#but it's YOUR CHOICE of course

[copypastus]

What if acotar antagonists got the same level of justification as our 'heroes' from the Night Court did?

#my art #acotar #acotar fanart #amarantha #prythian's best worst girl #keir #beron vanserra #anti rhysand #posting this on april 1st pls don't take their excuses TOO seriously #is just so silly to me rhys can excuse anything he does with a 12 page monologue and 2 tears #keir can cry the two tears too! #amarantha can give you a choice between doing what she wants and horrible suffering #but it's YOUR CHOICE of course #kinda like 'go die in the human lands or get locked in the house of wind' :) #with beron i'm just indulging myself

[spacedace]

So like...Danny as Ghost King getting to help sort people into the correct/prefered afterlives, and talking with all the Justice League peeps to figure out what they want/where they want to go ahead of time like it's a pension plan or like he's a Travel Agent.

Like he gives tours around various afterlives around the Ghost Zone, offers up different "packages" they can choose from.

"With the Ghost Package you can come back to the living realm, but you will be locked in with an Obsession - it's not as bad as it sounds, but we can go into more detail later on what it entails if you're interested - and you will be bound to a particular Haunt. Also my parents might try to capture and experiment on you."

"Unfortunately you don't qualify for the Revenant package due to how many times you've already died and come back, but I *can* get you set up with one of our Reincarnation representatives if returning to the living world is something you are interested in."

"Guardian Spirit is a popular choice, so there is a bit of a waiting time in terms of getting paperwork processed, but if you sign up for it now while you're still alive all that can be done ahead of time and you can jump right in once you pass on. You will need to make sure you regularly update the list of who you will be watching over considering your propensity for adoption."

#dc x dp #dp x dc #danny phantom #justice league #after life planning agent Danny #Danny: If there are any deities or higher powers you want to talk to after you die let me know #Danny: of course you're allowed to beat the shit out of a god in your afterlife thats like half the fun of being dead #The Infinite Realms: Where Your Afterlife Choices are Infinite #call your local half dead boy god king today to see what Afterlives you qualify for today #(Infinite Realms is not responsible if you are content with your death and afterlife only and your living loved ones - #- bring you back to life out of grief and desperation only to find that you have come back changed.) #danny fenton #ghost king danny

[ghouljams]

https://www.instagram.com/p/C1Ki8d-vJU1/?igsh=N2ViNmM2MDRjNw==

… opinions on a pirate au? Just one more au?

There are four things that every pirate prays to. No gods, no masters, no kings, but the laws of sailing, things the cannot be left up to chance. The sea, the wind that carries them over her, the stars overhead that chart their path, and death. It's the pirates that pray for a pay day that really get into trouble. Ghost has never had that issue. He likes guarantees, likes knowing that there are constants(the sea, the stars, the air in his lungs, the long sleep waiting for him at the end of it all), likes days without surprises.

Except that Ghost has already met one of the four laws. He's found himself in graves both watery and dry, and every time he's managed to cheat death out of what they're deserved. Every time he's managed to outwit, out maneuver, out gun the very thing that waits for every pirate. He won't say how, finds the scars over his lips sewn shut every time he attempts to, but it's well known. Ghost has beat death, maybe not for good, but enough to know what's waiting for him on the other side. Enough to know that laws of nature don't follow human constraints, and that the men he's aligned himself with are meant for more than just this.

Enough to find the island he's been seeing in his dreams and unearth the only thing pirates hope against. He can call you whatever he likes when he cracks open the heavy wooden lid of the chest you were buried in: Greed, Envy, Violent passion, passing fancies, the first on a long list of things that doom pirates to the shore. You call yourself inevitable, the same as any of the laws, and you've just found four new vessels tailor made for the ideals they pray to.

#ghoul speaks #simon ghost riley #cod x reader #x reader #x oc #simon ghost riley x reader #cod x oc #ghost mw2 #ghost x reader #pirate!ghost #pirate au #there's my take do not expect more #loosely based on a dnd campaign I wrote #all cosmic horror and choices that were never yours to make in the first place #oc: Love #of course...

