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#truly ive never felt so awful
hella1975 · 1 year
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by pure evil accident taob zuko's current mental state is the exact same as the one ive been stuck in for the past few weeks and that's a bit funny to me. like i started writing this chapter months ago and knew what i was doing with it even longer ago and suddenly ive manifested it into reality. we are both facing the horrors rn
#when the angry character finally learns to acknowledge their rage not as its own problem but as a coping mechanism to the problem#& faces at once the relief of finding the source of all this anger & the horror of realising that the anger itself was never the final boss#and it leaves them in a depressive state where they actually MISS the anger because at least that was active and - in a sense - dignified#whereas this just feels stilted and mopey and like each day is passing and you're losing time doing nothing#but you cant shake it anyway and wow im no longer talking about zuko!!!! we stay embarassing ourselves over taob!!!!#like i realised just now while staring off into space stirring my tea that the reason this particular depressive episode has hit me so hard#(aside the fact it's been a pretty extreme one and my paranoia has rlly flared up to the point ive felt honest to god CRAZY lately haha)#is because it's so DIFFERENT to how i usually respond to feeling like this#like normally my temper gets very quick and i completely isolate and i get mean and sharp#and i convince myself that everyone is out to get me and/or hates me and therefore i must manipulate everyone in my life#and ofc NONE OF THOSE THINGS ARE A GOOD RESPONSE. I AM NOT PROUD OF THEM#THEY ARE ALSO NOT NEARLY AS BAD AS HOW I USED TO BE HENCE I KNOW I AM GETTING BETTER#SLOWLY PAINFULLY WITH MY NAILS DIGGING IN THE DIRT BUT I AM GETTING BETTER ALL THE SAME#but STILL despite how awful those things are they're also very external. like i hurt the people around me in order to protect myself#and there's a dignity to that. there's more control there even if ultimately it's a lack of control causing it#like i have some fucked opinions from my upbringing and ik that like im quite a selfish person and it's bc i was raised to truly believe#that hurting others is always optimal over letting myself be seen as weak. like if my options are to hurt someone even someone i love#or let myself be vulnerable then sometimes i STILL will pick the former (it used to be all the time though <3 progress is progress)#and anger has always been sold to me as a very dignified STRONG emotion and it's how you're SUPPOSED to respond to badness#otherwise you're weak and a baby and pathetic etc etc#and just bc you know something is wrong doesnt mean you didnt internalise the fuck out of it anyway#like i will always see anger as the 'dignified' emotion and unlearning it regardless of that has been one of the hardest things ive done#('wow hella your own journey with mental illness is the literal exact same as taob zuko's-' i will hospitalise the both of us)#whereas currently ive just been sad and pathetic and oversharing to anyone who will listen and desperate for someone to look at me#and be like 'you're not okay' and to fix it FOR ME. like im not ANGRY im SAD and im not used to that response#AND GUESS WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENS THIS CHAPTER BY PURE FUCKING COINCIDENCE?? LITERALLY WHAT#like it's been happening for a few chapters that we're finally moving from anger to sadness on my unofficial healing chart#ever since zuko's outburst with hakoda when zi se had that tantrum#but this is the first time we see Sad Coping Mechanism as a response to a problem instead of Angry Coping Mechanism#taob updates
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0tul1ss · 11 months
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#mannn i literally assumed he ghosted-- why on earth would he text me after so long????#i was fully like 'ok the last msg i sent literally makes me cringe a bit to read but its been months so ig im never opening the convo again#it was simpler before when there felt like there was nothing else to do and easier to move on. i even had a little crush on someone else !#now i have a whole wheel of decisions to choose from#and idek what i truly want from this guy anymore bc even just platonically he kinda fucked it up like. idk#or rather i want a lot of different things and idk what to choose#i want my friend back. i want to never see him again. i want him to know every truth of what ive felt and i want him to know none of it#i want him to miss me or maybe wonder about me sometimes down the line. i want him to not spare me another thought for the rest of his life#i want to reply only 'go fuck yourself' and i want to write him a letter and i want to ghost him better than he ghosted me#i want to tell him i love him and i want to tell him i hate him and i want to say nothing at all#i want the closure i was denied. i want to protect the closure i now have#<-going insane#anyway its soooo stupid like i already grieved for this shit bro. i accepted the end of this years long close friendship#anyway idk why im doing so much processing of this in a vent post nor do i know why i always feel compelled to post these when i do#good thing i keep a small presence on here lol. but yea uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh send post#ok wait i saved this as a draft and went to go look for what i had been tagging vent posts with#[couldnt find one i had been using consistently even tho the whole point is so ppl can blacklist it if they want whoops!!]#and i saw another vent from another time he just kinda disappeared on me#and while this time was a lot worse for a lot of reasons i think its important to say this--#that the last thing that i want is to go back to square one of this stupid awful cycle#vent
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bnunyv4mp · 5 months
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last year i thought i was down bad lmfao going through the worse shit of my life but everytime i say something like that it gets sm worse
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sofie-toffy · 5 months
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Mizu Headcanons
AN: Broo ive just finished blue eye samurai and im obsessed w it..so here are some headcanons! SHE WAS SO FINE IN THE LAST SCENE BTW UGHH
(I’ll be separating it based on genre eg. angst or fluff)
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Warnings: Angst, Contains mentions of death & murder, spoilers! The fluff is x reader
(if you know me irl, no you don’t)
Angst:
- Mizu often thinks about how life would be if she chose to forgave her husband and didn’t kill him
- After Ringo leaving her she feels awful for what she’s done and wishes that she could let go of her revenge path but cannot
- Once Mizu’s “mother” betrayed her and Mizu killed her, she still had the motive of killing her father, but instead of the motive to avenge her mother it was to curse the man that made her live in the first place
- She understood that she never should’ve been born in the first place and was born as monstrous, hence her obsession with revenge. But there is obviously a part of her that wants to live a peaceful life
- She normally has panic attacks but no one has ever witnessed them except Swordfather
- When she was with her husband (the night before the sparring) that was the only time she felt loved for who she was
- She wanted to show who she really was as her husband asked to, and once she did she was called “a monster” and now she’s reluctant to show anyone even half of who she really is
- She overworks herself to the point of exhaustion and most times collapses, forgetting to eat and rest
- Whenever she checks her reflection, she imagines herself with brown/black eyes
- (Canon) she wears the same clothes she wore since she was a child and stitches them whenever they tear
- because of her binder she often has trouble breathing but she’s so used to it she thinks it’s normal
- She once wanted to gouge her eyes out so she won’t witness the looks of disgust when they see her eyes
- She’s entirely convinced that there’s no way she’ll ever be truly loveable. She’s convinced she’s monstrous in every way, from the hues of her blue eyes to the violence she bears
(MY POOR BABY I LOVE HER SM I JUST WANNA SEE HER HAPPY N SATISFIED 😭😭)
Fluff/Not angst(finally)
- Love language is quality time & acts of service
- Although she’s not aware of it, she has an unconscious fixation with music. Mizu has always been drawn to musical festivals and it both calms and excites her
- If given the time, she normally asks if you want to go to festivals (her unnamingly pleading for you to agree) and her face is relaxed the whole time, her fingers intertwined with yours
- I feel her normal dates with you would be very simple. She’d enjoy just spending time with you, quietly or with small chatter
- She loves stargazing with you. My god. Laying beside each other, feeling each others warmth contrary to the harsh snow as you look at the different constellations
- Actually, you’d be looking at the constellation while she looks at you with a small smile tugging at her lips, while she adores the light in your eyes as you gaze up
- Speaking of holding hands she LOVES to hold your hand, doesn’t matter if your hand is cold or warm, it intertwines with hers perfectly
- Whenever you compliment her eyes she doesn’t believe you until you say it a thousand times
- takes a LONG time to warm up to you, but once she does it is SO worth it
- unconsciously misses your warmth, once sleeping she searches for your hand to hold or for you to hug
- speaking of hugging, i think she can be both spoons but mostly big spoon
- loves resting her head on your chest but loves wrapping her arms around you, ensuring that you are safe
AN: GUYS I NEED HER SO BAD U DONT GET IT
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May i please request a slytherin reader where she gets in trouble with umbridge and is punished with a "i must not tell lies" scar on her arm. She tries to hide it from draco but he finds out? Ive always wondered how draco would react ;) thank you in advance!
yes i’m on it!! x
draco malfoy x fem!slytherin!reader
tw: torture, violence, mentions blood loss, angst, fluff reader discretion is advised. And this is quite long
seeing between the lines
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you knew it was a bad idea joining Dumbledore army after Harry had asked. But after all, Hermione was your best friend, to Draco’s dismay and you were the go between being a Slytherin you had access to the plans of the Inquisitorial Squad unfortunately led by your boyfriend Draco.
You felt awful lying to him but you were also angry at him for trying to destroy Harry and his friends, the DA to be specific which he was yet to find out that you were apart of. However it all fell apart for you very quickly when you were discovered by Crabbe and Goyle practicing defence spells with Parvati. They escorted you both to the office where you were met with the shocked face of Umbridge. You gave the two boys a fleeting death stare as to warn them off of telling Draco that you were part of the DA. “Restrain them.” Umbridge smiled as the Slytherin boys tied your hands to the chair.
“I am truly disappointed girls. Why ever were you engaging in such treacherous magic.” she clasped her hands together as you and Parvati glanced at one another fearfully. “In all due respect Professor, we were just having a little bit of fun it was nothing serious.” She furrowed her brows, still with that wicked grin on her face and walked towards you slowly “Don’t lie.” you shook your head “I’m not professor.” the next two seconds were a blur as she smacked you straight across the face “I told you not to lie Miss y/l/n. With many years of experience in the ministry I know a defence spell when i hear one. Unfortunately you will have to face consequences now.”
Tears brimmed in your eyes from the sting of her slap as you saw yourself in the mirror she had also drawn blood from your cheek. She turned to Parvati who was practically shaking in her chair “Are you practicing defence magic with other members of your class Miss Parvati? Like Mr Potter perhaps.” you knew how good of a liar Parvati was “No Professor. Of course not, it’s against the rules.” Umbridge took that bait.“One month detention. You can go now Miss Patil but I’ll watching you.”
The gryffindor girl nodded before being released and practically running for her life out of Umbridge’s office. “Now what to do with you Miss Y/L/N.” you struggled against your chair and she shushed you “Now now. What’s all this commotion? You’ve disobeyed the rules surely you realise you deserve to be punished.” you shook your head squeezing your eyes shut. “You think i don’t know about your….relations with Mr Malfoy. Which too, is also forbidden in my school. I suppose I should punish you for that too. However Draco has been more that helpful in assisting me to keep this school in order so I’ll spare that punishment…for now.”
She circled around to her desk draw, taking out her wand, a piece of paper and a pen. “I would like you to write lines for today’s punishment. You will write I must not tell lies seven hundred times on this piece of paper. You will not be released from my office until you have finished.” Crabbe released one of your hands “Wait outside the door please boys and lock it.” Umbridge explained. Your stomach dropped and you picked up the pen with a shaky hand before you started writing. I must not tell lies I must not tell lies I must not tell lies. as you began to write line number 15 you felt a sharp stinging pain in your arm.
You rolled up your sleeves and saw your own writing cutting into your skin. You eyes began to water again as the pain got stronger. You pleaded with Umbridge as she sat watching you, the happy expression never leaving her pug-like face. “Please…no.” you said in choked whisper. She sighed and shook her head “I feared you’d say that Miss Y/L/N. Now carry on or I’m afraid I will have to take matters into my own hands. I don’t like disobedient children.”
You carried on writing, each sentence cutting in the same spot in your arm making you cry out in pain until you could no longer write. Umbridge took clear joy from your punishment and stood up coming around her desk once more “I’m afraid you’ve left me with no choice but to carry out it myself.” she fluttered her eyes with evil intent. “You’re the devil.” you cried , straining against the chair “That is an a terrible thing to say to your headmistress. You horrible little girl.” and with the flick of her wand she carried on the sentences, carving into your arm making you scream out in pain.
It went on for almost 4 hours. Even Crabbe and goyle felt bad and knew that they wouldn’t be the only ones able to hear your blood curdling screams that could wake an army. But everyone knew where they came from and who was causing them. The who would be the mystery unless the boys and Parvati were to tell people that it was you being punished which they probably would. When you were finally released, it was nightfall and you were seriously injured. “Mr Goyle please come back in.” when the boys opened the door and crabbe nearly passed out from the sight of you, half of you soaked in your own blood and struggling to stay conscious, surprised you were even alive.
“I hope you learned your lesson Miss Y/L/N.” You dragged yourself to the hospital wing assisted by Goyle “You tell Draco… and i’ll kill you.” you choked out at the boy holding you up. He said nothing and nodded. Goyle was going to tell Draco no matter what you said. Madame Pomfrey attended you immediately, luckily there were no other students in the hospital wing. She patched you up with a sympathetic look of deep concern on her face “Stay here till morning and then you can go back to your dorm. But you must rest for a few days. You lost quite a lot of blood.”
You sighed weakly lying in the hospital bed as pomfrey connected your bandaged arm to an IV and within minutes you were asleep. When you awoke the next morning you felt a hand holding yours. Opening your eyes you were met with the puffy red face of Hermione. “Mione.” you smiled groggily. “I’m so relieved you’re okay.” she wiped her tears and rubbed her thumb over the top of your hand. She helped you sit up in your bed fluffing the pillows behind you “I’m guessing Parvati told everyone.” Hermione shook her head “Just the DA. To keep everyone vigilant.” You bit the inside of your cheek nervously “Could you hear it? When Umbridge was punishing me?”
She cast her eyes to the floor “I was in charms class at the time but I’m pretty sure everyone could Y/N. You know thats how Umbridge frightens students to follow her orders. Remember when it was Hannah?” you rolled your eyes “I know. But everyone will gossip about it today.” Hermione gave you a weak smile as you continued “Wait. Draco’s in your charms class.” “Don’t worry Y/N. He looked visibly uncomfortable when it was happening but I don’t think he could tell it was you. Parvati covered for you and told him you were studying in your dorm and didn’t want any distractions from anyone. Whether or not he listened to her is another matter entirely.”
