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father-time-and-baby-new-year · 3 years

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OFF WITH YOUR HEAD

PART 2 OF HEADS WILL ROLL

SYNOPSIS: Whenever school is in session, Eren will just keep finding new places to corner you.

PAIRING: BULLY! EREN x FEM! READER

DEDICATED TO: you guys, always you guys.

WARNINGS: unedited, slight dubcon, groping, degradation, bullying,

WORD COUNT: 2.4K

Gooooood Morning Paradis Birds! Remember to give a big round of applause to the football team for clutching the victory against reigning champion Marley High! We stay undefeated thanks to our excellent and hardworking team. Special shoutout to Captain Eren Yeager for guiding the team to another flawless victory-

You're half-heartedly paying attention to class, sleepily listening to the school announcements over the speaker until the mention of his name douses you like a shock of ice-cold water.

You can't catch the rest of the announcement because your class erupts into cheer, enthusiastically clapping their hands for the boy of the hour.

The only one not joining is you.

Eren's smile is brighter than 100 kilowatts. In the back of your mind, you wonder where he learned to smile like that. When his emotions became so practiced.

Mr.Berner tries to calm the kids down, especially Sasha who bangs on her desks and howls, creating even more hype and ruckus. The class, now in a chattier mode, excitedly breaks into little conversations.

"Man, thank god. That school is so pretentious, I'm glad we finally have something over them."

"Jeez, I know our team was good, but it's this good-?"

"-Bro, year of XXXX is stacked as fuck. It's literally never been this stacked before. We have a whole team of prodigies, it's insane-especially Eren. "

"Yepp. My dad went to Paradis too and he said shit like this never happened during his time. The academic comps were one thing, but these footballs wins? We're being put on the fucking map."

The announcements are still going on, but it's hard to hear over the noise. You're only able to catch the tail end, a useless tidbit about the word of the day.

pre·mo·ni·tion a strong feeling that something is about to happen, especially something unpleasant. Here is an example: "She had a premonition of imminent disaster" Have a good day folks, hope it's free of any premonitions!

Overhearing the unceasing praise of the boy who pinched your thighs until they bruise blue and purple was a little painful-but you were used to it. After all, he's putting Paradis on the map. Whatever the fuck that means.

While you didn't love sharing this class with him, he was seated far across the room and surrounded by a gaggle of friends. You might as well have been invisible, the way he did not acknowledge you. Maybe you should treat it as a small mercy.

Unwittingly, your eyelids grow heavy. You're sitting in the back of the class, no one would notice if you took a little nap right? Assured by the fact no one will notice, you lower your head into your folded arms and let your thoughts float.

You dream of vaguely nothing but shadows of smiles, tufts of dark hair, and the smell of the wind at sea until a noise confined to the shape of your name breaks the harmony.

"[y/n?]"

You startle awake with pairs of eyes piercing their gazes at you. Swallowing thickly, you apologize to Mr.Berner who looks worried. He's a good teacher, and one of your favorites.

"I'm sorry Mr.Berner. I had a migraine so I laid my head down." You lie smoothly, with more grace than you knew you were capable of. Course, you could have just said you were taking an unprompted nap, but that would disappoint your lovely teacher.

He sighs, "Guess that can't be helped then. Go to the nurse ok?"

Bingo. The nurse was an understanding lady, she'd let you sleep the rest of the period off. You nod, and start to gather your materials, relieved the class' attention on you was beginning to dwindle.

"Wait, Mr.Berner, let me take her. What if she gets disoriented and falls in the hall?"

Fuuuuck. You should have known. You should have expected this because attached to the request dripping with faux concern was none other than the precious jewel of the kingdom. Eren's intrusion makes your peers perk up again at the scene unfolding in front of them.

You smile, lips tightly pressed, "I'll be fine. I don't want to distract anyone from the lesson and it's a short walk-

"It's still potentially dangerous.", Your teacher interrupts, pinching the bridge of the nose, "And while I'm completely surprised by Eren's sudden streak of altruism, he's right. Something could happen. He'll take you there safely."

A very convenient streak of altruism, all right. You think it over in your head, yeah the nurses' office is right down the hall, and once you're there, he'll leave. Sure, he'll taunt you but you can handle a few minutes worth of cruelty.

It's awkward getting up, and walking in front of the class while Eren props the door open like a gentleman. You know what a sharp contrast it must look like, you and him, you cowering into yourself, not meeting any eyes while he stands tall and confident.

"Do you have everything?" His tone is one of reassurance, and for the barest of the moments, feels too familiar. You know he's not being genuine right now, and for the first time, you question if he was genuine back then.

"You can hold onto my arm if you're too dizzy to walk." He says as you guys slip out of the classroom, purposefully a little too loudly. You hear coos from girls and a stray "She's so lucky!"

He must have heard it too, because he lowers his head to whisper into your ear, "Yeah, very lucky, aren't you?" Wisps of dark hair tickle your cheeks. You see the glint of tiny silver hoops and wonder when he had gotten his ears pierced. The illusion breaks and the performative charming prince's reassuring smile is replaced by a sneer.

"Didn't know you could lie like that, by the way. Some good girl you are if you're trying to ditch class like this." Fingers dig deep into your waist as he drags you along the empty hallway that seems to stretch on for miles.

Your breath gets stuck in your throat, "How did you know I was lying?"

Viridian eyes narrow, "I've seen you get migraines before." There's a knock on your heart. As if realizing he was talking about something far away ago, a vindictive edge laces into words pouring out of his mouth, "I bet you wanted this to happen, didn't you? Wanted to get us all alone."

He's trying to get a rise out of you, that much is obvious. So you ignore him to the best of your ability.

...which quickly proved to be futile, as you suddenly find your arm pinned to your back, and your front facing the nearest walls.

"I asked you a fucking question bitch." He's practically growling, "Fucking answer me."

If there was a world record for the shortest temper, best believe Eren Yeager will have collected that accolade too. He's getting too worked up, and you could definitely feel his harness poking the back on your ass, as he grinds into you.

You manage to crane your neck, wanting to have your face shoved into the wall, and then venomously spit out, "You're not looking for answers. You just want me to repeat whatever you think is true."

This position brings back flashbacks to the library when he caged you in against the bookshelves, and like then, he spins you around to face him quite abruptly.

His smile is full of sharp teeth, "No. I know I'm right."

You don't respond. He moves in closer, his breath fanning on your earlobes. Your body can't help but let an involuntary shudder, and you close your eyes, not wanting to see his pleased grin or the way the fluorescent light makes his hoops gleam like silver bullets.

One calloused finger flicks your nipple, "Do you want to know why I'm right?"

At your lack of response, the dark-haired boy rolls your nipple in between his fingers before pinching it painfully, eliciting a small whimper out of your fuckable lips. "N-no", you answer finally. You're wearing your thinnest bra because of the seasonal heat, and you can't help but regret that decision right now. The fact he's only paying attention to one of your nipples is driving you insane. Not that you want it, but you're so fucking sensitive right now. You struggle in his hold, causing him to hold you tighter, and by now his nails were probably embedded into your skin.

He chuckles at your honesty, rewarding you with a thick stripe of his tongue over the collared shirt of your uniform making you gasp. Did he just-, over your shirt too-, you look down and see a very visible wet spot.

Taking advantage of your distracted state, a eager hand snakes under your skirt until it settles in the middle of your panties. He licks your earlobe before speaking, his voice like ice under your heels.

"You were so fucking wet that day in the library while saying you hated me the entire time," he pauses as his fingers scissor you through your panties, as if to drive the message home, "About as wet as you are right now."

There's a wet spot there too, also caused by him. You crush your eyes shut, "Eren...please just take me to the nurse." You're not even struggling anymore, holding onto him out of your own accord, worried that if you don't hold onto anything-you'd fall on your knees.

The very headache you lied about having seemed not so non-existent after all.

Eren hooks his arms under the plush of your thighs, "Yeah. Of course, that's what I came to do, right?"

You had hoped you'd be granted a reprieve in the nurses' office but you'd forgotten that luck was never really in your favor. Because while you guys had entered the squeaky-clean office, the nurse was nowhere in sight.

Instead, a note sat on her desk in unassuming frilly cursive that Eren read with glee.

Sorry students! Minor emergency to take care of, and I'll be back by the middle of the next period. If you're badly hurt, see Mr.Ackerman in room 203. If not, just sit tight! Feel free to take up the beds.

Thank you,

Ms.Ral

Eren had turned to you with shining green eyes, "Since no one's here, I guess I'll have to keep you company. Don't want you to hurt yourself."

There was something claustrophobic about how Eren stood in front of the door as if to signify to get out of here, you had to get through him.

"Maybe I can get Mr.Ackerman..."

Eren's sudden bout of laughter makes you wince and retreat inside of yourself, "For what? A fake headache? You really wanna inconvenience him like that? Mr.Ackerman?"

You take slow steps backward until the back of your knees hit the school bed, making you stumble as you clumsily take a seat. Eren's been marching forward with every retreating step you took, and it's no surprise when he pushes you down the bed, strong hands on the side of your head, while his muscular legs force your thighs apart so he can settle himself in between.

"We have some time to kill, you know." Strands of dark hair fall into his eyes, and without thinking, you reach upwards to brush them aside.

He grips your wrist before you make it that far, nearly gritting out a "What are you doing?"

You just stare, not really knowing why that was your impulse either. Finally, you mouth out, "I want you to leave Eren."

The grip on your wrist is tighter than ever, and you very well know that you're going to have new finger-shaped bruises before the old ones even finish healing.

"And I want to stay." He punctuates each word slowly, and all you can think is how being pinned to a bed is much less painful than having the hard surface of wood digging onto your back.

You're fully aware of the heat in your core, and having Eren on top of you doesn't make this it any easier because fuck, he is attractive. Maddeningly so. And maybe you want him to go away so bad because you're afraid that if his fingers are caught inside of you, you'll thank him for it.

As if reading your mind, he lets go of your wrist (making a mental note of your sluggish movements and slipping resistance) and massages your warm hole from your panties.

"Eren please" You grit out. He merely chuckles, "What are you asking for, whore?"

You could feel tears threatening to fall. This was so embarrassing. Did you want this? Yes, yes. yes, yes. You were so wet right now and had enough of the teasing.

He alternated his kneading from slow and soft to fast and rough, and you couldn't help but let out the prettiest little moans Eren's ever heard. Since you lose all pretenses of resistance, his other hand roughly brushes against your hardened nipples, straining against the fabric of your shirt.

Okay, he decided. He's going to make you beg.

"Beg." It's announced like a command, and while you hear it, you don't really register it because your hips are busy chasing the heat, and it's all too much of an utter disappointment when his long thin fingers leave.

"I said beg slut."

"Eren, please, please. I need you so bad." You're blubbering and you don't care. You just want his pretty fingers to shove aside your panties and rub against your folds. You think back to the library, how wet you were, how the stupid fucking phone call from his coach interrupted him pumping his fingers inside of you. And you didn't know if you were happy or mad he left. But now, all you crave is the blissful wave of pleasure- the very pleasure he's been denying you.

Eren looks down at you, green eyes scrutinizing. After a long while of what it seems to be him just staring, he wipes his fingers on your skirt, brushes back his hair with a wayward hand.

"Looks like I should head back to class. See you later."

Too numb to say anything, you watch him leave with a smirk on his face. When you're sure he's walked away, you curl into yourself and cry.

#attack on titan fanfiction #eren x y/n #tw dubcon #bully eren yeager #bullying #toxic eren #yandere eren x reader #eren x reader

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carinyms · 3 years

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I've scrolled through a lot of discourse on episode 4 of Loki and I need to talk about it

(good lord its a whole essay im sorry)

I gave myself a headache from crying while watching this. (I joined the Loki fandom post-IW so I’ve never had to see him die before while emotionally invested and boy!!! Is it doing things to my fragile psyche!!). But now I’m rehydrated and more stable and ready to party so let’s go

Right off the bat, I loved this episode — loved it loved it loved it. Silly, manic in-shock Loki is gone and shit is getting real. My thought while watching this was truly “wow this is my favorite episode so far” and damn am I in a minority with this opinion lol.

So here’s my perspective on some of the discourse flying around, and just general thoughts

On the whole ‘Narcissist’ thing:

IMO, Mobius saying this means nothing: he’s mad and he’s spouted lies at Loki to push his buttons before (see: every interaction they’ve had since episode 1).

Loki saying this to Sif-- well, Loki is and always has been an unreliable narrator on himself. The major theme of this show is that he doesn’t really know who he is, deep down, and he’s trying to figure it out. The TVA is taking advantage of this, and even though he’s trying to stay above it all throughout the series, he's still in a really impressionable spot and absorbing what others tell him about himself. (not to mention this scene is literal torture and he’s already proven that he’ll say whatever he needs to to get out of it.)

But he does admit one true thing when he says “It’s because I’m scared of being alone.” (And like wow okay same don’t mind my tears) but here’s a big brain idea!

Sif pulls him up and says ‘You are alone, and you always will be’, which is like, WOW that’s cruel after what he said, but it makes me ask wonder: Sif is sentient in this scene, but obviously it’s not really her. Who’s controlling her? And why is it so important for them to make sure Loki thinks he’s alone? I’d go as far as to wager that Sif never even said this to Loki, the big bad made this up. (he admits he forgot about this ever happening, I doubt he’d remember what she said.)

I think the nexus event on Lamentis that caused the branch was two Loki’s joining sides. Or, Loki no longer being alone. Loki insists while talking to Mobius that “she’s not my partner!” but she was, and they were partners from the moment they grabbed hands on Lamentis — right when the timeline broke off. I think Loki variants teaming up is the biggest threat to whoever is pulling the strings here — that’s why the post-credit scene is so significant. (Is Loki the only person who has multiple variants of himself who've escaped the TVA?)

And here’s where I’m gonna get salty--so I apologize but i need to rant about this-- but it’s seriously pissing me off that so many people are intentionally reading this as Loki/Sylvie and then being mad about it when that’s clearly not what’s happening and why is everyone acting like Mobius with one angry jealous brain cell and no critical thinking about the context of the characters.

If people ship it that’s chill, but for the people who are against it—it’s clearly supposed to be platonic, and it’s so upsetting that in the year of our lord 2021 we still can’t have a man and woman hold hands without people saying it’s proof they want to f*ck each other, like what in the misogyny??? STOP. This show was written by a bi woman and Tom the-most-emotionally-sensitive-man-on-this-planet Hiddleston — let them display an intimate loving friendship goddammit. This isn’t romance, this is Loki learning how to admit he cares for someone who cares for him in return — something he hasn’t experienced a whole lot of and clearly doesn’t know how to navigate.

(You have permission to personally come at me if it actually turns out to be romantic by the end of the show—but as of right now I will die on this hill.)

Him putting his hands on her shoulders to me was a clear indication he wanted to hug her, and I’d like to think he would have told her he cares about her, and that they can figure it out together. Because these are two characters who’ve never had anyone else to rely on and trust, and for the first time they’re not alone.

And I have to think about what prompted this from Loki. He just lost Mobius the moment after he called him friend. The way I see it, he’s just realized the true gravity of what they’re up against, and Loki is suddenly very afraid of losing Sylvie too before he tells her cares about her, of dying truly alone because he never told anyone what they meant to him. (Don’t think about this in the context of him also having watched his entire family die knowing he never told Frigga or Thor how much he loved them either don’t think about it—) He’s realized, finally, that he has doesn’t have to be alone, that he can choose to be close to people and have friends. And god it’s so heartbreaking that he never got to hug her or have that moment with her. I really hope they get that in the end. I hope he gets it with Mobius. I hope they have a group hug. I'm upset again.

Okay, deep breath, ANYWAY.

Hopefully this didn’t come off as attacking anyone else’s opinions.

Personally, I love this character so much, I’m just so happy to be seeing him in his own storyline that they can’t go wrong here. Objectively I think the production is amazing, and personally I love they way Loki’s character has been explored so far. (Yea yea, was I HOPING that the bad-memory loop would morph into Sanctuary and Thanos and like a full exploration of his true worst memories? Yes but let’s be honest my whump needs will never be met in canon and I have to accept that lol.)

Honestly I left all my own meta about this character at the door when the series started, because for me the opinions I’ve formed from the hundreds of (amazing) fics and meta I’ve read on this character and what’s true in canon are basically inseparable at this point, and no portrayal is going to live up to the way Loki exists in my head. Canon Loki and fic Loki are two different characters and I can enjoy both at the same time :) I’ve just loved seeing the character get given the different dimensions he deserves, and written by people who care about his story.

Also, it’s not over! If he was dead and this was it I’d be very upset, but this is the rock bottom of the storyline, and I think the whole next two episodes will be the build back up. I trust it’s gonna be worth it. SO hyped for flaming sword Loki. I would die for Sylvie, but I’m excited to see him on his own again.

My current most pressing questions are:

-what was the fallout of Sylvie’s bombing the timeline? (Have we seen that yet, am I just dumb and missing something?)

-Obviously, who’s behind it all? (Kang? Is there a head honcho Very Evil Loki at the top?)

-How much does Ravonna actually know, and to what extent is she just a pawn too? She asked Sylvie to prune her— she’s probably also been duped here.

-Is everything we learned about the sacred timeline BS? How much of what the TVA workers believe is real?

-my favorite theory so far is that the war of the timelines miss minutes talks about hasn’t actually happened yet, maybe making setting that into motion is the true endgame, leading into Multiverse of Madness?

(Side note: holy HELL im so excited for this soundtrack to drop on Spotify. It’s SO AMAZING I had CHILLS in the end credits.)

Open invitation to discuss anything with me if you feel inclined! :)

#if you read all of this please come say hi and be my friend because I don't know if even I'd read all this lol #loki #loki show #loki series #loki show spoilers #loki spoilers #loki series spoilers #loki show discourse #loki show positive #my disaster son has a show

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sprawa-przybyszewskiej · 3 years

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I would like to present (extremely briefly; it's more of an invitation to their thoughts rather than anything else) two approaches that touch on a creative technique used by Przybyszewska, which has been spotted by some of her scholars, albeit each in its own way. Ewa Graczyk maintains that Przybyszewska did not write a historical drama in any way, but rather described a completely different reality, an universum in which the same events happen, but which doesn't take place on Earth, with us in it. She describes, then, something which I call The French Revolution', taking after mathematics' nomenclature. Kazimiera Ingdahl, on the other hand, spots traces of gnostic and manichean ideologies in Przybyszewska's writing, which, as we all know, are based solidly on the contrast between Heaven and Hell, knowledge and numbness, soul and mind. I mention them here solely to point out there is a dualism in her works, it is important and easily recognizable.

I have nowhere near the amount of erudition these scholars do, so I will constrict myself to some more visible matters. In my previous post about Antoine, I've made a remark that stuck with me for far longer than I had expected, and so I decided to elaborate on it.

The passage I'm talking about is this: because it could potentially reveal Saint-Just as another Danton-like minded individual, looking for power for himself through sacrifices of others. I want to explore whether Przybyszewska really did construct both of them alike?

To me it appears very probable, as crazy as it sounds. First of all, ALL of the personages are created in some reference to Robespierre. He is the only singular, original mind amongst them all, not to mentoin an axis around which other revolve, and so all of them, whether we like it or not, are somewhat similar to each other. Second of all, she clearly went in the direction of mirroring certain scenes, ideas, expressions (which I personally love to track down and compare them later), and it's exactly the same when talking about certain individuals. The two pairs (Robespierre – Saint-Just and Danton – Desmoulins) come to mind right away. They are constructed as parallels at least in some aspects and at least to some extent.

Wouldn't that, however, put Saint-Just and Desmoulins on the same/similar level, aren't they the ones who creat a parallel pair? Well, yes and no. I think they are a unit when it comes to personal matters, for rather obvious reasons. But I also think they are both put in similar situations, and yet their thinking is polar opposite of each other. They are both allowed to Robespierre's most personal sphere, and yet their reactions are completely different, which is one among the reasons as to why one of them meets a sad end by all accounts, and the other can die somewhat happy (as I will always mantain: if Przybyszewska managed to finish Thermidor, I am one hundred percent sure she would depict Antoine as one dying boldly and proudly, if only beause he died for a great cause and alongside Robespierre). On the other hand, spiritually and mentally, Camille resembles Maxime way, way more than Danton. They are both... maybe not exactly soft, but emotional. The main difference between them is Maxime is able to rein his feelings in when necessary (again, not always, not completely; vide his late night visit at Desmoulins', vide his attempt and saving him from the Luxembourg Palace), but as far as differences go, this one is actually minor. They are put in different positions, but their reactions are similar.

I would also wager to say Saint-Just and Robespierre don't have that much in common with each other in the plays, leaving out their political stances and their relationship. They are very different in terms of character traits: Maxime is more forgiving, calmer, quieter in all aspects. Antoine is more of a quicksilver, and also is regarded more as a tool in Maxime's hands, which I mean in the best way possible. While he has his own opinions, sometimes quite different to that of Robespierre's, he only entertains them in Maxime's presence, so that no one can put a splinter between them and turn them against each other. When they are turned against each other (during their quarrels, yes, but also during Thermidor, which is a beautiful study of such a case), he defers to Maximilien humbly and holds no grudges against him. This is pretty much the only soft side he ever presents to the audience, for when facing any other characters, he is sarcastic if not downright hostile, the only exception I can think of being Eleonore. He's not gentle, not even with Robespierre whom he respects so much. (I cannot get over how badly Wajda interpreted this in his movie, where in his very first scene Antoine brings Maxime an apple-tree branch in full blossom; while a sweet gesture, it made little sense, for the director not only didn't establish their special bond in any way, cutting their very important scene in Act II and a lot of their exchange of words in Act V out, but completely ignored the fact that in the play they did talk about trees blossming, but it was Maxime who pointed this out to Antoine. Honestly, it would make much more sense if in the movie he was the one giving Antoine flowers; altough I don't trust it would be executed well, so perhaps the best scenario would be to drop it altogether.)

This leaves Antoine and Danton as the unlikely pair. Here I wouldn't necessarily say they are put in different positions (following my train of comparison), because – depending on if you believe the confrontation between Danton and Robespierre to be honest or not – there is enough evidence in the play to mantain both of them want to establish power over nation through Robespierre. Danton is the villain of the play, but he isn't blind, he too wants to use Maximilien as a face of the dictature, as a tool to obtain more "normal" power for himself (normal power here would equal to money, respect, high office; the "abnormal" power is what Robespierre sort-of-dreams-of, an influence over people to direct them into doing what is necessary for the good of the whole of the nation, or better yet, the world). And Antoine wants more or less the same thing, the exception being he doesn't care at all for personal gains. He doesn't necessarily believe in Robespierre's visions of the future, one could even argue he doesn't understand them (this is clearly shown in Thermidor, where he reacts with a headache once Robespierre unfolds his plan in front of him: Stop it, Maxime. I can't keep up with you anymore.); he does, however, see the neccesity of establishing the dictature or some other extraordinary mean to obtain the total power over the state. Both he and Danton are blessed with a far-fetching political vision, the only thing differentiating them from Robespierre is that he's a much more brilliant chess player than any of them, when they can see few moves forward, he's already seen all the possible outcomes of the match. And all of these outcomes are bad, for Maxime is characterised as a pessimist, while Antoine and Danton are, generally speaking, optimistically inclined. Youthful foolishness indeed, except Antoine is not foolish! He's just optimistic. In Danton, the optimism takes a form of boldness and bravado, in Saint-Just it manifests as an unwavering faith in the one he considers to be so much more superior to himself, and also a certain amount of contempt for the ones he considers to be inferior. This is another trait he shares with Danton, and we have to admit, Przybyszewska did a really good job at presenting the same trait in them both in such different ways, that we like one, hate the other.

There is also the matter of how they treat Camille and what they think of him. Here, both are jealous, I think. Jealous of the special place Camille has in Robespierre's heart, scornful of his abilities as a politician and a journalist, disinclined to him as a person. Danton cares for him as far as his utility in being a leverage on Robespierre goes, but I don't think he hoards any warm feelings for him personally, and I don't say it only because he was willing to sacrifice Camille purely out of spite. A much better example to show what I mean is that Danton seems to have a much better functioning, more honest and professional relationship with Delacroix than with Camille, whom he keeps in the dark about absolutely everything from start to finish. I don't know if it was meant to be a symbol or not, but in their very last scene in the jail cell, Camille has to beg Danton not to snuff out the candle, which Danton does, albeit very reluctantly. In turn, Saint-Just talks about Camille in language dripping with contempt and jealousy of purely personal kind, offending him left and right, right to Robespierre's face – not to hurt Maxime, but to "open his eyes", so to speak. In one particularly harsh sentence he compares Camille to a dog, a child and a prostitue all in one breath. He not only doesn't regard him as an opponent, but barely recognizes him as a human being worth respect, in which he is sadly very similar to Danton.

Weirdly enough, they both regard Maximilien as human, which I think is interesting to notice. It would be really easy to write them in such a style that leaves way for them to see Robespierre as something more, something almost extraterrestrial, somebody who posseses abilites greater than normal humans do. And yet:

The first image is from The Last Nights of Ventose, my own translation, and it's directly from Antoine's compassionate speech. I didn't include Robespierre's response, because he just deflected, but deflection does mean he doesn't fully agree, so it's yet another similarity.

One more thing that comes to mind in a comparison like this is that Danton threatens Robespierre with the ultimate power. He doesn't think that Maxime will be able to live with it, with himself, if he ever decides to go this one step futher and become a dictator. Is this is because he wouldn't be able to live with himself, or does he truly underestimate Maxime, or he simply wants to make sure Maxime would not go in this direction precisley because he knows he would then be ustoppable? How very telling then, that in Antoine's mouth the very same thing is not a threat, but a promise! This ultimate power is born out of necessity, and it's a grace for the whole nation, because no other person could bear the weight of this "crown", but Maxime.

The main difference between Saint-Just and Danton, I think, is something which we have to believe, it's not written clearly anywhere, and this is also the thing I briefly touched uppon in the aforementioned post: we have to believe that Antoine has pure intentions, because we sure know Danton does not. These were the embers fueling the suspiscion in Maxime when he couldn't understand why Antoine would possibly push for the dictature so much – is his heart pure? This sounds overly dramatic, perhaps, but I think this dramaticism aligns perfectly with Maxime's overall characterisation. I think all readers believe in his good intentions, and the parallels constructing the characters help immensely in this judgement, for if Danton is rotten to the core, Antoine is as steady and pure as a marble column. Robespierre even calls one a pig, while the other deserves to be named an Apostle of liberty.

There is, however, another similarity between them, too. Both Antoine and Danton are willing to be dishonest in order to achieve their goals. This is this one thing that's hard for Robespierre to swallow, for he – like Camille – values honesty really highly and if he could, he'd always act honestly. Saint-Just, not to mention Danton, has no such scrupules. He sees the greater necessity as something erasing all other circumstances, and for this greater picture he is willing to sacrifice some of his integrity as a human being. With Danton, the situation is even less complex, for I don't believe he would be sacrificing his integrity in any way – this dishonesty lays at his very core and comes natural to him.

The arguments Saint-Just presents, and which differs from Robespierre's point of view, are also different from that of Danton's. Danton's vision of the present is filled with contempt for the people, for the masses who are less brilliant than him and few others are. It is worth noting that Przybyszewska really did think like this, this is something she believed in and while reading Danton's speeches in Act II Scene 3, what we actually hear is her own train of thoughts. The only difference is that she didn't disdain the people they way he did. She thought that being a mass, an unnamed pulp of flesh is not a bad thing (it was perhaps unfortunate, and I am sure thinking she was a genius like Robespierre helped her in maintainign this view). Base material is a nourishment for those who will lead these masses. We – the lesser people – are absolutely necessary for them – the greater ones – so that they can lead us out of the night and into the new epoch of enlightement, and there is nothing humiliating in being this nourishment/tool/base. Danton understood it only partially, for he wasn't ready for the greatest sacrifice of all: to be a genius, one has to get rid of everything personal, all needs and desires must be kept aside, and never again spoken of. Robespierre understood it, and I think Antoine did too. I think the best evidence for it is that he said, that he doesn't consider himself to be Robespierre's equal. Recently I hoped to prove it was a silent declaration of love; now I want to point out it is one because it showed Robespierre that Antoine understood this great sacrifice one has to make in order to be a leader, and in his own way, he has already done this. He has brushed aside personal vain and glory, his amour-propre, he degraded himself in order to magnify Maxime's importance. Danton may say: It's you whom I adore, but it is Antoine who shows it through his actions as well as his words.

