#and she doesn't want to see more children torn from their families

[pacifymebby]

Christmas Morning

Congrats on 2k follows 🫶🏻

For the Christmas asks what do you think each of the Peaky Blinders men would get for their partners? How would Christmas morning look for them when they’re opening their gifts?

Tommy

🌿 I think for Tommy he's torn between feeling like Christmas should be a totally sacred day for family and family only...

🌿 the football match in the trenches on Christmas is probably something he holds dear and so he believes that Christmas is a day of peace and goodwill to all men... After many Christmases alone, Christmases of loss and sorrow

🌿 But he's also all too aware that not everyone else honours the day in the same way as he does, especially his enemies... so Christmas is a half and half kind of day to him, he wants to spend it with his family relaxing and being in the arms of everyone he loves, but he also knows he can't afford to put his schemes on hold, can't afford to drop his guard...

🌿 so he still sleeps with a gun beneath the bed on Christmas Eve and he still lies awake listening for the sounds of intruders, paranoid as he is... You tease him, "who's that for? Father Christmas?" And he lets you get away with your teasing because it's Christmas...

🌿 Tommy doesn't sleep well, but he knows half of the fun of Christmas morning for the kids, is that it's the only day of the year they're allowed to wake mummy and daddy up as early as they like...

🌿 so even though Tommy would usually be up at the crack of dawn, on Christmas morning he forces himself to go back to sleep, or at least to pretend to be sleeping until the little ones come bursting in jumping on the bed to wake him up..

🌿 he's usually so relieved to hear their little footsteps down the hall, and most of the time he wakes you when he hears them so that their jumping on you doesn't come as a sudden scare... Sometimes though he can think of nothing better than to let them make you jump... Because when they do and you squeal and get that little fright, it's the perfect excuse for him to wrap his arms around you and play your protector as he gathers the little ones up for cuddles too.

🌿 He probably pretends to have some order on Christmas morning, pretends he's going to make the kids wait until after breakfast to open their presents, but really he likes to see them be wild and excited...

🌿 he didn't get so many of these childish gleeful Christmases as a boy and he wants to give you and his children the loveliest Christmas mornings...

🌿 Tommy gives the servants the morning off on Christmas, he makes breakfast and tries his hand at remembering where he came from... Plus he enjoys the two of you getting to spend time together in a domestic way like that, with the kids sitting waiting impatiently for their breakfast.

🌿 he definitely thinks he's being low-key with his gifts, "oh that's just a little something from me angel..." as you unwrap a little box which rattled when you shook it.. and of course it's something beautiful and divine, something you can't believe was crafted on earth and not in heaven...

🌿 Tommy kissing the back of your neck as he scoops your hair up and helps you put the necklace on you...

🌿 he spoils you with so many pretty things, dresses, a silk kimono style dressing gown, glamorous and pretty things, pearls, jewellery but also does like to get you more low-key things, the thing he'd be most looking forward to giving you is an old first edition of your favourite book, your favourite poets latest work, a record, music he's seen you swaying with yourself to as you hum the melody.

🌿 and when you tell him he shouldn't have he just smiles, cups your cheek and leans in, whispers the words over your lips "prettiest girl in the world deserves the prettiest gifts doesn't she?" And with his nose nudging yours you're not about to argue with him. Him lacing his fingers with yours as the children interrupt jumping up onto daddy's knee to show him what father Christmas bought them...

🌿 After Christmas Lunch Tommy suggests a little stroll through the snowy gardens down to the stables where another gift is waiting for you... A beautiful horse which you adore... Her sleek black mane, her calm eyes... Tommy promises that this year he'll take more time away from work and teach you to ride.

🌿 I reckon Tommy's more devoted to the "father Christmas" thing than you'd expect him to be, I feel like he'd think it was really important, that's kids need that kind of magic in their little worlds...

Arthur

🍂 Arthur definitely gets quite flustered around Christmas, he worries that he can't think of the perfect gift, he begs and begs you to just tell him what you want, "really darlin please, don't care it it's expensive or if I have to go fuckin Timbuktu for it it'll be easier than this bloody guessing game!" "Arthur if I knew what I wanted I'd tell you but I don't..." "Please love!* You'd be giggling at his despair as he starts reeling off guesses and you keep telling him they all sound lovely, that he should just get you whatever he thinks of...

🍂 "but y/n what if I get it wrong!" "Arthur Shelby for the last fuckin time you won't get it wrong! You've never been wrong before..."

🍂 and the reason he's never been wrong before is that he really does just buy you everything he can think of that he thinks you might like, and sometimes things he's heard your friends ask their husbands for... he buys so much in the hopes that you'll like at least something...

🍂 But really all you want for Christmas is to be with him, that anything he gets you is perfect to you because it will be a sign from him that he cares about you and that he put thought into your gift.

🍂 he's always a little worried he's going to ruin Christmas in some way, he worries that he'll get too drunk or that he'll end up fighting with one of the reletives it guests... and when he's anxious and stressed out he'll have a drink... so he gets pretty merry on Christmas...

🍂 but most of those things he worries about are irrational worries... Arthur cares so much about the whole family getting together for Christmas because he sees himself as the head of the family, and he because he cares he tries really hard...

🍂 he's everyone's favourite flustered uncle and poor Arthur is unfortunately the kids favourite uncle to fuss around... they find it so funny seeing him a little red in the face going slightly crazy trying to make sure everything's going well... always asking you if you think the days going well, if the kids are happy... "look at em Arth, they're having the best time you dafty..."

🍂 He's so nervous watching you open your presents and you're kind of conscious of that so you're always making sure you're extra grateful and that you smile and say thank you for every single gift, and that you tell him he definitely isn't to buy you so much next year...

🍂 because apart from anything else you'd be self conscious about giving your gifts for him, because there's no way you've bought him as much as he's given you...

🍂 and so many of his gifts are so thoughtful too, there'll be a bottle of wine you'd tried to describe to him when you'd come back from a little weekend away with Ada, you'd been telling him how divine it was and how you'd love to drink it again (you were drunk when you were telling him about this) but you couldn't remember it... Arthur had gone to an unhinged extreme and visited the hotel to find out and then buy you a crate of the stuff...

🍂 You'll be really surprised by the levels of thought Arthur's put into your gift and when you stop beneath the mistletoe to thank him for all your gifts he'd cup your face in his hands and tell you that he wanted to make your Christmas perfect... "Was always gonna be if I got to spend it with you Arth..."

🍂 and then he'd get emotional, Arthur definitely gets a bit misty eyed after all the fuss of Christmas, because it's so important to him to see the whole family together, as a family... It wasn't like that when he was a kid and he's always wanted to give the family the kinds of warm happy Christmases they all wished for as youngens.

🍂 he definitely dresses up as Father Christmas for the little ones and brings in their sack of toys... Lets them clamber all over him and doesn't complain once even when in their excitement they're a little rough...

🍂 exhausts himself and falls asleep on the sofa after lunch, cuddled up with you of course...

Alfie

🐻 grumpy when you wake him up early... "You youngens spare no thought for us old men do ya? Wakin us up at the first sign of light over that godforsaken horizon just because its bloody Christmas Day..." you pouting, telling him you're sorry, trying to be convincing but he sees your smile and mirrors it

🐻 "No you're not..." he chuckled pinching your cheek, pulling you up into his lap and trapping you there, demanding compensation for the inconvenience of being woken up at such an ungodly hour in the form of s good morning kiss...

🐻 "This ain't what jesus woulda wanted darlin... Reckon Jesus yeah much like myself right, was probably quite fond of a little shut eye, yeah I reckon he was you know..."

🐻 but of course its mostly just an exaggerated act he's pulling, and mostly he's only grumbling so much because he loves the sound of your giggling, loves the way your laughter leaves you wriggling in his lap trying to escape him when he starts grumbling again...

🐻 he will force you to lie back down, your head on his chest whilst he gets a little extra sleep. He kisses your forehead and tells you to go back to sleep too... "Got a big day ahead of us my little ziskeit, an I wouldn't want my pretty poppet wearing herself out before she's even had her breakfast right... So me and you yeah, we're gonna lie here just a little bit longer right... And I know you can manage waiting right because I happen to know you're a very good, very patient girl... Ain't you ziskeit?"

🐻 Alfie drags Christmas morning cuddles out for as long as possible and insists that all presents are opening in bed... If you've got little ones they drag their stockings into the bedroom and climb up into bed with mum and dad to open their presents too.

🐻 Alfie would have quite a low-key chilled out Christmas I think, you'd have lots of cute little personal family traditions (like the aforementioned opening presents in bed). He'd want there to be as little fuss as possible and a quiet but cosy Christmas by the fire would suit him best ...

🐻 that being said he always tries so hard to be charming and polite when your parents come over for christmas lunch...

🐻 he can't get down on the floor to play with the children so instead he sits in his arm chair and invites them up to play in his lap, letting them make their toy horses and soldiers climb up his left arm, conquer his right shoulder in battle and then claim victory over all on top of his head.

🐻 has a deadly sweet tooth and eats more dessert than Christmas dinner...

🐻 you mix Christian and Jewish traditions on Christmas day and Alfie spends a lot of time in the kitchen with you on Christmas Eve preparing babka and other treats from his own cultural background to share with the family...

🐻 modern Alfie would absolutely threaten deal or death on anyone who even considered reading a christmas cracker joke to him...

🐻 he spent the run up to Christmas being a big mard arse, threatening you with the naughty list every time you said no to him or didn't do as he'd asked. Whenever you were cheeky or sarcastic with him he'd told you you he wasn't bothering with gifts this year, telling you not to bother getting him anything...

🐻 But of course Alfie would never neglect his little ziskeit and come Christmas morning you're unwrapping the loveliest gifts from him... mostly music... the best gift Alfie has bought for you however can't be unwrapped and certainly can't be given to you in bed... it's waiting downstairs in the lounge... a new piano with the most gorgeous intricate design engraved in the body.

🐻 Alfie is terrible for spoiling the kids far too much too... Every year you end up getting them more and more between the two of you, but that's because for as cynical as Alfie is about the whole Christmas ordeal as he calls it, he does know the joy it brings to children and he does believe wholeheartedly that children should be able to have perfect happy childhoods.

John

🌼 Christmas with John is chaotic from the second the sun rises to long after it has set...

🌼feral children everywhere, and one adult man who isn't much better.... John loves to see the children excited and so he'll do anything to feed the fire, ramping up the excitement at any opportunity...

🌼 definitely a chocolate for breakfast household...

🌼 but before the sun rises, before the kids wake up and start shaking the house down... You're woken up by John, his arms wrapped around you, nuzzling into your hair, kissing your neck from behind you...

🌼 because it might be Christmas but he isn't sacrificing cosy, sleepy morning sex for anything and this his own special way of wishing you a merry Christmas...

🌼 so when the kids come bursting into the bedroom you're already awake, cuddled up with John making the most of the last few moments peace before the big day really starts.

🌼 And once the children are up that it, you're both being dragged down the stair to the living room where the children's stockings are full of treats and toys galore... And John's gifts to you are much the same

🌼 John buys you gifts which bring out your inner child, your favourite sweets, dancing frocks and feather hair bands to match... Chocolates too.

🌼 the best gift of all however arrives in an excited bundle of fluff and fur... A bright eyed puppy John had been keeping hidden in the kitchen, a gift not just for you but all the family... The children are over the moon, all shouting names to call her, and you're overjoyed too.

🌼 There's music on the gramophone and John's been mixing you Christmas cocktails since breakfast time, he dances you around your living room and picks your daughter up to dance with you too. Letting the kids dance with their feet on his feet, playing all sorts of silly Christmas games with them too. John is the life and soul of Christmas and there isn't a second goes by without laughter and general merriment on Christmas when John is around.

🌼 trying to gather the children (including John tbh) up to visit his brother's at Arrow House is a nightmare and you definitely all arrive late to Christmas lunch... Not that anyone was expecting you all to be on time... John and the children put the feral in festive?

🌼 He drives Tommy insane all day and you finally get a little peace and relief sipping gin by the fire with Ada and Polly.

🌼 And John definitely still makes time for you, stealing you away when the children are worn out from playing all day. Everyone's a little sleepy in the afternoon, even the puppy is dozing by the fire. John catches your hand and steals you away to a shadowy corner of the house to steal a Christmas kiss from his very own Christmas miracle.

Bonnie

🍀Going to bed on Christmas Eve, the smell of smoke from the fire, cinnamon and citrus from the little garlands of oranges and holly sprigs that you made and hung up around the vardo... In the morning when you wake there's fresh frost on the window and you can feel the chill in the air...

🍀so you snuggle in closer to Bonnie and he wraps his arms around you a little tighter than before. Youre cuddled up together beneath layers of blankets, listening to the birds outside, the hush of Christmas morning before the children wake up... with your eyes closed you're just enjoying being wrapped up together in the arms of your love...

🍀his scratchy morning voice and lilted accent as he kisses your cheek, nuzzles in closer and says "merry Christmas little dove..." "merry chrismas Bon." You whisper against his neck, your breath tickling him as you press a kiss to his skin.

🍀Christmas day is always busy and a little chaotic at the camp, many families all gather together for a huge celebration, which means brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents and old friends all gathered together with a fire and feast... Children running round with their new toys, snowball fights, all the little girls making snow angels and getting little ice crystals in the tangles of their long wild hair.

🍀And one day Bonnie can't wait to watch his own children running around all rosy cheeked on Christmas morning, scoffing chocolates and treats from father Christmas...

🍀but for now it's just you and him wrapped up snug and warm inside, sharing a little peace and tranquility before the chaos of Christmas

🍀Your stockings would be quite small, humble little things, but you'd have filled them with sweet little gifts, many of them handmade, for one another.

🍀You have carved bonnie a gorgeous new knife, it's engraved beautifully with little woodland vines along the handle. He's really pleased with it. And Bonnie has carved you something just as beautiful, a hair slide adorned with dried white flowers... It takes your breath away. Bonnie's gifts would be a mixture of practical and pretty....

🍀And because he has big dreams of wealth and riches Bonnie would have saved all the money from his boxing winnings to buy you something stunning and expensive... Something he definitely shouldn't have bought you! A necklace or a set of earrings made with your birthstone.