“Right well I better not waste anymore time he’ll be looking for me.” You insisted. Hermione shook her head “It’s sad really. He’s your boyfriend yet…” you finished her sentence “Yet he’s the head of the inquisitorial squad determined to rat everyone out just keep him and his idiot friends out of the trouble. Mione I know, I currently hate him for it.” She helped you up out of bed as madame pomfrey came over. She took your bandages off to reveal a fresh red cracked scar reading i must not tell lies.
Hermione observed your arm with a deep frown on her face “Oh Y/N….” you shrugged dejectedly as pomfrey collected a clean uniform and set it down on your bed. “I’ll still do whatever I can to help. Even more so now this happened. That she-devil needs to be chucked out of this school.” You pulled on your uniform making sure the scar was hidden under your jumper. Your arm was sore but it wasn’t unbearable you prayed Draco wouldn’t notice but you knew that facing him was going to be difficult for you.
You walked slowly back to your dorm, deliberately stalling. However it was no use and before you knew it you were making your way through the door of the common room. Of course there Draco sat on the plush green sofa. You immediately felt a lump in your throat and pretended not to notice him like it would solve the problem. He watched you walk by small smile on his face at your absent mindedness. As you got to the bottom of the stairs you felt is his arms wrap around your waist “Where are you off to my darling? I knocked on your dorm this morning but you weren’t in. I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages.” draco sighed into your neck.
you turned yourself out of his hold looking up at him to meet his icy blue gaze “Sorry went to the library I’ve just been studying a lot. I’m still quite busy Draco so I’m gonna get back to my dorm” his brows furrowed “But I didn’t see you all day yesterday. Had to put up with all that screaming from Umbridge’s office and Patil, a gryffindor, letting me know that youd locked yourself in your dorm to study. Cant I just hang out in your room or you can come to mine-“ you felt yourself beginning to choke up and get angry at his words so you cut him off “Draco. I’m busy. Not now.” and you took off up the stairs as he stood rejected watching your figure retreat into the dark hallway.
You threw yourself on your bed sobbing into the pillows. You had no idea how to act in front of Draco. You were so angry yet you loved him so much. For the rest of the day you showered and got into some comfy clothes before catching up on some schoolwork and getting some more rest. You felt your stomach begin to rumble so you got up again and trudged your way down to the great hall. You came down into the common where unfortunately Draco and all his friends were still sat. Blaise noticed you first and nudged the blonde boy. Draco looked at you hopefully as you ignored him once again.
“Y/N.” he called out to you. Internally cringing you faced him with a polite smile “Hi.” he scratched the back of his head “Did I uh- do something?” you shook your head as you felt the anger bubble within you “It just seems like I have. You’ve been acting really off with me today. Are you feeling ill? You don’t look well. You’ve been studying too much.” you rolled your eyes as your saw the other boys listening in on your conversation “I’m stressed, I need to study I already told you. Or is that not okay? I don’t want to do this in front of your mates Draco.” you turned to go back to your dorm but he grabbed your arm. The one with scar making you cry out in pain. He noticed immediately “Shit, are you okay darling? Did I hurt you?” You stepped back from him “No it’s fine. I just want some alone time Draco, please.”
You went back to your dorm even though you were starving and after an hour you eventually gave in. Giving it one last attempt you headed down to the great hall without any attention seeking from your boyfriend. Crabbe, Goyle and Draco were still sitting in the common room although this time there was no laughing or joking that could be heard “We have something to tell you.” Crabbe played nervously with the hem of his robe “Okay? what?” Draco looked at the boy suspiciously “You won’t like it.” Goyle admitted.
The slytherin prince sat back into the sofa “Well now you have to tell me. Is it to do with the DA? Cause you know we need to go to umbridge immediately if there’s information you’ve found.” Goyle sighed “No but well..sort of. Its complicated.” Draco frowned “For God sake spit it out.” “It’s Y/N.” Crabbe confessed “What are you talking about?”But if there was ever worse timing for you to return the from the great hall, this was it. you heard the heated exchange between the boys and caught Goyle ratting you out to Draco as you opened the common room door
“We saw her performing a defence spell with parvati so we took them to umbridge’s office. But we didn’t realise Umbridge was going to punish her with the lines. So the uh…the…the screams were hers. She was bleeding, that’s bit of an understatement really. And then I took her to the hospital wing after Umbridge had…finished with her. But I had to Draco.” You stormed into the room “Goyle! You asshole I told you not to say anything.” you yelled as Dracos heart dropped and eyes widened with horror as faced you.
“What? You mean yesterday when…all those screams..that was you.” his body when numb. “Yes. it was.” You eyes produced fresh tears as they flicked between the three boys “It’s your fault. All of you. Especially you Draco. You and your stupid fucking mates, you’ll do anything to destroy Harry. This is what your doing to people. To me. The person you love and the people trying to save this school from deatheaters and voldemort.” You screamed at him,rolling up your sleeve pointing at your arm with tears streaming your face as he stared at you as you headed off back to your dorm.
Draco ran after you shutting the door behind him “Y/N I-“ you cut him off, shouting “That monster of a woman tortured me for hours for using one defence spell. One. I nearly died! And yes I am part of the DA before you ask. I have to be if I want to survive in this school. God, Draco if anyone should be helping us it’s you! You hate your family and everyone knows they’re deatheaters anyway.” admittedly you felt bad for saying it but it was true. You turned away from him, sitting on your bed and sobbed “Go on turn me in then.” silence. You faced him again “If you have nothing to say then leave.”
he sat down and suddenly grabbed your waist, pulling you into his lap “i’m sorry. i’m so sorry.” he whispered over and over as tears streamed down his face “i love you. forgive me.” his gaze flicked to the scar on your arm, feeling wracked with an overwhelming guilt. You both held each other until your crying had turned to sniffles. Draco held one side of your face as he cradled the rest of your body “I can’t tell you how much I regret acting this way. You wouldn’t have suffered if I hadn’t have been Umbridge’s pet. That woman deserves Azkaban.”
You smiled “It’s true. You’ve definitely made yourself even more hated than usual. You know that Umbridge is insufferable and inquisitorial squad is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard of. You lot made a lot of people suffer.” Draco hung his head in shame “I know. I promise I will spend a lot of my free time hating myself.” you giggled nuzzling into your boyfriend “Well I’m glad you feel that way. Though there is one thing you could do. You could stay in the inquisitorial but you wont tell on anyone. Make Umbridge think everything’s perfect and let the DA carry on to drive her out the school.” He nodded “If it protects you, I’ll do anything.” you gave him a stern look “So you’ll stop going after Harry too?” He sighed “Yes I will stop going after Harry. I’ll even talk to my father and the ministry about Umbridge.”
He kissed you deeply stroking your hair “I promise, anything for you. Now let’s rest and let me take care of you sweetheart.” You laid in your bed with Draco, his arms wrapped tightly around your body coaxing you off to sleep. And for the first time in a long time you felt hopeful about the future.
hope it’s not too dramatic lols. Also if you are following my Draco series I’m am still continuing with it I’m trying to finish the next chapter xx
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jollyfoxavenue · 3 months
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In a vast galaxy, the species living across various star systems were captivated by the arrival of a new species of omnivorous predatory apes known as humans. Hailing from a Class IV deathworld, these creatures quickly garnered a reputation for their remarkable ability to survive in environments that would easily kill other species. However, despite their resilience, humans were still in the tribal stages of their culture, dividing their world into different countries and believing in higher beings called Gods.
Among the intrigued species were the Starlings, who shared a similar form to humans, albeit with their blue skin, glowing hair, and advanced technological capabilities. They found it perplexing that humans would connect with a species so different from their own, but they were unsure how to navigate this newfound admiration.
The Starlings' bewilderment soon turned to desperation when the Wedfrghg Empire declared war on their home planet, leaving them on the brink of destruction. The Union of Interplanetary Republics, a once-believed ally, abandoned them in their darkest hour. Yet, amidst the chaos, one species stood by their side – the humans.
Humans, it seemed, would fight to the death for those they loved, an unrivaled ferocity that included even the Starlings. But what truly set humans apart was their unyielding insanity. No sane species would employ pizza delivery as a means of infiltrating an enemy fortress they intended to obliterate. Nor would they tame predators as pets, only to unleash them upon their adversaries. And surely, kidnapping an entire planet's sun was an act of madness beyond comprehension.
Within a month, by Earth's standards, the Wedfrghg Empire surrendered, retreating in utter shock. The Starlings were left in awe of their human allies, just as bewildered as the defeated empire and the Union of Interplanetary Republics.
As the dust settled, a dignified meeting was called on the Starlings' home planet. The humans, now revered as saviors, were invited to join the interplanetary council. At the center of the gathering sat the Starling High Council, their features blending the humanoid form as the humans called it, with their distinctive blue skin and radiant hair.
The Starlings, still struggling to comprehend the unfathomable acts of the humans, addressed them with a mix of curiosity and respect. "We owe you our planet, our lives. But why? What drove you to such madness, to combat the Wedfrghg Empire with such audacity?"
A human representative, his eyes ablaze with determination, rose to his feet. "We are a species born out of chaos and struggle," he began, his voice resonating through the grand hall. "On our deathworld, survival was never guaranteed. We fought against nature, against each other, until we became a species defined by tenacity and innovation."
He continued, his words captivating the room. "For us, courage isn't just found in the ability to face danger but in the audacity to defy the impossible. We may be divided by countries and beliefs, but when faced with threats to those we hold dear, we unite with an unwavering resolve. We may seem insane to others, but it is this insanity that drives us to achieve the extraordinary."
The Starlings listened intently, captivated by the human's explanation. As they absorbed the wisdom in his words, they began to understand the unique essence of humanity.
From that day forward, the alliance between humans and Starlings grew stronger, becoming a beacon of hope and unity throughout the galaxy. The humans shared their knowledge and technology, while the Starlings provided guidance and wisdom, their advanced understanding of science and diplomacy complementing the human spirit.
The rest of the of the universe might feel fear when speaking about humans or Earth, but the Starlings? They felt pretty good about their allies and close trade partners.
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eelnoise · 5 months
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seraphim
roronoa zoro x afab!reader c/w: bloodlust, consensual bloodplay, zoro bites, you scratch, religious themes, body worship, slight breeding kink, piv sex, creampie, manhandling, praise, post-murder sex (reader and zoro just killed a bunch of marines), public sex a/n: ? idk what even to say. i like my men bloody and i like when they bloody me. this is a rewrite of a previous fic which you can find here so if ur like "ive read this b4..." its because you kinda have banner by the lovely @buggyandthebartoclub!
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Zoro isn’t a religious man.
No, he finds the very notion of reverence visceral.
Though as he turns back toward you, he’s dumbstruck. You face away from him, pulling the blade of your sword deep from the torso of a fallen naval officer and watching as the light fades from his eyes. Both of you had emerged victorious after a merciless and surprise assault from a group of marines in the middle of an open town square on some island that neither of you can remember the name of, where a large statue stands tall in honor of some long-forgotten hero at its center.
The scene is heavenly, you there - surrounded by the wages of spilled blood that pools beneath your feet, the remnants of singing steel permeating the now hallowed ground upon which you stand. There’s a certain beauty in chaos, and never has Zoro felt it quite as clearly as when he watches you tear into your foes with reckless abandon. The image makes him shiver - not in fear or revulsion, but something far more primal, deep within his gut.
He’s speechless as he observes you wiping the excess carnage from your blade, a sensation akin to delight igniting in his veins and fixated on you like a hawk. It’s beautiful, truly, a stunning vision that he couldn’t even dream up. 
“Well, we took care of that little rat problem, hm?” Your words are heavy with pride and exertion, but the sound of your voice only spurs him from a daze that he didn’t even realize he was in.
Then you turn to him, visage tattered and torn and stained with crimson. Zoro’s mouth goes dry, and words fail him, tongue tied tightly in a knot that he can’t seem to unravel. You’re immaculate, and for the first time in his life he’s fighting the urge to exalt, to sing your praise, to deify you.
He mutters something that’s beyond your field of hearing as he continues to stare at you like a starved man would a feast. Zoro’s seen you wield that blade countless times, watched on as you cut down enemy by enemy without effort or ailment, but never have you looked as angelic as you do now. Standing amid a symphony of battle and gore, covered from head to toe in splattered blood that’s both yours and that of the deceased around you, the look of delight and self-satisfaction twinkling in your eyes as you grin at him from across the square, fuck, it’s all too much. 
You’re right, of course, the two of you can and did handle these sin and sinew wrapped rats with ease, but the more pressing matter is the effect that you’re currently having on his heart. Zoro takes a step forward, taking in the beauty of your face, bloodied and bruised but not conquered.
Curiously, you leer at him, head tilted in question as you sheath your sword along your back, taking note of the lack of the usual snarky remark from the swordsman. “Zoro?”
His eye flickers to yours, lips parted in what could only be described as awe. He looks at you as if you’re a muse, descended from on high to grace him with your presence, one that’s stunned him into near silence. “Yeah?” Zoro manages to reply quietly, tone raspy and voice a barely audible whisper against the breeze - a timbre you only hear from him when he’s injured or exhausted, a weak and feeble inflection that almost has you questioning if the man was actually hurt.
Zoro’s jaw visibly tightens, his one open eye alight with the same burn that he eyes an opponent with, expression twisting into one that you know all too well. The face he only makes when -
He wants you.
Your war-torn, bloodthirsty appearance has overwhelmed Zoro, the innate desire etched on his expression like a fool in a daze. Lips twisting into a devious smirk, you’re keen on taking advantage of this rare opportunity of power that you’ve been given over him, and you know exactly how to proceed. With a step toward him, you do something he doesn’t expect, something that has his nails digging into his palms.
You lick blood from your lips.
Zoro’s blood blazes, a carnal, raw emotion swells in his throat with urges he cannot fight - will not fight. Ever a man of action, he’s upon you faster than you can react. Large, calloused fingers envelop your waist, pulling you close in an instant and slamming his lips onto yours in a starved, feverish, messy kiss. The metallic tang of blood on his tongue mixed with the taste of you drives him increasingly wilder each second you stay locked together in the embrace, hastening him further into devoted bliss.
You writhe as he leaves your lips to trail down your neck, lapping up the viscous liquid that coats your flesh in his wake. Zoro is fully prepared to kneel at your altar, to partake of and rejoice in each beautiful proverb that befalls from your sweet tongue, to bathe in every hymn you bestow.
