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#and keefe's like. i cannot say no to that face
synonymroll648 · 1 year
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from a vibes perspective, i totally understand why so many people look at keefe and go ‘this guy would be the male equivalent of a wine aunt when he’s older’. 
but. but. 
taking lore into consideration, in my heart, he’s terrified of alcohol (even if he tries really hard to hide it). because. like. his first exposure is almost guaranteed to be through cassius, and cassius canonically threw a glass extremely close to him at least once when he was, like, 8. maybe cassius wasn’t always extra nasty when he was drunk, but there’s gotta be a correlation in keefe’s brain between risking getting seriously hurt (emotionally or physically) and alcohol consumption that’s really hard for him to shake. 
#tw alcohol#tw child abuse mentions#lmk if there's more trigger warnings i should put#i have a thing for hurt/comfort lmao#kotlc#keeper of the lost cities#this is brought to you by:#that one fic my brain started writing internally where it's sophie's 21st bday and she's like man i#have saved the world so many times we've all lost count. i want a fucking drink#and keefe's internally like OH GOD OH FUCK in a bad way but externally he's like yeah babe whatever you want!!#and then she's like. i don't wanna do anything super stupid though. and drinking alone is super stupid when you've never drank before#will you stay w/ me? please?#and keefe's like. i cannot say no to that face#so he spends the night doing an increasingly bad job of hiding how bad he's freaking out#because sophie is a safe space and alcohol is not safe and he doesn't know how to deal w/ the two colliding#ESPECIALLY since sophie's just getting dorkier and sweeter as her filter goes down instead of throwing insults or objects at him#(i feel like sophie would be the kind of drunk that's very impulsive and says EVERYTHING that comes to the forefront of her mind#and stellarlune was more than enough to prove that she sees keefe and a lot of the time her brain just goes hnnngh soft little tortured#artist. MY soft little tortured artist.)#yeah but even intoxicated sophie can tell something's wrong even before he flinches super obviously at an empty glass falling over w/o#breaking. and so she's like nah man it's hurt/comfort time and he's like BUT YOUR BIRTHDAY and she's like do you really think i'm#gonna just let go of the fact that i know you're stressed? i'm not a dickhead keefe#so yeah it ends in cuddles. because of course it does#keefe sencen#annnnd out of the drafts this goes. post!
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sapphorror · 3 months
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Short Moderate Length List of Small(ish) Things I Appreciate About The Wettening
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Dib being conspicuously absent from the opening pan of the classroom, only to cartoon-teleport into existence at Zim’s desk the second Zim starts expressing mild apprehension at the sight of unfamiliar weather. This kid spends his time just hanging around staring at Zim, waiting for him to show the slightest sign of discomfort, confusion, or unease in order to immediately taunt him about it—and the surrounding chaos, if anything, is just an opportunity to come watch even more closely. We all already knew this, but it still kills me to see it in action.
Also, he’s animated popping up from below, and like… were we meant to interpret this as him just chilling underneath Zim’s desk? No, absolutely not—but is it funny (and, to add to the hilarity, miraculously somehow not completely unbelievable within the context of the show) to imagine that he was? Yes. Yes it is.
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Zim confidently walking out into a downpour he has already confirmed to be acidic just because Dib implicitly dared him to—no one’s looking, Dib hasn’t even said anything or made a claim against his humanity, Zim just can’t stand to give Dib the satisfaction of seeing him vulnerable or afraid of something (which backfires pretty spectacularly, since I’m pretty sure ‘writhing on the ground shrieking in indescribable agony’ is a significantly worse look in terms of appearing vulnerable, but all’s well that ends in Victory For Zim, I guess).
Also Zim's little baffled gesture right beforehand like he's silently asking Dib to confirm he's not hallucinating the rain dance (he does not receive an answer)
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Gaz presumably seeing Zim sneaking up behind her brother, saying nothing and making no reaction that’ll tip Dib off… only to immediately be made to regret her choices when she gets caught in another splash. Shows her for trusting Zim to be at least a little bit cool about tormenting Dib (honestly, we see her exact fitting justice on Dib at the end of the episode, but I cannot imagine she wasn't still planning to do something equally petty to Zim).
The faucet drip scene and the underlying awareness that this is just what Zim and Dib do to each other during class. Every day. It is, in fact, probably one of the least disruptive forms their constant warfare takes on a routine basis. Suddenly I understand a little bit of why their entire class hates them.
Also Dib’s happy face while he's terrorizing Zim into a shell-shocked stupor is absurdly cute and heartwarming. If I cropped that picture no one would ever guess what he's smiling about. This kid? A sadist? Impossible.
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“I don’t even feel good about winning this one,” and it's said with his hands clasped together, practically vibrating with glee, his expression vaguely reminiscent of a teenager in the throes of hormonal infatuation (the hypothetical object in this case not so much being Zim himself as a personified abstraction of Zim’s suffering). If someone hit him with the Return of Keef happy goo in this exact moment, I am completely certain it would kill him. His statement is only true insofar that a more accurate term for his current state of being would probably be euphoric.  I take back everything I’ve ever said about Zim being unreasonable in this episode—he was merciful.
Also this face the moment Zim gets up and starts threatening him. Zim still isn't even all that intimidating at the moment, but Dib knows he just fucked up. Maybe he's getting flashbacks to Dark Harvest.
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Dib’s ridiculous water balloon device. Seriously. I feel like it gets (reasonably) overshadowed by the sheer absurdity of Zim’s entire operation, but it really is so amazingly stupid and pointless in a way that is… not dissimilar to the ultimate Irken water balloon. Not only is it really not necessary for the task it's meant to accomplish, it's actively detrimental in that it slows Dib down, blatantly telegraphs his attacks, and reduces accuracy by a significant degree. The only actual benefits I can think of would be the exponential increase in force and range and the instant accessibility of a water supply—the former of which is totally unnecessary in this scenario and the latter being possible to accomplish with a much simpler device (or even just… a water tank). To summarize, it is an incredibly impressive feat of both skill and creativity in design that is also completely and utterly useless! Which is just the perfect demonstration of what I mean when I say Dib really does share nearly all of Zim’s flaws, just to a less obviously ridiculous degree—he comes off just calm and clever enough to pass as moderately reasonable  at a glance, and in some ways, that makes him more of a potential flight risk than Zim. At least that's a lunatic you see coming. 
Irkens are collapsible, apparently
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silentwillowwhisperer · 6 months
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Day 23-HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEEF
It’s Keith’s birthday!!! Have the happiest of all happy birthdays my dear sweet traumatized child!
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I only have 30 minutes till today is over, yay me!
I have never gone paragliding before, nor do I feel like researching so yeah.
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Paragliding.
When Lance told Keith they would do anything he wanted for his birthday, he had expected something like ‘going to a party’ or ‘going for a hike’ or even just an eye roll.
But no.
Keith wants to jump out of a foreign aircraft on some random (but admittedly very pretty) planet with nothing but a flimsy little piece of fabric stopping him from falling to his death about a gazillion feet below him.
Now, Lance is not about to risk his life like this for no reason.
But Keith has his chin resting on Lance’s knee and is staring up at the blue paladin with wide, content eyes, and Lance cannot possibly say no to his precious bundle of boyfriend.
And that brings us to now, where Lance is fidgeting with the straps on his bulky harness. Their guide is a bulky man, towering at least a foot above them both. He hacks away at purple foliage blocking their way on the winding path that will deliver them to the top of a mountain.
Keith has a stupidly wild grin on his face. His eyes glow like fire and his hair is sticking out in every direction thanks to this planet’s rapidly fluctuating humidity. Lance is sure his own hair can’t be doing much better.
Keith is strangely chatty as he walks. A couple days before this, he had insisted that Lance just ignore his birthday, but it’s obvious that he’s enjoying every second of this. Their hands are clasped together between them both and swing back in forth as they hike. Both of their palms are sweating rivers by now. Lance squeezes tighter with every step.
Keith giggles softly. “You scared, McClain?” He nudges Lance’s shoulder with his own and his face is curved with a teasing smile.
Lance scoffs indignantly and mimes flipping a nonexistent ponytail over his shoulder.
“ I could out-fall you any day, Kogane.”
Keith snickers but gives no response. He goes back to pointing out every new thing they see with quiet joy. Lance can almost the sparkles flowing out of Keith.
He gets so caught up watching his partner that he doesn’t notice they’ve made it to the top till it’s too late.
There’s a blur of buckles and snappy instructions given to them by their guide and now Lance and Keith are strapped into their parachute for two.
Keith sends him a radiant grin. His eyes have fiery challenge swirled in. He drapes his arms over Lance’s shoulders and leans in close. “You ready?” he whispers.
Lance gulps and nods shallowly. He feels a trickle of sweat run down his temple.
“Here we go!”
And now they’re falling. He fails for a moments before throwing his arms around Keith’s back. All he can hear is the wind whipping around them and Keith’s faint jingle-laughs.
He has his eyes squeezed shut tight, but feels dumb after a moment and cracks one open just enough to see in front of him.
Keith is watching him carefully. His lips quiver, Lance can tell the other boy is laughing at him.
By now, the fabric has caught the wind, and they float gracefully through the air. Light shines through their paraglider and creates a splash of vibrant colors across their faces.
