting with his pets and his own father.

And despite this Jiang Cheng undoubtedly loved this usurper like a brother. They grew up together and to all intents and purposes Wei Wuxian was his brother, just not by blood, and therefore under his protection. “If there are any dogs, I’ll chase them away for you” - even though he had to give his own dogs away because of this cuckoo in the nest he was still willing to protect him with everything he had.

He grew up in a tight knit sibling trio, but he also grew up being the bone of contention between his parents; YZY would accuse JFM of being more of a father to the child of his friends than his own son, to the point that people questioned whether WWX was JFM’s, and she said this time and time again in front of her own son. Way to screw him up, parents.

He was basically a weapon she used against her husband, who, instead of dealing with her and protecting his son from being so used, virtually ignored her and let her continue, only ever coming to WWX’s defence and never questioning what damage was being caused to JC. 

So YZY constantly filled Jiang Cheng’s mind with poison and tried to turn him against Wei Wuxian, a boy he loved like his own brother; he was a trouble causer, he would hurt the sect, he would hurt JC’s future and he had to listen to his mother tear WWX to pieces, watch her bully WWX, and whenever he tried to defend him JC was shouted down and hey, you have to listen to your mother, be a filial son and shut up.

Is there any wonder this kid didn’t know which way his head was screwed on when he was piggy in the middle of this hate triangle? He was literally pulled three ways in his own family before he even got out into the wider world.

Lets go to Cloud Recesses. JC was boring, being the voice of reason, trying to spoil WWX’s fun with his constant talk of the rules and not upsetting the Lans.

Well of course, as the Jiang heir he had to be. He understood he was under a weight of expectation and had to be seen to behave in a certain way; he was representing his sect and any shenanigans reflect badly on Yunmeng Jiang. WWX had much more freedom to cause hijinks as the head disciple, not a Jiang by blood, and lets face it JFM would only ever apologise, not scold, no matter what he got up to. If we examine what WWX said, something along the lines of “You’ve already buried my corpse so many times, whats once more?” we see while JC might have occasionally gotten dragged into WWX’s schemes he was also the one to have to apologise for him, to mop up after him. He’s the younger brother and he always had to be the adult on behalf of them both because thats just WWX, what a little scamp eh? WWX just does what WWX wants. If only JC had that freedom.

He loves WWX like a brother, but there’s no wonder he’s so jealous of the other, being better without trying, automatically handed all the things JC should have gotten too, it would be fair to think there would be a small part of JC that hated WWX’s guts, even in their teens.

We all know how the story progresses, and the loss the trio suffers, the culling of the Jiang sect, JYL’s tragic death, but lets discuss one of the hidden things WWX could be considered to have stolen from him.

His sacrifice.

Lets be under no illusions, Jiang Cheng was fully aware what he did when he drew the Wen guards away from WWX in Yiling; he was sacrificing his own life to protect his brother, a brother who had already taken so much from him; but he still loved to the point of being willing to die for him. He expected nothing but death but Wei Wuxian ruined it all and even one-upped him by rescuing him half-dead and sacrificing his golden core. He hadn’t even been allowed to outshine his brother in his greatest moment of self-sacrifice.

If WWX had told the truth at that point, shared what had happened with his golden core JC would have been hurt, but likely he would have gotten over it; and you have to wonder would the other sects have been able to drive a wedge between them if he’d had the full facts of how indebted he was to WWX, and WQ.

Instead he didn’t understand, JC was still being pulled all ways by all people for their own purposes, the sect leaders were whispering in his ear about WWX and the Wens, playing on his grief and his hatred. 

Lets not forget he wasn’t much more than a child at this point who’d never had to stand on his own, used to trying to keep the peace between his parents, surrounded by men manipulating him for their own ends. He was the young  sect leader of a regenerating sect, and big shots like Jin Guangshan were tutting and theorising what foul deeds the Yiling Patriarch was up to at the Burial Mounds, backed up by the baying mob, and no one saw JGS’s secret agenda for what it was, and they put this young man, who had no support whatsoever, under so much pressure to ditch his shixiong was there any surprise he caved in in the end? He was a grieving, lonely kid who had always been part of a trio or a duo, and he was on his own.

