i hope u know im chewing on ur good omens work like a cat does with those matatabi sticks ,,,, ANYWAY do u mind writing an aziraphale x reader [gn] x crowley w a recurring fruit means love metaphor ? like sharing a lil clementine or getting ur hands all gross n sticky from cutting smthn open [cough cough a peach . i had 2 stick my fingers in one 2 separate it n get the pit out n it was ,,, mildly uncomfortable] n the other person sucks the juice off their fingers ,,,,,,,,, just very intimate n cute things like that :] thanx !!
so Iâm sorry this is less love as fruit and more uhhh lust as fruit please forgive me
Crowley x reader x Aziraphale (good omens)
From his place sorting books he never intends to sell into one of his many already-cramped shelves, Aziraphale watches you in the break room.Â
Youâre waiting for the kettle to boil, eating an apple while you grab a mug and teabag. Even from here Aziraphale can hear the pop-hiss as you take a bite from the crisp skin. Your teeth sink into the flesh and juice rolls down your chin onto the counter. You wipe it away absent-mindedly with the back of your hand. Â
You might be the one eating, but itâs Aziraphale who swallows.Â
You lick your lips, thumbing the sweet stickiness from your face and sucking it clean. Aziraphale wonders what it tastes like.
He wonders if he could do it for you.Â
đÂ
âCrowley, you want a bit of tangerine?â
Crowley looks up from where heâs been idly scrolling through his phone - tiktok! Credit where itâs due, hell did a great job on that one - right into your smiling face. Heâs not much of an eater (thatâs more Aziraphaleâs speed) but your eagerness enraptures him.Â
âOh, go on then.â
Itâs so human, to share a little bit of your food with someone. It shows you care about them; want them nourished. Crowleyâs gaze falls to where your fingers begin to work the orange skin.Â
Thereâs something entrancing about the way you work it. Something almost illicit. The juice dripping from you as your thumb accidentally slides its way through a segment. You curse quietly and work on the other half, your fingertips gliding across the folds of fruit.Â
Thereâs something that trips from being suggestive into lewd.Â
Heâs glad when you finally manage to pass him a piece, because his mouth has gone utterly dry.Â
đÂ
They find you in the shared kitchen, sucking the flesh from a mango. Your eyes dart up from the sticky mess youâve made on your hands and face.Â
âSorry,â you mutter through your bite, âI promise Iâll clean up in a moment, justââ
You donât get to finish because they descend upon you.Â
Aziraphale licks it from your lips, moaning in the back of his throat at the combined taste of your sweetness. Crowley grabs your hand and takes your whole thumb into his mouth, tongue dancing around the soft pad.Â
Their mouths donât leave you for the next couple of hours.Â
638 notes
·
View notes
rotten to the core || bkg k.
pairing: bakugou katsuki x reader
word count: 4k
mentions: no pronouns i blv, pro hero bkg, aged-up chars (24+), meet cute(?), slight fear of heights, bkg being a dick but what else is new, ur kinda used as a scapegoat for him, part of the meet fruit collab hosted by @willowser !! check out the other fics posted!! & ty to my friends who helped me brainstorm a title LOL (kissa u will!)