Keith throws his head back to cackle again. His hair looks terrible, black locks poking into his eyes and whipping around with the wind. His eyes are shut tight with amusement and Lance has the urge to trace the crinkles around his eyes. His skin is painted over with a mix of red and blue from their paraglider.
He’s a mess.
And he looks absolutely radiant.
If they weren’t already flying through the sky, Lance would say that his heart was carrying his straight up into the cosmos.
They make it back to the ground eventually, and Lance find himself missing the decent. They begin an awkward shuffle to untangle themselves from the mess that is their harnesses and scout out the area.
They’ve landed on a hill overlooking a sprawling market, and dammit if Lance isn’t going shopping, he just went through a life-threatening experience.
Keith is dragged around from stall to stall as Lance gets distracted by anything and everything that catches his eye.
He zones out for a while, occasionally lifting his arms or hair to let Lance try various accessories out on him.
He comes back to reality when Lance pats his head and looks down at his chest.
Dangling there is a red pendant. It’s a uncut stone almost like a ruby, but deeper with layers of pink and orange that remind Keith of a sunset. The best part is, the charm is naturally shaped so that it almost looks like a strawberry.
Lance’s smile overflows with affection. “I found that on some planet a while ago and thought of you. One of these merchants helped me put it on a string and you didn’t even notice because you zoned out so hard. Do you like it?”
There’s no words to describe the buzzing in Keith’s stomach correctly, so he just crashes his body against Lance, and they embrace so close they might’ve melted together.
Later, they’ll go back to the castle and Hunk will present a pretty cake to him. They’ll all have a movie night and a big dinner of almost-pizza (it’s actually soup but alienified to taste like bread, saude, and cheese) and Keith will spend the night pressed up against his boyfriend. Eventually they’ll be forced to go to bed and Keith will lay in Lance’s arms, turning the new necklace back and forth in his fingers endlessly.
And the whole time, a glow too big to possibly fit inside him will rush through his veins as he drowns in a happiness entirely surreal to him.
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Yes, yep, it is totally still the 23rd, shush it.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY DARLING BABY BOY! You deserve the moon, the stars, and all the worlds above <3
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aphelea · 10 months
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reading rumble round 3: alden vacker time! i just want to say beforehand that this is not meant to come after anyone in particular, nor alden haters as a whole. it’s just a fun little essay about my thoughts. :)
@camelspit @arson-anarchy-death
For many years in the Keeper of the Lost Cities fandom, Alden Vacker has been a controversial name. Many have claimed that he is a manipulative and abusive parent to his children, and even more so toward Keefe and Sophie. One popular theory suggests that Alden is secretly part of the Neverseen, and has been lying to his friends and family all along. However, while these theories are interesting to explore, they have over time grown more and more exaggerated with less basis in canon characterization. While Alden is far from a perfect father in canon, the common interpretation that characterizes him as outwardly and intentionally manipulative and abusive—in a very Cassius-like manner— is not reflective of his canon characterization. 
The infamous Flashback short story has become the spawn for much of the common fanon Alden characterisation. The story is often used as proof that Alden has been manipulating Keefe all along in order to “let Fitz have Sophie.” (Wiki) As another user says, “Alden used the fact that Keefe saw him as a father figure…to make him stay away from the person who Alden knew Keefe was in love with because Alden wanted his actual son to date her.” While Alden's words to Keefe in this story are not the most considerate, there is little basis to show that Alden is using Keefe in order to have Sophie and Fitz end up together. In fact, it seems that Alden is instead attempting to be gentle in what he believes to be a hopeless case for Keefe. Alden firmly believes that Sophie has romantic feelings only for Fitz—and he is not the only one, as Biana and Marella also notably assume she has a crush. Thus, it cannot be said that Alden is unreasonably trying to assume Sophie’s feelings, as he is only doing the same as many other characters in the series have, so far. Further, as he explains in the story, he is “no stranger to [Keefe’s] situation,” as he has also felt unrequited feelings for a friend—a situation which he continues to refer back to often throughout the rest of the story. It seems as if he is letting his own experiences affect his advice to Keefe—but this does not mean that he is intentionally manipulating him. As is common throughout the latter half of the series—and among all the characters—Alden is letting his own emotions bleed into his logical thinking, resulting in conversations that may seem inconsiderate and awkward. 
Furthermore, Alden is often misinterpreted as being strict about the Vacker image and caring a lot about tradition and respect. As one person claims, “[Fitz’s] parents chose his family name and status…to the point of putting him in danger from as young as six, knowingly.” While this may be somewhat more accurate for Alden’s character after the events of Flashback, it is very clearly not true from the beginning. Sophie notes that Alden “is not afraid to stand up to the Council if he has to.” In Book 1, he is also stated to have directly defied the Council’s orders to end the search for Sophie. Therefore, it is clear that Alden is not “repeatedly choosing his family name and status” as he clearly defies the institution that his family name is intrinsically tied to. Furthermore, in Neverseen, Alden is completely supportive of his wife and children joining the Black Swan—a group specifically targeted towards changing the Lost Cities. He assists them in cutting off their registry pendants and sneaking away. It is only when he faces a direct blow to his family—Alvar’s betrayal—that Alden becomes isolated and less involved. Alden’s actions throughout the series clearly indicate that he prioritizes his family above status, a direct contradiction to the common fanon interpretation of his character. 
Throughout the series, Alden Vacker is not the manipulative, meddling, and status-driven character that many believe him to be. He is driven by a love for his family, and though he can make inconsiderate comments at times, he does not intentionally hurt the people he cares about. While he is far from a perfect father, Alden Vacker is not an intentionally evil man—he is only one who, like any, can be misguided by his own beliefs and fears. 
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Can we get Ro and Keefe headcanons. Like. Please.
heck yea you can(finally, at long last)
Ro is actually kind of a sweetheart. Like, deep down, she cares, really badly, for Keefe. Maybe it's forced proximity, forced caring, but she does care.
The thing is, she can't. Outwardly, at the very least. She cannot care about this kid in the way that she wants to. She wants to care about him in a "pick him up, kiss his forehead, tell him to buck up, that it's all gonna be okay and that she loves him" kind of way. She can't. She's a professional.
Keefe honestly really likes the solid comfort of being cared about, even in the most professional of ways. He'll never admit it, but having someone pay attention to him fills a void inside of him that he never knew he wanted filled.
She knows a lot, a lot about this kid. She watches him almost constantly, is always near him, and she knows. She can hear him cry himself to sleep at night. She can hear him take hour-long showers. She can hear him scream from nightmares. She knows what his friendships are like, what his parents are like.
Mmm, Cassius doesn't treat Ro like a person. He treats her like an object, something that's there, watching over his son, never actually going to interfere with him. It's a shock the first time Ro tells him to go do something nasty to himself when he calls Keefe a name.
Ro gives Keefe as much space as she can afford, when things get hard. Ro was never really a touchy-feely person, so when she thinks he needs space, she gives him it. She lets him feel his emotions, lets him take time and space and just be. And then she'll appear. "Doing alright?" she asks. If Keefe shrugs, or jokes, she knows he's okay. If he shakes his head or doesn't respond, she knows he needs a friend to come over and give him a hug. She'll be on her way to hail Sophie in moments.
Keefe really. Really. Really needs Ro. He's never going to admit it. But holy. Holy frick does this boy depend on having someone who is required to care about him no matter what. Like, imagine that. It's such a bizarre thing for him, having someone care about him unconditionally, well, except for the wages, but it's so strange to him how easily he can forget that Ro's just there because she's getting paid. Holy heck. If he had to guess, he thinks, one day, watching her pace up and down the hallway, he'd think this is what having a family is like. That this is what being loved is like. That this is what family is supposed to be. He's not sure. But he can hope.
Anyways, Ro doesn't really do much of her own activities with Keefe. One day, on her day off, she invites him out with her to go hunting, but Keefe pukes on the ground in the woods after she kills her rabbits, so she decides against taking him again. Keefe looks ill whenever she mentions going out for the evening, now. But hey, at least he got off her back when it comes to hanging out with Bo.
Speaking of, Keefe's invited to her and Bo's wedding.
She does not want him to give a speech, she says, right out of the gate. Which of course makes Keefe write three speeches, all of which Ro silently loves, but outwardly rebels against.
Ro would die for Keefe even if she wasn't getting paid to do it.
Conversely, Keefe would die for Ro, and he knows he won't get paid for it.
They're both extremely sassy. So much sass. Cassius just straight up avoids Keefe when Ro's around him, after a while. She gives the kid too much power, he thinks, bitterly.
After the war, Ro doesn't need to be Keefe's bodyguard anymore. Keefe keeps his face straight and his lips smiling as she hugs him in one of her bone-cracking hugs.
"Sencen," she whispers, in his ear, "You haven't lost me, you're not losing me. The war is over, the battle is done. But you're still my kid, alright? You're the brother I never got. So listen to me, you stupidly loveable idiot, if you ever need an ogre princess. I'm there. I'll be there in a second. As fast as the light can take me. I'm always gonna have your back, Keefe," she pulled away, and looked him dead in the eyes. "Promise me that if you need me, you hail me."
Keefe nods, feeling like his world as coming apart at the seams.
He hails her that night, and she picks up the imparter in a heartbeat.
"What's the matter, kid?"