He absolutely should have stood by WWX, we all agree with that, but  conversely WWX never stood by JC, his account was settled with the golden core; he didn’t need to stay and help him rebuild Yunmeng Jiang like he promised because, pat on the back, he’d already given JC so much, job done, account settled. WWX is about the big gestures, gotta save the world, the little things don’t matter, like promises and family. It was even WWX’s selfishness, not wanting to have to deal with JC knowing, that kept the information of his golden core from him.

So yes, JC spent most of his life trying to please everyone, meet everyones expectations of him, from his parents and his brother, to the other sect leaders, basically to be used by most every one of them.

And he was equally failed by everyone. His parents, instead of nuturing him, used him to hurt each other, WWX took and took from him until there was nothing left, lied to him and kept him in the dark about something so hugely important because he couldn’t be bothered to deal with JC knowing, even his sister deserted him; and the sect leaders who should have supported him and been the voices of reason, who could have mentored him, like Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue, seem to have disconnected their righteous brains for this entire period of the story.

Thank goodness for Jin Ling, or else JC would have ended up with nothing.

#mdzs #mdzs meta #character study #jiang cheng #mdzs thoughts #long post #the grandmaster of demonic cultivation #mo dao zhu shi #the untamed #character analysis

[darisu-chan]

I think we’re missing a point here.

It’s not that Adrien and Marinette’s love destroys the world or will cause problems.

I do agree they need to move on from their crushes and that that will help them see each other in a new light and maybe learn from each other enough so that their infatuation becomes love.

However, their love wasn’t what actually caused the problem. A recklessness in using their powers for love did, but that’s attributed to the fact they are teenagers. But even beyond that, it’s not their love which has been causing problems.

It’s Gabriel’s.

Or rather, Gabriel’s obssession with bringing his wife back.

And, I get it. Losing a spouse, no matter the circumstances, hurts. Losing a parent hurts as much. And though many people might think “if there’s a possibility to bring them back, I would take it no matter what” there needs to be a line between what’s right and achieveable and what it’s just plain wrong.

Gabriel becoming Hawkmoth, terrorizing a whole city and fighting against teens, literal children, is crossing that line.

Even if Adrien wasn’t Chat Noir, it would still be wrong.

Many people say they’d do anything to protect those they love, but I think the real question must be “Should you?”

And you might think Gabriel could have been redeemed. He loves his wife that much, so he must love his son as well. But the thing is we’ve hardly seen him acting like a real parent to Adrien. Remember Adrien was isolated even when Emilie was still around. It makes you think that there’s always been a barrier between them. We don’t even know if Gabriel purposely isolated Emilie too. Some say Emilie might be as evil as Gabriel given the way Adrien’s life has been so far, but what if she was a victim just like Adrien? That movie Adrien wanted to watch seemed to have been filmed before Adrien was born. It makes me think Emilie stopped acting altogether. It could be said it was her choice to dedicate herself to being a mother. But something just isn’t right here. Maybe Gabriel, fearing Emilie might be taken from him, isolated her too. Maybe the real cause of Emilie’s condition was that she used the peacock miraculous in the same way Adrien uses his own miraculous: to be free.

Perhaps Gabriel drove Emilie to repeated uses of her miraculous to taste a bit of freedom. In doing so, she pretty much caused her own death. It might explain why Gabriel is so desperate to save her. It makes me think that it is guilt which is his main motivating factor and not love as he claims. Guilt that he caused her to feel so unhappy she resorted to using an object which made her sick. 

And it fits. Why? Because Gabriel doesn’t seem like the type of person who experiences love in a healthy way. Compare him to Tom Dupain, for example, a man who also loves his wife and his daughter. Do you think that if Sabine ever passed away Tom would become a terrorist? No. He would let her go and dedicate his life to taking care of Marinette. Would he research in his own private time how to bring her back? Possibly. But never at Marinette’s expense. Because Tom knows how to love. He would never willingly put his own daughter in danger. 

On the other hand, we’ve seen that Gabriel is doing exactly this which Tom would never do. The way he treats Adrien seems to have been pretty much the same throughout his life. Adrien has never once said that his father gave him more freedom before his mother disappeared. Or that he was a warmer person. The only difference to how his life used to be and how it is now is that his mother is gone, and Emilie seems to have been his only support. Ironically, he has more freedom now.

If Gabriel truly knew how to love, he would treat Adrien differently. And he would have gone about this whole thing much differently.

If Gabriel knew how to love, he wouldn’t have gone as far as to deliberately cause Adrien pain. 