🍀 Bonnie would definitely get very broody and sentimental at Christmas, especially after a drink and having spent a lot of the day looking after some of the youngens. You'd be feeling the same too after watching him teach the younger lads to box, watching him dance with your younger sister around the fire and give her piggy backs when she's tired.

🍀And he'll want to dance with you too, there'll he no escaping him and you won't be able to keep the smile off your face when he's swaying you slowly to a softer Christmas song. He'd be singing it softly to you as you danced.

Isaiah

🐀 After a wild Christmas Eve you'd both be very tired and perhaps a little hungover... So you'd wake up tangled between the sheets together, sore heads and sleepy eyes... And that's where you'd stay for as long as possible.

🐀 you wouldn't have any Christmas commitments until it was time for Christmas dinner with Isaiah's father so you would drag the morning out in bed with a cup of tea, both of you feeling lazy...

🐀 When you finally wander downstairs you'd both be wearing Isaiah's pyjamas, him wearing the bottoms and you wearing the top. You'd sit together under a blanket to exchange gifts by the tree...

🐀 Deciding to cure your hangovers with another drink

🐀 luckily for you Isaiah has gifted you a cocktail shaker and set so you can mix up a cure for your Christmas morning hangover.

🐀 he's also bought you some truly gorgeous lingerie, red and lacy and he can't wait to see you in it later...

🐀 It would be quite a relaxed Christmas, you'd probably just about manage to be on time to Christmas Lunch, just about manage to look presentable and hide your hangovers from your parents.

🐀 Cheeky kisses under the mistletoe at every opportunity, you having to remind Isaiah to behave himself in front of your parents... He gets amusingly shy about having to wear a party hat on his head and take his turn in charades... He's actually blushing!!

🐀 You'd end up reengerised by the evening and you'd be back down the garrison come the night to meet with Finn and some of the other Peaky lads, music turned up loud, dancing and getting up to no good. Isaiah knows him and Finn will get a bollocking from Tommy when he comes back to the city but he doesn't care, anything to impress his girl.

Michael

☘️ With Michael Christmas morning is luxurious, it's slow and relaxing but it isn't low-key by any stretch of the imagination...

☘️ Tea and breakfast brought up to your room by the house keeper. The two of you eat breakfast in bed, sharing a peaceful good morning cuddle beneath fresh white sheets...

☘️ You go downstairs wrapped in your silk house coat and you exchange gifts beneath the tree, the fire burning in the place, the peaceful crackling of smouldering wood a tranquil soundtrack to your morning.

☘️ Michael has spoiled you, he's bought you a dress which is truly divine, a beautiful shade of jade green, you know he wants you to wear it today... He wants to show off his riches and also his girl... It's probably an attempt at making Tommy jealous... And you're determined to aid your man in whatever he desires so you make a note to do your make up perfectly, a little extra smoulder to your eyes shadow, a little extra rouge on your lips...

☘️ He's also tries to spoil you with the most modern, trend setting gifts... A state of the art gramophone, a home video camera which you're excited to use later to record the Shelby family Christmas.

☘️ Then you and Michael take a hot, steamy bath together, relaxing in eachothers arms, washing one anothers hair, closing your eyes and enjoying the peace, making the most of it before you have to visit the rest of the family at Arrow House...

☘️ Michaels a little begrudging about having to spend the day in Tommy's shadow so you do your best on Christmas morning to stroke his ego and give him the self esteem boost he needs to face his older cousin...

☘️ He's also paid for a trip to New York, he's been many time on business but he wants to take you with him and spoil you, show you Broadway and the skyscrapers which have stolen his heart.

☘️ Aunt Polly meets you at the door to arrow house and takes you under her wing, introducing you to everyone else and stealing you away with the women to drink whiskeys in the kitchen whilst the men play with the little ones who are running riot in the snow covered garden.

☘️ Michael has to rescue you from them because he catches them giving you the third degree, trying to work out if he's going to propose, trying to work out if you're pregnant.

☘️ if he was planning on proposing I think Michael is most likely to propose at Christmas.

Luca

🪽 Christmas starts at midnight when you're attending mass together, recieving communion, you resting your head on his shoulder as your lips move sleepily to the melody of another hymn.

🪽 Luca is never particularly impressed by mass in England, he always scowls and shakes his head, give you an earful on the way home about how the English are all uncultured heathens...

🪽 you just shake your head and smile, stroke his cheek as he's driving, place a cigarette between his lips and light it for him, you plant a kiss to his cheek to calm him and he settles down, remembering that it's Christmas... a happy day, a day of peace...

🪽 Luca has always found Christmas time to make him a little more romantic than usual and when he pulls up the car in the driveway he lifts you out of the car like a bride and carries you over the threshold as if it were the very first time. Smothers you in kisses as you make your way up to bed.

🪽In the morning when you wake it is to his low husky singing, an old hymn from his homeland which sounds all the more lovely for his lethargic tone. He strokes your hair from your face and brushes a kiss over your lips wishing his darling a merry christmas...

🪽 He lights your cigarette for you and you lie back against your plush set of pillows feeling like a princess, and you look radiant with the Christmas morning light streaming through the windows.

🪽 Luca can't resist you in the mornings and finds it impossible to keep his hands off you, slipping beneath the covers to wish you a merry Christmas in his own special way.

🪽 When the children wake they're full of excitement, bubbling over with Christmas spirit as they drag you and their Papà from your bed to go downstairs and open their gifts...

🪽 Now of course the children have been spoiled rotten as always, new toys and enough sweets to rot their teeth in under ten seconds... But you... You're Luca's Angelo, every gift he's given you is addressed to "cuore mio" (my heart) and every present is more beautiful than the last.

🪽 he spoils you with classy gifts, a string of pearls, a new gramophone and a collection of your most treasured records...

🪽 but his main gift to you plays towards Luca's dramatic tendencies, his need to show off and shower you in all the adoration his wallet can give... In the driveway with a red ribbon tied around the body is a flash sports car just for you.

🪽 "But... I can't... Drive..." "Not yet cuore mio, but don't worry, you'll have the best teacher..."

🪽 tickets to the opera and the most gorgeous black velvet dress for you to wear when he takes you into the city for an evening of luxury and music.

🪽 Luca dotes on you throughout the whole of the festive period, he dotes on you normally but in December and early January he really layers it on thick, all day Luca makes sure your every need is attended to... He is always the one to top up your wine glass, always planting little kisses to your hands and fingers, using any excuse to touch you...

🪽 Helps you get ready in your finery to greet your guests before dinner, Luca combs your hair and helps you into your dress, fastens the clasp of your necklace and can't resist peppering your neck in teasing kisses...

🪽 He doesn't mind playing host to his huge family, it's an excuse to show off after all, but he tires of social interaction quickly and you can see him growing impatient as the day draws on, you stop to massage his shoulders beneath the mistletoe and then you let your kiss linger on his lips, "not long now tesoro," you remind him, "then it'll be just me and you and the children, you'll have us all to yourself..." "Trust me cuore mio that moment can't come soon enough..."

🪽 When you try to pull away and return to the dining room Luca drags you back for one last kiss and really makes the most of the little moment of peace he gets to have with you.

Aberama

🥀 There was a time when Christmas was a particularly lonely time for Aberama, a time when he remembered all that he lost when he lost Bonnie's mother.. he used to find the winter season to be a harsh, cold, long and lonely winter...

🥀 but with you in his life things are finally beginning to thaw out, he has hope again for the first time in a long time. Your sweetness makes him feel warm despite the winter frost on the ground...

🥀 So now Christmas is a time when Aberama finds himself feeling grateful, more than anything else. He finds himself reflecting on his life and how much his family means to him, finds himself reflecting on you and all the joy and peace you've brought to his conflicted world.

🥀 His favourite part of winter is going on long walks through the frosty countryside with you tucked up in one of his big coats, seeing your little head poking out of a scarf he's wrapped tight around your neck to keep the chill at bay, your little rosy cheeks, is one of the prettiest sights he's blessed with amid the grey of December...

🥀 On Christmas morning he wakes up before you to prepare the fire and to start brewing tea and preparing breakfast... You're a little younger than him and he has a tendency to dote on you at the best of times, but on Christmas morning in particular you look so adorable, so at peace tucked away beneath the blankets that he can't bare to disturb you...

🥀 so you awake to a slight breeze tickling your cheeks, the sound of fire crackling, the hiss of the kettle coming to boil... And when you join Aberama by the fire you're still hazy with sleep. He opens his arms to welcome you into his embrace and lets you sit between his legs on the floor as he carries on attending to the fire.

🥀 As the camp slowly comes to life and everything gets busier he keeps you tucked away nice and close to him... With his own children grown up there's a little less chaos around his vardo and so you are both able to watch the festivities from a slight distance... You know it won't be long before you're swept up in it all however, you know it won't belong before one of the little ones comes running to show you their new toys...

🥀 and so you make the most of the peace whilst the children are distracted by their stockings to exchange your own gifts by the fire...

🥀Aberama is a practical and sentimental gift giver, he gives you a huge cosy woolen jumper, one to keep you snug and wrapped up in the cold months ahead, new boots for riding and accompanying him on those long rambles through the woodlands, he's also bought you a new pony, shes gorgeous and your heart swells with pride at the knowledge he'd have needed to pull a mean trick to get you a creature so beautiful, the thought you're worth that much to him almost brings you to tears.

🥀 Definitely takes a lot of pride in preparing the perfect Christmas feast and he keeps himself plenty busy in the morning with some of the other men and women preparing a fine spread for everyone to share... Definitely saves you the best carving of meat and the best looking potatoes.

🥀 Honestly despite the fact his children have grown and that even his youngest is an adult now, I thinn Christmas time makes Aberama a little broody, a little nostalgic for the days when his own little ones were running riot playing with their new toys... You might find he starts talking a little sentimentally when he's had too much wine, that when he's dancing with you by the fire in the evening he pulls you a little closer than usual...

Merry Christmas to all of my lovely lovely followers I hope you've had a lovely day <3

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#peaky blinders x reader #peaky blinders headcannon #peaky blinders imagines #bonnie gold x reader #tommy shelby x reader #arthur shelby x reader #peaky blinders imagine #john shelby x reader #aberama gold x reader #isaiah jesus x reader #michael gray x reader #alfie solomons x reader

[mhsdatgo]

Alicent crowing aegon exposing her children to more risk than just letting rhaenyra became queen. Rhaenyra wanted that throne, there is no way she would have accepted those "terms", and alicent is 100% aware of this in the book and in the show as well. By crowning aegon she start a war and put her children DIRECTLY on the battlefield against people who were more experienced in war like daemon or ride dragon longer like rhaenyra and rhaenys amd consequently may control their dragon better. If you didn't want to consider a crash between two or more dragons, even if they were on a dragon against an army the danger is very high, look at rhaenys the conqueror or aemon the first son of jaehaerys, they were on dragon's back and yet both of them were killed by arrow. Not to mention that both in the book and in the show alicent spend years creating animosity with rhaenyra, If you TRULY believe that someone may hurt your children you do everything you can to maintain at least a civil relationship, and not constantly provoke them and then cry about how your children may be hurt by your stupidity. Because that what alicent has done in the book starting hating rhaenyra, pray viserys to name Aegon as heir and constantly share gossip to damage rhaenyra's image (with a 10 years old girl, meanwhile Alicent was a GROWN woman), and in the show the situation is not different. The truth is that alicent’s action were based on her own ambitious in the book and on her resentment to rhaenyra in the show, but NEVER in the interest of her children. In fact aegon never wanted to be king, he was forced by her and has to endure all the consequences while watching all of his family die

Ladies and gentlemen, here we have someone who quite literally didn't get a single thing about Fire and Blood.

See, anons like these are what makes my blood boil at the writers of HotD for making Rhaenyra appear like a saint which not only made most of the decisions she'll take from this moment onward out of (show) character (as far as character building and development goes) but also fucking boring.

I'm always one to listen to different points of view and interpretations of books as complicated as these, but something that has always bugged me is the way this fandom CANNOT DIGEST the type of tragedy that is just inevitable.

It was never about picking sides, it was never about sexism, it was always about kin torn apart by kin and their own flaws dragging them down. There was no way to ever avoid that and I cannot have a proper discussion about F&B with anyone who doesn't understand this first.

Moreover, just what do you think Alicent should've done? Shut up, be quiet, sit still and look pretty while Daemon's spies turned her children into bloody shreds? Allow them to be assassinated because of the threat they pose to Rhaenyra's claim? Does everything revolve around her? Is she some kind of Twilight Sparkle?

Let me tell you this: no woman would willingly step back and leave their children to their own devices when their own lives pose a threat to someone else's interests.

I have respect for Rhaenyra and her will to fight for what she believed was her birthright (although let's be honest, it was a feeling born out of nothing but the entitlement of a spoiled brat, it turned into a war of parents after one of each faction's children was killed) but I also have so much more respect for Alicent and her courage to bare teeth and claws and plan a coup to be allowed the upper hand and more possibilities of looking after her children if one of them is ruling. It's not "stupidity" it's awareness. And acting according to it.

It's true that Alicent has her own ambitions, but to say that they started growing in her when she was nothing but an 18 year old girl marrying a 30 year old man... Do you hear yourself? That's a girl getting graduated from high school. Oh shiver me timbers, we're scared of young adults here.

Everyone likes and loves and adores to talk about the way ALICENT was having beef with Rhaenyra as a 10 year old but nevermind Rhaenyra placing a bounty on two toddlers and one of them getting ripped apart because of it. Nevermind her refusing that bastard Corlys' advice to take Daeron as a hostage and demanding that he be killed instead. (Because this bitch was the #1 threat to her rule, but y'all aren't ready for that conversation)

She never "prayed" for Aegon to be named as heir, what she DID pray for was for him and Rhaenyra to be betrothed to one another. I hate Rhaegon personally, (no hate to any Rhaegon stan that reads this ♥️) but honestly this is the only marriage that could've MAYBE prevented the Dance. It started because there were two claimants to the throne. Just marry them to each other and the issue was solved. Both of them get crowned, no Dance, peace.

But noooooo, Viserys, the incompetent twat, as always had to act like an incompetent twat and be like "lol but they don't get along". IT WAS HIM WHO DOOMED HIS CHILDREN, EACH AND EVERY ONE OF HIS SONS AND DAUGHTERS. ALL. OF. THEM.