đ in which you get stuck in an apple tree... and have to get help from a certain pro-hero to get down đ
In hindsight, maybe you shouldnât have taken your walk today.Â
It was justâperfect weather, though. The first wink of sunshine thatâd blessed the earth after a week of non stop rain. The air was cool and crisp with the gentle grip of Autumn, vibrant leaves colored in all shades of tangerine, burnt red, and daffodil yellow lining the trees and roads. You had to get out and stretch your legs after wallowing miserably at your window, confined to your little apartment for what felt like forever.Â
Your skin basked happily in the soft caress of the sun as you walked down a bricked path through one of the parks in your neighborhood. It was a delight to venture through since it was nice and tranquilâable to leave you to your thoughts as you watched the way light filtered happily through the canopies above you. Occasionally youâd see another pedestrian walking in the distance, but they hardly ever bothered you.Â
A sigh left your lips as you stretched your arm out and glanced at the watch on your wrist. You never brought your phone with you when you went on these little outings. You didnât really need it, after all, and all the notifications youâd get would only serve as a distraction when you were supposed to be clearing your mind and enjoying the bumbling outside environment for once in your technology-infused life.Â
It was just after three in the afternoon. Nice. You stuffed your hands into the pockets of your jacket and continued on. Maybe you could stop by one of the cafĂ©âs on your block for a warm drink later. A motivating thought.Â
As the path took you past a small, open field, you noticed a group of children loitering around one of the trees lining its perimeter. They were loud as they chattered and argued with each other, pointing up at the treeâs branches and making attempts to climb it to no avail. Youâd fully intended to walk by, sparing them not much more than a curious glance, but one of the kids had spotted you and started loudly shouting and waving his arms.Â
âHey! You!â he called across the field, and you paused for a moment and looked around before pointing at yourself in confusion. Was he talking to you? âYeah! Câmere!â Apparently he was.Â
You slowly made your way over, wondering what the kid could possibly want with you. His friends all turned to look at you curiously as you approached. A few lingered at the base of the tree theyâd been attempting to climb. Suddenly, you had a little audience and you werenât quite sure what to do.Â
â...Yes?â you eventually asked to break the silence. âWhatâs up?âÂ
âYouâre tall,â the kid pointed out bluntly. You blinked down at him owlishly. To him maybe you were, but you werenât going to say anything. âCan you get those apples for us?â He pointed up at the treeâyour gaze followingâand you realized theyâd been attempting to pick the small, honey-crisp fruit that was way out of the reach of their tiny limbs.Â
There was only one problem. âI canât reach those either. Theyâre too high up,â you told him with a frown. Â
He made a face at you, but before he could say anything, one of his friends piped up. âYou can climb, canât you? Please! Weâre trying to fill this basket.â A weaved basket was held out in their arms, a few apples already rolling around in it. They all looked up at you in anticipationânearly half a dozen little faces with hope glistening in their eyes.Â
You hesitated. This was not what you had expected to be doing on your little walk. âI dunnoââÂ
âPlease! Pretty please!â You were almost immediately interrupted as they all started begging you at once, a chorus echoing in your eyes. A few small hands reached out to tug at the bottom of your jacket. You were frozen, the weight of their tiny expectations weighing heavily on your shoulders. âPlease! With a cherry on top?âÂ
âOkay! Okay,â you acquiesced as you side-stepped towards the tree, your hands raised up as though in surrender. They were persistent, and you doubted theyâd give up even if youâd said no. They all immediately started cheering as you trudged your way over to the apple tree, a grumble under your breath. This was fine. You would get them their apples and then continue on your path. Maybe youâll get a drink and a pastry at that cafĂ© later, you thought to yourself.Â
You stopped at the base of the tree and eyed the trunk for a second. A quick glance behind you showed that the kids had followed you, surrounding your figure in a half circle as they eagerly waited. You didnât know why they thought you would be able to climb the tree to get the fruit when theyâd obviously been failing at it before, but you supposed that was them placing youâan adultâon a more capable pedestal than themâlittle kids. You sighed again and started the arduous task of climbing your way up to the first thick branch you could see.Â
The treeâs bark was rough under the soft skin of your palms. Your feet braced themselves against the trunk as you used the strength of your legs to push yourself up. Your hands gripped onto the branch and you pulled yourself on top of it carefully, ensuring that it could hold your weight. It could. This branchâand the ones surrounding itâwas bare of any apples, unfortunately, so youâd have to go higher. You huffed slightly as you stood on the branchâknees bent to help with your balanceâand climbed your way to the next sturdy branch using the smaller ones around you.
It took you longer than youâd like to admit, but eventually you plopped yourself down on a higher branch and wiped the sweat from your forehead. You could hear the kids yelling encouragingly at you from below, telling you to Go higher! The good apples are higher! You rolled your eyes and looked around. They could make do with what you could get now.