Zoro's hands roam over your body, feeling the contours of your curves beneath the fabric of your torn clothing, tracing the delicate lines of your collarbone and shoulders before coming to rest on the small of your back, holding you firm against him. He feels like he could drown in this moment, in the warmth and passion that courses through his entire being.
Zoro grins wildly, a feral expression on his face as he feels the warmth of your skin beneath his fingertips, the heat of your breath against his neck, and the sound of your voice washing over in melodic harmony. He wants nothing more than to revel in this moment, to lose himself completely in the intensity of the connection that you share.
“You wouldn’t believe how good ya look like this,” He growls into your skin, his chapped lips dancing across your collarbone and up to your shoulder. “I feel like I shouldn’t even be allowed to see ya. Feels…” words wane into a series of open-mouthed kisses along your shoulder and into the crook of your neck, deeply inhaling the intoxicating scent of blood, sweat, and battle on your flesh, “...wrong.”
“Doesn’t seem to be stopping you,” You purr, allowing a soft, pleased sigh to slide from your throat when he adds his teeth to the wet assault upon your skin, gently nibbling and grazing at you in a manner that grows hungrier and more sporadic with every passing moment. 
“We both know I ain’t much of a rule follower.” Zoro’s husky voice is hot on your ear, his warm breath sending a jolt of longing right through your nervous system. The hand low on your back begins to wriggle its way through tattered tendrils of threads that once made up your shirt, fingers spread wide as it skims up your pliant softness, tracing along your waist and up between your shoulder blades.
Zoro's touch isn’t quite tender, a clear indication of his burgeoning lust you suspect, but there's honesty, sincerity in his newfound charge. He knows that you aren't fragile, the evidence fresh and red around you speaking well enough on its own, so why stay the hand that plys the sword? 
Men fall to their hands and knees in prayer to gods they’ve never seen, begging for mercy and crying out for deliverance that will not come.
But you - he can see you, he can hear you. 
He can touch you.
Taste you.
You're divine. A paragon of a twisted and bloodied form of justice. It's you that's stupefied him, luring him into a deistic high that has Zoro practically foaming at the mouth with innate desire.
His painfully hard cock strains against his thigh with means to worship you wholly, to partake in his own ideals of perverse, distorted devotion. He breathes in your salty-sweet scent once more and groans in longing, the taste of your crimson essence on his lips makes him feel like an offering to an idol., and every drop that drips down his chin only serves to heighten his senses even more.
He looks up at you through an eye glazed over with depraved adoration, and all he can think of is how good you look, how delicious you are on his tongue, how much he wants to please you, be consumed in your immaculate presence, and to offer himself up as a sacrifice to the darker and more nefarious desire within him.
The urge to claim, to take what he wants from you and find salvation surrounded by your benevolent hold. To act upon the impure aspiration that pulsates in his mind in ways that would make even the most vileindividuals gawk. He yearns to clean the blood from your sacred, championed skin, a lust filled ritual to send you both into sacramental euphoria. 
He’s in a frenzy, feeling and touching each curve and crevice across your body while pulling you impossibly closer to him. Before Zoro can even think, he’s sinking his teeth into your shoulder, overcome with enlightened debauchery and biting down until that deathly addictive taste of your blood is fresh on his tongue once more - a testament to the depth of his obsession and the power of your shared experience.
The pain burns hot, but brief - quickly dissipating away into a cry of raw pleasure, a moan so salacious and so absolute that Zoro feels the very last of his will slipping through his fingers. He laps over the decently deep mark, his saliva mixing into the cuts like kindle to flame and earning him another woefully delightful wail of exasperation.
He thinks himself safe for the interim, that he’s pulled some sense back from the brink - until you say the one thing that shatters him to pieces.
“Do that again.”
He doesn’t deny you, and without hesitation he obliges by drowning his teeth back into your shoulder, pressing deeper into the wound and savoring the way your blood flows across his lips and into his mouth, painting his face red in the process. He grinds his hips against yours in a primitive display of dominance, while his fingers dig into your flesh with bruising force as you dig your nails into his back through his sweat and blood damped shirt.
Despite the danger posed by your actions amidst the threat of more marines, there is something undeniably beautiful about this dance of life and death. In this fleeting moment, Zoro and you find a kind of transcendence - a place where boundaries blur and limits vanish, leaving only pure, unadulterated passion in its wake.
His lips return to yours, and soon enough you feel yourself being whisked off your feet. The open air of the square leaves little room for privacy, but you know he doesn't care. Zoro walks with you in his arms, lips locked together in a messy, bloody, passionate kiss, your legs tight around his waist before he eases you down onto the lip of nameless hero's memorial upon which he plans to ravish you.
Zoro releases his hungry attack on your lips and rips the remnants of your shirt in two, leaving you bare to him as if an offering of communion. To feast upon your body, to drink upon your wine.
You gasp, wincing just a little from the shock of the fresh air upon your chest. “Zoro-” you begin, his name emanating from your breathless lungs as you watch the fabric fall to the ground around you. 
“Y’can have mine,” He replies, leaning forward to pull one of your nipples into his mouth. “After I’m done with ya.” Zoro’s mouth suckles greedily, teasing your sensitive nub with his tongue before biting down hard enough to make you squeal and arch your back, but not draw blood.
His free hand traces down your side, finding respite upon your inner thigh and squeezing tightly onto it, growling as the fresh wound on your shoulder trickles down your chest and right onto his lips and eliciting an absolutely lewd groan from Zoro as he laps it up.
He gazes up at you with an intensity that borders on madness, his eyes burning with an unbridled lust that has you keening. “Ya taste so fuckin’ good,” he growls between his assault on your chest, “God, I can’t get enough.”
“Then take as much as you want.”
And fuck, he does. In an instant does he pop his lips from you to slide your pants away, somehow careful enough to not rip them to shreds - something you’d have to thank him for later. Without even removing his swords from his hip, let alone his own pants - Zoro simply rushes to undo the clasps and push the waistband down enough to free his length, thick and leaking, to bounce out against your pelvis. 
You can feel it even through your underwear, warm heat radiating from what you desire most in this world at this moment. Zoro looks at you, gaze lingering on yours as he slides the fabric shielding your sex to the side and grips your hip with one hand and his cock in the other. He teases it over your slickness tantalizingly while sliding it between your folds and inch by inch are you filled so wonderfully, stretched and stuffed so marvelously full that each tense or twitch of him inside you makes the edges of your vision blur and has you wailing in pleasure.
As soon as your hips are flushed against one another, he gives you but a moment of adjustment before rutting his hips into you quickly, a rhythm so ruthless and wild that leaves you able to do little more aside from gasp out breathlessly and brave his savage ruin. You’re not even sure when your nails crept up his shirt, or when they burrow sharply into his shoulder blades until they’re etching down his back, the crescent shaped lines running his skin raw and bloody, scathing scores fueled by ferocious, crude passion.
He folds you then, one of his hands coming to grip over both of your wrists to pin them above your head as an arm forces your thigh downward. Zoro leans over you, your ankle now bouncing wildly next to his ear while he plows into you at a newer, deeper, more luscious angle. 
Skin slaps against skin in company with brazen indulgence, a foul yet righteous lament for the fallen mere feet from you. From this more cramped position, you’re all but forced to keep eye contact with him - and he’s looking nowhere else but at your face, enraptured by every sound and move you make as you squirm in his hold.
Your desperate pants mix, leaving patches of sweat to pool between your chests. Zoro’s increasing gasps and snarls of ecstasy ring loud in your ear, the sounds echoing through you like a quake and causing you to flutter around his cock. He hisses, harsh and shrill in your ear and with a throaty grunt he pulls out of you, letting your legs fall to the stone pavement and releasing his grasp on your wrists to firmly twist you by the shoulders, spinning you around and sprawling his hand on your lower back to shift you forward into an arch.
He’s sinking into you again, fingers tight and stinging at your waist and burying himself fully inside of you once more. There isn’t even a moment given for reprieve, the man continuing to fuck you as if he hadn’t even left your dripping heat and making you cry out in hypnotizing delight. 
Zoro smacks your ass, relishing in the ripple effect in your pliable flesh left in the wake of his blow. “Shit,” he exhales, adjusting his machinations of impurity to wrap his arms around your waist and lifting you from the ground, holding you in place mid-air and thrusting into you with less and less fluidity by the second. “Feel so fuckin’ amazin’, always do but god damn do you feel so fuckin’ incredible right now.”
You reach back to lock an arm around his neck seeking any leverage to keep yourself upright amidst his onslaught. You’re moaning something incoherent, words neither of you recognize due to the lust-filled haze that fills your minds, feeling the pull of release pit low in your belly as his balls slap against your clit at a rapid pace. 
Delirium bids its toll upon you, tears prickling at your eyes as the climb to your closely approaching high reaches its limit. Drool slides down your chin and onto your neck, and in an instant Zoro catches it with his mouth, once again dissenting on your flesh and gnawing his incisors into your neck - sucking and biting with brutal obsession and marking your angelic skin in devout defiance. The growing familiarity of the warm flow of blood trickling from the bruised indents in your skin makes you crack, flying over the edge with a scream of his name.
He doesn’t slow as you ride out the waves of pleasure coursing through your body, still slamming into you a breakneck speed. You twitch and twist in his arms, the hard beating of his cock keeping a state of hyperstimulation over you, the whimpers and cries of weak will and breathless joy beginning to tip him over the edge. 
The only thing in Zoro’s fogged head is his need to flood you with his spend, to pack you to the brim with his cum until it drips out of you and onto the stone below. He doesn’t even care if you’re bred full of his brats after this - if anything it would show just how he reveres you, claiming you as his own personal magnificence. 
His jaw tenses, still attached securely on your neck, as he cums. Loud groans and grunts and sighs of relief vibrate against your skin, Zoro’s dick leaking and draining into you as your walls milk him for all that you can manage. 
A few final, slow motions and he slides out of you, gently placing you on the ground and instantly rolling his shirt from his shoulders to hand it to you. “As promised,” Zoro says, a deviously weak grin on his face, moving to wipe his brow after you’ve taken the clothing from his outstretched hand. “Want me to patch ya up when we get back?”
“If you don’t mind, yeah.” You reply as you toss the shirt over yourself gently, minding the wounds that line your body as you do so.” Would rather not be asked any questions I don’t want to answer.” Zoro nods, chuckling softly before helping you clean up, using scraps of your ruined shirt as makeshift bandages and rags before he lifts you into his arms for a third time, though this one with the intention of carrying you safely back to the others - a soft apology for his brutality on your flesh, but one he knows he doesn’t need to say.
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acourtofwhatthefuck · 11 months
Text
Bluebird — Part IV — (Azriel x Reader)
Hey! Here’s Part IIII to this! Thank you for being lovely about it. 💕
Warnings: None for this part!
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Your fingers danced across the piano keys with a mind entirely of their own.
Sheet music sat before you, but you didn’t need to glance at it. This was pure muscle memory. Your favourite piece, memorised note by note. Playing it always felt like breathing for the first time. 
Arrival of the Bluebird, it was called. You couldn’t help smiling as you played. 
The notes climbed and fell in their flawless way, always like the calming ebb and flow of a tide. You soaked it in, your eyes closed, your skin prickling at the music caressing you—
A soft rustle sounded behind you. A rude awakening.
Two thoughts struck you at that moment.
The first — that you’d never played for anyone but yourself. To have a spectator felt like parading naked through the village.
And the second — that said spectator was, bizarrely, of the same ilk that you had been raised to detest.
A shadow moved in your periphery, and your fingers fell still, the music coming to an abrupt stop.
The creature — Azriel — loomed at your side, his gaze intent on where your hands had sat.
“Beautiful.” He murmured softly. “You play so flawlessly.”
It seemed so, so strange, so wrong, to sit and chat casually with a creature of such bloodshed. Like the tune had washed over you and made you truly aware of the situation. Of the action you’d taken.
You’d let him into your home.
You’d helped him when he’d been more or less incapacitated. When you probably had the advantage to strike and make a killing blow. To rid the world of one of its demons. 
And now you were playing music for him. Had he…had he enchanted you, somehow? Some faerie magic, perhaps, that put you at such ease? That made you forget who you were alone in a building with?
Your body was taut as a bowstring as you slowly swivelled on the stool to face him. And his beauty struck you speechless again.
He offered you a smile. One that was small and reserved, and yet held such devastating charm. You quickly forced your eyes away.
“Who taught you to play?” He asked softly.
Your hands twisted around each other as you answered, “I taught myself.”
“Entirely by yourself?” He seemed genuinely surprised. “Some people can’t reach such skill even with honed, esteemed pianists to master them. It must be in your blood.”
You’d always thought so. The piano had been here your entire life — your fingers had inched towards it for as long as you could remember.
“I’m told my mother used to play.” You said. That sore spot in your heart stung at the mere mention of the parent you’d never known. “The piano used to be out in the bar area. My father told me that she used to play every night, and people would flock to the inn just to listen.”
There was a heavy, unmissable pause. You were sure you noticed Azriel’s shoulders stiffening out of the corner of your eye.
“Used to?” He asked quietly. “Is she…is she no longer alive?”
You turned your gaze on him, sure it appeared as blazing as you felt. “I never knew her. She was murdered. By your kind.”
“By my kind?”
“By a group of High Fae.”
Another pause. Azriel’s head dipped a fraction, his eyes lowering to the ground. 
“That’s awful.” His voice was soft. Unbearably gentle. “I’m truly sorry that you suffered such a loss. However…I’m not High Fae.”
The declaration was enough for you to narrow your gaze on him. He certainly looked High Fae; you were sure there wasn’t a human in the world who carried such flawless beauty, nor the preternatural stillness that only a honed, immortal being could master. 
Azriel smiled wryly, like he knew you were searching for some physical evidence of what he’d said. He turned his head to the side, his fingers moving up to brush the shell of his ear.
A very rounded ear. No pointed tip. 
“I hail from a warrior-race of the fae called Illyrians.” He explained. “We’re fae, but…certainly not High Fae.”
You stared at him. 
At those rounded ears. The scarred fingers. 
As if not being High Fae somehow erased all that had been done.
It didn’t.  