[bumblingbabooshka]

My name is [BRUTUS] and my name means [HEAVY] so with a [HEAVY] heart I'll guide this dagger Into the heart of my enemy

Something about having absolutely no choice in who you marry. About being literally forced by the law to spill blood - to accept this stranger as your husband over a man you truly care for or accept the fact that the man you love might die because you put him in danger. Something about risking becoming the wife of a man you've never even seen before a few minutes prior because you know anything would be better than putting your beloved in harm's way. Something about the trust inherent in that decision and in the way she speaks of it after. Truthfully, T'Pring doesn't know the captain and she doesn't know Spock. Either one of them could have taken her as their wife but she does know Stonn. She knows that Stonn will remain by her side no matter what. They made a plan together. They have an agreement which T'Pring believes will be upheld even though the plan changed with the arrival of Kirk. Stonn will always be there, always, and Stonn will be hers. Something about the language used around T'Pring: Ownership, subservience, non-personhood. T'Pring is an object that Spock can win. She cannot reject him, she has no say in the matter other than having Stonn 'claim' her instead. Even when Spock leaves after being very clearly rejected by T'Pring he says "Stonn, she is yours." as if despite her clear rejection he still owns her and is must formally 'give' her to Stonn. But the language T'Pring uses around Stonn is a break from that: "There was Stonn who wanted very much to be my consort, and I wanted him." Stonn who wanted very much to be HER consort and she WANTED him. The language here is very particular - It's not, for example: "Stonn wanted me to be his wife" - he is HERS. And she WANTS him. There's a mutual affection there and a strong trust - a trust which seems to be well founded since Stonn (though silent) stands by her side at the end of the episode. <- That might seem small but if Spock would reject her for 'daring to challenge' (again, the language is not 'because I don't want you' but more of an implied disgust at her having the AUDACITY to reject him) then it's not a stretch to assume that it'd be considered an insult in the TOS Vulcan society to NOT choose Stonn as her champion after a prior agreement. Anyway T'Pring was a woman in an impossible situation within a society which saw her as more of an object than a person and she wanted Stonn and Stonn wanted to be hers and she trusted that he would understand if she had to publicly pick someone else to ensure his life would be spared and he did understand.

#amok time #T'Pring i s....T'Pring she....-puts my head through a wall- #PLEASE read under the cut for my rambling about T'Pring in amok time pleasepleaseplease #tired of 'T'Pring is evil/a bitch' and VERY uninterested in 'T'Pring is a girlboss' #T'Pring is a person in a society which doesn't think she has the right to make her own choices who's in [love] with a man who [loves] her #back in what I'd like to think is implied to be a slightly subversive way in its mutual and fervent nature (whether the writers thought #this was a good or bad thing - who knows. We know better RIGHT??) #and yes I will stylize T'Pring's hair differently every single time I draw it HEHEHE #star trek tos #Spock #T'Pring #also of COURSE something something spock/kirk & stonn/t'pring parallels: To keep your beloved safe you have to force someone else to kill #theirs - not BC you hate him (you don't) but you don't love him either and why does HE get to have you even if you don't want him?? Why doe #he get to 'give' you to the person YOU chose?? It's not a hatred on a person level (which I wanted to portray with the 'brothers') portion #but a sort of societal embodying. #I will think about T'Pring not wanting to be 'the consort of a legend' every damn day !!! #They really could have laid it on thick in making her evil guys...T'Pau even makes a comment about Spock's 'vulcan blood is thin' #but all T'Pring says is that Spock is a legend and she doesn't want that for her life. She wants Stonn. #And you're gonna sit there and you're gonna tell her that she's wrong!??? Spock doesn't even want to be with her!! Why is she so hated!? #CAN WE FREE MY GIRL??? She did all that but it's being read in the worst faith possible!! #comix #bea art tag #star trek art #She literally says the word 'FREE'...she's TRAPPED!!!