It was kind of nice sitting in a tree. The leaves around you were mostly green, though you could see many of them starting to dip into a yellow color with the Autumn weather. There were a few ripe apples on a branch to your right that you could easily reach without having to move too much. You picked them easily and looked down so you could find the kid holding the weaved basket.Â
âCatch!â you called as you dropped the apples one by one. There was a flurry of motion from all the kids as they scrambled to move the basket up to catch the fruit before it could hit the ground. They sounded delighted and a small smile lingered on your lips as you watched them.Â
âMore! More!â they chanted once youâd tossed down all the apples you could reach around you. Guess you really did need to go higher, then. Unfortunate.Â
Up and up and up you went, adhering to the whims of the children who watched you safely from the grassy ground. You picked more apples and dropped them carefully to the earth. Until finally, finally, their basket was full to the brim.Â
âThanks stranger!â the original kid whoâd caught your attention called up, his friends already rushing away as they giggled and laughed. He waved up at you, a bright smile on his face, and you thought to yourself that maybe helping them out had been worth it. âYouâre the best!â And with that he ran off, hollering at his friends to wait for him.Â
You watched him go, then sighed wearily. At least youâd gotten some sort of workout in. Already your arms were starting to ache from hoisting yourself up the tree. You stretched them out, then moved so you could start to lower yourself to the hand holder branch below you.Â
The moment your foot placed weight on it, however, it let out a sharp snap!Â
Something in your gut dropped. You yelped and scrambled back on top of the branch youâd been sitting on, your foot having met nothing but air. Your heart pounded a steady beat in your ears as you sat solidly on the branch and looked down. The branch had broken and the next one for you to put your weight on was too far away. Shit. You swallowed heavily and found yourself looking at the ground. It seemed⊠awfully far away. And now that you were staringârealizing just how high up in the tree you wereâyou noticed there was this odd feeling in your stomach that only got stronger the longer you looked. Your jaw tensed and you forced yourself to bring your gaze to the tree trunk in front of you as you slowly moved to straddle the branch. A better position in case you⊠fell.Â
You took a moment to just calm yourself down. Damn it. Were you really stuck in a fucking apple tree? You chanced another look down and felt a bit lightheaded once more at the height. You guessed you were. You never shouldâve taken that goddamn walk. You breathed in deeply, then exhaled it all in a loud sigh. No, no way you were going to be stuck here for who-knows-how-long. You needed to get it together and just climb down. Like a normal person.Â
You peeked around you, looking for any other branches you could use to climb down. But there were noneânone that were within reach, that is, or that could hold your weight long enough for you to get to the next sturdy branch. Fuck, had that one branch really been the only one? Just your luck. Climbing up a tree was one thing, but climbing down? It was terrifying.Â
Maybe you could call someone for help? But no, you realized with a curse, that wouldnât work. You didnât have your fucking phone. You slapped a hand against your face in agony and mentally shook your fist at your past self. Well, you never wouldâve expected something like this to happen, so maybe you should cut past-you some slack. Still, you think this is a sign to start bringing your phone with you on your walks, technology-cleansing be damned.Â
You slumped forward and resigned yourself to being stuck until you could call out to a passerby for help. There was bound to be someone walking the paths through the parkâeven though it was a rather⊠lonely place. It was only the afternoon, though. You could wait.Â
âŠ
You were going to die up here.
Forget the cafĂ©, you grumbled to yourself as you wearily held your head in your hands. An hour had gone by with no one in sight and you were slowly losing hope with each minute that ticked by. You were going to need a strong ass drink after this.Â
You sighed and reached above you to pick one of the honey-crisp apples innocently hanging from a branch. At least you wouldnât go hungry while waiting. You glared down at the apple, its skin gleaming slightly with the golden sunlight that winked at you from the West. This is all your fault, you thought unhappily. You huffed and bit into the apple, the juicy sweetness of its flesh flooding your mouth and dribbling down your chin. You hoped those kids were enjoying their basket of apples.Â
Actually, it tasted rather good. Crisp and honeyedâfitting for its name. You reached up to grab another apple and stuffed it into the pocket of your jacket. Might as well take one home. At least youâd gain something out of this venture.Â
A movement caught your eye. You looked up from the apple in your hand and immediately spotted someone making their way down the path youâd been on not so long ago. It was a kid, from what you could see, holding a ball in her hand that she bounced occasionally. Your heart seemed to soar in hope. You swallowed the bite of the apple down so quickly that you nearly choked and raspily called out to her as loudly as you could. âHey! Kid with the ball!â Your voice almost seemed to echo across the little field.Â
She paused and looked around curiously. You tried again. âOver here! By the trees!â
Once sheâd turned in your general direction, you waved your hands andâafter realizing she wasnât looking upâshook the nearest branch to you so that the leaves would flutter around with a rustle. It worked. She slowly approached, clutching onto her ball, until she was standing at the base of the apple tree and looking right up at you. â...Whatcha doinâ up there, stranger?âÂ
