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supercorp-hosie · 3 years

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Discussion: is Hosie more of a supportive relationship or a toxic one?

While we all agree that Hope and Josie can sometimes be shitty, disrespectful, and manipulative to each other, I think that they are mostly supportive to each other. There are some people that think the opposite and conclude that Hosie is toxic. While I don't have problem with people shipping toxic ships too, I genuinely think that Hosie is mostly healthy for each other. To get a hold whether Hosie is supportive or toxic, I make this list of all Hosie interactions/scenes up to 3x13, which can be categorised as supportive or shitty that I can remember along with some of my thoughts. If you don't agree with me or forgot something, feel free to remind me or discuss them!

Thank you for making me feel the need to make this list. @legacies-supremacy

Thank you for helping me with some of the points. @dreamerdiving

The definition of toxic relationship is: “any relationship [between people who] don’t support each other, where there’s conflict and one seeks to undermine the other, where there’s competition, where there’s disrespect and a lack of cohesiveness.”

I marked those interactions/scenes that is harmful to Hosie in red so we can see it easily.

1. Josie burn down Hope’s room, without apologising

2. Josie made up stories about Hope calling Lizzie witch bipolar

3. Hope and Josie do dark magic together (hope ask for help, kindred spirit in revenge)

4. Hope stand up to Lizzie for Josie, while Lizzie threw Josie under the bus

5. Hope protected Josie by not telling Emma Josie being the one using dark magic with Hope

6. The scene where they pick trash, they connected really fast. It’s shown that they can have good communications between them.

7. Josie pays her respects to Hayley in front of Hope. It means a lot to Hope because she values her family.

8. Hope encourage Josie to voice up, fight for the things she desires. Josie helps Hope on her poked-herself situation.

9. They fought the first monster ever IN THE SCHOOL together. (Hope calls Josie to help, and Josie immediately do so)

10. Fight the spider-like monster together along with Lizzie.

11. The necklace that Hope gave Josie, make quiet things heard.

12. Hope, MG, Penelope save Josie together. Hope is very anxious (maybe more anxious than Penelope seems?), the necklace worked.

13. AU where Hope doesn’t exist, Josie dies.

14. AU where both of them straight up flirting, Hope comes to bring the Saltzmans to the Mikaelsons Boarding School, giving the twins a place to use and improve their magic freely. And mostly like cleans up the mess of Lizzie’s outburst (no blaming here).

15. When Hope was on slug, Josie is the first to suspect that she’s on happy pill, which is very close to the fact. While Landon and RAF see that she’s very happy but don’t think much of it, because they were new to her (no blaming). Landon sees that she’s very happy, said something like, you’re happy for first time ever?

16. Hope tell Josie to let her know if Josie needs someone to “take care” of Penelope.

17. Talent show: hope looks very happy and cheers for Josie when she sings (overly happy maybe because of slug)

18. Josie lets Hope sleep on her shoulder.

19. Josie does not come clean when Hizzie is fighting each other on “Hope telling the school Lizzie is witch bipolar” and “burn her room down to interfere with Saltzmans road trip”.

20. Josie finally come clean about burning Hope’s room and made up stories that causes Hizzie's rivalry, but Hope only cares about the crush. It can be said that Hope is very forgiving for Josie. - *smiles* you had a crush on me? (I mean, girl, she burned down your room)

21. Mystic fall pageant: Josie worries about Hope feelings when Hope finds out about the dress was from Klaus

22. When Josie distances herself from Lizzie after knowing about the merge from Penelope, Lizzie asks Hope to help make the food Josie likes the most. So it’s canon that Hope can actually make Josie’s favourite food? The attempts Hope made to repair the twins relationship show that Hope care for both of the twins.

23. Josie doesn’t want to interact with Hope either.

(May have forgotten hosie scene)

24. Triad: super squad team up, they help each other to save the school, it seems like when Hope says she has more backup, Josie is the one looks like leading them in.