You shrugged rather brusquely. “Makes no difference to me. Aren’t all fae the same, with a history steeped in violence? I hate violence.”
“…Blood has been spilled on both sides of the Wall—”
“I hate it.” You cut him off. “Too many people resort to violence needlessly. I see it every single night working in this place. And for fragile humans like ourselves, all it can take is one strike to finish a person off. I wish people — human and Fae — thought more before deciding violence as their route. Perhaps if they did, I wouldn’t have grown up without a mother.”
It was the most you’d said to Azriel in one breath. And you waited for his defensiveness, for him to tell you your thoughts were somehow wrong.
But he simply stared at you, an unreadable expression on his face. And his response wasn’t what you anticipated.
“You’re not wrong.” His voice was like wrapping yourself in silk. “I’m sorry you’ve seen such violence. I’m glad you have music to escape to, at least.” 
You stared back at him, your thoughts emptying for a moment. You willed yourself not to be intimidated by the beauty; by the deadliness of it. He could probably snuff out your life without anyone hearing so much as a squeak from you—
“Are you going to kill me now?” You blurted, rather pathetically.
Azriel’s steeled face twitched just slightly; the only reaction to your question.
It surprised you as he retreated a step. Put more distance between you. 
“Why are you so convinced that I want to kill you?” He asked quietly.
“Am I supposed to believe it a coincidence that a Fae male begins appearing in these parts at the same time that the girls in this village are being murdered?”
His brow furrowed. “Girls are being murdered?”
“Yes. The Village Guards have found them brutally slain, and then you appear. If I’m to be next, I’d really appreciate it if you don’t leave me to be found by my father in that condition.”
“I haven’t killed anyone in this village, and I’m not going to kill you.”
His words should have reassured you. But you honed in on the sentence. Saw it for what it was.
He hadn’t killed anyone in this village.
But he’d killed elsewhere. 
Bile rose up in your throat as you stared at him. And as he studied your fearful expression, he sighed. Looked away.
“What I told you was true. I was passing by, and I heard your music, and I wanted to hear more. But I don’t wish to frighten you.” He retreated another step. “Perhaps I should go—”
He was cut off by a thump so abrupt, it had you jumping out of your skin. Azriel quickly looked up.
Another thump, followed by a third.
“It’s the door.” You quickly stood, brushing yourself down. “I should answer.”
He pressed himself against the wall as you brushed past him, hurrying through to unlock the front door. You pulled it open a fraction, narrowing your eyes at the darkened figure on your doorstep.
Kiall. He looked…wired. Stimulated. But he didn’t stink of booze, for once.
“I’m sorry about the music.” You said before he could speak. “I didn’t realise how late it had got—”
“I’m not here about your little piano.” The older, scruffy male looked around feverishly. “I shot one down. A Fae. That fucking winged bastard from the alley. Got him right through those wings. He was flying above the village and I got him.”
You swallowed. Pulled the door a little closer to you. If Kiall — or anyone — knew that you had a Fae in your home, you’d be done for. Probably killed right alongside him. 
Unless, of course, you gave him up. Disabled him somehow and turned him over to the Village Guards. Perhaps those ash arrows, still lying in the puddle of his blood, could still be of some use—
“Where is the Fae now?” You blurted, blocking Kiall’s minuscule glimpse into your home. “Have the Guards dealt with him?”
“No.” Kiall sneered. “He got away someplace. Probably bleeding out somewhere nearby. I wanted to know if you’d seen or heard anything.”
This was your chance.
Kiall could help you.
Azriel had regained most of his strength, but he’d been caught unaware once already. Surely the two of you could deal with him. 
And then you’d never have to worry about him hanging around here again. Watching you. Watching and—
And listening to your music.
If he was to be believed…that was all he’d lingered for.
You didn’t really know why you did it. It probably made you an utter fool. But you swallowed and schooled your expression, shaking your head. 
“I didn’t see or hear anything.” You lied. “Like I said — I was playing music.”
Kiall studied you for a moment. And you wondered if, perhaps, the untruth lay blatantly on your face, in your eyes. The Bluebird Inn — your family business and home — was the hub of this little community. Everybody knew you. Everybody knew that you were the daughter of the Fae-hating innkeeper, and the woman who had been murdered by their kind. That you were raised to hate them just as fiercely.
To have one right here, in these very walls…to have helped him, and to now protect him…
You had utterly, utterly lost your mind. But you let none of that show.
“If I see or hear anything suspicious, I’ll report it right away.” You said.
Kiall eyeballed you again. “You do that, Y/N.”
“I will. I’m going to go to bed now.”
“Be sure to lock your doors. Don’t want to end up like those other village girls.”
A shiver ran down your back. But you nodded. “I will.” You repeated. “Thank you.”
Kiall had always been a strange person. His reputation for being a drunk was known from one end of the village to the other. But being the one who served him most of those drinks, you saw something more. An ever-present, crazed look in his eye, like he was always on alert, always ready — and happy — to attack. Many of the brawls in the tavern had been started by him over nothing.
That crazed look stayed trained on you, now, as he slowly backed away from your front door. And when a good distance was between you, you pushed it firmly shut. Locked and deadbolted it. Released a long, deep breath.
You slumped against the door, blinking forward.
You’d lied. You’d actually lied. All those years of your father telling you what to do if you came face-to-face with a Fae, and what had you done? Played him music.
And then protected him from the wrath of other villagers.
Maybe you were the crazed one. Maybe—
Soft footsteps thudded against the floor. You looked up as Azriel slowly approached, keeping a great distance away. He studied you unsurely; you had no doubt that he’d heard every word. That he knew what you’d done.
“Are you alright?” His voice was so gentle, so quiet; something you knew no human voice could ever master. 
Are you alright? When was the last time anyone had asked you that?—
You knew precisely when. When Azriel had stepped in and protected you from Kiall’s drunken ranting in the alley.
You stared up at him — those hazel eyes — and wondered why. Why he seemed to care. 
And why it made you feel good.
“I’m alright.” You eventually answered, pushing to your feet. “You should…probably go, though.”
He dipped his chin. “Thank you — for what you did just then. And for pulling those arrows out. And for sharing your beautiful music.”
Your beautiful music. The words almost knocked you breathless.
To hear someone appreciate it so freely—
That, you told yourself, was why you asked, “Will you come back and listen again?”
You could have sworn Azriel’s lips twitched. “I’d certainly like to.”
Insane. This entire thing was insane. You with a Fae in your house, engaging in pleasant conversation. You more or less inviting him back.
But you couldn’t stop yourself. 
You dipped your head, staring at the floor. “Will it be safe? Flying, I mean — with the injuries. And with Kiall still snooping around.”
“I have enough strength to get home without flying, now.” Azriel nodded. “I’ll be alright. And what of you?”
“What of me?”
“Will you be alright?”
Yes? No? You weren’t sure. Possibly not. You weren’t entirely convinced that you wouldn’t collapse under the entire, bizarre weight of the night’s events. You were in need of a stiff drink yourself.
But you nodded, all the same. “I’ll be alright.”
A moment passed of nothing. No sound, no movement. Neither of you took a step forward or back. 
But then Azriel inclined his head. “Goodnight, then. Sleep well.” 
“You—”
Before your very eyes — before you could complete your sentence — he disappeared into thin air. You blinked at the space that he’d vacated. And at the words you knew you were about to speak.
You sleep well, too.
Well-wishes to a Fae. You almost laughed at yourself. 
But as you stepped past the spot in which Azriel had stood, you paused at the scent that lingered. And inhaled.
A scent like…like fresh, undisturbed snow. Frosty nights and cedarwood. 
It was calming. Soothing. You felt it wash over you, like a blanket of security. 
You stood there for a moment longer, and then made your way into the bar area to clean up. And fix yourself that drink.
And you found yourself continuously glancing out of the window. Wondering if Azriel truly would come back.
✧: *✧・゚✧・゚: *✧・゚✧・゚: *✧・゚✧・゚: *✧・゚✧・゚: *✧・゚
Azriel didn’t consider the fact that he looked a little worse for wear.
That blood still stained his wings, his clothes, his skin.
That his hair made him appear like he’d been dragged through a hedge backwards. That he looked as though he could use at least three weeks’ worth of sleep.
Honed spymaster, indeed.
He traipsed into Rhysand’s office. The High Lord immediately sat up in his chair, relief filling his eyes.
“Don’t go quiet on me like that, asshole.” He admonished. “I couldn’t reach you.”
“Sorry.” Az winced slightly as he lowered himself into his chair; the wings were still a little sore. “Took a couple of ash arrows to the wings.”
Rhys stared back at him. “So it’s true, then. The humans are trying to rise up against us.”
“A whole group of them are travelling from village to village, spreading the word of their cause and trying to rally forces. They’re serious about this.”
Rhys slumped back, scrubbing a hand over his face. “Why now, though?”
Slowly, Azriel shook his head. “I think they’re using a whole number of reasons to justify it to themselves. They’re incensed about the land we have, the lives we live…a bunch of things. But…there have been attacks in one village. A few women have been slain. I think the Village Guards are spreading the word that they’re Fae attacks.”
“And do you believe them to be?”
“Not sure. I’d have to investigate it further.”
Rhys firmly shook his head. “I don’t want you going near those villages again for the time being. Not if they’ve got ash arrows in their arsenal.”
Azriel sat up. Tried not to wince. “The bastard had no more than two—”
“I’m not risking anything until we know exactly what we’re dealing with. We wait to see what move they make next; it could all just be talk, and I’m not risking you for some human gossip. I want you here, alerting the other courts that we may have an issue on our hands. Understood?”
Azriel’s jaw clenched. Yes, he understood. He understood his High Lord’s order perfectly well, but he didn’t have to like it. He wanted to go back to the village, ash arrows or no ash arrows. He wanted to hear the music again, to talk to Y/N again—
“Understood, Azriel?” Rhysand repeated.
“Yes.” The shadowsinger gritted out. “Understood.” 
“Good.” Just like that, Rhys was shucking off his title; sitting back and becoming a brother again. His face softened. “Go get some rest. You need it.”
Azriel stood without a word, dragging his feet from the room. 
He wouldn’t disobey Rhys’s orders.
But Cauldron fucking boil him, something nagged at him to do exactly that.
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Weeks passed. And there was no dark, passing figure in the skies. No booming clap of wings.
And your disappointment at Azriel’s absence frightened you far more than his presence ever had.
✧: *✧・゚✧・゚: *✧・゚✧・゚: *✧・゚✧・゚: *✧・゚✧・゚: *✧・
azriel tag list: @hanasakr @positivewitch @ruler-of-hades @brekkershadowsinger @nightscourtt @imperfect0angel @luna-1-3-5 @hyacinthoideshispanica @lucyysthings @lahoete @littlemoonash @blacksstarrynight @azriels-mate123 @ghostly-poetic @frieddesigninspiringquotesslime @a-frog-with-a-laptop @illyriansimp @morrie-rose @passingthroughfireandshadow @illyrian-dreamer @azrielsbabyg @96jnie @mich0731 @mulansaucey @truthtellerfanclub @acourtofbooksandmagic @insightsonmylife @basicbittywitty @curbside-cyanide @acourtofchaosandmess @123345566 @starrynights-frostbites @eos-princess @thesillyyogourt @ona-raising-07-l @acediahamartia @dontfollowmepleaseitsannoying @polli05927 @asdfjklbooks @azriel-luvr @amysangel @humanpersonlasttimeichecked @wildflowernightmere @audie-writes @aaronwarnerswifereal @starxqt @lulufairbank @laurzwrites @livelaughlovenestaarcheron @girlwith-thecinder-blockgarden @emturtles @lostpirateinwonderland @kammsinn
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danaewrites · 20 days
Text
Helmet Over Heels
part iii: harder to hide than i thought
din djarin x reader // read it on AO3
word count: 4.2k
summary:  When your path literally collides with a beskar-covered Mandalorian one night, neither of you expect how that meeting will irreversibly change the trajectory of your lives. 
You’re pulled into his powerful orbit, agreeing to take care of his son in exchange for adventure and freedom– when he’s not off hunting bounties and inadvertently saving villages in need, that is. It’s the perfect plan. Or it would be, if only your quiet crush on the man would stop growing into something more with every hour you spend together. There’s no way he’d ever feel the same, right?
And Din? Well, he’s been trying (and failing) to convince himself that he’s not completely helmet over heels for you since day one. But a Mandalorian can only repress his emotions for so long…
(This fic takes place sometime after Season 2. Din’s back on his bounty-hunting business with a Razor Crest that was never destroyed and an adorable green sidekick who won’t stop chewing on its wires.)
tags: strangers to friends to lovers, slow-ish burn, nicknames, touch-starved din djarin and fem!reader, canon-compliant through season 2 and then Jesus takes the wheel :P
author's notes:
the first part of this chapter is very much inspired by Space Song by Beach House. imagining the pretty lights of hyperspace instead of the slope fields i’m working on in calculus has kept me sane, so hopefully you beautiful readers have as much fun with that as i did!
read it all here: part i, part ii, part iii, part iv coming soon!
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You slowly stirred to consciousness, face scrunching up at the heat of the sun on your face. Memories flowed back to you in disjointed flashes, slowly piecing together the setting of your current prone, relaxed state.
You’d spent the night mesmerized by the bright lights of hyperspace that lit up the darkness beyond the ship’s windows, fighting the sleep that threatened to lower your eyelids. You tried your best to remain quiet and allow Mando to pilot you through the galaxy in peace, but you couldn’t help the gasp that slipped out when the white beams momentarily faded into pastel shades of lilac and chartreuse. His helmet snapped sharply towards you at the sudden noise, tensed shoulders only relaxing once he saw the awed expression on your face. 
“You haven’t seen this before?” He sounded surprised, and for a moment you felt embarrassment twist in your stomach at your lack of travel experience. He sighed, baritone turning low and thoughtful. “Come here.” He gestured for you to lean closer to him, directing your attention to a small cluster of dots on the navigation holoscreen.
“We’re passing through the Cresser Nebula. The original star died too recently for the dust to fully disperse,” he explained. “The extra material makes the hyperspace tunnel thinner for a moment– those colors are the new stars forming outside of it in the leftover gas.” He spoke with an unexpected patience, and you wondered whether he’d learned it from attempting to teach Grogu. In your experience, trying to keep the green baby’s focus for longer than a minute was a constant challenge. 