Everyone else acted as a consequence to the cluterfuck that the sick old man created. Namely, chaos. What else did you expect?

#hotd #house of the dragon #pro alicent hightower #pro team green #anti rhaenyra stans #anti team black #anti viserys i targaryen

[darlingofvalyria]

Your love is pure, beautiful and true. His is mandatory, optional and a duty. Yet you stay, because that is the tragedy of giving your heart to someone whose own is already in another's. A locked stepped stalemate where none truly get what they want.

[ +18 MDNI ] [ 598 ] | King!Aegon Targaryen II x Wife!Reader | part of elle's versions.

contains— angst. emphasis on the angst, hurt/no comfort, bits of smut ; lowercase intentional + arranged marriage, mention of former targcest (marriage to helaena), dance of the dragons canon happened, mentions of major character deaths - nsfw(ish): hints of marital obligation (trying for heirs) but no full sex scene - no betas.

a/n— comment, reblog, & like at will, huns! if i hurt you, pls know it was intentional mwahahaha

you had no allusions to what you were supposed to be, to do, as the king's new wife. the simplicities are bare, even a simpleton would understand.

you are a marriage borne from the ashes of the tragedy. you are the symbol of hope and peace. your marriage is the fodder, an heir its cannon.

you had no allusions, even your mother had spared you for the pretty lies. "war has torn this country in one ways to two," she murmurs, brushing her spindly fingers over your hair, preparing you, in more ways than one, to marry a king. in a few hours, you step out of these borrowed chambers to soon become a wife. "and with it, his family. wagging tongues can say the king never truly loved the queen, but they were blood sister and brother. there is care there. he had lost her through grief and rage, with it, his sons. his heir. you are a duty he must fulfil, like so many others. do not fall yourself into illusions, lest you hurt yourself."

you are a duty, you remind yourself as you stay precisely still, ram-rod straight spine as you fight every bone in your body to flinch as your husband, no, your king, orders the beheading of a lord, a black supporter until the very end.

you are a duty, you remind yourself as you pull your knees to your chest, shuddering under the weight of your loneliness. another night without your husband, without doing your duty as it is a difficult thing for him, to be with you. to have you. to be in this marriage. his whores, his paramours— they are a reprieve from the grief that still hangs, from the guilt, the anger, and from the betrayal of your own existence (to his wife? his sister? his dead children?).

you are a duty, you remind yourself, as the alcohol inside of him spills into you, his scent, his seed; as he clutches you close, loves you, fucks you,

you are a duty, you remind yourself harshly, sobs and anger silent inside your heart, as he kisses your head, his own mind already busy with his duties, unraveling from your warmth, from the love that has blossomed from your bossom and yearning for him— as he murmurs,

"have a great day with mother, hel."

and he pauses, back to you, the realisation spilling down his spine slower than yours; his, like thick molasses. yours, like ice directed to your veins. you are blowing fjords in the winters of winterfell. he is bubbling, molten fire gargling inside a dragon's stomach.

he pauses, the silence stretches.

"my apologies, my queen," he says, voice still and calm.

"'tis alright, my king," you say back, because that is your duty. you are wife to a king, not the owner of his heart. whether that died with the woman who flung herself off a tower, in the spilled blood of his sons, or in the arms of his paramours— it doesn't matter.

yours is his, sadly. you wonder if he knows. you wonder if he cares.

it doesn't matter either way. you smile despite him not seeing. despite him leaving. the realm exists, there are duties and there is a throne. your body has concave within itself, your chin to your knee, your breath a stagger through the emptiness of tears.

you are a duty he has finished off a list for the day.

you will come up again tomorrow until a maestre confirms the existence of a babe in your stomach, as all duties do.

#aegon ii targaryen #aegon ii fic #aegon ii x reader #aegon ii angst #aegon ii targaryen x reader #aegon ii targaryen x you #aegon ii fanfiction #hotd angst #hotd fanfic #hotd x you #hotd the greens win au #hotd modern au #elle writes !! ꒱ ↷˗ˏˋ🍒 #⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚ elle's versions ˚

[shantechni]

I'm Glad Miri is Annoying

Minor spoilers for Spy x Family and Buddy Daddies I guess idk

I don't know if people legitimately forgot this or what, but Anya is not your average child. And believe it or not, the majority of children who classify as "your average child" have more flaws than simply getting a big head when things are going their way. They're stubborn to a fault at times, they tend to be selfish at the benefit of no one other than themselves, and you feel the frustration radiating off of whoever is their guardian.

I'm glad that Buddy Daddies pulls no punches when depicting how chaotic life becomes once a 4 year old girl with a clear lack of disciplinary figures or actual parents comes waltzing in like a hurricane. I also loved when Sweetness and Lightning didn't paint Tsumugi as a child that was any easier to care for after the death of her mom, and that Kouhei (her dad) genuinely struggled to handle her on his own.

Beyond that though, the biggest problem I see floating around is that people for some reason expect a story about childrearing to not actually be about childrearing?? And that's not me saying that's the case with everyone, but it certainly seems like a lot of people have solidified Spy x Family as a standard of the sorts in their mind when it comes to depictions of found family dynamics, childcare, and adoption. That would be fine if people kept in mind that not every standard set by Spy x Family is realistic, both in the plot of a different series and irl. And that's not entirely the fault of the readers/watchers, it simply became one of the recently most popular titles to explore those themes in a way that balances out with other aspects of the story.

But that's just it: Spy x Family is not solely about a man, woman, little girl, and dog slowly developing into a family. It's about their impact on a war torn world and them realizing that this fake family they put together for the sole purpose of continuing their roles in preventing another war is becoming real. This was a situation that everyone (aside from Bond) initially saw as a way of escaping unlikely situations or reaching their goals. The focal point of the story from day 1 has been about these oblivious adults coming to understand that they're already a family, even though they don't exactly see it as such yet.

Meanwhile, Buddy Daddies is not about any of that, they're in a modernized world that one could easily imagine existing right now. These two hitmen are not in an unfavorable situation, they did not swipe Miri off the streets for personal gain, and they weren't really ever denying how quickly they grew attached to her. Kazuki took Miri under his wing the moment they locked eyes and she started talking about cake and her "papa," the guy is literally enamoured by her just from that. And Rei constantly asked Kazuki in the beginning if he was sure about sending Miri back to her mom, because he may not know everything about his partner, but it's clear as day to him that he really doesn't want to let her go. And as I said earlier, it hardly takes any time for Miri to wrap Rei around her little fingers either. The anime is 4 episodes in and they easily settled into the idea of being a family, heck, she already has her own room.

This is getting long and I'm starting to lose my point here because I'm not in a good area to focus in right now, so I'll end with this: Do not go into Buddy Daddies expecting an idealized version of a fake family turned real, because that's not what PA Works is doing here at all.

#anime #manga #spy x family #buddy daddies #sxf #analysis

[im-totally-not-an-alien-2]

Spoilers for Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

I haven't actually finished the game but I was thinking, what if Zelda never returns to being a hylian and just remains a dragon forever? Who would be the next in line for the throne?

That's right.

Link. Why?

1. Link is from a long family of knights and one of the only known and confirmed nobles in the game

2. Link is one of the only people in Hyrule to know many classified secrets of the royal family (especially if he regains all his memories from his time as Zeldas personal guard and whatnot)

3. Link has saved and aided all of the different tribes on multiple occasions and united them under him.

4. He has personal friendly relationships with all the tribes leaders aka the chiefs and Zora king

5. Link is pretty good as descalating conflicts and finding middle grounds

6. Link is cononically just as compassionate and lovable as Zelda is and would be beloved as Prince

Theres more but I think you got the picture. Just imagine Prince Link, uncomfortable about this turn of events but willing to do what is best for his people.

So I propose a plot for the new DLC: Of course theres a new Big Bad (maybe a sorcerer like Vaati or something) who makes themselves a castle of thier own in the Depths and is trying to take over hyrule but in a different way than we've seen before. Sure they still create monster and cause havoc but they also do political stuff like scandal and slander

Link gathering alliances with the people of the different tribes and trying to clear his name after he's been framed for crimes he did not commit maybe? He, that doesn't really fit the vibe with what I'm going for, but what if the new Big Bad tried to make the people of Hyrule like him more and use thier love of him as a way into power?

Maybe disasters keep happening and the new guys servents/knights keeps saving the day but things keep getting worse and worse. Maybe there could be a new game mechanic where there's a ward or talisman that stops dark magic/ evil entities from entering the city and most of the disasters in that area stopping entirely and when the servent/knight tries to enter the city they hit a magic barrier and it sounds like a mosquitoe getting zapped by a bug zapper and they scream, revealing themselves to be a monster who had been the one causing all the disasters in the first place. The civilians freak out and the monster flees.

Link and the sage of that area believed in Link the whole time/was suspicious of the servant/knight follows the monster with Link and they find a maze like nest the monster has created

Cue dungeon

Cue boss battle

Rinse and repeat for all the sages people (maybe there are some previously unknown Zonai survivors that Minaru is awed and excited to find and she takes them in idk) maybe they were lost in time or something. Maybe thats where the big bad came from and the the Zonai children interrupted the Big Bads spell and thay wound up in the distant future, the children later running away in confusion and terror. So new tribe and dungeon? Just a thought

DLC features:

1. MASSIVE main quest to renovate the castle where you get to redecorate it however you want. Like you get to choose the furniture and decorations and have things restored to thier former glory. Granted you have to pay for repairs out of your own pocket (taxes can only go so far and thats going towards rebuilding the towns and stuff) and you get to put up your own pictures to replace those torn apart portraits and stuff you see around the castle in BOTW and TOTK. You can put up pictures of Hyrules former royals, the champions, the sages, ect. Or you can go the painting route where someone paints the photos you have on your Purah Pad like in your house in Terry Town. I would buy the DLC just for this to be honest

As you renovate the castle and dig out all the collaped pathways you get new memories of Links time as a soldier and get to see his family as well as memories with Zelda

I would throw so much money at Nintendo just to be able to renovate the castle to my liking. Like, so much you have no idea

2. Link getting a freaking crown and royal armor sets. One for prince and another after he's corinated as king near the end of the game

Armor sets based off of the new and old boss monsters

Armor sets based off of the mini-boss monsters including Gloom Hands (this one looks horrifying btw) and you get some kinda boost from each that represents that specific monster like a Hinox set giving you a food affect boost and Gloom Hands set boosts the power of the Phantom Ganon drops

Maybe a sage set that boosts the powers of the sages a bit

Forest dweller set that increases the durability of wooden weapons

3. Rebuilding the town ruins and creating homes for people all over hyrule like the Deya village ruins and Tabantha ruins and you can do it Lurelin Village style (I loved that side quest it was actually pretty fun)

Anyway, this is me officially releasing this idea to Nintendo it they want it so long as they credit me for the ideas they use from me. They don't even have to pay me (but hiring me would be nice)

Here's a poll to maybe help convince them this is a good idea

@nintendo :)

#legend of zelda #tears of the kingdom #nintendo #totk #prince link #king link #poll #please

[aphroditelovesu]

yan!mom rhaenrya + yan!dad laenor + yan!dad criston = bby reader in a conflict.

IMAGINE IF BABY READER HAS A THREE-HEADED DRAGON, OBVIOUSLY HIS PARENTS (RHAENYRA, LAENOR AND CRISTON) ARE PROUD OF THEIR BABY.

but you should also think about yan!grandfather viserys and yan!grandmother alicent (who knows that baby reader is criston's son).

No but like, the whole family dynamic (which, let's face it, was never really good) would just get worse after this family became yandere for you. No, follow along, Criston is a hypocrite, he's constantly trash-talking Rhaenyra and her bastards (not you) but he doesn't even try to hide how much he adores you. How much he is in love with his bby.

Criston wants to be involved in your life, he demands it, he demands to be a present to you, and Rhaenyra won't let him near you, which really pisses him off. He is your father, your real father, so he has every right to take an active part in your life. You would be quite protected and pampered by him, Criston has nothing to offer, being a royal guard he can't have things but he still goes out of his way to make you happy. Unknown to your mother, he takes you on walks outside the castle and is constantly hovering around and watching you.

If you're observant enough, you can see the look of jealousy and hatred directed at Laenor. He hates him, really, as much as he hates Rhaenyra, he hates how much time he spends with you, how he always seems to hog your attention. If Criston gets the chance, he'll beat him to death.

Rhaenyra doesn't want Criston around you, she won't accept it and will possibly encourage you to stay away, which leaves you torn, you like Criston (in this case, you don't know he's your real father) and he always treated you very well, so you didn't understand why your mother wanted you away from him. You are her precious child, it is a fact that Rhaenyra loves all her children, but it is no secret that you are her (as well as your father's) favorite. She doesn't want you to be poisoned against her, Rhaenyra is well aware of Criston's feelings for her and she fears he will try to poison you against her. She can not let that happen.

Anyway, there's no way your mom would let your dad try to steal you away from her. You are hers precious bby, hernmost loved and protected child, there is no way in the world that she would allow you to be stolen from her. Rhaenyra would personally kill Criston if he attempted a bold move.

Laenor would be the calmer one in the situation, he is well aware that you are not in fact his child, although you might look a lot like him, he knows, even more so because of Criston who, whenever the opportunity presents itself, he will let quite clear that you are his child. It really bothers Laenor, you see, he really is in love (platonically) with you, he cares and loves you more than his other children. He can't explain why, but there's something about you that attracts him, you're so perfect, aren't you? He, like your mother, doesn't want Criston near you, he's become overprotective and a little possessive of you, he even sees personal competition. It doesn't help that he already has old grudges against Cole and knowing he wants to take care of you only makes him angrier, he won't allow it. Laenor wants to be your most beloved parent, he wants to be your favorite and he will be.

In a way, he's the one who takes up most of his time. He demands to have you by his side at all times, and there's nothing Criston can do about that. Well, at least in public.

If you have a three-headed dragon, these three would go crazy. Feelings of pride and worry would be very common. Rhaenyra and Laenor will be very proud of you, you're really their perfect child, all about you proves this and having you riding such a powerful dragon leaves them almost tears. Criston will be happy and proud but crazy of concern. He is very afraid of you to get hurt, or your dragon hurt you, and if you fall during the flight? He feels the dread and fear filling him when you ride in your dragon. It takes everything that exists in it not to try to stop you.