Keefe says nothing for a long moment, the clock on his wall ticking in the silence.
"Keefe?"
Keefe shrugs. "I think I miss you."
Ro smiles, into the imparter, her sharp teeth glittering. "I miss you too, kid."
The nights are long without her, and the world is less safe than it was with her near him.
But she's there when it matters.
And he needs to grow on his own.
He's doing it, right now, whether he knows it or not. Independence is a life free from fear, and if the first step is not having a bodyguard constantly, that's the first step.
When he goes to visit her a month later, she plays a prank on him, and he tries to tackle her, and everything is better.
Everything is better.
He didn't expect it to be.
But it is.
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i'd LOVE to hear your thoughts about the song twins.
anon ur everything thank u for fueling my song twins obsession mwah <3 here u go
sidenote: these are mostly about hair, friendship, and piercings....something that says a lot about me right now
okay first OFF idc tams shorter than linh!! they're both like decently tall but everyone thinks tam is short because linh is just like that type of tall where youre all limbs..like zendaya so everyone looks incredibly short compared to her
idk if he's the younger twin which drives him mad or if he's older AND still shorter but either way he gets made fun of <3
re my last post (that was supposed to go here but sleeby eesha cannot press buttons properly and apparently queue and draft are too close)
linh does NOT have her ears pierced but has an insane amount of piercings like she has a septum, both nostrils, AND a nose bridge piercing, she does NOT have snakebites (lip piercings) bc there's a LINE but she is considering eyebrow piercings to match her bridge one
tam has double lobe piercings on both sides, a helix on his right, a tragus on both sides, a daith on his left ear and he's planning to get an industrial whenever linh gets her eyebrow ones. he does NOT have guages bc like linh said, there's a LINE that shouldn't be crossed
like tam and linh have the same amount of piercings except linh has it everywhere but her ears and tam has it only on his ears
tam: how do u BREATHE linh: how do u HEAR (they're sooo 🤝)
both of them have dimples-linh's are incredibly easy to spot because she smiles all the time but tam only has one on his left side and he purposefully makes it so that when he's not scowling or anything his smirks go to the right so no one can tell (sophie is the first to discover it but no one believes that tam has a dimple so she purposefully tries to make him smile properly in front of everyone so they believe her!! she is only believed when at a sleepover keefe trips and falls flat on his face after boasting abt his balance and tam can't help but grin incredibly wide)
enough bangs tam let's talk about bangs linh, both song twins are diy hairdressers to each other, look me in the eye and tell me the two ppl who melted their registry pendants and decided to dye their hair with it are not...u cant!
so they decided to get bangs together, except tam went HARD and thankfully linh can make it so that it doesn't look so out of place. i can't describe his hair but know it looks good <3
linh in support of tam, decided to want lowkey with simply face framing "bangs" but unfortunately..instead of to the bottom of your nose/your chin which is where they're supposed to be cut, tam cuts them near the TOP of her nose, so linh has the world's tiniest face frame ever with parts of her hair that are just incredibly short. sometimes she can take them and spread them across her forehead into wispy bangs which are cute on some people! unfortunately for her, only tam can rock bangs so she has to wait MONTHS for them to grow out into true face frame bangs (source: me except i went to a hairdresser and when she asked me nose or chin, i said nose and she cut them like that...i loved them though <3 always missing them)
linh always has the urge to bleach her hair to dye it blonde but is talked down by tam every time, because in his words "there are too many blondes in our friend group do not leave me in black-haired superiority to be like every other bitch we know. including our significant others" (tam is dating keefe bc it's me and linh is dating whichever blonde makes you feel better) (sophie or marella bc i fully believe marella is naturally blonde but it's like a DARKK reddish strawberry blonde which counts !)
isn't it canon that it's hard for them to sleep without each other? if not WELL too bad it is now literally when they were little one of them could not sleep without the other next to them like literally impossible which was EVEN more amplified after they were away from home and it's gotten better now but they do find comfort in each other's presence and touch
little geniuses the both of them got their abilities YEARS before they're supposed to (im pretty sure i wrote in one of my fics that they got it when they were like 5?6? around there) ik it doesn't make sense bc oh but its weird that sophie got hers when she was five that's bc she's a telepath. telepaths are weird <3
tam's a NERDDDD i fully believe he's so interested in how everything works just like in general the nitty-gritty details of like lightleaping! and history of the animals and history of elves and astronomy all the things considered like boring or mundane and he bonds with sophie over wanting to know how everything works and they have hangouts with dex and fitz who explain to them what they want to know and sophie in turn tells them about how she learned it's supposed to happen with her human schooling (its me! you thought you wouldn't escape me making everyone friends? you're wrong!)
but like most nerds, he keeps his curiosity under lock and key hidden underneath his prickly attitude (something he and marella bond over because while marella loves to call him a nerd marella is literally THEE inner softie in the friend group like her and dex have a secret handshake tam is sworn to secrecy by the both of them not to say)
yes tam and linh are the first to know of each other's secrets but while tam can hide stuff from linh for YEARSS (his shove his feelings into a bottle mentality is showing) linh cannot keep anything a secret from tam and has ruined many surprise bday parties/gifts by this. the funny part is that it is ONLY with tam like u tell linh a secret involving pranking keefe and the only way you find out she knew is years after the prank happens
this is getting super long so i'll end it with this: they don't actually have a twin thing but they will say they have twin telepathy and have pre-rehearsed bits in their back pockets to freak people out
okay that's it im done i have more but ill save that for another day hope yall enjoyed this montrosity !!
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ravs6709 · 1 year
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A Desperate Attempt At Understanding- Tam & Linh
Word count: 1.1k words
Okay I'm gonna say that I didn't actually enjoy stellarlune as much as I would've liked, the characterizations were off to me, but it did provide me tam & linh angst so I'll take it ig
Warnings: mentioned suicide
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Tam took a deep breath, hand pausing at the window. When he finally mustered the courage to knock, the curtains slid open, and then the window, and Linh was staring down at him.
The scowl she wore hurt him, but what hurt him more was the brief flash of relief that had painted her eyes and smile, only to be hidden away.
"What are you doing here?" She asked, and already, there were storm clouds forming behind her.
"I want to talk to you," he said. "Without the interruption of anyone else."
She just stared, then turned away. "Unless you're here to admit that you were wrong—"
"I want you to understand," he said, climbing in before she could get the chance to shut him out.
"I don't want to talk about it," she said, turning towards the bedroom door to leave. "There is nothing to understand."
Tam used his shadows to reach for the latch on the door, shutting them in. "Do you really prefer that we just... live like this?"
"The situation can easily be resolved," Linh said mildly. "You're the one making it difficult."
"Linh, you have got to understand—"
"Glimmer was a part of the Neverseen—"
"Is that seriously all you can say? Fine. I was a part of the Neverseen, Keefe was a part of the Neverseen—"
"Neither of you had a choice. Keefe went in as a spy, and you were forced. You cannot possibly compare that to Glimmer."
"I can. Do you remember what Rayni—"
"Rayni!" Linh cut in, arms flailing. "Rayni, Rayni, Rayni!"
"That is her name. The one you demanded her to reveal. And suddenly you refuse to use it? Rayni didn't fully know what she was getting into."
Linh scoffed. "It's not an excuse. She still made that choice. She wasn't forced."
"Do you remember what she had said?" he asked, voice quiet and low. "She said she wasn't sure she'd be here if Gisela hadn't found her."
"So you want to save her. You want to save her to what, feel good about yourself? Prove that you're right and I'm wrong? Because you think you saved me?"
"It's not about saving someone!" he yelled. "And do you really think you'd be better off if I didn't join you with your banishment?"
She laughed. "You really do think you saved me!"
"Stop! It's not like that! But you had someone to rely on, to ease the pain. You had company. You had understanding. And I thought you of all people would be able to understand Rayni."
"We are nothing alike! Stop trying to compare us!"
"If Gisela had come to you, and for once agreed how discrimination against twins is nonsense, and you could protect other twins from facing the same fate as us—because let's be real, we would have had access to getting proper control over our abilities if we weren't twins—would you have refused?"
"I'd never join her!" she insisted. 
"Not even for the sake of protecting others?"
"There are other ways of protecting people!"
He felt the blood rushing within him, he wanted to just scream at her to make her recognize that her and Rayni weren't all that different, but she refused to listen. Instead, he took a deep breath.
"Linh. She could have been dead if Gisela hadn't found her when she did. She could have been another Wanderling Tree."
That got her steely eyes to waver, because for all that Linh talked about getting Rayni exiled, death was something on a completely different level. She turned her head away. "It's not... it's not enough. Fine, she could have joined for that. I can accept that. But she chose to stay, knowing the things that were happening. Knowing she was doing something wrong." She turned to him again, her steel eyes not just hardening, but they seemed so deep that they could drown him. "And you choose to trust her! We've seen how this turns out! We've seen Alvar! Why do you trust her? You've changed too much, Tam!"
"Do you think the Neverseen broke me?" he asked.
Linh didn't look at him.
"Linh. Linh, answer me!" his voice broke at those last words, but neither of them said anything about it.
"You were never like this before," she murmured, "you seem so... naive now."
"Weren't you the one who insisted that I make friends, that I sulked too much."