25. Hope caught a bullet for Josie while Josie caught one for Lizzie as Lizzie was trying to catch them for Josie too.

26. Josie encourages Hope for hero time rather than staying by her side.

27. Hope only realised that she caught a bullet for Josie when Alaric asked about the hole on her sleeves. That leads to her knowledge on her blood can save Josie as well as herself being the loophole for Malivore. She tells Alaric to give Josie vial of her blood. (According to some fans, Stefan said that blood sharing is very personal.)

28. Josie is very confident that Hope will make it back to them, and urges Kaleb to have faith in Hope.

29. When Hope jumps into Malivore, something came over Josie, she feels most of the impact (maybe because Landon is dead at the moment)

30. Hope didn’t want to return to school because she sees that both Landon and Josie are very happy. She wants them to be happy.

31. While Josie is being jealous and hostile to Hope, she feels that there’s something off about Hope in her, not only jealousy.

32. Oni episode: Josie continues to be hostile to Hope because of her jealousy.

33. Hope as a badass tribrid, miraculously does not beat or intimidate or threaten Josie because of her hostility, whereas when other people do it, there will probably be consequences.

34. Josie is the one to seek Freya for the dark magic to bring back everyone’s memories.

35. Josie hit Freya using the newly-learned dark magic. Freya said something like even that spell is very powerful for a Mikaelson witch, meaning that the spell can have some strong effects on her. When Josie is questioned whether she knows what to do with the magic, in panic she hit Freya with this magic and run. It means that whether or not Josie choose to bring those memories back herself, there will surely be someone to bring them back when Josie opted not to do it. Even so, it’s Josie that contributed to bringing back people’s memories of Hope, or else Freya can never do it for Hope if the circumstances required her to do so.

36. If Josie is to bring back everyone’s memories, she knows that she will be the one that will be left behind and will be the second choice. She’s the one that will be badly affected, but she knows that she needs to do it, and calls Caroline to encourage her to do the right thing. (Or else why call? What kind of parents will encourage their child to do otherwise.)

37. Josie brings back everyone’s memories of Hope and save Hope and Lizzie from the Croatian.

38. Hope cares about Josie’s feeling to ask whether Josie is okay with Hope staying in the school. She is willing to leave the school for Josie.

39. Despite knowing that seeing Hope hurts a lot, Josie tells Hope to stay, and assure Hope that she belongs with them. For Josie, NO MATTER how much it hurts, she WANTS Hope ENOUGH to let her STAY, as Hope belongs with them. It’s what Hope wants: people thinking she’s worth staying for. It means that NO MATTER THE CIRCUMSTANCES, she hope that there’s still someone that WANTS HER ENOUGH to STAY for her.

40. Along with the previous point, it’s important to know that Josie tells Hope to stay after SimuLandon told Hope that Landon can’t tell her to stay (the same day as Landon chose to leave the girls). It assures Hope a lot.

41. Landon being a dick(sorry) to breakup with Josie and then immediately restarts a relationship with Hope (disrespect of Jandon relationship, it’s like an opposite of what he said to Josie). Hope being a bitch(sorry) by immediately accept the restart of Handon, disregarding it’s a fresh breakup for Jandon and Josie.

42. Josie avoids Hope because it hurts to see Handon immediately lovey dovey.

43. Santa episode: Hope is the one that handles Krampus-affected Josie when she tells Lizzie to run. Either the Josie being near to Lizzie will affect Lizzie, or Hope just want some time with Josie? For the former part, Hope protecting Lizzie also contributes to supporting Josie.

44. Hope actively seeks out Josie and helps Josie with the mora miserium - placing a protective barrier on it.

45. They confide in each other when they put a protective barrier on the mora miserium. They reveal their dark sides and weaknesses. They support each other verbally. (Hope reveal her jealousy towards Jandon, Josie asked Hope why Clarke chooses her, Hope said that it’s because Josie is a strong and trusting person, etc.)