âI got stuck,â you confessed to her, the hand not holding onto your half-eaten apple gripping tightly onto the branch you were sitting on. You dared to feel just the brief twinges of relief. âListen to me. Can you go get help? Any help, really. The fire department, a hero, a construction man with a ladder. I canât get down and Iâve been up here for hours.âÂ
The kid cocked her head at you and blinked, her weight shifting onto one leg like she was waiting impatiently at a bus stop. âAnd whatâs in it for me if I do?âÂ
What theâ Were all kids like this? You tried not to let exasperation bleed into your voice. âDonât you wanna be a hero or something? Please help me.â You were not above begging.Â
âI wanna be a doctor,â she told you smartly instead. Good, great. Could she hurry up and go already? You were starting to lose feeling in your legs.Â
Your teeth gritted together, but you let the frustration building up inside you fade away. She was just a kid; she didnât truly know about your circumstances, though youâd practically spilled everything to her just a second ago. You licked at your lips and heaved a sigh. âDoctors are heroes too, you know,â you told her. She only looked expectantly up at you and you grumbled a little before reaching out to pick another apple. âOkay, fine. Catch.âÂ
You dropped the apple down. She caught it in a small hand and looked closely at it for what felt like a long time. She held up a finger. âOne more.âÂ
This kid was really testing your patience. You rolled your eyes and grabbed another apple to drop down. She caught it again, and after a small nod to herself, started walking away. âBe back soon.âÂ
Oh thank god. You felt like crying from sheer relief. You watched her disappear down the path and slumped forward, bringing your apple up to your mouth so you could take another bite. And now to wait some more. You tried swinging your legs around a bit to regain some feeling back in them. Hopefully she wouldnât leave you out to dry. You grumbled to yourself as you finished off your apple and chucked the core as far as you could out into the fieldâan oddly satisfying action. Itâll decompose eventually.Â
You didn't know how much time passed as you waited for the kid to bring help. It was all a blur, honestly, broken up occasionally by you checking the watch on your wrist and not really processing the time on it. But eventually, as you found yourself boredly counting the number of fully green leaves on a branch to your left, you heard someone call up to you in a gruff voice.Â
âHey! You the dumbass who got stuck in a tree?â Â
You looked down and made eye contact with what appeared to be a pro-hero. He had ruffled ash-blond hair that stuck up around the black mask over his eyes. Arms crossed over his chest as he glared up at you with glinting carmine eyes that reminded you of the apples surrounding you. A quick glance to the parkâs path showed the kid with her ball, waving a hand at you before she disappeared out of your line of sight.Â
Aw hell, you thought as you recognized the heroâs costume of orange, black, and green. Sheâd brought fucking Dynamightâa hero known for his short temper. What were the chances of something like that happening? He mustâve been on patrol in the area.Â
â...What's it to ya?â you grumbled down at him, wishing you could conflagrate on the spot to avoid this embarrassing encounter. Just suck it up, you told yourself. You needed to get home, and the only way you were going to do that was by letting this hero get you down. Man, youâd really hit an all new low, hadnât you?
âRight.â He scowled up at you and you wondered why he looked so angry. Maybe that was his default face. âIâll jusâ leave, then, since ya donât need my helpââÂ
âWait no! Nonono!â you called out only just a little bit desperately as he made a move as though to turn around. âIâve been stuck here for hours, man! If I donât get down I think I might die.âÂ
Dynamight rolled his eyes and uncrossed his thick arms as he looked back up at you critically. âYeah, yeah. Gimme a secâ.âÂ
You watched as he seemed to grumble to himself for a moment, then positioned his arms with his palms pointing towards the ground and tensed his legs. You blinked at him. Was he going toâ
âBOOOOMâ
You yelped and nearly toppled right off your branch at the sudden explosion that erupted below you like a miniature volcano. Dynamight shot up into the air, a plume of smoke in his wake, and grabbed onto a branch that could support his weight. Then he set off another smaller explosion to propel himself up further, jumping from branch to branch until he finally landed next to you. Or rather, behind you, with the way you were sitting on your own branch.Â
You twisted your head back to look at him. He hardly seemed out of breath, and you were a bit impressed at his parkour skills. âUh. Hi.âÂ
âShut it,â he groused. Without even a warning, he grabbed you around your torso. You yelped as he tucked you close to his bodyâthe warmth that radiated from him that was a comfort in the chilly Autumn air, not that youâd admit that out loudâand promptly leapt off the branch. You had to swallow down a scream, your hands holding onto the singular arm wrapped tightly around your body for dear life as he used his other one to set off an explosion to offset his fall.Â
You both landed on the ground with a gentle thump and he immediately let go of you so you could stumble forward. Sweet Earth, how Iâve missed you so. Your heart raced in your chestâfrom the jump or from his unrelenting grip, you would never knowâyour hands moving to brush your windswept hair away from your face. What the hell, he really didnât hesitate. Couldâve grabbed you a bit gentler, though, you frowned as you rubbed your chest. You were probably going to bruise later.