And sure, he’s said before he’d give up his quest to protect Adrien. But how long did that last? Minutes. Literally. He wasn’t actually able to give up his powers. 

He might say he loves his son, but the fact is he doesn’t show it.

At this point, I’m not even sure he loves Emilie either. I feel he might have ideolized her or is just so obssessed with her he wants her back, no matter the cost.

And trying to justify it by saying he’s doing it for Adrien is the worst part of it all. Because if he truly wanted his son to be happy, he would actually be there for Adrien. He would spend time with him. He would get to know his son. And he wouldn’t bring pain to the people Adrien cares about (Nino, Marinette, Chloé, Kagami) for his plans.

And the same can be said about Nathalie.

She knows that what Gabriel is doing is wrong, no matter his reasoning.

She knows it’s wrong and she helps him.

She wants Gabriel to be happy, but at the expense of everyone else’s happiness and well-being, even Adrien’s. 

The two might tell themselves they’re doing this for the people they love, but they are actually being selfish.

Nathalie doesn’t feel love in a healthy way either. The way she loves Gabriel is self-destructive. She’s giving all of herself, setting aside her own morality to help him achieve his own goals. And she might think she’s being selfless, after all, if Emilie comes back to life, the two can’t be together. In choosing his happiness over her own she’s proving she loves him. But isn’t she also sacrificing herself so Gabriel has no choice but to notice her? In a twisted way, it’s the only way to gain his attention.

That’s not love.

That’s obssession too.

Adrien and Marinette’s young love isn’t what is causing any problems. They still have a lot to learn but even they love each other in more healthy ways. They have called each other out when the other person is not acting right. They have helped each other grow in and out the mask. And in fact Adrien is so different from Gabriel that he didn’t help him own willingly. Even if that would mean bringing his mother back.

The take away from this series is that obssession is not love.

Gabriel is not doing any of this for love. He’s fooling himself into thinking he is, but he’s not. He wants control, he wants power, he wants Emilie back at all costs because he doesn’t care about anyone else but himself. He doesn’t love Nathalie either. If he did, he would have never let her use the peacock miraculous, not after what happened to Emilie. He’s willing to sacrifice her too just like he’s willing to sacrifice Adrien.

And this ties amazingly well with the reason Adrien and Marinette were even chosen to defeat him.

Both showed kindness and selflessness and that is why they were given the two most powerful miraculous.

The two symbolize goodness and purity, oppossed to Gabriel’s inner darkness.

And if Gabriel, and Nathalie to some extent, symbolizes obssession, Adrien and Marinette will end up symbolizing love in its truest form. A love which is not selfish or obssessive. A love between equals. A love that allows the other to grow. 

True love.

#miraculous ladybug #adrienette #gabriel agreste #nathalie sancoeur #miraculous ladybug meta

[mxtherskywlker]

SHMI SKYWALKER

the biggest problem in this universe is that no one helps each other

THE PAST

Born on a ship while traveling the galaxy, Shmi loved her parents and seeing new sights, meeting new people, bringing smiles to those around her. That was until her and her parents were captured by pirates and forced into slavery when she was just a young girl. She lived a difficult life as a slave, and was taken from star system to star system in the servitude of several masters. Eventually she was bought by the Hutts who brought her to Tatooine. It wasn’t too long after than Shmi had her son, Anakin, who was raised as a slave with her.

At one point, Shmi and Anakin were owned by the female Hutt crime lord Gardulla until she lost them in a bet with the Toydarian junk dealer Watto, who employed Anakin's services at his shop. While Watto could be a harsh and demanding master, he still furnished them with a home in Mos Espa's slave quarters. Despite their poverty, she made Anakin and herself a good home through her tireless effort. When Watto did not need Shmi, he allowed her to gain a modest living cleaning computer memory devices. She made a small part of their house into a work station, which possessed just enough of the tools and equipment to properly work.

A few years before the outbreak of the Clone Wars, Watto's gambling habit left him to be essentially destitute, forcing the Toydarian to sell Shmi. Luckily for her, a moisture farmer named Cliegg Lars met and fell in love with her. Lars purchased but freed her, and the two eventually married. She also became a loving step-mother to his son, Owen Lars. C-3PO also lived with them, and Shmi had a quiet yet happy life at the Lars moisture farm in Tatooine's Jundland Wastes. However, she spent many nights with an ache in her heart and looking at the stars, as she was worried about where Anakin was and his well-being.