46. In the Qareem/Wade-is-fairy episode, when Landon died, Hope protects the mora miserium first and passes it to Josie before going to Landon. (It’s a logical thing to do tho, Landon’s death can’t be undo but Hope can prevent Josie from going dark)

47. Hope go to the twins for comfort after her fight with Landon.

48. First therapy box episode: Hope comforts Josie after they come out from it.

49. People in numbers(the Saltzmans including Josie) vs Landon: Hope chose to save people in numbers which includes Josie, instead of saving Landon. (Prison world incident)

50. When Hope astral project into the prison world, Josie is the only one that can communicate with Hope because of the dark magic. It helped to save people and Josie herself in the prison world.

51. People in numbers (the whole school) vs Josie: Hope refuses to kill Josie when basically everyone is ready to kill Josie to save the school(including Alaric). (Lizzie is running away? Understandable tho, her life is in danger) Hope shuts Alaric and Kaleb in the therapy box to prevent them from killing Josie.

52. Dark Josie with Hope in the ring: they weren’t really putting effort in fighting each other before both of them call each other out.

53. I don’t think she even likes you - what’s the point of saying that when it is commonly known between Hope and Josie? So it must mean the opposite(which is Josie likes Hope) and solely to hurt Hope.

54. Josie, fight! - Hope can bring out the true Josie in dark Josie.

55. Dark Josie is agitated when Hope can really bring true Josie out. Maybe it’s because of losing control. But my clownness suggests that can also be a thing that both true and dark Josie do not want to reveal at all - that Hope weighs heavily in Josie’s heart.

56. Dark Josie is ready to kill Hope after Hope brought the true Josie out for seconds.

57. Hope goes into Josie’s subconscious to save her.

58. The actually-consensual kiss: when the pig tell Hope to try kissing Sleeping Josie, Hope respects Josie’s boundaries. But Hope never says that she is against kissing Josie at all because she now does not see her that way at all. = Hope will totally kiss Josie if the circumstances are right with a consent.

59. In Josie’s mind, true Josie really doesn't want to hurt Hope and urge her to leave before it’s too late.

60. Hope encourages Josie to trust herself with her power, that she is good and strong.

61. Dark Josie petrified Hope in Josie’s subconscious.

62. Josie did heed Hope’s words, she believes that Hope is good and strong.

63. Josie defends Hope by calling Landon out on him leaving Hope twice, and he doesn’t actually believe in not giving up love no matter what.

64. After Hope and Landon comes out from Malivore and the prison world, and Landon turns into goo after the unsafe intercourse (probably not using condom considering the result, there must be sexually fluid exchanged), Hope goes directly to the principal office and explains the situation, Josie is first to believe in Hope and is willing to teach her the spell.

65. When Hope’s Therapy-Box Ethan tells Hope that sometimes the right person for her is right in front of her. I think that it’s Hope’s subconscious of him promoting himself initially. But really, Hethan interactions are so little for me to really believe that Hope’s subconscious of the right person is referring him for that. So when Josie turns up next....(I’m clowning, but it means that Hope subconscious thinks that Josie is the right person, talk about faith.)

66. Hope believes that Josie wants Hope to be safe: Hope’s Therapy-Box Josie ants Hope to come with her? It means that Hope knows that Josie will want Hope to be safe with her together. To relate it more to the problem about Hope thinks that Josie runs away from problem and Hope solves them, it also means that a part of Hope wants to not face all these problems too. So part of her is constructing this scene to provide her an option, with Josie.

67. Josie is the only one Hope attempted to save in the therapy box.

68. Josie doesn’t help Hope grieves after Landon turned into goo. (to which I resent the writer’s effort in sabotaging Hosie in the show starting season 3 to make sure they sit right in the “not queerbaiting“ section. It doesn’t make sense that Hosie doesn’t interact at all.)