Overall, these three would fight about you and you will be pulled by side, but the three will join when a threat to you. No matter how much they hate themselves, you are the priority and they for a moment can leave the hatred aside to protect you. Just for you.

Viserys as yan!grandfather would be the kind of grandfather who spoils you a lot, he just adores you. It's no secret who his favorite grandchild is. He would take up a lot of your time as he gets older and will always need you by his side, his beloved grandchild. He's well aware of the rumors swirling around you that you're a bastard, but he's made it clear to everyone that no one should ever question your heritage. You are his grandchild, whoever your father is, you are his blood and he loves you too much to allow unpleasant rumors about you.

Alicent will have opinions contrary to you. While she makes her feelings for Rhaenyra and the other bastards very clear, she likes and appreciates you. At first, she didn't quite know what to think, you're a bastard, child of her sworn protector, so she was torn. But after getting to know you better, she finally understood the reason for so many fights. You were so… special, she didn't know why, but she couldn't hate or despise you. Alicent treated you well, she took care of you when she had the chance and would be a yan!grandmother possessive of your attention and, because she is the Queen, she almost always comes out with the upper hand in a situation. And since she and Criston are very close, he would be more likely to spend time with you. She would be nice to you and she was really warming up to you.

Not only would you have three yandere and possessive parents, but now two grandparents who want your attention at all times. What a situation, right?

The situation would be even more complicated if Alicent wanted you to marry one of her children to keep you close to her. And, well, your yandere parents won't accept that.

~ Lady L

#ask #yandere house of the dragon #yandere hotd #house of the dragon #hotd #a song of ice and fire #asoiaf #yandere rhaenyra targaryen #yandere criston cole #yandere laenor velaryon #yandere viserys i targaryen #yandere alicent hightower #yandere concept #yandere house of the dragon concept

[inklessletter]

Leave all your love and your longing behind

Pairing: steddie | WC: 1.8k | TW: eddie lives, not canon compliant, hurt/comfort, complicated break up, the one that got away, right person wrong time, it gets worse before it gets better, eventually happy ending, multipart/chapter

It always starts the same, doesn't it? Steve and Eddie grow closer after hell almost swallows Hawkins. And there's this aftermath, this brief period in which no one dares to think about the future because after everything it is something bizarre to think about. And it is so easy to get caught up in that shiny, fragile bubble where no one has to think about stupid things like money or school. And it is in that haze when they fall madly in love.

Because of course they do. 

But the future does come anyway, and school resumes, and some of them decide to move to another state for college. Most of them need it. Most hearts break. The Byers come back to Hawkins just to finish the job and they go away again, and with them, the Wheelers go out too. 

Robin tells Steve that she's going to leave for college. She asks him if he wants to go with her, that there's a place for him wherever she goes, and for Eddie, too. Steve hugs her, and kisses her, and tells her that he can’t leave. 

That one destroys Steve. That night Eddie holds him tight and makes no comment when silent tears that clearly Steve fights back roll down his temples. When he finally asks with a strained, wet, husky voice, to no one in particular “they’re all gonna leave me eventually, aren’t they?” Eddie shuts his eyes as hard as he can and hugs him tighter.

Eddie doesn’t really know how to make him understand that they’re not leaving him. He doesn’t know how to get that abandonment from under his skin, and ironically wants to skin his parents alive for imprinting that there, for making it so easy for him to believe that his presence is made to be only temporary.

That idea is still there when two years later, Dustin goes away for college. This time, Steve doesn’t cry. He smiles, and makes sure he’s got everything packed and they exchange annoyed sighs, but they hug so fiercely despite their sarcastic retorts and Eddie has never had any siblings, but he sees those two and he knows what it should be like.

But no, he doesn't cry. He turns to Eddie with a sad smile once the van is no longer on sight and goes back to work.

Eddie smiles and asks him if he’s okay, and even if he’s not, because Eddie can tell, Steve nods and goes away after kissing him on the lips.

And he stays there, watching him go, not knowing many things. Especially how to tell Steve that he, too, needs to leave Hawkins.

Eddie has no future in Hawkins. He will always be miserable there, always the first to blame, always the origin of every sin, his windows always broken, his car vandalized, unable to keep a job. It’s been years and that godforsaken place still treats him like a murderer. He’s persona non grata, and his uncle, too.

Of course Eddie has to leave.

And he is torn apart because in this strange time, in this bubble, Steve has fallen in love with his hometown again. Eddie won’t tell Steve how much that hurts because those were the same people that once wanted his head on a spike. At a certain level, they still do. At least they’re not violent anymore, they have to bear with him existing there.

But Steve, oh, he's seen first hand innocent people lose their homes, their siblings. He has seen people losing hope and their eyes going dull and sad and he has left his skin and bones behind to help them out. He helped the kids that couldn't get away from the summer in this hellhole and made a basketball team, and organized little tournaments just for them. And he's loved there. Kids love him, and he loves helping kids. He’s helped them and their families more than anyone else there. He brought happiness and children laughing and cheering back to open spaces.

He has a purpose there. Kids are his purpose.

And Eddie is no fool, he knows that. He shares the bed with Steve who stores stars in his eyelids, and smiles talking about the kids, and what he did and didn't do, and Eddie hates the fact that he can't be there because no one but Steve and Lucas actually want him there.

Eddie hates that Steve knows that too, he sees the watery smile in Eddie's face when Steve tells him about his day, and the sadness in his heart bleeding into the voice he uses to say that he's happy that Steve had such a great day, and that he loves him.

They both know, and neither of them has the strength to really stop it. 

They have no future. 

And they both know.

One day, Steve comes home and Eddie has packed everything. Sometimes, Eddie wishes Steve didn’t come home early that day, that he could leave without a trace. They hadn’t talked about it before, and Eddie hated, hated how he saw himself reflected in Steve’s eyes. He wanted so badly to ask him to follow him, because he couldn’t stay and both knew that. But the picture of Steve happy with his kids, telling Eddie everything at the end of the day, beaming—No, no. Eddie couldn’t ask Steve. Eddie wouldn’t, not now that he was happy.

Who the fuck was Eddie anyway to even think about asking him that, huh? Who the fuck did he think he was? No.

No.

No.

They just stare into each other, and Steve smiles, because after everything, they both know that it is not a lack of love. They know for sure that they would die for each other, because they once almost did, and they would do it again. That haze is broken and the future is now a thing, just not for them.

And they both know, but Eddie wishes Steve didn’t, because when he says ‘thank you for staying so long’ Eddie can do nothing but crack.

Eddie is cracked now because he’s hurting him and Steve is letting himself be hurt.

So, no. Eddie doesn’t ask Steve to follow him. 

Steve doesn’t ask Eddie to stay.

They stare at each other hovering over a crack bigger and scarier than any other that has threatened Hawkins before.

Both know that they’re not just breaking up. Oh, no. It hurts Eddie at a core level that Steve knows him too damn well to not touch him, and not saying ‘I love you’, but instead asking him, begging him, really not to become a stranger.

It hurts Eddie, because he can’t just keep in touch.They’re not just breaking up. Oh, no. No, to Eddie, this is more. Eddie leaving Hawkins is Eddie leaving his own name behind, it’s him breaking up with his scattered, found family and asking them not to look for him, because he knows what a terrible person he is for making Steve sad. No, Eddie deserves to lose them all. If Eddie leaves, it’s Eddie who must suffer, and, well, yes, he’s running again, but he’s also facing what comes after.

Loneliness.

He has to stop in the middle of the road because he can’t stop crying. He considers making a U turn and coming back to Steve, but he’s miserable there. He’s no one. He’s not dead but he feels on a daily basis that he wishes he was.

He forces to remind himself that he’s doing this because otherwise he’s not going to have a future. He forces himself to believe that he only needs time for him, for this crack to heal. 

For him to be okay.

It’s funny when years after, he eventually is. Okay, that is. 

He becomes a writer. He writes about adventures and publishes under a pseudonym. He lives in a coastal town, because big cities are way too much for him and people scare him. He's there, and no one knows him and he's happy. He tried Chicago for a while, it’s just not for him. 

He's content.

It all goes to shit when he sees Robin one day, she's passing by his town, and his whole world crashes, because it happens that Robin doesn't hate him for breaking his soulmate's heart eleven years ago. No, she's friendly, and awkward, and she's just how he remembers her, like time hasn’t passed on her. She’s a music teacher now, and has just broken up with her girlfriend of two months. She makes jokes about her dating life, and Eddie laughs with her, unsure. He tells her ‘at least you’ve got one’ and she laughs. They drink a second beer, she pays.

Then Eddie asks her about them. Robin speaks of Dustin becoming a teacher in California, and Jonathan owning a tiny record store that is going bigger because he has two employees working for him. He talks about Erica being valedictorian at her career and Mike and Will living together now. He talks about Nancy coming from Afghanistan for the weekend because it's that week in which the whole bunch meet together.

And this year, it's about Steve, because they're all headed to Indianapolis, where there is a friendly basketball tournament between schools all over the State. It is a big thing, apparently, and Steve is representing Hawkins. Sinclair is their best player, because of course he is. Robin says that it may be a big opportunity for both of them, maybe this is the year that Lucas will have a big offer, and there are a lot of people interested in both. Lucas and Steve.

Max is still there, she never left Hawkins. Eddie gapes when he hears that Lucas and her got married last spring, he never thought of her as the one who wants to marry.

And Robin then casually invites him to come, to see them. She says it'll be fun, and everyone will be happy to see him.

Eddie tells her that not everyone. And Robin takes his hand and assures him that ‘yes, Eddie. Everyone.’

It's when Eddie dares to ask if she's really "passing by", and Robin just smiles. She leaves an envelope to him that he only dares to open when she's already gone after they hug tight.

"No pressure" it's written on the back. He opens it. It's a train ticket, and a reservation in a camp where, apparently, everyone is staying.

In Indianapolis.

The train leaves the following day.

Eddie wonders if going there is the right thing to do, but he’s doing that when he's already in the train, watching the landscapes move fast through the window.

He closes his eyes, and sighs, wishing with all his heart that he’s not a stranger to them.

To him.

To Steve.

---

@mentallyundone

#steddie #stranger things #steve harrington #eddie munson #ficlet #fic #st fanfic #st ficlet #inklessletter #inky writes #fanfic

[carveredlunds]

"But you will leave the family all alone": A Meta on the Stooky Family

So, I just did a quick Google search and discovered that Stooky Sue was not a real doll (unlike Stooky Bill, who really existed). So, Stooky Sue and the Stooky Babbies were inventions for the show. Why do that, unless RTD wanted to make a point? I think the point was that Stooky Sue and the Stooky Babbies were once humans, now transformed into puppets by the Toymaker.

The first clue is what the Toymaker says in the first scene, when Charles Banerjee says he just wants to buy Stooky Bill, and leave the other puppets behind. To this, the Toymaker responds:

"But you will leave the family all alone. Poor Stooky Sue and the poor Stooky Babbies. You would leave them without Papa? The widow und the orphans will be ge-crying."

Obviously, this is exactly what happens later. Now, this could be the Toymaker just messing around - he brought these puppets to life, and this is him foreshadowing that he's going to play this out later, when Stooky Bill is burnt and "the widow und the orphans" are left crying. This could be just another game to him, but why would he bother to make that up? Why build a family of five puppets, when history only demanded one? He went to 1925 to tamper with the real Stooky Bill broadcast. Why bother making four spare puppets - a mother and her children?

The second clue comes in the form of the puppets themselves. Look at Stooky Sue's hair and dress. This looks to me like a typical 1920's style dress, and the simple hair could definitely fit into that era. Her outfit also matches that of the babies - perhaps these were once the matching outfits of a mother and her three children? Stooky Bill also has a surprisingly elaborate and period-accurate outfit.

Speaking of the children - two of them have blue eyes and blonde hair, and one has brown eyes and brown hair. These seem like very particular traits for the Toymaker to have bothered giving a set of puppets. They're more likely to be the hereditary traits of real children than the invented traits of toys. Stooky Sue has blue eyes, like two of the babies, but the third baby has brown eyes, like Stooky Bill. Perhaps they inherited their eye colours from their parents?

And if you listen to what Stooky Sue says again, this doesn't sound like a game by the Toymaker. Yes, he could be forcing the puppet to rhyme in her creepy way, but there's something so flat and depressed about the voice, like a woman honestly recounting what happened to her. The emotion feels more real than the Toymaker's usual playful voice, with his exaggerated accents:

"I'm poor wee Stooky Sue. I don't know what to do. I lost my precious hubby. They threw me in the cubby. They took my Bill away. I mourn him every day. He won't come home to me. 'Cause they burnt him on TV. Now the Stooky Babbies weep. The Stooky Babbies cannae sleep. They miss their dear papa. They seek him near and far. They miss their kiss goodnight. They greet in endless night."

This story suggests that the family were together, even as puppets, but when Stooky Bill was taken and burnt on television, now the family is torn apart. Something else to note about Stooky Sue? She's got a Scottish accent. That's an accent we don't hear the Toymaker put on. Might this have been Stooky Sue's real accent, now being spoken out through the wooden mouth of her puppet body?

On the subject of puppet bodies - the Toymaker says that Stooky Bill's hair is made out of the hair of a real woman. Could the same be said for Stooky Sue, and the Babbies? Might their bodies all be made out of the hair and pieces of their original human forms? I doubt the Toymaker needs to use the parts of each person in their corresponding puppet bodies (so, perhaps Stooky Bill got Stooky, Sue's hair, she got his, and so on.) This also isn't the only time we see him combine human and puppet body parts together in one form, as he does with Banerjee later.

Of course, this could all just be creepy set-dressing by the Toymaker. He might have built a family for Stooky Bill because he was bored, and he can create things out of thin air. He could have used the hair of another one of his victims, who had no connection to Stooky Bill. It's a coincidence the babies have their "parent's" eyes. But all of these little details just seem too minute to be a coincidence. It's entirely in keeping with the Toymaker's personality to have played a game with an entire family, and then turned them into wooden puppets when they lost.