#do you think they are constructed as parallels or am i delirious?#sprawa dantona #the danton case #L'Affaire Danton #Stanisława Przybyszewska #stanislawa przybyszewska #Maximilien Robespierre #maksymilian robespierre #antoine saint just #Antoni saint just #georges danton #jerzy danton #frev #french revolution #literary analysis

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theblogtini · 3 years

Note

Do we know if the other members were in the room after? I’m thinking it was just the 5 of them and everyone else after the event is over could take a look. Harry thought that he would be in as the son of the Prince of Wales. Because if he was single, he could be there but since marriage he’s now Harry, Duke of SUSSEX. But he was “Still his son” (which is the problem of all their trouble, not seeing the line there is btw family and the Firm) and went in. I’m onboard the party crushers and I’m thinking is something they have done before but due to being minor events, “Let them, not worth the headache” but this time, it was too big to let it happen. Which the constant letters and attaching to things give proof to their attack mode. Many people hate making scenes and it’s best to let it go. Can you imagine the people in charge of the causes their hijack to tell them to butt out, how big the scandal would be? Which now I really want to know who put them in their place at the NY meeting they left almost in tears.

The weirdest part IMO is how it starts. HM, POW, and DOC are all walking in together and Sussexes are standing at the door… they weren’t with the group and it looked like they were waiting for them.

I dunno - it’s all so cringe.

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itsmyblogandillreblogifiwantto · 4 years

Text

Happy Birthday Pretty Boy.

A/N: Hi everyone, the fic is literally as the title says, so enjoy! Triggers: Shooting, blood and stabbing references, swearing, drinking, implied sex, nudity.

It’s one week until Spencer’s 30th birthday, and you can’t wait to spoil your boyfriend. He always says he doesn’t want anything as he has everything he needs, but every year you always exceed his expectations. Last year you managed to get him a vintage book collection he’d looked everywhere for, in second-hand bookstores, and asking you to look online. For your 26th birthday this year, Spencer got you some adorable earrings, and a necklace to match. You never ask him for anything, but when he saw those earrings on route to watching a basketball game with Morgan, Hotch and Rossi, he just had to get them for you, even if it did make him 15 minutes late to the game, it was worth it to see the smile on your face.

Last year, you moved in with Spencer and you both couldn’t be happier, despite the horrors that you see working at the FBI. Some days were more challenging than others, such as the time you got stabbed and shot, where you lost a lot of blood but there was also some really good days, such as the time you and Spencer worked on a case and ended up saving a family from an un-sub and the day Spencer and you announced to the team you were dating and after 3 years, you moved in together.

And now… “I don’t know Penelope… I don’t think Spencer likes the idea of a holiday abroad in case anything happens to his Mum and he can’t get there quickly.” You say, sipping your coffee and catching up with her in her lair after a much-needed weekend off, which Hotch insisted you all took. “I know cinnamon bun.” Penelope said, “But she knows me, so I can take the call until you get back and look after her.” She insisted, You nod as J.J comes in, “We got a case,” causing you and Penelope to groan. “Can’t un-subs take fucking annual leave or something?!” You sigh, rubbing your eyes, a little hungover from you and Spencer getting drunk last night and playing strip poker. You don’t suffer from hangovers, you normally just get a minor headache and it’s gone by midday. “Don’t make me hurt you.” J.J laughed, “At least you’re chatty when you’re hungover, and generally nice. Spencer has not given me a statistic on something for the past 10 sentences he spoke to me.” “Well, on average when he’s hungover, it’ll be 15 sentences before he gives you a statistic.” You say working out the odds in your head, which plays to your favour for poker nights. “It’s too bright in here.” Spencer winces at the light as you all enter the conference room. “Here pretty boy.” Morgan says giving him a coffee which Spencer gladly accepts. “Shitting hell Morgan, where’s the sugar in this?!” Spencer says spitting out the coffee, a bit landing on Rossi’s shoes. “Reid.” Hotch says in a stern voice as you hand Spencer an oat bar knowing he needs a form of sugar. “Where are we with the case?” Rossi asks J.J goes through the case as Penelope hands out new tablets to everyone. “We’ve gone paperless?” Spencer asks worried. “Fear not Doctor of the dark ages.” Penelope says handing him a paper file, and you a tablet as well as a paper file as she knows you make more case notes than anyone, even Spencer. Out of the whole team, and the FBI in general you have the best arrest record for an agent under 30 since the FBI was founded in 1908, something you are getting an award for in a month. “Thanks Penelope.” You say and click your pen already starting to make notes. “Wheels up in an hour.” Hotch says once the case has been discussed. “Y/N a word please.” He says to you, as you look confused, as far as you’re aware, you haven’t pissed anyone off recently apart from Morgan when you put salt in his coffee as revenge for him for replacing your coffee with de-caff last week. “Sure. Your office?” You ask “Here is fine.” Hotch says waiting for everyone to leave. “Penelope told me about your plan to take Spencer on holiday and..” Hotch began “Hotch. It’s okay if we can’t go, I haven’t booked anything yet.” You say “I was going to say, take a whole week. Spencer needs the time off, and God knows the 26 year old with the best arrest record in FBI history does.” Hotch said. You nod. “Thank you Hotch.” You smile as Hotch pats your shoulder. “See you on the plane.” He says and goes to get his bag from his office, and you go downstairs to do the same. “What was that about?” Spencer asked adjusting his satchel. “Oh I missed a page out of my last report, so I just need to print it off and hand it in when we get back from Texas.” You say, adjusting the photo of you and Spencer on your desk, it was of when Spencer and you were out with the team and Penelope got the most adorable picture of you two laughing and smiling in each other’s company. “You ready?” You ask Spencer who nods coming to your desk taking your go bag for you and holding your hand. “God you are hungover today pretty boy.” Morgan laughed. “Shut up.” Spencer says through gritted teeth. “How much did you drink?” Rossi asked, a bit hungover himself from a night in with his current wife. “Ooh numbers. My favourite. So, one beer.. Two tequila shots..” You begin adding up the numbers. “So, 4 times over the drink drive limit everywhere in the world.” “I love you.” Is all that Spencer manages to say before he kisses your cheek. You laugh, and hold the door for everyone, hating gender stereotypes. “I love you too pretty boy.”

The team arrives into Texas, Spencer spends most of it asleep in your arms and you book the holiday. “Wake up lover boy. We’re here.” You say, kissing his neck to wake him up like you do every morning. “Y/N, either give me some of that or hurry the fuck up.” Derek laughs. “Come here then.” You say, as Derek looks at you blankly, not expecting you to answer. “I’m up.” Spencer says moving slowly as you all get off the plane and into the car that the Texas police sent for you. “How’s your head Reid?” Hotch asks, smiling getting in the drivers seat. “Fine. Statistics show a hangover lasts between…” Spencer began with a few statistics. “Interesting but next time leave some fun statistics for Y/N.” Emily laughs.

At the police station, you get settled into the conference room and look at what the Police have so far. All the victims have been rich men, either CEO’s or executives in pharmaceuticals. “Interesting.” You say, looking at the photos. “What’s interesting?” Hotch asks. “A statistic is coming… Now.” Derek said timing it. “A recent study found that left handed men on average are 15% richer than right handed men for those who attended University, or as you folk say, college, and 26% richer if they graduated, so maybe the un-sub attended University, or college, but they didn’t graduate. We should see if the victims were all left handed.” You say. “Is this what you read to help you sleep?” JJ asked “No, I do complex algebra and work out the odds of situations happening to a profile of a person that Spencer gives to me.” You say like it is a completely normal thing as Penelope texts to say she’s sorted your accommodation for your holiday and smile at your phone and put it away again. “And how do you relax?” The chief of the Texas police asks “I’m researching the links between two very old Mathematics theories compared to breakthroughs in the last 10 years for my next PHD in Mathematics.” You shrug. “How old are you?” The chief asks. “I’m 26 as of last month. Can I go to the last two crime scenes now please?” You ask “Sure. I see you brought your own calculator.” The chief says to Rossi and Hotch. “I prefer Dr Y/N Y/S/N.” You say smiling. “Reid, Rossi, go with Y/N.” Hotch says and you all go to the crime scenes. “What was her first PHD in?” The chief asks Spencer. “Psychological and Behavioural Science.” Spencer smiles at you with adoring eyes. “Are they a thing?” The chief asks opening the door of the car for you to get in. “Thanks, and yes. 3 years.” You say as Spencer joins you in the back holding your hand as Rossi gets in the front.

In the car, you go over your theory with Rossi and Spencer who have similar theories to you, and you go back to the police station to deliver a profile.

“And if you have any information please call the tip line on the number below. Thank you.” You say, “We will not be taking questions at this time.” “Agent Y/S/N. Quick question.” One reporter said, as Spencer took over, hating the press ignoring what you and the team just delivered, “If you had listened, it’s Dr Y/S/N, not agent. No questions.” Spencer said as the team went back inside. “You okay Dr Y/N Y/S/N?” He asks softly as you nod. “Yes thank you Dr Reid.” You smile. After a few hours. “Everyone go to the hotel and get some sleep, back in at 9.” Hotch said as you all nod and walk to the hotel down the road. “Spencer, Y/N here’s your key, Derek and Emily to share, J.J with Rossi and myself.” He said, once you all checked in. “See you in the morning guys.” You yawn. Spencer opens the room door and walks in with you. “I’m going for a shower.” You say and start taking your clothes off as Spencer turns away. “Spence, you’ve seen me naked plenty of times. We aren’t children.” You giggle taking off your bra as Spencer turns back as he takes his shirt off. “Sorry, this hotel reminds me of the first time we shared a room before we started dating and had to share a bed.” He laughs putting his hands over your now naked body and keeping his hands on your boobs, squeezing them gently. “You’re an idiot, but I love you.” You say slipping your hands down his boxers and slipping them down before running in the shower. “That’s it!” He exclaims running after you and joining you in the shower. “Oh hello.” You giggle as you start to wash yourself. After your shower, you and Spencer have sex in bed, and cuddle for the rest of the evening. “Morning boo.” Spencer smiles kissing your nose, it’s 7.30AM. “I ordered room service.” “Ooh, can we claim expenses this trip?” You asked. “I don’t know, it’s only coffee and a bagel each.” Spencer shrugged and kissed you all over. “Last night was amazing.” You say, and start to get ready, “Well apart from the case shit, I enjoyed the sex.” Spencer nods in agreement, putting on one pink and one orange sock. “Do you want birthday sex next week pretty boy?” You ask walking over to him, sitting on his lap just wearing your bra and panties. “If we aren’t working.” Spencer smirked, “But I’ll take it even if we are working.” He said “Your wish is my command.” You said and got off his lap, and he pulled you back. “I wish we could have sex tonight.” He winked. “Deal.” You smile and kiss his cheek and go to brush your teeth. At the police station “Coffee Y/N?” Spencer asks offering you a cup which you take with a smile. “Thanks Spence.” You smile, taking it off him and work on the timeline of the last victim. “Guys, we got another victim.” Derek says. After 5 days, you and the team catch the un-sub after you went undercover posing as one of the CEO’s assistants to get more information on how he un-sub knew all of the CEO’s schedules, and it was found out he was going dressed as a cleaner, and then killed his victims when he got access to the floor he needed. He was in the same class as all of his victims and dropped out of University as his Dad went to prison, for drug trafficking and he went downhill from there. “So, what do you have planned for your birthday pretty Ricky?” Derek asked Spencer, as he placed down a card at the table. “I don’t know, Y/N will probably get me a vintage book and she’ll cook me pancakes.” Spencer shrugged. You were reading next to them, but were also working out the statistics of who would win what, depending on what cards they had, which you told Rossi and did a side bet of how long it would take Emily to realise that she has the winning hand if Derek doesn’t pick up an ace on his next card pick, you predicted 30 seconds and Rossi predicted a minute. “What do you have planned then for Dr Reid, Dr Y/S/N?” Emily asked as she placed down a card as Derek picked up a card. “We’re going to have sex and I’m dressing up as a sexy nurse.” You say bluntly, even though you know Spencer knows you are being sarcastic as you hate dressing up for sex. Emily spits out her water realising she has the winning hand, as Derek lets out a quiet groan. “Pay up.” You whisper to Rossi as Emily flashes you her winning hand. Rossi sighs handing you $30., muttering a few swear words in Italian. “You realise I speak fluent Italian?” You smirk at Rossi knowing exactly what he said. “You fuckers LOSE.” Emily said taking her winnings. Back at the FBI the following day You quickly go to Penelope’s lair, and take the plane tickets off her and the accommodation details before summoning Spencer to the conference room where everyone has got him a present. “I thought there wasn’t a case today..” Spencer mumbled “There is. Sorry genius.” J.J said as she and Spencer walked in seeing the banner and presents all for him. “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” You all cheer. Spencer opens all of his presents, thanking everyone and leaving yours until last. “Oh my God, Doctor Who Q&A?! And vintage books galore, a new satchel… You’re the best Y/N.” Spencer said kissing you softly. “And where is that Doctor Who Q&A Spencer?” Penelope asked, knowing Spencer has always wanted to go to England, where you are from. “England?! But Y/N… My Mum…” Spencer said biting his lip at the plane tickets. “As of tomorrow, I’m on speed dial for a week, so I’ll look after her until you can get back.” Penelope smiled as Spencer hugged her. “Thank you, Penelope.” He whispered. “You are welcome boy wonder.” She whispered back as you smile to yourself. “I love you Y/N. I don’t deserve you.” Spencer said putting his arm around your waist. “You deserve everything good in the world Spencer, I love you too.” You smile. “Now go on holiday, and don’t come back for a week. That’s an order.” Hotch said “Yes sir.” You and Spencer say, taking his presents and head to your flat. “I think I may want that birthday sex when we get back to our place.” Spencer said in the lift. “Yes Dr.” You smile squeezing his hand and put your head on his shoulder. - - - - -

Taglist: @pumpkin-goob, @jpegjade , @andiebeaword , @hotchsbabygirl , @hopebaker , @hercleverboy , @cupcake525 , @gubetube , @aperrywilliams , @cosmic-psychickitty , @marleyhotchner

#Criminal Minds #spencer reid #spencer x reader #spencer reid fluff #my fics

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bioelectriccorporation · 3 years

Text

Doing Eula’s Story Quest So You Don’t Have To:

disclaimer this is just a presentation of the quest with relevant quotes(and some lesser analysis) and not a judgement call on whether eula is worth sympathizing with. please defer to actual poc on that matter.

under cut for length

Opening scene, excerpt of conversation with Jean:

Jean: I have recently received multiple reports from the Knights of someone within the Lawrence Clan having close dealings with the Fatui.

Paimon: The Fatui! Again?

Paimon: But who are the Lawrence Clan?

Jean: There was a dark period in Mondstadt’s history when the aristocracy ruled over the city. The hard-won freedom that followed with the fall of Decarabian was lost once again, as slavery spread throughout the land.

Jean: The first Dandelion Knight, Vennessa, spearheaded the revolution that overthrew the old aristocratic system and established the Knights of Favonius, leading Mondstadt to become the city that you see today.

Jean: The aristocrats, that had oppressed the people of Mondstadt, were none other than the Lawrence Clan.

...

Jean: Unfortunately, the Knights of Favonius and the aristocracy have been at odds with one another for as long as I can remember.

Jean: We have considered every possible way of resolving our differences, but it seems the descendants of the aristocracy remain antagonistic toward the Knights...

Jean: ...No matter what stance we take when dealing with them, the outcome is always the same... Our efforts only result in adding more fuel to the flames.

The Lawrence Clan is not painted in a sympathetic light, and this attitude toward them(bar Eula, for obvious reasons) persists throughout the quest.

Jean then sends the protagonist to talk to Schubert, the Lawrence Clan member in question. He very much holds onto the past structure of oppression, demonstrating extreme classism and going so far as to say that in the past, the protagonist would have been whipped for their insolence(which, in this case, is just the act of trying to have a casual conversation with Schubert).

This sets up Schubert as the antagonist of the quest, though not the entire Lawrence Clan, as Eula and Schubert are the only clan members present or mentioned.

The protagonist then runs into Amber at the Knights of Favonius Headquarters.

Excerpt from conversation with Amber:

Amber: Hehehe, I've been on the receiving end of [Schubert’s] lectures many a time. The Lawrence clan can be very particular about such things.

Paimon: Uh... You mean everyone in the Lawrence Clan is just a big headache?

Amber: As aristocrats, they believe there should be a certain distance between themselves and common folk. *sigh* I understand their thinking, but that's just not how things are anymore. Amber: However, there is one exception among the Lawrence Clan. My good buddy - Eula!

Paimon: B-Buddy?

Amber: That's right! Not only is she from the Lawrence Clan, but she's also Captain of the Knights of Favonius 4th Company.

Wayfarer: Jean told us that the Lawrence Clan sees the Knights as enemies.

Amber: Eula is special! She's not quite like the other members of her clan. She has her own beliefs and it shows.

Amber: In other words, she doesn't really adhere to the strict rules and conventions of her family.

Amber: However, she's still quite knowledgeable about dealing with the Lawrences. I'm sure you'll see what I mean if you meet her.

Paimon: Hmm, that's strange. If Eula is a member of the Lawrence Clan, then why would Master Jean choose us for the task? Couldn't she just ask Eula?

Amber: Ah, well... It's a little complicated. Basically, the Lawrence clan has frowned upon the fact that Eula joined the Knights, her family members don't particularly care for her…

Amber: In their eyes, Eula is nothing but a traitor to the family.

Wayfarer: She sounds like quite the character.

Amber: She's very easy to get along with. Just explain the situation and I'm sure she'll help you come up with a way to get along with Schubert.

Amber: In fact, I think she's out in the wilderness on patrol this morning. You should be able to find her around Stormbearer Mountains.

Paimon: Thanks, Amber! Alright, you heard her, let's go find Eula!

The protagonist meets Eula after battling some Fatui, when she saves them from being killed by an enemy they were unaware of.

Excerpt from conversation with Eula:

Wayfarer: So you must be Eula?

Eula: Yes, that's me.

Paimon: Paimon thinks she's pretty strange... Although, at least we can communicate with her.

Eula: You dare to call someone you've just met "strange"? Forget the aristocracy, that's rude even by normal standards!

Eula: Speaking of which... how do you know my name?

Paimon: This is the Honorary Knight of the Knights of Favonius. And speaking of rude, we're trying to investigate an aristocrat named Schubert Lawrence.

Paimon: He's so obsessed with etiquette that he's not even willing to speak with us!

Eula: Hahaha! I understand now. That's my uncle alright.

Eula: But why do you mean to investigate him?

Wayfarer: He may be secretly involved with the Fatui.

Eula: I see... Haha, you have some nerve defaming a family member right in front of me. I will have vengeance for this, too!

Paimon: No, no, no! This is an assignment from Master Jean! It's just an investigation, that's all!

Wayfarer: Aren't you curious about your uncle?

Eula: To the everyday citizens of Mondstadt, everyone in the Lawrence clan is scum. It's natural for rumors and unwarranted gossip to lead to such suspicion.

Paimon: Hard to avoid such a reputation when you're known as the ruthless rulers of Old Mondstadt.

Eula: So that's what you think of me? Yet another transgression to avenge...

Paimon: But didn't you say it first!? Argh...

Eula: Hahaha, curious... We've only just met, and you've already given me three causes for vengeance. It's been a while since I've encountered anyone as interesting as you.

Wayfarer: Your definition of curious is... curious.

Eula: I assume you need me to teach you the conduct of the Lawrence clan. Only then will you finally be able to communicate with my uncle, correct?

Eula initially presents herself in a similar manner to the aristocracy, seemingly obsessed with vengeance over minor transgressions. She seems to care greatly about the image of the Lawrence clan, and appears to resent the negative image it (quite rightfully) has.

Eula then attempts to train the protagonist in the ways of aristocratic speech via demonstrations. It goes very badly. As one would expect, the working class citizens of Mondstadt don’t like being demeaned by a member of the aristocracy that used to oppress the city, even one that is slightly more sympathetic for her role in the Knights of Favonius.

Conversation with Randall, the last one of these demonstrations:

Eula: You there, lowly worker, I-

Randall: Yeah, I've already heard it all before. Look, just spare me the time, our answer is always the same. We've got nothing to say to the likes of you.

Randall: I mean, seriously, can't you just take a hint?

Paimon: Please calm down, we don't want to cause any trouble.

Randall: *sigh* I know she's a Knight of Favonius, and that the Knights wouldn't misplace their trust, but the name Lawrence carries too much weight with it.

Randall: Even to this very day, the descendants of the Lawrence Clan are still scheming to reclaim Mondstadt and reinstate their aristocratic rule.

Randall: And if that wasn't enough, here you are purposefully using their awkward way of speaking just to put on an act? Don't you care for the feelings of us ordinary folk?

Eula: You have a point.

Eula: But mark my words, this transgression will not go unnoticed!

Randall: H-Huh? You wanna fight? Listen here, I might be no match for you, but I'll be sure to lodge a complaint with the Knights of Favonius!

Wayfarer: Maybe we should just call it a day now.

Randall: I'm sorry but... I want her to understand that I'm serious!

Randall: Listen here, if you don't want things to get more unpleasant, then you'd better just stop.

Eula: Forget it, there's no point in quarreling any further. Let's go.

Randall: *sigh*...

Eula: It's alright, this happens quite often. Let's find someone else to talk to.

Paimon: Uh, Paimon thinks we've seen enough now. Let's just stop.

Excerpt from the conversation with Eula after this segment of the quest:

Paimon: Actually, Paimon thinks we should apologize for asking you to demonstrate for us. We had no idea the feelings between the Lawrence Clan and the people of Mondstadt were so bitter.

Eula: Haha, what can we do? The Lawrence name is already a dirty word among every household in Mondstadt. Even three-year-olds know the story. I see this kind of attitude all the time.

Wayfarer: And somehow you still manage to brush it off with a laugh?

Eula: Don't worry, what with me being a Knight of Favonius, they're usually willing to speak a few words with me.

Eula: Perhaps my aristocratic manner of speech provoked them today. Believe me, it's not a big issue.

Paimon: So this is the way things are normally for you? There's no need for them to direct their anger at you personally.

Eula: That's the way things are. Perhaps it's just fate for those who've made mistakes. Accepting punishment is only fair, right? But when your family has committed atrocities, I'm afraid there's no easy path to reconciliation.

Eula: As memories are carried in the city breeze, the faults of such grievances are passed on from one generation to the next. It is now my turn to bear this burden.

Eula: At least I have a means of living a relatively normal life compared to the elders of my family. I have nothing to be discontented about.

Wayfarer: So you knew all along that we'd encounter these kinds of problems?

Paimon: Yeah, why were you so willing to try and demonstrate for us?

The narrative paints Eula in a sympathetic light for “dealing with the alienation of being a member of the Lawrence Clan”. However, she acknowledges the fact that Lawrence Clan deserves this foul reputation given its history, contrasting with the first conversation the protagonist has with her.

More training of the monster fighting variety ensues, finishing with a trip to Good Hunter to buy a diplomatic gift for Schubert. There, you run into Amber. Sara ends up giving Amber a salad on the house, prompting Eula to swear vengeance.

Excerpt from conversation with Eula, Amber, and Sara:

Eula: So... we clearly didn't order this, yet you prepared it without authorization... Hmph! Mark my words, this transgression will not go unnoticed!

Paimon: Uh... you're going to take revenge on her for giving us a free salad!?

Sara: You should know me by now, that's the kind of villainous character I am! Hehe...

Sara: Well then... please wait a moment while I get the dish for your uncle started.

Eula: Hmph, delicious unauthorized delicacies... Sara will pay for this.

Paimon: Why would you choose Gebratenes Fleisch mit Sauerkraut as a gift for your uncle? Paimon's never even heard of that dish before... Eula: This dish isn't actually on Good Hunter's menu. Only long standing patrons such as my uncle would know about the dish. The old aristocrats seem to take a liking to it.

Amber: Because of the sour flavor of the sauerkraut, not too many people are fond of it these days. I guess it's become less popular over time.

Amber: Eula treated me to the dish once, and I couldn't even finish a bite. I've nicknamed it "Gebratenes Fleisch mit Vengeance" ever since. Yuck!

Eula: I never expected us to have such completely different tastes in food... If I weren't in such a good mood, I'd say that constitutes grounds for transgression...

Wayfarer: Huh, so even Amber doesn't escape your vengeance?

The “transgression” that Sara commits? Eula gets her vengeance by paying for the food, but putting the Mora under the plate. This is the first sign that though Eula cares about “transgressions” and “vengeance”, she does not seek to hurt people she doesn’t feel deserve it.

Amber and Eula leave, and the protagonist takes the gift from Sara, leading to this conversation:

Paimon: Paimon's been meaning to ask... No one could stand the sight of Eula when she was trying to speak with the others in Mondstadt earlier.

Paimon: But she seemed to get along fine with you and Amber just now… what's up with that?

Sara: The people of Mondstadt don't take kindly to anyone bearing the Lawrence name.

Sara: They are unable to see past her family, therefore they don't actually see Eula for herself.

Sara: So no matter what Eula tries to do, it's seen as a wrongdoing. It essentially strips the meaning of anything she tries to accomplish.

Wayfarer: I think I understand now.

Paimon: How come you're able to see Eula differently then?

Sara: Well, when she joined the Knights of Favonius, it caused quite an uproar.

Sara: Many people signed a petition, demanding that the Knights reverse their decision.

Sara: At the same time, numerous members of the Lawrence Clan crowded the entrance of the Knights of Favonius Headquarters, clamoring for Eula to give an explanation.

Paimon: Whoa... so both sides were unhappy.

Sara: That's right. So, you can imagine how determined Eula must have been under such circumstances.

Sara: But thanks to Grand Master Varka and the unwavering attitudes of others in the Knights of Favonius, they were able to quell the unrest. Tensions still remain beneath the surface, I'm afraid.

Sara: In the eyes of the people, she's a stain on the Knights of Favonius... and in the eyes of the Lawrence Clan, she's a disgrace to her family.

Sara: But she simply fulfills her duty as a Knight, silently helping one person after another, myself included.

Sara: People like Eula should be approached with care and understanding. She could stand to be treated a little more fairly.

Wayfarer: It's good that you're able to understand her.

Sara: I believe a day will come when things will get better.

Eula is clearly defying her family’s oppressive mindset, but the narrative still disparages Mondstadt for not welcoming a former oppressor with open arms.

You meet Schubert, and, surprise surprise, he is scheming with the Fatui to take over Mondstadt. You follow him into the Fatui’s lair, when Eula catches up to you.

Excerpt from conversation with Eula and Schubert:

Schubert: Don't touch me, get out of my way! I'll leave on my own!

Eula: It seems we've finally caught up with you. This place is crawling with Fatui.

Eula: Oh, it's you. It seems your investigation went well.

Wayfarer: It was all worth it.

Schubert: Aha! I see now. So you're the one that taught them our etiquette? And I thought you despised such pleasantries!

Schubert: Furthermore, there is a rule in our family. Such traditions are never to be taught to outsiders!

Eula: Ah yes, rings a bell. So what? I had no reason not to teach them.

Schubert: Y-You have brought shame to our family and ruined my plans! It's all for naught now!

Eula: I know that you poured great efforts into these plans, uncle. But you were well aware that it was not the right thing to do. As a Knight of Favonius, I could not overlook your actions.

Schubert: Knight of Favonius!? Let's get one thing straight. I am your uncle, and you are a member of the Lawrence Clan! You should strive to restore your family's glory!

Schubert: You still have a chance. Defeat every Knight of Favonius here, and leave with me!

Schubert: Then I shall plea with the family to spare you and give you a new beginning!

Eula: So just to be clear, you want a Knight of Favonius to attack the Knights of Favonius?

Schubert: I shall say this one last time. You are not a Knight of Favonius. You are a descendant of the Lawrence Clan!

Schubert: The blood of the Lawrence Clan flows in your veins! You must comply with the will of the family!

Eula: Since when have I ever complied with the will of the family?

Schubert: Wh-Why you... you unruly maid!

Eula: If anyone should be angry, it should be me. As a member of the Lawrence Clan, you knowingly plotted against the city of Mondstadt and threatened its safety.