[fumifooms]

Canines

The hand that feeds

Mickbell Tomas & Kuro Dungeon Meshi

^ 1: Ink-the-artist, I will remove my teeth / 2: Margaret Atwood / 3: C.S. Lewis, The Horse and His Boy / 4: Mitski, I’m your man / 5: Ojibwa, I love you like a rotten dog / 6: KotOR II / 7: Stardrop, Everything that’s ever been mine is covered in teeth marks / 8: Sodikken, People Eater / 9: Mitski, I’m your man / 10: maxime., The life and death of a dog / 11: Mitski, I bet on losing dogs / 12: maxime., The life and death of a dog / 13: hun, I did not bite with Malice / 14: C. Michael Davis, Don't Pet the Dragon / 15: Mitski, I’m your man

v 1: Early versions of the myth as in aeschylus orestes / 2: Ink-the-artist, I will not remove my teeth

#Yeahh i’m workng on a mickbell & kabru party analysis oops #I’d bleed for anything if it held me the right way. Even teeth #dungeon meshi #delicious in dungeon #Mickbell tomas #kuro #mickuro #mickrin #It’s on topic in my heart #The red means I love you… #The duality between the care & devotion and the hurt & isolation is really what gets to me #Traumabonded kittens highkey #Tw #cw #cw abuse #tw abuse #Web weaving #web weave #webweaving #I hit 30 pics :( would have added more if i could #Idk even anymore… Pls tell me you see the vision #Mick obvi loves Kuro a lot but this was meant to focus on the unhealthy side if that wasn’t obvious. Abuse tactic of isolation etc etc #People always leave. doesn’t matter how or why but his parents his sister everyone he’s never enough to stay #and that’s why he thinks he has to trick Kuro into thinking Mickbell’s the whole world or he’ll discover that there’s more out there. #Stuff that’s worth leaving him for. He has to make the world scary and unknown and not pay him and not let him have connections #That’s why he doesn’t want people to have a choice!! Either Mickbell doesn’t care about you or he’ll make sure you can never be without him #and there being a third option/outcome in this freaks him out!!! #Some of these should be called ‘No Title’ instead but I have bad academic crediting etiquette this looks cooler sorry #He’s scared of course he bites. There’s only throwing bones when feeding a stray. So bare your teeth and chew me up

[jade-lynxx]

It's hilarious we spend the whole show coming to know Chen Xiaoshi as impulsive and rash only for the final 10 seconds to prove that LU GUANG is the most reckless one all along

#Hes gay and codependent your honor #What else could you expect from him? #Of course he has to go back and alter all of time and space for his stupid boyfriend #He has no other choice #link click #lu guang #chen xiaoshi #Shiguang

[everysongineverykey]

i love how unfatherly crowley and aziraphale both are when it comes down to it. sure aziraphale is more than willing to give the young people in his life help and advice and be their friend but he and crowley spent six years (eleven in the book) practically raising a kid (you just know his parents weren't around that often) and by the end they didn't even like him. crowley even suggested they just fucking kill him. he turned three kids into lizards for annoying him right after he destroyed their house. like it was that or kill them obviously but he did NOT hesitate with the newts. that's so funny to me. they're just inherently disinclined to parenthood. we need more characters like them actually

#good omens #i think if aziraphale HAD to take care of a baby no choice he would give them some cocoa #and play mozart for them and just kind of let them do their thing in the bookshop. away from the books of course. #like he would make sure they were safe and sheltered and he would be kind to them #but it would really show that he was just imitating fathers he had seen in books #crowley was not meant to raise children. he's a wine aunt plain and simple. he'd love to be called 'auntie crowley' #but he has no friends with kids so he has to be content with his brief stint as nanny. #the demon put a basket with a baby in it in the backseat of his car untethered and let it slide around #from side to side while he drove dangerously. canonically that is something he did #it's also my headcanon that he has some complicated feelings about parenthood and family roles #yknow. when you're technically one of 'god's children' but she cast you and so many of your siblings down to hell for asking questions #when the closest thing you have to a mother made you murder innocent children for a bet. #it can make you hesitant about that sort of thing!