"Stop blaming this on me!" she seethed, grabbing his collar. The clouds above them turned darker, a raindrop falling on his bangs.
"I'm not blaming you!" His hands gripped her wrists, but otherwise didn't resist. "This is a good thing because I have friends now due to you! I didn't want to trust Sophie but you showed me that it was okay!"
"Don't say it's because of me!" A couple more raindrops fell, sliding down across her face. "Don't say it!"
"I need to say it," he said, his face growing increasingly wet from the rain. "I've changed, but it's not because of Rayni or the Neverseen, but because of you and my friends. You allowed me to be a better person. Is it so wrong to want the same for Rayni? You want her stuck feeling rage at the world, because of the fact that she was alone? She's like us, and we found a home. You want her to continue to be like how we were, living in Exillium? Is that what you want, Linh?"
She sucked in a breath, silent.
"Do you seriously want her to continue living like that? Forever, with no chance to make something of herself?"
When her eyes softened ever so slightly and her hands loosened their grip, he knew that he had gotten through to her.
"I just... don't want her to ruin things for all of us," she whispered.
"I know," he whispered back, all too aware of the risks that have been made. "I'm still going to be cautious, and if she does try anything, I'll make sure to stop her.
Linh, are you ready to come back home?"
"Give me a few days," she replied. "But I'll be there, and I'll be more lenient on her. I don't promise anything more."
A relived breath escaped his mouth, and he couldn't help but smile. "That's all I need."
•~•~•~•~•~•
Kotlc taglist: @stellarune @my-swan-song @impostertamsong @subrosasteath
Want to be added/removed from the kotlc taglist? Just let me know!
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nxttheendxfthestxry · 2 years
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"eavesdrop" (from Klaus to Lexa @storystartsanew )
"Lexa? Are you busy?"
Lexa glances up at Harmony, smiling and shrugging. "I've got someone coming to join me any minute, but you're welcome to pull up a seat in the meantime. What's up, Harm?"
Harmony nods, sitting down awkwardly. She did not particularly enjoy doing this, the lying and the pretending, but Axel had explained the situation rather thoroughly.
They both really, really like each other, Harm. But they're also both far too stubborn to ever say anything to each other, and it's distracting them both and driving them both insane. This is just a nudge to help them both recognize what's already there. I got him to open up to me when she could overhear it, so she knows about him. I just need her to open up to someone when he can overhear it, and it can't be me, because she's definitely gonna know what I'm up to. All you have to do is get her to talk about it. You can pretend it's for your own curiosity with understanding emotions and just start to nudge it in the right direction. Here, let me explain...
And it was a good plan, a detailed one, one she could highly appreciate and adapt if needed. She just didn't enjoy lying.
"Lexa... how do you know when you are... attracted, to someone? I am still learning a lot about recognizing and understanding emotions, and I thought it was my next question. I would ask the others but... I know that Prue, Eretria, and Margo had bad first responses, Keefe still does not trust me, and Stephanie informed me when I asked her that not only is she a bad person to ask because of her lack of experience in the field, but so too was Dexter because he, and I quote, 'likely doesn't know how he got into his relationship'. I would ask Axel but he's busy, and I cannot find Crystal."
Lexa sighs, laughing. "You didn't have to give me the complete rundown, but thanks, I guess. Okay, so, I guess that leaves me?"
"Zevon is after you, but I thought you might understand it better being from Auradon."
Lexa sighs, smiling. "Well... I don't know. Not really. I never really... thought about it before, I guess. Nothing like that ever really came up till recently."
"Recently?" Harmony sits up, leaning forward. "What do you mean?"
Lexa sighs, clearing her throat and running a hand through her hair. "Well..."
"Well?" Harmony raises an eyebrow.
"Well, there's... you'll probably meet him at some point, but... Klaus. I guess he's, somewhat Mafia-adjacent, so they're not always around when we all hang out, but he's still a part of it. And, well..."
Harmony reaches across the table and gently nudges her arm. "Lexa, do you like him?"
"I don't know, yeah, I guess, I..." Lexa rakes a hand through her hair. "I've never... experienced it. I mean, I grew up with Audrey and Taylor, so I've seen it, I've seen them and the way they act, the way they describe the feeling and it... it lines up. But I'm always so afraid of screwing things up. Because it's all I've ever done, right? Shit, I went to juvie in high school because I couldn't stop screwing everything up. So... I'm afraid of screwing things up with him."
With a small eyeroll, Harmony shakes her head. "I doubt you would do that, but... how does he make you feel, then?"
Lexa sighs. "I mean..." She chews her lip, tapping her pen against her own arm for a moment before answering. "I mean, I really like him. I feel like I'm not pretending with him. And, and I've said that about VKs in general, but... something about him is different. For the first time... it's like someone actually likes being around me as just... me. He's so easy to be around and he can be really sweet. When he cares, he cares so deeply about things, and you can see it in his face. He just tries so hard to protect everyone and I... want him to see that he's doing more than enough. I want him to know he's enough, just as he is. And... at some point I realized I liked him in trying to just do that."
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@storystartsanew
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sophie listens to her music and has thoughts
idk how to title. song fic of alien blues (also I'm typing on my glitchy phone so any mistakes are not me)
it's her winnowing gala. she can't face it. so once again, her ipod emerges to comfort her with memories.
Was it the best you ever had? Was it the worst? You'd never know
the human world wasn't good. Sophie might have grown up different, but that didn't mean she didn't hear the stories. those warnings mothers tell you when they deem you old enough to feel fear, if only for your safety. if you ask any human woman, she can tell you one. the lost cities might have been better. they might be worse. truth be told, she just thought it was shinier. whatever it is, it doesn't help with the ache in her heart to say it out loud.
I try to tell you what I think and play it off like it's a joke
She didnt know what to think of match making. Sophie is once again doomed to people saying "one day.." because one day she might lose it. one day she might fall in love, and the next she is bound to someone that's "more acceptable" because of what others think
Oh no, more surprises, guess it's like this
and she can't stop fucking up. she feels so stupid. she knows nothing about the world she "belongs" in. So, time after time she is punished. she wants to fight.. then That tiredness seeps into her bones and drags her along to just conform so its over. even when she wants to, she just realizes it's just like this.
I'd do anything for you, Mrs. Highness
if they wanted her to conform to their better society and grow up to a "good match" then why did the very first thing sophie see happen to be fucking Biana Vacket? Gorgeous, outstanding, and painfully out. of. reach. Biana. the perfect princess that never wanted Sophie. they might be friends now, but Sophie hates that word. friends.. however hopeless her affections may have been, she'd rather be condemned by chance than law. she'd do anything to be "Mrs. sophie vacker" but there is no vision or even fantasy where biana would be a "Mrs. Biana Foster."
The sun is fun, the land is dandy. I only talk to dogs because they don't understand me
maybe it's the overly flashy castles reminding her that only a couple humans can be like this, and the others are suffering. maybe it's the fact that a birth fund could fix so many people's lives. it might be just the guilt of it all. but she can't stand the perfection. then, that stinky little bat thing comes into her life. so far from home, in the hands of delicate strangers. he is just like her. he still doesn't understand a word she says in grief filled nights. she likes it that way.
My teeth are yellow, hello world! Would you like me a little better if they were white like yours?
she has eyes like tall dark trees. grounded with roots. roots she cannot plant in a sea of blues and greens and everything not hers. she is an elf. somehow she feels like an intruder on herself. that maybe if she was really an elf, raised right, she wouldn't feel these things her pastor warned about. because everything about her is something she is alone in.
I need to purge my urges, shame, shame, shame.
she is wrong. fitz has beautiful eyes. she loves them. she loves going to his house, and she loves being near him (and his sister.) So this is her punishment. to be almost close enough to someone she won't admit she loves to herself. bind herself to a place where all she can do is dream from an impossible distance that is only a wall away.
I need an alibi to justify, somebody to blame
it's funny. she blames her anger on Keefe for flirting with Biana on the wrong person. she says she doesn't know what to feel about him. because her love life is only messed up because of him. or else she would be with her vacker. the one everyone wants her to be with, the one that allows her to have excuses for chasing glimpses of someone else.
It's a halibut, party bitch, give it a name and say, "Hey, hey".....
it's her winnowing gala. the air in her room is silent. she never thought she'd make it this far. she isnt reminiscent anymore.
she picks up her imparter. Biana answers too quick. "Why are you calling me? you are supposed to be dancing! I didnt make you pretty just for me to be the only one seeing you" says the ever princess, taking care of those that need it. she can barely see her face at this time of night. Sophie stops, Biana is the only one that sees her. and this... is infinitely dangerous. no other words.
"what are we? because I want to be pretty just for you. the same way you think I want to be pretty for fitz. the whole time, I come to your house with my hair brushed and I put on chapstick. it was incase you were there."
the screen goes black. she sits, with nothing to give.
her door slams open. it's this perfect, impossible moment where Biana Vacker is in her door way, looking imperfect and adorable with her hair mussed up and her lips aren't ever so perfectly glossed. somehow, it is Biana Vacker, in plain clothing, not out of reach anymore. no longer a society away. it's just two girls in a room. Suddenly Sophie realized just how formal she was and Biana wasn't.
Cheeks red from sprinting, Biana walks slowly forward.
