#hopefully one day we find out who you are and sing your praises directly to you

[yukipri]

On the Baratie, Prologue - a One Piece Mermaid AU Text Story

Thanks to everyone who sent in their opinion on the East Blue stories poll! I think Sanji’s had the most, so we’re starting off with more Baratie!

While there’ll be a continuation, here’s a bit of prelude, because they need a different reason to go to the Baratie. The ASL Pirates already have a cook after all!

Like a prologue to On the Baratie, Part 1

~~

When Thatch makes up his mind to accompany Ace back to East Blue, he knows that there's one place he wants to visit no matter what.

He's only been to East Blue once, and it was honestly ages ago, and he doubts there'll be another chance in the near future. Not many opportunities to visit the weakest Blue as a commander in an Emperor's crew, after all.

And while Thatch doubts he'd travel halfway around the world for the sole purpose of visiting this spot, he's lucky. Because on this particular trip, it's practically along the way. They're passing right by the area on their way back to re-entering the Grand Line, so there's no way in hell he's letting this slip by.

It's the only request Thatch has made on this journey, and Ace and Luffy, who are the Captains and therefore technically get to decide where they go, have no objections. Luffy's already bobbing up and down in excitement, despite their guides estimating that they still have a ways to go.

"The Baratie, huh," Ace grins. "Never heard of it, we didn't pass by our first time through, did we Deuce?"

"You've never heard of it because you lived in the middle of nowhere, in a jungle with barely any contact with human civilization," Deuce says pointedly. "Most people in East Blue at least know of it, it's kinda famous."

Ace just shrugs, and Luffy whoops as the movement of his shoulders momentarily boosts her higher. Ace indulges her and repeats the movement more aggressively until she's bouncing, and Deuce sighs. The two captains' attentions have shifted, and now they're preoccupied by the most important topic of all: food.

"Food~!" Luffy sings, hopping from one arm to the other as Ace switches to spinning her around, and Deuce has to duck to avoid her tail. "Yummy yummy food at a restaurant! It's gonna be amazing!"

"It really will be amazing, if Zeff hasn't lost his touch," Thatch agrees, and Luffy and Ace cheer. "I've never eaten at this restaurant of his, but I was a fan of the Cook Pirates when I was a kid." 

His expression darkens, and Ace stills, recalling that Thatch mentioned they all died or something.

"Sucks what happened to them," Ace offers.

But Thatch just shrugs. It was around a decade ago, and shit happens out at sea. "I'm just glad Zeff survived. He'll have trained the new cooks well, and it'll be funny to see the old man actually settled down as a civilian."

Thatch was still a teen the last time he saw Zeff, who was Captain of the infamous Cook Pirates back in the day. They were always picking fights, and picked the wrong one with Pops, and predictably lost. Pops let them live, and they had a grand party, and Thatch remembers being captivated by their culinary expertise.

Thatch chuckles to himself, and the two brothers look at him curiously, blinking with adorably similar expressions.

"I just remembered, Zeff tried to scout me. Pops wasn't thrilled."

Ace barks a laugh, hefting Luffy into a more comfortable position before she suddenly squirms out of his arms. Luffy makes a grabby motion towards Thatch, and Ace obligingly if reluctantly moves closer to let her swing up onto the taller man's shoulders.

Thatch perks up at the sudden attention, because it's not every day that the little mermaid chooses to climb someone other than her brother. Thatch knows she doesn't need it, but offers her a hand to get settled more comfortably, which she takes with a pleased little purring sound that makes his heart skip a beat. Thatch pointedly doesn't look at Ace, but he can still feel his burning gaze.

He's not sure what prompted the sudden transport transfer, but suddenly Luffy's leaning forward over his shoulder to peer directly into his face, and she's close. Thatch tries very hard not to blush.

"But if the Zeff-dude cooks are that good, are they better than you, Thatch?" Luffy asks, eyes wide. "That can't be right, because Thatch's food is the best in the world! Better than even Makino's!"

Those words do make Thatch flush crimson, and Ace snorts. Thatch ignores him, too busy trying to control the warmth bubbling up inside his chest.

Thatch doesn't think he's arrogant, but he also isn't unused to his food being praised. As ungrateful as most of his brothers back aboard the Moby usually are, he's still the head chef who leads the culinary division of their entire fleet, and it's a position he's earned. He's personally trained and assigned all of the cooks on every Whitebeard ship. He knows he cooks well.

But there's something special about Luffy's unique brand of painfully genuine praise. Even though they've been traveling together for a few weeks now, she never gets bored of singing her appreciation at every mealtime with, if anything, increasing enthusiasm. It's like every time is her first time trying his food. Thatch in no way needs her compliments to adore her, he was besotted far before she even knew he was a cook, but boy does he appreciate them, and he doubts he'll ever really get used to them.

Thatch has been called the "Best Cook in the World" by many, and he'd accepted their words politely. But to hear them from Luffy feels like the highest honor he can ever attain.

Thatch feels unbearably fond as he reaches up to fluff Luffy's hair, and she leans into his hand, eyes curving up into slits like a happy kitten, her tail curling back and forth at his back.

Ace cheerfully ruins their moment.

"We'll just have to see, Lu, and maybe if you like their cooking better, we can ditch Thatch and kidnap one of their cooks." Ace leers like the evil little shit he is, and Thatch gasps with exaggerated indignation.

"No, no!" Luffy boos her brother, clinging to Thatch like he's the embodiment of all the meals Ace had threatened she'd lose, before she swings her tail around to smack at Ace none too gently until he grudgingly raises his arms in surrender.

"If we like their cooking, then we can keep Thatch AND kidnap one of their cooks!"

"Lil Seastar, you're not satisfied with just me, even if my food is the best in the world?" Thatch teases, and sticks his tongue out at Ace when he scowls. The young Captain isn't so thrilled with Thatch's new nickname for his baby brother, and Thatch thinks it's fair revenge for him being mean. 

"Thatch's food is the best!" Luffy cries again, and Thatch glows. "But if we steal a Zeff, then we have two cooks, which means more food!" She nods, pleased with her conclusion. "More food is always good!"

Well, she's a little confused, but her point is made. They hopefully won't steal Zeff himself, as Thatch doubts he'll be happy to part with his beloved restaurant, but perhaps nabbing one of his assistants isn't a terrible idea.

While handling even Ace and Luffy's appetites is no problem for Thatch, who's used to feeding the entire Moby Dick, some company in the kitchen might not be bad.

(And, a voice whispers in his head, that they'll need a cook that Thatch approves of when he inevitably has to leave to return to Pops. It's a voice Thatch ignores, so that he can enjoy this moment, for now.)

~~

~~

I don't think it's actually ever officially stated whether Thatch's Division is actually in charge of dining, but there are other divisions that are specified, so I thought it would be interesting, so I made it that way ^ ^;

(Edit: Actually it IS explicitly stated that the 4th Division is in charge of dining, this is canon and not just a headcanon whee~!)

And if Thatch as the head of the cooking division, then to me it makes sense that he'd be insanely good at it, not just your average chef. Because I mean, they're the Whitebeard pirates. And sure, they're not as food-centric as the Big Mom Pirates, but the WBs always have quality. Cooking, I feel, is a lot more subjective than say, "Strongest Swordsman in the World" but I don't think it'd be a stretch to say that Thatch is Up There.

This isn't at all to shit on canon!Sanji or his cooking which is probably also insanely good, but Sanji's a lot younger, and the places he's been, the people he's learned from, and the people he's cooked for are far more limited. He, like everyone else, is learning rapidly by stepping out into a far larger world.

Thatch, in comparison, has been on the Grand Line for a loooooong time, traveling with the most infamous crew currently in existence, and probably has picked up a LOT of things from a lot of people. While he doesn't have an official canon age, given the ages of the other Commanders (Marco 45; Jozu 42; Vista 47), I'm putting him at 41 here. That's decades of difference in experience.

It's one of the reasons why I think exploring Thatch and Sanji's mentor-rival relationship in this AU could be so much fun, because think of how much Sanji could grow with someone like Thatch in the crew.

Luckily, Sanji's dream is to find All Blue, not to defeat the cooking equivalent of Mihawk in Iron Chef Grand Line, so outside of fighting for the heart of the love of their lives, I think they can get along quite well ^ ^;

(also do u like his nickname for Lu. I had to consult a friend. But I think it's beginning to stick for me ^ ^;)

As always, any thoughts or comments make my day! Thanks for reading <3

❀ ❀ Send YukiPri an Ask! ❀ ❀

Read the next part: 👒🐟On the Baratie, Part 1

~This ask has been added to the Mermaid AU Text Headcanons Compilation post~

#OnePieceMermaidAU #One Piece Mermaid Au #Thatch #ThatchLu #AceLu #Portgas D. Ace #Monkey D. Luffy #One Piece #text headcanons #longpost #long post #YukiPri replies

[goodnightkisseu]

Time To Heal - Chapter 6

→ pairing: sehun x reader

→ genre: fluff, angst, struggling musician sehun x rich reader

→ word count: 3,231

→ warnings: none

→ summary: you had your life planned out for you ever since you were a little girl. However, when your friend, Baekhyun, takes you with him to his old hangout, you meet someone, someone you were willing to risk your parents’ criticism to be with. His name was Oh Sehun. But, in the end, what you really should have asked yourself, was if Sehun was ready to face your parents…

→ masterlist // exo masterlist // time to heal masterlist

→ [prologue] [ch.1] [ch.2] [ch.3] [ch.4] [ch.5] [ch.6] [ch.7]

→ updates taglist~: @chanyeolol​​ @meryljill-111192​​ @sehunscutiepie​​ @hi-cupid​​ @lilian235​​

note: this chapter was a really interesting one for me to write. Portraying awkwardness is a bit of a struggle for me, but hopefully it comes across here. We are more than half way through with this series now, I almost can’t believe it ;A;

Also, please let me know if you would like to be tagged in this story~

- ash <3

There had been times when you thought of seeing him again, but never did you believe that you would actually be sitting in a small restaurant across from Sehun. On occasion, you had dreamt about meeting him, though. On those nights when you slept a healthy amount, and your subconscious decided to wander back to him. Your paths would cross in some convoluted fashion, leading both of you to confront each other and your past. The thing was, those encounters, even if they were a dream, never went well. You would often wake up in a cold sweat, with a heavy heart. So, not having a great run with the dream version of him, having the real Sehun sitting in front of you, filled you with dread. In your eyes, there was no way that this was going to go well, but you had already agreed to be here.