69. 3x08: Josie wants to help in finding Landon. No matter the motives, she wants to help, and the final results benefit Hope and Landon, not Josie.

70. I don’t need to deal with both Saltzman twins right now - Hope disrespects both twins.

71. Hope gaslights Josie to go help her postponing her date with Finch.

72. Josie believes in Hope too much to fall for her lies when Hope is apparently desperate. (Maybe that’s why Finch call Hope five feet of trouble, or we should believe that Finch is threaten by Hope or angry at Hope out of the blue?) - Hope is Josie’s blindspot too.

73. Josie is upset that Finch will hate her, but doesn’t seem angry about Hope lying( I’m thinking about “you have a crush on me?”, but it can also be understood as Hope lying doesn’t hurt her at all. If this is the case, then Hope = nothing in Josie’s heart, is this true though?)

74. Hope says that she would be there if Josie is to fall into her dark side again even though she believes that Josie is strong enough to withstand it herself. (It’s still manipulation even though Hope means it, right? Don’t want to romanticise manipulation.)

75. Hope guilt trip Josie about Landon and the prison world.

76. Hope thinks that she need more convincing work on Josie after the guilt trip. But Josie surprises her by not needing any further convincing. It seems that her concerns it’s never the danger she could face from the prison world for saving Landon. It’s about the risks of losing herself again by taking her magic back. Both of them don’t know that the ascendant is full of dark magic.

77. Hope tells Lizzie to hold on when they discover that the ascendant is filled with dark magic and according to Josie before that, “you’re going to die”.

78. Josie steps in for Hope and Lizzie.

79. Hope only realised and apologised when she sees Josie with dark magic and in pain. (It shows the importance of Josie in Hope’s heart, but I think it’s very late so……)

80. When Josie, Landon, Wade ran into the kitchen from Berbelang!Hope, Josie and perfect Landon are in sync in saving Hope. It either means Jandon is very very low-key still a thing, or Josie and perfect Landon actually cares as much as each other cares for Hope. (And perfect Landon is made to love Hope, so if Josie show as much care as perfect Landon for Hope....)

81. Again, why do I care? - Josie: “Because I do!”

82. Josie embrace her magic entirely for Hope and to save Hope.

83. If the definition of true love is like what Wade says, like Landon would never hurt Hope, then we can see Josie is reluctant to hurt Hope either. She wants to consider it carefully before really plunge the knife into Hope’s heart. (But perfect Landon did it, as an outsider I think we agree that’s actually the right call? It’s just too soon when you basically have an hour to think carefully, maybe Cleo can control perfect Landon, so when she got the chance she makes perfect Landon to do it?)

84. Hope apologises for pressuring Josie into taking back her magic twice. Josie give credits to Hope’s words of her and her magic. Hope is very happy for Josie.

85. Hope wants Josie back in the school. It means that she thinks Josie is belonged to the school as how Josie think of Hope previously.

To sum them up, we have 18/85 of Hosie interactions/scenes where they are disrespect of each other, undermining, manipulating, and lying to each other. However, as we can see mostly they are supportive of each other, having good communications, and saving each other’s lives.

#hosie #anti hosie #let's discuss #hope mikaelson #josie saltzman #hosie endgame #hope x josie #legacies cw #legacies #Hosie interactions

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thenickelportrust · 7 years

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Raf’s Perspective Short

I close my eyes, and take a deep breath- but then pretty much immediately regret it. The air is thick and toxic with the smell of many different pseudo-flowery perfumes, and colognes of varying indescribable artificial flavors. The heaviness of it all chokes up my lungs, and I find myself squeezing the glass in my hand even more. I don’t drink from it, no, I don’t dare do that. It’s just… something cool to hold onto into this body-heat induced humidity. That, and it at least keeps the many servers dancing around in black and white uniforms from approaching me.