THE PRESENT

Waking with a freedom she had never had, Shmi spends her time as she had in the past, cleaning devices for a modest living. At least, as modest as she could tell. Knowing her son is still out there, Shmi desperately wants to see him again, to tell him she’s proud of him, but for now she must make do.

PERSONALITY

Shmi Skywalker Lars was a peaceful, selfless and kind person. She loved her son Anakin and was willing to sacrifice herself in order to let Anakin have the possibility of a better life. During her time under Watto, Shmi still had hope that she would eventually be free, but she accepted her lot in life and had joy in her relationship with Anakin, cherishing their modest life.

#galactics.intro

[luciehercndale]

James and Cordelia and James and Grace: an analysis

Hi! The other day I wrote a post explaining why, in my opinion, James and Grace are not meant to be together and won’t probably be together (I do wonder if they have supporters? No idea). 

SPOILERS FOR COG2, OF COURSE.

Well, for one, the reason why they may not end up together is that we have a family three that shows that James and Cordelia got married. Of course, like CC said, this may be misleading, but I believe that most of what it says it’s correct.

Two, Cordelia and James are both main characters, while Grace is a secondary character more than a main one. (I think the main main characters are James, Cordelia and Lucie and I guess aside from Cordelia, they are going to be on the covers of the last two books, just like for example on the original TMI covers we had Jace, Clary and Simon on the first three book covers.) Some may argue that a main character can end up with a secondary character, but what would the point be? It’s true that there is conflict between James and Grace and that they give the vibe of the star-crossed lovers who can’t be together because she’s thinking about herself more than she’s thinking about him - if you think about, anything Grace ever did in CoG was for herself. Which isn’t a bad thing, but it just means that in her list of priorities, James is the one she’d most likely sacrifice for her own survival. Either because she doesn’t love him so much as she claims or because she’s sacrificing their love for her own sake. James and Grace are like Pip and Estella (hence the Chain of Gold inspiration and why it’s James’ favorite book). In the end of Great Expectations (SPOILER IF YOU HAVEN’T READ IT) Pip ends up loving Estella, but Estella ends up with someone else in the end (the first husband dies while the second is a doctor... Christopher?!). Miss Havisham is clearly Tatiana Blackthorn, lol. In the end, Estella and Pip remain friends, which is what will eventually happen to James and Grace once the bracelet magic is over. Great Expectations ends with a bitter note and there is no Cordelia-alike character for Pip/James, but in CoG2 she is there. And she is the one who will probably mend James’ broken heart. I think I read a post on CC’s tumblr where she said that we’ll see how and if Cordelia can break the silver bracelet spell, since she seems aware that there is something wrong with it. After all, I still believe Cordelia is James’ missing piece. Unlike Grace, not only Cordelia showed to be selfless and loyal even if she could risk to hurt herself (like when she follows James into Belial’s dimension). She also proved that in the end she could lose everything but she wouldn’t want to lose James (and the others, not only him) if she can do something to help them. Which is why she lied that they were together when Tatiana was accusing him.

Three. Grace is a Blackthorn. The Blackthorns have had a difficult relationship with the Herondales and the Lightwoods ever since they killed Benedict. It is an overused cliché to make the guy/girl fall for the guy/girl who is the son/daughter of your declared enemy. Remember when I talked about star-crossed lovers? This also resonates with the Romeo and Juliet idea I wrote above, even if in this case the Herondales and the Lightwoods don’t despise the Blackthorns even if Tatiana treats them like gum under her shoes. But... Jesse is also a Blackthorn. During CoG we saw how he and Lucie got closer despite him being a ghost, which would make him impossible to love, since he is nothing but a shadow (for now). Yet, Lucie probably already fell for him and is determined to find a way to make it come back to life as flesh and blood. If you think about it, James and Jesse are alike: James can turn into a shadow while Jesse is a shadow. And after James met Belial and was dying, he came back to life because of Jesse’s last breath, and this, my friends, is not casual at all. Plus, you can tell Jesse is not like his mother, and out of the two Blackthorns, he is the most likely to end up with a Herondale, which takes Grace out of the question. Why? Because it would be too predictable to make BOTH Lucie and James end up with a Blackthorn, and Lucie’s story with Jesse is much more complicated and attracting as a plot twist than James and Grace’s ever be. 