"You... you look... well," Sehun finally said, being the first to break the silence that had fallen between the two of you. His words were slow, his brain thinking of about eight different things he could have said to you, but with each word uttered, this was the statement he landed on. He watched as your eyes looked up at him, though he noticed that they failed to make direct contact with his own. They were looking in his general direction, yes, but they never looked into his own. Understandably, this situation was an uncomfortable one for you, and Sehun was well aware of that. He was equally as nervous, though he knew that it would have been hard to believe that.

Time made Sehun realized that he screwed up with you. He wasn't sure if the two of you should have stayed together, but he did know that he handled the situation poorly. He became painfully aware of this after all of his friends gave him a mouthful the moment you showed up at the club that night. He had told them that he broke everything off cleanly, but when they saw you, they all knew that it was a lie. Also, once Baekhyun found out and almost beat Sehun to a pulp, he knew how bad the situation was. But at the time, he didn't care. He was so upset with the way that your parents treated him. He felt belittled and mocked. He felt inferior, and this was what made him lash out.

Years later, he realized that it must have been painful for you. That, the moment that you showed up at the club, the moment that you met Seohyun, it must have shattered your heart. His sharp words towards you were likely like daggers. It took time to realize that, and as more time passed, he had thought of apologizing. But he was also afraid that you didn't want to see him, that it would only hurt you more. Yet, the moment he saw you in the crowd with Baekhyun, he acted on impulse. Once Baekhyun went in to talk to the guys, Sehun slowly snuck out to see you. His mind was racing, he had so much to say to you, and that drove him to ask you to share a meal with him. And now you were here, in front of him, the adrenaline drained from the both of you. The space between you filled with awkwardness.

"I-I've... I've been okay," you managed to reply, the words having a harder time taking form than you had anticipated. In the past, you wouldn't have been this nervous around him. The words would have flowed effortlessly as you knew that the person in front of you wouldn't judge what you had to say. But with the way that things were left between the two of you were, you were uncertain, and that uneasiness had you on edge.

Still, you saw Sehun perk up a bit the moment that he heard your voice. You remembered him well enough to know that he had remained quiet as a way to allow you to speak when you were ready. He often did that before, when you were having a hard time communicating how you felt. You appreciated it then as much as you did now. "I've heard you - I've heard that things have been going well. Baek told me that everything has been on the rise for you and the guys. I'm glad."

Your response was... well, it honestly wasn't what Sehun had expected. In his mind, he had played through a handful of scenarios of how meeting you again would play out. Each one usually ended in you yelling at him, telling him to go away. Something as simple as a comment on his career wasn't really high on the list of possible conversation starters. But he supposed it was because he painted your entire situation so negatively that it spilled into these hypothesized situations. He always imagined harsh words and spite.

Sehun had forgotten your natural kindness, and he never thought that it would still extend to him. But this is how you always were. Your words were always very gentle, and not being one that liked lulls in conversation, your nervous habit would always try to fill the space with any type of topic. Maybe, right now, that was the best thing for both of you. Perhaps it was good that you hadn't changed. 

"Well, if I'm going, to be honest, I feel like we've just been insanely lucky," Sehun admitted, his hand sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. "We had sent out so many demos, but none of those companies ever got back to us. I don't know if you remember this, but back then, there was this scout that kept coming to the music store. He and I talked on a pretty regular basis, and one day he asked if I knew of this band. They had sent in a demo, and his boss asked him to seek them out. Turns out, it was one of the ones that we had sent out. He asked when our next show was and came to see us perform in person. It seemed like he liked what he saw because things moved pretty swiftly after that. About a month later, we signed the contract. We've been pretty fortunate since then…"

You nodded along as Sehun spoke, and he wasn't wrong. That was quite the rollercoaster of events to happen. Baekhyun had never gone into details about it with you, but you were glad to find out that it happened rather quickly and seemingly for the right reasons. It felt like their company recognized their talents, and that was leading to good results. "That does feel rather fast, but I'm also not surprised that they liked you. You guys have always been amazing, and it was just about catching the eye of the right person. And it seems like that's exactly what happened," you said gently. "And look at you now. You're playing actual concert halls, and not in rundown buildings that the police used to chase you out of. It's all going wonderfully as far as I can see."

"T-thanks..." he said slowly, managing to give you a small smile. He felt himself loosening up now, the tension between the two of you slowly dissipating. Hearing your words made Sehun realize something else that he had forgotten about you. He had forgotten how supportive you had been of his musical endeavors. Unlike your parents and their condescending view of musicians, you had always been supportive, singing their praises, pushing them to keep pursuing their goals. Maybe it was because he had convinced himself that you hated him. But now it hurt his heart to know that, no matter what he did, you still showed him warmth and kindness. He really didn't deserve any of that.

"I heard that things were going great for you too. Baekhyun had mentioned once that you work for your parents now. Your last job was so successful that you managed to apply directly for a leadership position was what he said? That's really incredible. You always were extremely talented."

You gently waved your hand, dismissing his overly exaggerated compliment. You did your job well, yes, but you wouldn't quite say that you were endowed with the same level of talent that Sehun was suggesting. "You know me, I just worked hard. I don't like seeing good things go to waste, so I put in endless hours getting that small company back onto its feet. They had a lot of talent; they just needed to use it correctly," you replied. "Baekhyun is right, though. I am working for my parents now, which is... an interesting challenge in and of itself. I did get the job of my own accord and was lucky that the interview went well. They were actually considering a different person for the position, so I'm rather relieved that they chose me in the end..."

"But, you know, Baekhyun likes to hang around, and new employees keep asking me what he's doing there. They ask what his job is, and I have to stop myself from being too sarcastic with my answer," you jested, getting a chuckle out of Sehun. You felt comforted that you were able to make this situation a bit lighter. Hearing his laugh told you that he was having a decent time. Back then, you always loved the sound of it. It always brought you so much joy. Even now… it still did.

"You should honestly just tell them the truth. Say that Baek is your friend from college who’s still mooching off of you," Sehun teased, hearing the light trill of your giggles. He knew you would never actually do something like that, but the thought was amusing. "But really, only Byun Baekhyun could have so much free time even after working as hard as he does. What a little shit..."

"Truly, it's very Baek, isn't it. Even in college, he was like this. You could imagine how frustrating that was," you replied, seeing a smile cross Sehun's lips. It looked... genuine, and you were honestly relieved.

"I'm glad he's able to be there for you, though. I -"

However, before Sehun could even get to his apology, he was interrupted by your food, finally arriving. The older woman that ran the restaurant stuck around to talk to you two for a bit, and by the time she had left, Sehun felt like he had missed his opportunity. Instead, he kept it to himself, focusing on his meal, the silence only broken to make comments on how delicious the food was. Still, the silence killed him a bit. Before, your conversations with each other were so effortless. It was natural and comfortable to say what was on your mind. Now, even though the conversation was still decent, it wasn't the same. The two of you… were just acquaintances now.

"So, when does the new single come out? I'm sure that you've been working hard on something new," you said, breaking the silence as you picked at the remainder of your food.

"Oh... I think it's slanted for the end of next month. From the last planning meeting, it sounded like the company wanted to start pushing us more, as one of their main acts. So they're reducing the time in between singles so that we got more exposure overall. Chanyeol's been putting in endless hours for this new single, since I feel like he thinks it’s a make or break situation. Honestly, the only time I ever see him anymore is when he wants to go get drinks when he's hit by a creative block," he replied. He heard a chuckle leave your lips, and he smiled knowingly.

You were no stranger to what happened when Chanyeol had a creative block. He was an exceptionally talented writer, but when he hit a block, he couldn't do anything for days. According to him, the only way to re-inspired himself - which was just a fancy code for needing to blow off some steam - was to go drinking. And Sehun was usually the unfortunate soul that had to go with him. You knew this well because, on more than one occasion, you had to retrieve both drunken men from the establishment they were at, but not without some assistance from their other, sober, bandmates.

"I'm guessing that Kyungsoo still has to come and get you when both of you are too drunk to walk straight?" you mused, seeing a small node from Sehun. You knew that he couldn't deny it at this point. "I guess some things never change..."

"We're a pretty predictable bunch. I mean, the only difference now is that we all live together. So every time Kyungsoo brings us back, he just throws us into the living room, and we have to fend for ourselves from there," Sehun explained, unable to stop himself from laughing.

"I'm glad that you still have Kyungsoo looking out for you. I know that for a while, he wasn't sure if he wanted to make music his career. He had other plans, and the band was only supposed to be for fun. I'm glad he didn't give up on it. He's a good friend," you stated.

Sehun nodded, your point opening it up for him to state what he wanted to earlier. "I... I was actually going to say something similar earlier," he started, watching your brow furrow slowly. "But about Baekhyun. I'm glad that you have him to check in on you all of the time. I know... I know how hard you always work, maybe sometimes a bit too hard. So, it's good that he's around to pull you away every once and a while, to make sure that you take a break."

You smiled softly. "Well, Baek isn't always successful. More often than not, he isn't, but tonight he was. Actually, he was the one that suggested that I come out and see you guys perform since it's been so long..."

Sehun had been unsure if he should say what was on his mind, but he suddenly felt brave. Well, it was a feeling between bold and guilt, a need to be honest with you, regardless of the outcome. So, he went for it. "To be honest, I'm glad he brought you tonight. I... I've wanted to talk to you for a long time..." he confessed. His eyes had been fixated on the remnants of his meal, and slowly, he chanced an upward glance. For the first time that evening, your eyes met. His earlier nervousness was back, but he knew he would only have one shot at this, so he was going to say it.