You’d hung onto his careful speech, memorizing every detail as he continued his quiet tour of the cosmos. It was the first time you’d ever truly heard about the intricacies of space; your overwhelming focus on surviving Nath’s harsh environment generally took up any extra time you could’ve used to learn about the rest of the galaxy. You didn’t intend to let a single lesson of his go to waste, not when you were finally free to hear them. 
You snuck a glance at the reflection of his silver helmet in the arched window, admiring how the lights shimmered across the beskar. You wondered what he was looking at beneath the metal mask: the pretty blur of hyperspace, his blinking console, or maybe the tiny lever where Grogu’s ball rested? There was just so much to watch, from the endlessly flickering radar screen to the breathtaking display of deep space beyond the glass paneling. You didn’t think you’d ever get sick of the view; you’d stay on his ship for the rest of your life if it meant you could enjoy the peace of hyperspace every night. Despite your pondering, his visor gave nothing away, and you forced yourself to pull your eyes away before he caught you staring. 
The quiet rhythm of his steady, modulated breaths beside you only added to the calmness that settled into your fatigued bones. Eventually, your exhausted brain must have shuttled you away to dreamland somewhere in the trance of hyperspace. Maybe you had been more tired than you thought, because you certainly didn’t remember bringing a blanket this comfortable back to your seat. You were wrapped in something thick and warm, a soothing contrast to the cool leather beneath your thighs. 
A tiny sigh found its way out of your mouth as you pressed your face into the soft fabric, shielding yourself from the daylight before you were forced to face reality once again. Stars, but it was lovely. The faint smell of woodsmoke and vetiver and something mechanical—blaster grease, maybe—enveloped you as you melted into the cloth, overwhelmingly reminded of days spent playing in your family’s workshop back on Odala. You’d forgotten so much of what life was back then, simple and joyful, but this tiny luxury of sensation brought back some of those precious memories. 
A quiet inhalation echoed from above you and your eyes snapped open. You jolted up from the cool leather of the passenger seat to see Mando paused mid-step before you, helmet tilted towards where you had snuggled into the blanket. You looked down to see that the blanket was not a blanket at all; it was, in fact, his own deep grey cloak that you were clutching like it was your child. Your face flamed and you quickly relaxed your grip, awkwardly smoothing out the areas where your hands had wrinkled the charcoal fabric. 
Had he given you the cloak? You didn’t think you had a habit of sleepwalking, and there was no way he’d have been unaware of you somehow snatching it in the night. Grogu was still wherever he’d been dropped off, so his shenanigans couldn’t have been involved. That left the most logical option– that Mando had been the one to settle the soft fabric against you in the darkness of the cockpit. 
You felt your cheeks flush again, this time from acknowledgement of the unexpectedly thoughtful action. You knew that following the temptation of that warm feeling led to nothing but danger. You couldn’t risk messing up the best thing that’d happened to you since you escaped your ruined homeworld, but… it’d been so long since anyone tried to take care of you, even with a gesture that small. Your traitorous heart beat a little faster at the thought. 
“I— have you been awake long?” You spoke sheepishly, hoping to distract him from the messy tangles in your hair and the redness left on your cheek from being pressed into the seat all night. You were sure you looked ridiculous, though the Mandalorian appeared perfectly polished as usual. The mud and soot from the previous day’s activities had been scrubbed from his armor, replaced with a subtle shine. 
“No.” He dragged his glance away, moving past you to flip a series of switches above the pilot’s seat. You rubbed the sleep from your eyes, feeling the Crest settle onto the ground with a muffled thunk. You opened your eyes to find that the sunlit clouds of the atmosphere had disappeared, in its place an arid desert with a bright metropolis of a city on the horizon. The planet’s name was Nevarro; according to the navscreen, it was located in the Outer Rim. You had landed near its titular city, an old trading stop and the location of the Bounty Guild’s main headquarters. 
“The kid’s been staying with some old friends here. Sent them a comm that I’d be coming today,” Mando said as he straightened from his position crouched over the controls. 
You nodded, tugging your shirt down from where it had risen up over your abdomen when you slept. A frown creased your forehead as you stared at the worn piece of fabric. You hadn’t had the chance to retrieve the rest of your minimal wardrobe before leaving Nath– the swarm of angry citizens around your rental pod had made sure of that. If you were to survive the wide range of galactic temperatures while traveling with Mando, you’d definitely need a few more outfits. You made a mental note to persuade him to make a market detour before leaving the city. 
Mando opened the cockpit doors with a pressurized hiss, and you scrambled down the ladder after him. Your eyes wandered over the tidy hull of the ship, surprised at how neatly-kept it was now that you were seeing it in full light. It was bigger than you expected, too. There was enough space for a cramped but functional ‘fresher, tucked beside what appeared to be a bedroom. You caught a glimpse of a miniature hammock suspended across a corner of the small room. That must be where Grogu slept, if the little red sheet hanging off the edge was anything to go by. Beneath it, you noticed a set of dark, slightly-wrinkled blankets stretched across a lowered bed frame. 
Your eyes widened slightly as you realized that Mando must have slept there sometime after you passed out. It was oddly intimate, seeing proof that even the armored bounty hunter had human needs. At least, you assumed he was human, from his shape and voice. You’d spent longer than you’d willingly admit imagining what he might look under the layered beskar, eventually coming to the conclusion that a pair of green ears would definitely not fit under the helmet. The father and son didn’t appear to share any physical characteristics, and you wondered what their story was. Hopefully, you’d find out some of that information while taking care of Grogu.
Your attention focused back on the rest of the hull, eyes tracing the supplies stacked neatly by the net-lined walls with evident curiosity. Mando gestured to a dark set of doors by the ship’s entrance. “That’s the carbonite freezer. I’d suggest you stay away from those buttons, unless you want to travel like a bounty,” he warned. 
You eyed the area with trepidation and nodded. He seemed satisfied with your response, pressing another set of buttons until the boarding ramp lowered. “Behind the cockpit is the galley– it’s not much, but you’re welcome to use it.” 
You nodded again, relieved that you wouldn’t have to subsist on flavorless ration packets while traveling. Maybe you’d even have the time to experiment with a few new dishes– a luxury not afforded to you during your hectic hours at the cantina. “What are Grogu’s favorite foods?”
“Anything that hops,” the Mandalorian grumbled, tone quickly filling with exasperation. “He’s not picky when he’s on the ship, but take him outside for a minute and the kid’ll have eaten all the frogs in a damn parsec.” 
Your mouth quirked up as you imagined the little green child stuffing his face with whatever unfortunate amphibian dared to go near him. Like father, like son, you supposed. Those hunting skills had to be passed on somehow. 
“And you?”
Mando paused his descent onto the ramp, clearly caught off guard by your question.
“What meals do you prefer?” You clarified, mind wandering to all of the dinners you’d saved for him back at the cantina. You could never quite determine which he liked best, since the bowls were always scraped clean no matter what you put in them. You weren’t sure whether that said more about your ability as a chef or the lack of actual food aboard the Crest. “I’m more of a fresh fruit and vegetables person myself, we never got much of those back on Nath,” you admitted. 
He coughed, modulated voice rough with surprise. “I— whatever you make is fine.” You remained silent, fixing him with an expectant look. Men. 
He hesitated for a moment, then spoke, “I liked the spicy orange stew.” At your blank look, he continued. “With the little… bread pockets?” 
Your eyebrows raised at that, and you hummed thoughtfully as you remembered the dish he was talking about. “Oh– the napethsh curry!” 
That had definitely been one of your finer culinary moments. Your boss had brought in packets of rich, aromatic spice powder that morning for the day’s special– a rare, delicious find. You’d carefully shaken them into a savoury pot of sandgrain with the last of the sweet tubers, alternating between stirring the dish and flipping fried bread puffs on the pan next to it. Your eyes had fluttered shut in pure appreciation when you’d finally tasted your handiwork, and if Mando’s reaction had been at all similar— well, you couldn’t blame him for wanting more. 
“Spicy food, huh. I can work with that.” You beamed up at him, visions of fragrant curries dancing in your head as you followed him into the sandy landscape. You’d bet a fair amount of credits that a market on a desert planet like Nevarro would have no lack of spice vendors. If your haggling skills were up to par, Mando might get his wish granted faster than expected.
***
The Crest had landed within a reasonable distance of Nevarro, but when you finally reached the metropolis you felt as if you’d been walking for miles. It would take some time for you to get used to the feeling of intense heat on your skin instead of the bone-chilling Nathian winds. 
All your discomfort, however, was quickly forgotten as you entered the city. Terracotta buildings lined the narrow, twisting streets; each structure featured no less than four oval windows and was topped with a dome that curved to a sharply pointed apex. Vibrantly dyed clothes fluttered in the desert wind, carefully draped across thin lines of rope that criss-crossed over the alleyways. You watched as a group of laughing children weaved between the booths of haggling vendors in their pursuit of a hovering disc. It was noisy and cramped and reminded you so much of home that your breath caught in your chest.
You didn’t notice that you’d stopped walking until Mando called your name, breaking the spell the warm environment had put on you. Your gaze snapped up to see the beskar-clad man paused several paces in front of you. Kriff. Had you really been that lost in thought?
“Sorry, I– got distracted,” you offered sheepishly, almost tripping over a loose cobblestone in an effort to catch up. “Where are we headed?”
“There’s a school here, where the old Guild headquarters used to be.” Your armored companion adjusted something on his helmet, scanning the area before he motioned for you to follow him down a less-crowded street. “Don’t know whether the kid likes the lessons or stealing his classmates’ lunches more,” he grumbled under his breath. You gave a small chuckle at that, remembering Grogu’s endless attempts at sneaking a treat from the bar whenever your back was turned.
You stayed close to Mando as he led the way through Nevarro’s crooked streets, gawking at the liveliness that seemed to infect the entire town. People smiled at each other as they passed, shouting multilingual greetings from across the busy pathways. It was so very different from Nath, where the most interaction you’d get in a week outside of your work was a couple of suspicious glares from the old women selling fish on the street corners. You’d felt so isolated there, but here your mood was buoyed by the warm spirit that lit up each face you passed with a genuine expression. 
Mando stopped near the doorway of a round, sandy building on the edge of the town square. Despite the darkness of the clover-shaped entrance, you could still see the faint outlines of desks and hear the sound of excited children talking over each other. A tall man draped with a regal–looking cloak leaned against the school’s wall next to an imposing, muscular woman. His face brightened as Mando approached– something rather unusual, considering that most people were terrified that he’d been sent to capture them. 
“Karga,” the beskar-clad man in front of you acknowledged with a dip of his helmet. 
“Ah, that’s Magistrate Karga to you, Mando!” The dark-skinned man boomed jovially, stepping forward. “Things have changed since your last visit,” he continued. “Nevarro isn’t just a dusty pit stop anymore.” He spread his arm wide, gesturing to the bustling town square, and you privately agreed with his assessment. 
Mando gave a short nod, then shifted the conversation to more important matters. “Where’s the kid?”
“He should be finishing school any moment now–” Karga was interrupted by your excited gasp. 
“Hi, bug!” 
You stepped out from the tall Mandalorian’s shadow, beaming down at the little brown bundle speed-waddling towards you. You crouched down to his height and opened your arms, laughing at his excited babbling. “Yeah, I missed you too.” You were completely sincere, despite the teasing tone of your voice. The kid’s antics brought a lightness to your life that you didn’t know you needed until he came along. 
“Mando, you didn’t tell me you brought a friend!” Karga exclaimed, eyebrows raised high on his forehead. “And such a lovely one at that,” he continued, bending with a dramatic flourish of a bow. “Now you don’t have to call me Magistrate, just Greef will do,” he winked.
You were pretty sure Mando was rolling his eyes underneath his helmet, if his crossed arms were anything to go by, and you refrained from doing the same. You knew men like Karga back on Nath– charming and flirtatious, but only to the extent that it benefited their ambitions. You were more flattered by the thought that he’d deemed you important enough to impress than by his actual words. 
Still, you gave him a good-natured smile and introduced yourself as you bent down to pick up Grogu. “Your city is beautiful, I’ve never seen anything like it,” you complimented the Magistrate, holding in a laugh at the way his chest puffed up. 
“So how’d someone like you wind up with him?” The muscular woman beside him asked with blunt honesty, cocking her head towards the Mandalorian. She crossed her leather-bound arms, clearly interested in your response.
“Oh, I’m Grogu’s–” you paused, looking over at Mando as you tried to think of the right descriptor. You hadn’t exactly discussed job titles in the twelve hours you’d been employed by him, and you didn’t want to accidentally offend him by implying the wrong level of familiarity. And it wasn’t like you could just tell them you’d knocked his shiny butt into a snowbank, beginning a beautiful friendship of riding rainbow Mythosaurs into the sunset and exploding the occasional Tradoshan and/or cantina along the way. Although… the idea was rather tempting, if only to see how Mando would react.
“Caretaker,” the armored man finished for you, and you sent him a grateful look. The muscular woman next to him smirked, appraising you before extending her hand. 
“Cara Dune. Ex-Rebel-shocktrooper, current Marshal of Nevarro,” she introduced herself with a wink. You instantly liked her, despite the intimidating aura she exuded. Her frankness appealed to you— it was a welcome reprieve from the icy insincerity Nath’s citizens wrapped their hearts in, tighter than their winter cloaks. 
Karga rubbed his hands together eagerly. “Well now, Mando, we have some business to discuss. Marshal Dune will show your friend to the market, if you wouldn’t mind coming with me,” he spoke, gesturing to the tall, sloped capitol at the forefront of the plaza.
Mando remained where he stood, helmet tilting towards you. “Get her to the medcenter first. Have them take care of her face before anything else.” He instructed the Marshal. You winced as the unsightly gash across your cheekbone twinged, a reminder of why you were here in the first place. 
“Hmm. What’s in it for me?” She cocked an eyebrow at the armored man. “I’m a busy woman these days, I can’t always be making detours…”
“Dune,” he warned, tone supremely unimpressed. 
The dark-haired woman’s smug grin widened. “Yes, sir,” she spoke, raising her arm in a mockery of a salute. “Didn’t realize it was that serious.” She nudged your arm, giving you a knowing once-over as she walked past the beskar-plated man. “Alright, then. Medcenter it is.”