Four. Besides the Jesse/James parallel, Grace and James’ stories are alike in some ways: they both end up engaged to someone they wouldn’t have chosen in other circumstances. Grace chooses Charles because of his position, James chose Cordelia because of her lie. Charles accepted Grace’s proposal to protect himself, since he wants to keep it secret that he is gay. Cordelia accepted James’ proposal to protect him. They both have something to lose: Grace might lose her freedom, Charles his image, James could be questioned because he met with a Prince of Hell, Cordelia might lose her honor as a woman. While Grace and Charles’ decisions are selfish (they only think about themselves in the end), James and Cordelia’s are selfless (they care more about the other person’s safety and well-being more than theirs). They did it because they wanted to help each other. Cordelia lied to protect James and James lied to protect Cordelia. Unlike CG, James wouldn’t have cared to be questioned (he is someone who faces his actions) nor Cordelia would have cared to be ruined and without a husband (James’ secret was far more important than her reputation). Which could end in tragedy when and if these lies would come out. In Grace and Charles’ case, I can’t imagine Tatiana’s ire against her. And Charles may or may not lose his credibility because after all, it doesn’t seem that many shadowhunters besides his family and friends are willing to accept a gay man as the consul. In James and Cordelia’s case, on the other hand, they may face issues, but it seems that being safe is what counts the most. Which, ultimately, like I said on the post I linked above, could lead us to new twists, like James having to face what happened in Belial’s dimension and Cordelia being proposed to by Matthew so that she’d still be respectable. I can totally see Matthew doing this, since he also likes Cordelia. 

Five. Bodily reactions? Well, I don’t know how to define this point, lol. But let’s just say it’s about physical attraction. James kissed both Cordelia and Grace in this book, and we experienced how he behaved with them. Despite what bracelet!James says at the end of CoG2, that his kiss with Cordelia was all pretense, we know that nobracelet!James told Cordelia that he meant that kiss. Meant. Since we know the bracelet is binding James to feel something for Grace, it makes all of his “affection” (I called it infatuation on the other post) is not genuine. I mean, it’s obvious James likes’ Grace’s appearance because she’s described as a very beautiful girl. But every time they interact or kiss, I felt nothing but coldness, ice. James and Grace’s kisses lacked passion, so to speak. Even when they were alone, they never kissed with the passion of a thousand suns. Even Grace’s appearance recalls the cold. She looks like Elsa from Frozen. OK that every couple has its “temperature”, but man... with Grace, James seemed like a mannequin, which, in literature, isn’t a great sign. A couple that lacks heat is a dead couple. At least to me. I usually don’t like “cold” couples, even though they exist, and usually they are not endgame if one of them is a main character. Trust me. Which brings me to James and Cordelia... let’s start by saying that Cordelia is Grace’s opposite. Everything about her is warmer: her eyes, her skin, her eyes, her heart. Cordelia means “lionheart” from French but also “jewel of the sea” from Welsh. Both meanings apply to Cordelia, which likes to face danger head on and she’s fierce, doesn’t care if her dresses get ruined. James and Cordelia only had one kiss, THE KISS, which ended all other kisses. The way the whispering scene was written, the way that kiss went, basically made James forget about all of his previous kisses (I assume he only kissed Grace before, because of his loyalty to her). It was hot and heavy because James and Cordelia are hot and heavy. Because Cordelia lights James on fire, basically, so much that he isn’t able to control himself like a big fire. I am one of those people who likes fire couples. Basically, most of Cordelia and James intimate scenes happened around fire or a metaphorical heat: when he has scalding fever, Cordelia is the only one who can stay by his bedside and she takes care of him and James thinks about how she didn’t run away when he turned into a shadow. Then when Cordelia risked to drown and James takes Cortana back to her and she’s sitting in front of the fire in the library. And even in the end when James goes to destroy the clockwork thing in Blackthron manor and this starts the fire, when they are about to go out of the building James takes Cordelia in his arms because he thinks her leg still hurts. 

If these aren’t enough evidence, I don’t know what is. I really wish I am not wrong, but of course we’ll know when the books come out. LOL.

I don’t know if you read the whole post, but if you did... thank you!

#jordelia #James and Cordelia #cordelia and james #james herondale #Cordelia Carstairs #grace blackthorn #lucie herondale #jesse blackthorn #Chain of gold #the last hours #my edits