"Look, you don't have to accept anything I'm about to say. You don't even have to stay here to hear it all, but I would like it if you would. I want to... I want to apologize to you. I know that this probably seems ridiculous. It was a long time coming, and I know that I'm to blame for most of it. But I need you to know that I'm sorry for how I treated you. I should have been more transparent with you, and I should have chosen my words better. You didn't deserve to be ridiculed like that, to be humiliated like that…" he told you. "I know these words don't mean much now, but I've thought about it a lot, and I just had to let you know…"

When Sehun told you that he had something to say... you never thought that this was where it was leading. His admission had surprised you. Though you were aware that he hated misunderstandings, you also didn't expect him to apologize for something that happened so long ago. Sure, it was a painful moment, it was something that defined the end of your relationship with each other and ultimately the end to all of your communication, but to bring it up now... it took a lot of courage. Though there was no excuse for what happened, you could understand him lashing out back then.

You supposed that he was not trying to clear it all up, and though you appreciated the sentiment, your heart was still broken. It wasn't ready to fully forgive him. Life didn't work like that. "Sehun..."

"I can guess what you're thinking, and it's okay. It's okay if this doesn't change anything between us. I just want you to know that I have thought about it, and I know I didn't handle it well." Sehun was aware of how his words sounded, and he wanted to reassure you that he wasn't trying to force change. He just... needed to say it. "I know I won't get another opportunity like this, so now was the right time."

A soft, 'okay' left your lips as your eyes finally moved away from his, focusing on your phone screen. You became aware of the time, and though you knew it wasn't a graceful exit, this was probably a good time to leave. "I should probably get going… I have work in the morning…"

It hurt him somewhat, to not get a direct reply to his words, but he knew he shouldn't have expected it. That confession wasn't going to change years of pain. It was going to take more than that. "Ah, I've kept you out pretty late, haven't I. I'm sorry about that," he replied sheepishly, trying to brush off the awkwardness. He was trying to give you an easy out. That was the best he could do at the moment.

"One of the unfortunate things of working a regular office job. But, the night is still young. I'm sure that you could call the guys, and the lot of you could have a nice post-concert wrap-up. You don't have to see me home," you him, but in turn, he offered to pay, much to your displeasure. He was always like this, trying to find ways to compromise.

Slowly, Sehun stood from his seat. "It was good to see you again," he told you earnestly.

"It was good seeing you again as well. Good luck with everything, Sehun. I know that you'll do well," you told with a small smile. You had turned to leave and had every thought of getting out of there as fast as you could, but something stopped you. You didn't turn around to face Sehun, but you felt like you had to give him some closure as well. "Thank you for telling me, by the way. I don't quite know how I feel at the moment, but I'll let you know…" you added vaguely, knowing that you couldn't walk out there without letting him know that you would consider his apology.

He didn't know what to say in response and only uttered a quiet, 'thank you' before he watched you exit the restaurant. He knew that was the best he could have asked for. As his fingers slid across his screen, texting Chanyeol to ask where the band was, he couldn't help the sense of emptiness that overcame him. It all of a sudden felt strange, sitting at this table, without your presence across form him. Sehun didn't think that he felt anything for you anymore... but maybe... he was wrong...

#oh sehun #sehun #exo #exo scenarios #kwritersworldnet #exo fiction #exo fanfic #exo imagines #sehun scenarios #sehun imagines #kpop scenarios #goodnightkisseu series #gnks: time to heal

[onemustalwaysbecarefulofbooks]

Let’s Talk About Tamlin

Okay. Prepare yourselves, ladies and gentlemen, because this is going to be a long one. There are some things I’ve kept to myself for a good year in regards to The Tamlin Situation and now that ACOWAR is out, I just can’t fight the need to share them anymore. Do Not Enter if you haven’t finished ACOWAR--there will be spoilers!

Alright. Let me first just say that this is actually Round 2 of me trying to get all of this out in writing. Why, you may ask? Because my stupid laptop decided to crash in the middle of editing the document (thanks Windows 10) and now the entire file is corrupt, leaving me with nothing at all that is salvageable. I have tried pretty much every solution known to man but unfortunately nothing has worked. It was just very bad timing and very bad luck. I was pretty much finished with it and it was long and detailed (as this is hopefully about to be) so to say I was frustrated was a huge understatement. But I refuse to let that stop me!!!! I worked too damn hard on that thing to just let it go unpublished. There are some things I really need to get out.

Ever since the release of ACOMAF, I have been struggling with a lot of feelings I had about it that I knew would undoubtedly be deemed very unpopular by the majority of the fandom. This book is like, gold, in YA Book World. It has 4.73 stars on Goodreads, which is nearly unheard of. Everyone sings its praises. I will admit, there were definitely parts that I adored as well! But there was one glaring thing that kept me from fully enjoying the reading experience during my initial read.

And that thing was Tamlin.

Now, I’m probably about to shock all of you when I say that this problem I had with him was NOT insane amounts of hatred and disgust. It was not the fact that I was so done with him and was wishing to see vengeance for all of the horrible, terrible things he had done to Feyre. No, the problem that I had was that, from my personal reader point of view, he had been reduced to an obnoxious, ridiculous, almost 180 version of himself in order to make way for Scorchingly Sexy Practically Perfect In Every Way Fae Prince Charming Rhys.

I know. I can see the look on your face now. I don’t blame you one bit if you disagree with me, as this seems to be what the large majority of the fandom does. I don’t think you’re wrong for having a different opinion and I will not be upset if you chose not to read this. I do worry about the backlash I’ll receive--I’m not looking for any (although who ever really is?). That’s what kept me quiet about this topic for an entire year after ACOMAF’s release. For the most part, Tamlin has become associated with such utter trash in this fandom and his character deals with topics that can be very sensitive so I just bit my tongue and never said anything, even though I was thinking it. But over time, I’ve come to realize and understand that this is my blog and I can say what I want on it, as long as I am being polite and respectful to those who disagree with me, and am not degrading others. So please take this into consideration as you dive into this, and when you finish as well. I am entitled to my opinion just as you are entitled to yours. Sending me hate over the internet is not going to change what I think and I doubt it will change anything else either. There’s too much hate in the world already--let’s keep it away from Tumblr!!

When I read ACOTAR, I adored it. I loved Feyre and how she was a survivor, I loved the Beauty and the Beast aspects, I loved the sense of mystery that built the entire time, and yes, I loved the romance. I loved Feyre and Tamlin. I loved the almost awkward way in which they slowly got to know each other and found his bumbling attempts at flattery and courtship to be actually kind of charming and endearing. It had some of the most beautifully romantic moments I had read to date at that point. You can chalk all this up to nothing more than the whining of a disgruntled (former) Feylin shipper, but I promise, that is not what this is. Now that I’ve been able to step back and really examine everything, I can see that Rhys is the better man for Feyre. Tamlin was never going to be the one for her. She had a mate, someone she was destined to be with, and it was not him. Rhys understands her in a way that Tamlin was never able to. I get that and acknowledge it completely. But something I started to see a lot of pretty much as soon as ACOMAF was released, was all this “evidence” that Tamlin had really basically been a controlling prick all along and we, the readers, had just never noticed it! We had our love blinders on! But now that we had RHYS to compare everything to, we could really see him for what he was. I am not going to sit here and claim that Tamlin is faultless. That is simply not true, and can easily be proven wrong. Tamlin absolutely is a flawed character but he is not some monster that blinded Feyre to his true nature by walking around flexing his pecs all throughout ACOTAR. That is simply not fair to claim, and does a disservice to his character. I’ve heard many people say that they found him to be rather boring and dull in ACOTAR and never really latched on or connected to him, making the transition to Rhys to be much easier. That’s fine and totally okay! I’m not saying you have to love him just because he’s the romantic lead in this book. But trying to turn it around to where he’s been this awful person the whole time is, in my opinion, really unfair. Tamlin does many kind and good things in ACOTAR. I’m going to list some of them out now. And before you stop me and say that this list is totally biased in his favor, I’ll give you my response: you’re absolutely right. It is completely biased in his favor. But do you know how many lists I’ve seen floating around out there that focus on the opposite side of the spectrum?? If someone can make those, I can make these. They are all things that happened, I’m not making any of them up!

Throughout the course of ACOTAR, please remember that Tamlin:

Offers to help Feyre write to her family while in the Spring Court (okay I’ll admit, Rhys definitely went a step further and wanted to teach her to write but still. . .this is a kindness I don’t think should be ignored).

Tells Feyre that her family are “fools” for not recognizing and appreciating the sacrifices she makes for them.

Tells her that “Against slavery, against tyranny, I would gladly go to my death, no matter whose freedom I was defending.” (To which Feyre ironically replies “I wasn’t sure if I would do the same. My priority would be to protect my family--and I would have picked whatever side could keep them safest”).

Ensures that Feyre’s family is “Fed, comfortable, and safe--they’d even been warned about the Blight, whether they understood the warning or not.” (Narrative then goes on to say “His eyes were open, honest. He had gone farther than I would have ever guessed toward assuaging my every concern.”)

Comforts a dying fae that he does not even know personally after Amarantha brutally ripped off his wings.

Then digs a grave for him with his own hands, without any help: “A High Lord, digging a grave for a stranger.”

Tells Feyre that Lucien has always been the one who is good at talking to people while he can find it “difficult”.

Restores the art gallery in the manor and tells her to visit it whenever she wants (Which moves her to tears: “I smiled at him, hardly able to contain the brightness in my heart.”)

Tells Feyre that if something grieves her, he considers it to be legitimate.

Tells her not to “feel bad for one moment about doing what brings you joy.”

Confides in Feyre that his father and his older brother’s were worse than Lucien’s were (and Lucien’s were bad enough to torture and kill the woman he loved right in front of him deliberately). In fact, I’ll just leave this whole passage here:

“My father was as bad as Lucien’s. Worse. My two older brothers were just like him. They kept slaves--all of them. And my brothers. . .I was young when the Treaty was forged, but I still remember what my brothers used to. . .” He trailed off. “It left a mark--enough of a mark that when I saw you, your house, I couldn’t--wouldn’t let myself be like them. Wouldn’t bring harm to your family, or you, or subject you to faerie whims.”