#dw #dw meta #doctor who #doctor who meta #the giggle #the toymaker #sophie speaks #sophie talks about dw #body horror tw

[darling-i-read-it]

First Steps

Ethan Winters x fem!reader

Word Count: 1.4k 

Warnings: children. Fuck mia agenda i completely erased her 

Author’s Note: happy late fathers day my beloved ethan <3 you deserved more <3 

Requested; by anon, oh my, hi maya :) how have you been?

i saw that you recs are open and i was wondering if you could write something for ethan winters? i saw him on your masterlist and he's my sweetie pie so i had to ask something for himm :((( also, the winters expansion gave me a full brainrot

(in a re8 were ethan doesn't die, of course) a little something about rose's first steps, or ethan and reader trying to get her to say "mama" or "dada", those little parents plus kid moments because re8 hates happy families. i mean, honestly, you can write whatever you feel like writing, I really love the way you write for him, and if the request does not interest you, you can just ignore it!!!

thank you so much and i wish you a good day/evening/night :)

Summary: the request !

Genre: fluffy

I don’t own these characters. They belong to author/director/creator

(not my gif)

Ethan Winters was a lost of things. He was a killer, a monster, a threat, a deadly force. And also an amazing dad. 

You never wanted kids until you met Ethan and then it just kind of happened. And now you had Rose and Rose was so clearly half Ethan and that just made you love her even more. No matter how exhausting she was, you just had to look in her eyes for more than a second to see the man you loved there and everything was easy. 

“Say ma-ma,” you said, looking at Rose as she sat on the floor. She was chubby these days and smiling without teeth. You enunciated each letter as you spoke. “Ma-ma.”

“No, no, no,” Ethan said, walking into the room behind you. He sat down on the ground beside you. He put his hand on your knee to steady himself. It was still scarred from when he had gotten it practically torn off before. There were a couple smooth bumps that you could feel against your sweatpants. “Da-da. Say da-da.” Rose gave you both a blank stare. 

She couldn’t say much of anything yet except some excited babbling. She clapped at you, causing both of you to laugh along with her. 

“She’ll say mama and you’ll be out of a job,” you told Ethan. He raised his eyebrows. 

“Oh so only one parent can exist?”

“Yup. She excommunicates one of us with her first word.”

“What if she doesn’t say mom or dad?” he questioned, holding your thigh tightly to anchor himself. 

“She’s an orphan. It’s her own fault. It’s like a Grimm fairytale or something.” He shook his head, gently taking away the key Rose was trying to take a bite out of. She babbled at him, shaking her head. 

“She’s a cute one isn’t she,” he said. 

“She’s alright. Looks too much like her mom for my taste,” you said, laughing. 

“In that case, she’s gorgeous.”

“She’s got my Ethans eyes though. Look at those eyes. Oh! Oh look at those eyes,” you said, voice an octave higher as you teased Rose with a smile. She followed your finger around with her entire head as you pointed at her eyes. 

Then she remembered the keys Ethan had and started to grab them. 

“No, those are moms,” he said gently. 

“No!” she exclaimed. You scoffed, amazed. You looked at Ethan who was too stunned to really say anything. You let out a loud laugh, shaking your head. 

“Was that a word?” he asked, amazed. 

“Yeah I think so!” You were laughing so hard that you didn’t even have time to rationalize it. “Give her the keys,” you said through laughter. “She deserves em.” 

“God she’s just like her mom,” he said, shaking his head. 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” you questioned, giggling still. He was smiling too, staring at her, trying to decide which of her features was his and which was his wifes. 

“She’s as headstrong. Look at that face.”

“Oh her mom didn’t kill goop monsters for a living.”

“A living? I did not get paid for that?” 

“Chris should’ve paid you. You were doing his job for him. An honorary member of the BSAA.” 

-

The day Rose took her first steps you were making dinner. You loved your home that Chris had picked out for you and Ethan. It was one of the best parts of the relocation. It was like you were just a normal family. Ethan was with Rose in the living room, playing with some blocks. There was a gentle sound of rain coming from outside which mixed well with the light music you had playing. The soup you were cooking steamed a bit on the stove as you stirred it. 

You felt peaceful. 

And then you heard a thud which meant Ethan had fallen over trying to stand up. 

You turned around quickly in worry but he was already laughing, holding his side. 

“What happened?” you asked, not even turning off the stove you were so concerned. 

“I was trying to show Rose how to walk but I tripped on the block,” he said, laughing. “I think I cut my hand.”

“Oh your poor hand E,” you said, shaking your head. “You need me to kiss it better?”

“Yes ma’am,” he pleaded, looking up at you from the ground. You leaned over the ground and gave him a kiss on the palm and then kissed his lips. “Thank you. I feel much better.” 

Rose was wobbling on her legs where Ethan had left her before he tried to stand. She was leaning against the rocking chair you read her stories on. As you wanted to walk away she made a step towards where Ethan was laying. Neither of you noticed because you were so enamored with each other until she had taken her second step. 

“Oh my God,” Ethan said, sitting up. 

“She’s doing better than you!” you exclaimed, kneeling down. “Come here baby girl! Come to mama!” Rose did a little quick run and then moved even quicker as she fell into Ethans lap. She had walked all of six steps. 

Ethan sat up and scooped her into his arms. 

“That was fantastic!” he exclaimed. You gave her a kiss on her forehead, smiling brightly, laughing. 

It was a great five seconds until the smoke alarm went off, scarring all three of you. You jumped up. 

“The soup!” you exclaimed. 

“I guess we’re ordering take out for your first steps little lady. Huh? Huh?” Ethan giggled, smiling like the proud dad he was. 

Resident Evil Tag List: @chloe-online, @alexxavicry, @chaotic-fangirl-blog, @secret-obsessions-21-blog, @trinswhimsys, @lov3vivian, @micheleamidalajedi, @linkxneptune

#ethan winters x reader #ethan winters x fem!reader #ethan winters imgagines #resident evil imagines

[attackfish]

Ozai, Azula, and Enmeshment: a Character Study

I have chosen to put this essay under a cut, because it got really really long. Also, below lies frank discussion of child abuse and its effects. Reader discretion is advised.

I love Zuko Alone. This episode is a masterclass in writing flashbacks and weaving them into the narrative. None of these flashbacks are flashy, or too on the nose, and we have a good reason for Zuko to be flashing back. He is alone and failing to handle the present, and getting drawn into his memories of the past. And each of the flashbacks is mundane, and realistic, and builds on the one before, and paints a subtle and tragic picture of a deeply abusive family.

The flashbacks never feel like an exposition dump, or like a cheat to let us know things we otherwise couldn't, and yet it's exactly there to give us an intimate picture of the Fire Nation Royal Family, and just how completely screwed up it was, and how this will contextualize both Zuko and Azula's actions throughout the rest of the show. Almost everything we know about the Fire Nation Royal Family, we learn right here. It's efficient, engaging storytelling, and it's done with tremendous subtlety.

As with all subtle storytelling, it relies on the audience to put the pieces together for themselves, which is both beautiful, and deeply frustrating. Deeply frustrating, because a story that requires an audience to put the pieces together for themselves is always going to have some members of that audience decide to ram the pieces together in the way they want to. I have seen some absolutely terrible takes on this episode, and I have talked about them at length. For this essay, I want to stay away from what I think this episode doesn't show, and talk about what it does, specifically what a specific scene, a favorite hobby horse for people writing terrible takes, the scene where Zuko and Azula receive gifts from Iroh, who is besieging Ba Sing Se, shows us.

The scene opens with Ursa and her children reading a letter from Iroh, He talks about the magnificence of Ba Sing Se, and talks about the possibility of burning it to the ground. We see a smoking hole in Ba Sing Se's outer wall, and Iroh's voiceover, reading the letter laughs. As the scene comes into focus on Ursa and the children, they are laughing too.

This scene is a gut punch, set as it is in an episode where Zuko wanders through a war torn Earth Kingdom, and because of how it contrasts with the Iroh we have met so far over the course of the series, an Iroh who would never laugh at burning a city to the ground.

After this, Ursa reads out the gifts Iroh has sent to his niece and nephew. Zuko gets a knife, which he likes, and Azula gets a doll, which she does not. After making a face, Azula says cheerfully:

"If Uncle doesn't make it back from war, then Dad will be next in line for Fire Lord, wouldn't he?"

After both her mother and brother express horror at this idea, she finishes with:

"I still think our dad would make a much better Fire Lord than His Royal Tea-Loving Kookiness."

It's only after this exchange that she sets the doll on fire, an explicit rejection not only of her uncle's gift, but of her uncle himself.

I've talked before about how the doll and knife reinforce the picture this scene give of how Iroh used to view the Fire Nation imperial project: [Link], but looking at this scene, especially the gifts and Zuko and Azula's reactions, solely for what it tells us about Iroh, misses a lot of the substance of this scene.

Most obviously, this scene tells us about how Zuko and Azula see their uncle, Zuko affectionately, and Azula with scorn, something that will have profound effects on how they will respond to Iroh in the future, including how much or how little he can influence them: [Link]. But it also, more subtly, expresses volumes about Azula's relationship with her father. Because those are not Azula's own opinions that Azula is voicing here. Those are Ozai's.

How do we know those are Ozai's opinions? There are two ways. The first is that Azula has absolutely no reason to come up with this opinion on her own. Not only is this not the kind of opinion any child, no matter how clever or ruthless, would come up with on her own, but this scene starts by showing us Iroh at the height of his glory, the Dragon of the West, on the cusp of conquering Ba Sing Se. There is probably no one in the entire world, other than his jealous little brother, who sees Iroh as his royal tea-loving kookiness. Even Ozai's cronies probably have a very different take on Iroh than that of Ozai, recognizing him as powerful and dangerous. But Ozai, the disfavored younger son to his father's perfect Prince Iroh, has a lot of jealousy toward his brother, and a lot of resentment. He has a strong psychological incentive to be saying to himself, "Iroh isn't even that great anyway, he's just a kooky tea lover. It would be better for everyone if I were the heir."

Ozai as the source for Azula's view of her uncle is backed up when later in the episode, Ozai makes a similar, if less obviously nasty, argument to his father as to why he should be the heir to the throne in place of his older brother.

Just as a side note, Azulon's reaction to this argument does a fabulous job of implying years of abuse on Azulon's part toward Ozai, showing that he learned how to be an abusive father who plays favorites from his own father, and that he had been the unfavorite. This episode does so much heavy lifting with regards to characterizing the Fire Nation royal family.

But anyway, when Ozai makes this argument, it clues the audience in to where Azula got her opinions on Iroh, and tells us to expect to hear Ozai's words coming out of Azula's mouth. This is in fact actually a reenforcement of a moment in the first episode she is introduced, where she throws Ozai's opinion of Zuko in his face to hurt him after he has seen through her attempt to deceive him into becoming her captive. This allows the writers to characterize Ozai through Azula's words, without him needing to be onscreen.

But I want to talk about what this means for Azula, psychologically. Because along with the narrative utility of being able to use Azula to characterize Ozai, this scene speaks volumes about Azula's relationship with her father, and what he's doing to her.

And it occurs to me that this is an extremely long time for me to get to the point. I don't care. This is all necessary background information. It's important to know how we know something.

One of the things that we see in this episode very clearly is that he is sharing these things with Azula that he is not sharing with Ursa or Zuko. This indicates two things, one, he is not willy nilly saying these things to anyone, two, he specifically chose Azula as the person with whom he wants to share his thoughts and feelings. He specifically chose a small child as his confidant. Adults who choose children as confidants and intimate companions do so because for some reason, adults are unavailable for the purpose. Sometimes this is because social or societal or family forces make it so that the adults seeking a companion can't get an adult companion, but sometimes adults are unavailable for the purpose because they are unsuitable, because what the adult wants in a companion and confidant is someone under their control. Ozai picked Azula because she was his child, and he had control both over her, and over her perceptions of him. She wasn't coming to the table with baggage, context that might help her understand what he was telling her, and he could fill her head with his own ideas in peace.

In short, as a child, Azula lacked the kind of perspective that would help her understand that the confidences Ozai was sharing with her we're based in resentment and insecurity, and that what he wanted from her was to reflect his own self aggrandizing lies back at him, to be his mirror, to give him reinforcement and validation. The important thing to understand here is that Ozai doesn't even completely believe his own bullshit, consciously he does but unconsciously, he is deeply deeply insecure and afraid that he is worthless. So he desperately craves somebody to reinforce the worldview he created, in which he is actually better than everybody else, and his brother is stupid and weird, and his father is a demented old man, and it would be better if Ozai were the ruler anyway. As time went by, this worldview gained new facets, about Ursa being not good enough for him, about Zuko being worthless, about the place of the Firelord and their moral right to absolute power, But ultimately all of it is a castle of air, built out of the lies Ozai told himself to mask his own insecurity, all of which he relied on Azula to parrot back to him, so that they would feel more real, and he wouldn't have to face his fears.

Ozai chose Azula because of a complicated cocktail of his ability to identify with her, and her receptiveness to his self-aggrandizement. For one reason or another, Ozai deemed Zuko unsuitable for the role of mirror. Because of his insecurities and self-absorption, Ozai picked the child who best reflected what he wanted to see about himself, and then used her awe of him, and her childish trust to puff himself up.

Ozai did this with no regard to Azula's mental wellbeing, or even really her physical safety. People like Ozai are intuitively able to judge who they can use, and what they can use them for. While they might consciously believe their own self-aggrandizing lies, they understand, at least on an unconscious level, who they can share those lies with, who will respond positively to them, and who they need to guard against. But while this knowledge is unconscious and intuitive, it is still learned, and Azula as a young child has not learned any of it yet. We actually see her repeating her father's dangerous worldview in front of people who are most certainly not receptive to it. Fortunately for her, her mother and brother are not inclined to go tattling to her grandfather about her treasonous words, but this incident does an excellent job of highlighting just how little Azula understands of the context of her father's worldview, and what other people's reactions are likely to be. Ozai sharing it with her puts her in danger.

This isn't surprising, given that we are shown several times throughout the series that Ozai does not care about Azula any more than he cares about Zuko. He does after all send her to war at fourteen years old, and discards her as soon as she is no longer useful to him. But it's important to remember that even when he is seemingly very close to his daughter, letting her into his confidence, and giving her lots of positive attention as a child, all of this is because of how it benefits him, and if it hurts his daughter, so be it. He doesn't really care.