[dallonwrites]

a little reminder to my fellow writeblrs that the small text i see used for aesthetic reasons is not accessible for everyone! personally i find it very hard to read and gives me a lot of eye strain trying to, and in the end i just scroll past any post that uses them. i've also heard people say that some text to speech readers can't process them. there are lots of ways you can make your posts pretty that still allows for everyone to read them

#putting off getting up scrolling a lot and sometimes i see a post i really want to read but like i just cant put the effort + strain in #that it takes for me to read stuff in small text :[ #of course i cannot stop people from using it. at the end of the day it is your choice. but i want people to at least know

[mokagachas]

the narrative gameplay design of is3 vs is4 is really good

i really like it. its driving me insane.

we've all played is3 right. here's the gist of is3: the ocean is treacherous and cruel and ever-changing. there is something with you in the water and you can not see it, you can't even sense it properly- you see flashes of what it is and it is so, so much more incomprehensible than you.

you can stock up well in is3. hell, you can stock up REALLY well- you can get dozens of collectibles and hit all the right operators and you might roll 1s the entire way down.

because is3 is based on helplessness.

is3 is a scenario where your fate is determined by the roll of a die. you will grit your teeth and sigh as you get hit with the worst random debuff available and be like well. nothing i could do there! certainly there are choices that can be made, strategic advances and whatnot, but the ocean is what decides this for you. you are helpless to the ocean's whims.

in fact- there is certainly something comforting in helplessness! it makes the terrifying a little less terrifying. the yoke of responsibility is lifted from you!

is4 is not that.

is4 there is something with you in the mountains and it is just out of view. is4 it is gritty and unchanging and uncompromising. is4 says: here is what is in front of you. there is no chance here.

is4 gives you the terror of choice.

is4 says hey. there's the boss on this floor but you have 1 life point remaining and there's an emergency node up next, do you spend a foldartal now to get a buff or risk the wait? there's a trader node right below you but if you spend it your equipment will be damaged and maybe you'll need that down the line? either way you are making a choice.

you can see what is in here with you. you can grab it by the scruff of the neck and you can say Screw You You Are Going To Have 50% Less HP In This Node And I Will Have +50 ASPD Whether You Like It Or Not.

but it can do the same. you're not in a lush, terrifying ecosystem of the ocean, you are in a barren and frozen mountain. you are getting less collectibles you're getting less hope you've got less resources and more enemies and is4 says okay, yeah, you can shoot me.

but you only have one bullet. and you need to choose to pull the trigger.

#moka rambles #sorry for being pretentious and romatnic about a stupid little gacha game mode. sorry for being a gamedev major #it will happen again #to be clear: of course there is randomness and choice in both elements of these #u can choose what nodes youre on in is3 #when to use dice and whatnot #and in is4 the nodes that present themselves to u are random #but the overarching core gameplay elements remain the same

[astralmagpie]

Durge is the came back wrong trope for Gortash

#depending on the choices you make of course #this was the person who was supposed to help you take over the world #who shared that vision with you #and now they’re back with no idea who you are #and they’re tearing your plans apart #enver gortash #bg3 #bg3 durge #durgetash #bg3 gortash

[overly-hubristic-mad-scientist]

One thing about Dr. Daniel Cain is that he’s gonna be positively shit at his job

#That’s not how you do fucking cpr #How the fuck are you off midline at a point where he is presumed to be revered by his colleagues #What the fuck do you mean you got emotionally attached to your patient how do you even have the fucking time #All we see Dan’s patients do is fucking die #we don’t even get to see a close case no if you’re assigned Dan just write your fucking will now #The again a conventionally attractive friendly white guy getting way too much praise for a job he isn’t good at seems par for the course #I’m just saying say what you want about Herbert West but the man is a professional #Realistically with his perfectionism and god complex he probably will not afford himself the ability to not be a good doctor #Like neither is exactly a good choice since I’ll probably be graverobbed if things go south #But my chances of being in a grave to be robbed would increase greatly with Dan #reanimator #dan cain #herbert west #bride of reanimator #dan Cain Please get better at your job lives are at stake

[extra-venomous-tentacula]

Bold of JKR to assume we'd find Snape unattractive, based on her description of a hook-nosed, black-haired, sallow-skinned, thin dude

Miss ma'am.