You turned around to face him, fixing your rumpled clothes in the meanwhile. He was much taller than you now that you were both on the ground, all muscle and attitude as he glared at you like youâd just spat in his dinner. You paused. â...I was gonna say thanks, but you look like you wanna kill me.âÂ
âDonât get stuck in a fuckinâ tree, then,â he snapped. You recoiled slightly at his words, then frowned up at him in offense.Â
âExcuse me?â You placed your hands on your hips, incredulous with his behavior. âLike I had wanted to get stuck up there in the first place! For hours, might I add!âÂ
His jaw tensed like he was going to retort, but he scoffed instead and turned around to start storming over to the bricked path. âWhatever.â You gaped at his back and jogged after him. He was going in the same direction as you anyways, might as well figure out why he was being such a dick. Werenât heroes supposed to be, you know, nice?
Though, you supposed you were dealing with Dynamight, after all. Youâre not sure if he had a single nice bone in his body.Â
âNo! Not âWhateverâ,â you mimicked his gruff voice as best as you could once youâd caught up to him and kept pace with his long strides. The thick soles of his boots stomped against the ground with each of his steps. He shot you an annoyed look out of the corner of his eyes, but didnât say anything. âWho pissed in your bed? Huh?âÂ
You could practically hear his teeth gritting together before he responded. âNunya business.â
Maybe it wasnât, but it really didnât excuse him treating you like this. âNo, tell me why youâre being such an asshole right now. Arenât heroes supposed to be not-assholes?âÂ
He turned his head to give you a withering glare with carmine eyes that appeared nearly aflame in the sunâs golden light. It almost made you regret pressing in the first place, but you had at least some self-respect, and you werenât going to let this guy walk all over you like this.Â
ââM a fuckinâ hero, yeah,â he eventually hissed. âSupposed to be fightinâ villains ând not dealing with dumbass extras whoâve gotten stuck in trees.âÂ
You huffed at his response. Okay, maybeâjust maybeâyou could see why he was so aggravated. Didnât let him off the hook, though. âOkay, first of all, ouch. Second of all, youâre a hero because youâre supposed to help people.â He opened his mouth to snap back at you, but you were too quick and cut across him. âWhatever. Look. Iâm sorry you didnât expect to be spending your afternoon helping me out of a tree. I didnât expect to spend it stuck up there either. I appreciate the help, for what itâs worth. You saved me from a very uncomfortable night.â Even if he was being the biggest dickhead on the planet right now. Maybe he had a rough day, who knew. You decided to be the bigger person about this whole⊠situation.
Dynamight stared at you for what felt like a long, long time. It made you realize that youâd both stopped by one of the entrances of the park, just outside of it along the desolate sidewalk. You shoved your hands in your jacket pockets as you waited for him to say somethingâanything, reallyâand almost startled when you felt the cool skin of the honey-crisp apple youâd picked come into contact with your fingers. You wrapped them around it.Â
Eventually, he closed his eyes and let out a deep, deep sigh. Tension that you hadnât realized was present along his shoulders seemed to melt away as they slumped slightly down. He sniffed and jutted his head out to the side slightly, sunlight painting smooth planes across his face and turning his hair into a pale blond in a way that was honestly pretty gorgeous. Youâd take that admission to your grave.Â
â...Yeah.â And then he added a mumbled âSorryâ under his breath that you figured was the best you were going to get at the moment. He didnât seem like someone who apologized often, from what you knew about him. âRough day.âÂ
âI figured,â you said lightly. Then, you brought your hand out of your jacket and grabbed his own gloved one to place the apple you had within his palm. You patted it gently. âHere. As a thank you.â Then, after just a quick moment of hesitation, you added, âHope all goes well for you.âÂ
And with a small nod at him, you turned around and started to make your way back home, hands in your pockets and an eagerness to your steps at the prospect of getting to rest after what felt like a very long day.Â
Dynamight stood there, at the entrance of the park, and looked down at the small apple within his hand after he stared at your retreating back for a few moments. His lips twitched for a slight second and he turned to head down the street in the opposite direction as you, his hand bringing the apple up to his mouth so he could bite into it with a crisp, sweet crunch.