Nothing comes of this danger. Ozai takes power soon after, and Azula is a clever, observant child, who quickly develops the same kind of intuitive understanding of who she can use, and who she can tell what to. But it's important to remember that this danger did exist and Ozai didn't care.

This phenomenon, in which the natural process of a child's identity development is inhibited so that they can better serve the emotional needs of an adult, is unfortunately very common, including with parents and caretakers far less destructive, uncaring, and cruel than Ozai, and even with very loving and well-meaning parents. Because of this, it's a fairly well studied phenomenon, and in which we can describe some of the characteristics of children who have gone through it. It's also a phenomenon that has a name. Several, in fact.

It's also important to remember that though this danger passed, the harm Ozai was doing to his daughter did not. What Ozai was looking for in Azula was someone who would absorb and reflect back his own self-serving worldview, and to ensure she continues to do that, to hold his lies as true, he has to control her and sabotage any chances she has to start building her own separate identity. He needs, in other words, to erode the borders between herself and him.

When I first entered this fandom over a decade ago in my Livejournal days when I first talked over what I saw in Azula in comments and private conversations with friends, the favorite term for this phenomenon, or at least the one that had most thoroughly permeated a popular layperson's understanding of the phenomenon, was emotional or covert incest. The idea was that the parents involved were treating their children as surrogate spouses and the term seemed especially useful because many of the effects of parental incest seem to line up well with the effects of this kind of sabotaging of a child's identity. This is probably because an adult molesting a child is by definition using a child to fulfill their sexual and usually also psychological needs, so the process is going to necessitate the same kind of eroding of psychological boundaries of identity.

It's perhaps fitting that this is the picture of the phenomenon, and the language I had to talk about it, when I first started trying to tease out Azula's character, since at the time, it was common for particular fans of Azula to assert that Ozai must be molesting her, as a means of making her more sympathetic, and often, explicitly, as a way for Azula to outcompete Zuko in a suffering contest. I found this extremely annoying at the time, though in retrospect I like it better than what replaced it, (mostly accusations that Ursa, Iroh, Zuko, etc. abused Azula) because at least it credits the proper person with Azula's suffering, i.e. Ozai. I have always found it worth an eye-roll when people go looking for some hidden reason for why Azula, when, as I have been arguing since the first day I stepped into this fandom, what we see on screen of her relationship with Ozai and his treatment of her is more than enough to explain her behavior throughout the show, and her subsequent mental breakdown: [Link].

The terms emotional and covert incest, extremely loaded as they are, fell out of fashion, when a new theory of it was popularized in lay circles, in which it was supposed that these adults are particularly immature and looking for a parent in their own child, and this was dubbed parentification, a term that has since gained a second meaning, to when a child finds themselves in the role of parent to another child, usually a younger sibling.

Now there is a widening understanding that the adult may have many motives, and many emotional needs, that they are using a child to fulfill. The important part is that they are using a child to fill emotional needs that the child is not equipped to handle, and they are eroding the borders of identity between themselves and the child. This phenomenon is now generally called enmeshment.

Children who are enmeshed in a parent or caregiver reflect what that parent or caregiver wants out of them, but common behaviors to exhibit are unexpectedly adult mannerisms, and seeming maturity, often coupled with and utter lack of experience with people their own age, and the social skills needed to interact with their peers. This is because the adult using them doesn't want to be constantly reminded of the fact that they are a child, and because they are too busy looking after the emotional needs of the adult using them, to practice socializing with their peers. They also are frequently obsessive perfectionists, focused on meeting the standards of the adult living through them, and are often painfully anxious, secretly very insecure, and lack a self-awareness of their own emotions, because they're too busy managing the emotions of the adult they are enmeshed with.

I don't know about you but that sounds a lot like Azula to me. Her adult mannerisms throughout the show mask her terrible social awkwardness with her peers and outside of a command structure until the episode "The Beach". She is introduced to us by asserting that: "almost [perfect] isn't good enough," and her deeply held insecurity, that she is unable to acknowledge to herself, is what leads to her mental breakdown.

The process of enmeshment in this case is shown mostly through implication, through the way Azula talks about her father, and the way Zuko talks about them both. This is to be expected, because Ozai just does not have all that much screen time, much less with Azula. But again, "Zuko Alone" gives us a scene in which Ozai performs some of the process for us. In the family audience with Firelord Azulon, Azula performs some impressive firebending before her grandfather. Ozai tells his father that she is a true prodigy, just like her grandfather.

The explicit implication that both Azulon in the story, and the audience are supposed to pick up on, is that to Ozai, Azula is a prodigy because of him, that her talent showcases his greatness. This ties her identity to his, and tells her that everything she is, is because of Ozai. And it shows she gets praise and affirmation when she does something useful to her father, something that makes him feel good. And this praise is structured in such a way that Ozai is also praising himself.

This ties Azula's identity to Ozai's. She is worthy because Ozai is worthy. She is special because Ozai is special. It's also, in the simplest terms, praise, and praise feels good. And Ozai makes himself a reliable supply of praise for Azula... so long as she keeps performing, keeps identifying herself with her father, and keeps making him feel good by proxy. This keeps her coming back for more, and deepens that identification further. This becomes a self-perpetuating cycle.

The best thing an abuser or abusive system can do to maintain control over a victim, is to become simultaneously the source of their anxiety and pain, and their source of reassurance and comfort. You see this with individual abusers, as well as in larger groups, such as high control groups (also known as cults) and hate groups. By feeding Azula a steady diet of self-serving praise and affirmation, Ozai makes himself her source for reassurance, and by expecting Azula to manage his emotions, and feed him affirmation and confirmation of his worldview, he makes himself the source of her anxiety. So when he makes her anxious, she works all the harder to please him and manage his own anxieties, so that he will give her the praise and reassurance she so desperately needs.

What this does is put Azula on the emotional equivalent of a roller coaster. The highs of not only relief, but elation, when she successfully pleases her father are followed inevitably by the lows of anxiety and dread of having to do it again. But this is complicated further by the fact that because Ozai has tied Azula's identity to his so thoroughly, she can't ever admit to herself that she's afraid. If she acknowledges her fear, that means she has to face the danger she's in, face the fact that she might fail, that she isn't necessarily a perfect reflection of her father's glory, that she might not always be worthy in his eyes. She can't face that fact, both because being her father's perfect worthy daughter is entirely foundational to any sense of identity she has, and because her father has shown her through his treatment of Zuko what happens to children of his who aren't worthy. She is terrified, and can't ever admit it, especially not her herself.

It's impossible to overstate just how afraid Azula is, just how insecure she feels, because it's this fear and insecurity, which she cannot admit to herself that leads ultimately to her breakdown and psychotic episode in the finale.

So how does Azula cope with this? With the constant strain of it all? How does she hold back that fear that she can't possibly face? She spreads the pain. She finds herself two victims, who she can coerce into helping her maintain a sense of control.

People who abuse others don't do it because they are bad evil abusers. They abuse other people because it gets them something, often something psychological, often something the abuser desperately needs, and sees no other way to get it. This means that many abusers have incredibly sympathetic motivations. They are trying to assuage a terrible pain, or cope with a terrible fear. But none of that negates the damage they are doing to their victims, and that pain and fear doesn't give them the right to use somebody else to manage that fear and pain for them. Azula's own pain and fear arises out of her father's use of her to manage his own pain and fear, and in doing so, he "gifts" her both that pain and fear, and a means of managing it, by finding victims of her own.

We see this process play out in the first and second episode of Book Two. After Azula fails to capture her brother and uncle, she seeks out and establishes frankly brutal control over her two childhood victims, Mai and Ty Lee. As we will see later in Book Three, failing against Zuko hits very close to the core of Azula's hidden insecurities, so when Zuko and Iroh escape her, she looks for a way to reassure herself she is perfectly in control.

There is some complication to the abusive system Ozai has taught Azula to function within and to perpetuate herself. Ozai has more than one kind of victim. Azula is useful to him, because, as described above, she reflects his self-serving worldview back at him, while his other victims, his wife, brother, and son, serve a different purpose. They function as blame sinks, people whose perceived incompetence or malice serves as a justification when something goes wrong. This is how Iroh becomes his Royal Tea-Loving Kookiness, for example.

This doesn't of course hold up if you think about it from more than a second, but it doesn't have to. That's the point. The only person Ozai has to convince is himself. And of course, Azula, but for Azula, he imparts his views to her beginning when she is far too young to question them, and by the time she is old enough to have that kind of cognitive ability, they are already too deeply embedded in the way she views the world for her to even think they need to be considered.

Ozai would have first developed his use of blame sinks as a way to deal with his father's constant favoring of Iroh. He didn't deserve to be treated the way he was being treated by his father, he was as good as Iroh. No he was better than Iroh. He was the better prince, the worthy prince, worthy of being Firelord. But if he was superior, why did he keep failing? Why indeed? It was because of his brother. His brother was lucky, and he doesn't deserve that luck, and he's holding Ozai down, and it's his fault no one can see Ozai's innate superiority. It's all Iroh's fault.

Iroh is Ozai's first blame sink, and the one he patterns all his future blame sinks onto. This accounts for some of his more obviously stupid choices, as I argue here: [Link]. However, it also means we can use Ozai's treatment of Iroh, and one of his future blame sinks, Zuko, to draw some conclusions about how he treats the third of the blame sinks, Ursa. With both Zuko and Iroh, we hear Azula repeating her father's scornful pronouncements about them: His Royal Tea-Loving Kookiness, for example, or in this quote from Book Two, episode one, "The Avatar State:

"You know, Father blames Uncle for the loss of the North Pole, and he considers you a miserable failure for not finding the Avatar. Why would he want you back home, except to lock you up where you can no longer embarrass him?"

From this we can surmise that Ozai would speak similarly about Ursa. But for Ozai, Ursa is merely his unwanted former wife, while for Azula, Ursa is her mother. This leads to one of Ozai's most profound incidental cruelties with regards to his daughter.

When Azula was young, and Ursa was still around, Ozai's dismissal of his wife as unimportant and unworthy, served not only the psychological function all of Ozai's blame sinks did, but also helped separate Azula from her mother, thereby making it easier for Ozai to be the only shaper of his daughter's mind. However, after he banished Ursa, Ozai is hardly likely to let up on his scorn and denigration of Ursa. Perversely, the fact that she was responsible for putting him on the throne, would have made him even more vociferous in his resentment of her. For someone like Ozai, the fact that he owed his position to someone he considered so unworthy, and who shared the same opinion about him, would have been intolerable to think about, and so his resentment would grow, and with it, his attempts to verbally cut her down to size in front of his daughter.

Her daughter as well of course. The castigations of Ursa must have poured out of him and into their daughter's ears. She didn't understand his vision. She couldn't comprehend their greatness. She valued worthless things, like kindness and compassion, and worthless people like Zuko. She thought they were monsters. She was pathetic and unworthy of them.

Even if Ozai never used the words "we" or "us" with regards to how Ursa viewed him, Azula, so enmeshed in her father, and so completely identifying with him, would have heard them anyway. And so, without her mother there to contradict such an idea, it took root so deep into Azula, that it became simply a fact of the universe to her, that: "[her] own mother thought [she] was a monster."

Ozai doubtless didn't notice the pain he had caused his daughter, or that she had internalized this belief so thoroughly, but he also doubtless wouldn't have cared.

But if Ozai's choice of one of his blame sinks damaged Azula because she had an entirely different relationship to her, it was the choice of another of Ozai's blame sinks that would ultimately spell Azula's downfall: her brother. There are many and complex reasons for profound effects of this choice on Azula's psyche, and its contribution toward her eventual breakdown, much of which I discuss at length in my three pillars theory of Azula essay: [Link]. In brief, Ozai's use of Zuko in this way would have shown Azula that this was a role open to a child of Ozai's, which she might potentially fall into, that it was the price of failure in her father's eyes. This was a prospect that as discussed above, terrified Azula, and which she was far too scared of to even admit the prospect, or her fear of it, as a possibility.

The other reason for the fateful consequences for Azula or Zuko's status as blame sink, is that unlike her uncle or her mother, Azula could have power over her brother. Indeed, with Ozai's approval, Azula was able to wield considerable power over Zuko, to bully and belittle him, much as their father did: [Link]. Azula's tendency to parrot her father's views is on full display here, in her relationship with her brother. And because Ozai holds Azula up as perfect and worthy, in contrast to unworthy imperfect Zuko, Azula is none-too-subtly encouraged to use Zuko as her own blame sink. And boy does she need one, with the intense psychological pressure she is under to be perfect, both in her father's eyes and in her own. Having someone around on whom both she and her father can blame any and all imperfections, is really really useful to her. And if Ozai learned growing up that having his blame sink far away made it much easier to make up a version of them that was useful to him: [Link], Azula learned that having her and her father's mutual blame sink around, meant it was a lot easier to remind herself and her father how worthy she was in contrast to Zuko. So ultimately, if Ozai keeps banishing his blame sinks, Azula wants to keep hers close at hand.

After failing first to capture her brother, and then on several occasions, to capture the Avatar, something for which, by Azula's own admission, Ozai considers Zuko a "miserable failure", Azula needs not only her "friends", Mai and Ty Lee, and the affirmations and sense of control they give her, but also Zuko, to soak up their father's displeasure and her own insecurity. And to get him home, she lies to Ozai.

When Ozai finds out about this lie, he discards her. I think we can say it's not Azula's misjudgement or failure that causes Ozai to cast her aside, but the fact that she lied to him. She has become a threat.

And here is the last sting in the tail of Ozai's relationship with his daughter. This moment was inevitable from the beginning. Ozai was always going to throw Azula away. He cultivated a relationship with her initially, because as a young child, she didn't have the experience and context to see through the self-serving lies he told himself, and she could, through her belief of them, reinforce his fragile self image. But no matter how much damage he did to Azula's ability to build an independent identity for herself, she was still a separate person, and she was always going to grow up. And when she did so, she was always going to move from perfect little mirror of Ozai's greatness, to threat. And whatever individual event was going to be the catalyst, this change was always going to happen before Azula was ready for it, because Ozai was always going to discard her at the first stirrings of independence. And for Azula, thoroughly enmeshed in her father, this rejection by him was always going to shatter the foundations of her whole world.