Eula: Had you ever stopped to consider the trouble it would bring to so many people? Had you considered how many enemies you would make trying to keep the plans under wraps?

Schubert: Y-You dare lecture me!

Eula: That's right, in the name of the family that you so dearly revere, Uncle Schubert.

Eula: I've never experienced the age of "glory" you always speak of, and I've never understood our family's incessant pursuit of it.

Eula: But I am capable of discerning right from wrong, and I deeply understand what "freedom" means to the people of Mondstadt.

Eula: The Lawrence Clan should never and will never become what you've dreamed it to be!

Schubert: Grr...

Schubert: Oh, the disgrace of it all! How could such a rebellious monster emerge from our own family!?

Eula openly defies the oppressive goals of the Lawrence Clan, solidifying her stance against them. However, she still claims to act in the name of the family, but her idea of restoring their name appears to be to make amends with the people of Mondstadt, not to rule over them again.

The protagonist escapes the Fatui lair, and has a boss fight, after which this conversation ensues, and the quest ends:

Eula: *sigh* And there was me thinking that he was just another elder of the family and a lazy one at that. I never suspected he could stoop this low. So stubborn... Mark my words, vengeance will be mine!

Paimon: Oh yeah, you suddenly appeared at just the right moment.

Eula: Yeah, about that...

Eula: Because you stole my targets by attacking the Fatui I'd been tracking earlier...

Eula: ...I came to exact my vengeance. You tried to do my job for me, and I'm here to return the favor.

Wayfarer: So getting the diagram of Mondstadt's defenses was your way of exacting vengeance?

Paimon: Finally, after all this time, Paimon understands what you're saying!

Paimon: In reality, you sensed that something might happen to us during our investigation...

Paimon: You were worried about us and your uncle, so you brought a team to take a look!

Eula: My purpose was vengeance, don't twist the story.

Eula: Hmph, you don't look too bright, but it turns out you have a knack for scheming...

Eula: And mark my words, I'll remember that...

Paimon: Hey, what do you mean Paimon doesn't look too bright!?

Eula: You have seeded a deep enmity between us... just you wait.

Eula: Even if you were to be completely destroyed, I would never forget you!

Wayfarer: So, does that make us your "arch-enemies"?

Eula’s definition of “vengeance” is shown once again to be naught more than a front.

In summary:

The narrative sympathizes with Eula, and disparges the people of Mondstadt for alienating her, though they have every right to do so.

The Lawrence Clan are not sympathetic, and Eula is directly at odds with them.

Eula does not seek to restore the glory of the Lawrence Clan in the oppressive sense, and wants to not be judged for her family, but her actions.

#fathericraveviolencecore #genshin impact #please dont treat me as the one to make a judgement call on this. poc please feel free to give your thoughts #since this issue doesn't affect me personally i dont want to speak over people who it does affect

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calliecat93 · 5 years

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Top 5 Things That I Disliked ABout RvB: Singularity

(Top 5 Likes Post Link)

Well, it’s been about four months since RvB17 concluded. The shortest season in the series thus far, RvB17 has had overall very positive reception with good humor, compelling drama, and nice character development. I enjoyed it… but I would be lying if I said I loved it unconditionally. And I’d be lying even more if I said that it was better than the sadly often derided S16. The season has its pros and it has its cons, as every season of the show does. The cons this time probably annoy me more than some due to what I like and dislike, so that’s important to know before going further into this post.

So, it’s time for another Top 5 Likes/Dislikes about the recent RvB season! Now normally I do this shortly before the upcoming season, so why am I doing this now and not when RvB18 starts? Well, I’ve had a lot of these on my mind for a while, and after completing a recent rewatch, I want to go ahead and get it all out. To compensate, when RvB18 does roll around I’ll likely do a post about the past three seasons, and maybe some other stuff like what I’d like to see. And of course, as always, this is just my opinion and I will be as fair as possible, so take everything that I say with a grain of salt.

Anyways, let's get the part that I always hate doing done first: the Top 5 Dislikes.

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I hate being negative. I really, really do. Overall, S17 was a very enjoyable season and I liked it in spite of its flaws, as I do with most media that I get into. But I do have issues, more so than I did 15 and 16, and I do want to talk about them. Most of you who’s followed my blog probably already know them, but I’m gonna try to be more detailed about why I disliked it. So we’ll start with something nit-picky, and work our way up. So let's get started with...

#5. Execution of the time travel/The Everwhen

This one is probably the most minor, but the whole thing just… confuses me. So for those unaware, the Everwhen is essentially a giant time portal that allows you to possess your past self at any point in time. This is… not a bad concept at all. It’s a really cool one and they use it to great effect by going to various points in the show’s history. Then using the past variations of Halo also makes us more invested since we recognize those periods. And while I wish we got to see more moments in those periods that we didn’t see, the few that we got in Episode 5 with Wash and Carolina was very well done. I only have two real issues with the Everwhen. First being an excuse for the mass amount of nostalgia banking, but at least it served a purpose… well, the Freelancers did. The Mercs were totally unnecessary. But that can easily just be a me thing and I get that it made a lot of fans happy, so I won’t harp on it. The other reason though is the reason why it made this list.

The execution is confusing as Hell when you really think about it.

First, how does this exist? I guess we’re supposed to believe that Chrovos made it, which I guess that I can buy. But aside from a line in Episode 1 about how the Reds and Blues time period was the backswing that caused the paradox, there isn’t really anything about how this gateway suddenly exists. Which presents another problem, the Reds and Blues inside it. Okay, so the paradox happened and it messed their memories up. That I understand… but why are they having deja vu in the past?! Shouldn’t they have been like Wash was? In some period where they did and didn’t break time? I get that they were in the middle of the paradox while Wash had been in the present, but in that case, how did they get knocked back to the past? At first, I assumed that Chrovos put them there, which would have made sense in order to keep them out of the way. But that’s never said. The implication is that they just got put there randomly, but because of Wash’s state, it really doesn't make any sense for them to be there.

But I think I get why it was like this. On The SHizno Podcast, Jason explained how the original pitch was that the Reds and Blues were going to be in a simulation of Blood Gulch that Chrovos put them in. Think S9 when Epsilon was in the Memory Unit… which it being too similar is one of the reasons why that plan got rejected. It probably explains why they used Halo 2 Anniversary in the S16 finale if the simulation plan was still in effect when Joe wrote it. But that would explain why they were in the past and having memory issues while Wash wasn’t. And it being a simulation is what I thought it was... until Huggins was able to move through it without going through the portal, which made everything even more confusing. As much as I get being too similar to S9, I can’t but feel that it would have been the better move and not given me a headache over how this stupid Everwhen worked. Because it being a simulation and not the actual timeline made a heck of a lot more sense.

Ultimately, this is Number 5 because as I said, it’s nitpicky. Time travel is a mess no matter how it’s utilized, so I’m pretty lenient on it because thinking about it too hard is painful and not worth it. Plus it may just be my own stupidity confusing me. Still, it DID bother me and it made Episodes 7 and 8 especially a pain in the ass to watch through. But since again it’s overall more nitpicky, I’ll leave it at Number 5.

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#4: The Simmons Labyrinth

Yeah, we all knew that this was going to be on here. What’s left to be said that I haven’t talked about already? I think we all know why this was hated. First, it isn’t funny. I mean don’t get me wrong, the delivery of the joke was fine, but the joke itself sucked and made no sense for Simmons’ character. Say what you want about Grif’s Labyrinth, whether you saw it as good or terrible, but at least it made sense for his character. Simmons… is afraid of aliens cutting off his private parts. I’m…. fairly sure that RvB has done a joke like that before, and it was likely better there. Plus it didn't fit the tone. All the Labyrinths, even Grif’s, were portrayed as either serious or at least uncomfortable for the victim. I guess they wanted something to lighten the mood, but… it failed. Badly. It just took me out of it until we got back to Carolina’s. Even knowing Jason’s original plan of the alien being Simmons dad, while that would have been more impactful, still would have been treated as the final cut was and still would have taken me out of it.

What could have been done instead? IDK. Could have had Simmons relive one of his many embarrassments in high school. Could have been focused on the test anxiety that made him fail and get shipped off to Red Boot Camp. It could have been one of the many traumas that his dad inflicted on him, like being forced on the women’s volleyball team or something. All of those are still lighter than some of the other Labyrinths and could have had a comedic edge, but it still tells us something about Simmons and would make sense for him. I… am still trying to figure out how what we got fits Simmons at all or tells us anything about him. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know.

The reason that this is Number 4 is because the scene was ultimately brief and Simmons didn’t exactly have a major role up to that point. It was incredibly stupid and not funny, but IDT it ruined his character or anything. Plus at this point, I and many others have gone on about it and there is really nothing left to say until we see what happens in the future. Jason seems to be aware of the critiques, and I imagine that others behind the show would also be aware by now. Maybe it'll be taken into account in future seasons and they’ll finally give Simmons the attention that he deserves.

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#3. Huggins

Ho boy, I’ve been waiting to let this out since the season ended. So for those who were reading my blog when S16 was airing, you know that Huggins was one of my favorite parts of said season. She was likable and fun, her friendship with Grif was adorable and helped his character massively, and she was just a bundle of joy who made me smile every time that we saw her. Her death, while I knew even then it was likely a fakeout, was a huge shock and had me praying that it being a fakeout was correct. Which it was! I was so happy… until we saw how she was actually handled this season.

Personality-wise, Huggins was fine. Her being able to go through time made sense and was even referenced in S16. But… well, she’s used to discovering that Black Holes lead to the beginning of time, goes through time to find the paradoxes that Genkins made, and… that’s it. In other words, Huggins was nothing but a damn plot device. I have a problem with character shafting, but this one was just unfair. Maybe Jason couldn’t think of anything else to do with her? Maybe her VA wasn't available for much? Maybe they didn’t have the budget to animate since Miles did say that they had a slightly smaller budget at RTX? IDK. There’s any number of reasons why, but it was annoying nevertheless. I mean Huggins only appeared in THREE EPISODES, and the first was only at the very end. After Episode 8, she just… disappeared.

There’s a lot of reasons why I hated this. First, just dropping a character like that despite her clearly being important and prominent is an insult to the character. I have issues with how the Reds and Blues were shafted aside from Donut, Wash, and Carolina, but at least they were still around. Huggins leaves to go find paradoxes in Episode 8 and then is gone. Last we hear of her is in the finale from Donut. But the bigger issue is that, if you remember, she was understandably angry at Grif for deciding to go with the plan to save Wash, even though he knew what would happen. It happened and… there’s zero reconciliation. None. Yes, Grif was happy to see her. Yes, he clearly felt remorseful. Yes, he did apologize. But Huggins never really forgave him, saying that she can't be mad at him at the moment because of the larger picture. But it was pretty clear that, while not enraged, she was still unhappy with him… and they don’t allow the two to talk? At all?! After everything in S16, we couldn’t get closure on that?! Really?!

That was what pissed me off. It pissed me off for Grif’s character, but trust me I’ll be going more into that shortly. But for Huggins, it pretty much just says ‘yeah, we are only bringing this character back for exposition and nothing more’. I know many hated S16, but Huggins was easily one of the factors that people enjoyed. I enjoyed it. As I said, her and Grif’s relationship was easily my favorite part of it and I still enjoy rewatching all of their interactions. IDK if she’ll be back in later seasons. I really hope so because, at the very least, she and Grif should reconcile. But even so, she deserved better than what she got. She was a good character, and she deserved better than what she got. I shouldn't be wondering if her remaining dead would have been a better alternative afterwards. I really shouldn’t. So… hopefully future seasons can maybe fix things, but for now, this remains a major problem for me.

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#2. Grif Character Shafting

In general, Season 17 had a BAD case of character shafting. Now it’s a huge ensemble cast, so not everyone is going to be able to get attention. I wasn’t that upset that characters like Sarge, Caboose, and Simmons (even if that doesn’t excuse his Labyrinth) not getting much attention because they had already been more lowkey in this story arc. I didn’t mind it with Tucker wither since he got PLENTY of attention with Chorus. Hell, I honestly wish that they kept Wash and Carolina more lowkey because they ALWAYS get the majority of the focus, but for S17’s story it’s understandable why they would so I can forgive it. But you should probably NOT shaft a character who has been one of the central focuses in an ongoing story arc and still had a ton of character development that had to be wrapped up.

You know… like Grif.

Yeah, I won’t lie. While I thought that Grif acted IC and everything… they really dropped the ball with him. I wouldn’t mind that much had S15 and 16 not happened. Those are two seasons that gave Grif a ton of character development. He was essentially the main protagonist in S16, the one most involved in the plot despite how much he tried not to, and began resolving his issues. He went from doing everything in his power to avoid the plot, to openly confronting it and even rejecting the pizza that he had wanted so bad. He was the only one who knew what was about to happen after openly being mocked by Genkins, and despite his best efforts, he failed to stop it…

...and this got aBSOLUTELY NO FOLLOW UP? WHAT THE HELL?! THat’s like if, after Season 11, Tucker acted like none of the events during S11 affected him and didn’t grow as a leader and a soldier. It would come off as super weird since 12 followed the aftermath of S11 and would have been a huge disservice to the character and his development. That’s how it felt here with Grif. At first, it looked like they may show stuff since Grif DID believe Donut at first. But he had to ignore it since Donut isn’t allowed to be listened to. When he got his memory back, everything should have been hitting him then and there. There should have been more anger and probably some guilt about how even when he tried, he still failed and now they have even more bullshit to deal with. But they just… bizarrely ignore it.

I wouldn’t say that Grif regressed, but the fact that there is NO follow-up to his development in a storyline that allowed said development to begin with is a disservice. I get it, they only had 12 episodes and Donut and Wash were the more important. I understand that. And hey, S18 could follow up on it. But there still should have been something. Maybe the reveal about him lying about the enlistment was supposed to be that. Which I did like that… but that was not enough imo. He didn’t reconcile with Huggins. There’s no follow-up about how he failed to stop the paradox. Even for someone as lazy as Grif, we should still be seeing some emotions there. His Labyrinth, while I ultimately don’t hate it and I do see how it can apply to his character, probably should have been something stronger like being stuck back on Iris with the volleyballs mocking him or something.

Character shafting does have to happen in an ensemble cast. But Grif should NOT have been one of them. IDK how they could have incorporated him better while still keeping everything intact, but it’s still frustrating. Again, maybe S18 can provide something. I hope that at least Grif is allowed to reconcile with Huggins and realize that he should actually talk about his issues because I do think that his scene with Kai was an important moment for him. Whether you like to hate the retcon, it makes sense for his character to run away and he’s actually offering to talk about it. Okay, it’s more for Kai’s sake than his own, but he’s still willing to talk about his feelings, which is not something that I could have seen him done without his S15 and 16 development. Hence why I think that is S18 has him be more willing to talk to say Kai or Simmons and about how much S15 and 16 really did affect him instead of trying to brush it aside by calling himself hateglue, he can have a complete character arc. But as far as S17 goes, there’s no excuse for it and was a big problem for me.

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Honorable Mentions

Aka, the things that annoyed me, but not by much or I didn’t feel were bad enough to add onto the list.

Tucker not taking responsibility/talking to Wash: It was his idea to go and save Wash despite knowing the consequences, so he’s as guilty as Carolina imo. There should have been more focus on that, and about him reconciling with Wash and accepting what had to happen. The fact that they had zero interaction was bizarre tbh. But it isn’t as big of a deal as other things, so I kept it off. Consider this Number 6.

Character shafting: I hated it, and everyone outside Donut, Wash, and Carolina felt wasted. But it’s already a huge cast, so it was bound to happen and Grif’s was the one that manly pissed me off. So I spared it.

Nostalgia banking: That’s a me thing, so I didn’t feel it was fair to add it, especially since it overall did serve a purpose.

Carolina guilt trips need to die: I forgive it here because it worked for the story and was well executed. But... writers, you’ve done Carolina guilt trips since at least S10. It’s lazy and boring now. Come up with something new for her. Let it die.

Donut being ignored: Mainly, I think they played it up too much. DOnut displayed no noteworthy flaws in this season, and pretty much everything revolved around him. On rewatch, this was annoying and made him seem better and more important than everyone else. That’s unfair. But after all the years where he got shit treatment, he earned it honestly, so I forgave it.

And that’s it! So onto Number One!

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I thought long and hard about what Number One could be. Grif Shafting almost made it, but again the finale scene did actually make me happy. As such, I had only one real option left…

#1. The 12 Episode Count

Imo, this is I think the cause of many of the problems with S17 that I have. This should not have been a 12 episode season. 15 maybe, like last time. But not 12. Now there’s any number of reasons that they decided to go with that. Miles did say at RTX that they had a slightly smaller budget, so maybe they just simply couldn’t afford to do more than what they were able to do. Maybe they just thought that 12 episodes wrapped up the story and that there was no need to exceed that number or try to avoid stressing themselves and others out more. Production is hard and not cheap and you’re not going to be able to do everything that you want or even need to be able to do. As such, I’m not angry at them for deciding this since most likely, they had to work with what they had available.

That being said, it is still a problem. A 12 episode season has both its pros and its cons. With the pros, they were able to keep an overall steady pace and focus on what needed to be focused on without having to extend it or cram in filler. But the cons are you have to cram in as much as possible with limited time and put aside the things that aren’t as important. Grif wasn't as important as the other things. Huggins wasn't as important as the other things. They didn’t have time to elaborate on all the time travel, so they did as much as they could and then focus on the story. And Simmons Labyrinth was just a bad idea and would have still sucked even with a longer episode total, so nothing to say there.

My point is, while I do think that 12 episode seasons could work for RvB, they probably shouldn't have done it in the middle of a story arc. Again, they might not have had a choice, but it’s still an annoyance. The first half was fine and the best of the season. But the second half felt much more rushed and overstuffed. Episodes 7 and 8 shoved in exposition and it came across as more confusing than informing. Donut forgave everyone FAR too easily and it didn’t feel like they genuinely felt sorry after being called out. Which made the moment where he did call them out feel slightly less impactful. Only slightly, Then we rush through fixing the paradoxes and The Labyrinth within like four episodes, which when watching all the episodes together really makes it and the ending feel really anti-climactic. It’s like they shoved a ton of character stuff within like ten minutes, but we don’t get to explore it naturally. A problem that I think 15 episodes would have helped solve, but 12… it just… was not enough.

If they do go with 12 episodes again, I think it’ll work better since they’ll have a new story arc that they cal plan properly for. They didn’t have that luxury here. That, on top of Joe having to leave and Jason having to take over writing duties. Which is another annoyance. IDK the circumstances obviously and not to diminish Jason, but Joe should have been allowed to finish his own damn story, the fans' opinion on if he was good or not be damned. But again for all I know he chose to walk out, so I’m not going to go any further than that. Considering what they did have, the fact that they did make a good product is to be admired. But there’s still a lot of problems imo. Ones that I think that the episode count ultimately caused most of. As such, it is the thing that I dislike about RvB17 the most.

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Again, this is only my opinion. There was a lot that I did like about RvB17, and when I write the Likes post I’ll gladly talk about them. That being said, I do think that this wasn't as good as 16 and IDC how many people think I’m insane for saying that. It had story issues, character issues, and the second half was ultimately just a mess. A fun mess, but still a mess. No, IDK how any of these could have been done better and IDT it’s so bad that it can’t be amended in later seasons. But overall, these issues did damper my enjoyment and things that I hope to see improved in the future.

Okay! Dislikes are done! Thank God! Now I can do the happy stuff! Hopefully, the Likes post will be ready in a few days. But thank you all for reading, and I hope that you enjoyed~

#rvb #rvb reviews

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crisspezmemories · 5 years

Text

ring on her finger

a/n: woo first fic in a long time! this is my third time trying to post this, so this better work. this is a four part fic, but I put it all in one post for convenience. you can also find it split into chapters on ao3 here.

this fic was based on a request including the song marry me by thomas rhett, requested by @crisspezorwtv! the fic goes along the course of the song, so i’d only listen to it after you’re done reading to avoid spoilers.

i’ve only had the time to skim through and make minor edits, but i hope you guys enjoy!

Night eased onto the city as the pair of lovers gazed on the decorated balcony. Few stars dotted the sky in the midst of the urban setting, but the ones that did burned bright.

Darren fumbled with the inside pocket of his coat for the umpteenth time- briefly securing a square object in his palm. He was certain that he’d brought his romantic scenario to life.

The light from the candles behind them illuminated Lauren’s figure in such a way that she appeared chiseled; a carved sculpture of a goddess standing before him. Darren couldn’t help but be proud of his successful setup, especially taking note of how Lauren’s favorite flowers in a vase by the dinner table was a nice touch.

The scene seemed as if it was ripped from a romance novel, but in Darren’s defense, it’s where he did a good amount of researching.

He inhaled, making sure to take a mental picture of the sight in front of him.

Breathe out.

“It’s pretty cool how much power the stars hold”, he started, locking eyes with Lauren to ensure her attention.

“There’s the sun, giving us light, giving us warmth, giving us life...In fact, one could say you do the same for me”.

Lauren chuckled nervously, flashing an uneasy smile. “Darren, what are you-”

Tension rose in the air, causing Lauren to worriedly glance around the balcony.

Darren grinned, getting on one knee and quickly retrieving the small box from his jacket and presenting it in front of her. Realization dawned on Lauren’s complexion, arms hugging her chest as the gears shifted in her head.

“Lauren, in more ways than one, you are the muse in my life...I love you more than I’ve ever loved anyone else, and that’s the only way it’ll ever be. Cheesy, I know…” he admitted, letting out a small laugh. He gradually opened the velvet box, his hands shaking, to reveal an artisan diamond ring embedded inside the cushions.

“Lauren Elizabeth Lopez, will you marry me?”

One beat.

Two beats.

Three beats.

“Darren, I can’t do this.”, she quietly said, her voice broken.

He hears the words, but it doesn’t hit.

“I’m not ready- we’re not ready for this, Darren, I-”

“Lauren-”

“There’s too much pressure- too much stress, I just...when’s the next time I’ll even get to see you after this?”, she argued, breathing rapidly as she closed her eyes to think.

Darren stood up, reaching to cup her face in his hands.”We can make this work, I promise.”

An uncomfortable pause settles as they acknowledge it wasn’t a promise he knew he could keep, existing to be broken like the others.

She opened her eyes, avoiding his own. “I’m sorry Darren, I just- I can’t be with you anymore.”

She was gone in a minute, as if the wind swept her away.

And then there was only Darren, left in the remnants of the evening.

Alone.

---

Guests chattered and champagne glasses clinked.

The party had begun just moments ago, visitors pooling into the modest apartment. It was a smaller party, confined of people from local distances and a few close friends from afar. Excitement is present in the air for the new beginnings that were to come, the environment light and pleasant.

Several congratulations are echoed across the room by friends and family alike- only rejoice for the new engagement that had only occurred a few weeks prior.

It’s only when Lauren steps out that Darren does also, closing the door behind him.

“Hi,” she says shyly, preferring to look at the ground or anywhere else.

“Hey,” he replies, planting his arms on the railing as he leans back.

“Congratulations”, he says, a crooked smile suited on his face.

“Thanks”, Lauren responds with a half-hearted smile.

Darren can’t help but notice the silver ring on her finger, frowning at the fact that it could’ve been his.

“Soon to be Mrs. Richter, huh? I wouldn’t have seen that coming if you asked me back in college.”

“It is what it is,” she jokes, attempting to filter the unsettling tension. “and are you Mr. Best man?”

Darren shook his head, crossing his arms. “Figured I shouldn’t take it since I’m lined up for Walker’s. Either way, I couldn’t bring myself to...I think you know.”

Lauren nods, and it’s silent for a moment.

“Did you bring Mia with you?”

Darren sighs, turning to look at Lauren. “We broke up about a month ago. It didn’t feel right. Shitty or not, I can’t say I miss it”, he admits, a twinge of guilt his voice. “Two years running. It felt like a chore at this point.”

“I could tell she didn’t make you happy.”, she says, regretting them the words as they were delivered. It was testing the waters, if anyone were cross them.

The words wanting to be heard are left unsaid, if they were even worth saying at all. It’s quiet for a moment before Darren responds.

“About earlier...I always thought it would be Criss,” he says sheepishly, avoiding her gaze.

“God, I…Don’t take that the wrong way. I’m really happy for you, Lo. You found someone that makes you happier than I ever could, and that’s all that really matters to me.”

“I’m sorry for that night, Darren. If I could go back, make things different…” She blinks back the tears, looking in his eyes and finds them looking for answers.

“Don’t be.”

He gives her a sad smile, nodding a quick goodbye as he ducks back inside.

It’s when Lauren and Joey are herded back together for celebration when she realizes Darren wasn’t among the faces in the crowd.

---

Darren double-checked the address of the wedding, adjusting his tie as he stepped out of his car.

It’s a last-minute decision to go.

His excuse that work may prevent him had gone to waste, but it allowed him to dodge the role as a groomsman at the very least. He grabs his present his gift from the passenger seat, shutting the door and navigating his way towards the location.

Darren stops when he sees Lauren in her wedding dress, a bright smile on her face as she greets the guests.

It doesn’t hit him, and then it does.

It’s as if conscience takes over him as he realizes what’s taking place.

He wants to spit out every little feeling he’s had, every thought, every question. Only moments left to tell her everything he never said, and everything he wishes he did. It’s now or never, and the I still love you at the tip of his tongue never felt so right.

It’s one of his best friend’s weddings.

Instead, he walks back towards his car.

---

The unease only strikes Lauren before it’s almost too late.

Lauren’s father flashes a worried smile, locking arms with her as they prepare for her entrance.

“Are you sure this is what you want?” he whispers in her ear.

“It’s just cold feet,” she reassures.

“I don’t want you to regret this, or find out that you’d rather have someone else”, he warns, noticing something off in his daughter’s attitude.

“It might be more than cold feet”, she confesses, “but I’m already here.”

Before he can respond, the bride entrance song begins. Lauren fakes a smile, her mind set on a million things, but not the clean-cut groom ahead of her. She notices that Darren didn’t show up after all, and tries to dismiss the fact from her mind as she reaches the altar.

There’s a large momentum as Lauren finally turns to face Joey. She expected to feel excitement- happiness, as she prepared to marry the love of her life.

But it wasn’t him.

The smile melted off her face as reality sunk in. She was forcing herself to want this, or maybe anything that ever came with this relationship.

“I can’t do this.”

It seems as if the world pauses for a moment as Lauren realizes what she says, and she runs.

Lauren receives a single text from Joe Walker.

Darren’s at his house.

---

There isn’t anything left that he could say, or anything left he could do. It’s Darren versus a bottle of scotch tonight, and there was nowhere else he’d have to be.

He tries to convince himself that he feels okay, attempting to comb through the heartache and headache. It was all useless, feelings that no longer mattered.

He pours his glass, bringing it up to his lips.

There’s a knock on the door.

Darren tightly grips the glass in his hand, walking to open the door.

He cautiously opens the door, wary of who would visit.

He drops his glass.

“Lauren?” he stammers, eyes widening in shock at the sight in front of him.

She responds with a kiss, falling into his arms as she used to so long ago.

---

Stars ornamented the sky as Darren and Lauren sat perched on a blanket over the hill. She nestles his head in the crook of his neck, murmuring the different constellations

It was inside jokes and philosophies shared to the world and to themselves, nothing left unspoken.

A moment came in the night where Darren discreetly slid his hand into the depths of his backpack, securing a small object with it.

“I’ve got a fun fact about stars for you,” he begins. He grabs Lauren’s hand and leads her to stand. He motions toward the sky. “A lot of these stars- it’s possible they’re long gone. Yet, we see them, bright and burning, and so have the many people before us...I’m thinking it’s a pretty good analogy for what I’m about to say.”

It’s the second time in Darren’s life that he gets on one knee to propose.

“It doesn’t matter whether something happens to us, to me, to you, or anyone. I cross my heart, Lauren Lopez, because no matter what, my love for you will burn brighter than any star. No matter what happens, I swear on it... There’s no one else I’d rather commit my life, which is why I have to ask...” He takes a deep breath before the next words, slowly opening the small box and praying for the answer he wanted five years ago. He squeezes his eyes shut, allowing his other senses to interpret the answer.

“Will you marry me?”

There’s no wait before he hears a yes .

He stands up, tears of relief and happiness painting his face as he engulfs his fiancée in a hug. He fits the ring onto her finger, tilting up her chin before kissing her.

“I guess you were right.” Lauren teases, looking up at Darren.