"well, I'm here now. because I wanted fitz to be with you" a step forward "because I wanted to be with you" another step closer and a thousand more heart beats at something out of a fantasy. "because I thought you were better a wall and a million miles away than a light leap from me"
it's another step foreward. there is no walls, no rules, nothing between them in this stolen moment except what they choose.
"so what are you going to do about it?" it's a plead at this point. this dance is ending, how it does it up to Sophie now.
Sophie, for once, does away with what others want, and closes the gap between them.
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bookwyrminspiration · 2 years
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What do you think Fitz’s motives were for wanting Sophie to be able to apply for matchmaking? A lot of people say it’s that he’s worried about how it will affect his reputation and that it could ruin his life if he’s a bad match, but there’s also the part about how if Fitz cared so much about reputation then he probably wouldn’t have gone with Sophie after she runs away from the Council at the end of Everblaze.
Personally, I think the circumstances in general are way different. For one, most of the public was against the Council’s decision to restrict Sophie’s abilities so the reaction to her running away probably would be more of a mixed bag than Fitz being a bad match would. Again with circumstances, Fitz’s family was probably getting a lot of bad press at the time because of all the scandals that came out about the Vackers so he was probably under the pressure to not cause any controversy that could cripple them. It just doesn’t feel like the same situation.
Sorry for rambling lol.
Please don't apologize for rambling! Rambling is, if you cannot tell, very encouraged and normal on this blog.
In fact, I also started rambling, so I'm hiding under a cut to save everyone's dashes :)
And I agree with your assessment! At the time that the kotlcrew ran away to join the Black Swan, the Vacker reputation had not suffered the blows it had during Legacy. I don't think Fitz is doing it for himself--sure, it might be a part of it--but I think it primarily stems from a sense of duty to his family. He mentions how he, him specifically as the most powerful, youngest telepath in their prestigious family, being unmatchable is something the rest of his family (his parents, Biana, all of their children) will never be able to get away from. The scorn of that will have generational impacts for the rest of their lives, and that's not something he's willing to do to them for, what, his happiness? It would also impact his life, but that's not his entire concern.
Like you noted, Fitz has faced scorn and ruining his family's reputation before. He and Biana were the first Vackers to be sent to Exillium, and he bore it with a grimace and didn't let it stop him from being by his friends' side and helping them there. Just being Sophie's friend gets backlash from people like Stina and from rumors, but he brushes them off. But all of that was before it really hit with Alvar.
If I'm remembering correctly, Alvar's association with the Neverseen didn't come out publicly until around the beginning of Lodestar, which is way after they'd left, more when they were actually returning. The Vacker reputation hadn't taken that kind of hit before then, so Fitz and Biana's nefarious actions were nothing compared to that huge Legacy. Sure, people talked, but they knew that everyone else was misguided and what they were saying wasn't true.
But Alvar? That's big. That's a significant, and accurate blow to their reputation that's hurting their entire family. It's isolating them from the rest of their relatives, it's garnering suspicion, it's promoting gossip, everyone's doubting them, etc. For Fitz to so soon after than go into a bad match? Rubbing salt in the wound. Why not move to the Lost Cities and proclaim elven kind exists at that point? /rh.
Fitz cares about people so much. He cares about Sophie and he cares about Keefe (even if he gets mad at them sometiems), he cares about their cause and he cares about his morals, and he cares about his family. The last thing he wants to do is hurt them, and being a bad match would undoubtedly do that beyond all reason. In the world they live in, it would be devastating. Of course he doesn't want to do that! He doesn't want it for them and he doesn't want it for himself and that's entirely reasonable!
But if Sophie is matchable...all of that goes away. He can be with the girl he's loved for so long and it won't ruin the lives of the people he cares about. Just the names of two people who signed up for this mess and knew the risks from the beginning, that's all it costs, right? They made that choice, why should he and Sophie have to live with the consequences? If they can find those two names and Sophie can be matchable, the entire mess goes away.
it's not going to follow his family for generations, it's not going to turn their family against them anymore than they already were against Sophie, it's not going to get gossip about being unmatchable. It'll bolster some people's opinion of the family, even.
It also makes it easier for Sophie! She doesn't have to be unmatchable, she can officially be with him, and they can go through the motions together. It makes it easier for Fitz! He's mentioned once before that he liked being a Vacker, knowing he would do something important one day. That's entirely fair! he's a person. People are allowed and should be a little selfish from time to time. It's not some moral failing he should be condemned for if he wants to protect himself a little from the scorn he'd otherwise face. Being entirely open and willing to experience pain is not a requirement or proof of loving someone, nor should it be.
Fitz wanting so badly for Sophie to be matchable so they could be matched together is entirely understandable. He doesn't want to hurt the people he cares about and the solution seems so so simple, of course he wants it. I'd want it too in his position.
at least, that's why I think he wanted Sophie to be matchable. It's really interesting to look at though, so thank you for the prompt!
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enbies-and-felonies · 2 years
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breakdown of relationships (1/?) for the college au:
sophie and linh: cannot flirt to save their lives so go to a tea shop and know each other’s Very Spefic Things (ie “linh, honey, i noticed you’re wearing a green cardigan today and it’s clearly not new so i brought you cinnamon tea” [knowing full well they only like that kind of tea when xier sad] or “[linh to someone]: sophie has her in a bun let’s go somewhere else for a while”) meanwhile they cannot tell you what color the other person’s hair to save their life, also they go into each other’s apartments All The Time and kinda just are like “oh yea you’re here, lol, have you been to your own house lately?”
“-_- ,, no”
“ok welp are we gonna KISS before you get some clean clothes??”
and it’s just like that stupid troupe which i ADORE in like “hey are we dating?”
“?? i thought so but now i have doubts ??”
“wait why do you have doubts i like you ??”
and it’s in front of all their friends are are face plaming so hard like ‘these dumbass fucking useless gays’ (a revise to this is basically linh and sophie never actually admit they’re dating or even want to and it’s like i’d anyone asks about it they both just get super flustered and be like ‘next question’) (and this manifests in ways like
linh, taking off her shoes and stuff while coming into the house: …look, ok i have like 17 assignments due in one week, all of which i have not started and BARELY understand the materials for, do you think i have Time to care if they are or aren’t my girlfriend? literally i fall asleep on my notes and she brushes my hair off the desk and kisses my cheek and we both kinda smile. frankly, that’s all that matters to me
keefe: i literally JUST asked what kind of tea you had
linh: oh i think it’s yellow)
okay this. THIS. SAY THAT ACE YEAH THATS THEM
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utilitycaster · 2 years
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I would really love to hear your opinion on the Empathy subclass FCG is playing. I trust Sam, but in general, I think the mechanical benefits for roleplaying seems....bad? Like, is it not discouraging any form on conflict if the cleric suddenly loses powers on you?
There's a lot about the subclass I dislike even though I've been trying to give it a chance, and I kinda want to see if it's just me and I need to control my reactions
So: I'm going to put this up here and then elaborate further down but I have made my feelings on FCG pretty clear, which is to say, I am going to talk through my thoughts on the subclass mechanics (which I agree have some issues) but I am not going to even pretend like I'm in any way objective here. So, it's not just you, but I am not controlling my reactions and my patience with FCG in general is at a breaking point.
The subclass and mechanics:
Here's what I can glean of it:
Sympathetic Binding allows FCG to bind himself to two creatures; it's unclear whether they must be in sight range or not. While bound, FCG can grant 4 temp hit points to one of those creatures as a bonus action (not sure if the 4 is like, WIS mod+1, or just always a flat 4); or grant a d6 to a bound creature with whom they have some kind of friendly relationship, to be used on a saving throw, attack roll, or ability check.
Both of these are fairly close to the Peace Domain channel divinity options, except the first limits the healing to 4 once per bonus action, rather than 2d6+WIS to any allied creatures you pass within 5 feet. That said, aura of vitality basically achieves the same thing as Balm of Peace. Emboldening Bond also permits more bound creatures, I think (unless it's gone up to 3 with the proficiency bonus and Sam's just been sticking to two...not sure).
So: fine, but yeah, I don't like that you need to have some kind of deeper relationship to use the d6 ability. Just make it normal allyship! Just cast bless! A bard can inspire someone they can't stand if it's beneficial and they're on the same team for now! This is so subjective and weird and as you said it makes conflict really fraught and awkward. I think people get a little too hung up on metagaming but this actually seems like a trap for metagaming.
That said, the part of the subclass that I really dislike is the damage halving, because it forces you to attack when a full action healing spell might be better, and if you miss you could easily knock yourself out and then the party has an unconscious cleric. At least now FCG doesn't have to spend a full action to swap out the weapons, but like...the only way I see this as being workable is if you spam healing word whenever you have to deal damage, and also make DAMN well sure you've got a solid attack (I cannot believe I'm saying this, but FCG should have stuck with the 7 INT and upped wisdom at L4 because that +1 to the mod could literally mean the difference between a tide changing hit, and a miss that leads into a death spiral into a TPK). Like, you've created a scenario where you penalize a cleric for choosing cure wounds over sacred flame. It's awful. I really hope Matt revises it because there are only a handful of people in actual play who I think could handle this without falling into analysis paralysis and I think they'd also look at this and say "uhhhhh I'll just play Peace Domain actually".