“I never expected--never wanted--my father’s title. My brothers would have never let me live to adolescence if they had suspected that I did. So the moment I was old enough, I joined my father’s war-band and trained so that I might someday serve my father, or whichever of my brothers inherited his title.” He flexed his hands, as if imagining the claws beneath. “I’d realized from an early age that fighting and killing were about the only things I was good at.”

Tells Feyre that “Most High Lords are trained from birth in manners and laws and court warfare. When the title fell to me, it was a. . .rough transition. Many of my father’s courtiers defected to other courts rather than have a warrior-beast snarling at them.”

Deliberately tries to get Feyre to overhear his conversations regarding the Curse, without actually saying anything to her directly, in order to make her as informed about the situation as he could.

Apologizes to Feyre for his behavior at Calanmai and brings her flowers.

Confides in Feyre that he senses a kindred spirit in her, for knowing “what it was like, what it is like, for me to care for my people, mylands. What scars are still there, what the bad days feel like” and that she makes him feel not alone anymore.

Tells Feyre she doesn’t need a keeper, kneels before her, and plays his fiddle for her. “Dance, Feyre.”

Sends Feyre home three days before the fifty year curse is up, essentially damning himself to be a slave of Amarantha, in order to try and spare her for what eventually happened Under the Mountain.

Restores her family’s wealth and even goes as far as to heal her father’s leg. (Which probably ended up having a big impact on the way the series turned out--I highly doubt he would be going off and bringing back help like he did in ACOWAR if he was still as crippled as he was before).

Stopped sending his men out over the Wall in an attempt to kick-start their cure to the curse because it was breaking him so badly to have to do it.

Took in Alis and her nephews when they were refugees from the Summer Court: “I came here because it was the only place to go, and asked Tamlin to hide my boys. He did--and when I begged him to let me help, in whatever small way, he gave me a position here, days before the masque that put this wretched thing on my face.”

Has to endure watching the first good and pure thing to come into his life in decades be brutally and viciously tortured and abused, and then eventually murdered, while he was held prisoner himself.

Tamlin did some things that were wrong, no question about it. But he also did some very good things and I don’t think it’s entirely fair that they’re never talked about. Trying to make him out to be this character that is ALL EVIL ALL THE TIME I think does a disservice to the character Sarah gave us in ACOTAR. Hold him accountable for the things he DID do, absolutely! But don’t try to act like none of these good things ever happened. If we aren’t going to do this for pretty much every other character in the series, I don’t think we should do it for him either.

So anyway, I went from all that up there ^ and straight into ACOMAF where I felt completely blind-sighted. Like I was suddenly reading about characters I had never encountered before. Nothing made sense to me. Now that there’s been some distance from it for a while, and I’ve had time to reflect, I can accept it for what it is and just enjoy the story for what it gives me. But I still think that there are some shady things going on with Tamlin’s character and I’m sure I’ll always feel that way. Basically, I think a lot of people blow a lot of things out of proportion with him. He is not a blameless or innocent character by any means. But I have seen such hateful things expressed towards him, people were basically chanting for his death, and I really don’t think he deserves it. The faults most people list for him are being controlling, abusive, and sexist. The faults I believe more accurately describe him and the crimes I find him more rightfully find him guilty of are emotional neglect (which I understand is a form of abuse, but not one that I believe warrants the extreme hate I’ve seen held towards him), obliviousness, stubbornness, and a severe lack of communication.

We as readers are biased towards our narrator. If the person telling our story is someone who is likeable, charismatic and strong in their own way, and a truly good person, then we become deeply attached. We experience their journey with them on a very personal level. Their pain is our pain. We cheer for them, we root for them, we are with them every step of the way. Feyre went through such a horrific ordeal in ACOTAR that we are left feeling deeply for her, completely in her corner. Her PTSD was written in such a raw and honest way that we as the readers feel what she feels. We experience all the pain and the fear. We know the depth of it all. But on the other hand, we also get to walk with her on her beautiful journey towards healing and redemption. It is a wonderful story, and Sarah writes it well. We see the peace and happiness she finds with Rhys and his family and how much better off she is in the Night Court. We see how Rhys helps her and heals her, and how their relationship develops into something beautiful and passionate. The thing that I think most people do not stop and consider is the fact that Tamlin did not read A Court of Mist and Fury. He did not learn the things about Rhys that we did, has no clue how much he helped Feyre, or how much he sacrificed for Prythian. Tamlin does not think he is the bad guy. He thinks RHYS is the bad guy and this is by Rhys’s own doing. That was kind of the whole point of why he did what he did, and why Velaris is safe from the outside world. Rhys wanted people to have this opinion of him, he actively worked to make it so! It sucks, it’s sad, and it’s not fair, but this was the cost to keep Velaris and it’s people safe. But come on: take a step back from seeing it all from Feyre’s POV and look at it the way Tamlin must have seen it. As far as Tamlin knows, Rhys:

Willingly served as Amarantha’s whore and lapdog for fifty years.

Left a severed head on his property as a joke.

Nearly snuffed out Feyre’s mind completely when he discovered her at the manor.

Laughed about how Amarantha would enjoy “shattering her (Feyre) apart, bit by bit.”

Made him beg and grovel on the floor to keep this ^^^ from happening, then went ahead and told Amarantha about her anyway. Tamlin has no clue that Rhys knew Feyre was lying about her name being Clare Beddor. As far as he knows, what Clare went through was what Rhys intended for Feyre to go through.

Dressed Feyre in provocative, revealing clothing, drugged her, and forced her to basically gyrate on him in front of everyone all night long.

Backed Feyre into a deal that she felt trapped into accepting, where she would spend a week at a time with this person at his home that no one had access to or had ever seen.

Given all of this, I’m not really surprised in the least that he went a little nuts over the situation. All of Prythian (not just Tamlin!!!) thought that Rhys was Amarantha’s lackey, basically just as bad as she was. Think about it: the lover of the woman who tortured and killed Feyre, who was said to do her dirty work for her. Someone who comes across as sadistic and ruthless who has, point blank, exploited her sexually in public and seemingly exposed her to horrors and suffering. We as the readers have been enlightened to the true meaning behind all of this, but no one else has. This is not Tamlin just being stubborn and oblivious, EVERYONE thought this about him! You can’t tell me that if there was someone out there that Rhys held this opinion of, he wouldn’t go a little nuts trying to “get Feyre back”. I just think it’s kind of ridiculous for Rhys to actively play the part of the bad guy for the better part of fifty years and then have the readers hold it against people for treating him like one. There was that one scene at the beginning of ACOWAR where Feyre is talking to Tamlin and Lucien about how her sisters were being “held” in the Night Court and says, “. . .despite what the Night Court is like, they won’t hurt Elain or Nesta like that--not yet. Rhysand has more creative ways to harm them.” She then goes on to imply that she is speaking from personal experience but then says, “That they would believe it so easily, that they thought Rhysand would ever force someone. . .I added the insult to the long, long list of things to repay them for.” It’s like

Um, Feyre??? I’m not really sure why you’re acting like this. Yes, I understand that as this man’s mate, it’s incredibly frustrating for the outside world to hold this opinion of him, and probably heartbreaking that he has to carry around this stigma. But not one line ago, you were implying that this happened TO YOU and wanted Tamlin and Lucien to believe it. Not to mention the fact that, given the way he acted Under the Mountain with her in front of everyone, this belief makes total sense. Yet you’re getting mad at Tamlin and Lucien for believing it and want to “repay them” for it. This is just nonsensical to me.

And I’m sorry, until I see it in print, I really don’t think that Tamlin believed Feyre had left the Spring Court entirely of her own will. Amarantha was someone who thrived on deceit, trickery, and manipulation. It’s how she gained all the power that she did. For Tamlin to think that her lapdog behaved in the same way is not anything ridiculous, especially given the way Rhys had behaved for the public eye.

Now at the same time, this denial at it’s finest, no question. Tamlin was blind to all of the issues Feyre was having, how much she was suffering, and made no serious attempt to change this. This is where the emotional neglect comes in. He was so wrapped up in his own mind that was not able to give her what she needed in order to heal at this time. He did not know the depth of her suffering as we did. I think this was honestly one of the reasons why he acts like such an asshole in ACOWAR--he truly did not know the extent of her unhappiness because he really just was that oblivious, and was hurt to find out that this was how it was the entire time. Now, I want everyone to remember that I am NOT saying that is by any means okay as far as a relationship goes. It is, at it’s roots, emotional neglect. He did not make any genuine attempts to emotionally care for the person he claims to love so much after going through a terrible ordeal. But what I think most people chalk up to being cold and unfeeling I think is more a case of his own form of PTSD. Everyone handles trauma differently. There is no right or wrong way to do it. Tamlin did not give Feyre what she needed after her time Under the Mountain--there’s no question about it. And I know what she want through was so horrific and terrible but I don’t think it’s fair to entirely dismiss what he went through either. I’m sure some people would say that it was not NEARLY as bad for him as it was for her--he just had to watch her go through all of that stuff, she actually had to live through and experience it. There’s definitely some validity to that. But let me ask you this. . .how many times in books, movies, TV shows, or even (God forbid) real life have you seen someone suffering and someone that loves this person is suffering right along with them, wishing they could take all of their pain onto themselves and be the ones to experience it. Feeling just as tortured having to watch the person go through this and be unable to help them. How many times have you read or watched a scene where someone else is tortured as a way to get something out of someone, rather than just torturing that person themself. All I know is, were I faced with a situation where I was forced to chose between me and someone I love being in Tamlin and Feyre’s positions Under the Mountain, I would hope I would be brave enough to chose Feyre for myself. Because the thought of having to watch someone I love experience all that is almost worse for me than the thought of going through it myself.