“Mhm”, he hums, wrapping her in his arms. “I think Mrs. Criss has a nice ring to it.”

#crisspez #if this doesnt post right i will THROW HANDS #fic #my fic

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qqueenofhades · 6 years

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Starlight & Strange Magic, Chapter 18: In Which Everyone Would Like To Know How This Happened

Rating: M Summary: Lucy Preston, a young American woman, arrives in England in 1887 to teach history at Somerville College, Oxford. London is the capital of the steam and aether and automatonic world, and new innovations are appearing every day. When she meets a mysterious, dangerous mercenary and underworld kingpin, Garcia Flynn, her life takes a turn for the decidedly too interesting. But Lucy has plenty of secrets of her own – not least that she’s from nowhere or nowhen nearby – and she is more than up for the challenge. Available: AO3 Previous: In Which It Snows In St. Petersburg

To say the least, there is not a lot that can prepare you for the sight of your best friend literally falling out of the blue, a hundred and thirty years and a parallel dimension away from where you left him, and his landing spot being a back alley in Steampunk St. Petersburg just yards from you and your – well, Lucy has given up on any easily definable term for Flynn, so never mind that. She remains kneeling next to Rufus, her mouth still open but no sound coming out, as he likewise tries to regather enough wind to speak. He lifts his head an inch, then gives up, falling back into the snow, and she briefly fears that he’s dead. “Rufus?” she says again. “Rufus?”

“Nnnrgh.” Rufus seems to be signaling that he in fact still operational, but it’s going to take a long time to get everything back online, and she shouldn’t panic in the interim. At least he can apparently tell that he ended up in the right place, so he takes several well-deserved moments to remain exactly where he goddamn is. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Lucy repeats. It’s not really worth asking him the obvious question at this point, but she slides a hand under his head. “Can you stand up?”

Rufus tries, legs twitching, but to no result. For his part, Flynn – after an understandable moment of total shock – has realized that Lucy knows the magical flying moron, and strides down the alley, boots crunching, to tower over him. “Who the hell is this? What just happened?”

“This is my – this is Rufus.” Lucy waves at him to back off with the looming, as Rufus has clearly had the hell of a day already and she doesn’t want his first impression of Westworld to be an upside-down, bad-tempered Flynn. “I have no idea what happened, but he – he may be hurt.”

Flynn raises an eyebrow, as if to say that if anyone wasn’t hurt after that swan dive from the sky, he would be very surprised. He considers Rufus balefully, as if to make sure he isn’t a cleverly disguised cruise missile (or whatever this world’s equivalent would be) and then realizes, as Lucy does, that this has put a crimp in the plan of packing her aboard the nearest airship back to England. She isn’t sure if that’s a good thing or not, but Rufus is here, needs help, and obviously has a whale of a tale as to how he is. And with Jiya supposedly held captive by Rittenhouse, that means all three of the team may be here, and while Lucy would of course gratefully welcome the presence of her friends again at long last, there is a fairly obvious logistical snafu. The Lifeboat, hidden back in New York, is only configured to take one of them home. And while further individual rocket-ship rides might not be totally out of the question, it is a stretch to expect to be normal after one of those, let alone survive two.

One problem at a time. Lucy pushes that out of her head, and turns to Flynn. “Can you – can you help me with him? We’ll have to go back to the hideout.”

Flynn considers, then shrugs. He leans down, hauls Rufus upright none too gently, and slings him over his shoulders in a fireman’s carry, as Rufus groans feebly but can’t really object to being tossed like a sack of beans. Lucy gives Flynn a be careful look, and goes to ensure that they can get out ahead of what must be a horde of incoming spectators. People must have seen that across St. Petersburg, and if the story spreads, that could also cause difficulties. It would be better to be away from here post-haste.

With Flynn lugging Rufus, Lucy wends her way back through the narrow alleys and stone quays that line the canal; the Neva is frozen solid, and won’t break up until March or April of next year, so the wintertime commerce is starting to set up camp on the river. At the moment, most of them are heading toward the site of the impact, speculating worriedly on what it could be, so Lucy and Flynn have to be careful about staying out of sight. They finally clamber over a low wall and hurry toward the warehouse, check once more that they haven’t been followed, and push through the door, as Lucy shuts and bars it behind them.

Flynn’s gang, who were expecting the boss back but not Lucy, jump to their feet in confusion, which is doubled at the sight of a semi-conscious man slung over his shoulder. The Sokolovs hurry to get some sacks to set Rufus down on, and as he recovers more of his battered higher faculties, Lucy can see him wondering just what kind of crowd she is running with these days. It’s finally Shitmouth who says, “Who’s the Negro, then?”

“Friend of hers.” Flynn glances at Lucy, with a hard-to-read expression. “At least, I take it from how she greeted him. If you recently heard a very large bang and saw a flash, that was him.”

“We thought an airship might have blown up,” says one of the Taylors. “Or someone had bombed the docks. How’s one man have that effect instead?”

“I sense it’s a fascinating story. But one not for you lot’s ears.” Flynn speaks brusquely, his manner once more that of the take-no-prisoners crime boss, as he turns his head at a sound from outside. “We’re still close to the scene. We should move again.”

“And what, that means I’m off to scout another hideout for us?” Karl has been standing with arms folded and chin outthrust. “We stay low and quiet, they’re not likely to come nosing around here again so soon. They just made an inspection yesterday, a few proper bribes should keep them out for months.”

Flynn looks at him as if to ask if Karl knew the correct St. Petersburg middle bureaucrats to pay off and did so, Karl looks back as if to say that of course he does and did, and interesting though this ongoing power struggle is, Lucy thinks they need to pay more attention to Rufus. She gets a cup of tea from the chipped porcelain samovar, warms it up, and hands it to Rufus, who is able to sip it with only minor assistance. Flynn waves away the gang to give her space, and once they have all withdrawn to the other side of the warehouse, Lucy and Rufus are left with a semblance of privacy. They look at each other, then blurt out at the same time, “I can’t believe you’re here.”

“Yeah.” Rufus grimaces. “It was not easy. I’ll see if I can explain it briefly. Basically, Jiya went missing thanks to some kind of artifact that took her and Wyatt Logan’s wife out of a room at Bethlem Royal Hospital. Mrs. Logan is there, it’s a long story, I don’t know it. I went to confront Connor about it, and – I can’t be sure, but I think he’s still actually on our side, has been tricking Rittenhouse and trying to delay them while pretending to be their fancy CEO. He gave me the equations for the Mothership’s modifications, and the schematics for whatever device he used to talk to Emma here, the Refractory-Glass. I put one together, which was how I communicated with you the other day. When is it, anyway? Date-wise?”

“November 1887,” Lucy says. “I’ve been here for just over a year. So what, you managed to build a working Refractory-Glass receptor from scratch?”

“Well, I had the plans,” Rufus points out. “And as I thought about it, and how Jiya vanished, I realized that I could possibly apply the principle to transmit myself along the same channels. After all, the human body is also essentially highly coded information packets, so if I could find the right frequency, I could basically email myself here. I took the Mothership modifications and meddled around with them so they applied to one person rather than a time machine, kind of like what I did to the Lifeboat the first time, but without the infrastructure. I realized that I already had a connection to wherever you were physically with the Refractory-Glass, so I set up the destination point to track with you.”

“So you were magnetically guided to wherever I was, and I’m supposed to be in Oxford, but instead, I’m in Russia – it’s a long story,” Lucy adds, seeing Rufus’s face. “That’s amazing, Rufus, that’s dazzling genius, but how did you know it was going to work?”

“I didn’t,” Rufus admits. “If I’d made a mistake in the math or the coding protocols, I would be disconnected wifi, times a thousand, and not exist in any of the branches of the multiverse ever again. But I couldn’t get here any other way, and I – ” He stops, then shrugs, glancing down. “For you and Jiya, I thought it was worth the risk.”

Lucy looks at him, realizes that in the haste and shock and disbelieving explanations, she has had no time to simply take in the fact that he’s here, he’s here, and reaches out to hug him desperately hard, fighting tears. Rufus does the same, they shake silently in each other’s arms, and then sniffle and try to pull themselves together. “Anyway,” he says. “I turned on my receptor to get a signal connected to Westworld, punched in all the information, crossed my fingers and toes and everything else, and stepped into the projector circle. The next thing I know, I’m dive-bombing out of the clear blue yonder, it’s really cold, I can’t breathe, and I see you and some cranky Russian giant staring at me. So I guess I didn’t screw it up.”

“That’s – that’s Flynn,” Lucy says. “He’s not actually Russian. He’s – as I said. Long story.”

“That’s Flynn?” Rufus looks startled. “Wait, the same one that Connor said was causing all the headaches for Rittenhouse here? I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that you two managed to meet up, but what’s with all the Newsies sidekicks?”

“He’s a crime boss in London. He runs a gang, that’s them, they’re here in Russia because Rittenhouse has an interest in the Trans-Siberian Railway. They’re having it built to provide themselves with a proprietary aether pipeline. We’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out what they’re doing and how they want to harvest magic from this reality. I was actually on my way back to Oxford – I have a teaching post there – right before you made your dramatic entrance.”

“Have you heard anything about Jiya?” Rufus asks urgently. “Anything at all?”

Lucy hesitates. “Emma came to see me in Oxford last week,” she says at last. “She hinted that Rittenhouse had Jiya prisoner, and unless I cooperated, they’d – well. You know.”

“Rittenhouse has Jiya prisoner?” Rufus looks set to jump to his feet and swim to England himself. “I mean, I realize we can’t exactly work with them, but – what the hell did Emma even want? Just to be horrible and ruin more people’s lives?”

“She wanted help finding a lost magical library,” Lucy says. “The Bibliotheca Corviniana. It belonged to the Raven King, a famous fifteenth-century magician. She thinks it’ll tell her everything she needs to know to complete her world domination.”

“Yay. Emma.” Rufus rolls his eyes heavenward. “Still the worst in every universe, good to know. I feel like I’m probably missing half the story, but we can’t sit around shooting the shit all day. Are you and Flynn friends?”

“We…” Lucy doesn’t know how to answer that. “We’re colleagues, sort of. It’s been a very back-and-forth process. I think we’re working together now, but it could change again.”

Rufus eyes her shrewdly, as he knows her well enough to tell that she’s being purposefully evasive on this front. Still, this is not the opportune moment to press for details, so he doesn’t. “So, Jiya – did Emma say where she was supposed to be? Anything?”

“No. I was going to try to find her, but then I got – ” Lucy considers that. “Inadvertently brought over here, by Karl. He’s Flynn’s right-hand man. I think.”

“Which one’s Karl? The sandy weasel with the pornstache?” Rufus glances at the far side of the warehouse, where the gang appears to be a little too intently absorbed in conversation. “Or one of the other Scorsese rejects? Lucy, obviously, I’m the newcomer here, I don’t know what’s going on or what you’ve been up to, but do you really trust these guys?”

“I trust Flynn,” Lucy says. “And the Sokolovs – those two, the large blond Russian brothers. I think the others like me, or are at least certainly aren’t going to do anything to me. They’re the closest thing I’ve got to allies.”

Rufus continues to look extremely skeptical, but at last, he blows out a breath and nods. “Okay, if you say so. So what’s the plan? Can we get out of here and go save Jiya?”

“I want to,” Lucy promises him. “But after your entrance, we have to see if the airships are even still running. The Russian authorities may have closed down the port, and Rittenhouse definitely has people here as well. Can you even walk yet?”

Rufus makes a valiant attempt to get up, then reels, and Lucy has to catch his arm before he falls. Rufus breathes hard as the world apparently somersaults, and sits down again heavily. “Jiya’s hella resourceful,” he says, as if in an attempt to convince himself that any delay whatsoever in the rescue mission is acceptable. “She’s pulled the wool over Rittenhouse’s eyes and gotten away from them before, she could have done it again.”

“Yes, but we can’t count on that, and we can’t kill you too trying to get to her.” Lucy notices that Rufus’ color is still off, and drains the dregs of the samovar for another cup of tea. Violent interdimensional self-translocation is definitely not flying in business class, which her trip in the Lifeboat was by comparison. “Actually, I’m going to send a telegram to Ada Lovelace. Tell her to tell Oxford that I’ll be back soon, and see if she can get her butler on the case. Woolsey found Flynn’s hideout in like one morning, he could possibly find Jiya too.”

“Ada Lovelace?” Rufus goggles. “You know Ada Lovelace? Didn’t she die in like, the 1850s?”

“Not in this universe, apparently. She’s a grand old dame and very gleefully eccentric.” Lucy smiles at the thought. “We met when I came to London, and we hit it off.”

Rufus looks suitably impressed at the idea, and after a few more minutes, Lucy leaves him to continue his recuperation, heading over to the gang and explaining what she needs to do. It is agreed that Anton and Gennady will escort her to the telegraph office and take stock of the airship situation, and she can feel Flynn’s eyes on their backs as they leave. She’s tempted to glance over her shoulder and see what expression it is, but she isn’t going to be caught mooning after him. She screwed up her courage and asked for what she wanted, and he said no. She doesn’t know why, she’s going to respect his refusal because that’s what decent people do, take her lumps and get on with things, but it still hurts in an entirely different way than before. See. This is exactly why she didn’t want to make a move and muddy the waters with unrequited heartbreak. Should have contented herself that they finally seemed to be on the same page and actually ready to work together, and nothing else.

Sensing her melancholy, Gennady clears his throat awkwardly. “Are sad, Lucy?” he asks. “Later, I JUGGLE for you? Is VERY FUNNY when I juggle. I often DROP BALLS.”

“That – what, oh, no, that’s very sweet of you, but no.” Lucy glances at the Sokolovs, striding to each side of her like twin towers of six-foot-three Bolshevik brawler with perfect manners, and wonders if she could convince them to come back to England with her. After all, they technically aren’t part of Flynn’s gang; they work on the docks in London, and they don’t seem terribly impressed by his shortcomings in the etiquette department. Rescuing Jiya, if necessary, would take a lot more muscle than she and Rufus have alone, and they clearly like her. Maybe she can start up her own gang. There’s not a whole lot more scandalized that Somerville can be, right?

The streets are crowded, the alley where Rufus crashed in is cordoned off, and police inspectors in high-collared overcoats and fur hats are blowing whistles and barking at the gawking onlookers to back off. It definitely looks like all incoming and outgoing airships and steamships have been halted while they search for the source of the incident, which doesn’t help. The crush slows almost to a standstill at points, so Anton picks Lucy up under his arm like a football and sends Gennady in front of them to bowl open a path. This is very effective, and they finally fight clear of the throng and make it to the port telegraph office. It occurs to Lucy just before they go in that Rittenhouse might be monitoring communications in and out of St. Petersburg, and she stalls. “Wait, what if they’re reporting to someone?”

“Eh?” Anton frowns at her, and Lucy explains that she’s worried they’ll pass her telegram on to some sort of secret listening service. The Sokolovs look at her, then at each other, crack their knuckles, and inform her to wait where she is and to maybe turn her back. They then proceed menacingly inside the telegraph office. Five minutes of muffled banging, thumps, shouts, and crashes later, Anton re-emerges, only slightly out of breath. “All right,” he announces. “Telegraph operator is ready to talk now.”

Lucy raises both eyebrows at him as he offers a hand to help her over the threshold, then over the numerous items of furniture that seem to have become unaccountably dislodged. A very cowed-looking clerk in a cockeyed green visor is sitting by the machine, with Gennady standing guard, and after some fits and starts, since Lucy doesn’t speak Russian and the clerk doesn’t speak English, Anton serves as translator and she composes a brief message to Ada. There’s also the possibility of it being read on the other end, so Lucy can’t go into much detail. She manages to convey that she has accidentally wound up in Russia, she would appreciate Ada informing Oxford that she’s not dead, and apologizing profusely for the inconvenience. As well, if Mr. Woolsey can possibly make a few enquiries about a young female friend of hers? Jiya?

When this is finished and dispatched, Gennady asks if he should take the telegraph operator by his heels and shake him several times to ensure he does not retain any copies for anyone else. It as he is prepared to do this that something falls out of the operator’s pocket, some kind of special cancellation stamp. When Lucy picks it up and turns it over, she can see the name SIBLEY in the grilling. Flynn said that Hiram Sibley Junior is running the railway project for Rittenhouse, and his father, Hiram Sibley Senior, was one of the main pioneers of the telegraph in America. Sibley senior worked with Samuel Morse, inventor of Morse code, and was the first president of Western Union, as well as being very interested in Russian-American telegraphic links. Lucy thought of him back when Flynn mentioned Rittenhouse’s Siberian interests at tea with Ada, and this appears to be proof positive that Sibley junior has in fact seeded St. Petersburg telegraph offices with his spies.

“What?” Anton asks, seeing her face. “What is?”

Lucy shows him the stamp – she doesn’t know exactly what it’s for, but most likely to highlight messages that might warrant Sibley’s personal inspection. Once she has conveyed this to the Sokolovs, they assume thunderous frowns and turn back to the clerk. They interrogate him in rapid-fire Russian, which Lucy of course can’t follow, and when the clerk seems to shirk on offering answers, Anton plucks him out of his chair and holds him up like a punching bag in front of Gennady. This sufficiently alarms the clerk into squawking something, which they make him write down. Anton holds it out to Lucy. “Is address. He says for office of Sibley.”

Lucy’s stomach lurches. This, obviously, would be a major breakthrough, and after a moment of consideration, she decides that they have accomplished enough for now. She jerks her head at the Sokolovs, they smartly step after her, and the clerk has a look of both terror and awe on his face at seeing a tiny woman command this pair of behemoths. They take a back route to the Ditch to avoid the police and the crowds, and hurry into the warehouse, where Flynn jumps away from the door as if to prove that he wasn’t standing there and waiting for them to return. “There you are,” he says. “Took long enough.”

“Is obviously some problems.” Anton eyes Flynn up and down. “You have not let Lucy’s friend die, we hope?”

“No, he’s over there.” Flynn jerks his head at Rufus, who does not look to be particularly enjoying his hospital bed of burlap sacks in a drafty Russian warehouse, surrounded by heavily armed criminals wanted in at least two countries. Shocking, that. “Did you get the message off?”

“Yes. And there’s this.” Lucy hands him the slip of paper. “The Sokolovs got it out of the telegraph clerk that that’s Hiram Sibley’s office. The family is in the business, he’s probably been helping Rittenhouse tap all the wires in and out of St. Petersburg.”

Flynn scans it quickly, scowling. “Sibley’s been at the Winter Palace most days to meet with the tsar and his engineering advisors. I did think he had to have a base somewhere nearby, but… are you sure about this?”

“I was about to punch clerk VERY HARD,” Gennady puts in. “In UNPLEASANT region for gentleman. Not sure if that make him more truthful, but I HOPE SO.”

Flynn raises an eyebrow at the younger Sokolov, but obviously does not dispute this bare-knuckled method of problem-solving. Finally he says, “Very well, we should check it out. If Sibley’s not there, we might also be able to steal his files or information. I’ll take the Taylors, Gennady, and Karl. The rest of you go and keep out of trouble, except for Anton. You stay here.”

Anton blinks. “I stay here? Why?”

“Because,” Flynn says, “you’re the only one I trust to keep a proper eye on Lucy and her vagabond friend. As soon as he can stand up straight and the heat’s died down, you can take care of getting them aboard an airship back to England.”

“Wait,” Lucy says. “I did send a telegram, I – Rufus just – ” She isn’t sure how much to say in front of Flynn’s gang, since he clearly has not widely shared the truth of her origins, and thus does not need to go blurting out that she and Rufus are from the next universe over. “He just fell out of the sky, I don’t think he’s going to be able to immediately travel – ”

“Airship to England,” Flynn says to Anton, ignoring her. “Yes?”

Anton pauses, then nods. “Yes.”

“Good.” Flynn strides away, opens a crate, and begins strapping on several extra guns, evidently in case Hiram Sibley is indeed there and objects to having his office robbed. Lucy stands there furiously, then runs after him, grabbing his arm. He looks up at her with his customary sardonic-dick expression. “Yes, Lucy?”

“You can’t just banish me,” Lucy says angrily. “You can’t just return to treating me like a piece of cargo, throwing me on board an airship again, like I have no thoughts or volition of my – ”

“Banish you?” Flynn arches the other eyebrow to its utmost potential. “You remember how you got here in the first place? I’m trying to help you out. I thought you wanted to go back to England.”

“I do.” Lucy’s voice sounds weak, and she tries again. “I do, but with Rufus – ”

“Nobody asked him to crash the party. Literally.” Flynn shrugs, thumbing open the chamber of a revolver, checking that it’s loaded, and slinging it into the holster. “Is that the only thing you want, Lucy? Because if not, you should say so.”

Lucy almost screams at him that she said so, she said so as clearly she could stand to do last night, and he already told her what his answer was. How dare he act as if it is her responsibility to fess up and bare her soul to him, when he stopped it, when he said no, and she has been chasing her head in circles and viciously second-guessing herself for risking it at all? The need is still present, it hasn’t gone away. If anything, infuriatingly, it’s gotten even stronger, the realization that while she is presently very angry at him and would happily slap that idiot look off his handsome asshole face, she would just as happily snap and kiss him, and possibly something else, if his entire gang was not standing right here and not even pretending they aren’t hanging onto this for dear life. Lucy’s fists clench. To stop herself from which of the options, she has no idea. Probably both.

After a pause, Flynn gets to his feet, straightening to his full height above her, which puts her nose somewhere in the region of his solar plexus. “You’ll stay here,” he says, in a tone that brooks no argument, “until it’s safe. Then you’re going to leave.”

Somewhere in the confused jumble of lust, wrath, and other deadly sins currently fighting for mastery of Lucy’s brain, it occurs to her to wonder if Flynn has been low-key panicking since she got here. If she’s likewise dropped out of the clear blue sky, not quite as spectacularly as Rufus but to basically the same effect, and he’s been scrambling ever since to accommodate her presence in the middle of his gritty, very-low-class, dangerous, anonymous existence as a spy and saboteur in the streets of St. Petersburg, running from his criminal record and Rittenhouse in one country and trying to blow up their operations in another. He’s had to devote time and effort to keeping her safe, fed, away from the police inspectors, un-frozen during the snowstorm, and otherwise in a functional state long enough to package her back to England in the first place, which by every respect, should be what she wants to do. What more does she want from him, his expression seems to say? When he’s gone to this much damn trouble to get her out of the frying pan, and she obstinately insists on sitting right in the middle of the fire?

They continue to eye each other for another extremely fraught few moments, Flynn staring down his nose at her as Lucy glares at him right back. Then he steps back. “I won’t hear anything more about this,” he says, “or I will have Anton throw you in the cargo hold.”

“Excuse me?” Anton looks mortally affronted. “You throw her in cargo hold yourself! Though if you try, I break your nose. Ignore him, Lucy. You know I never do such thing.”

“I know,” Lucy assures him. She’s tempted to tell him to break Flynn’s nose anyway, because it appears to be the only satisfaction she is going to get out of this, but she also just doesn’t want to have to look at him anymore. “Go on,” she snaps at Flynn. “Run out of here and leave your mess behind. Just like you always do, remember?”

He takes that in, and nods. Then he has the audacity, the sheer, ridiculous, unmitigated gall to grasp her shoulders in both hands, lean down, and kiss her patronizingly on the forehead. “Don’t worry,” he snarks. “We’ll be careful.”

“Right now, I honestly could not care less if you got yourself killed.” Lucy shoves him away from her with both hands. “So don’t strain yourself on my account.”

With a final evil look exchanged between them, Flynn stomps off, slings one last gun into his jacket, and jerks his head at his strike team. The Taylors, Gennady (with an apologetic glance at Lucy), and Karl form up behind him, Karl’s face also something that deserves to be in a museum, and they depart at speed. Once they’re gone, and the other gang members have scuttled out on their orders to make themselves discreet, Lucy’s strength abruptly runs out of her, and she sits down on one of the crates. She leans forward and puts her face in her hands.

“Lucy?” Anton hovers awkwardly at her shoulder. “I make you some tea?”

“No. I just…” Lucy remains where she is. “I’m done. I give up. Just take me back to England whenever the port reopens. I don’t know why I keep deluding myself, over and over, into thinking this has any chance of actually working.”

Anton pauses. Then he pulls up a crate next to her and pats her on the arm with a hand the size of a ham hock, in a clumsy but comforting gesture. “Flynn is horrible garbage goblin,” he says. “As I call him before. When he get back, I take him out and shake him very hard. You are very good lady, Lucy. Very strong. You give people chances when they not deserve. I am sorry how it is.”

“Thanks.” Lucy glances up at him. “I was thinking. Do you and Gennady want to come back to England with me? We’ll probably need to rescue our other friend, her name is Jiya. Rufus and I can’t pull it off by ourselves.”

“Lady needs rescue?” All of Anton’s Prince Charming sensibilities appear to have been activated on the instant. “Yes, of course we go. Flynn can think about poor life choices alone.”

Lucy snorts, feeling a little better. For his part, Anton does not juggle, but he offers to sing her a long Russian folk song, which Lucy graciously allows to hear a few stanzas of. He can’t really sing, but it’s sweet, and when he admits that he can’t remember any more of it, she thanks him and goes over to see how Rufus is doing. He has been watching the entire thing with the expression of an audience member at a blockbuster film, and glances up at Lucy with a look wondering if she’ll explain or he has to ask. Finally he says, “So, that whole married-for-ten-years argument, that was interesting.”

“That’s not what happened there.” Lucy feels her cheeks starting to heat. “And it seems to be how most of our meetings end up. With the arguing, that is.”

“Yeah, I see what you were saying about it going back and forth. Flynn seems like a real winner. I mean, it’s not like you got to pick who else in this world was going to be fighting Rittenhouse, but are you sure he’s worth the hassle?”

Lucy doesn’t answer, fussing unnecessarily with the burlap sacks that are serving Rufus in poor stead as blankets. Then she says, “Whenever the St. Petersburg port opens, we’ll get out of here. I’ll take you to London, I’m pretty sure Ada would be happy to put you up in her house. I’m not sure what I’ll do about Oxford. Maybe finish the rest of the semester, then leave.”

Rufus glances up at the tone in her voice. “Doesn’t sound like you really want to.”

“No,” Lucy says quietly. “No, I don’t want to. I’ve loved it more than anything. The city is magical and beautiful, my students are such interesting and passionate young women and I’ve been able to teach them things that nobody else has even thought about. I’ve gotten to have something like a normal life again, not just endlessly fighting and jumping through time. I’ve gotten to have roots again. A place to stay. Yes, well, I’ve inadvertently scandalized most of the faculty and students, but they got used even to that. But it would be beyond selfish for me to keep doing that, and leave you and Jiya and Ada and Wyatt and Flynn and everyone else to fight Rittenhouse, when what they’re doing here could change all of reality. I can’t sit out.”

Rufus looks at her with hesitant, uncertain sympathy, before he reaches out to take her hand, and they hold tightly. Lucy wonders if she should tell him about the revenant and the possibility of it being Amy, but decides that can come later. They have enough to deal with at present, and she doesn’t feel like Rufus would be all that enthused at the news of a murderous shadow monster stalking her heels. Instead they wait. And wait.

As the rest of the morning drains by and the afternoon goes equally slowly, Lucy – despite her resolve to stay mad at Flynn at least until he gets back – starts to worry. She paces and stares at the door, listening hard every time there are footsteps passing outside, fighting a swoop in her stomach every time they continue on without stopping. The distant sound of wailing klaxons aren’t helping her nerves either, and she isn’t sure if that’s related to the Rufus investigation or some entirely new calamity. Finally she says to Anton, “How long do you think it would take? Just to raid Sibley’s office, and leave?”

“If it was only that, not so long. But if they are caught, have to run for it, shoot way out, maybe longer.” Anton looks anxious as well, though he is clearly trying to keep his chin up for her sake. “Maybe clerk hurry and tell someone that he had to give up address, they have people waiting in case of attack.”

Lucy feels suddenly and unforgivably naïve that she didn’t think of that possibility. After all, she is the one who sent Flynn there, the one who gave him the information and told him that she didn’t give a rat’s ass if he got killed or not. A thick, sludgy feeling of horrible guilt crawls through her gut, making her swallow hard and stop in her tracks. “Oh God, is he – is he going to think I set him up or something? Led him purposefully into a trap?”