The rest:
I hate the flavor of this subclass. I thought carefully about using the word hate, and then I was like, yeah I hate it, we are well into flames on the sides of my face territory and I'm just going to say it. I hate when people try to act like a therapist unsolicited. It's boundary-crossing and overreaching and it makes my skin crawl and I fucking detest it.
You know what's funny? We met someone who is, essentially, a therapist in Campaign Three. Duasad Keef uses his psychic abilities to help people through trauma or personal change. You know what he didn't do in his time onscreen? Start asking invasive questions about people's personal lives without permission. Like, I'm not saying the mental health system is without its flaws but something it does right is draw pretty rigid boundaries between therapist and patient. You can confide in your friends, you can offer advice to your friends, you can comfort your friends, but you cannot be therapist and friend at once.
Which is not to say one couldn't play the subclass in a way that didn't do that, flawed though it may be mechanically! Play it as just like...a friend! Play it like the peace domain! Do not fucking play it like a therapist.
I should note: I don't know this for sure but I suspect Sam is very aware this isn't, you know, healthy behavior, and is deliberately playing FCG as in many ways very broken and terrible and operating under a really awful directive. And that's a valid choice, but I think I can best articulate it this way: I am at this point feeling unnervingly similar towards FCG during the therapy sequences as I did about Lucien's gaslighting: I think this is deliberate. I think the actor is well aware how unpleasant this person would be in real life. I think it is a valid choice for the character. And I fucking hate it and want it to stop.
I also to be honest am frustrated by Sam's RP as FCG in other ways. Like...Imogen initiated the conversation that permitted that feature! Why aren't you trying to go on watch once a night and have RP time with everyone? Why aren't you drawing them into conversations so you can use this feature?
Maybe it's just me, but it feels like Sam is just biding time until some kind of Devexian-esque reveal for FCG and as a result isn't like, investing in the character now so we're just in this awful holding pattern.
When I add in my existing distaste for a cleric not engaging with some aspect of the divine or even a general concept...it is becoming harder and harder for me to find anything to enjoy in FCG. Like, there are flashes of it at times but usually they're coming from other characters trying to draw FCG out than from FCG themselves.
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aphelea · 2 years
Text
some things never change
i wrote a fic in about ~1 hour with zero editing so. have a blast
summary: does anything really change after the war is over?
warnings: referenced implied suicide (though it isn’t a major part of the fic), violence.
The war doesn’t end with a battle. 
It isn’t dramatic, or bloody, and it doesn’t end with bodies strewn across an endless meadow, like Sophie had always imagined. 
No, the end begins with Lady Gisela delivering herself to the steps of the Tribunal Hall, Vespera’s dead body laid out in front of her. There’s a gaping wound in the Empath's chest, and the blade that matches it lies in Gisela’s hands. She eyes with a desperate kind of despair. 
“I surrender,” Gisela says, and the blade clatters on the crystal below. When she looks up, her hood falls, and her eyes are as blank as Vespera’s in front of her. 
“I surrender,” she says again, and it takes Sophie a long moment to realise that she’s muttering the words over and over again, like a chant. Like a prayer. 
There are no stars in the sky yet; it’s midday, or thereabouts, and the sky is shrouded behind thick clouds. Gisela’s gods are hiding. There is no help here. 
The Council’s goblin bodyguards drag Gisela away, still muttering her surrender beneath her breath. 
Keefe gags slightly. But he can’t look away. None of them can. 
Bronte is the one to examine Vespera’s body, as the one out of them who has seen the most corpses. There are no tears in his eyes; there is no waver in his step as he walks over and declares her dead. 
Why? is the question thrown around, then. Why would Gisela deliver herself to us? Why would she kill her most powerful ally? 
It’s the Collective bringing up the questions, after Sophie and her friends are shut down once again. But the Council is nothing if not consistent, and they choose to sweep aside any remaining doubts and instead “rejoice in their victory.”
Sophie scoffs. Victory is a strange, strange word for it. 
Bronte tells her later, with saddened eyes: “This is how it always goes, Sophie. Every conflict ends the same way.” He is not surprised. There is enough devastation locked away in his cache for him to understand. 
The Council tell the people that victory is near. They prepare to hold a proper Tribunal for Lady Gisela, with all the extravagance and glamour that Eternalia has made its name upon. They invite Sophie to speak, to make her own statement, but she declines. She is beginning to see how this war will end. 
It will end at the beginning, with the very systems, the very beliefs that forced the rebellions. 
It is about six hours before the Tribunal is scheduled to take place that Sophie is shaken awake by Grady, who offers her an indecipherable expression. He leads her downstairs, taking care to shift the weight off her injured leg, and shows her the entire Council, standing in their parlour. 
For a moment, she thinks they’re there to take her, too. After all, she’s practically a monument, a living symbol of the rebellion simmering beneath the surface. How better to snuff out the fight than take their favourite pet away?
But they’re not there to take her away. Not yet, at least. They tell her, with somber faces, that there will be no Tribunal held tomorrow. 
One cannot hold a Tribunal for a dead woman, after all. 
They tell her Gisela was found in her cell, with a singular, razor-sharp hairpin between her fingers.
She’d told Sophie once, in the midst of a fight, that she knew thirty ways to kill a man with just her hair accessories. Sophie wonders, now, if this is what she had planned for.
Probably not. Nobody plans on falling apart. 
The Council tells the people that Gisela has been Exiled. That a private Tribunal happened, and that of course she’s not dead, because that would be a terrible oversight on their part. 
Sophie scoffs, but doesn’t say anything. It wouldn’t matter if she did, anyway. Nobody believes her now. 
They don’t believe her, they say, because she’s friends with a Pyrokinetic. 
Marella was kicked out of Foxfire. Without her relevance to the war, what good is she to the Council?
They don’t believe her, they say, because she refuses to sign up for the match. Because she denounces it, actually; because she looks into the eyes of romance and tells it to fuck off. 
And she does so wholeheartedly. 
Tam is the first person who really says something to her. And she supposes that’s expected — he’s always been the one unafraid to call out elven society. 
He stops her on the way to class, and she’s more than happy to skip. 
“We failed,” he says, and she raises her eyebrows. 
“We won the war,” she replies, and it’s the line the Council told her to say. Fed to her, like a dog. 
“Don’t be stupid,” Tam says. “We won nothing. Not when everything’s worse than it was before.” 
Sophie slumps against a wall. There’s not much left in her to give. “You’re right,” she says, with a sigh. “It’s like— it’s like people saw the devastation that the Neverseen caused, and in response, just tightened their grip on everything. And they’re looking at all these ridiculous systems, these ridiculous beliefs they hold, and saying- ‘well, the Neverseen wanted to change these things, and the Neverseen were evil, right? So obviously that means change is fucking evil!’” She wants to hit something, desperately.  
Tam doesn’t seem remotely surprised by her outburst. Instead, his lips curl into a grim smile, and he nods. 
“I think,” he says, “we need to bring the Black Swan back to where it started.” He pauses, and then, softly, continues, “Rebellion.” 
Sophie looks at him for a long, hard moment. She was born for combat, made for it even. This decision is easy for her. “No,” she says, voice low and steady. “Not rebellion. We need revolution.”
They share a glance, a heavy one, and Tam holds out his crystal to Solreef. “I know at least two people who will help us,” he says. 
Sophie thinks about Tiergan, about Prentice and Wylie. “Yeah,” she agrees. “I think you’re right.” 
She takes his hand, and together, they disappear into the light. 
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Text
kotlc character's favorite colors!!!
because I want to idk guys
Sophie Foster: Red. All the way red. She has a lot of clothes in red, a lot of accessories. She has red ribbons that she threads through her hair, and back with her human family she had those weird bobby pins that have pieces of red fake hair attached that they give out as party favors. She loves it because it's the color of roses and of love and of anger. It's a strong color, a proud color, a color that you can't ever miss. It's really rare to see her not wearing something that's red.
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Fitz Vacker: Dark blue. He has dark blue spread throughout his bedroom like Sophie has red spread throughout her life. He has dark blue on his walls, a dark blue bedspread, dark blue paintings, and dark blue dried flowers tucked into a blown glass vase that sits on the edge of his dresser. He's got lighter blue clouds and a moon painted on his ceiling, but the blue of the room itself makes the whole room a dark cave. It's probably a good thing that he has such huge windows, because otherwise his room would be too dark. But it's calm, and it's quiet. It's a certainty and a quiet sort of calm that he cannot find in any other color.
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Keefe Sencen: Yellow. Keefe has different connections with every color, mostly because emotions as you sense them with empathy are so closely rooted with colors. Anyways, he doesn't like just any yellow. It's a very specific, soft, warm, yellow, bright and radiant. It's the color you find in childish pictures of the sun, the kind of yellow that litters the ground in the spring by cloaking dandelions in it. He has a very specific reason for liking that color, and that color to those specifics. That yellow is the color of happiness. And whenever he sees that color, he feels the weight in his chest get a little lighter, and a little happier.
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Dex Dizznee: Blue. Any blue. He likes all blues. It's so cool, and it reminds him of his mom. Their house is coated in blue. His siblings are sick to death of blue, and he just... he loves it as much as his mother does. He smiles, and there's a tiny gap between his teeth that's straight up adorable, his face brightened by the soft blues, and the turquoises and the sapphire colors. He also thinks blue really brings out the color of his eyes, and Biana has repeatedly told him he's right. He always seems a little more confident, with the blue tunic, or his dark blue cape. His eyes shimmer a little extra, and when he feels confident in himself, he's the perfect embodiment of "Do no harm, take no sh*t," and he's spectacular. We love him. That is all. We stan.