409 notes
·
View notes
Let's Talk About Jacks's Apples
...and especially their COLORS. I wanted to figure out what they could mean, so I made a spreadsheet!
First, DISCLAIMERS:
MAJOR spoilers for OUABH and TBONA + the Caraval series!
This post was written BEFORE ACFTL and does not contain information or spoilers from it.
This post is based on my interpretations and observations, all of them may not be perfectly accurate. The conclusions I make are my theories, not necessarily canon information.
When I reference page numbers, they're from my OUABH UK paperback and TBONA UK hardcover - it's possible they're a bit off for you if you have different editions of the books.
This is a long post, so grab a snack and get comfortable!
I hope you enjoy reading! đ
Table Of Contents
Introduction
Why Apples?
A Detailed Look Into The Apples (= explaining everything I say I'll explain later)
The Colors
Where Do The Apples Come From
Conclusions/TL;DR
This is a long post, so here you can see what's coming and skip over to what interests you most :)
Introduction
Throughout the OUABH series, there are 14 scenes in total where Jacks is holding an apple in his hand (sometimes eating them, sometimes not) while Evangeline is there to witness it. All of those apples are unnaturally colored. To look for connections between them, I made a spreadsheet:
For sake of clarity, I will be discussing 13 total apples instead of 14 - I believe the "undescribed" apple (its color is not explicitly stated in the scene) is the same as White Apple #5, but it appears in two separate scenes, so both are included here. I will get into this later.
The spreadsheet contains various details about the apples, such as what Jacks does while holding them, when he picks them up (or if he's already holding them when they're described), what happens to them (dropped somewhere etc.), how he feels during the scene, etc. I will discuss these later in this post.
Then I realized he also has some apples in Legendary and Finale, so I made another list of the ones he has while Tella is present:
Here's a summary of all the apples:
That would make 20 apples in total, half of them being white.
Now let's go over some relevant context! Then I will get to analyzing what these colors mean and what kind of connections I found between the apples, I promise.
Why Apples?
Before we do a deep dive into the details, let's go over the basics on why Jacks keeps eating the apples. The most popular theory (if it can even be called a theory, it's basically canon) is based on what LaLa tells Evangeline in OUABH:
"When we [Fates] feel, it's intense and consuming. It devours us and drives us. And the strongest of our feelings is always the urge to be that which we were made to be."
âOUABH page 270
She proceeds to explain that when she sews wedding dresses, it helps her with that urge, and to say that for Jacks it's similar â he has the desire to find his true love, and supposedly that's the one person his kiss doesn't kill. So, according to LaLa's logic, the apples help him with that. It makes a lot of sense, and everything he physically does with the apples makes more sense in light of it.
When Jacks is first introduced to the Caraval series, he is described eating an apple. While I believe the theory above is true, it was also interesting to notice that he seems to already be holding the apple when he meets Tella practically by chance. In fact, there are only four times he ever picks up an apple during a scene, and they are all during the OUABH series. I will get more into it later.
In OUABH, Jacks is described to have countless apples and apple cores in his rooms and offices, so we don't know how many he eats and why when Evangeline isn't around him. However, I found that he almost never touches Evangeline while holding an apple. (With sort of the exception of the silver apple, where he touches his dagger to her lips, and the blue apple, which he was holding before stopping Evangeline from taking the luck stone back from Chaos.)