#azula #ozai #uncle iroh #zuko #atla ursa #avatar the last airbender #posts i created #azula needs her own warning #noodle lord ozai #mother bear ursa #i ship iroh/tea #zuko is a dweeby little turtleduck #mai doesn't hate you #circus freak is a compliment

[diabolik-art-blog]

Memories of that spring

AO3: Chapter 03

Fanfiction.net: Chapter 03

Summary: I will never back again. I won't back to this mansion again.

Christmas was near and the weather was getting colder and colder every day. This year was one of the hardest winters for people. In the attic, Yuma and Yui were reading a scary book about vampires while they had turned on a small lantern light and were on a straw bed under a blanket to warm themselves.

Yui: Yuma, look at here. Vampires are so powerful that they can crush a human's bones with just one hand.

Yui was staring at the pictures in the book with great astonishment, but her face showed that she was a little scared.

Yuma: Vampires are very scary and powerful.

Yuma never thought he would be so afraid of anything. He always considered himself a brave person who will take care of his friends and family at any cost. But after seeing the photos written by the unknown author in this book, he realized that he is very timid.

Yui: I never thought there was anyone more powerful than you, Yuma.

Yuma: Hehe... It doesn't matter how strong those bloodthirsty fools are. I am always stronger than them.

Yui: But Yuma, it wrote here that they can suck a person so much blood that the person dies.

Yuma: It doesn't matter what that ridiculous book says, Yui. I will never let anyone hurt me and my family or you.

Yui smiled sweetly at Yuma and took his hand and they continued reading together until Yuma got tired and turned to his back staring at the ceiling of the bedroom. The air outside was very cold and the sound of the howling wind could be heard from the seams of the room. That night there was a big blizzard that made it colder than usual.

Yui closed the book and hid it under her straw bed and got on the bed and laid down next to Yuma and joined him.

Yui: Yuma, who do you think was the ghost that called me and took me to the old castle?

Yuma was stunned by Yui's words. He clearly remembers that Yui said she saw a ghost in the old abandoned castle, but he didn't know who that ghost could be.

Yuma: I don't know Yui. Can you tell me what that ghost looked like?

Yui: She was the ghost of a lady. She had long and light hair. Her hair was golden like light of the sun and it seems that she was very soft. She was wearing a long red skirt. But her skirt was full of blood stains and her skirt was also torn. The eyes of that ghost were very beautiful and it kept calling me.

She stretched her hand towards me and took me with her to that castle. I remember that she told me that I belong to that castle. She gave me this book and I slowly fell asleep there.

When I fell asleep, I had a strange dream. A dream where a queen and a king were holding a beautiful baby together and smiling at each other. As if that castle used to belong to that king and queen and that baby was their child.

When I woke up, it was dark. I was so scared that's why I took the book and ran away because a voice kept shouting my name. But it was as if that voice was crying and sad.

Yuma listened carefully to all of Yui's sentences. Yui's words surprised Yuma a little. Yui was clearly seeing the story of the previous king and queen in her dream, but no one knew that the king and queen had a child. As far as the people knew, the king had no children, and after Karlheinz killed them, their throne was left without an heir, and the great Karlheinz became the king of this realm.

Yuma, who was staring at Yui with wide eyes, scratched his head and thought a little. He had no answers to Yui's questions.

Yuma: Well... this is strange.

Yui: Yuma, why do you think that woman keeps calling my name?

Yuma: I really don't know.

Yuma looked at Yui with an embarrassed face. He really didn't want to disappoint Yui, but he really didn't have any answers to Yui's questions. The existence of the ghost in the old castle surprised Yuma even more.

Yuma: I feel that the woman is the former queen and she wants to tell you something.

Yui: But the former queen is dead.

Yuma: Maybe her ghost came back to this world to tell you something?

Yui: Do you mean she wants my help to find her child?

Yuma: I'm not even sure the previous queen and king had children. Well, in fact, they did not have any children that Karlheinz could make the throne his own, otherwise their child should have been the heir to the throne.

The more they thought about it, the more confused the two children became. Maybe it was a little difficult for children of their age to think about this.

Yui: Yuma, let's go to that castle together.

Yuma: WHAT?

Hearing Yui's words, Yuma jumped up and fell off the bed so that his back hurt and his head was dizzy.

*Thud*

Yui: Oh... are you ok, Yuma?

Yuma: Yui, are you crazy? Do you want us to be punished with a whip?

Yuma always knew how painful it was for Yui to hear that word. Yui was always afraid of the whip. When she was younger, her father was greeted very harshly by the king's soldiers. Her father did not have a lot of crops and money to give as taxes to the king, so he was flogged as a punishment.

Old man Tenjin was too old and weak to endure that severe torture and it was Yuma's father who cared for him every day until he recovered. That's why the whip has always been scary for Yui.

Yui: No... No... I don't want them to punish me with a whip... *Sob*.....

Tears fell from Yui's eyes. Yuma scared her so much that he felt remorse. He went back on the bed and hugged Yui and stroked her head to calm her down.

Yuma: Don't worry Yui. As long as we obey the king's orders, we will never be punished. Don't worry.

Yui rested in Yuma's arms, wondering how she could find out the truth about the queen and king's lost child. One day she will understand.

*TIMESKIP*

Beatrix: It was wrong. Again.

Shu: I'm sorry, mother.

The young prince is studying Spanish in his room. Although the prince is an extremely intelligent boy, he has no interest in learning Spanish and cannot pronounce words correctly.

The queen has put too much pressure on the young prince. She wants her child to be perfect because one day he is going to be the king of this realm. For this reason, she is very strict in her training. But as it is known, Prince Shu does not enjoy these moments at all.

Shu: Gobi... Gobi..... Gobier....

Beatrix: Wrong. Try again.

Shu: Gobi.....

Beatrix: SHU!

The young prince was trying hard to pronounce the words correctly, but his mother's strictness and the serious looks of his younger brother, who was attending the Spanish language lesson, tormented him more and more.

Reiji: Mother, let me tell. Gobierno.

Shu held the book in front of his face so that his younger brother and mother would not see. Shu was very embarrassed. It didn't matter how hard he tried. He had no interest in learning such a lesson. These hard and difficult words only tormented him.

Shu closed his eyes tightly so as not to cry. He couldn't stand it. As he was holding the book in front of his face, he got up from his chair and quickly left the room and ran towards his room.

Beatrix: Shu come back. The lesson is not over yet.

Reiji: Mother, let me go after him.

Reiji got up from his chair and went to Shu's room. He ran towards the room, but before he opened the door, he could hear his crying from behind the door. It was strange for him to see Shu crying. Because he had never cried before. Maybe because Shu always hid his sadness from others.

Shu: That's enough. Enough. *Sob* ... I can't stand it... *Sob*...

Shu's childish wails and cries could be heard from behind the door, and Reiji quickly entered the room without a moment's pause.

Shu, noticing the presence of his younger brother, quickly wiped his tears with his sleeve and turned his face away so that Reiji wouldn't see his tears. Reiji knew all his weaknesses, that's why he didn't want his brother to see him weak.

Reiji: Go back to the classroom now. Mother is waiting for you.

Hearing this, Shu clenched his teeth and looked angrily at his younger brother.

Shu: I'm never coming back.

Reiji: It's pathetic. The future king is sitting in his room crying like a child.

Shu: Get out of my room.

Reiji: I can't believe that you are going to be king one day.

Reiji turned to the door and looked at Shu again before leaving the room.

Reiji: Come back now. Mother is waiting for you.

Reiji said his last sentence and left the room. Like an innocent child, Shu covered his face with his hands to muffle his cries.

Suddenly, a blizzard caused the window of his room to open and wind and snow came into his room. At that moment, Shu hurried to the window and closed it with great effort until he looked out. The blizzard was very intense and nothing could be seen.

Shu remembered the boy he had seen that day in the apple farm. That big farm looked like it was so much fun to play and run around there. Remembering those memories, Shu looked down at his coat and wished he had the courage to do that. Maybe he really had the courage to do so.

Shu took his woolen coat and put it on and took a hat and scarf and covered his face with them and went to the door of the castle and opened it and looked outside. Blizzard was too intense and it was too dangerous to go outside, but the reminder of the boring classrooms and his annoying brothers made him leave the castle without any hesitation.

Shu took one last look at the castle and remembered what Reiji said to go back to the classroom because his mother was waiting for him.

Shu: I will never return. I will never come back.

Shu boldly left the castle and tried to get away from the castle in heavy snow and blizzard. The blizzard was very strong and nothing could be seen, but Shu boldly moved forward and slowly left the castle without looking back.

*TIMESKIP*

The blizzard was getting stronger and stronger every moment. The old man Tenjin's hut was still warm and the two children were hugging each other on the straw bed. Yuma was fast asleep and still holding Yui's hands in his sleep.

But Yui was still awake. She was staring at the attic ceiling, deep in thought. Yui couldn't help but think about that ghost. She was sure that that ghost called her because of her name and gave her this book.

Every moment Yui tried to close her eyes, she thought of that woman as if she was a queen. It means that the previous queen of this land was so beautiful and kind. What happened to their child? If they had a child, then where is that child now?

She was drowning in disturbing thoughts when she decided to go to her father. Talking to her father always calmed her down. Yui slowly got up from the straw bed so as not to wake up Yuma. She went down the stairs to join her father.

When she reached the bottom floor, she noticed that her father was sleeping on the chair by the fireplace. He smiled softly in his sleep, which showed that he was dreaming a beautiful dream.

Yui went near her father and sat next to him on the fireplace, staring at the fire that turned the wood into ashes.

Yui: Papa... I love you so much.

Yui took her father's hand and stroked it. Yui's gentle caress made old man's smile brighter. His warm smile showed that he was really happy and Yui kissed her old father's hands.

As Yui caressed her old father's hands, the fire in the fireplace became less and less. Yui's attention was drawn to the fireplace, which light was getting less and less every moment, and Yui realized that the firewood was all burnt and she had to put new firewood in the fireplace.

Yui hurried out of the hut and went to the barn behind the hut where the old man always keeps his firewood. When Yui arrived at the warehouse, she was faced with a terrible scene. Blizzard destroyed the barn door and snow had found its way into the barn and soaked all the firewood.

Yui hurriedly returned to the hut and tried to wake up her father to find a solution as soon as possible, otherwise he would freeze from the cold. Yui was shaking Tenjin's old body with her small hands and trying to wake him up.

Yui: Papa, please wake up. Papa, please... If you don't wake up, you will freeze.

Yui's efforts were futile. The old man was very tired and could not wake up from deep sleep. Yui quickly went upstairs to the attic and this time tried to wake up Yuma.

Yui: Yuma, wake up. Please wake up. The fire in the fireplace is going out.

It didn't matter how many times she called his name or shook him. Yuma didn't wake up either. He also seemed very tired.

Yui was confused and didn't know what to do. But she couldn't let her father and her best friend freeze to death. So, without any hesitation, she put on her warm clothes and went out of the hut to find firewood.

Despite the blizzard, it was very, very difficult to find firewood, but Yui couldn't just sit there waiting for the fire in the fireplace to go out, and without any fear, she continued on her way to find firewood.

The weather was terrible. It was dark everywhere and nothing could be seen. The wind hit the little girl's body from everywhere and threw her over and over on the snow. Yui's small body was barely moving and she was trying to continue her path while holding a small lantern in her hand.

The blizzard continued, and the little girl bravely continued on her way, until the wind struck her again, and the lamp fell from her hand onto the snow.

Yui: Oh no.

The snowflakes extinguished Yui's lantern, and Yui is now lost in the darkness and unable to see anything.

The weather was getting colder and colder and Yui was scared and didn't know what to do. She wrapped her small hands around herself and tried to warm herself a little, but it was useless.

Yui got up and tried to find a shelter for herself until she saw a small cave made with rocks, she quickly went towards it and took shelter there. It was cold inside the cave, but Yui started searching inside the cave to find some dry firewood. Also, while searching, a voice caught Yui's attention.

???: Help ...... Help.... Please someone help me.

Hearing a faint voice asking for help, Yui thought it was a fantasy, so she continued searching, but she heard the voice again, and this time it was louder than before.

???: Someone please help me.

When Yui realized that the voice was real, she quickly left the cave and followed the voice to see who was asking for help. The blizzard was decreasing moment by moment and Yui was able to continue on the path more easily.

After a few minutes, the blizzard stopped and Yui reached the frozen lake and saw a little boy sitting in the middle of the lake and crying. It was dark and he didn't notice Yui's presence at first, but when Yui went near the Lake, the little boy finally saw her. The boy looked at Yui with pleading eyes.

Shu: Please help me.

#diabolik lovers #dialovers #yui komori #komori yui #shu sakamaki #sakamaki shu #yuma mukami #mukami yuma #shu x yui #yui x shu #shuyui #yuma x yui #yui x yuma #yumayui #shu x yui x yuma #diabolik lovers fandom #diabolik lovers fanfiction #memories of that spring chapter 03

[zoeykallus]

Hi! I was wondering if you could do some headcanons on the boys seeing their SO holding a baby and being all motherly, and how each of them reacts to the sight of them with a little one? Many thanks!!!

Aloha! Finally! I got through to your request. Sorry you had to wait so long!

The Bad Batch x Fem!Reader HC's - Holding A Baby

Mostly Fluffy

You are holding the baby of a friend. Let's see how the batchers react to it.

-----------------

Hunter

He looks at you, seing you with the baby in your arms. Hunter comes closer to get a better look at what you are doing. Warmth spreads in his chest and he can't help but think about you as the mother of his children. You coo and speak lovingly to the little one and his heart leaps out at you.

He watches you, so fascinated. Hunter can't help but think about having babies with you. This feeling is new to him. As a soldier of the republic, it was never a question if he would ever be a father. But you put the world and it's rules into a whole new frame for him.

His gaze is soft and warm and feels like his heart is melting in his chest. Hunter will most likely talk to you later that day about having a family.

Echo

He carefully comes closer to see what's going on. That little bundle in your arms is so sweet and it suits you. He has been thinking about a family of his own since the day he met Cut and Suu and their kids. It was the first time he saw a clone with a family.

Now he is with you and seing you like this wakes this thought again. A family. Echo trusts and loves you. You are the one he can see his future with. He can see you as the mother of his children.

He'll talk to you about it. Nervously. Echo is not really sure what you think about the idea of a family with him and part of him is a bit scared you might be averse.