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Biana Vacker: Purple. Purple, purple, purple, purple. Purple. Have I said purple enough times? Biana loves this color. Not for the reasons you'd think. She doesn't like it because it reminds her of something, or how it makes her feel. She likes it because of what the very social connotations of purple are. Purple is currently a feminine-coded color. But not as close to feminine as pink is coded. It's practically pink, but it's not. It's the secondary color, the one little girls don't usually pick. "Do you want the pink or the purple?" Biana used to hear, everywhere she went, because she was pretty, girly, and a little one. No one really expects little girls to pick the purple. Most little girls want the pink. They offer the purple as a back up. Biana really, really, really likes purple. And when people looked surprised, or said things like, "Oh! You're the first little girl today that's picked purple!" Something excited lit inside of her. And she smiled brightly, and took her purple pencil. Then, later on, she found out that purple was the color of royalty. There was no going back from that. 89% of her possessions are purple.
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Tam Song: You're all thinking you know what I'm going to say. You think this kid likes black. I think you're right. This kid definitely likes black. But there's one color he likes more. And that color is Neon Green. He never wears it, he never buys anything in that color. But that's his favorite color. It's sharp, painful to look at, and bright. Blindingly bright. And in a world that's always seemed so dark to him, he likes that. Also, neon green is a generally disliked color, because it's so loud, so toxic, so dangerous. He relates to it, on a personal level. He doesn't think he's a nice person. He doesn't think he's easy to handle. He thinks he's dangerous, sharp, and loud. That, and neon green always looks better on a black background.
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Linh Song: Rose pink. It's soft, gentle, everything she thinks she isn't. Everyone will say that it embodies her, but that's where you're wrong. It embodies what she wants to be. She wants to be graceful, beautiful, soft. She always sees herself through the lens of guilt, anger, and broken shards. But when her room is the soft color of roses and soft petals, and you feel like you've fallen into a cloud at sunrise, you can't think that she's caused so much destruction. She wants to be soft, beautiful, and when she wears soft, beautiful dresses, gently draped in Rose Pink, she feels that maybe, just maybe, she's getting there.
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Marella Redek: Emerald Green. It has a blaze to it, a streak of power and royalty. It reminds her of jewels, of the forest, and of the green fire around the center of her eyes that Linh always insists is there. Green is the color of life, and fire is alive. She loves it, she wants to swim in a bath of green, wants to be surrounded by green. If she ever dyed her hair, it would be this color. She'd paint every room green, dwell in a green house, cloak herself in green and live and die in green. There's a power, a strength, a life to it that Marella has never found in anything but herself. Green is her color, not because it looks particularly amazing on her, not because it reminds her of anything in particular, but because it is how she sees herself.
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Stina Heks: Burgundy. It's dark, strong, and it reminds her of wine, brushes of paint along the walls, and deep, beautiful flowers. It breathes of ancient powers, queens, velvet smoothness and shimmering luxury. It's the softness of curtains and the whisper of pillow talk in the diamond-crusted royal palaces. Burgundy shimmers, burgundy shines, and it makes her feel like a queen upon her throne when she slips into the dress, and walks down the hallway with a confidence that she never has to force to the surface. And, on top of that, it brings out the warmth in her skin, lights up her eyes, and softens her features. What's not to love?
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Maruca: White. Light, powerful, looks spectacular with her skin tone, and her eyes. She likes how versatile it is. She loves how light it is, how bright. It reflects every color, so it is every color. It's the equivalent of rainbow, in her mind. It reminds her of snow, and of sheets drying out in the sun in the summer. White reminds her of ice, white reminds her of clean countertops. It reminds her of Nike Shoes and the force fields that stream out of her fingers. She's got white flower crowns, and a white dress that lurks in her closet for when she needs it. And, y'know. She's one of those people who would look absolutely badass in a a white pantsuit. Just. Badass. White is badass. Maruca is badass. Logic.
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my favorite sophitz hcs for ur daily dose of the best ship in kotlc
sophie has a designated napping chair in fitzs room that she sleeps on after school
they have telepathic conversations whenever theyre bored in class which turns into competitions on who can distract the other the most or fitz trying to make sophie blush as much as possible
telepathy classes are both their favorite time of the day because they basically just talk for an hour straight
every five minutes one of them will burst into laughter or start blushing to which tiergan just rolls his eyes and shakes his head at
sophie finds out fitz can paint nails very well because biana and makes him paint her nails all the time
splotching matches become so competitive like very competitive
the gym has to be absolutely covered in mattresses in case of another brain push incident and elwin is there on standby
keefe collects bets from prodigies on who will win, biana sells pins that kids replace their family crests with for the entire day, and dex records the match so they can mock the loser by playing the video many, many times
they usually end up in a tie until one of them says something funny/distracting and they lose focus
the best match will always be when fitz teasingly calls her sweetheart and the splotch instantly hits sophie in the arm
she calls him a cheater and he laughs at her blushing face but its okay because when theyre about to kiss, sophie takes another splotch and dunks it on his head
OH AND fitz stands by her locker everyday since shes always late and hands her a baked good or a jug or coffee
speaking of baked goods, sophie cannot bake at all, at least in the elvin world (that one time she did was w Edaline and she mostly just watched her conjure things up)
apparently their deep connection and trust and them being the most powerful cognates, does not help them in baking
“What did you do?!!” “Nothing! I just put it in the oven at 350 degrees-“ “350?!? Are you insane, Soph?!” “What is it meant to be?” “Fifty!” “FIFTY?!”
even verdi would not eat it
but when theyre not burning the house down- i mean baking, they usually hang-out in fitz or sophies room, but most often they’re out by calla’s tree
fitz would be reading a book while sophie would be listening to music from her ipod
when they start having dancing classes for their school gala, sophie is her usual clumsy self so fitz offers to teach her while they sit outside
sophie would play music and they’d dance with their books scattered around them until the sun started to set and when she would laugh, fitz would spin her around and they realized that it wasn’t just the leaves from the tree that were falling anymore
the first time edaline spotted them she nearly fainted and quickly called grady to come over
he was just about to barge out of the house and get all over-protective when sophie leaned her head against fitz’s chest and closed her eyes. fitz just looked down at her adoringly, his teal eyes sparkling in the sunlight
Grady sighed and decided maybe it wasnt so bad that his daughter had another boy in her life that made her happy, even if the boy might make her happier than he did
THAT STILL DIDN’T STOP HIS DAD SPEECH FROM BEING VERY THREATENING THO
GRADY WAS SURE TO BRING IN THE FACT THAT HE WAS A MESMER MANY TIMES
sophie had never laughed harder than when she saw fitz come into her room after he talked with grady
“It’s not funny! I’m honestly shocked my echo didn’t start up again!” “You’re so pale you look faded!”
one funny day, sophie was so sleepy that she somehow accidentally put on fitz’s crest that he had forgotten at her house and she didn’t notice until he saw her and broke out into a grin
“So that’s where my other crest went.”
ALSO after many games and very quick wins, they are officially banned from playing base quest together on the same team
when shes serious or wants to annoy him, sophie uses fitz’s full name
“You wouldn’t, Sophie.” “You never know, Fitzroy.”
it leads to a lot of tickle fights but hey what can you do
fitzs favorite color is red because sophie looks very pretty in red and also because mr snuggles is red and mr snuggles reminds him of sophie who looks very pretty in red
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Angels Like You (Can't Fly Down Here With Me)(Chapter 4)(A. Matthews/M. Marner)
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Mitch and Auston roll into practice together and park next to the same entrance they do every single practice. Business as usual, even though all Mitch wants to do is crawl back into bed and cry or actually murder someone with all the conflicted feelings he has. Auston being at his place this morning has made it slightly more bearable though. Just his presence makes everything seem kind of okay, and as they get out of the car, it’s almost as if he reads Mitch’s mind and puts his hand on his thigh and squeezes gently, in an effort to comfort him enough to stop him from actually vibrating with nerves. “You gonna be okay? I can always tell Keefe you’re too hungover, or sick, or whatever you want the story to be.”
Mitch’s breath catches, which he blames on Auston forcing him out of his head so suddenly, not on his touch, and smiles a bit, but shakes his head. “I’m okay. Honestly. I think this is the best thing for me right now, to just continue life as usual.”
Auston knows he’s lying, knows Mitch well enough to tell when he’s not being totally honest, but he smiles at him anyways and nods. “If you need anything just tell me, alright? Anything.” Auston actually might jump in front of a bus with how overly affectionate he knows he sounds, but Mitch smiles slightly and glances at Auston before looking back down at his lap, and he forgets to be disgusted with himself. They drag themselves out of the car and as they grab their bags, Will comes up from behind them and pushes himself between the two of them, an arm around each of their shoulders.
“Morning, boys,” Will starts, all too energetic and bubbly for the tense air around them. It breaks the grey cloud looming over Mitch’s head a bit, though, but when he visibly perks up Auston’s heart clenches. He’s happy, of course, but almost jealous it wasn’t him to snap him out of it.