“Don’t know that is what happened,” Anton points out. “They could just have to take very long way back. Or hide out. Or – ”

At that moment, he is interrupted by the sound of footsteps that are very definitely coming this way, and he snaps into action. He shoves Lucy down on the sacks next to Rufus, heaves several fully loaded crates in front of them as a makeshift barricade, and draws his gun, pointing it warily at the door. Trying to peer out around the crates, Lucy waits, heart in her mouth, as the bar rattles and it swings open. If it’s the police, if it’s Rittenhouse – if it’s somehow worse, if it’s the gang with Flynn or without him and he’s not –

“Down!” a familiar voice says, sounding alarmed. “Bloody hell!”

“Karl?” Anton (and Lucy) stares at the bedraggled remnants of the strike team: Karl himself, the younger Taylor, and Gennady, all of them looking extremely bloody and dirty and grim. The older Taylor and Flynn aren’t there. “What in fucking hellfire – excuse my very bad language, Lucy, please excuse – just happened?”

“I’ll tell you what happened.” Karl wipes his filthy face on his arm, throwing down his spent revolver. “It was a trap from the start, that’s what it was. Guess the telegraph clerk ran off pronto to tell his Rittenhouse bosses to expect company, so that’s what they did. We got to Sibley’s office, went inside, and five minutes later, full house assault. John Taylor’s dead, they had to shoot him six times before they finished him off. We managed to hold our position inside the office for hours, but they called in more reinforcements. They got the boss, they dragged him away. Still alive the last time we saw him, they’ll want to grill him for information. The three of us barely made it out of there with our skins.”

A ghastly, stomach-churning silence falls in the wake of those words. It’s about as bad as it possibly can be – in fact, it’s worse. Rittenhouse has Flynn, they took Flynn prisoner, they’re definitely going to torture him in hopes of making him talk. Even if (as seems likely) he won’t, there is no scenario whatsoever in which they let him go alive. He has caused them too much trouble, and they have been hunting him for too long. If they chose to sell him back to the British government, they could ask for whatever political concessions or special powers they wanted in exchange, when he is the most wanted criminal in the entire United Kingdom and the egg has progressively accrued on the face of Gladstone’s government and the Metropolitan Police as they failed to catch him. Rittenhouse can do anything they want with Flynn, and get everything they want in return. Catastrophe barely does this justice. And Lucy – inadvertently, but still – sent him straight into the jaws of the trap.

“Oh my God,” Lucy says at last, which is impossibly inadequate, but is the only thing she can think of. There’s no choice, there’s no alternate option. “We have to save him.”

As far as predicaments go, Garcia Flynn has been in – he is sure – worse ones than this. But admittedly, just at present, they are not coming to mind.

He has taken a serious pounding, he’s fairly sure he’s been shot at least once by the stabbing pain in his leg, and he is well aware that he is, to put it gently, fucked. He was dragged off by the police and whatever local rented thugs Rittenhouse has acquired, hit a few more times when he kept fighting, and his ear is ringing in a way that means it might have taken considerable damage. Now he is crammed into some tiny, bleak holding cell, and his odds of getting out are very bad. He has a confused impression of seeing at least one member of the gang down – he thinks it was a Taylor – and the rest scattered. He doesn’t know if they got away. He doesn’t know what’s going to happen, if they made it back to Lucy or not, if she –

Lucy. That thought hurts the most of all, and given his present dismal state of repairs, both mental and physical, that is saying a lot. He tries to roll onto his back, grunts as his back registers its extreme objections, and remains where he is, half-sprawled on his side in the darkness, like a dangerous animal thrown in a cage. His cheek is sticky with blood where it presses to the metal, and there’s a rattling sound in his chest where he breathes. Rittenhouse isn’t going to get much sport out of hurting him, at this rate. Well, he’s sure they will anyway, because they’re the worst and they’ve been waiting long enough that they’ll take full advantage. But –

Did Lucy know? Did she send him there on purpose? I honestly could not care less if you got yourself killed. Was that the warning, and he missed it? Flynn is well aware that his behavior, over the general span of their acquaintance and then again today, has been far from exemplary, and perhaps she finally axed the entire ill-fated experiment of their collaboration for good. But why after it was almost working, and why especially after last night? Was it a vindictively cold-blooded move to get revenge on him for turning her down? That would be callous beyond belief, something that Lucy, for all her fierceness, doesn’t seem to intrinsically possess. And it wasn’t – that wasn’t what he – he knows and he doesn’t, it is tangled and twisted and raw, wrapping around him like a strangler snake, and he can’t breathe as it tightens.

Last night, lying next to her in bed, with her soft and warm and nuzzled into his side, looking at him with those big dark eyes as he told her about the Raven King… even now, Flynn’s stomach turns over at the memory. It took every inch of his self-control not to grab her, to roll her over beneath him and bear her down into the mattress, take her until there was no space or separation left, but he has never in his life touched a woman like that and there is no way he is going to start now. Not with her, not in the least. She deserves someone who would come to her with gentleness and care, someone younger and less shop-worn, who could devote himself to nothing but making her happy. Self-evidently, a widowed forty-three-year-old ex-monster hunter crime boss, international fugitive, and ruthless anarchist is not that man. Not with the ghost of a murdered daughter that shrieks in his nightmares, and a quest for vengeance that – well. Was probably always fated to end up like this. So he sabotaged himself, he pushed her away, he set out to viciously prove to himself that she would never want him. In that, at least, he has spectacularly succeeded. This is what he wanted, isn’t it? Burning it all down?

Flynn works his tongue gingerly around his mouth, testing for broken or missing teeth. They seem to be still in place, though they ache like pieces of red-hot iron in his jaw, and this is not an unqualified blessing. He doesn’t see much point in struggling to get out of here. He can’t, clearly, and there will just be more of them on the other side. He has never cared about the odds or the number of enemies before, but now, he is finally too tired to keep fighting. He’s old enough to know that he can’t take an unlimited pummeling, and he needs to save what strength he does have. For what, he doesn’t know. Dying with dignity?

Some indeterminate time passes. Flynn wanders in and out of consciousness. Sometimes he thinks he sees shadows bending over him, once he swears he feels the brush of Lorena’s hand on his face, the distant echo of Iris’ laugh, and wonders if this is some new torment the revenant has cooked up, if it’s drawing closer in the dark, come to feed on him by insidiously making him forget, in fits and starts, that they were ever gone. To believe, to hope, to want, and then wake up, and relive the loss all over again.

(Lucy. He feels horribly guilty, and he doesn’t think he should want it, given as there is still the possibility that she deliberately betrayed him, but he keeps looking for her among the phantoms, and she isn’t even there.)

After some while, Flynn is aware of the cage being lifted, moved, loaded onto something and wheeled along with bumping jolts. His captors appear to be taking him somewhere. He can hear them talking in an indistinct blend of Russian and English, but his bruised, feverish brain is not up to the task of interpreting both at once. The walls of his prison are solid steel, so he can’t see out, and they are clearly taking no chances with his escape. He has to remain curled up in more or less a ball, since he is a big man and it is a small box. There is a large barred slit overhead for ventilation, and also presumably for them to toss food in from time to time. He wonders if they’re going to do that, or make him beg. They are in for an unhappy surprise if so. If this is the end, he’d rather just get it over with.

Flynn can smell coal smoke, and what sounds like the hiss and click of iron wheels on track. At that, he blurrily realizes where they must in fact be taking him. Whether if it’s a more convenient interrogation point away from prying eyes in the city, or they have something more spectacular planned for him, or want to demonstrate their success in building his railway to the tsar – why not? Out in the winter wilds, out in the depths of nowhere, no one will ever see him again.

“Matija.” The word is a hushed croak, all Flynn can get through his aching throat. He has a sudden memory of when he was a boy – he doesn’t remember exactly how old, seven or eight – passing a fence post with a raven painted on it, GK scratched beneath. The way he had a sense that as long as he stood on that exact spot, the boundaries between the worlds were thin as silk, clear as glass, and he might take another step on the path he had walked a thousand times and find himself lost in Faerie. The way a cloud passed over the sun, and he looked up and saw a flock of ravens winging on the wind. A meaningless coincidence, his father would have insisted. Asher Flynn, born Aleksandr Kovačić, a young idealist who changed his name and moved to the West in hope of making a fortune, then returned home to Šibenik as an angry, disillusioned atheist with a young American wife, a drinking problem, and eyes that always burned like dark coals. Flynn doesn’t remember being so scared of anything in his life as he was of his father’s eyes when they were angry. Not even the grimmest monsters (small wonder he ran away to join the hunters at age fifteen) of the darkest woods could compare.

“Matija,” Flynn whispers again. “Matija Korvin. The woods are yours. The sky is yours. The night is yours, and so too the morning. The hedges are your gateways, the stones your servants. In the earth you plant your staff, in the green you spread your roots. You are the branches upon which your children rest, and the wings on which they fly. I am only a servant, kneeling before the King. I call you from the dark, and I offer you my fealty.”

It’s a very old prayer, and he’s said most of it in Croatian because that’s how he learned it from his grandmother Katja, a formidable and bitter old crone who scared the children away from her house in the village and was constantly suspected (not without reason, Flynn thinks, Iris had to get it from somewhere) of being a witch. She was never impressed with Aleksandr for moving to the West, nor for bringing home Maria Thompkins, and spent most of her time making her daughter-in-law’s life miserable for not knowing how to cook and speak the language and otherwise instantly absorb the habits of their ancient town on the Adriatic coast. Flynn has complicated memories of her, to say the least. But Katja Kovačić was not about to let her grandson grow up without knowing his culture and his heritage, and the proper prayers to the King, the one he was never supposed to tell the priest about. She gave him that, at least.

“Matija… Korvin.” You’re supposed to call him three times by his full name for the proper effect, Flynn remembers. There is another bump and jolt, and it feels as if his cage has been loaded onto the train. He hears a piercing whistle, feels a gust of frigid air, and knows it is only going to get colder. He is actively struggling to maintain consciousness, and feels the dark tugging at him with alluring, relentless hands. “Matija… Korvin…”

Not a damn thing, so far as he can tell, happens as a result. He feels ludicrous, trusting in old wives’ tales and children’s stories for his deliverance, when he might as well have asked the cage to spring open of its own accord, for all the locks to unbind and the train’s engine to spit bolts and shut down. Technology does not tend to work in the places where you find the marks of the raven. Flynn closes his blood-crusted eyes and lets his head drop onto the floor. He cannot remember a time, recently or perhaps ever, when he has felt so utterly, desolately empty.

Once more, the whistle sounds. The train starts to move. The wheels click on the track, he can sense St. Petersburg dwindling behind them like a dream lost on waking, and so, Garcia Flynn begins the long, last journey to Siberia.

#timeless #timeless ff #lucy x flynn #garcy #garcy ff #starlight & strange magic #steampunk au #garcia flynn human disaster #(who is surprised not me)

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electricbluebutterflies · 6 years

Text

trust

An implied scene from “useful kindness”, expanded into its own thing by popular demand. PG-ish and also on ao3.

It is two in the morning and sleep is just not going to happen.

Normally, Lucy has solutions for this issue. Normally, she'd just wander down the hallway and see if she's not the only person who's too tired to actually close their eyes, but not tonight. They're less than twelve hours removed from a mission that went unexpectedly stressful due to a communication issue, and she highly doubts Flynn wants anything to do with her right now. She does not fault him for this; they have their routines, on the weird nights, but it's no commitment.

She's not that lucky, she can't help thinking. She probably never will be.

So, other options. A hot shower seems like a good solution, enough to relax her body enough, and she doubts anyone else has the same thought. It's late, there's an exhausted energy in the safehouse, and she's pretty sure the other known insomniac is otherwise occupied. (He'd better be.)

And it is, as she closes the door behind her, something she wants. She's got her own bedroom here, though she rarely spends nights there anymore, and personal space shouldn't seem as weird as it is. But the past few months have been chaotic, and she doesn't remember the last time she felt like she had a chance to breathe. So much going on, a rescue mission that worked and then a rescue mission that didn't, moving twice in as many months - she thinks, she's not sure what the timing actually was, the first was sudden and the second was much more planned - and realizing how few physical possessions she still has.

The bedroom is a formality. The mostly-empty dresser is a formality. Sometimes, she thinks, her very personhood is a formality.

She turns the water on and then undresses, taking her time removing what feels like not enough layers. She's almost more comfortable in layers of skirts and excessive modesty than in her modern default of oversized shirt and leggings - she stopped caring about anything but comfort once she accepted the madness of her life, and she's not sure if she'll adjust out if this war ever ends - and she wonders what some shrink five years down the line is going to think of that disconnect. If she's alive in five years. If she's ever allowed to discuss any of this with anyone who didn't live it. If-

"No. Too much," she murmurs, slipping into the shower. She's supposed to be turning her mind off, not asking herself questions that will keep her awake all night if she doesn't silence them before they start.

Lucy lets the water cover her and thinks, for the first time in about a decade, about drowning. That one flicker of her past that she cannot explain, perhaps never will, the first time someone rescued her - but not the last, not anymore, not an isolated event. She can't do small spaces anymore, but large bodies of water are no problem at all. If the darkness in her brain gets bad, she thinks, she could easily walk into the ocean with stones in her pockets and complete a cliché. She's not particularly tempted to, but it's definitely an option if she needs it, and-

Wherever that train of thought was going, it is blessedly interrupted as the door opens and-

The. Door. Opens. What the fuck.

Lucy swears she locked it, but apparently she did not, and her towel is not within easy reach because this is not something she should have to worry about in the middle of the night, and she pokes her head out from behind the shower curtain and then a little more of her because she would like some kind of an explanation for this please, and she's not sure what exactly she expects to see in the doorframe but an unusually shellshocked Garcia Flynn is not it.

If anything, that's actually worse.

She feels like she should say something, but she's a little distracted by the spectacle she's unintentionally created. His eyes wander, desperate for something to latch onto that is not naked skin, and then he short-circuits completely and, well… faints.

Lucy doesn't exactly have a list of things she didn't plan on dealing with tonight, but a large human who is now spread out on the floor and might've hit his head on the sink on the way down is several levels of no thank you. And yet it's a weird enough situation with just her, and she is absolutely not waking up someone else and getting them in here to deal with it. At all. No, this little disaster is going to stay between the two of them and they are never going to talk about it and everything will be absolutely fine.

Under the circumstances, she decides that the sane thing to do is get dressed before she causes further injury, so she does. Her hair will dry weird in a messy bun, but she'll worry about that in the morning, and the sweater she's been sleeping in - one of his, she notes, and she wonders if that's at all weird - is thick enough that putting on a bra is optional. Otherwise, easy enough to get presentable, and then onto hoping she still remembers pieces of that one first-aid badge she did during her brief stint as a Girl Scout twenty-odd years ago.

He just fainted, she repeats to herself. It is not the end of the world. He is breathing and he has a pulse. He will be okay.

She maneuvers a footstool under his ankles - she's pretty sure that's supposed to help when dealing with an unconscious person, or at least she's seen it on enough TV shows that she figures it's worth a shot - and waits.

A few minutes later, his eyes open. This is unfortunately not the first time she's waited around for him to regain full consciousness, but it is the first time it was her fault and she supposes she ought to feel bad about that and-

"I did not mean to-"

Already apologizing. Okay, fine, that was awkward, but it was a very accidental kind of awkward and he's repaid his karmic debt via minor head injury and-

"Are you okay? You might've hit your head…"

"Doesn't feel any worse than usual," he murmurs, and that's not at all reassuring but now is not the right time for her to ask some very pointed questions about his pain tolerance. "I didn't mean to intrude, Lucy. I should've heard the running water and-"

"Shit happens. You didn't mean to, and this is what I get for not making absolutely sure I'd hit the lock, and better you than anyone else…"

That last comment is almost unintentional, but she can tell from the way he looks up at her that it was the right thing to say.

"Thank you."

"Can you… do you think you can get on your feet?"

"I can try."

She gets up quickly and offers her hand, and he does manage to get upright without any significant difficulty.

"C'mon," she murmurs, not breaking their connection. "We're waiting this out. If you have a concussion-"

"I do not have a concussion, Lucy."

"Are you absolutely sure?"

"Doesn't feel like the time I did. Yeah, I'm sure."

"Too bad. You're stuck with me tonight."

He gives her a look that makes it very clear he doesn't mind that situation at all, and somehow they manage to get down the hallway to his room without any further disasters.

"You don't have to stay," he reminds her. "I'll be okay on my own."

"I know, but… I want to. Someone has to keep an eye on you. And besides, you're warm."

He doesn't fight this. He never does, on the nights she's determined not to be alone. And it is so easy for them to arrange themselves on the mattress, as innocently entwined as possible and as familiar with each other as two people who've been doing this on a regular basis for six months could be, and she can't help but think that she could move her singular cardboard box of stuff in here and nobody would bat an eyelash.

Not that she's going to, but she could.

"Still okay?" she murmurs once they're in a decent position.

"Bit of a headache, but I won't die."

"Don't… don't talk like that. You are allowed to feel pain."

"I didn't hit my head on anything on the way down, but tile floor is a bad landing. That enough?"

Lucy nods, not sure what to say. She caused this, and she feels terrible about it, and-

"I'm not mad at you. Just at myself. I violated your space, I-"

"You didn't mean to," she reminds him.

"Accident doesn't make it better. I still…"

"I still trust you. I still know you would never hurt me. This doesn't change how I feel about you. Let that be enough."

She falls asleep curled up around him, to the comforting rhythm of his heartbeat, like she has on so many other nights before. And like so many mornings before, she wakes with his arm around her waist, protective even in subconscious.

"We're not talking about this," she breathes, well aware that her partner is still out and won't hear anything she says right now. "But I still trust you. I always will."

#garcy #ebf writes fic

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aspire-to-the-light · 6 years

Text

Everyone should have a first aid kit.

I recently discovered that a fairly high proportion of people I know do not have a first aid kit in their homes, and this is horrifying to me. Please, if this is you, rectify this situation.

This is not justifiable on “I’m unlikely to accidentally cut my arm off so I don’t need bandages” grounds. Not all emergencies are unlikely events played up by alarmists; heart attack is the leading cause of death across the developed world, kills 1 in 4 Americans, and is significantly more survivable if you have aspirin on hand. (If you suspect someone is having a heart attack, priority 1 is call an ambulance, priority 2 is give them aspirin. Time matters in those situations; it is worth having it quickly accessible in a cupboard, and more obviously worth it the older you are.)

This is not justifiable on “I’ll just buy medicines when I get sick” grounds. When you wake up at 6am vomiting with a killer headache, you may not be particularly thrilled by the idea of driving to the store to buy medicines. So prepare in advance. I guess you could rely on other people driving to the store for you, but why would you defect when you could instead be pro-social?

In any case, you may not be able to go to the store in all situations. When I fell off my scooter and took all the skin off my knees, it was past midnight in the outskirts of Cambridge, and the nearest open store was 40 minutes’ walk away. If I hadn’t wanted to walk for 40 minutes while every step hurt, I would have had to wake someone up in the small hours of the morning to ask for help. Luckily I had antiseptic and plasters in a cupboard so I just cleaned myself up, solved the problem, and went to sleep.

This is not justifiable on “but if it’s minor then it doesn’t need treating, and if it’s major then I should go to a doctor instead of treating it myself” grounds. A first aid kit is how you know whether it’s minor or major. There are plenty of collections of symptoms which are fairly minor on their own, but if you also have a high fever then you should go to the emergency room. If you don’t have a thermometer, you don’t know whether you have a high fever. There are also plenty of situations where you can take a basic remedy for X, and then if it doesn’t clear up, you have evidence that it’s something more serious than X and so you can choose to go to a doctor at that point.

This is not justifiable on “I rarely get sick” grounds. Medicine isn’t about individuals, it’s about being pro-social and cooperative. The important part of getting a vaccine isn’t that you personally won’t get sick, it’s the herd immunity you’re contributing to. If a friend is visiting you and realises they feel a migraine coming on and they left their meds at home, and you are able to offer them ibuprofen, you will be able to save them lots of disutility for very little cost. Inviting people over when you do not have a basic medicine cabinet is sort of like inviting people over when your house doesn’t have running water.

A basic first aid kit should have:

Aspirin (note: do not give to children)

Antiseptic in some form (wipes, gel, whatever)

Plasters / a bandage

Ibuprofen gel, or a similar skin-absorbed local anaesthetic (mostly good for pulled muscles, which are a common exercise injury especially among people who don’t stretch much, and which can be surprisingly painful - verging on paralysing if your pain tolerance is low)

Ibuprofen

Paracetamol, aka acetaminophen (alternative painkiller for people/situations where aspirin/ibuprofen are bad ideas)

Oral antihistamines if they’re available in your country (these are not enough to handle a severe allergic reaction on their own, but will help if hayfever is causing puffy eyes or mosquito bites are getting to you)

Hydrocortisone cream/gel (usually OTC in low concentrations for applying to skin - it’s for itches and rashes, and it can help you tell whether a rash is a mild allergic reaction or a sign of something more serious)

Some kind of antacid (good for heartburn/indigestion, and for distinguishing heartburn/indigestion from more serious pain)

Sunscreen, and after-sun burn cream

Activated charcoal (for poisoning, overdoses, vomiting, and idiots who eat Tide pods - note that it fucks with basically all medicines)

Cold or flu medications - look for decongestants, cough suppressants and throat soothers

Energy drinks (or proper rehydration stuff if you can get it) - the sugar and electrolytes are really important when rehydrating people (which is important for a whole variety of situations, from diarrhoea to alcohol poisoning)

The morning-after contraceptive pill

If there are any anti-anxiety or anti-panic-attack medications which are legally available in your country, get those

Sterile distilled water in sealed containers (for cleaning stuff, especially your eyes), ideally drop containers so you can use it as eye drops

Thermometer

Tweezers

Cling film (aka plastic wrap / saran wrap), tape and scissors (but you don’t necessarily need to keep these in your first aid kit, so long as they’re somewhere in the house)

Synthetic gloves (ideally not latex)

This definitely varies depending on what kind of area you live in, and what kind of social circle you interact with. If the people around you are the kind of people who are at risk for drug overdoses (I’m looking at you, Bay Area friends), it is more important to have kit to deal with that. If you have kids, you may need child-safe variants of some medicines. I do judo, so I have extra stuff to deal with sprains and muscle injuries and mat burn. It’ll also vary based on what’s legal - Naloxone is illegal in most places, but I’d endorse having it if it isn’t (it saves people from opioid overdoses). If you live in an area where natural disasters happen regularly or you might get snowed in, you probably know more about it than me, but you should have an emergency kit with food and water and maybe a generator or something.

If you own a car, you should have a first-aid kit in your car as well as in your house. This one can afford to skip a lot of the medicines (and the painkillers, which untrained on-the-scene people shouldn’t really give out), but it should specifically include scissors and tape and a box of tissues, because you won’t necessarily have those in the car the way you’ll have them around the house. Also, it should have a warm blanket, water bottles, and a flashlight. You may consider adding a first aid manual, because not all car crashes will conveniently occur in an area where you can get 3G and look up first aid stuff online, and some car accidents might destroy your phone.

I am not a doctor, and you should not treat this post like it is doctor advice. I also disagree with much of the advice available on the internet; many lists of first aid kit stuff include things which are useless to the average person. I do not know the difference between a gauze pad and a cotton bandage and a triangular bandage and I am not going to be able to pick the correct one, so there is no point in me having all three.

Many first aid kit lists also don’t include things like morning-after contraceptives, because...? Why the hell do people think that it is worth stocking up on plasters in case you get a papercut, but not worth having emergency contraceptives in case you have unsafe sex? Some of them do not include rehydration stuff or activated charcoal, like... if I was being uncharitable I would blame this on the War On Drugs philosophy of just letting people horribly die because they did the eeeevil action of accidentally ingesting something they shouldn’t, or something in quantities that they shouldn’t. Not that you even need to be doing illegal drugs or even low-status drugs in order to get a dangerous overdose, I’ve totally accidentally made myself sick drinking too much espresso because I was trying to be a good servant of capitalism and get plenty of work done. Ordinary non-medical-professional people’s first aid kits should not be for play-acting superhero with a dazzling variety of cool wound dressings, they should be for helping actual humans.

Anyway get yourself a first aid kit, and stock it with stuff actually likely to be useful to you and the people around you. Aspirin and hydrocortisone and charcoal, not gauze pads and complicated wound dressings and sewing needles. And then restock it when you run out of ibuprofen, or when stuff expires.

#cw biology #cw medicine #cw risk #cw disease #cw injury #cw scrupulosity

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fox-mulders-ties · 7 years

Photo

It's off to Aubrey Missouri to investigate a case. There's a woman named BJ, and a grouchy detective getting in the way. Mulder's wearing Betwitchery in Red again, one of his favourite ties, but it’s clearly not working on Detective Douchebag, who's bringing shame to the tie Mulder wore in the pilot when he made his first wisearse crack about being the FBI’s Most Unwanted.

They're eating chicken in the morgue, as you do, and Mulder's being classic Mulder when he laughingly scoffs at her claims that she used women's intuition to pick up on an affair between BJ & Douchebag. Scully works out that BJ's pregnant as they chat in the bathroom. BJs having bad dreams. Really bad. Then there's some breakthrough in the case and another crime scene.

The next day they sit in the park in Mulder's Half Moon tie. Sometimes I get too distracted by how beautiful they are to actually listen to what they're saying. More than sometimes. The transcript says BJ is suddenly wanting to mother every child she sees now that she's pregnant and I perform an eyeroll of Scully proportions, then BJ draws a picture of a circle and a triangle which Mulder instantly recognises as the symbol of the 1939 World's Fair in NYC. He probably used to have a tie with that design. They didn't appear to do anything else that day, they probably just went back to the motel to “confer”.

In the car the following day they're off to see the old guy that BJ thought she saw in her dream. Mulder has the Fate tie on, which is at its most disappointing in the car, but they're actually having a bit of a fun conversation as they drive. Mulder talks about late bloomers (which I’m sure he hopes he'll be one day when he develops some adult social skills), then when Scully suggests that BJ found the FBI agent's body it was a hunch, they laugh about Mulder's extreme hunches. It's always sweet when they have a go at teach other in a friendly way I like this Mulder and Scully.

Lots of irrelevant case related stuff happens...There's some minor gazing. BJ is hurt. They bring the old guy in for questioning but he's clearly incapable of doing anything. Unless he's a good faker. I have a sinus headache and Mulder and Scully head back to the motel for the night.

The next morning, we see Mulder in a new tie called Irresistible. But it's not the tie that's irresistible as he lounges around on the couch in their motel room eating sunflower seeds. Mulder thinks it looks especially good horizontal so he displays this tie in its horizontal glory as much as possible. Then they see an old lady who'd had the killer's baby, who they say would be about 50 now, and gave him up for adoption. It turns out that his baby was BJ's father. This has me confused because I could swear BJ was over 40. Mulder's sure that it's genetic memory driving BJ, and Scully can't resist him in that tie.

BJ attacks her grandma and Mulder heads over to the old killer's house figuring that's where she would go next. He's attacked by BJ, causing his fondness for women named BJ to diminish, and lies prone hoping she’ll find the tie more irresistible than killing him. Fortunately he’s rescued by Scully and Douche. Scully puts her excellent doctor Head Cradling 401 skills to good use whilst acknowledging that the tie does look so much better horizontal. Back at the motel, Scully makes him lie down, refusing to let him take off the tie, using the excuse that she's a medical doctor and she knows best. Medical School was worth it just for that excuse.

#The X-Files #2x12 Aubrey #ties #txf

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prolapsingintothemaelstrom · 7 years

Text

Renegade (pt. 4)

Another wolf-finds-his-mate story, but I kicked it up a notch and created a whole new world around it.

Pairing: Chanyeol x Reader

Genre: Supernatural (EXO as wolves, but more species involved in the storyline)

Word count: 8912 words

Warning: Long read, Somewhat angsty, Dork! Chanyeol, five second sex scene that I have not written like I would write smut but more held-back, lots of things happening and after a while you won’t even be able to tell what the biggest problem is. I promise it’ll all make sense later on.

New to the series? Start your adventure here: Prologue (Don’t skip it, it contains info you’ll need later on.) The posts will always contain a link to the next part, unless that part hasn’t been posted yet.