He'll probably starts the conversation by softly saying, "It suist you. You know, the baby. I think you would be a wonderful mother"

Wrecker

He is great with kids. They love him and he loves them. Wrecker will one day be an amazing father. But he never really thought about it yet. Seing you with the baby in your arms, however, wakes up some thoughts and feelings. A family of his own. A family with you.

To see you with this sweet little bundle in your arms, warms his heart and soul. To hear and see you talk soft and sweet with the baby is a sight he could watch all day.

Later that day he'll surprise you by saying, "We could make a baby too"

The surprised look on your face makes him nervous but he keeps talking, "We could have a family. You and me. You'd be a great mother!"

Wrecker is so nervous and hyped at the same time, it's super cute.

Tech

He looks at his datapad, has found a new problem to solve, and is researching and calculating all day. Suddenly he hears you cooing and talking softly and sweetly. For a moment, he's sure you're drunk.

Confused, he looks up from his data pad. What he sees makes him pause. You are holding a baby, the baby of a friend, he realizes. He steps a little closer to see what exactly you are doing. The sight is so cute and loving that he holds his breath for a moment.

Actually, he had never really thought about starting a family until now. It was never an option. But now he has you and is no longer bound by the obscure rules of the Republic.

He'll spend a few more days thinking about what he's seen. Tech will think about how he feels, how he sees his future. Sooner or later he will finally ask you about it and want to hear your opinion.

Crosshair

He sees your friend with the baby and automatically keeps his distance. He can't really participate in your conversations and he is afraid that someone might ask him if he wants to hold the baby.

Then you take the baby in your arms and if you were to look now, you could see all the color draining from his face.

He mumbles quietly to himself, "Maker, I hope she doesn't want one of those things".

Crosshair is torn. He feels a certain warmth at the sight. However, there is more uncertainty, at least at first. He's not going to take you up on it, you'll have to do that if you're interested. It will also take some time to warm him up to the idea. It will not be easy.

He can't see himself as a father. There was nothing else for him than being a soldier. He was always absorbed in it and never really wanted more than that. Now everything is different. He has you, he is basically no longer a soldier and has the feeling that he first has to find his place in this new order. Becoming a family man hasn't really crossed his mind yet.

@rintheemolion

@andyoufollowyourheart @clone-whore-99

@brynhildrmimi @kaliel2310

@misogirl828 @tech-deck

@meshla-madalene

@chxpsi

@thebahdbitch

@nahoney22 @ladykatakuri

@darkangel4121

#hc #headcanon #star wars #the bad batch #clonelove #clone force 99 #tbb #sw tbb #tbb tech #clone trooper tech #tech #bad batch tech #star wars bad batch #star wars tbb #star wars the bad batch #star wars: the bad batch #hunter #wrecker #echo #crosshair #bad batch crosshair #crosshair tbb #crosshair bad batch #crosshair x reader #crosshair x you #tbb crosshair #tbb crosshair x reader #the bad batch crosshair #crosshair the bad batch #hunter tbb

[lol-jackles]

Branding wise, I always thought about J2 as good guys, hard working, someone to have a beer with. Fathers. Family men, even when they filmed apart from wives & kids. JP's activities and socials still make him the nice boy next door all grown up into a hunk. However, JA's recent choices seem to mess with this. Big Sky was still the same honest, good guy. Nuanced with a few shades of gray. OTOH The Boys and Gen V? Geez. Nasty. There is "stretching" your range and then there's shredding your image

Every actor has said at least once, “I hate all that branding and marketing stuff – I just want to ACT!'

But if the actor doesn't have brand that tells a clear, concise, and consistent message, then they're going to book less roles.

Actors ideally have a "sweet spot" in their acting range to convey the message of their brand.  That sweet spot contains a whole bunch of different characters that gets seen by casting directors and producers.  This way they can get more offers for interesting roles because producers are going, "I wonder what else he can do."

For example, Tom Hank's brand is a genuinely nice, down-to-earth guy.  He leveraged this brand into a wide variety of heroic everyman roles that have increased his fame and garnered the trust and respect of his fans, and twice earned him an Oscar.

Bruce Willis was initially known as a romantic comedy guy, so he seemed mismatched for the action movie Die Hard.    During the 80s the action heroes looked like Greek Gods and producers were so worried that audiences wouldn't buy Willis as an action hero that he wasn't in the initial movie posters.  To make the movie work, they leaned into Willis' romantic comedy persona as an ordinary cop (hence the lack of Greek God body) who is trying to woo back his estranged wife and then struggled to rescue her when her office building is taken over by bank robbers disguised as terrorists.  The movie was a massive success that spawned a franchise and Bruce was able to leverage his loyal everyman brand into variety of roles from comedy (Death Become Her) to action (The Last Boy Scout) to Sci Fi (The 5th Element) to drama (The 6th Sense and Motherless Brooklyn).

Jensen is going too broad so it gives out mixed messages.  A branded message has to apply to everything in visual marketing i.e. headshots and social media seen by casting director and producers.  They click and if they don't instantly understand your message and see a match, then they move on to the next actor. When I look at Jensen's social media, I don't know what he is broadcasting.

Ideally the broadcasting would tell a short story that is one sentence long, so that people can remember it and share it with others.  For example, Angelina Jolie’s one-sentence story is, “I am an Oscar winning actress who is committed to philanthropy by providing resources and aid to refugees and immigrant children in war-torn countries.”  And to make sure it sticks; she portrayed that character in one of her movies.

Always be consistent in what you decide you want others to see.

#branding #brand

[deducter]

The woman in the picture

Visualise this: On a man's desk at his workplace, there is a photograph encased within a metal frame. Within this photograph, we observe two children—a girl and a boy—both of whom fall within the same age range. Notably, they are both wearing identical pairs of sunglasses.

Conclusion? They're his kids.

The man is also in this picture, smiling (visible crow's feet and wrinkles).

Conclusion? A genuine smile.

His left arm is around a woman's waist. He's wearing a ring on his left hand (a wedding ring).

Conclusion? She's his wife.

They have tanned skin and visible tan lines. It seems that the photo was taken on a sunny holiday.

Conclusion? A family photo taken during a happy holiday.

But here's where it gets exciting: What if the frame is not complete?

Allow me to explain further:

A) If the woman is still in the frame, what do we know about that family? It suggests a happy family with no serious issues at the moment.

B) If the woman is torn out from the picture, there are three possible explanations:

If he's still keeping the torn-out part—somewhere private: Cheating is a possibility. However, he may also be trying to forget her but cannot detach fully.

2. If he's still keeping the torn-out part—somewhere public, like on his desk: It could have been torn out by accident, and he wants to fix it as soon as possible. So, he puts it somewhere he can see it.

Alternatively, if he cares about other people's opinions and tends to overthink situations, he might have placed it there to show others that he loves his wife, and the tearing was an accident.

3. If he doesn't have the torn-out part any more: It's over.

C) If the woman is folded behind the photo but not torn out:

If that part has been folded multiple times: He's cheating, and that person visits him often (I can also estimate other things by the number of creases).

2. However, if the folded section reveals only a single crease: They're having a serious problem, but it's not overly severe. He maintains high hopes that it will be resolved. Cheating is also possible.

ND

#deduction #deducter #tumblr #deduce #deductive reasoning #science of deduction #tumblrpost #observant

[glitterguts13]

Do you have any favourite of hcs (any kind) of aventurine?

Oh, I have so much to say about Aventurine it's not even funny, so here comes a jumbled mix of thoughts.

TW: topics of slavery, self-harm, sexual abuse, and suicidal ideation. Please read with caution!

Aventurine struggles with genuine physical and emotional intimacy. Having been used, abused, and tortured all this life, mentally, sexually, and physically, he's grown to learn that people are to be kept at arm's length the whole time.

Because of this, Aventurine became very hyper-sexual to deal with the trauma. To him, if he starts it and stays in control, he can't be hurt. This isn't true at all, but it's the only way he knows how to handle people who start getting touchy with him because saying 'no' never worked in the past.

If someone does manage to break down his walls and form a genuine emotional bond with him...he really doesn't know what to do. He showers his partners with gifts and money, is extremely sex driven, and doesn't have any consideration for his own well-being. He's so worried about losing them, that he gives too much.

Aventurine doesn't know how to ask for things he wants. In the sense, he doesn't know how to say "Please, just hold my hand." or "Will you brush my hair?" These simple little acts of love that he desperately craves, but can't ask for because he's worried he's being needy.

For fucks sake just hold this man and remind him that his worth isn't tied to his wealth or his body.

The hand that trembles, hold it tightly and press it to your lips. He'll fall to pieces.

Aventurine is torn between desperately wanting a family and being terrified of having one. He wants a partner, children, and a home to come back to that's filled with love, warmth, and laughter...but he knows how quickly he could lose it, and just how big a target is painted on his back. It keeps him up at night, debating back and forth on if he should pursue his desire or leave it to rot like the rest of his dreams.

Topaz is the closest thing to a 'friend' he has inside of the IPC. While they're hardly besties, she's at least someone he can relax around and share a few drinks with. She's not given him any reason to distrust her, but I don't think he would ever fully rely on her either.

Has played his fair share of Russian Roulette, and leaves disappointed each time he wins.

Also, are we all just going to ignore that little tidbit where they mention he was strapped to an electric chair?? I can't even begin to imagine how that fucked him up both mentally and physically.

That being said, Aventurine has a lot of self-harm and pain-seeking tendencies. I won't go into details, but when he gets low, his mind begins to spiral and he has to find something to snap him out of it or else it just gets worse and worse until he's ready to make sure that gun is fully loaded.

He's grown better about it over the years, but he will never fully be able to heal and recover. Especially not as long as he's in the hands of the IPC. Ratio is the only one who catches wind of Aventurine's self-harming tendencies, but he doesn't have a clue on how to help him, so he keeps quiet.

The brand on his neck is a source of contention. He has the money to have it removed and covered up. He hates to see it, but in the same breath, he's almost afraid to lose it. If he does, will he lose sight of his past? Where he came from? He isn't ashamed of his past, but he also doesn't like the very clear reminder of it either. Jade makes passion comments on it often, and it makes his stomach twist everytime.

Donates obscene amounts of money to children in need. He will never let a child suffer, and while he clearly can't dismantle the entire fucked up system set in place, he's bought the contracts of many child slaves and freed them anonymously. He wants to save them all, but it just isn't possible, and it's one more thing that keeps him awake at night.

#hsr #honkai star rail #aventurine #i am sick about this man #he hurts my heart so deeply

[maidragoste]

Do you already have some headcanons about Reader kids in HarwinxReader story?

Hello, Anon, I apologize for taking so long to answer your question but I didn't know how to explain myself well since at that time we had not yet chosen the names of the twins.

Strong Twins Headcanons

Alyn:

•He is the eldest of the twins so he is the one who will inherit Harrenhal. He sometimes gets a little envious of Aethan because he would like to have Driftmark. Although he loves being the big brother, he takes advantage of it so that his brothers do what he wants.

He loves to go sailing with his mother and his grandfather. He always looks forward to that time of year when they go sailing. They don't do it as often as he would like because his mother doesn't like being away from King's Landing for too long.

He is observant, like his parents, so he is the first to realize that Larys is his real father and that his cousins are actually Harwin's children. Once he realizes this, their relationship changes completely. He stops playing with Rhaenyra's children and starts sulking every time he sees Harwin… Which is It is often by the rest of his siblings loving Harwin.

Alyn doesn't tell Larys that he knows he's actually his father but Larys realizes… If not, why does Alyn always warn him when Harwin is too close to Reader or every time he hears someone from the court flirt with Reader?

He doesn't like his lessons, they bore him a lot but Larys always finds a way to make learning more interesting.

I prefer family dinners where Harwin is not there because his mother always looks more comfortable, smiles and laughs when they are alone with Larys. He also likes dinners with Queen Alicent and the green children. They are always fun.

His dragon egg never hatched so he understands how Aemond feels seeing everyone have dragons but them. So it's no wonder the two become so close.

He doesn't like the idea of marrying Baela. Since they were children they were always very competitive with each other but Alyn begins to seriously dislike him after the Aemond and Vhagar incident.

He has a crush on Helaena so he's down when she marries Aegon.

Aethan:

Like his twin, he loves sailing. Always for their birthday they both ask to go sailing with their family. His father doesn't usually go there very often because he says he doesn't get along with the sea but Aethan knows that it's really because his grandfather Corlys doesn't like him.

He also loves to fly on his dragon: Alix. Whenever he can, he accompanies his mother and Aegon to the Dragon's pit. He loves racing with them. In general he doesn't usually win but he still has a lot of fun.

• Daeron and Jacaerys always seem to compete for the position of being his best friend but Aethan loves them both equally or so he says… His twin doesn't like that he spends time with Jacaerys but his father always looks happy every time he sees them playing together.

He always looks forward to the end of his father's shift because he likes to spend time with him. Sometimes he brings him a gift, a sweet or a new toy. They have the ritual where Aethan and his siblings have to try to guess what the gift is.

He likes dinners with the royal family but he prefers family dinners with his mother, his father, his uncle and his brothers. They are more intimate.

He likes to fight with the sword but he has more fun when his parents are in the lessons. He doesn't like to practice with Criston Cole because he always makes him fight his cousins. He doesn't want to hurt Jacaerys or Luke or Joffrey.

When the Driftmark incident happens, Aethan is torn because he loves his cousins but he ends up siding with Aemond because at the end of the day he was always closer to the green children. He also feels lost because he never thought that Jacaerys or Lucerys would hurt someone. He feels like he doesn't know any of them anymore.

Unlike Alyn he isn't as committed to him. He's always liked Rhaena and now that they live together in King's Landing they have time to get to know each other better.

I hope you liked my headcanons and that you are well, anon 🥰❤️. Again I apologize for taking so long to reply. If you ever text me again, if you want you can choose an emoji so I can identify you

#lu speaks #the sea dragon the clubfoot and the green queen #harwin strong #larys strong #aemond targaryen #rhaena targaryen #alyn strong #aethan strong #velaryon reader #harwin x reader #larys strong x reader #hotd x reader #anon <3 #anon ask #thanks for the ask! #ask me anything #jacaerys velaryon #lucerys velaryon