Why couldn’t it be him?
“Morning, Will. How ya doing, bud?”
“Great, actually.” The two of them trail off into a conversation about Will’s exciting morning, leaving Auston to berate himself. He wants so badly to be William at this moment. The jealousy he feels makes him want to vomit. He actually might be sick, because what the fuck. It’s his two best friends. It’s not like Mitch even likes him back, never mind loves him the way Auston does. He has no fucking right to be jealous, but he can’t help it. Mitch is his entire world, and he’d kill to just put a smile on his pretty face, and Will is able to do it in the first two seconds of them seeing each other. He doesn’t want anyone to make Mitch as happy as he does, and it's gross and disgusting and toxic but he can’t help it because it’s how he feels. He hates it, but it’s the truth.
Mitch notices his silence and when they sit down next to each other in their stalls, he tries to ask him what’s up by knocking their knees together. Auston just shakes his head and bites his tongue, swallowing down the three words he wants to say more than anything to save himself from the embarrassment and disappointment he knows he would feel for the rest of time if he was actually honest about this. It’s the one thing he knows he can’t share with Mitch, and it’s the one thing he wants to the most. Mitch just nods, pauses for a second, then starts without looking up at Auston right away.
“Will invited us over to his place for dinner tonight. Said his apartment’s been empty with Kap gone, and I haven’t been over there in a while…” The guilt that displays itself all over Mitch’s face is more than enough to have Auston nodding his head in agreement, even though he knows exactly what Will is planning to do as soon as he has the two of them in a room together with him and no fans or teammates or staff to see. He just does not have the energy for it today, but who could say no to Mitch. “Cool! Awesome, I’ll, uh, I’ll tell him we can go, then. What time do you want me to pick you up?”
It has to stop, Auston knows that. The two of them have been driving each other around since rookie year, and it’s probably part of what led to all of his messed up feelings. Spending so much time with each other, it’s bound to happen to at least one of them, and the one ended up being Auston. So it has to stop. “I can drive myself, you know.” He doesn’t mean for it to come out as snide as it does, because when would he ever purposely try to hurt Mitch, but the second the words leave his mouth he regrets all of it.
“Oh,” Mitch nods, looking like someone just sucker-punched him in the gut. “Uhm, yeah, I know. I just thought that, since I usually pick you up to go to things, I would. But if you don’t want to, that's fine. Yeah.” He shoots his gaze to the floor, unsure of what to do now. He wasn’t expecting it to be that big of a deal, but now he feels like he’s suffocating.
Auston’s chest hurts so bad he could scream, and even though his heart is saying to lighten up and back off, when he opens his mouth, his tone stays the same as before. “I just think we should give each other some space sometimes. It’s not like you’re my boyfriend or anything.” He spits the last word and actually cannot physically remove the disgust from his face. What the fuck is wrong with you?! Relax!
Mitch doesn’t look up right away, but nods and bites his lip. Auston gets up and starts putting his stuff from his bag into his cubby, and out of the corner of his eye he can see Mitch unsure of what to do with himself, playing with his watch absentmindedly while he chews the living hell out of the inside of his cheek. He continues to watch him while he gets up from his place and stands up next to Auston.
“What is up with you lately, man?” Mitch suddenly bursts, his voice raised a level louder than anyone else in the room. The entire team falls silent, and Auston knows for a fact that usually that would make Mitch calm down, chill out, because despite the fact that he has an A on his chest and has the centre of attention in most rooms he walks into, he still forgets what he wants to say as soon as he has the room’s attention. He continues right on, though, without a second thought about who’s listening. “You’re on and you’re off. You show up to my place all ‘I love you I care about you you don’t need her’ and now you’re snappy and rude. What the fuck have I done to you to hate me so fucking much that when I’m already down, you act like I’m fucking stupid and don’t notice you look miserable when you’re around me?!”
Auston turns towards Mitch, but when he sees the look on his face, any comeback that was on his lips dies right there. He’s seen that look on him, pointed towards the opposing player on a faceoff, or towards a ref after a stupid call against his team, and heartbreakingly towards himself in the mirror after a game he feels like he lost. Auston’s always been the one to wipe that look away, to tell him everythings going to be okay, to calm him down and remind him there’s absolutely nothing wrong with him. That look has never been pointed towards him. Never.
Will stands up then and starts towards Mitch, looking frantically back and forth between Mitch and Auston, looking for Auston to tell him what to do. Auston just stares at Mitch, tongue in cheek, so Will tries to butt in. “Hey, Mitch, I think we should chill out a bit, eh?” “Get the fuck away from me Will. I need to know what his fucking problem is.” Mitch shoves Will to the side, and even though he could’ve easily stood his ground, he backs away a step, not leaving his side completely. Will looks up at Auston, completely unsure of how he’s supposed to help in this situation. Auston thinks his lungs might have actually collapsed because he suddenly can't get a breath in. John makes his way over to the three of them from the other side of the locker room and puts his arms on Auston’s biceps, knowing his tells for when he needs right there, in his space, to calm him down before he implodes. He turns him away from Mitch and forces Auston to make eye contact with him, to look away from Mitch. “Shower, Aus?”
He doesn’t respond, but numbly follows his captain to the showers without looking back to see Will push Mitch into his seat and sit next to him with an arm around his shoulder, all the fight evidently escaping Mitch’s body. “Suit up and ice in two minutes, boys,” John announces to the team before leaving the room.
The door to the showers swings shut and John walks over to where Auston is leaning against a stall door. “What just happened?”
He didn’t even feel like crying two seconds ago, but with his captain so close to him, looking at him like he’s a wounded puppy, he can’t keep it together anymore. John stays right in front of him, doesn’t flinch when Auston’s shoulders start to shake and the tears start to stream down his face.
“I love him, John,” Auston admits, defeated. His shoulders slump and he doesn’t really look at John, instead staring at his hands, his slides, John’s shoulder. “I love him, and he doesn’t love me, he’ll never love me the way I love him, and I think I might die. I actually think it might kill me, how much I love him.” John just shakes his head, looking sadder than Auston has ever seen him, and pulls him into a tight hug. He holds him there for a couple seconds, until Auston grunts a little and steps back. “Yeah, I, uh, I love him more than I’ve ever loved anyone or anything. Love isn’t even a big enough word to describe the feelings I have for him. But he, uh, he doesn’t love me, and I don’t really know how to get over it.”
“Oh, kid, you don’t.”
“What?” Auston was expecting some sort of advice, maybe an ‘I know’, not a fucking death sentence.
“You don’t just ‘get over it’, kid. It doesn’t work that way. I’m sure you’ve had girlfriends you’ve ‘loved’, and you ‘love’ your dog, and your team, but this is a totally different thing. I believe that once in your life, you meet someone who changes the way you see the world. They take everything you think you know, throw it in the garbage, and reteach it to you. They show you what true, unconditional, absolute love is. You feel like you can’t breathe when you’re without them, and you only feel truly complete when they’re next to you. You can’t imagine your life without them. That’s your soulmate, and if you don’t end up with them, you might ‘move on’, you might meet someone and get married and have kids and have your dream life, but you’ll never truly forget them. They’re your one big, true, epic love.”
“Is that you and Aryne?”
John nods, smiling a little, but remaining somber. “Yeah, it is.”
“Is that, uh, is that me and Mitch?” “I think so, buddy. And if he doesn’t feel the same, it’ll feel like it’ll kill you, but I promise you you’ll survive. It’ll be hell, but you will get through it, and you will be happy again. Maybe never as happy as you are when you’re around him, but close. And if he does feel the same, you’ll be happy as long as you’re with him. Even when the entire world feels like it’s crumbling down around you, he’ll be there, and it’ll make everything kind of okay.”
Auston is unsure how to respond, how to say something even close to as emotionally intelligent as John. “What should I do?” he asks.
“I can’t tell you that, bud. All I can tell you is he is your one true, epic love, and if you let him slip away before ever telling him how you feel, you will never, ever forgive yourself.”
Auston nods and leans in to briefly hug his captain, then shakes his entire body out, takes a breath, and goes to strap on his skates. Mitch is his soulmate. It’s something he’s always had an idea of, something he always thought might possibly be true, but to hear someone else say it out loud, to hear the actual words spoken by his captain of all people, it convinces whatever part of him was holding out on the thought.
Mitch is his soulmate.
Mitch is his soulmate.
He doesn’t know if Mitch feels the same. In fact, he’s almost sure he doesn’t. But if he doesn’t say anything, he’ll regret it for the rest of his life. He pauses where he is, bent over, tying his skate laces. He sits up with his hands on his knees and looks at John, who’s across the room, tying his own laces. “I have to go.”
“And do what?” John doesn’t look up, but Auston knows he has his full attention.
“I just have to do something. I have to tell him, I think, but it has to be perfect, because he’s perfect. I have to, uh, I have to go,” Auston trails off and starts taking off his skates at lightning speed. John look up at him briefly, a small smile on his face.
“Don’t worry about anything, Aus. I’ll take care of Keefe.” Auston nods without looking at his captain, his mind spinning, but completely and utterly focused on the one thing he knows is true.
Mitch is my soulmate. I am utterly in love with Mitch Marner.
And I’m gonna teach him what real love is.
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