Part 4

Chanyeol leaned his bum onto the table top of the chestnut brown, wooden desk, allowing him to compromise some of his tallness and spread his legs spaciously for (y/n) to stand in between them. Owing to his long legs, his dress shoes remained settled on the floor, though the idea to wrap them around her legs had emerged from his cerebrum several times. As if holding her waist in his arms was not enough, he wanted to capture her prisoner of love and hold on to her like there was no tomorrow.

He acted as much out of desire for her as out of necessity. Since the day they had intensified their mate-bond, Chanyeol would wake up to minor headaches that disappeared by virtue of a few kisses, hugs and minutes of physical contact, shared with his girl.

He wished for things to be different, but for now he had to make do with sneaking around like teenagers at locations where (y/n) was not supposed to be; empty lecture-hall back offices having the amplest space were at the top of Chanyeol’s preferred list. He felt guilty for urging her to have rendezvous with him like these. Unfortunately, there weren’t many other options considering the dangers of abstinence.

(y/n) didn’t seem too bothered with the situation as he imagined her to be. Be it the back office of a lecture hall for an elaborate make-out session or the janitor’s closet for a quick kiss, she seemed genuinely happy to be with him. She had only complained once, stating she had become unable to focus on the course material during his lectures because he was too attractive in both his looks and voice.

Surreptitiously, Chanyeol had been trying to find a solution to that problem and was planning to put some of those solutions to the test on their next legitimate date. From the get-go, he resolutely reserved illegal college appointments for experiencing and showing his love. He held no wish to squander their limited time together in explaining the process by which information is transmitted from the presynaptic cell to the postsynaptic cell, which change occurs in the postsynaptic cell and whatnot. He just wanted to be close to her. As simple as that. As simple as (y/n) holding onto his white shirt with her small clenched hands, as simple as their kiss. Slow but passionate, contributing to a whole new level of intimacy. It made Chanyeol’s heart do things inexplicable; slow down and skip at the same time.

“Aren’t you a sneaky little thing?” He pulled away unhurried, the tip of his nose brushing over (y/n)’s. Chanyeol opened his eyes to find hers were still closed and smiled at the thought of her enjoying their kisses as much as he did.

“How so?” (y/n) asked, opening her eyes to drown into Chanyeol’s.

“You've been holding onto my shirt for less than five minutes and somehow you've managed to pull it out of my pants. Go on like that for an hour and I'll be naked".

“Sorry!” (y/n) laughed and let her head fall in the crook of Chanyeol’s neck to hide her embarrassment, causing her grasp on his shirt to tighten haphazardly. When she noticed, she decided to draw them around his waist instead, capturing him between her arms.

“You’re too cute”, Chanyeol chuckled and gave her a kiss on the head. He rested his chin upon her hairs as he combed through them with his long fingers. “Hey, promise me you’ll stay the night tomorrow?” he whispered, maybe because he was aware those kind of requests were not what one would call taking things slow; it was barely the fifth day he could address her as his girlfriend. Then again, nothing in their relationship was normal. Lecturer-Student relationship, sex after a first non-official date. Rationally, he blamed everything on their magical bond but emotionally, he couldn’t help but blame it on his feelings for her that grew stronger by the minute.

(y/n) nodded silently, then nuzzled her head deeper into Chanyeol’s neck.

“Promise!” Chanyeol requested as he smiled broadly to her response. He had felt her nod but still wanted to hear her say it, just because it would spike his happiness.

(y/n) untangled herself from Chanyeol, staring deep into his eyes as she wrapped her arms around his neck instead. “I swear on Charles Sherrington’s and Santiago Ramón y Cajal’s graves that I will find an indisputable excuse for when my mom hears me out on why my bed remained unslept on a Friday night”

“Swearing on the founding fathers of neuroscience’s graves. That’s a heavy promise”, Chanyeol said. “Now add the part where you’re going to spend that night with me, and swear it on Otto Loewi’s grave”, he demanded with a smirk.

“Who the hell is that?”, (y/n) burst into laughter, causing Chanyeol to laugh along with her as he explained.

“Module three point two. We saw it yesterday. Neuroscience and behaviour lecture. His frog experiment that won him the Nobel prize?” He remembered how he re-read the third module on Monday afternoon for teaching purposes and how the textbook mentioned the funny details on how Loewi awakened one night with the sudden idea, wrote it down on a note, went back to bed and then woke up unable to read his own note. The next night, Loewi woke up to the same idea and rushed to the laboratory instead.

“Sorry, I can’t recall”, (y/n) shook her head as she tried to regain composure from her laughter. Bad student, Chanyeol thought. You’re ought to read the modules before the lectures. Then again, back in his days he wasn’t any better so he held his tongue. “So Otto Lewis’s grave it is?”

“Otto Loewi”, Chanyeol articulated. “Not Lewis”.

“That’s what I said!”

“No, it’s not”, he shook his head, earning a pout from (y/n). “Fine, for once I’ll do with Otto Lewis, whoever he may have been. He better be worth a lot”, Chanyeol made a mental note to google that name later on.

“I solemnly swear on Otto Louis’s grave I will spend the entire night in your presence”. Chanyeol shook his head, hearing another wrong pronunciation of the name Loewi. She’s never going to get that right, he sighed to himself, and hoped she’d get it right in writing.

“Ah, we got a lot of work to do”, Chanyeol pulled her close to him again, wrapping her in a tight hug.

There were many perks to a small town. Even more to a small town with mainly supernatural inhabitants that had impeccable hearing skills. The alpha’s long howl was audible for the entire pack throughout the town. As each family contained at least one wolf, information could be passed on quickly, allowing emergency gatherings to be organised last-minute.

It was to say the least unusual that they had requested all adults to gather in the barn. In fact, it was the first time this ever happened, as far as Chanyeol could recall. All non-adults were requested to gather in the Main mansion or to be brought there by their parents for babysit arranged just in the nick of time for the meeting, whilst the adults fidgeted to find a good spot beside their preferred groups of friends or family.

This was what a real pack looked like. Not small groups of ten or twenty people, but an entire legacy of people, most descendant from one same wolf that existed a thousand years ago. Taking into account not only the wolves but also all mates, be them wolves, witches or humans and large groups of lost pack-members killed at devastating battles throughout history, two hundred would be the more accurate number.

For a wolf pack, this was not an exceptionally large number. South Korea had three big wolf packs, according to Chanyeol’s knowledge, and one of them was rumoured to have at least double the amount of members. As for the biggest one known? Russia, apparently, rumoured to have a pack consisting out of no less than a thousand members.

There were also smaller wolf packs, but they were in the vast minority compared to the large ones. The only way to create a new pack is for one to become an omega and start a new pack from one’s offspring. Wolves, being herd animals, however, rarely left their pack, the only frequent recurring exception being when one found their mate in another pack. This would cause a non-wolf member of the pack to move to the wolf’s pack, and if both were wolves, the one with the smallest pack would move to the bigger pack.

To manage such large groups, most alpha’s opted for having their own advisory board or council, much like mundane politics. Every six years, adult members of Chanyeol’s pack could vote on who they preferred to be on the board, the only difference being that there was no political war nor contestants or advertisement to endorse people. People just chose who they deemed fit for the position. Last time, it had caused Chanyeol headaches, not knowing if he’d vote for his mom or his dad. Unable to make a decision, he ended up flipping a coin when he was in front of the ballot and to his luck, both his parents made it onto the board.

The lucky one, or maybe unfortunate one, - Chanyeol could never tell if it was a blessing-, to be the alpha of their enormous group? Joonmyeon’s father Kim Yongha. He had become their alpha after killing their previous one, a result of a policy which stated that alpha’s should be killed when they reach the age of eighty. Enough reasons not to sign up for becoming the next himself, Chanyeol thought as he tried to squirm himself through the huge amount of inhabitants with a can of beer at hand, looking for his friends. Thanks to his wolf abilities, he had found them quickly.

“We saved you a seat”, Jongin patted on the square straw bale next to him. As usual, it was the young adults that secured the spots to sit on. Chanyeol plopped down on the bale, taking another sip from his drink.

“You’re late. You were calling (y/n)?”. Minseok, who was sitting behind him on the straw bale, hovered his head between Jongin and Chanyeol’s shoulder.

“I’m not late. It hasn’t even started yet”.

“You’re avoiding the question. How is the absence sickness?” Minseok asked instead.

“Slight headaches in the morning but we’re making up for that tomorrow”, Chanyeol tried to stay cool about it. He wasn’t going to tell them how he would sneak (y/n) into places she was not supposed to be at, at College, for make-out sessions. His friends were well aware of their Lecture-Student relationship and providing them with such details would just feed their dirty imaginations. Chanyeol knew some of them could not help but think of their statuses as some sort of fetish in the bedroom.

“Oooooooh. Huge fireworks tomorrow night”, Jongin laughed and Chanyeol gave him a dead glare, remembering how he still had to kill Baekhyun for timing the festival’s fireworks to the minute he found ‘his release’. He turned to look behind him, finding Baekhyun playing a game of cards with Kyungsoo, then back in front of him to the wolf pack. Maybe now was not the right time to do so

“Your parents really didn’t tell you anything?” Minseok figured it’d be best to switch subjects.

“They didn’t”, Chanyeol shook his head, sipping from the can once more and looking in front of him to the huge crowd that had gathered.

“That’s curious. Your parents tell you everything”, Jongin pointed out.

“We don’t have a witch in the family to do privacy spells and with an entire town full of supernatural hearing wolves who could pass by our house and overhear everything, that can mean only one of two things. Either they’ve got no clue what’s going on, or something bad is happening”, Chanyeol said, assuming that if his parents withheld information from him, it’d be not to cause panic in the entire town.

“I guess we’re ought to find out now, aren’t we?” Minseok nodded. “This is what the meeting’s for, right?”

“I guess. I don’t see why else”, Jongin agreed.

From the looks of it, their group was not the only one who had been left guessing on what the fuzz was about. Many of the pack members seemed confused, turning the entire event in a bring-your-own-booze festivity. Some believed that this assembly meant exceptionally good news, reason enough to start the party early and drink away, whilst others suspected bad news, also reason enough to get a head start on the alcohol. Compared to others, Chanyeol conveyed the impression of a good boy with his plain beer.

Although it was not in Chanyeol’s hearing focus, he noticed immediately the sound of a candle that was blown out, hinting the board had finished their private pre-discussion. He was not the only one, as everyone suddenly fell silent and turned their heads into the direction of the board members that marched inside the barn, the alpha in their middle.

The board members spread to stand with their families, Chanyeol’s dad joining Yoora. His mom did not seem to be present. Maybe she’s on babysit-duty, Chanyeol thought. Their alpha, Joonmyeon’s dad, however, secured a place in the middle of the barn.

“May I have your attention please”, he broke the silence and raised his voice so that even non-wolf pack members could hear him clearly. Chanyeol could barely see Yongha as he did not stand on a platform or foundation to stick out from the crowd. “First of all, I’d like to express my extreme gratitude for everyone who without doubt had other important matters to attend to and had to abandon those responsibilities in order to join us for this emergency announcement”. Damn, he always blows things up as if we all live extremely busy lives. I was just calling (y/n), Chanyeol thought. Loosen up, alpha.

“As many of you have gathered, this meeting covers our official statement concerning all the reports of strange mundane behaviour, we have been fortunate to receive from many of you”. You make it sound like it’s a good thing, Chanyeol remembered how he first informed his parents of the bizarre demeanours.

“I, your alpha, and the board would like to express our apologies for the investigation to have taken so long since it was not a frivolous matter to investigate as we have done many in the past. You see… it appears that our town, our inhabitants, we, you, are being watched. We are being observed by none other than the South Korean government as a result of an unresolved incident that took place mid-August. I, and the board, we fear we have been discovered as wolves and that we are being threatened to be either massacred or turned into living experiments”. High-pitched deep inhales could be heard from mainly women, fright striking them. Human mates clung onto their wolf partners in search for protection. In Chanyeol’s group of friends, calmness remained. They knew their alpha would not provide them this information without offering a solution.

“From the information we have been able to gather, the government is checking with the army to invade our town. We have examined our options and concluded that moving our entire pack is not one of them. Finding a new home will not settle the issue and neither will many of you be willing to leave behind all the memories that have been created here. This town is too precious to all of us. This is our home”, people nodded in agreement. “We have contacted our ally-packs to request help in resolving this matter and following the code, there will be no blood-shed. We are kind-hearted and we are proud of that. We will not harm any South Korean citizen, even if they pose a threat to us, just because they have been requested to carry out a task. Is that clear?”

“Clear”, all wolves shouted in unison. Some Yes’s could be heard, uttered by the human mates who had no idea how to respond to the alpha. Despite being threatened, there was a gargantuan feeling of solidarity.

“We are no vampires or sirens, but for now a massive human brainwash is our only option. Starting tomorrow we will be providing temporary housing for witches from other packs and together with our witches, we are certain that we will find a human way for them to forget everything they know. In addition to this, the board has decided to implement some additional rules for you to follow until a vast plan of action is decided. Note that these rules apply with immediate effect. Rule number one. No-one, no single exception, will take on their wolf-form until further notice. Not in our town, not in our woods, nowhere! Remember that you could be followed as an individual”. We can hear when they’re nearby, Chanyeol thought, but was immediately shook when the alpha raised his voice as if it was aimed at his thoughts. “NO EXCUSES. Equal goes for the witches under us. No magical activities shall take place without permission of the board”.

“Second rule. Nobody leaves town without permission. Right now we have no estimation on when they are planning to invade our town and we want to make sure that when they do, we are at our strongest, should we have no concrete plan of action yet. For that, we need everyone present. We are betting our luck that they have not figured out the majority of our abilities and the presence of witches and we will most certainly make use of that advantage in case of need. The only approved exception for now, concerns our children who may leave for school in groups. As customary, a bus will leave in the morning to drop the children at school and will pick them up. University students, employees and self-employed adults stay here. For those in need of proof of illness, Doctor Oh will help you with that”.

Chanyeol’s eyes widened. He was not allowed to leave town anymore? He was not allowed to go to College for his lectures? He was not allowed to go see his mate?! No, they had to make an exception for him. He would become useless if he couldn’t see his mate. He’d get absence sickness. They would understand that he couldn’t ask a human mate to move in with him after a few weeks, right?! How was he supposed to explain to his mate that he was fit enough to see her in his town, but not to lecture?

“Additional questions?” Yongha shouted.

“What was the incident?” Chanyeol recognized Jaemin, one of the wolf students he had over the summer, his father speak up. “The incident… you mentioned it was caused by an unresolved incident”, he swallowed deeply, fearing he was not allowed to ask that question. Yongha sighed, emotional pain visible in his eyes.

“It was a wolf… A wolf who killed a twenty-two-year-old male college student in our woods”, he responded, not raising his voice anymore. He was in deep thoughts with the boy and his family. “Apparently, similar incidents have happened across Seoul since that day. Many… serial killers… make their first victim close to home and that’s why they chose to keep a close eye on us. Most probably, we are falsely being accused for murder”.

Grief covered the entire barn. One would think that in a supernatural world, homicide was a regular occurring thing. Part of that may be true, but this did not apply for wolf packs. Wolves were love-hung, kind-hearted, compassionate creatures. To them, murder was unforgivably horrendous and happened scarcely ever, which only raised more questions as to which rogue wolf would turn serial killer.

“You boys stay in the Main mansion”, Chanyeol’s father was suddenly standing next to him and his friends. “We don’t want an empty house for them to prepare their last ammunition or… whatever. I imagine you’re all going to spend a lot of time together anyways, with the town-arrest. You might as well live together. Better make a party of it, but don’t get drunk”

“You sound like we’re counting our last days, Papa Chanyeol”, Yixing pointed out. “What’s the use of partying if we can’t get drunk?”

“You can have fun without. Besides, I don’t want to see you drunk. You already look like you’re on weed half of the time; I don’t want to see the combo”.

“You should!” Jongdae laughed. “I swear it’s worth it!”

“I don’t take anything!” Yixing defended.

“If I thought you did, I wouldn’t have mentioned it so casually. Relax”. Chanyeol’s dad then turned to his son, who had become exceptionally quiet. “Hey, what’s wrong? We’re going to get through this, promise”, he flashed his son a small smile.

Chanyeol sighed deeply. “The plan isn’t remarkably promising, is it?” His dad took a seat next to his son on the straw bale, giving him a few pats on his back.

“There are still many things to sort out first, with the arrival of other pack’s witches”, his father nodded. “I know that’s not reassuring but our pack has survived worse throughout history. You read our history books, you should know. Besides, they’ve been watching us for weeks already. I’m certain we’ll have a waterproof plan before they invade. What happened to my ever so optimistic Chanyeol?”

“It’s just a really bad timing”, Chanyeol traced his fingers through his hair, then scratched his jaw nervously.

“If there’s anything I can do for you”, his dad gave him a few more pats on the back.

“Dad”, Chanyeol looked up to face his dad for the first time, his eyes twinkling in a begging sadness. “I need an allowance to go to college. You can give me that, right?”, he asked. His dad was going to give him at least that much, right? Considering his situation.

“Son, you know I’m really proud of you? You’ve grown up a lot and you feel responsible to teach those bachelor students, but you don’t have to feel guilty about this. Just stay home”.

“Pa, you don’t understand-”,

“Of course I do. Your mom and I are closing our businesses as well. It’s just temporary. You can work on your thesis instead and like that, your time won’t go-”

“No no no, dad”, Chanyeol cut him off, slightly panicking and shaking his hands in front of him to show his disagreement. “You really don’t understand. I need…”, he felt a bit shy to say it and lowered his head to watch the straw-covered floor. “I need… skinship”, his heart skipped a beat when he uttered the last word.

“You need what?”, his dad raised an eyebrow. He had never heard of the term before. Despite being a cool dad, engaging in music and having his own bar, he was not up to date on the present-day slang words used by the youthful adults.

“You know...”, Chanyeol exhaled deeply, having to go in detail. “Touching… kissing- I have a mate!”, he blurted it out. Although it had been no secret to his friends, the friends of his friends and his sister, his parents had no clue on the recent developments in Chanyeol’s love life.

“You found your mate?” Chanyeol’s dad’s face lit up, excited. “Why haven’t I met her yet? She works at your college?” He bombarded his son with questions. “Why didn’t you tell us? What’s her name? What’s she like? How far-”

“Dad!” Chanyeol interrupted him, stomping his feet. “Stop! She’s one of my students, alright?” Chanyeol’s frustration had caused not only his friends, but also some of the people standing in the barn, to shift their focus onto him. Great, just great, Chanyeol thought. Now everyone knows I’m screwing one of my students. Could this day get any worse?

“Eh”, his dad wasn’t sure what to respond. “Well…”, he looked around discovering various eyes on him, awaiting his response, and concluded he had to handle the situation as mature as possible. “That’s… unfortunate”.

Oh, really? Chanyeol judged his father’s observation and was boiling inside as a result from all the unwanted attention he was getting. On the outside, he tried to remain calm as his father contemplated on what to say.

“I admit I’m not a fan of those kind or relationships, but if she’s your mate, I have no doubt that what you’re both feeling is pure and I fully support you”.

“My husband was married when I was hired by his pregnant wife as their cleaning lady and at first, we had an affair for-”, an elder woman started telling her unfortunate wolf love-story to the people around her, causing others to turn their heads into another direction.

“Alright Grandma. Everyone knows that story”, her granddaughter interrupted her and tried to calm her down. Chanyeol chuckled. He wasn’t the only one who had overstepped boundaries.

“Listen, son, I’m not the one who can grant you permission to leave town, only Yongha can. I’ll need some details on how advanced your relationship with this girl is but we’ll do that at home, ok?”

Chanyeol was being Chanyeol. There was no other way to explain or bring into words the idiocy of the situation. When he was in his element, he did not hold back the dork within him. He was the type to get over-excited over the most foolish things and go all-in whenever an opportunity rose for him to act like a buffoon. He should’ve worked in the entertainment industry.

Chanyeol was testing one of the solutions he had come up with to handle the attractiveness-problem. He knew the solution he was to test first, was going to flunk terribly, but he still wanted to see how far he could go with his stupidity for (y/n) to handle. Quite frankly, he needed this. He needed this to take his mind off his other problems. Whilst the witches were searching for a solution to the army-threat and he was waiting for permission to leave town, life went on, and he still had some conquering to do. He had to get his girl to become as comfortable as possible with him before he’d break to her about being a wolf.

The ceiling of his room was decorated with a bunch of helium-filled balloons in an expanded diversity of colours, one of his new preferred objects; the green ones being his absolute favourite. Dressed in nothing less than a ridiculous white-pink rabbit-onesie, (y/n) stared at him with mouth agape as she watched him jump up to try and catch hold of one of the wires that hung loose from the balloons.

“And you also said my voice was too attractive”, Chanyeol grinned and untangled the wire from the balloon he had caught, guiding the mouthpiece to his lips and inhaling deeply from the inflated material. “So, Otto Loewi”, he sounded like a chipmunk. (y/n) let herself fall onto her back, on the bed, from laughter. Her tears were evident in her eyes. She hit Chanyeol’s giant Rilakkuma several times with her palm, unable to restrain herself from rolling in the aisles. When she finally started to regain her composure, Chanyeol inhaled from the balloon once more.

“He won the Nobel prize for his frog experiment that-”, he couldn’t finish his sentence before he found his girlfriend bursting into laughter again, holding onto Rilakkuma for support to stay seated.

“Grant the frog some attention, princess”, Chanyeol said in his normal voice after (y/n) stopped snorting, leaning his hand on his hip impatiently but looking amused himself.

“I thought you were a bunny, not a frog”, (y/n) wiped away her tears.

“Oh no, I am a frog”, Chanyeol inhaled what was left of helium in the balloon. He then crouched down, his hands flat on the floor between his knees, pretending to be one. “Kiss me, princess”.

“Ieuw yuk”, (y/n) giggled.

“Kiss me kiss me kiss me”, Chanyeol demanded, still in his high-pitched helium voice, puckering his lips and closing his eyes.

“No, gross!” He had a cushion thrown to his head.

“If the princess doesn't kiss the frog, how can he ever turn in a prince huh?” Chanyeol pouted, back with his normal, deep voice.

“Never!”

“I guess the frog will have to take the initiative then”, Chanyeol jumped towards (y/n) in his frog posture. When he reached the bed, (y/n) jumped off it quickly, trying to run. A one-minute chase later however, Chanyeol had managed to corner her, locking her in against a wall, sitting down.

(y/n) pretended as if she found him disgusting as his lips got closer to hers, pinching her eyes fearful and trying to pull away further against the wall. Chanyeol gave her a slow kiss, lingering onto her lips for a few seconds before he pulled away and she opened her eyes.

“Ya! Why are you still a frog?”, she played along and raised her voice at him, finding him in his frog position still.

“Because it's you who has to do it!”, Chanyeol defended. “Come on, it wasn't that bad, was it? Just kiss me already”. Still acting as if she was disgusted by the frog, (y/n) gave him a hasty peck.

“See. You're still a frog! Hopeless case! You're just a frog”, she complained.

“Aren't you the most impatient princess ever? Magic takes time! It won't work with such a quick kiss. Do it properly!” (y/n) eyed Chanyeol out of disbelief. He could imagine her thoughts. How was this her lecturer? How was this her boyfriend? Nevertheless, a few seconds later she complied and leaned in, swinging her arms around his shoulders to pull him closer for a deep, sweet kiss. She can definitely handle the idiot within me, Chanyeol thought, no, she loves the idiot within me. He leaned forward so his knees sank to the ground as she kissed him, transforming from a frog into a prince.

“Where's my prince? All I see is a man-child”, (y/n) pouted.

“What?” Chanyeol’s eyes grew wide. “You don't like me?”

“Give me back the frog. I liked him better”.

“Ya! You're really a rude princess!” Chanyeol shouted at (y/n). There was a short moment of silence before (y/n) finally spoke, sticking her lip out.

“How is it that I find this bunny-with-a-chipmunk-voice-pretending-to-be-frog person so charming?” The comment made Chanyeol’s face lit up.

“Because you like meeeeeeee!” He sang happily.

(y/n)’s nails pinched into Chanyeol’s back as she held on to him closely, her heavy breaths aligned perfectly to Chanyeol’s movements. With the same frequency, his mind flooded with the thoughts of how much he loved this girl he was being intimate with, how he wanted to be even closer to her. He sank his lips to her neck, planting kisses at her most sensitive spots which caused some moans to escape from (y/n)’s lips.

Getting a kick out of (y/n)’s sonority, Chanyeol continued leaving pecks in her neck when all of a sudden, he felt an excruciating pain in his mouth. His wolf fangs were forcing their way out beyond the bounds of his will. He had the begrudging need to mark her as his mate and tried to force his fangs back in but the more he tried, the more his body retaliated. He felt his chartreuse yellow eyes rise to the surface, too and he knew he would not be able to hold back if he didn’t get out of bed soon.

“Sorry”, Chanyeol quickly shot up from the bed and ran towards the bathroom, smacking the door closed with a loud bang after he entered. Hastily, he locked the door, switched on the lights and observed himself in the mirror. His fangs had come out completely. Touching one gently with his index finger, he tried to use his wolf-powers to suck them back in, without result.

He let the tab water run, splashing some of the cold water in his face in hopes of his wolf eyes and canine teeth disappearing, but nothing he did have any effect.

“Chanyeol, are you ok?” he heard (y/n) knocking silently on the door, concerned.

“I-” He tried to think of an excuse. “Eh- I’ve got something in my eye. It stings”, he made up through his fangs.

“I can have a look. Maybe there’s something in it”, (y/n) offered but Chanyeol was quick to refuse her help.

“No, it’s ok. I get this more often”, he lied.

“You should let a doctor check that. Wash it out with some water”, she advised him.

“Yeah I will. You go back to bed already, I’ll join you once I’m done”, Chanyeol assured her.

“Oh, ok”. He heard she was disappointed for not being allowed to help whilst she strolled back to the bed.

Chanyeol opened the door to Soo’s coffee House, gesturing for (y/n) to walk inside first as he held the door open for her. He was in real gentleman mode today, contradictory to his squirrelly behaviour of the night before. It was a tee bit of an interesting paradox as to which Chanyeol would surface for his girlfriend. Sometimes it’d be the dorky one, mostly the sweet one, but either were equally adorable and lovable and he never failed to make his girl smile when he was around.

(y/n) stood still in the opening, waiting for Chanyeol to follow her inside and guide her further as she admired the place’s interior. Brick walls, fireplace, dark wooden tables and chairs, Bordeaux and beige couches. It screamed the perception of being home. No wonder Chanyeol promised it to be one of the most interesting places in town. He had just given her a tour around town, a two hour walk, Soo’s coffee house being the final stop.

They weren’t the only customers. In a corner close to the bar, an elder man was sitting. Spread at the table section, there were a few others enjoying their coffee, each of them entirely alone. With everything that was going on, many had to take some time to clear their thoughts, Chanyeol thought.

He slid his hand to hold (y/n)’s waist, guiding her towards a Bordeaux couch at the fireplace. As they both took a seat, Chanyeol quickly grasped something what looked like a thick but not too heavy medieval book from the coffee table in front of them.

“Ladies first”, he handed it over to (y/n) who kindly took it from Chanyeol’s hands and stared at the cover before opening it. It was made out of leather and had an old flap binding. From the sides, you could spot that if not real, the parchment inside was an exact replica of the animal membrane. “It’s the menu”, Chanyeol explained. “The first four pages are the menu and all the rest are, or used to be blank pages in which people can write with those feathers”, he pointed back at the coffee table that had three small jars of ink and two feather quill pens, one with a white feather and one with a Persian blue feather.

Curious, (y/n) opened the book in the middle and flipped through the pages, looking for the last piece of text someone left. To her surprise however, the writings were spread throughout the entire book, leaving open pages in between. “Ah yes, people write on random pages so you can’t tell which one someone wrote. They’re scared someone would check after them”, Chanyeol leaned over her shoulder to read along.

“She seems scared”, (y/n) said, hazarding a wild guess that the note she landed on was written by a female. The handwriting was very neat and elegant.

“It’s part of the concept. You can come in here and write your thoughts. If you’re scared, if you’re depressed or frustrated. Seldom, you will find a happy writing in those books. Most people use metaphors throughout their entire writing so people can’t tell what’s really going on but when you read through them, you can feel the emotion and you know you’re not alone. If there’s one coffee house where you’re not judged for coming in alone, it’s this one”, Chanyeol said.

“You wrote in these books too?”, (y/n) asked, lifting her head to the ceilings as she noticed that there was also very relaxing and lyricless music playing in the background.