You turned to leave with her, but the cool press of beskar on your forearm paused you in your tracks. You angled your head up to meet Mando’s gaze– or at least, where you assumed his eyes were beneath the beskar– with a questioning look. He tilted his head toward the bustling streets and pressed a handful of credits into your palm. 
“Get whatever you need. We won’t be stopping at another market for a few weeks,” he instructed, and you nodded gratefully as you tucked them into a secure pocket of your tunic.
Suddenly, Grogu cooed, grabbing for the remaining credits glistening at the top of the pouch that hung from Mando’s belt. His unexpected movement caused you to stumble forward, just barely catching yourself as he slipped out of your arms. You frantically tried to regain your clutch on the child before he could scamper away, but Mando had already beaten you to it, holding him firmly in place on the cobblestone road.
To your surprise, the armored man crouched down and fixed his son with a rather intimidating head tilt. “Hey. Don’t do that again,” he warned the green toddler, who blinked up at him with guileless eyes. “You’re going to behave for her,” he reminded Grogu sternly. “Or no coloring book.” 
That did the trick. Grogu immediately turned to you, lower lip trembling and arms outstretched in repentance. You raised an eyebrow, but allowed him to climb back up into your embrace. Your mouth quirked to the side as you looked back up at Mando. 
“You still have the coloring book?” You asked, eyes crinkled with surprise. 
The Mandalorian scoffed. “It’s a miracle Karga was able to wrestle it from him before school.” 
Your lips curved into a delighted smile, pleased that you’d judged the kid’s artistic interest correctly. You laughed softly, shaking your head. “Well, I’m excited to see what he’s made,” you grinned up at the beskar-covered man. Your gaze lingered on him for a moment, watching the desert sun flicker across his helmet as Grogu nestled into your arms.
“Hey! You coming or what?” Both of your heads snapped to where Cara was standing at the end of the road, hands on her hips and a curious look on her face. You stammered out a sheepish apology and raced over, but when the Marshal’s attention was diverted, you couldn’t resist looking back at the silhouette of the armored man. You gave him a tiny wave, holding in a giggle at the way Grogu mimicked your action. 
The Mandalorian raised his gloved hand, subtly returning the gesture. You spun back to the street with a hidden smile.
***
As promised, Cara led you to the medcenter, where you waited for a nurse droid to patch your face up with a bacta kit. The building was unlike any you’d ever been in; light shone through stained–glass skylights onto the woven cushions where prospective patients rested, the scent of cinnamon and sanitizing solutions mixing to form an odd but not entirely unpleasant aroma in the air. 
“So, what’s the deal with you and Mando?”
“What?” Your confused expression made her lean back on her cushion with a lighthearted scoff. 
“Oh, come on. He doesn’t let just anybody stay around his kid. I had to fight off a damn Imperial invasion to get him to trust me,” she muttered, eyeing you. You blinked in surprise, then remembered that she’d been a Shocktrooper before Nevarro. Of course Mando would need someone with those terrifying skills in his line of work.
“So what’d you have to do? Rescue another alien child? Blow up a prison?”
“Something like that,” you muttered, letting Grogu toy with your fingers. The cantina wasn’t a prison, but explosives were definitely involved. You figured you were dancing on the right side of the truth.
Cara shook her head in mock exasperation. “Mandalorians. Always gotta be something with them.” She grinned, all teeth. “Good thing I like demolition.” 
You shot her a wry grin, opening your mouth to ask her how she’d wound up on Nevarro. Unfortunately, the droid chose that moment to spray you straight in the eyes with aerosolized sanitizer. You yelped in pain, scrambling to direct its robotic arm to the right location before you wound up needing bacta for more than one spot on your face. 
Once you’d finally gotten the droid under control and your treatment grudgingly paid for, you headed out to the market with directions from Cara– all previous questions forgotten in the stinging wake of the sanitizer. You’d parted with a promise to return with stories about your travels with Mando and the kid. Mostly, she wanted to know if there was any exciting conflict in the center of the galaxy that she could jump into. You had a feeling she wouldn’t stay as Nevarro’s Marshal for too long; you recognized the thirst for adventure that gleamed in her eyes all too well. 
Your time in the market was far too short, even though you’d spent the better part of a day there. You’d happily wandered through the streets, wonder etched into the lines of your face at the sheer variety of wares hawked at every turn. You’d trained yourself to be frugal, determined to buy only the essentials and save the rest for your future travels, but here even the barest necessities were crafted with care. 
Sweet, earthy jasmine soap that surrounded you with a peaceful aroma; impossibly soft textiles that shimmered enticingly in the sun; bittersweet fruit that melted into a soothing wave of liquid in your mouth. Nevarro was a land of plenty indeed, you mused as you pored over a vendor’s towering collection of cheese. 
You returned to the school as the sun sunk beneath the horizon, a drowsy green child on one arm and a basket of supplies on the other. You said your goodbyes to Karga and left, Mando’s bounty belt now four pucks heavier. The two of you ambled back to the ship in peaceful silence, Grogu asleep in your arms and the soft glow of the night lanterns glimmering on curved beskar. 
Unbeknownst to the bounty hunter, a tiny jar of dried nari peppers rested in your back pocket. It’d taken you ages to choose from the tables of spicy seasonings, but you finally decided on this one despite its exorbitant price. You planned to surprise him with it on some sort of special occasion– maybe a birthday, or a holiday. It had been too long since you’d had cause to celebrate anything, really, and you were determined to seize any little chance you could. Hm. Did either of your new roommates even have birthdays? You’d have to wrest that information out of Mando eventually. But for now, you were content to just walk next to him in the moonlight, city hubbub fading away into the quiet whisper of the sand.
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read on: part iv coming soon!
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Note
×vent× ×tw dysphoria¿ im just dramatic im sorry×
npd + trans person culture is pretending to be cis online. i see myself being trans as such a huge imperfection (my transphobic country isnt helping) that since ive realized that, i never felt truly happy irl. im not living, im exciting like a zombie, imitating a certain personality for my college friends (they dont know that im trans or that i was diagnosed with npd). i feel so sorry for homophobic comments i keep making around them but its the only thing that makes me feel better about myself irl.
i can only feel as a “real one” when im online, because no one here knows that im trans. its so relieving, i feel perfect. its like getting a 100/100 on a test. (PASSING a test. get it? 😉)
but im still scared that one day ill have to actually aknowledge it openly. or come out to my online friends. i cant hide forever but I also cant make myself to accept it. i will never be..a girl enough, so its better not to be one. i still want people to love me. i still want to have a good reputation. im not ready for any hate comments about me, i cant handle it, i will break.
to sum it up, i wish i wasnt trans. really. it makes me feel lesser. its so awful.
.
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ask-the-clergy-bc · 1 month
Note
How would Papa III/Papa lV react to a s/o other who came back from the dead? Maybe s/o was hiding they were immortal, got caught up in an accident, then got back up like nothing happened.
NGL I took some… artistic liberties with the reader’s ‘condition’. I hope that’s ok! It’s been a real Infesstissumam type of week for me! This is based on lore I’ve built up behind the scenes for my own personal works, and is in no way canon. But I hope you enjoy my ideas! :)
GN Reader* (Note for after prompt, see bottom)
Supernatural Being/Immortal Reader
Relationship Tension
Papa III and IV Reacting to their S/O Magically Coming Back to Life… Literally
Papa III:
-No one can remember a time Papa was this devastated. Not when he was forced to retire, not when he lost everything… This is one of the few times he was forcibly pushed to go into private mourning. Even Omega had to be called back from duty to console the third Emeritus. Papa felt his world collapsing in. A demon blooded does not give their heart so easily, so it’s catastrophic when it shatters.
- Omega is the only reason anyone believes you when you ‘come back from the dead.’ You had just been the victim of a fatal highway accident merely days before. EVERYONE in the Ministry knew about it- And word travels fast! If it wasn’t for him everyone would assume you were some imposter or evil entity trying to take advantage of the situation.
-Even though the accident wasn’t your fault, you already felt guilty. This was going to be a very awkward explanation to Papa. You’ve been hiding your true nature for so many years you didn’t even bother to tell him. How was he going to react?
-Omega was the one to lead you to Papa but stopped you in the hallway. Barring you from entering the room where you could feel the angst of your beloved. The large ghoul loomed over you, eyes cold and lacking any empathy for you. It was the first and only time you felt scared of him.
“He deserves to know. Tell him or I will… Ghuleh.”
All you could do was tremble and nod.
-Papa looked AWFUL when you finally saw him. No paint, bags under his eyes, his hair and clothes a mess. He had been rotting away on his bed before you finally walked in, practically a shell of his former self. At first he didn’t respond to you calling for him, brushing you off as another person attempting to comfort him. But when he recognized your voice the man bolted up in bed. Papa stared at you with wide eyes before he scrambled to get you into his arms.
-You were showered in desperate kisses, a crushing hug, and his near sobbing; praising Lucifer for bringing you back to him. Luckily, that lasted for a good hour as he got it out of his system. The entire time you couldn’t help but glance at Omega, who watched you both from the door way with unblinking eyes.
-When you both calmed down from your emotional reunion you were forced to swallow your pride and tell Papa what had happened. That you truly had ‘died’ in the physical sense. But you tried to reassure him it was ok! That happens sometimes, and you were fine! Papa didn’t seem to understand at first before asking if you were not human or if you had been in magic practices this whole time. Well, he wasn’t wrong!
-It was nerve wracking having him go from super emotional to watching you impassively as you stumbled over your words. Yes, you knew magic that he couldn’t sense… and technically you USED to be human. Before you know, you took an Oath and became a Ghuleh. No, not THE Ghuleh of course but- you were a long lived and skilled disciple of her power. It’s the whole reason you were granted sanctuary in the Ministry in the first place. You technically couldn’t die in the physical sense. You never bothered telling him because it’s been so long since your practiced and you were afraid he might not like you if he knew. You faced so much rejection from your magic lineage, you didn’t want to lose him too. You were just too cocky that something like this wouldn’t happen.
-Papa sat in silence for what felt like ages, staring at you once you finished. A part of you was starting to break down figuring your relationship was over. But he finally moved to take your hand and give a gentle kiss to your knuckles.
“Don’t you ever lie and hide from me again.”
-you cried and you both hugged.
Papa IV/Copia:
-The news of your supposed passing tore Copia apart when he was first informed. He is a strong man, but you have always been his weakness. Copia can’t cope with the idea that the love of his life has been stolen from him too soon. When Copia was informed he became a sobbing mess, nearly passed out, and was utterly inconsolable. They had to give him tome off (and a LOT of Xanax) to keep him stable. It was a second disaster all in itself!
-You hadn’t meant to worry everyone. Hell, how were you EVER supposed to predict the most random renovation accident in Ministry history! All you did was walk by one of the new walls they were putting in and… at the very least, no one else had been hurt. But it was a terribly embarrassing time for you when you sat up and walked out of the Clergy mortuary. At least Miasma got a kick out of it.
-Sister Imperator was the first person to greet you when you ‘came back.’ And she was not happy. Imperator had been the person to guard your secrets and give you a place in the Ministry. Even let you near her prodigal son. But the deal had been you disclose everything about yourself to Copia. To Tell him what you were so they could AVOID his emotional meltdowns. A small side of you had been hurt that she cared more about Copia’s feelings than your own predicament, but you pushed it aside.
-“off you go. Go make it right.” You hated how she treated you like a child and not like a fellow disciple. But she was right- you did break your promise. And now you’ve accidentally broken Copia’s heart, even if it wasn’t your fault!
-The band ghouls had been happy to see you, but Copia nearly shrieked at your presence. The Papa convinced you were some sort of trick of his mind. It took you and all the ghouls an hour to calm him down (and even more Xanax.)
-When the new Papa came back to himself he clung to you, sobbing. You could barely make out him praising Lucifer and begging you not to leave him again. You let him, he deserved to get it out. You even found yourself tearing up and apologizing. The two of you rocked each other until all the tears dried up.
-You asked to be alone when you finally got the courage to explain what happened to him. You finally explained that you were a Ghuleh, a disciple of the zombie queen and her undying magic. Copia listened but he was stuck in a look of shock the entire time. You assured him that you never wanted him to find out this way. You were hoping he’d never find out.
-The worst thing ended up happening, aside from a break up. Copia didn’t want to leave you and he wasn’t planning to. But he was horribly upset at you for keeping this from him. Copia understands as much as he can. That’s not an easy lineage to hail from in this day and age. But you couldn’t tell him AT ALL?? How could you both be so close and so in love yet you kept this from him? It took you LITERALLY DYING to finally come clean! He felt so stupid at first. That he had a break down over this and not being strong enough to tell you were this deep in forbidden magic.
-As much as you both hate it, it did take a small hit on your relationship. A son of Lucifer and Child of Ghuleh has its own magical complications. But you don’t split. Copia would never let you go over this. He just needed a little time to get over feeling embarrassed and upset. This whole ordeal has made you both closer if anything!
-Imperator is oddly pleased about this…
*Notes:
Ghuleh is both the name of the Zombie Queen AND her highest ranking disciples.
Anyone who is a Ghuleh is someone who achieved partial or full ‘immortality’ through the magics practiced by the Zombie Queen.
Ghuleh in this regard is a gender neutral title, and one of VERY high honor.
In my work Ghuleh is NOT to be confused with ‘Ghoulette’ or any feminine nick names for Ghouls. They are separate categories.
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camojacketfag · 6 months
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when do you stop feeling like you're waiting for your life to start? im 22 and ive accomplished nothing, it feels like im at a standstill.
Well, for starters, I had a breakdown in a meijer parking lot at 8:15pm yesterday, sobbing to boygenius as I was telling myself that I’ve paused my life for the past four years to try and heal from crippling childhood trauma and therefore I haven’t really had the chance to truly have fucking fun and live life man.