I am Italian. That is what most men in my country look like. That is literally what my dating pool is.

Ma'am.

Please.

#severus snape #pro snape #personal #this is of course a longer; more serious discourse #like - I grew up in the UK #and of course I looked nothing like your average UK child - given that I also could be described as Snape is #(and many other nationalities and ethnicities too of course) #and now I live in Italy for the first time in my adult life and I'm realising - yeah she was just describing the average man in my ends #and I could discuss the xenophobic implications of that description (which there is plenty of) #or I could go my usual 'haha I'd pounce in that man' route #I have made my choice lol #that description could also apply to my dad but honestly we're not opening that partivular can of worms today

[paellegere]

"their relationship is romantic" "their relationship is familial" "their relationship is platonic" you're thinking too narrow. their relationship goes beyond labels. the family is inherently queer. their platonic love is romantic. the erotic is familial. each one is the other and the other is them

#.txt #i've gotten to the point of relationship anarchy where i no longer understand the obsession with labeling relationships #there's a post floating around like 'it doesn't matter if you view them as romantic or platonic the point is that they love each other' #and i get the message. however may i propose that distinctions such as that don't even have to matter. consider #bold claim probably. but whatever i didn't have the choice to think about love in a normative way and as a consequence i have thoughts #of course i am thinking about wincest but it applies everywhere. jopzier even #jopson views crozier as a surrogate parent but in an inherently queer way. does that mean he want to fuck his mom? probably not #but the fixation and need for redemption turns the traditionally familial relationship into something far more #do you understand #once you leave the normative behind labels become useless #do sam and dean love each other romantically or platonically or familially? consider: it doesn't matter. there are no words to describe it #their love is queer in the sense that it extends beyond normativity. society holds no sway over them. they are ungovernable #i find it ultimately unhelpful to discuss fiction in normative terms when the characters themselves exist outside of normative society #shows like supernatural and the terror are perfect examples. sam and dean were never normal and franklin crew left normal behind #the arctic doesn't care if you fuck your mom. the impala doesn't care if you kiss your brother #this isn't really about anything i just saw that post the other day and i was like. why doesn't this Hit for me. well this is why #however it IS helpful to discuss fiction set within normative society in relation to normativity. it's relevant! #most stories are not however set within the bounds of normativity. that's kinda the whole point of a lot of fiction #baby i explore relationship anarchy in ways that you couldn't even imagine #<-tldr #i have a tendency to write essays in the notes every time i post something. sorry about that. it feels safer here and i am skittish

[novelconcepts]

Do you ever just lay awake at night, turning over in your head the stark difference in delivery between Hewson's Van saying--steadily, unshakably--"it's just something that's happening to you...happening to us" and Cypress' Taissa saying--imploringly, whiningly--"this was not just my dream, this was our dream"?

Do you ever just turn it over and over, how often Tai tried to scare Van away, and how it only made Van set her feet more firmly? How Taissa's first love was this person who saw a problem fall into Taissa's lap, a problem that was quite literally trapped inside Taissa's body, and decided unflinchingly: No, that's an us problem now? How she refused point-blank to walk away even with blood in her mouth, how she flatly informed Tai "I'm never gonna be scared of you", and promptly turned a moment of pain into a declaration of love? And how this would etch itself into Taissa for the rest of her life? How she'd take these things that worked with Van--with the person Van was, with the bond they shared--and try so hard to run through an identical script with Simone?