This is NOT me trying to downplay Feyre’s experience AT ALL. Please do not take it that way. I just think it’s wrong that what Tamlin had to go through is normally entirely dismissed. Pain and suffering shouldn’t be this way, it shouldn’t be a contest on who’s is worse or more. Having empathy for someone doesn’t cancel out what you feel for someone else. Basically: don’t be afraid to feel pity for Tamlin because his side of the experience was probably just as horrible and scary. Just in a different way.

In addition to all of this, the endless comparisons between Tamlin and Rhys really wore on me as well. Suddenly it became that everything Rhys did was good and everything Tamlin did was bad, which was obnoxious to me. One of the main things I always see is how awesome Rhys was for having Feyre be his High Lady and how shitty Tamlin was for “not allowing” this. But take a look at the actual conversation Feyre and Tamlin have about the subject (dialogue only, sexytimes omitted).

Feyre: Do I get a title?

Tamlin: Do you want a title?

Feyre: No. But I don’t want people. . .I don’t know if I can handle them calling me High Lady.

Tamlin: They won’t. There is no such thing as a High Lady.

Feyre: What do you mean, there’s no such thing as a High Lady?

Tamlin: High Lords only take wives. Consorts. There has never been a High Lady.

There was a post I read a while ago that had an excellent take on this conversation. I can not for the LIFE OF ME remember what Tumblr user it was and spent so much time scrolling through tags trying to find the post but couldn’t. If you are the person, please share! Anyway, what they basically said was this: Feyre does not ask to be High Lady. Tamlin does not tell her she is not allowed to be High Lady. She, in fact, says that she does not want to be High Lady and he basically says “Okay, that’s cool, they’re not a thing anyway”. This response is unimpressive, no question. The idea of someone like Rhys, who encourages you to take ownership of your power and stand at his side as a political equal, is much more appealing in many ways. But people are acting like Feyre expressed interest in this and was totally shot down by Tamlin. This is a cultural problem that needs to be reexamined as a whole, it is not something that Tamlin alone enforces in his court. We will never know what he would have said had she said YES, she did want a title. We can assume, but we don’t really know. The idea of her being a High Lady doesn’t even really strike him as a valid thing because this is something that just isn’t done at the time in Prythian. Tamlin is not some sexist asshole who is not allowing Feyre to have the power she wants, he’s just placidly going along with the way things have always been done. Again, unimpressive. But I would not go so far as to condemn him completely for it. The whole High Lady thing is confusing for me anyway. Feyre and Tamlin have this conversation at the beginning of ACOMAF and Feyre eventually repeats it to Rhys. Rhys then rolls his eyes and acts all annoyed and assures Feyre that there absolutely are High Ladies, leading us to believe that this was something Tamlin was dishonest with Feyre about in his crusade to shelter and protect her. But then ACOWAR rolls around and everyone is totally shocked and thrown off at the High Lords meeting when Feyre and Rhys announce that she is High Lady of the Night Court. It’s something that’s simply unheard of and has never been done before. Kallias, who is a perfectly decent and good person, has not made his mate (who he clearly respects, trusts, and adores) his High Lady. Do I see people shitting all over him for this? No. Because it wasn’t done out of the belief that Viviane is inferior to him in any way. It’s just not something that was A Thing in Prythian and is almost treated like something Rhys and Feyre made up. So I’m not really sure where this thing with Rhys came from in ACOMAF and why he acted like that, because clearly there are no High Ladies.

Now, this mindset is sexist, plain and simple. Someone like Rhys who challenges this belief is a character we look to in admiration and respect. But as I said, this is a cultural problem, not a purely Tamlin problem. Although I do think this kind of sheds light on what I do believe is one of Tamlin’s most legitimate faults: stubbornly refusing to more closely examine a situation and change it for the better of everyone. Instead, he chooses to blindly follow what has always been done. This really shows itself during the Tithe. The whole thing was just not a great idea and was being carried out at a really bad time, when everyone was struggling to rebuild and get on with their lives after Amarantha. Feyre could see it, those water wraiths could see it, I’m pretty sure everyone could see it. But Tamlin stubbornly stuck to it, even after acknowledging that the timing might not be the greatest, simply because it was always what was done. I was very frustrated by this. You’re their High Lord!!!! I wanted to scream. If you see something that’s wrong, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!! That’s what a High Lord exists for! But I think what more people need to remember is just that: Tamlin never wanted to be a High Lord. It was never in the plan for him and was not the path he would have chosen for himself. He straight up tells Feyre in ACOTAR that those who are going to someday become High Lord are given all kinds of training and dictation on what to do and how to act. He received none of that and went into it basically clueless. There has always been some bitterness he holds towards his position. Rhys, on the other hand, was born to be High Lord in every way. He is a dreamer, a schemer, he cares deeply about his people, he wants to change the world and make it a better place. It is no surprise to me that he is seen as the better High Lord--it’s what I would expect. Now, just because Tamlin feels that way does not give him an excuse to not try and help his people however he can. This could be an opportunity for him to rise to the occasion and prove everyone wrong. . .but he doesn’t. Again, his character flaw. I’m not saying he’s blameless! Please remember that I’m not trying to justify the things that he does, only to explain why he might be doing them.

Tamlin’s overprotectiveness is also condemned quite frequently. It is not until Feyre spends a decent amount of time in the Night Court that she realizes how “”poorly” she was treated. Everything becomes a comparison. Tamlin wanted to keep her locked up in the manor! He never wanted her to go anywhere! But Rhys lets her do whatever she wants! He encourages her to roam the city, to go out and see things! Yeah, I’d just like to point out the fact that the city of Velaris had not been breached in 5,000 years. This was like, it’s whole big thing! Rhys played the part of Amarantha’s whore in order to shelter it from the outside world as it always had been for centuries. It hadn’t been attacked or breached, it was totally safe. Basically, I’d really like to see how Tamlin would be acting if the Spring Court hadn’t been breached in 5,000 years. He probably still wouldn’t do what Rhys did, and train her to use her powers and keep her safe even in a place that was totally secure Rhys still absolutely makes the better choice here. But I’m just saying. . .I highly doubt that if the Spring Court were as secure as Velaris was, Tamlin would be driven to the point of locking her up in any manors. Feyre even kind of acknowledges the fact that his paranoia over her safety was kind of valid after she is attacked by the Attor basically the minute she steps outside of the Night Court’s protection. All of this paranoia and fear could have been reduced by teaching Feyre how to better defend of herself and make use of the new powers she had. But Tamlin was so traumatized by what she went through Under the Mountain that he didn’t want her to have to ever get involved with anything violent or dangerous ever again. He let the fear control him.

Another one of the biggest things I see Tamlin accused of is selling out completely, allying with Hybern, the Ultimate Enemy, betraying everyone, simply to “get” Feyre back, or “obtain” her again. I’ll admit, when I read ACOMAF initially, I was so furious I was practically seeing red when I read this part. I was appalled. I really could not believe that Tamlin, who had declared his hatred of tyranny and oppression in the previous book had suddenly thrown all of that away just because he did not have Feyre with him and wanted her back. I was hoping that in ACOWAR, he would come to see the error of his ways and make a shot for redemption. I was really holding out for it! But then ACOWAR comes along. . .and we find out that he wasn’t even really doing any of this in the first place!! It was his plan all along to appear as if he was siding with Hybern, use his resources to rescue Feyre, and then slowly work to take him down from the inside, exactly as Feyre attempted to do to him in the beginning of ACOWAR. I’ve read some people say that they don’t really believe this was his plan at all. They think he was just claiming it was in front of Rhys and the other High Lords but really was just working both sides, waiting to see where the best opportunity was before declaring his “true” allegiance. I’m sorry, but until I see it in print, I don’t believe it. The things that he did do: blowing his cover to protect Feyre, Elain, and Azriel as they escaped Hybern’s camp, reassembling the Spring Court’s armies, dragging Beron out by his neck and into battle, asking Rhys for orders in the final battle, giving a piece of his power to bring Rhys back to life, telling Feyre to be happy outweigh him acting like a prick for me as far as where his allegiance lies. Now, notice I didn’t just say that these things “outweigh him being a prick for me”. I said that they outweigh him being a prick as far as his allegiance goes.  Yes, he came into that High Lords meeting and acted like a total dick but I don’t think someone simply acting like an asshole is enough of a reason to be convinced that they are evil. What I find to be very ironic is that everyone’s opinion of Tamlin at the time were probably pretty close to what they were towards Rhys for the past fifty years: disgust, shock, betrayal, and hatred towards him for “siding” with the enemy. Yet both had ulterior motives and were acting to protect someone/something they love.

All of this comes to a boil during the absolute shit show that is the big showdown scene at the end of ACOMAF in Hybern’s throne room. At face value, this scene is absolutely terrible. Tamlin appears to have sold everyone out to Hybern and expects Feyre to come running home with him.

Tamlin snarled at him, “I don’t give a shit if she’s your mate. I don’t give a shit if you think you’re entitled to her. She is mine--and one day, I am going to repay every bit of pain she felt, every bit of suffering and despair. One day, perhaps when she decides she wants to end you, I’ll be happy to oblige her.”

It’s a mess. A big fat mess of situation in which Tamlin absolutely comes across as a controlling, entitled psychopath. We as the readers are still basking in the afterglow of the glorious new Feysand mating bond and are just about ready to dump Tamlin himself into the Cauldron and see it boil him alive. I get that. Emotions are running high. But remove yourself from the Feysand feels for a moment. As I discussed earlier, Tamlin believes that Feyre has basically been manipulated/tricked/coerced into residing in the Night Court. This is the way Amarantha operated and it is what he expects of Rhys, given the way he acted for the past fifty years. Denial, denial, denial. The fact that he could not see how unhappy she was and how greatly she was suffering in his home shows just how truly poorly suited they are for each other in the long run. There should have been some kind of clue bell ringing. But at the same time, I understand how even if there was, he would be wary of it. I truly believe he was under the impression that Feyre was taken from her home against her will and was being held essentially as a prisoner in the clutches of someone who was just as bad as Amarantha, in his home that she had supposedly modeled her own court after. So when he hears that this supposedly violent evil person is Feyre’s mate, and wants to keep her with him, he goes a little nuts. Remember, being mates does NOT automatically equal Happily Ever After. Tamlin AND Rhys’s parents were both mates who were “wrong” for each other. In ACOTAR, ACOMAF, and the Throne of Glass series, the idea of mates is something that is very romanticized. It’s synonymous with finding your soulmate, your equal and match in every way, the one person in the universe you were always meant to find. But then the idea is introduced in ACOWAR that being mates with someone is hypothetically no more than a powerful genetic match that would hypothetically produce the strongest offspring.