My 20s have been a lot of healing and slowing down as life continues to move past me so fucking quickly. I told myself I was gonna have fun this year and instead I got my heart broken, I relapsed in my OCD, I cut ties with a shit therapist who invalidated me time and time again and I played far too many video games. Through out it all I also lost so many friendships who don’t fully understand how debilitating OCD truly is and my current social life consists mostly of imaginary conversations I have inside my head. But hey, we’re still fucking kicking! What really defines an accomplishment man? Whose timeline are you comparing yourself too? Most of the lives constantly being lived so publicly are led by neurotypical people with such big opportunities very different from lives like ours man. Therefore you’re doing yourself a disservice to try and compare your life to theirs. Acceptance is the hardest pill to swallow. I truly despise patience. Yet I also have to come to terms with the fact that I move at a much slower and methodical pace than everyone else around me. I know in the long run I’ll be grateful I decided to heal now as opposed to later but I still feel so fucking robbed man. Of time. And opportunities. And life. Time that I may never get back. Time in which others my age spent developing their careers or social relationships, I was stuck in my little room listening to sad lesbian music and having no one around but my dog and the obsessive thoughts that felt intensely unavoidable. I’d say life, or at least the life you’re talking about, will never truly start man. That life is just a piece of fiction. I guess what I’m trying to say is that life has already started, it’s just waiting for you to notice. Your perception is just warped, much like mine, but I know that although I can list all of these awful things that have happened over these past four years, I know that nudged somewhere in between it all, I’ve still lived. I saw some sick ass concerts, I gave myself my first stick and poke, I got drunk and shared to much, I allowed myself to question love and it’s mechanisms and meaning, I started a photo blog and have steadily worked towards creating what I see everyday in to something others can relate or come back to, I got punched in the face, I busted my lip trying to open a bottle of vodka, I drank to much caffeine and felt like I’d ascended to a higher state of consciousness. After I relapsed, I felt broken man. So much new trauma I’d have to go back to and stitch up all caused by trusting a professional who only made me believe that my own personal experience of the things I’d gone through was actually wrong. Yet somehow, it ended with me finally believing myself once more. And vowing to never let anyone make me feel like she did ever again. 11 years of trauma and hard work doesn’t deserve to be so easily destroyed just because you have a degree and I don’t. Still, I believed myself again. I believe myself now. And I know going forward that if we continuously compare ourselves to lives being lived that will never cross paths with ours then all we’re gonna do is spend eternity wondering when it will ever finally fucking begin. I promise you, it already has, and although I don’t know you, and you might believe that it’s been more bad than good, or that it’s not as valuable when compared to others achievements at your age, it’s still yours, and there’s still time, and it’s always been there, it’s just waiting for you to notice.
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Susan Kay's 'Phantom' Read: Part IV (Nadir)
I always knew I'd have mixed feelings about this chunk of the book.
I feel like the issues with the rampant Orientalism and just generally how very wrong Kay is about so much of this have been sufficiently commented on by others, so I'm not going to spend a lot of real estate on that. I'm mainly going to focus on what bugs me personally.
Which is... well, several things
Where do I start?
I guess with "Nadir" himself. I don't know who "Nadir" is, but he's #NotMyDaroga. 'Why's that?' You may ask? Well because, in my opinion, he's only tangentially related to his source material. There's a lot here that checks the boxes: Daroga of Mazanderan, reluctant with many of his duties, simultaneously in awe of and terrified of Erik’s genius all of that's in there. Buuuuut
First of all, Kay took the most practical, likeable character in Leroux's work and made him whiny and annoying. All he does for the first five pages is complain. Within those five pages he also refers to himself as "regrettably squeamish". Nothing happens in the course of this episode to show him growing out of that, so how we get the, pragmatic badass who haunts the Paris opera house keeping Erik in check I have no idea (I also have no idea how this is gonna go later in the book).
Not only that but this in particular stuck out to me:
Some of the illusions were positively supernatural, and long before the show was at an end, I was quietly convinced that I stood in the presence of a genie, created from fire more than two thousand years before Adam. I noted uneasily that he was left handed. Every Moslem knows that the devil is left handed--it is for this reason that we always take care to spit to the left. My fingers felt instinctively for the amulets that hung at my neck, an outstretched hand made in silver and the dried eye of a sheep, killed at Mecca on the great day of sacrifice. Both were powerful protective agencies, and I had never felt more in need of their protection. I took care not to meet his gaze, for I already feared his evil eye.
This stands in sharp contrast to the Persian of Leroux:
If I had been a superstitious man or easily susceptible to weakness, I could not have failed to think that I had to do with a siren of some sort whose task was to trouble the voyager bold enough to travel on the waters of the lakeside house; but, thank God, I come from a country where the fantastic is so cherished that we know it to its depths, and in times past I myself have studied it extensively. Anyone who knows the magicians trade can excite the human imagination with a few simple tricks.
Of course you can make the argument that the Persian speaking here has known Erik for years now and is wise to his tricks, whereas Kay's "Nadir" is seeing them for the first time. But I'm sorry. I don't buy it. Leroux's Daroga, though amazed and awestruck by Erik's skills at illusion, never indicates that he has even been so fooled by them as to actually mistake him for more than what he is: a genius, certainly, but no genie.
Which leads me to wonder if Erik's magic tricks in this book aren't a little too fantastic. Granted Kay never leads us to believe that they really are supernatural, but she uses Erik's degree of genius as a bit of a shield to get away with not revealing the secrets to some truly fantastic tricks, while Leroux nearly always explains Erik's mechanisms (whether they would work to the level of efficacy Leroux describes its up for debate, but he at least does have explanations for them all.
I think it's hilarious and contemptible that Kay has, at numerous times in this book, dropped incredibly clunky and gratuitous clusters of architectural technical terms, just lists of them for no apparent reason except, I can only assume, to show off how much research she did on the subject; and then makes it so patently obvious that her cultural research is dubious, negligible, or entirely non-existent.
She goes to great lengths to paint Nadir as a devout Muslim, which is not something Leroux ever did, now that I think about it. I don't doubt that the Persian is, at least culturally, be he seems quite ambivalent to his religion, as a rule. It quite literally (as far as I can recall) never comes up. But Nadir is. Several times she has him exclaim "Allah" much in the way a Westerner would use "God" as an expletive. Not "Wallah" not even "By Allah" just "Allah".
"Allah, how I hated cats!"
And it's not only the things he says but the things he doesn't say that annoy me (though I'm a layman, and very much open to correction). Common Islamic phrases that could easily be used in any of the situations Nadir finds himself in are completely left by the wayside. There isn't even a single "Inshallah" in his entire narrative.
Another problem I have is that Kay's Daroga is a widower with a sick son. A very complex emotional relationship develops among Erik, Nadir, and Nadir's son, Reza, to whom Erik feels an affinity, as the boy is slowly crippled by a debilitating congenital disease. I have a problem with this because its all very... I call it the Michael Burnham effect. That is to say this is a very important and big emotional thing in The Persian's relationship with Erik and I don't believe that this wouldn't have come up in any of the Persian's narrative if it was actually the case. This is a liberty which Kay, in my opinion, shouldn't have taken. It affects Erik's entire relationship with The Persian in ways that strain my credulity. And it's part of the reason that Erik's character here is fully beginning to stray deeper into a musical-based version than the Leroux-version (which I have a problem with, as this book is ostensibly following Leroux's outline). She even goes to far as to have Erik acknowledge Nadir, with complete (if reluctant) sincerity, as his friend. And this pretty much confirms my suspicions of where "Erik and Daroga are friends" comes from. Whatever Erik and The Persian's odd relationship in the book is, I can't call it friendship with how frequently The Persian calls him "the monster".
Note don't get me wrong Erik and Daroga do definitely have a bizarre bond that is, I think, a kind of friendship. Daroga feels sympathy for Erik, and also responsibility for him. He is, in many, ways, more like an older brother than a friend. I could say so much on this subject but that's for another post.
But what I find really baffling and annoying about Erik and Nadir's "friendship" in this book is the drugs.
I can't express how repugnant I find this. I think it's an insult to both Erik and the Persian, the fact that Nadir HIMSELF GETS ERIK HOOKED ON OPIUM. WHY. And then she has the fucking nerve to lampshade with all the "Oh yes Opium's a terrible horrible deadly habit" Only to have Nadir turn right around and give Erik his fix. What the actual fuck.
But setting aside that Susan Kay actually said "I'm not just going to make Nadir annoying, I'm also going to make him an enabler!" Is the fact that... I just don't buy Erik doing drugs.
I know Erik is an artist, and artists throughout the ages have been associated with decadent habits like drugs and alcohol to soothe their tortured souls or broaden their minds to ever more fantastic plains blah blah blah.
But Erik is not an every day kind of character. Erik is notable in how uniquely he glories in his tribulations. Erik's music in particular is a manifestation of his pure emotions both good and bad, and I think for him to alter his moods with substances, to him, would sully the purity of his art, which he always characterizes as a spiritual, almost holy thing.
And here's another thing. Part of the reason Erik is doing opium in this book is, yes the horrors of his past, but also the terrible things he's doing in the present... which I do think Erik of Leroux did grow sick of what was demanded of him in Persia (he explicitly says he wanted to put it all behind him), but I don't think he probably felt... that bad about it? I dunno maybe that's just me.
Moving on.
I'll pause here to say that while I think Kay is a bit guilty of "de-fanging" Erik in this book, I genuinely do appreciate her emphasis on his affinity for the weak and broken, and his knack with animals.
So now I come to one of the things that made me look most askance at this section. Again, the conceit of this book (or at least what I was given to understand the conceit was) is that its filling in the blanks that Leroux left vague. And I don't really know if that was Susan Kay's intention, but it's certainly how the Phandom took it. Which is why it bugs me when there are things in here that either don't quite jive with canon or straight up contradict it.
Now in terms of the canon of Leroux's actual book, we're not sure exactly which Shah employed Erik. Leonard Wolf point out that Leroux mentions Erik "[fighting] the Emir" and posits that he is referring to the Afghani-Persian war of 1837. This would put Erik’s age in PotO at about 60, assuming he was very young at the time (in his teens). That would make Erik's patron Mohammad Shah Qajar.
However M. Grant Kellermeyer (and most others writing about this period in Erik’s life, including Susan Kay) favour the idea that Erik’s patron was Mohammed's son, Nasser al din Shah Qajar.
When Erik and the Persian talk about the "Rosy Hours of Mazanderan" they both make mention of the "Little Sultana", who is described by Leroux's narrator in the epilogue as "the Shah-in-Shah's favourite", whose boredom was the Shah's impetus for sending the Persian to find Erik in the first place, and whose delight in bloodthirsty spectacles of torture and execution allowed Erik's talents in those areas to develop into a finely honed art.
Now I would take "the Little Sultana" to mean one of the Shah's wives, concubines, daughters, or even a sister.
But Kay, for some inexplicable reason, chooses to interpret this capricious (and bloodthirsty) female figure--the Shah's favourite--as his... mother.
Now Nasser al din Shah's mother was Malek Jahan Khanom, who, true to Kay's portrayal was Regent of Persia for one month (September 5th - October 5th) in 1848. Also like Kay's "Khanum", Malek was a formidable and politically savvy woman, and definitely not an individual you would want to cross.
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I can't dispute the idea of the Khanom being an incredibly powerful figure, and the type you would need and want to keep appeased (she is described by Kay as keeping her son firmly under her thumb), but I have to look at the fact that Kay read "The Little Sultana, the Shah's Favourite" and really said, "Right. That'll be his mom" and squint a little bit.
On top of this, the Khanum is characterized as having a sexual obsession with Erik, very similar to the way Duchess Josiana is aroused by Gwynplaine's facial deformity in Victor Hugo's The Man Who Laughs, and is first irritated, then enraged by Erik's constant indifference. This fact is not lost on the Shah.
I just don't know ya'll. It's...I just... I don't know about this.
M. Grant Kellermeyer speculates that the "Little Sultana" Leroux refers to, to be the seventh wife of Nasser al din Shah, Jeyran, whom he first took as a mistress in around 1850 following a chance encounter during which he apparently fell in love with her on sight. One story of their meeting even asserts that she was one of his mother's servants.
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If that is the case it would be one reason why Malek and Jeyran stood locked for years in stark political opposition to each other.
Jeyran was herself formidable and enjoyed many masculine pursuits including hunting and shooting, and not even the Khanom was able to dissuade Nasser from conferring her the title of Forough ol-Saltaneh, or from naming her son the crown prince (though this decision was stuck in political hell for years because of Jeyran's lack of influential blood-lines).
She was his favourite wife until her early death in 1860 at the age of 29.
It's my opinion that Leroux's "Little Sultana" is a composite of Jeyran and her successor as the Shah's favourite, Anis al-Dalweh, who was even more formidable and politically savvy than Jeyran. She was the only one of the Shah's wives known to share his meals and the only one he suffered to publicly criticize him, and she took over Malek's duties as the head of the harem upon her death in 1873.
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Masterpost
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swearyshera · 8 months
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Advance apology for the long ask in a likely sea of 'em. A lot of people talk about wishing they could experience something they love again for the first time, this series was genuinely as close to that as I've ever felt. Just given the span of time my attention flucuated on and off but once the latter half of s4/s5 began my attention was absolutely nailed to your feed. Its up with Dragon Ball Z Abridged as parody series that become so dramatically effective they become a valid or definitive way to experience the series. Goddamned sensational.
Your portrayals of the characters soar. They provide a hilarious, cruder take on each that still cuts right to the soul of who these people are and lays it bare, which I think is the mission of any good-natured parody. Adora, Catra, Glimmer, Scorpia, Bow, Prime etc. There is not one that does not shine. It tackled a ton of issues and misgivings I had about canon, and even elevated or clarified many scenes and arcs through addressing them a more direct fashion. You took full advantage of not having to dress up and dance around the dark subjects canon was sort of doomed to handle inadequately given its age bracket and thematic priorities. Many scenes were jawdropping. Ive raved about it before, but your scene with Glimmer actually talking about her mom with Catra still leaves me gobsmacked every time I reread it. Your big moments towards the finale btwn Adora and Catra are obviously sublime and tie their wonderful arc off fantastically, but in my heart of hearts that cell talk will be the crown jewel of this project. Loved seeing the LGBT message take center stage in way canon had to hold back. To paraphrase Tolkien, I'm can't count myself among those gifted people, and youve def got a target audience in mind, but if youve ever worried if your stories resonate on a quote unquote "more universal" level, I promise you can put those worries to bed. Since becoming an adult ive intentionally sought out more and more queer-inclusive/created stories and I havent regretted it a bit, and the rising tide of fascist sexist/homo/transphobic bile in politics gets more and more frightening. But I've also seen how strong and resilient LGBT people are in the face of it, empowering themselves in no small part thru stories like yours. Please don't ever give up on your art. The world needs artists like you. Sorry if I come off pretentious or condescending, I feel like that when I try to get everything I think out at once. I'll be among the first to come running if you ever start another project like this or make something on an even grander scale. Thank you a thousand times for this. Also writing a wholeass sitcom pilot based on an offhand quasi-joke I made is the most weirdly touching thing I think anyones ever done "for me" (at least nominally cuz of me), especially a stranger. So thank you for that too.