Even so, I’ve done my best to find what little breathing space I can in a room this crowded. Which, honestly, I really didn’t have a choice in. If you’re not willing to muscle your way through this crowd of gem-dipped dresses and crisply steamed bowties you end up shoved into the far corner either way. It’s… kind of funny, when I think about it, that such an elegant extravaganza could really be so… barbaric.

I find myself scanning the crowds, thick throngs of people that blur together into little more than a mass of swirling colors. I tell myself that’s for the better. I tell myself that I’m not disappointed. I tell myself that I’m still only here on business.

But… he was right, wasn’t he?

Closing my eyes, I let my head thump back against the soft, velvet curtains that hang uselessly, decoratively, around the wall.

Mambo pushed his glasses up with the back of a white-gloved knuckle. He quickly tears the plastic from his hands and tosses it into the trashcan beside his workstation- the clean silver steel painted a dark, bloody red where he was working. He’d said nothing for a long while, only stood from his stool and ambled across the floor to the sink. Wordlessly, the woman called Rhumba moved into his place with a rag at the ready, swiping up all that needed to be cleaned. Though her face wasn’t visible behind the gas mask, I heard tiny grunts of disgust. Nobody likes cleanup duty, but it’s become something of an initiation task within Mambo’s employees…

Is ‘employees’ even the right word?

”You’ve been awfully quiet,” Mambo didn’t respond verbally, he shrugged, letting the water run over his hands without moving the for a long while. Just staring at the space between finger and fingernail. “I was hoping you could tell me what you think…?”

Mambo sighed, quickly finishing washing his hands and shaking them out. “Rhumba.” One word, and the woman disappeared silently, dropping the rag and scurrying towards the door, I stopped her, gave her a quiet word of thanks… which, again, I couldn’t tell her reaction to under the mask. Mambo’s lip curled upward in disgust at the sight of the rag, his dark eyes squinted at the offending cloth, “She could have at least taken the disgusting thing with her…”

”She’s new, she’s learning.” I coaxed him away from the fixation, “Besides, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody meet your expectations. Not at first, at least.”

”Don’t be ridiculous.”

”If I’m wrong then I’d be happy to know who it is.” I grinned, though looking back I’m not sure if he could tell that I was smiling behind the mask, “Because they must be able to work miracles.”

Mambo huffed, but didn’t say much else. He glanced once at me, slicking back his dark hair with whatever water was left on his hands. “You can take the mask off, if you want. I don’t have any more appointments today.”

”Ah, right,” I couldn’t help but sigh once it comes off- as much as I’ve worked on making it breathable over the years, everything still seems much more stuffy underneath the full-face mask. I fiddled with it in my hands, “So…”

”Professional or friend?”

”... Do you mean your advice?” I questioned, Mambo nodded. Pausing, I couldn’t help but wonder just how the two differentiated. He’s never been one for mincing his words out of ‘friendship’ or anything of the sort. It’s… been one of the many reasons I’m able to speak openly with him, knowing that Mambo will offer what he believes to be the truest answer. “Both.”

Mambo nodded once more, but he didn’t reply immediately. Instead he took off his glasses, fetching a cloth from the pocket sewn into the inside of his long white coat, and cleaned the lenses first, rubbing them over in small, careful circles. ”Well,” He drawled, speaking with slow confidence, “As your friend, it pains me to tell you to go… yet I suppose I must.”

My eyebrows shot up, ”I… wasn’t expecting that.” I slumped against the side of the wall, running a hand through my hair- which caught at different intervals, having gotten messed up from being bunched underneath the mask all day. A weak laugh escaped my lips, “I was… sort of hoping you’d say the opposite.”

”You don’t want to go?”

”I-…” I let my hand fall to my side, “I don’t know…” I hate how quiet my voice sounds. The far wall is a dull, dark grey, turned bluish-white in the work room’s fluorescent lights. “I-It doesn’t matter what I want, anyways. That’s not… that’s not important...”