“Sure. In several of them. Maybe one day you can tell which one is my handwriting and you can hunt through all the books looking for my entries, hmm?” He didn’t mind that much. Before she was going to be able to tell which one was his, he’d have a stable relationship with her without wolf-secrets. Part of him hoped that one day, she’d read his memo’s about his worries concerning her and she’d fall in love with him all over again.

“I like this place. I’m going to come here more often”, (y/n) flipped to the first pages and scanned the menu. “I think I’m going to go for the milk-tea-flavoured bubble tea”, she nodded after going through the options again.

“No coffee?”, Chanyeol frowned. “Kyungsoo has the best coffee you’ve ever ta-”

“And I believe you”, (y/n) stopped him. “But I’m a tea person”, she flashed a smile at him.

“Please tell me you’re not like my friend Sehun who’s obsessed with bubble tea”, Chanyeol pouted.

“Haha, no”. Chanyeol got up from the couch.

“I’ll go make the order. Also part of the concept… My friend Kyungsoo doesn’t want to disturb anyone so if you need anything, you have to go to the bar. Be back in a jiffy, ok?” he asked and (y/n) nodded.

“Double espresso with little milk, no sugar and a milk-tea-flavoured bubble tea?” Kyungsoo asked when Chanyeol arrived at the bar. He was a regular customer and Kyungsoo knew by heart his order. As for (y/n)’s, he heard using his wolf abilities.

“Exactly”, Chanyeol leaned his elbows on the bar, waiting patiently.

“She’s cute. Wish we got to spend some time together to get to know her, too”, Kyungsoo started working on the bubble tea.

“I’m waiting to meet Miss. D.O. as well. When is she coming along?”

“I don’t know. Five years from now?”

“Let’s hope not”, Chanyeol turned his head back to steal a glance at (y/n) who had started making her very own first entry in one of the menu’s. “Hey, would you happen to know what factor activates the involuntary need to mark one’s mate?” he then asked.

“I’m not sure. Why?” Kyungsoo poured syrup on the black boiled tapioca pearls. “Wait”, he realised and put down the syrup. “Are you there already? Was that what I heard yesterday? When she was asking if you were alright?”

“This growing onto your human mate thing is becoming difficult. First she’s my student, second I meet her during mating season and now I can barely touch her without feeling the need to mark her. Someone up there must be finding a lot of joy in giving me a hard time”, Chanyeol sighed.

“I’m convinced that’s not the case”, Kyungsoo consoled him. “I’d switch places with you pronto to have my mate”, he explained. “Anyhow, I think it has to do something with the mate herself. My mom always told me that when this happened to dad, she was ready to be marked and wanted to be marked. I’m not sure it’s the same for human mates. It rarely happens for them”.

“I haven’t even explained mine the concept of marking, how would she be ready for it?”

“It’s possible if she’s deeply in love with you”, Chanyeol heard a man sitting in a corner whisper. The grey-haired, older wolf had been eavesdropping on them. “Maybe you should consider telling her that you’re a wolf. I’m certain she can take it”, he kept reading his newspaper as if he wasn’t talking.

“How is it that I’ve known from the start this moment would arrive and I haven’t spared a single second to think about how I’m going to tell her?” Chanyeol cursed himself and ran his hand through his hair.

“One piece of advice”, the older man whispered back. “Don’t transform in front of her. Not until she has gotten used to the idea of you being a wolf. You can show off your eyes but don’t turn completely until she’s gotten comfortable with the idea. For humans, it’s a scary experience at first”. Not that transforming was allowed at the moment, Chanyeol thought. Nevertheless, it was good advice to begin with.

“You know what they say, Chanyeol”, Kyungsoo encouraged him. “If you’re destined mates, you will find the perfect way to convey the message”, he shoved the bubble tea and coffee to Chanyeol. “There you go”.

“Thanks”. Chanyeol turned around and looked at the old man with his newspaper, whispering another thanks to him as well, resuming his walk back to the Bordeaux couch where (y/n) was sitting.

“Here you go”, he handed the bubble tea over to her and she gave him a quick kiss to thank him. She placed the menu back on the coffee table.

“The ink dries fast”, she pointed out. Yeah, because the witches spelled all the goddamn books, Chanyeol remembered.

“Lucky you. Wait until I’m sitting here to correct your exam papers. I’ll find your entry straightaway”, he scoffed.

“There’s no name on those, only student numbers”, (y/n) reminded him. “Anti-discrimination policy”.

“What makes you think I don’t know yours by heart?”, he teased back.

“You’re not being fair!”, her tone sounded disappointed but she smiled. “You weren’t planning on giving me straight A’s were you? If I deserve an F, I want an F”.

“I swear I wasn’t. And why would you think you’re going to fail? This girl… You complained you couldn’t pay attention to my teaching and when I came up with a working solution, it appeared you had studied by yourself last Thursday evening. You don’t even need to come to my lectures…” Chanyeol made a long face.

(y/n) placed her bubble tea on the coffee table and turned ninety degrees so she could lay with her head in Chanyeol’s lap. “I wouldn’t want to miss those for the world”, she assured him. Chanyeol held on to one of her hands, running his thumb in circles over her hand’s back.

“I don’t want to go home”, she suddenly wailed. “I want to stay here with you”, she nestled her head against Chanyeol’s abs.

“It’s already close to noon. Your mom is going to get worried”, Chanyeol didn’t like the idea of parting ways either but tried to stay rational. In his town, their relationship was well known, but outside, it had to stay a huge secret. She couldn’t go home and tell she had found herself a boyfriend.

“She doesn’t get worried, only angry”, (y/n) corrected him. Chanyeol looked down at his girlfriend with her head resting on his thighs, her eyes closed. She was snuggling close to him as if she was looking for comfort from experiencing a nightmare.

“Hey”, Chanyeol asked silently. “Your mom… You mentioned she was very strict. She-”, he paused a second, scared to ask. “She doesn’t beat you up, does she?” (y/n)’s eyes shot open and she lifted herself from his lap.

“She used to”, she admitted silently, but immediately defended her. “Only a little! And it hasn’t happened in years anymore, I do everything she asks me to!” Chanyeol’s eyes grew wide, staring at her in disbelief. Was she telling him that it was alright?

“This is a serious matter. Why didn’t you tell me before? What would happen if you don’t follow her orders, would she still get physical?” He asked worried.

“I don’t know”, she looked down, not willing to face Chanyeol as she answered.

“Ok, now you’re lying to me”, Chanyeol read her. “Was that why you didn’t pick up last Wednesday? I couldn’t reach you the entire evening. What happened that day?!” He was connecting dots and determined to get to the bottom of it.

“Nothing”, (y/n) responded, slightly panicking. “Like I said, I fell asleep early”.

“Stop feeding me lies”, Chanyeol raised his voice. He was losing control over himself because he was concerned and cared deeply for her.

“Chanyeol, stop. You’re making her uncomfortable. She’s not ready to tell you this”, Chanyeol growled when he heard Kyungsoo whisper those words to him from the bar. “If you keep this up, she’s going to distance herself from you and you’ll both be worse off”.

“I swear, nothing happened. You can check. I’ve got no bruises or cuts or anything”, she stuck out her arms. “You would’ve noticed yesterday”. Chanyeol reminisced about the night before, how he had traced his fingers over her entire skin. She was right. He would have noticed.

“Promise me you’ll come to me when this kind of thing happens”, he begged instead, taking hold of her hands in his.

“Yeol-ah”, she asked with a low voice as her eyes twinkled. “I have to tell you something. Can you promise me you won’t get mad?”

“Of course”, he raised one of her hands to his lips, giving it a kiss.

“My mom wants me to marry Hae-Won”, she confessed. “I know I’m your girlfriend but I have to go on another date with him tonight”. Chanyeol’s mind turned blank. It took him a few seconds to process the information, causing him to lose control over his temper when it finally hit him.

“Hae-Won?! That annoying latecomer who hangs around you the entire time during my lectures?”, Chanyeol’s voice rose through the roof again.

“Chanyeol! You promised not to get mad”, (y/n) pouted. “It’s just to meet in the middle. That way my mom stays happy and I can still sneak out to see you without her getting suspicious”.

“You’re saying you have to date him to date me?”, Chanyeol asked, tears bottling up in his eyes.

“I promise you, I’m not marrying him. Not ever. Never ever. I want to be with you”, she held her hand to cup Chanyeol’s cheek.

“You’re asking me to trust you on this, aren’t you?” It hurt him. It hurt him badly that she was asking him for permission to do so and that she was driving him to say it was ok, even though it’d be against his will.

“Please? Things are complicated enough already. Just for now”, she implored. Chanyeol leaned in to kiss her. He did not want to speak the words she had requested him to, so he decided to grant her his promise with the touch of his lips.

“I hate your mom”, he said as he pulled away.

“So do I”, (y/n) climbed over him to sit on his lap, throwing her arms to hold his neck and pull him in for another desperate kiss.

Chanyeol’s big paws ran over the forest terrain, hard ground, dried leaves and log roots at an incredible high speed. He was not conserving his energy, reaching his top speed. Like his human form, he was also slightly taller than others in his wolf form. He was a grey wolf, one of few who had the same shade of fur as the name carried; soft, warm, dense, fluffy and grey. He had a broad snout, narrow chest but a longer tail that swung behind him with every movement of his build, together with dainty, small and slightly triangular ears. Needless to say, he looked graceful.

Whilst he ran, he kept his head at the same level as his back, looking in front of him with his sparkling, chartreuse eyes that distinguished him from non-magical grey wolves. The moonlight reflected on his fur and his wolf-irises made it possible for him to identify and jump over every hindrance that came his way.

He was breaking the entire set of new rules that had been set up by his alpha at once. Running in his wolf-form, having left town. He had pondered for a long time before deciding to do so, but after crying intensely for hours, he decided to take his chances to blow off some steam.

It was becoming too much for him to administer. A threat to his town and pack, his girlfriend that was facing an arranged marriage, the possibility he wasn’t allowed to go to College and see her, him not being able to get too intimate with her anymore due to unwillingly having the need to mark her and the pressure of finding a way to confess to her that he was in fact, a wolf. How did it progress to this?

Chanyeol stopped running when he reached the edge of a cliff that provided him with a beautiful scenery of Seoul at night. His mouth slightly agape, his tongue stuck out a little, teeth becoming apparent as he breathed heavily from the effort. It had been a while since he had run that fast, yearning to run away from his problems even if it were just temporary and literally.

After recovering from the pressing lack of air, he jerked his head up to face the sky and let out a long loud howl, increasing his pitch gradually until he had raised close to an entire octave from his initial mournful note. With every centilitre of air that escaped from his lungs past his oesophagus, relief washed over him and soon he found himself panting for air once more.

If it hadn’t been for the sudden cracking sonance of leaves behind him, he would’ve never considered the possibility he wasn’t alone. Alarming, he turned around into the direction of the sound, panicking as he sought the source. How could it have been so close? He should’ve heard something earlier. He should be able to smell its presence. All his senses were failing him. He ran his eyes through the tree trunks, back and forth. His heart started to race and his breathing became unstable. What was happening? Why could he not trace the sound again?

Golden. Bright golden. Bright, golden eyes suddenly met his from afar, holding his stare. It was puncturing, sucking out his soul with every passing second and Chanyeol realised, he had to run if he cherished his life and wanted to live to see tomorrow.

In a matter of nanoseconds, he turned around and sped out of the woods, looking behind him in fear of the golden eyes chasing him down. For unknown reasons, the golden eyes stayed put, not moving an inch but Chanyeol still had the tendency to run with the want to stay alive, scratching his body against a tree by accident as he ran out of the forest without being careful.

“I know who killed the boy!”, Chanyeol ran inside the Main mansion, his mother, father and alpha standing in the living room. They had been waiting for him to provide him with the results of their discussion on his permission to leave town, only to find out that he wasn’t there. Waiting along with them were his friends and his sister, who had been worried something had happened to their dearest friend or brother.

“Chanyeol!” His mom ran towards him and embraced him, relieved he was ok. Glad he was still alive himself, Chanyeol hugged his mom back whilst he leaned his chin upon her shoulder to face the others.

“The golden eyed, they’re in town”, Chanyeol looked up at Yongha. “They kill”, he said, still petrified from what he had just experienced. Confused, his mom let go of him and shot a terror-stricken stare at her son.

“No. That’s impossible” Yongha said headstrong and shook his head. “Impossible!” he suddenly yelled as he repeated the word.

“I saw one. With my own eyes. They’re here. In Seoul”, he said between breaths. “It explains everything”.

“Young Mee”, Yongha ordered Chanyeol’s mother. “Get the board witch”, he did not let go of his stare that was pointed at Chanyeol. “NOW!” He yelled.

Chanyeol’s mother left the mansion hurriedly, following the alpha’s instructions. Aside from Kyungsoo, Joonmyeon and Yoora, the rest of his friends were baffled by what was happening. They seemed to have no idea as to what was going on.

“You went out of town and you turned, didn’t you?” Yongha asked with a strong voice. Instantaneously, Chanyeol got on his knees and bowed deeply for his alpha, admitting his wrongdoing and apologizing. He let out a soft squeal as he did, feeling the cuts on his lower abdomen stretch open.

“Hmmmph”, Yongha huffed. “I refuse your request to leave town. Consider it your punishment. When your mother arrives with the board witch I expect you to wait for us in the integration room for investigation”.

“Yes, sir”, Chanyeol tried to hold back his tears, thinking of (y/n). Why had he been so stupid to break all the new rules at once?

“Who are the Golden eyed?” Jongdae whispered to Joonmyeon curiously.

“It’s the Flaithius family’s wolf pack”, Joonmyeon explained.

“Who are they?” Baekhyun joined the conversation.

“The most powerful wolf-family line in existence”.

“Why’s that?” Everyone’s attention was on Joonmyeon. He looked up at his father who gave him the approval to explain it to the guys as they already knew too much anyways.

“Because they found a way to defy freaking nature”.

-> Part 5

Author’s note: Wow, am I glad this chapter is finally finished. Sorry for the long wait and I hope you like it because now it all seems a huge mess but I swear it’ll all make sense as the story develops further :( Pinky promise! Also, I need Soo’s Coffee House in my life. Desperately!

#chanyeol scenario #chanyeol fanfic #Park Chanyeol #chanyeol #exo scenario #exo fanfic #exo fanfiction #chanyeol fanfiction #park chanyeol fanfic #exo park chanyeol #kpop scenarios #chanyeol angst #exo angst

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waqasblog2 · 5 years

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WordPress SEO

The definitive guide to higher rankings for WordPress sites

This is the original WordPress SEO article since 2008, fully updated for 2019!

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By putting the right basic settings in place, and applying a few simple techniques, you can ensure that you have a strong foundation to build upon!

1.1. Check your health

First things first. Before you make any changes to your site, it is a good idea to see where you are now. There’s a lot to gain from getting it right: running your site on a modern server with updated software, at a web host that offers great performance. So ask yourself: on what hardware and software is your site running? What is your hosting plan? Are you using a budget shared hosting provider or have you invested in a dedicated hosting plan at a well-known web host that fine-tuned its servers for use with WordPress?

To get a sense of what is going on behind the scenes of your site, you can install the Health Check plugin. This plugin gives you loads of technical insights and helps you get information that outside parties can use to help you improve your site.

Health Check is incredibly helpful — so much so, that the WordPress team is now going to include the plugin in the core WordPress environment.

Health Check recommends updating an outdated version of PHP

1.1.1 Check you’re using suitable hosting

According to WordPress’ technical requirements page, the recommended hosting plan to run WordPress should include a modern version of PHP, MySQL or MariaDB, and HTTPS support. It is possible to work with older server software, but that is not recommended. If you’ve installed the Health Check plugin, you can see the technical details of your installation. In addition, if you open the dashboard of your hosting provider, you should be able to see what type of plan you are on.

Remember, paying for good WordPress hosting pays dividends.

1.1.2. Upgrade to PHP 7.0 or higher

Many WordPress sites still run on outdated versions of PHP. One look at the WordPress stats reveals that almost half of the sites still run on a PHP version in the 5 series, while PHP 7.0 and up has been available for more than three years.

Backward compatibility is cool and all, but it’s holding back WordPress as a technology and site owners from getting the most out of their sites. These old versions of PHP don’t receive any more security fixes and are thus increasingly vulnerable to attacks.

Luckily, the WordPress team has dropped support for anything older than PHP 5.6. In December 2019, that minimum supported version of PHP will be upped to PHP 7.0. After that, it will follow the release schedule of PHP more closely.

So, one of the most important things you can do to improve the performance and security of your site is upgrading your hosting environment to a modern version of PHP. There are a lot of benefits to this:

PHP 7 offers an incredible speed boost.

It runs a lot more efficient, meaning less stress on your server.

Bring loads of modern development features.

It’s a much safer and more secure environment.

It’s future proof.

Now, this is something we all want, right? If you’ve checked your current hosting set-up in the previous section, you have an idea of what your site runs on now. If this shows outdated server software like PHP 5.5, it is a good idea to update this, if possible.

However, take special care before doing so. Ask for help if you’re not sure what you are doing.

Here are some steps to take:

(Always!) Backup your website.

Make a local staging environment based on a modern version of PHP.

Install the backup of your site on that server.

Test thoroughly to see if everything works properly.

Upgrade your live site — most of the times, your hosting provider can do this for you.

We have a post that shows you how to set up a test environment for your WordPress site. WordPress.org has a post on the advantages of updating your PHP version and what to take into consideration when doing that.

1.1.3. Make sure you’re using SSL and HTTPS

Historically, adopting SSL (getting an HTTPS URL, and a green padlock icon in the browser URL bar) was an optional tactic. Many sites, arguably, didn’t need the extra level of security which SSL provides.

Now, however, having a valid SSL certificate installed is mandatory — search engines may ‘penalize’ sites without valid SSL certificates and setups (and/or show warnings next to their search results). It’s also generally good practice for all websites to use SSL, to prevent hackers and third parties from intercepting requests and data.

Additionally, many modern site speed and performance techniques require a valid SSL/HTTPS setup. To take advantage of new, faster web technologies like HTTP/2, browsers like Google Chrome and Firefox require the website to have a valid SSL certificate.

If you want to move to SSL and ensure that your site is served correctly over HTTPS, we have a handy guide with tips & tricks for moving to HTTPS.

1.2. Check your site settings

It’s worth spending some time clicking through all of the sections in the WordPress Settings menu, as many of the options there can impact the SEO of your WordPress site.

In particular, it’s worth double checking your Privacy settings, to make sure that you’re not accidentally preventing search engines from indexing your website. That’d definitely hurt your visibility!

You should also make sure that your Writing and Reading settings are all set correctly, these control your default categories, and what should be displayed on your homepage. Don’t forget to give your site a strong tagline in Settings → General, too!

1.3. Pick the right permalink structure

Your permalink settings define what format your page and post URLs will take, which can have a big impact on SEO. So if yo u’re creating a new site, one of the first things you should do is change your permalink settings, which you can find in Settings → Permalinks.

If you don’t change your settings from the default, all of your pages and posts will have URLs which look like example.com/?p=123. Whilst this is perfectly okay, it’s not particularly nice, and it might impact how users and search engines perceive the quality and relevance of your pages.

Changing the permalink structure alters the components, ordering, and structure of your website’s URLs. It’s important to select the right structure when initially setting up your website, as changing it later can cause SEO issues.

We usually recommend that people use a structure which creates URLs which look like example.com/post-name/, or example.com/category/post-name/, depending on how much importance they anticipate placing on the categorization of their content. For most WordPress sites, choosing either of these options will be perfectly suitable.

For the first option, you can just change the permalink setting to /%postname%/, like so:

Changing the permalink settings to ‘Post name’, in Settings → Permalinks

To include the category, you can select “Custom Structure” and change the value to /%category%/%postname%/.

If you previously had ?p=<postid> as your permalink, WordPress will take care of all the redirects for you. This is also true if you change from /%postname%/ to /%category%/%postname%/.

If you have an established site and change from any other permalink structure, you might want to consult our article on changing your WordPress permalink structure and the tool that you’ll find within it.

1.3.1. Choose WWW or non-WWW

You need to think about what you want your site to show up as www.example.com, or simply example.com. Make sure that in your general settings, in Settings → General, the version you want to show up is properly reflected:

Setting the site URL to include or omit ‘www’

From an SEO perspective, there’s little difference either way. Additionally, most hosting and server setups will automatically redirect requests for the ‘wrong’ version, to the version you’ve selected. That makes this primarily a branding consideration — which approach feels best for your site?

From a technical perspective, there’s not a huge amount of difference, either. Some setups might have some minor headaches if they omit the ‘www’ component, but these are increasingly rare.

2. Optimize your content

Your site should provide the best content on your chosen subject — period. People are looking for engaging, authoritative articles and trustworthy answers to their questions. Writing high-quality content for your WordPress site begins with your own unique ideas or distinctive take on a particular topic. But it also means presenting these ideas in a well-structured and accessible manner. Together, this will help you attract the audience you’re looking for and keep them engaged.

2.1. Research what your users want and need

Before writing your content, you should think about what search terms you want to be found for. Every page or post should be optimized for a specific keyphrase.

But how can you determine what keyphrase you want to be found for? To find out, you need to do keyword research. In this process, you should ask yourself questions such as: what terms do I want to rank for? How realistic is that I can rank for these terms?

Imagine you have a baking blog and you’re passionate about sharing your favorite recipes and baking techniques. Optimizing a post for a term such as [best cake recipe] isn’t such a realistic goal, because it’s a very general term. There’s a lot of competition for such general terms. Instead, you should think about finding your own niche. This niche could be [healthy, low-sugar cake recipes] or[French patisserie you can make at home].

Within a niche, you can become a true expert. Your expertise can enable you to create content that goes beyond that of your competitors. You can go deeper than others, or shed light on different angles of the same topic. For this, you’ll want to focus on long tail keyphrases. A long tail keyphrase might be [how to make a low-calorie vegan blueberry cheesecake]. A keyphrase like this is more specific, and therefore easier to rank for. Also, it’ll be more suitable for your specific niche topic.

It’s also important to think about what your audience actually wants to achieve by searching for a specific term. This is called search intent. For example, they could be looking for the answer to a specific question and you are able to provide the necessary information. Or they might want to buy a specific product that you can offer them. Think about the needs of your visitors and address them by creating content accordingly.

Need a hand doing keyword research properly? Our Keyword research training can help.

2.2. Write great content for your users

After you’ve done your keyword research and you know the topics you want to write about, you need to get to the actual writing. Most of the time that’s easier said than done. To get from an idea to a great piece of content, most likely you’ll have to follow a cycle of drafting, writing, editing, and rewriting.

Your first draft can just be an outline of your structure. You don’t have to write out everything in perfect prose at this point, but make sure that you follow a logical structure. For most pieces, that will include an introduction, your main points of argument, and a conclusion. Of course, this will vary per genre – a recipe will have a completely different structure.

You can flesh out the points further in the writing phase, where you try to come up with a first complete version of your text. Finally, in the editing phase, you should check whether your piece is engaging and easy to read. You might be an expert on your topic, but your audience probably isn’t (yet). So try to make your writing as accessible as possible. When in doubt, it’s always best to ask a friend or colleague for some feedback. Another good trick is to read your text out loud to yourself. You can even let your computer speak it. It will give you a better idea of whether everything flows nicely.

2.3. Optimize your individual posts & pages

When writing or editing your post, there are a number of elements you need to pay special attention to in order to make it SEO-friendly. These elements include your subheadings, your title, and your meta description. All of these need to reflect the topic of the specific post.

Don’t forget, SEO-friendly doesn’t just mean that it’s easy for a search engine to grasp the topic of a page. More importantly, it means that your visitors can get the gist of your page at a single glance.

Your meta description and your title might be a deciding factor for whether visitors click on your page in the search results in the first place. And once they’ve visited your site, elements like subheadings can be critical for visitors to decide whether they want to stay on your site.

2.3.1. Set your focus keyphrase(s)

One important rule is not to use a focus keyphrase on more than one page. Otherwise, you might end up cannibalizing yourself. Most of the time, you don’t want to rank for multiple pages on the same keyphrase, because it means that you’re setting yourself up as your own competition.

It’s also important to include the focus keyphrase in crucial elements of your post such as the title, the introduction, your subheadings, and your meta description.

All of these elements are crucial signals for what your post is about. Since your focus keyphrase is, in fact, the main topic of your page, it’s a logical consequence that you should make sure this topic is reflected in all of these elements.

The same logic holds true for your text overall: you need to make sure that you don’t stray off-topic; if you stay on-topic, it should follow naturally that you use your keyphrase multiple times throughout your text. But avoid stuffing your text with your keyphrase just for the sake of it. If you find it hard to include your keyphrase in your text a sufficient number of times, it might be a sign that you should take a different approach to the topic.

To avoid repetition, you can use synonyms. Synonyms are words that mean exactly the same or more or less the same as your keyphrase. An example of this are the words film and movie. Search engines will recognize that they have the same meaning, which you can also check by having a look at the search results: if you search for movie, film will also be highlighted in the results, and vice versa.

You can also make use of related keyphrases to optimize a single page for similar, related terms. You can use these to give context to your keyphrase. For example, if your keyphrase is [pumpkin soup] your related keyphrase might be [winter weeknight dinners]. This second, broader term gives additional information about your topic. It can also create coherence by establishing a link to similar pages on your post.

The Yoast SEO Premium analysis makes it easier to optimize your post thanks to word forms, synonyms, and related keyphrases.

2.3.2. Optimize your permalink

In most cases, your post’s URL should probably contain your focus keyphrase, so that it’s obvious what your page is about from the link. That said, you should always try and keep your permalinks short, descriptive, and clean — don’t put unnecessary words in for the sake of it!

Before you publish new posts or pages, you may also wish to consider removing ‘stopwords’ from your permalink. These are words like “a”, “and”, and “the”. When done carefully, this may make your permalinks more readable, and easier to use or link to. Posts with especially long titles may benefit from this approach.

For posts which have already been published, we’d recommend being careful when changing permalinks. If people have already linked to your pages, changing the URLs may make a mess. Even though WordPress will sometimes redirect users to the new location (the redirects manager in Yoast SEO Premium handles this automatically, and more reliably), changing URLs can impact performance.

2.3.3. Optimize your page title

Each page’s title — the contents of the HTML <title> tag — can be one of the most important factors for ranking well in search results. Not only is it the literal title of the tab or browser window, but it’s also the first line people see in the search results. It describes what your page is, or is about, and acts as an advert which encourages users to click.

On many websites, the default structure for posts and pages isn’t necessarily the most optimal approach for SEO. A title like “My blog » Cooking » Carbonara recipe” isn’t as compelling or effective as “My 20-minute delicious carbonara recipe | My Blog”.

It’s critical that you think about the structure of your titles, as well as the content of the title on each individual page. Typically, it’s worth considering that:

Search engines may put more weight on the early words — so trying to get your keywords near the start of the title might make you more likely to rank well.

People scanning result pages see the early words first. If your keywords are at the start of your listing your page is more likely to get clicked on.

The Snippet Preview in Yoast SEO gives you an idea of how your post will look in search engines. Use it to make your content stand out!

For more info on how to create enticing titles for your posts, read our article on crafting good titles for SEO.

Did you know? You can use Yoast SEO to structure your titles!

You can control the default structure of your page titles and descriptions in your Yoast SEO plugin. There are two parts of the plugin that control these. First of all, as soon as you install and activate the plugin, you get an ‘SEO’ section in your WordPress admin.

Navigate to SEO → Search Appearance and you’ll see a bunch of tabs for different types of pages on your site.

For each post type and taxonomy, you can set a so-called Title Template — as well as meta description templates. For posts on our site this looks like this:

Here are yoast.com’s settings for the individual Post URLs

This allows you to use components and variables to control how your page titles should behave by default. Of course, these can be overridden on a page-by-page basis.

For example, in the image above, you can see how we’re automatically grabbing elements like the title of the page, to stop us from having to manually write titles from scratch for every page.

There are all sorts of variables you can use in the titles and meta description, and they’re all listed and explained in the help tab on the page.

For advanced users, there are some additional cool features. For instance, you can use cf_<custom field name> to drop in any custom field — either from a post meta value or a user meta value.