Except Simone is her own person. A completely different kind of person. A person who hasn't been offered any of the context, any of the realities going on inside Taissa. So: naturally she doesn't respond the way Van did at eighteen--and will go on to do all over again in her forties. Naturally, she hears our dream as the excuse it is, not as a plea for connection. Naturally, she is scared away when Taissa pushes, and shouts, and begs. Because there isn't blood in her mouth, not yet, but there will be. And they have a son to worry about. And she isn't eighteen and a special kind of immortal, a special kind of romanticized. She's a grown woman with responsibilities, with priorities, with an understanding that you can't fix someone just because you love them. And Tai can't just perform a revival of the play she and Van had memorized twenty-five years later with a whole new performer in the works, and expect it to shake out the same.

Of course it doesn't work. But look at Taissa trying it. Look at Taissa trying to reframe her first love through a new lens. Trying to recast it. Trying to play it through again. Van taught her love was sticking out the blood, shaking off the pain, making a you problem into an us problem. Does it ever just eat at you, how tragic it is, watching Taissa try to shape her marriage around a woman who isn't even wearing a ring?

#yellowjackets #yj meta #taivan #sorry i'm just fucking obsessed with cypress' delivery choice in that scene #it is the most immature we EVER hear tai sound #and it's not teenage taissa. it's adult wife-mother-almost senator tai flat out whining in desperation #it is SUCH a choice #and then after the S2 opener to hear van sound so adult offering a glimpse as to WHY tai would #so pleadingly seek turning a Tai Thing into an Us Thing #yeah. yeah of course she would. because van shared the worst of her #van shared it without allowing tai to dissaude her. van quite literally tethered herself to tai's problems #and tai learned: that is what love is #and tai thought: this is what love is #it's sharing. and giving up on sharing is surrendering the whole thing #and she's lying! is the thing! she's lying to simone and to herself #she's making excuses for doing what she wants to do even though she shouldn't be doing it #but the core of it is Team. the core of it is Us. the core of it is #'if you love me you will be on my side. for better or worse.' #because that's what van did. for better. and for so much worse. #which isn't true. isn't actually how love works. love is sometimes putting your foot down and saying 'nah dude that ain't it.' #love is communication. but that was never taivan's game and it isn't tai's now and so she's just trying old plays #and it is NOT a play that can ever work the same with simone in the leading role. nor should it. #but god everything about them makes me so sad because simone deserves better and taissa needs what she won't admit to #anyway. will be absolutely gnawing at the walls until S3.

[spacedace]

So like...Danny as Ghost King getting to help sort people into the correct/prefered afterlives, and talking with all the Justice League peeps to figure out what they want/where they want to go ahead of time like it's a pension plan or like he's a Travel Agent.

Like he gives tours around various afterlives around the Ghost Zone, offers up different "packages" they can choose from.

"With the Ghost Package you can come back to the living realm, but you will be locked in with an Obsession - it's not as bad as it sounds, but we can go into more detail later on what it entails if you're interested - and you will be bound to a particular Haunt. Also my parents might try to capture and experiment on you."

"Unfortunately you don't apply for the Revenant package due to how many times you've already died and come back, but I *can* get you set up with one of our Reincarnation representatives if returning to the living world is something you are interested in."

"Guardian Spirit is a popular choice, so there is a bit of a waiting time in terms of getting paperwork processed, but if you sign up for it now while you're still alive all that can be done ahead of time and you can jump right in once you pass on. You will need to make sure you regularly update the list of who you will be watching over considering your propensity for adoption."

#dc x dp #dp x dc #danny phantom #justice league #after life planning agent Danny #Danny: If there are any deities or higher powers you want to talk to after you die let me know #Danny: of course you're allowed to beat the shit out of a god in your afterlife thats like half the fun of being dead #The Infinite Realms: Where Your Afterlife Choices are Infinite #call your local half dead boy god king today to see what Afterlives you qualify for today #(Infinite Realms is not responsible if you are content with your death and afterlife only and your living loved ones - #- bring you back to life out of grief and desperation only to find that you have come back changed.) #danny fenton #ghost king danny

[queenlucythevaliant]

make your choice

Digory didn’t think much on making choices. The whole world would be over when his mother died anyhow.