“A mating bond can be rejected,” Rhys said mildly, eyes flickering in the mirror as he drank in every inch of bare skin I had on display. “There is choice. And sometimes, yes--the bond picks poorly. Sometimes, the bond is nothing more than some. . .preordained guess-work at who will provide the strongest offspring. At it’s basest level, it’s perhaps only that. Some natural function, not an indication of true, paired souls.” A smile at me--at the rareness, perhaps, of what we had. “Even so,” Rhys went on, “there will always be a. . .tug. For the females, it is usually easier to ignore, but the males. . .it can drive them mad. It is their burden to fight through, but sometimes they believe they are entitled to the female. Even after the bond is rejected, they see her as belonging to them. Sometimes they return to challenge the male she chooses for herself. Sometimes it ends in death.”

While I personally believe that this new revelation was only brought about in order to add drama and conflict to the Elain/Lucien/Azriel situation (oh don’t worry, you’ll hear about that soon), if it’s something Sarah is sticking to, it certainly sheds a new light on the way Tamlin reacted to this situation. He is acting in anger towards what he believes is Rhys acting entitled to her just because this bond exists. Very similar sentiments are expressed by Nesta, Feyre, and pretty much the whole Night Court gang towards Lucien in regards to Elain and here it is seen as protective. Remember, he says this AFTER Feyre starts pretending to be “freed” from Rhys’s enchantment and starts begging him to take her home. Again, denial at it’s finest. You wonder how the guy can be so clueless. But very ironically, in his own misguided way, he is trying to protect Feyre from what he ends up doing himself.

Also remember that while we have all the lovely romantic moments of ACOMAF fresh in our minds, Tamlin does not. Feyre and Rhys do not sit down and explain their whole situation to him (which I really really think needs to be done. These people all need to act like adults, sit down, and actually have an honest conversation with each other, in private. Tamlin and Feyre need to talk, without Rhys around. I think she owed him more of an explanation than that letter she sent in ACOMAF. I think he owed her a LOT more than just blowing up at her in front of everyone at the High Lords gathering). Tamlin does not know the depth of their connection or even that Rhys has been good to Feyre whatsoever. Feyre does not say to him, “We’re in love” and he responds with “I don’t give a shit”. THAT would be pretty terrible and as entitled as everyone makes him out to be. But no, instead it’s just him being oblivious to how Feyre really feels and what she wants. Not something you look for in a man, but definitely not the same as trying to tear apart two people who are in love, regardless of how they feel, just so you can have ownership of one of them. 

In fact, what does Tamlin do when actually confronted with the depth of their relationship? When he finally sees what Rhys means to Feyre? Gives a piece of his power to resurrect him and tells her to be happy with him. Just sayin’!!

Another thing I find really frustrating is how both Tamlin and Rhys can pretty much do the exact same thing but Feyre, and us, as the readers, have wildly different reactions to them. Exhibit A: Calanmai vs. The Mating Bond.

I think it’s safe for anyone to say that Rhys does not act like himself under the brand new influence of the mating bond. He snarls at any male that looks in Feyre’s direction, bashes Cassian’s teeth in and beats him to a pulp because of a lewd comment he makes about Feyre and “didn’t even bother taking (her) clothes all the way off before he bent (her) over the kitchen table and made (her) moan his name loud enough for the Illyrians still circling high above to hear.”

(Um how embarrassing.)

But it’s all okay! Because, you see, The Mating Bond Made Him Do It! He tells Feyre:

“When a couple accepts the mating bond, it’s. . .overwhelming. Again, harkening back to the beasts we once were. Probably something about ensuring the female was impregnated. Some couples don’t leave the house for a week. Males get so volatile that it can be dangerous for them to be in public, anyway. I’ve seen males of reason and education shatter a room because another male looked too long in their mate’s direction, too soon after they’d been mated.”

He tells Feyre that he likes to think he has “more restraint than the average male” but asks her to be patient with him. Nothing about this is portrayed by the narrative to be overbearing or anything negative. It’s almost viewed as something sexy because they are in a consensual relationship and he is being influenced by some outside force that is making him act in a way that he normally would not--he doesn’t go around acting this sex-crazed, jealous, and volatile all the time. It’s the Mating Bond!!!! He’s so overwhelmed by her! They’re so in love! He just can’t control himself!

Okay, fine. I don’t have a real problem with this. I just found it to be very unfair and pretty strange to have Calanmai pop up on Tamlin’s long list of Reasons Why He’s A Dick.

Calanmai is described by Lucien as follows:

“Fire Night signals the official start of spring--in Prythian, as well as in the mortal world. Here, our crops depend upon the magic we regenerate on Calanmai--tonight. We do this by conducting the Great rite. Each of the seven High Lords of Prythian performs this every year, since their magic comes from the earth and returns to it at the end--it’s a give and take. Tonight, Tam will allow. . .great and terrible magic to enter his body. The magic will seize control of his mind, his body, his soul, and turn him into the Hunter. It will fill him with his sole purpose: to find the Maiden. From their coupling, magic will be released and spread to the earth, where it will regenerate life for the year to come. Tonight, Tam won’t be the faerie you know. He won’t even know his name. The magic will consume everything in him but that one basic command--and need.”

Both Tamlin and Lucien tell Feyre multiple times to stay in her room that night and not come out. The attraction between Tamlin and Feyre is pretty apparent by that point and they’re trying to spare her from what would inevitably be an unromantic and pretty intense encounter with Tamlin. Feyre decides this is no big deal and heads down to the kitchen for a midnight snack where. She then (of course) runs into Tamlin who is riding all kinds of crazy highs from the Calanmai magic that is coursing through him. The interaction that follows could oddly be very easily described as either sexy or creepy. Seriously. She is clearly pretty into it and her body is definitely responding (“Heat pounded between my legs”, “A moan slipped past my lips”, “I wanted the hardness of his body crushing against mine. . .everywhere--I wanted him everywhere”) but he’s also acting pretty domineering and just weird from the effects of that magic. He pins her against the wall and tells her that even though the magic made him pick someone else, if it had been her he was with, he would have done. . .all kinds of unprintable things. Fill in the blank. Feyre then asks him why she would want someone’s leftovers (ironically the same thing he ends up saying to her in Book 3) and in response he bites her on the neck “to keep (her) pinned” and tells her not to ever disobey him again.

Intense, no doubt. But what happens after that? Feyre whacks him across the face and tells him not to tell her what to do or to bite her like “some enraged beast”. She paints him and Lucien with pigs’ features (calling it Two Faerie Pigs Wallowing in Their Own Filth) and then they apologize to each other the next day. She expresses her happiness at the fact that the Tamlin she knew had returned.

I just find it highly unfair that while it’s okay for Rhys to act like a Sex-Crazed Possessive Beast because of The Mating Bond, when Tamlin does pretty much the exact same thing, it is seen by the fandom as rape-y, domineering, and creepy. I really don’t see how there’s that much of a difference. In their right minds, neither one of them would go around acting like that. Both are being influenced by an outside force, possessing them with an obsessive need to have sex with someone. I see posts all the time ragging on Tamlin for letting his “true colors” shine through as someone who wants to possess and order around. But it’s like ????????? It directly says in the text that his mind, body, and soul are being possessed. He wouldn’t even know his own name because the magic has consumed everything in him. So how is this him showing his true nature?? To me it seems like the exact opposite. He’s acting in a way different than what he would normally act. But all of this never stops me from seeing posts about how awful he is for doing it. Not once have I seen anyone criticizing Rhys for having the same thing happen to him.

One final thing I’d like to talk about, and then I’ll get off the Tamlin Defense Train, I promise. A huge criticism I often see for him has to do with the way things played out Under the Mountain. Tamlin did nothing to defend her, he just sat there and let things play out, acted like he didn’t know her and didn’t really respond to anything. Rhys was the one who schemed and plotted and fought for her, Tamlin essentially did nothing. While I admit, it was pretty heartbreaking to see Feyre think he was under some kind of spell while this was going on, I am kind of at a loss as to what people would like to see him do differently in this situation. Tamlin was just as much of a prisoner as she was, EVERYONE was just as much of a prisoner as she was! Rhys straight up tells us that Amarantha had begun to trust him over the years and he is essentially given the freedom to move about and act as he wants. You can not tell me that Amarantha did not have eyes on Tamlin the ENTIRE time he was there. She probably never even let him out of her sight. Also, not even once did it ever occur to me that Tamlin was acting like he didn’t know Feyre or care about her because he really didn’t! Come on. . .this is standard fare in many books, movies, and TV shows I’ve read. Act as if you don’t know someone or they mean nothing to you in order to try and keep them safe, even at the expense of breaking their heart. It’s going on right now in the current book I’m reading, Lord of Shadows. Lucien even tells her, “Hasn’t it occurred to you that Tamlin is keeping silent in order to keep Amarantha from knowing what particular form of your torture affects him the most?” You know the instant he responded to anything, Amarantha would have pounced on it and probably would have made it ten times worse. Look at what she ended up doing when she found out about how much Starfall meant to Rhys. . .he was made to “service” her all night long on that night specifically. Who knows what other kinds of hell Tamlin’s “indifference” saved her from. It’s not what Feyre wanted or needed emotionally in that moment and I really feel for her, I truly do, but I understand why he did it. Strategically, and in theory, I think it made sense.   