”And that’s where, as a friend, I disagree.” Mambo slipped his glasses back onto his slightly hooked nose, thin, sharp lips twisting into a frown. “And as a medical professional. Though I deal with the body and not the mind, I know that it can’t be healthy to-”

”It doesn’t matter.” I repeated, trying my best to sound forceful… but force had never been my speciality. It was one of the reasons why ‘Harbinger’ never spoke. “I’m sorry- I-...” I inhaled sharply, that slightly acidic smell of antiseptic filling my nose. Mambo said nothing, he folded his arms, but his face was as serene as ever. “I’m sorry…” The silver eye of the mask scrunched together in my mask- crushing and stretching, crushing and stretching.

”You have nothing to apologize for.”

”If only,” I attempted another smile, but Mambo didn’t return the gesture. “Well… what about as a professional? What do you think then?”

Again, it took Mambo quite a while to answer my question. He looked away first, unfolding his hands and sauntering over to the bloody table. He ran a hand along one of the few clean spots, lift it and rubbing invisible dust between the two fingers. Mambo then stared at a vial for a while, lips pursed and eyes squinted in a familiar thinking expression. Like before, the words came out with slow deliberation, but this time it seemed to originate not in confidence, but a kind of reluctance, “As a professional… I believe that it would not be in your best interests to attend Miss Waltz’s… soireé.” Mambo’s nose wrinkled once more, he picked up a vial, turned it around in his hands- the bright pink liquid sloshing around.

”Why not?”

Mambo’s back was turned to me, and I couldn’t make out what he did- having only the slight clinking of glass and occasional tick of a burner coming on and clicking off to cue me into… whatever it was he was doing. When he turned around again, however, he held the same vial- the pink fluid now fizzing in rapid bubbles. Mambo turned it around in his hand once more, letting the bubbles catch the light. Strawberries filled the air, the sickly sweet smell covering the sharp antiseptic stench. Mambo then walked over to the sink, “Despite the fact that I’d already believed the rewards to not outweigh the inherent risk.” And promptly dumped the contents of the glass vial down the drain. “I believe that this added factor unbalances the scales even more. It’s become far too… personal… to have success be a viable outcome.” His eyebrows shoot up then, “Though I suppose you’d be the best advisor when it came to that, Harbinger. Tell me, how do you see this plan of yours going?”

There was a small crack in the tiled flooring, no bigger than a strand of hair, snaking through the white ceramic. “I’m not sure I trust my judgement on that…”

”Then don’t.” Mambo tilted his head ever so slightly, “Trust your powers, instead.”

”My powers…”

”Yes. What do your powers tell you, Harbinger?” Mambo took a single step forward, “What do you see?”

The past has always been a… close acquaintance of mine. Though I’m not sure I’d call it a ‘friend’ anymore, it’s still familiar. So familiar, that it almost feels odd when I’m reminiscing about my own past. It seems much more… blurred. Duller. Like someone forgot to clean the lense of a camera and now everything is coated in a fine fuzz and made slightly duller in color…

When did I become more familiar to stranger’s pasts than I did mine own?

I shake my head, lifting it from against the curtains.

I open my eyes, and I see the party. The grand ballroom with it’s split level flooring and the wall made of glass. An endless sea of people milling about, twirling skirts catching on chandelier light and jewels competing against one another to shine the brightest- look the most expensive. False smiles behind false teeth, drunk breath and staggered steps loping from one socialite to the other. I stand among the throng, looking up at the split level with a kind of disastrous awe. Shoulders shove me from one side to the other, pushing me from person to person. Occasionally making quiet, awkward eye contact with each person- stuttering out what I can manage of a ‘hello’ before being pushed onto the next unwanted social situation. I never encounter anyone I know, all the faces seem strange and unfamiliar and, after a while, almost inhuman-

I encounter someone I know, but it is not… not them. I do not know whether to feel happy or sad about that, I do not know if I am relieved or disappointed. I cannot speak to them properly, because any conversation is clouded by these whirling, ambivalent emotions. I end up making up some excuse, I leave and-

I do not encounter anyone I know, and yet they let slip a familiar name. A name that makes me freeze, makes my bones seem to seize up and a breathless, “How do you know them?” wheeze out. My chest feels tight, like my heart is about to pop and-

I do not encounter anyone I know, but they introduce me to someone I do, another stranger-

Someone I know-

Them.