Aw, you'll make me cry, you know! I think you've understood everything I wanted to do with this strip (or at least, when I started thinking beyond just 'characters saying fuck'), and... yeah, it's been an incredible journey, both for the blog and for me personally.
I've always tried to keep the parody good-natured. You can often tell, particularly in parody, when the creator dislikes one particular character (I mean, Horde Prime was probably the exception here), but I love all of them, so it really comes from a place of love. It's quite odd because I never set out to "fix" the show, and I wouldn't want to, but some things I've done seem to have had such an impact that a lot of people think I have done just that.
The Glimmer/Catra conversation is absolutely one of my favourite things I've written from this. It's such a pivotal moment in both their stories and character development, and I am truly humbled that multiple people have called it 'better than canon'. Like... I'm just some person trying to be funny and occasionally serious, and people are saying something I wrote is better than what a team of experienced professional writers did? Give over, no... But it's still a moment I can be proud of.
I won't be stopping writing things. This whole blog has given me a new lease of life and something to aim towards. I've got an excellent pilot script pretty much finished, and I do want to bring Hellspawn up to that standard too (thank you for suggesting someone make a Sweary Frosta sitcom - I'm someone!). That may well involve a complete re-write, but I'll be sure to share it.
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for your kind words along the way. It really keeps me going :)
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fallouttboy · 1 month
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to me, fall out boy has become, and maybe always has been, a love letter to your past selves. love is messy. love is hard. love feels an awful lot like a tsunami and sometimes it’s overwhelming in a bad way, but if the love is there and real, it’s also overwhelming in good ways. awash in the warmth and comfort of a good love yet knowing through experience that in order to feel that warmth, you have to be a little bit cold sometimes. it’s okay. because you know that if your love is truly capital l love, it’ll be warm again, and it’ll come back. that’s fall out boy.
their lyrics are blunt sometimes, cutting to the core on the first slice. the powerhouses of patrick and pete writing in counterpart collaboration: pete brings the words to patrick’s music. patrick knows how to say what pete writes, without words, perfectly. pete could write lyrics for others and patrick could compose for others but together is where their art is most compatible. the swoops of strings in stardust (the record) with pete’s mood swinging, too-deep truth wrapped up pretty in sarcasm and irony lyricism, the brutal honesty of i think ive been going through it, and ive been putting your name to it or love is in the air, i just gotta figure out a window to break out or talking to the mirror, save your breath, half your life you’ve been hooked on death- there is no other way for things to sound as right as they do. composer (patrick)//never composed (pete).
the emotions were palpable through a stream, i cannot imagine how it felt to be there. the band seemed so high in their emotions: the setlist changes, the riffing, the speeches. tonight was about living to see the life you’ve created. living to see the life you’ve been told you’d never have. patrick’s speech about how he deals/dealt with hardcore imposter syndrome, never thinking he’d do much and not thinking he’d ever get anywhere. looking back and calling himself a “fat little eight year old”. i felt the breath hitch of all of the people of the Garden who know exactly what it’s like to be the fat little eight year old, who know exactly what it’s like to feel like you don’t belong and never will. but patrick said it: you belong. he belongs. our fat, eight year old selves belong. and maybe he meant it as a simple statement with no meaning behind it, like saying a baby’s cheeks are fat, but to me it didn’t feel that way. it felt genuine, from the voice of a man who is, at forty years old, finally comfortable in his skin and body. it felt like a love letter to us, the people who are mostly okay now but still have that voice that reminds them that they’re not as small as the others, never have been, not really. and he dedicated the theme for spidey and his amazing friends, a song he composed for disney (!), to that little eight year old. the eight year old who loved spider-man. the eight year old who could never have ever imagined working with/for a licensed spider-man creation, or playing madison square garden, or being where patrick is. he did that for his past self. he did that to say look. you belong. you made it. we made it.
and xo replacing sixteen candles. to the love. to the fucking love. it’s all for love, everything this band does-every word, every note-love never wanted me but i took it anyway. this, paired with pete’s speech that talks about how it’s important to create art, no matter the weirdness, it just shows how much we and the band mean to them. patrick’s reminder of the band hanging all of their rejection letters from record labels on the wall of their apartment back in the beginning of the band, compared to now, sold out at madison square garden; to the love. to the love. to the love.
to bring in get busy living as one of the 8 ball songs is absolutely insane for tonight’s set. not only for the sheer chaos of it, but for the, well, everything, about the lyrics. to me, it’s a queer song. it’s a trans pov song. you like boys like me better, in the dark laying on top of you. not in the light. not where i can be seen. boys like me, the kind of boy who was born with a girl’s body and socialized as a girl, the kind of boy who doesn’t have any childhood photos as a boy, the kind of boy who hopes and prays to who or what ever that one day he will be boy “enough” for you. boys like me, you like “boys” like me. in the dark, without lights, blackout curtains drawn. you can pretend it’s not a dampness you feel against you but a solidity, you can pretend it isn’t too cool and too slick to be real sliding up into and against you. you can pretend it’s not me, then, better in the dark. you don’t see me.
put into context of tonight’s feelings it’s…a lot, to say the least. pete probably didn’t write it with gender fluidity in mind, it was likely a drag on his “bad boy” persona and being more comfortable fucking him when they can’t see who he is, characteristically, rather than through a gendered eye. either reading is tragic though; either scenario involves a party who cannot be seen in an extremely intimate encounter, and the other cannot bear to see them for whatever reason (pain? shame? i’ve always read it as shame of sleeping with someone the same sex as you, and then also someone who is trans, but hey, i’m queer and i could be wrong).
the idea of only being loved for with the lights are off and therefore could be anyone the other person wanted in comparison to the love that was so clearly and fully expressed at tonight’s show is kind of overwhelming in juxtaposition. love that is conditional (lights off) vs unconditional (be weird, create weird shit). love that you don’t know what to do with (through the keyhole i watched you dress//never feeling like you belong). patrick playing his big scoring composition entirely alone, on acoustic, in front of a sold out madison square garden. the whole band playing a sold out madison square garden. there’s that interview from a few days ago where patrick talks about bruce springsteen asking him to take a photo of his (springsteen’s) kids at msg, how patrick was starstruck, and how it taught him “take it (playing madison square garden) seriously, but don’t take yourself too seriously”, and i can’t help but think about it in context with tonight. take it seriously (the love, the venue, the fans) but don’t take yourself too seriously (playing a spider-man theme song).
fall out boy is about love. it’s for lovers. it’s for those who want to be loved. it’s scar crossed lovers, forever.
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liliesonpandora · 9 months
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heyy!! So I read all of your avatar fanfics and omll they're amazing!!!
And I was wondering if you could write one about Jake and neytiri, where neytiri is sick with the stomach flu and Jake takes care of her?? Ik its random but I love the wholesome Jake an neytiri ones! if you to busy and can't it ok!!👍❤💗💕
Hii omg thank you for reading all my fanfics and being so sweet 🥹 Jake and Neytiri have my heart, I wish there was more out there for them. Tysm for your request! I hope you like this one just as much as the others☺️🫶🏼
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Jake reached over and felt the absence of his wife laying next to him. He opened his eyes and sat up, trying to make out her figure in the night. She was at the other end of their home. “Neytiri?” He called to her.
When she didn’t respond, he began to walk over to her. She was hunched over, and over her shoulder he could see a bucket in her hands. He placed a hand gently on her back. “Hey, you okay?”
She looked up at him with a pained look and shook her head. He bent down and placed his hand to her cheek.
“What’s wrong, you feeling sick?”
She nodded. “I woke up because I felt pain in my stomach. Ive thrown up twice already.”
“Aw baby, I’m sorry you’re not feeling well. You should’ve woken me up.”
“I wanted you to sleep, I know you’ve been really tired lately.”
“Nah if you’re not sleeping soundly next to me, then fuck that.”
Neytiri managed a smile at his vulgar language.
“Did you eat something bad?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Hm, maybe you have a stomach flu or something.”
Jake barely finished his sentence before she hunched over the bucket once more and proceeded to throw up a third time.
Jake quickly scooped up all of her hair in one hand and rubbed her back with the other. They stayed this way for quite some time, until it seemed like the vomiting had ceased. He eventually put the bucket aside and got up to retrieve something. He returned with a water jug in his hands.
“Here, have some water. You’re probably really dehydrated.”
Neytiri gargled a mouthful of water and spit it out. Then she lifted the canister to drink the rest of the water.
“Don’t drink too much too fast. Only small sips every now and then” he warned her.
She sipped a little and passed the canister back to Jake. “I really hope that doesn’t come back up.”
He let out a little laugh. “Lets sit here for a while and hope for the best.”
He opened his arms wide, she crawled into his lap and leaned back on his chest. He wrapped his arms around her from behind, his chin resting gently on the top of her head.
Neytiri groaned and hid her face in her hands.
“What? You gunna be sick again?” He asked with concern.
“No, I just hate that you have to see me like this.”
Jake looked down at her in awe. It baffled him that she could still be so shy and embarrassed when she was nothing short of amazing in every aspect. He thought it was adorable. He removed one of her hands from her face and interlocked their fingers. “In sickness and in health, right?”
“Hm?” She asked while looking up at him, a little confused.
“Oh, its one of the vows people say when they get married.”
“Ahhh, I understand. As my husband, it is your duty to watch me vomit.”
Jake chuckled. “Pretty much.”
He felt like he’d known Neytiri for his whole life, so he often forgot that she was from a different world. Often times, it would be silly little things like this… a phrase or a food. But other times, he would think about the fact that theres an entire part of his existence that she would never truly know. ‘But that part of me is dead now,’ he would think.
Jake felt Neytiri tremble in his arms, so he rubbed his hands up and down her skin to create some heat. “You’re shivering.”
“I’m really cold” she said as she leaned more into his hold. “Thank you for keeping me so warm.”
“You’re burning up,” Jake said as he placed the back of his hand gently on her forehead. “I think you have a fever, baby… you definitely have the stomach flu.”
“Ugh, how long will this last? I’m so tired,” she said with a yawn.
“1 to 2 days, max.”
“Okay, could be worse. But my duties…”
“I will take care of your duties.”
Neytiri opened her mouth to protest but Jake spoke before she could. “End of story. Don’t worry about anything until you’re better.” He got up to dip a cloth in some cool water. He rung it out and folded it up thinly before placing it on her forehead. “Hopefully this will be okay until morning.”
“You’re very familiar with this illness.”
“Well yeah, I mean we would get sick all the time as kids.”
“You and your brother.”
“Mhm. Tommy and I would take care of each other…because we were all we had.”
Neytiri placed a hand to his cheek, wanting to let him know that she was there for him. She always felt empathetic and sad when he talked about his brother. She knew so much loss, but so did he. At least now, they had each other.
Jake put his hand over hers and locked eyes with her. When they looked at each other, they had a shared understanding. He knew he had her heart. “You should get some rest for now, lets go to bed.”
Jake lifted her up and carried her over to where they slept. She looked up at him in adoration. “Yawne,” she said to him softly. He smiled warmly back at her. After placing her down, he got into bed next to her and opened his arms. “Alright, come get this hot body.”
She smiled and settled into his chest, feeling his heartbeat against her ear. ‘So this is to be loved by him,’ she thought to herself. She surrendered to him and let herself be taken care of, something she was not accustomed to. Heat filled her body, fatigue washing over her. She let her eyelids drift down, now surrendering to the sleep. “Goodnight, my beloved. Thank you for taking such good care of me.” She told him with her eyes still closed.
“Sleep well, my love” he replied. He played with her hair until he felt her breathing slow… fast asleep.
——————————————————————————————
Neytiri opened her eyes to Jake looking down at her. She had slept in his arms all night. She smiled lightly… grateful that he was always there when she woke up.
“You’re finally awake.”
“Hm? How long was I asleep?”
“About 12 hours.”
Neytiri’s eyes widened as she heard this. “What?!”
“Yeah, you were knocked out… which is a good thing. You need rest. How you feeling?” He asked while caressing her cheek.
“My stomach is still upset, but I do feel better than yesterday.”
“Thats good, you think you might be able to have some food? Just something small.”
“I dont really have an appetite but I think I feel well enough to eat.”
“I got you some banana fruit, it should be easy on your stomach.”
“When did you have time to get that?”
Jake peeled the banana and handed it to her. “A few hours ago. I got up and left you here sleeping. You didnt even stir. I came back and you were in the same position I left you in.”
Neytiri nibbled on the fruit as he spoke. She couldn’t believe that she slept that long.
“Oh, and I went and got this from your mom.” He grabbed a small bottle from his pouch. “You have to drink it twice a day to keep your fever down.”
Neytiri thought about how much he had done to care for her, and she was so thankful. “You are a gift sent to me.”
“Uh oh, I think this illness is worsening. You’re talking crazy,” he joked.
But Neytiri was serious. “Believe me when I say this, please.”
Jake sighed. It was always difficult for Jake to hear such kind words from Neytiri. He was forever filled with guilt over what he’d done. But he knew he needed to stop feeling sorry for himself, so he can be a better person for her. “I’ll try.”
This was enough for her to hear for now.
“You feel a little hot right now, so drink up.”
“Yes sir.”
Jake held the bottle up to her lips carefully until she had drank one dose. She grimaced immediately after. “That taste is absolutely horrid. If my mother was not Tsahik, I would have thought it was poison.”
“The strongest warrior I know gets defeated by bad tasting medicine. Thats an interesting concept.”
“Listen Toruk Makto… we all have our weaknesses.”
“You are mine.” He pulled her into a tight hug, not wanting to let go.
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