And then. . .ugh, I can just see the amount of hate I’m going to get for this. But I’m sorry, I can’t help it. People hate on him for using their brief moment together to simply “fuck” rather than try to help her or escape. It may not have been the most productive thing to do in that moment but, I’m sorry. . .people are acting like she was trying to have this emotional moment with him and he just dragged her off into a room to have sex. But the encounter was completely initiated by both of them. In that moment, I did not see a man just wanting a piece of ass from a woman and not giving a crap about her safety. I saw two people who felt hopeless, desperate, and terrified, looking for some comfort in something that was familiar to them in the middle of the hellish situation they were in. I think it was pretty clear that both of them reached their breaking points Under the Mountain. I can’t say that if I were in that situation I would be thinking completely rationally either. The fact that Feyre condemns and blames him for this in ACOMAF was baffling to me.

And then. . .here comes the thing that makes my blood boil. Feyre reflects in ACOMAF that at the end of that horrible ordeal in the throne room, when Amarantha is torturing her so terribly, breaking her bones and boiling her blood, Rhys is the one who attacks her, fights her, tries to stop her, while all Tamlin does is grovel on the floor. Y’all. Are any of you aware that Tamlin has a giant gaping chest wound while all of this is going on? Feyre had just stabbed him through the heart!!!! Yes, I understand that it was not a fatal wound given the stone heart that he had but still! That sword still had to pierce through skin and bone and muscle! Let’s take a look at how this is described:

Tamlin cried out as my blade pierced his flesh, breaking bone. For a sickening moment, when his blood rushed onto my hand, I thought the ash dagger would go clean through him.

Kill her now, I wanted to bark at Tamlin, but he didn’t move as he pushed his hand against his wound, blood dribbling out. Too slowly--he was healing too slowly.

I found Tamlin’s eyes--wide as he crawled toward Amarantha, watching me die, and unable to save me while his wound slowly healed,  while she still gripped his power.

“Amarantha, stop his,” Tamlin begged at her feet as he clutched the gaping wound in his chest.

“Amarantha, please,” Tamlin moaned, his blood spilling onto the floor.

Like. . .I’m sorry. I guess the fact that he was debilitated by this terrible wound was not a good enough reason to stop physically attacking someone who held all the power in the room. I found it SO unfair and completely ridiculous that the narrative in ACOTAR tells us that he was physically unable to attack Amarantha and then all the sudden in ACOMAF it was that he chose to sit on his ass and grovel for her while Rhys did all the work. Speaking of Rhys, you know who else gets a physical wound and has to stop physically defending Feyre???!? RHYSAND.

Rhys absolutely takes initiative, grabs Tamlin’s dagger, and tries to attack Amarantha out of desperation. She realizes what is going on and attacks him back. This is what transpires:

Her magic sent him sprawling, and it then hurled Rhysand again--so hard that his head cracked against the stones and the knife dropped from his splayed fingers.

No one tries to help him, Feyre begs her to stop and then. . .

Rhys’s arms buckled as he fought to rise, and blood dripped from his nose, splattering on the marble. His eyes met mine.

And then that’s it! Never again does it say that he does anything physical towards Amarantha. Why? Because as amazing as Rhys is, he does have his limitations and one of them just happens to be having his head bashed and being pummeled with violent magic! Why can one of Tamlin’s not be being stabbed through the chest and having a gaping wound that drips blood all over the floor??!? I just found it so baffling that the story is changed completely between the two books. In ACOTAR we are told that Amarantha still holds the leash on his power, he’s got this terrible debilitating wound that’s keeping him down, and physically can not do anything about what is happening (and then the SECOND the curse is lifted, he is on Amarantha and takes her down). But then suddenly in ACOMAF, none of this stuff ever existed and it was all due to his own cowardice and lack of initiative to do anything to protect her. ??????????????????

I guess another reason all of this stuff bothered me so much was because, in my mind, having things end with them the way they did, made it feel to me like Amarantha had won. Now, I know this is not really the case and not how you’re supposed to view it at all. But I definitely got those vibes and it made me sad. Amarantha hates all humans. Because of the horrible betrayal that Jurian made to her sister, she has developed the mindset that all humans are like this--they can say one thing but their hearts, minds, and bodies are so fickle that they can’t be taken seriously. Watching Feyre prove her wrong and show her the strength of her human heart was moving to me. The fact that she knew that she was just an ordinary human, with no special powers or abilities, but was willing to follow Tamlin Under the Mountain to try and help and save him and his people was inspiring. Amarantha made her endure those trials to try and prove that she really did love Tamlin. She went through all of that for him. At the end, when she was torturing her so badly and killing her slowly, all she wanted was for Feyre to admit that she did not really love him. And Feyre believed in that love so strongly that she refused to say this, and let Amarantha do all of that to her.

“She could torture me all she liked, but it would never destroy what I felt for him.”

“I love you,” I said. “No matter what she says about it, no matter if it’s only with my insignificant human heart. Even when they burn my body, I’ll love you.”

To me, this is sad. It’s a sad situation. Going from that ^ straight into ACOMAF where they are so out of sync, hurt. I saw two people who really did love each other, strongly, but fell apart due to differences in their character that they could not overcome. I understand that in all senses, Rhys is the better man for her. He is able to give her everything she wants and needs and understands her in a way that Tamlin never could. But it still hurts to see the way things turned out. Feyre loved Tamlin and he loved her. The two of them went through a lot together. To see all of this just dismissed completely, see Tamlin called a tool, a dick, to see people actively wishing for his death. . .I think it’s sad and pretty unfair. I hope all of this comes across as fair and I hope no one sees it as me bashing Sarah J Maas, or Rhys, or Feyre, or anyone else. Like I said, I can acknowledge that what she ends up having with Rhys is far better and healthier than what she ever had with Tamlin. I just wish there was a way for all of this to be described without totally throwing Tamlin under the bus and making him out to be some terrible awful person with no redeeming qualities. Sometimes relationships don’t work out. We as individuals change and adapt to the changes in our lives and what was good for us at one point in our lives is not always what’s best for us forever. That is, simply put, Real Life, and absolutely okay. It happens every day. I wish more people could see that in the situation with these three characters. Tamlin has his faults--he is far too withdrawn (at least for someone like Feyre), refuses to adapt, and lets fear cripple him and influence his decisions. But he is not the controlling, entitled, selfish, and abusive person that most people make him out to be. He wants what’s best for Feyre and tries in an extremely misguided way to make it so. He does not understand her and thinks he is protecting her. Not a stellar, admirable character, but not one who deserves death threats and the slander that he gets. I hope I’ve been able to communicate that in a way that makes sense.

Props to you if you made it to the end of this long, giant thing!!

#acowar spoilers #a court of wings and ruin spoilers #tamlin #a court of thorns and roses #a court of mist and fury #a court of wings and ruin #acotar #acomaf #acowar #sarah j maas #sjm #feyre archeron #rhysand #feylin

[euro3plast-fr]

Supercharge Your E-commerce Revenues With These 3 UX Tactics

Live chat, video and product finders can help you massively boost your conversion rate

If you suddenly discovered you had superpowers, you’d use them, right? Of course you would! (and hopefully in a socially beneficial way). Well, I recently discovered a few user experience (UX) techniques that are proven to significantly lift E-commerce revenues, so I wanted to share these techniques so that you can starting use them yourself soon.

First I’ll describe the revenue ‘leverage factors’ each of these features provide. Then I’ll provide guidance on how to design and implement them for your eCommerce website.

The X factors, please

My recent analysis for a website that sells surveillance products found that the Revenue Per Visitor (RPV) - the top conversion metric for E-commerce websites - was amplified by the following factors:

By 3.9X when visitors used chat

By 1.7X when visitors viewed videos

By 2.2X when visitors used a product finder

In other words, visitors who used online chat produced nearly 4 times as much revenue as visitors who didn’t use chat. These values are even more impressive when they’re expressed as percentage: the 3.9X for chat equates to a 290% increase in revenues for visitors who used this feature. This obviously adds up to big revenue gains when it’s multiplied by a large number of visitors per month.

My team arrived at these factors by:

Installing the script for Evergage, a website personalization platform, on our client’s eCommerce website

Tagging all key website interactions

Creating segments of visitors (based on specific interactions)

Running reports to see the before/after effect of the UX updates

Taking the ratio of the RPV of visitors who used the feature to the RPV of visitors who were exposed to the feature, but didn’t use it

It’s a simple process - it just takes a few hours and a modest investment in a personalization tool. (I won’t get into the tool specifics or costs here - just know that the monthly tool cost pales in comparison to the insights and revenue lifts you get from creating custom visitor segments and viewing the available reports).

True, these ‘boost factors’ may vary across businesses. But considering that the above X factors are for discretionary products, not products that people need to buy every week or month, these factors are likely to be even higher for mass-market eCommerce sites.

Chat

It makes sense that chat would increase conversions because it’s a human interaction that requires little effort or motivation. Most people, especially those under 30, don’t want to actually talk to anyone while shopping; they’d much rather text, email or chat. So your website’s salespeople need to be where they are - online, knowledgeable, and eager to answer their questions.

If you don’t have chat on your site yet, you can get started by:

Researching and choosing a suitable chat tool

Training your chat (and phone) staff on customer service and sales best practices

Hooking your chat tool up to your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, so your reps can do things like collect emails for follow-on marketing

Deploying the chat experience on your website

Improving both your chat tool and sales interactions over time

Since chat interactions provide the highest RPV boost, even if your chat experience isn’t awesome when first launched, you’re still likely to get a 1.5-2.0 X RPV boost. That’s nothing for you - or your CFO - to sneeze at.

Something else to keep in mind: You will also be gathering deep streams of prospect data from your chat logs. By mining these logs, either manually or with a text-mining tool, you’ll collect insights that will allow you to improve both your chat experience and other aspects of your conversion funnel.

Video

I learned the other day that the average session time on YouTube is 40 minutes per viewing session. No, not 40 seconds, or 4 minutes, but over half an hour. YouTube does this cleverly by auto-rolling playlists, showing related videos, personalizing the homepage, and other tactics. You end up saying, ‘Geez, where did the time go, I was just looking for how to jump-start my car. Now I’ve been watching Sean Spicer news conference videos for over an hour!’ We humans obviously love to watch videos and, with the high popularity of TV shows and movie streaming, I don’t expect this to change anytime soon.