Of course, this didn’t keep him from being curious or adventurous. It was exciting to meet new people, exciting to go exploring and to speculate about whatever mischief his Uncle Andrew was up to. Being a lively young boy was perhaps the best distraction from being a boy about to lose his mother.

Going after Polly was so obviously right that it might as well not have been a choice at all. What else could he do? It was easy to be righteous in the face of an evil old magician who said things like "Ours is a high and lonely destiny."

Yet once they were there in that rich, in-between place, with all the worlds there were splayed out before them— ((Make your choice, adventurous stranger)) Well. What sort of lively young boy would he be if he turned back now?

Digory could feel the bell’s magic ((strike the bell and bide the danger)) beginning to work on him. There was no use in resisting. He felt tendrils of magic sinking deep beneath his skin, laying claim to any free will he’d ever had. He said as much to Polly, but she wasn’t listening.

Polly said ((or wonder till it drives you mad)) that he looked exactly like his uncle when he said that.

Jadis’s whole world had ended. Everyone had died, and she’d just gone to sleep. She might have stayed sleeping forever if he hadn’t woken her. Sitting outside his mother’s sickroom, Digory wondered ((what would have followed if you had)) if that was really so shocking. Hadn’t he been preparing for just such an end? Were Charn and Mabel Kirke so different?

Narnia was not an end. It was a beginning.

And face to face with the Lion, Digory was forced to admit that the bell had not been magic. Nothing had caused him to strike it. Make your choice, the writing had said. Digory had chosen. 

I’ve spoiled everything. There’s no chance of getting anything for mother now.

The enormous Lion asked him, "Son of Adam, are you ready to undo the wrong that you have done?" and Digory sputtered his maybes.

"I asked, are you ready?" the Lion said again.

At that very moment, an ultimatum flashed through Digory’s mind. If I salvage your beginning, will you prevent my end? If make amends, will you save my mother? He thought of refusing, of holding his choice hostage until his future was secure. Could the Lion be bargained with? Could Digory twist his arm, as he'd twisted Polly's?

But what Digory said was, "Yes."

Jadis conjured such lovely visions of the future. His mother's face would lose its gray sheen and she would say, Why, I'm beginning to feel stronger. There would be no more morphia, no more of the terrible drawn look about her when she slept. She would rise from her sickbed, vibrant and whole ((Come in by the gold gates or not at all)) rise and walk to the door and fling it open and then Digory would go running into her arms. 

He gasped as though he'd been mortally wounded. Perhaps he had been in a way. After all, had the gate not said ((take my fruit for others or forbear))? 

Jadis ((for those who steal and those who climb my wall)) called Digory the Lion's slave. Years later, he would think back over all that those words implied. The Witch seemed to think that Digory had no will, if he was willing to subordinate himself to Aslan.

But was it not Aslan who made Digory realize his own culpability ((shall find their heart's desire and find despair)), and in the same breath gave him a way to repair it? Had not Aslan given his will back to him?

And at the foot of the tree, Aslan gave Digory his future back as well. 

He was old, but now he is young again, watching as the stars fall headlong across the black of the world-that-was. The world is ending at last, but Digory does not fear such things any longer.

#'let's get some half-finished stuff done and posted before the Inklings Challenge' challenge #i'm not 100% satisfied with this but I quite like all the concepts. we'll see #i actually have a bunch of these type of character study things from back in the day that i'd like to keep revisiting #anyway. i have always always always been fascinated by the writing on the bell #curiosity would totally be MY fatal flaw in a fairytale/myth so i can absolutely see where Digory is coming from #like of course he has to strike the bell. of course #but the way it gets frames in relation to Choice and Will and Responsibility is just really cool #a neat counterpoint to all the stories of those overcome by curiosity whom the narrative justifies #it was your fault. you need to own that #curiosity for its own sake is not inherantly a good thing #and then of course i can't write about Digory without pulling in the dymanic with his mom's impending death #that is by far the most compelling aspect of MN it is the linchpin of the whole thing #so yeah #founded in song #the magician's nephew no longer #narnia #leah stories #pontifications and creations