NOTE: When you use these templates, be sure to check that your title tags behave as expected when viewed on the site. If they don’t, you may have a problem with the way your theme is built, and you might need to check the “Force rewrite” checkbox in our options. You can also follow these instructions to modify your templates.

2.3.4. Use headings correctly

Headings are great for structuring your content and helping readers process information in bite-sized chunks. They can also be helpful in describing a page’s layout and focus to search engines.

WordPress transforms the headings you put in your content into their respective HTML tags (<h1>, <h2>, <h3> and so on). That makes it important to think about which type of headings you use, and in which order. Getting that wrong can make your content harder to understand.

Although most themes for WordPress get the basics right, it’s worth making sure that your template sets your post title is an <h1> tag, and that you’re not using <h1> tags anywhere else in your page or your post content.

Your post content should then ‘flow’ naturally; for example, large, significant headings should use <h2> tags, subsections should use <h3> tags, and then subsequent new sections should use <h2>.

To learn more about why proper headings are important, please read this article on headings and SEO. In addition, you can read our article about the heading structure for your blog — from which a lot applies to non-blog WordPress sites too.

2.3.5. Optimize your meta description

A meta description is primarily used search engines to show a description of your page in the search engine results, usually below your page title.

Tailoring and writing a descriptive meta description can encourage users to click your results in the search engine, even if you’re not necessarily ranking in the top position. It’s an advert, and your opportunity to impress.

Writing compelling, informative descriptions of your page content for every page on your site is best practice and gives you the opportunity to attract more visits.

Whilst it might feel like a lot of work to craft descriptions for every single page and post, it’s worth the effort.

We don’t recommend automated descriptions

Some themes and plugins try to produce descriptions automatically, by taking the first sentence or so of a post. This is a clever shortcut, but it rarely produces good descriptions. The first sentence of a post is often introductory information, which doesn’t provide a great summary or an enticing advert! The only well-written description is a handwritten one, and if you’re thinking of auto-generating the meta description, you might as well not do anything, and let the search engine pick and control the snippet.

Auto-generating a snippet is a “shortcut”, and there are no real shortcuts in SEO!

If you don’t provide a meta description, the search engine will generally try to find the keyword which was searched for in your page, and automatically pick a string around that — and highlight the searched phrase in bold in the results page.

Automatically generated snippets (whether by plugins, or search engines) are rarely as descriptive or as compelling as hand-written ones. So, we recommend that you use the meta description field you find in the Yoast SEO plugin to write a meta description. Make sure it entices the reader to click through and make sure that it contains the focus keyword of your post or page at least once.

NOTE: Search engines may choose to ignore your meta description if they think that it’s unsuitable for the page, or they might choose to show a custom description from the page content if they think it’s a better fit. There’s no way of forcing them to use your specific snippet.

2.3.6. Optimize your images and media

An often overlooked part of WordPress SEO is how you handle your images, videos, and media content.

To make sure that search engines can understand your images, you need to think about how you name and format your files. Writing descriptive accessible text descriptions helps, too, and can improve your performance significantly. As an added benefit, you’re also helping out readers who rely on assistive technologies like screen readers.

Using the proper alt attributes for images, and transcripts of videos are also something that we check in the content analysis functionality of our Yoast SEO plugin.

We have a longer article on image SEO and one writing alt tags, which can give you more tips to fine-tune your image optimization!

2.4. Maintain your content quality

2.4.1 Keep your content fresh and up to date

As Google strives to show its users the best and up to date information, you should keep track of your content and revise it regularly. Even more so, because you don’t want to show the visitors of your website outdated, redundant or incorrect information.

If you publish regularly and have hundreds, or even thousands, of blog posts, this is easier said than done. That’s why we’d advise focusing on two specific areas when it comes to content maintenance: updating cornerstone content and preventing keyword cannibalization.

2.4.2. Update your cornerstone content

Some pages on your site are more important than others. The most valuable content of your site is called cornerstone content. We’ve written extensively about cornerstone articles and how they can improve your rankings.

In short, these posts or pages:

contain essential information for your audience;

are complete, up-to-date and well-written;

show authority;

get the most links from related posts within your own site;

rank higher than your other articles on the same topic;

get most organic traffic to your site.

When you’re in doubt where to start with updating your site’s content, always give priority to your cornerstone content. Your business relies on them, and they should never go stale!

2.4.3. No outdated cornerstones with Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO makes it a little easier to keep your cornerstones up to date at all times. If you use Yoast SEO on your site, you can mark a post as a cornerstone article. Doing so, these articles will undergo a more rigorous SEO analysis. In addition, they’ll appear in a separate list in your post overview, which makes it easy to browse through them and check if they’re still up to scratch.

If you’re on Yoast SEO premium, keeping track of them is even easier. The Stale cornerstone content filter only shows your cornerstone articles which haven’t been updated in the last 6 months. You’ll find this filter in your post overview. If it doesn’t show any posts you’re good, and if there are one or more posts in it, make sure you check and update them!

Here are yoast.com’s settings for the individual Post URLs

2.4.4. Keyword cannibalization

Keyword cannibalization means you’re eating away your own rankings by creating too many articles for the same or similar keywords. If you have a dozen articles on the same topic, search engines don’t know which one of those they should rank highest. As a result, you’ll be competing with your own articles for a high position in the search engines.

If you publish frequently, as we do at Yoast, you’re bound to run into keyword cannibalization issues someday. That’s why we’ve created a framework on how to deal with keyword cannibalism. In short, you’ll have to:

Find out for which keywords it’s happening;

Analyze which content performs best for those keywords;

Keep the best performing posts;

Decide if you should merge the other posts into the better performing one;

Or just delete and redirect them.

Check out this detailed guide on content maintenance by Joost de Valk to learn how to go about this.

2.5. Avoid accidental duplicate content

2.5.1. What is duplicate content?

Duplicate content issues arise when search engines encounter multiple URLs with the same or very similar content. As a result, search engines don’t know which of these URLs to rank higher, resulting in lower rankings for all of them.

In the previous section, we’ve already addressed keyword cannibalization, which is caused by writing about the same topic too often. But most of the times, the root of duplicate content is technical and can happen without you even noticing.

For instance, some content management systems add session IDs or parameters for tracking to URLs. Or, you might have www and non-www versions of a certain page indexed. Accordingly, you’ll have multiple URLs showing the exact same content.

Besides the technical reasons, your articles can get scraped or copied by other parties. So, there are many different causes for duplicate content, as you can read in this extensive article on duplicate content.

If you want to find out if your site suffers from duplicate content, you can use these duplicate content tools to check your site for issues.

2.5.2. Solutions for duplicate content

How you should solve your duplicate content issue depends on the cause of the issue. In general, there are three ways to go about this — in order of preference:

Whenever possible, avoid creating duplicate content. If your system creates session IDs in the URL, try to turn that off, for instance.

Can’t avoid creating them? 301 redirect those URLs to the original version.

If you want to learn how to solve specific duplicate content issues, check out Joost’s ultimate guide on causes and solutions for duplicate content.

2.5.3. Set a canonical link with Yoast SEO

With Yoast SEO, it’s very easy to add a canonical link to a post or page. No need for a developer! Just go to the Advanced tab in the Yoast SEO metabox below your post or page. There, you’ll find the Canonical URL field where you can enter the URL of the original article — the one you want to point search engines to:

Fill in your canonical URL in the advanced section of the Yoast SEO metabox

If you don’t set a canonical, Yoast SEO will set a self-referencing canonical for you. This means that the article will point to itself. Learn why self referencing canonicals are beneficial for SEO.

2.6. Support international audiences

To optimize your site for audiences in several countries or language regions, you’ll need to optimize both your content and your technical setup.

Let’s start with the content aspects of international SEO. Doing targeted keyword research and writing fresh content for each audience is crucial. Take items for clothing, for example. An American vest is a completely different garment from a British vest, or a Dutch vest, or a French vest, or a Spanish vest… you get the point. We don’t recommend using automated translations. Invest time and resources in proper research and translations with which to optimize your keywords and copy.

Another important aspect of international SEO is picking the right domain structure. Generally, a different ccTLD (e.g. www.yoast.de) for every variation is only a good option for very large companies with big budgets. In most cases, subdirectories (e.g. www.yoast.com/de) are the way to go.

Search engines want to display the right language version of your site to each visitor, whatever country they’re from. To help them, you need to implement hreflang. hreflang is code that tells the search engines what language variations of a page are available and helps prevent duplicate content problems. It’s quite a complex piece of code, but our hreflang guide helps you along the way — or, you can take our Multilingual SEO training.

3. Optimize your site structure

A solid site structure helps your users and the search engines navigate your site. On top of that, it will make clear what pages on your website are most important. There are two pillars to a good site structure: organizing your site and contextual internal linking.

3.1. Organize your site

Organizing your site will help you set up a navigation path from your homepage right to your individual posts and pages, and back. Adding categories and subcategories will bring order to chaos. Ideally, your site should be organized as such:

You should always make sure your homepage is clear and easy to navigate. Cluttering the homepage with too many options will make your site more difficult to understand. Adding a clear menu and helps your user navigate your site wherever they are.

3.2. Connect your content with contextual internal linking

Besides organizing your site, you need to link up your content within your copy. We call this contextual internal linking because these links always appear within the context of a text.

Contextual internal links set up a network of pages, which points your users to related content. In a post on keyword research, for example, linking to an article on SEO copywriting makes a lot of sense. For search engines, these links provide insight into how pages are related to each other as well.

Always make sure that the number of links to a page reflects the importance of that page. Our ultimate guides get a lot of links from individual posts about related topics. This helps users and search engines understand that these guides are crucial pillars of our site.

When adding a contextual internal link, make sure the link makes sense within the context of the current page. Moreover, always use anchor texts which accurately describe the page you’re linking to. This provides users and search engines with the context they need to assess whether the link is useful.

3.3. Manage your categories and tags

WordPress has two default ways of structuring your content: categories and tags. Categories add hierarchy to your content and group topics broadly. On a website about cooking, pasta could be a category. Tags are non-hierarchical and can be used to describe your post in more detail. Dinner party themes, for example, could be a tag.

When setting up your site structure, pick a number of main categories. Adding them to your menu can be a good idea, especially if you only have a blog. If you have a blog and several products, a different setup might make more sense. Make sure your categories are roughly the same size. If your categories become too big, make subcategories. Your category pages can be great landing pages, especially for eCommerce sites

Tags are useful for users exploring topics, but they are often misapplied. It’s important not to use too many tags, and to use them more than once or twice. Remember, you want to group your content, not just give it a description.

If you want to structure your content differently, WordPress also allows you to create custom taxonomies. Always consider carefully whether your custom taxonomy groups content in a way that makes sense and helps your visitors.

3.4. Manage your archive pages

If you use categories and tags, you will automatically create archive pages. These pages contain a list of the posts and pages within a certain category or tag. Besides categories and tags, there are date-based archive pages and author archives. These archive pages need managing because they cause SEO problems if you don’t.

First of all, you want to prevent search engines from indexing archive pages that don’t make sense on your site. You can use the Yoast SEO plugin for this. You do this under SEO → Search Appearance, where you’ll find the following options on the “Archives” tab:

The settings above are the settings for our site. As you can see, we’ve completely disabled the date-based archives, as we don’t use those. Any date-based link will redirect to our homepage because of this setting. We’ve left the author archives untouched, but we have set the subpages of those archives to be noindex, follow by default. This way, you’ll never land on page two of an archive on our site from the search engines.

If your blog is a one-author blog, or you don’t think you need author archives, use Yoast SEO to disable the author archives. Also, if you don’t think you need a date-based archive: disable it as we have. Even if you’re not using these archives in your template, someone might link to them and thus break your WordPress SEO… There is one type of archive that is noindex,follow by default in the Yoast SEO plugin: your own internal search function result pages. This is a best practice from Google.

3.4.1. Pagination

If you have lots of posts on your WordPress site, you might want to think about how your pagination looks and works. Otherwise, you might find that your best content is ‘buried’ deep in your site, and users and search engines may struggle to find it.

There are two things, in particular, you need to think about:

3.5. Configure your breadcrumbs

You’ll probably want to add breadcrumbs to your posts and pages. Breadcrumbs are the links, usually above the title post, that looks like “Home > Articles > WordPress SEO“. They are good for two things:

They allow your users to easily navigate your site.

They allow search engines to determine the structure of your site more easily.

These breadcrumbs should link back to the homepage, and the category the post is in. If the post is in multiple categories it should pick one.

To get breadcrumb navigation to show you on your pages, you may need to adapt your single.php and page.php files in your theme, and include the code for breadcrumbs from the Yoast SEO plugin. You find the settings and instructions on how to do that in the SEO → Search Appearance section.

3.6. Manage your HTML & XML sitemaps

You can use XML sitemaps to tell Google and the other search engines that your site has been updated. Our WordPress SEO plugin automatically configures your XML sitemaps, so you don’t have to worry about anything. We generate sitemaps for your different post types, including your images, and make sure that it generates and loads really quickly.

We intelligently split your sitemaps up into smaller bits, so Google only has to fetch one new XML “sub”-sitemap when a post is published.

You can check and manage which types of your content, archives, and templates should be included in your XML sitemaps in your SEO → Search Appearance settings. Content types which are set to not show in search results will be automatically excluded from your XML sitemaps.

Lastly, our XML sitemaps support has a pretty complete API, allowing developers to add or change functionality through their plugins and themes. Our own Local SEO, News SEO and Video SEO extensions (which generate their own, specific sitemaps) are built on this API, and, other plugins frequently build their own solutions on top of our system.

For larger or more complex sites, it might make sense to provide an HTML sitemap, too. This is a normal page on your website, which helps users navigate to deeper or more specific content.

4. Speed up your WordPress website

If your website is slow, you risk frustrating your users. That makes them less likely to engage, browse, convert, or visit again. That, in turn, can make them less likely to share your content, link to your pages, or recommend your brand.

In short, speed is an important part of WordPress SEO, and a huge part of the overall user experience. That means that it’s critical to measure and manage your performance — especially for users on mobile or slower connections!

4.1. Measure your site speed

Measuring the speed of your site can be confusing. Different tools give different scores and results, and sometimes even give conflicting information.

That’s why we’ve put together this helpful guide on how to measure your speed — it’ll walk you through the basics of picking the right metrics, to using the right tools for the job when it comes to monitoring and diagnosing issues.

4.2. Improve your site speed

Once you’ve identified what and where your bottlenecks are, the next challenge is to make hosting, theme, plugin and performance tweaks to speed things up.

Page speed optimization is a discipline in its own right and spans well-beyond WordPress SEO. That means that the biggest opportunities will vary from site to site, and situation to situation. For some sites, the easiest wins might come from changing hosting or utilizing a CDN; for others, it might mean re-assessing their use of plugins, or, altering how they load CSS and JavaScript.

That doesn’t mean that you can’t get started, though. We’ve put together a great guide on some page speed tools and easy wins which you can use to get the ball rolling.

5. Secure your WordPress website

WordPress is the most-used platform for website management in the world. It powers 33% of the web (March 2019). While that is awesome, it also means that WordPress is the most targeted platform for hackers. When running a WordPress website, basic security is dealt with by the platform, but there are things you can do yourselves to make your website more secure.

That starts with your own login. The default username in WordPress is admin, so change that first. Otherwise, a hacker’s first guess for your username is just too easy. The same goes for your password. Passwords like ‘123456’ and ‘welcome01’ are just not enough. Use a password manager like 1Password or LastPass and pick a 20+ character password instead. WordPress also has a number of plugins for two-factor verification, so adding that to your website is easy as pie as well. Do it.

There is more you can do, of course, please read our article detailing WordPress security in a few easy steps. We’ll highlight some of the recommendations below.

5.1. Make regular backups

The next thing we’d like you to do is create regular backups. In case your site gets hacked, or something else goes wrong — for instance, when updating a plugin or theme —, it’s important that you revert that change in a heartbeat. Regular backups make sure that this can be done.

In WordPress, there is a wide range of backup options to choose from. Several plugin developers have created nice software solutions for you, so you don’t have the technical hassle of that backup. At Yoast, we recommend and have good experiences with the Blogvault backup solution. That service has additional benefits like creating staging sites and easy migration options.

5.2. Harden your setup

Hardening your setup starts with picking the right hosting company for your WordPress website. That’s just the start, as every host will do its best to help you out, but it’ll still be your responsibility to harden your setup. Also, tools like Cloudflare are good friends for any company/website in this.

An easy first step is to limit login attempts. By limiting the amount people can try to login to your website — close your login form after five false logins, for example — you are hardening your install against brute force attacks and other malicious acts targeting that form.

The next thing you need to do is to make sure that your WordPress install, including plugins and themes, is always up-to-date. Updates might fix security issues as well. Make sure to check regularly for updates, and keep your WordPress install up-to-date.

Another important thing to realize is that you are dealing with security every time you add a new user or writer to your WordPress install. There’s an article in the WordPress Codex regarding Roles and Capabilities you should read. It comes down to giving permissions only to those that need it when they need it and only for the time they need it. No need to give a guest blogger administrative rights to your website, right?

Authentication Keys and Salts work in conjunction with each other to protect your cookies and passwords in transit between the browser and web server. Make sure to change these keys when installing a new WordPress instance.

Another easy fix that we’d like to mention is to make sure your template files can’t be edited from the WordPress backend. You can do this in Appearance → Editor. When a hacker managed to get passed your login form, this is really the easiest way to add evil code to your website. Hardening this involves changing your wp-config file.

5.3. Use monitoring and logging

Security is an ongoing process. You need to keep a keen eye on any breaches and keep your website as secure as possible. You could put part of your WordPress security in the hands of, for instance, a company like Sucuri. In case of a hack, they fix this asap. For your own monitoring, you could check your site on a regular basis with their Sitecheck tool. There are a couple of plugins that can help you secure your WordPress site by, for instance, monitor files on your server, like WordFence, iThemes or Sucuri. Pick your plugin of choice, as long as you make sure that security is monitored.

It can also be useful to just keep track of everything that’s happening on your website like file changes and logged in users. There are several plugins and tools for that as well, like WP Security Audit Log. Keeping track of these things makes sure that you can find irregularities in your install and act on these, or find what happened when in case of a security issue.

6. Cater to your mobile visitors

People are always on the move these days. From city to city or conference room to conference room. People are waiting in lines, at cinemas, at the bakery, at lunch. And what do we do when we are on the move or waiting? Indeed, we check the weather, read the news, check social media or order clothes in that new online designer shop our friend texted us via Whatsapp, iMessage or Signal. What’s more, our mobile devices are becoming the de facto way of browsing the web, even when we’re at home, lying on our couch. We visit mobile websites. You, as a website owner, need to cater to your mobile visitors.

According to Statcounter, mobile market share surpassed desktop market share almost all of 2018. This means that if you are only optimizing for desktop visitors, you are not optimizing for the majority of your visitors. Of course, it depends on your specific niche, since those numbers could be different. Google Analytics can give you the exact numbers for your site.

With a mobile market share like this, there is no way you can consider your mobile website an ‘extra’. Maybe it’s time to make mobile the default. It’s time for mobile SEO.

6.1. Make sure your theme is mobile-friendly

After making sure that your site is fast, make sure your website, or rather your theme, is mobile-friendly. Making your website mobile-friendly starts with making sure the links are not too close together, and buttons are easily clickable. Your font should be consistent and shouldn’t be too small and your images not too big, both in file size and dimensions.

We’d like to highlight two specific mobile theme optimizations below.

6.1.1. Use responsive design techniques

Responsive design means that the design of your website adapts to the screen size your visitor is using. You can do this by using specific CSS media queries. We wrote about responsive design way back when, but in the basis, things are still the same. You have to address certain ranges of screen widths and design for those. Most WordPress themes should be responsive by now.

Depending on the part of the world you are targeting, no, depending on how fast their mobile internet is (2G? Already at 5G?), you might want to change a couple of things. Think about how you use images on your site. Are you using any text enhancements or font variations that might hinder a good performance of the mobile website? Responsive design helps you build a more focused website. That brings us to the second optimization:

6.1.2. Prioritize what’s important to mobile users

Take a step back and look at your website: what do your users want to do here? Define the four to six main tasks your user performs on your website and focus on these. Maybe even give the most important task a big fat call-to-action button.

Here’s an example: If you have a local business, the two main tasks might be calling you or finding the directions to your business. That means you could add these as a special mobile menu, for instance, — some kind of bar that is visible all the time. Focus on your visitor’s main tasks and make their life as easy as possible. How to find these top tasks? Ask your visitors! Also, check Google Analytics for the most visited pages on your mobile website. More about Analytics further down this article.

6.2. Consider using AMP

If you are using WordPress, you could serve Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) as well. AMP is a 2015 initiative by Google and some major publishers. It allows for fast mobile pages and does so by stripping some of the design. AMP these days is used for both static content and dynamic content like news articles. AMP has pretty strict code requirements, so be sure to validate your AMP pages frequently.

One of the challenges you as a website owner might have is to make sure the AMP version of your website aligns with your branding. Make sure your visitor — used to visiting your desktop/responsive website — still clearly understands that he or she is visiting your pages. Luckily, the difference between design on all these platforms can be minimalized.

If you are looking to kick-start the AMP version of your WordPress website, be sure to check the official AMP plugin. This will add an AMP version of your website after installing the plugin.

7. Analyze and improve your performance

A good SEO campaign relies not only on implementing changes but also measuring the impact of those changes, seeing what works and doing more of that. Google has developed two amazing tools to analyze the results of your website and to identify new opportunities where you could focus on in the future.

The first one, for analyzing results, is Google Analytics. By adding Google Analytics to your website, you make sure all user data will be stored in your own account. You can, for instance, check how many visits your pages get, how many of your visitors convert, how many visitors immediately leave your website after landing on a certain page and much more. Within Google Analytics, you can see how visitors behave on your website. Here’s how to track your SEO with Google Analytics.

The second tool is meant to analyze how your website performs and to see how visitors find you in the search engine. That tool is Google Search Console. By exporting and sorting through your search queries and impression data, it’s easy to identify opportunities where you could focus on improving clickthrough rates, content, and/or rankings.

7.1. Set up and integrate Google Analytics

To start with Google Analytics, you need to create an account. Click the ‘Start for free’ button to start. To set up your account, you need to add an Account Name first. This could be your company name. However, when you’re about to add other websites to your account, we recommend choosing a more generic Account Name. Also, you can always change your Account Name later when you want to.

After setting up your account, it’s time to add a property: the website you want to add. Insert the Website Name and the Website URL. Make sure you add the precise URL: http:// or https:// and with or without www for collecting the right data.

Create a new account in Google Analytics

After setting up your property you can choose for yourself if you want to enable, some of the data sharing settings. Each data sharing option gives you a clear explanation of what you will be sharing enabling it.

Now you’re almost ready to go! The last step to connect your website to your new Google Analytics account is adding the tracking code to your website. After successfully creating your account and adding a new property you’ll see this screen with your Google Analytics tracking code on top:

Copy the tag to your site

This tag needs to be added to your website. The easiest way to do this within WordPress is by installing a Google Analytics plugin such as the MonsterInsights Plugin for WordPress. Installing this plugin, you don’t need to touch the actual code of your website to connect with Google Analytics. You just simply install and activate the plugin, insert your tracking ID and you’re set!

For more technical readers, it’s also possible to add the tag manually to the head of every webpage or to add the tag to Google Tag Manager.

Now your website is connected to Google Analytics, it will start collecting data of your users. Start clicking around to see what all can be found within the data or start reading one of our blog posts about Google Analytics for helpful tips.

7.2. Set up your Google Search Console account

The second tool we think is important to set up is Google Search Console. We’ve already created this step by step guide on ‘How to add your website to Google Search Console. We recommend going through all steps and you will be all set! In brief, these are the steps you’ll need to follow:

Create or sign in to your Google Search Console account.

Click ‘Add a property’ under the search drop-down.

Enter your website URL in the box and click ‘Continue’.

Verify your website — within the Yoast SEO plugin, you can easily copy and paste the meta tag to make it work.

After connecting your website to Google Search Console, it will start collecting data about the performance of your website. Connecting through Yoast SEO, you can also immediately find errors within the WordPress backend and easily create redirects to reduce the number of errors when you have an Yoast SEO Premium subscription.

7.3. Other useful tools

Of course, there are plenty of other useful tools out there to get valuable insights into your website and to find SEO opportunities. Everyone has their own favorite tools, so it’s important to just start playing with different tools to find out what tool brings you what you need most.

There are all-in-one SEO tools which give you a complete overview of your performance and there are more in-depth tools which give you more specific data. Think about site speed tools, duplicate content tools, site analysis tools, keyword research tools and much more.

Some tools we use besides Google Analytics and Google Search Console:

Bing Webmaster Tools

Within the Source/Medium section of Google Analytics, you can see what percentage of your traffic is coming from Bing. When this is a sufficient amount of traffic, you might want to create a Bing Webmaster Tools account as well. Bing Webmaster Tools is the Google Search Console variant for Bing. It shows you your site’s health and performance in the Bing search results.

Ryte

Ryte is one of the all-in-one SEO suites you could use to analyze on-page SEO. The tool crawls your website to give you a bunch of data on indexation, errors, links, speed and much more. You can try Ryte for free to see what it has in it for you. Ryte even integrates with Yoast SEO.

Google Lighthouse

Google Lighthouse is a Chrome extension which you can download for free. With the Lighthouse tool, you can easily generate a report with scores for Performance, Progressive Web App, Accessibility, Best Practices, and SEO. This report will give you a quick overview of how your site is doing and you can immediately start working on the areas that need the most attention. You can also use the web-based version on .

Hotjar

To get insights on how your visitors actually move, scroll and click on your webpages, you could use a tool like Hotjar. This user research tool also has options to add polls or surveys to your site to start doing research. You can try it for free, and the paid packages have competitive prices.

Interested in more valuable tools? Check our list of favorite SEO tools here!

8. Promote your site

You put a lot of time and effort into the content of your site and making sure that readers can find that content via search engines thanks to SEO, but there are other ways to get people to visit your WordPress site and read your posts. But how do you get and grow such an audience? Simply writing posts and putting these out there won’t do the trick: you need to promote your site!

8.1. Encourage engagement

It’s always fun to interact with your readers, but how do you get them to engage? With engagement, we mean all the different ways people can interact with your post. It could be leaving a comment, sharing it on social media or taking action on the topic in general.

But how do you get people to engage? You can always ask them! Write in an engaging way, and then ask your readers for their opinion. Then respond to these comments in order to keep the conversation going and build a relationship with your readers.

Engagement also benefits SEO, as it shows that your site is alive and active. If you want to dive deeper into blog engagement, you can read our post on how you can increase blog engagement.

8.2. Grow your reach

Using social media is the best way to reach and grow the audience of your blog. You should be active on the social media channels where your (potential) audience is present. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter are examples of popular social media. It might be a lot to decide on, so you can find out more in our blog post on social media strategy: where to begin?

8.3. Build a mailing list

In addition to using social media to promote your blog, it is often a good idea to invest in a digital newsletter. Let people sign up for it and send out emails with your latest blog posts and some other fun facts.

Make sure that you offer a subscribe field beneath your posts and on other visible places on your website. Make sure that your newsletter is mobile-friendly. But, most of all, make sure your newsletter is truly something special! We use MailChimp for our newsletter, which is free up until 2,000 subscribers.

8.4. Amplify your content

The number of blog posts published every day is enormous, which is why it’s becoming much harder to stand out. Your articles have a big chance of getting lost in the vast sea of content. To help your content reach its full potential you need to amplify it.

If your content is original and well-structured, you’re probably able to reach new audiences. Take a look at how you can reach new audiences, beyond your organic reach.

Maybe advertising on Facebook or Instagram might be a good way to reach new audiences for your content? Analyze what channels you already use and decide where you can do more in order to broaden your audience.

9. Conclusions

This guide gives you a lot of stuff you can do on your WordPress site. It goes from technical SEO tips to conversion tips, to content tips, to conversation tips, and a whole lot in between. There’s a catch though: if you want to rank for highly competitive terms, you’ll have to actually do most of it and create great and compelling content in the process.

You’re competing with every other website and business on the planet for attention, visitors, and outcomes. That means you have to put in a lot of hard work!

But don’t worry — we’re here to help.

So if you want to keep updated on the latest news about WordPress, SEO, and our plugins, then you can subscribe to our newsletter and stay one step ahead of the competition!

In the meantime, want to reread this ultimate WordPress SEO guide?

Download the PDF now!

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