So, how do you tap into this fascination, so that it lifts your conversions? First, you should script and produce some ‘explainer’ scripts for all of your site’s main usage scenarios and categories - content that explains key product features to consider, and the pros and cons of each. Don’t just blurt out features and specs; that will make your visitors’ eyes glaze over. Instead, assume that most of your visitors don’t know much about your company or your products, and don’t have the patience to be lectured. Assume that what they really want and need is guidance - ultimately reassurance - that they’re making a smart, well-informed choice.

After informing your visitors, you can then go into ‘demo mode’ - show videos of the product in use in real-life scenarios. These videos will make it real, and help your viewers visualize themselves using the product. If they’re using it in their minds, they’re well on their way to actually buying it. They just may need to get a quick question answered. Assuming that you’ve implemented chat (you will be, right?), those visitor interactions will ‘have your back’ in those situations.

Once your videos are done, post them to YouTube, social media, category pages, product pages. Get them out there so they can start driving engagement and getting your visitors to take that next conversion click.

Finders keepers

If you’re not familiar with product finders, here’s the best analogy: they are the UX equivalent of the real-life salesperson who greets you, asks you a few questions, then guides you to the best product for your situation. If this salesperson is good, she doesn’t just guide you to a single product, but to a complete solution. If she is bad - or doesn’t even connect with you - you just wander away and look elsewhere.

To find the questions - and answer choices - to put into your finder, ask a few experienced support reps the ‘qualifying questions’ they ask to guide prospects to the best product in the shortest amount of time. Then, after providing the right motivation for your call-to-action button (e.g. ‘Get your customized hidden camera! [subtext: ‘It only takes 30 seconds’), jump right into your questions. I’ve found that Lightbox layers are the best way to show the questions to desktop visitors. For mobile visitors, I’ve learned it’s best to show the questions directly on the page.

Keep in mind these guidelines are you create your questions:

Don’t ask more than 5-6 questions (4 is preferable)

Don’t offer more than 3 answer choices per question

Include tips below the answers that clarify the implications each answer (if necessary)

And when you show your recommendations:

Reiterate the answers the visitor provided

Present a higher-price ‘premium’ option to the left of a ‘standard’ one (based on the anchoring principle, the standard one will seem like a good value)

Provide a way for the visitor to save their recommendations (which gives you a reason to capture their email address)

Online, it’s less about building rapport, so you don’t need to include any introductory screens. Just dive directly from your finder call-to-action to the first question, and after the last question show your recommendations. Your visitors will appreciate your directness.

More visible, more boost

Now that you know how effective these power boosters are, you need to make them more visually prominent (within reason - please refrain from the flashing lights ‘Times Square’ syndrome). In addition to having ‘start chat’ button, push chat to visitors under certain conditions (for example, when they are stalled in the cart). Expose demo videos or finders on product pages. The more these features get seen and used, the higher the conversion rate - and RPV - boost you’ll get.

Remember to tag and track

When you deploy any of these tactics, be sure test their click-through rates and RPVs against your baseline experiences so that you can quantify the financial value of each update. Don’t put yourself in the position of spending time and emotional energy making updates, but having no way to quantify their financial impact. Begin with the end in mind - a compelling story to tell your CFO - and you’ll be sure to include all the tracking and reports you need.

Start using your superpowers now!

Put on your virtual cape and start working on adding chat, videos and product finders to your website, and see how quickly you can get them implemented. Don’t worry about making them perfect - just focus on getting something workable up and running as soon as possible. You can always perfect it later. Even if you ‘only’ get a 1.5X revenue lift initially, you’ll be getting a substantial ROI from your design and development investment. Your company’s CFO or owner will soon be singing your praises, and maybe even sharing some of those revenue gains.

Thanks to Mark for sharing their advice and opinions in this post. Mark Hall is an eCommerce Expert, Conversion Rate Optimizer, Voice of Customer (VOC) Researcher and Concert Band Geek. Having consulted for over 20 years with a wide range of clients including AT&T, American Express, Edmunds, SpyTec and the California Lottery, he knows which marketing strategies and tactics will best boost companies' conversion rates and revenues.

from Blog – Smart Insights http://www.smartinsights.com/user-experience/supercharge-ecommerce-revenues-3-ux-tactics/

#Blog – Smart Insights

[becomingforeverfamily]

The boys are HOME!

written by Kara:

I can’t believe it’s been four weeks since our parents came home with Miles and Miller. It’s been hectic, which is why we have not updated our blog until now. I’m excited for the opportunity to share with you how God has been moving and how you can be praying for our family.

Mom and Dad had a great trip to Taiwan. They had opportunities to share the gospel and our story of adoption with others. They were able to see God move in tangible ways. On one of the last few days they were in Taiwan, they had a final appointment with the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) for a visa interview. If you read the last blog post, you’ll remember that the Lord worked a miracle to ensure that my parents could have their fingerprints updated in time for travel and this final meeting. (Scroll down to the last blog post entitled “Miracles and Fingerprints” to read more.)

However, the day before the this final meeting in Taiwan, they were told that the AIT had not received those fingerprints directly from the US. They were told beforehand that these copies had been sent, and Dad even showed the social workers the copies of the forms. However, the people in Taiwan needed files directly sent from the USCIS. Dad’s copies would not be sufficient. Plus the AIT office was preparing to close for Chinese New Year— meaning if they didn’t receive the fingerprints within 24 hours, our parents would have to wait over two weeks for another appointment. It also meant they would not be able bring the boys home. This naturally brought on a lot of stress for our family. What would we do if this happened? We honestly had no solution, so once again we had to trust that the Lord would provide.

Kyle and I shared the news with people who had been praying and following our updates, and we had (literally) over 100 believers back in the United States fasting and praying for a miracle. We anxiously awaited the verdict, trusting God to bring this work to completion. As a result of this “hiccup,” my dad was able to share with non-believing social workers about the power of Jesus and that God would work this out.

Around 7:00pm the next day (an hour before their appointment), Dad sent us the following text:

Satan lost and the body of Christ won the spiritual battle today. AIT says they received the appropriate paperwork and we are on our way to our Visa interview now! Please thank the body of believers for interceding on our behalf. Praise God and may He have all the glory!!!!!!!! “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.” 2 Corinthians 10:4

All the paperwork was completed during the meeting, and they were ready to start their journey home. All four of them did well traveling and made it to Birmingham, Alabama, safely where Kyle and I met them in the airport. I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to put that day in words. I was excited, anxious, overwhelmed, filled with joy, and freaking out all at once.

Mom, Dad, Miles, and Miller spent the night in a hotel in Birmingham, and on Friday all of us went to Tupelo. There we were welcomed with flags, posters, and a waving welcoming line of family, friends, and neighbors. Our street was packed with cars and families, ready to show us love by welcoming us home. A few minutes later, there we were. A family of six standing right out front of our home with followers of Jesus surrounding us. We bowed our heads as prayers were lifted up. I literally sobbed. The church is so beautiful and I thank God every day for the community and support he has placed in our lives during this season.

It’s now been four weeks, and the boys have adjusted remarkably well. The Lord has also granted our parents strength each day. Of course I can’t include it all, but I’ve written a few excerpts about each of us below. Hopefully this will serve as a general update and give you ideas of ways to pray:

Miles— He is so musical! Which makes my heart incredibly happy. He has enjoyed picking out tunes on the piano, listening to music ALL the time, and singing! He is definitely an athlete. Whatever kind of ball, he can dominate. He has made some friends in the neighborhood and started school this past week. He is such a sweet big brother. Although he loves to aggravate Miller, he cares so deeply for him and is helpful when needed. There are days that Miles misses his friends in Taiwan, but he truly loves having a “MaMa” and “PaPa” as well as older siblings.

Miller— He is a HOOT! He is silly and loves to play… all. day. long. He loves laughing and making others laugh. Miller will literally walk up to us at the most random points of the day and just wrap his arms around us. He loves to be hugged. He recently has began playing air guitar to every song that comes on the radio. He falls asleep each night repeating “I love you MaMa, I love you PaPa” and has such a compassionate heart. He has been a little hesitant about school but is beginning to warm up to his (amazing) teacher and friends in the classroom.

Tami— I have started referring to her as “MaMa” now, too. She is a rockstar. The Lord has given her an incredible amount of strength, patience, love, and grace in these past few weeks. Speaking from experience, she truly is an incredible mother. She is nourishing and caring, and has bonded more easily than expected with both boys. She has stayed busy each moment of the day, but life will slow down once the boys are even more adjusted. (At least that’s what I keep telling her. Shhhh, if you think differently don’t say it to her. Ha!)

Ronny— Also known as “PaPa”. He is the best. Also speaking from experience, Dad is the most loving, gentle, hilarious, and selfless father a child could ask for. After work each day, he plays with the boys. He is their “bike-buddy” and occasionally starts Nerf Gun games. The boys often fall asleep holding dad’s hand.. what a beautiful reminder of the Heavenly Father’s love for his children! Dad loves being their father, and he often “shows them off” to co-workers and friends.

Kyle and Kara— Kyle is studying in seminary and I am working in Birmingham. We plan to go home on the weekends as much as we are able, but we take full advantage of FaceTime while we are away. To be honest, both of us have felt some spiritual attacks and anxiety as we face a “new normal.” We are excited about what God is doing, but that does not mean it is easy. We are absolutely in LOVE with Miles and Miller and truly are thrilled to have them part of our family—forever!

We ask that you will remain in prayer for our family! I’ve included a few points below that can guide you. Church, we love you. We could not do this without you. Thank you for your amazing love and support.

Pray for Miles as he works through the grief of leaving his friends and culture in Taiwan.

Pray for Miller as he transitions to full days at school.

Pray for both boys as they continue to learn English and make friends. 

Pray for Mom and Dad to have wisdom in parenting on a day-to-day basis.

Pray that Mom and Dad are able to find moments each day to rest and be still with the Lord. 

Pray for Kyle and I as we transition in this season of change.