I meet their eyes, familiar and strange and-

I open my eyes with a gasp, shaking my head and silently cursing myself. There’s a pain in my heart, and part of me wants to go back. Part of me wants to close my eyes again, slip back into that… day-dream future.

It can’t be a possibility. Though part of me knows it is, the overwhelming other half refuses to acknowledge it.

Besides, I already know how it would end. Even without seeing it, I know…

The delicate clinking of glasses draws my attention away from my small corner of the world- a large group is approaching. All giggling in a high-pitched tone that seems to be vying against the pitch of the glasses clashing gently against one another. I move away, towards the velvet-lined staircase. Staring at my feet as they move, almost hypnotically, one in front of the other.

I stand at the top, my hands curled around the railing, scanning the crowd.

But the crowd is an ocean. And after a while all the waves start to blur into one, neon-colored tsunami. It makes any one face indistinguishable and though I’ve climbed to what feels the top of a grand king’s tower it helps none with fishing for that one familiar face. A haze at the edge of my vision shifts and-

But the crowd is sparse that night, sparser than Waltz would have wanted, but it makes it easier to look through the crowd. I see no one I recognize, everything still just an acrylic painting- realistic and dreamy, beautiful and untouchable. Unrecognizable-

I stand at the top, my hands curled around the railing, and I recognize someone. It is not someone who would recognize me. Not now, not after so long. She mills about the crowd, and though I spare a brief thought as to why she’s here it doesn’t stick for long. Anything is possible. Even-

I want air. It’s hard to breathe in this cluster, being choked now not only by perfume but the pressure of what seems to be a thousand bodies packed into a space that was only ever made to hold a hundred. The railings. Space. Air. I shove my way through the crowd until I stand at the top, my hands curl around the railing until my knuckles turn white. Leaning slightly over the side just to take a gasp of that precious commodity- personal space. My eyes lift, up and past the twinkling, sparse lights of the chandelier. Tiny crystals linked together in patterns so thing they look like a million strings draped over a golden, light-bearing skeleton. Through swirling fabrics catching on heeled slippers and oiled shoes. Along the walls with engravings reminiscent of an Queen’s tomb carved into the belly of the room. Over the rug with strands so fine that it takes on the look of a bloody red field, or a battle-stained river. Surging past the masses of bodies, drawn almost my a rope, until-

They stand there. Separated from the crowd and in much the same corner I stood in before. If I hadn’t moved, perhaps we would have collided- and that thought carries with it all the same emotions of encountering someone I wouldn’t know, but would mention someone I do. Regret and relief, a kind of elation and a deep, clawing sadness. A name rises and chokes in my throat, lingering on the back of my tongue. Sweet-sounding, even when I don’t say it the sound still echoes around my ears, until it becomes all I hear. No clinking glasses, no high-pitched voices, no false laughter. Just a name. Simple and yet… nothing could ever sound more complex. Not the most elegant song, not the strangest animal, nothing.

I should tear my eyes away. I should look away. I should but I can’t seem to. I can’t seem to close my eyes. I can’t seem to look away. I find myself caught on one person in a crowd of thousands. They are dressed elegantly- and in an instant I feel like I am no longer clustered by a thousand strangers, but among a few dozen friends. Standing at the end of an aisle and-

I stand at the top, my hands curling around the railing until my knuckles turn white.

What do you see?

#model citizens unmasked #rafael darzi #short story #im gonna put all the shorts here as well for organizations sake #shorts

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