Now, this could just be for practical reasons, but he touches Evangeline in about 21 of the 25 (I focused on the apples so this may not be the exact count) scenes where he doesn't have an apple and only in 6 of the 14 scenes where he has an apple, and in 2 of them the touch is barely there or brief and initiated by Evangeline.
An interesting comparison is how he does touch Tella while holding an apple (like Blue Apple #1 and White Caraval Apple #2), so it definitely isn't purely about logistics. Maybe it's related to him thinking she's his true love, that's the greatest difference I can think of. It is also noteworthy that he doesn't eat any apples while in the Hollow, which Evangeline also notices (TBONA 284).
With the theory above in mind, the way Jacks touches his apples is pretty straightforward:
He tosses them when he's in a good mood or needs to distract himself
Him biting them is practically his version of self-control
He drops them when things aren't so fun anymore or there's a clear mood shift (I will discuss this a bit more later).
He stabs two apples in total: the Silver Apple and White OUABH Apple #4. the first time he tells Evangeline how Apollo would be eternally heartbroken if she called off the engagement, the second time he tells Evangeline that the Archer ends up killing the Fox. And what unites these? Great heartbreak.
A Detailed Look Into The Apples
Or in other words, let's get into everything I said I would discuss later. After this, we'll look more into the apple colors.
The Undescribed Apple
I believe that White Apple #5, the apple Jacks holds in his hand before he and Evangeline leave to LaLa's engagement party, is the same as the apple that he picks up in the next scene, in the carriage as they travel - its color is not described, but the narration leads to the assumption that this apple is already familiar to the reader:
"Jacks leaned back in his seat and picked up his apple"
âTBONA page 184
13 is also a more meaningful number than 14 (and the total count of all apples would be 20 instead of 21), so even though the total number might be purely coincidental, it also could be a fun intentional detail.
Caraval vs. OUABH
There are some very interesting parallels between apples in Legendary/Finale and apples in OUABH/TBONA.
First, we have the blue apple (in Legendary) that Jacks ends up dropping into a fireplace (see chart below). The only other apple that he specifically drops into fire is the very last white apple in TBONA. Before he drops the blue apple, Tella says that nothing could make her fall in love with him. Before he drops the white apple, Evangeline suggests that maybe Jacks could find another true love.
Second, every apple is either last seen still in his hand or dropped on the floor/ground (or fire), except for two: the sparkling white one in Finale (in Tella's dream again) and the pink one in OUABH, which he tosses to Tella and Evangeline. He directly encourages Tella to taste the white apple, and he tells Evangeline that she might need a snack. In terms of color, the sparkling white apple is especially interesting â I will look into the sparkling later along with the colors.
"Jacks picked up his apple"
The main difference between the Caraval and OUABH apples - and the one thing that keeps messing up my theories - is that during the Caraval series, Jacks never picks up an apple during a scene, he is always already holding one when the scene begins (see chart above). However, during OUABH and TBONA, he picks up four apples in total. And they are all white.
White Apple #1: Meeting Evangeline for the first time
White Apple #3: Evangeline says she'd stab Jacks if she got the chance to
White Apple #5: Evangeline forbids Jacks from killing people at LaLa's party
White Apple #7: Jacks lets go of Evangeline and shuts off from her, he's about to tell her the truth about planning to go back in time
All of them are different in terms of why exactly he picks up the apple, but there is more or less a shift in tone/topic of their conversation during all of these scenes.
The Colors
White Apples
I think that white apples are the "default" color, and/or they represent focusing on what's important.
They make up half of the apples Jacks has, and all of the apples he spontaneously picks up are white. So, if something like his emotions or circumstances affect the apple colors (which I think is at least somewhat the case), it makes sense for white to be the basic color â and what would be a better "default" apple than the one who reminds him not to get distracted.
Even though the apple he tosses to Tella is sparkling white, I don't think the color represents her because he was holding a white apple before he met Tella. He couldn't have been thinking of her, but he most likely had plans that he was thinking over as he was hoping to take the throne from Elantine.
Black Apples
I originally thought the black color could mean bad intentions or regret, but I'm now quite sure it represents doing whatever it takes to get what he wants. The context surrounding the black apples highlights this:
Black Apple #1: Jacks offers his help in exchange for controlling Tella's emotions. He wants to find true love more than anything, and this is his last attempt to make Tella fall for him.
Black Apple #2: He's controlling Apollo in order to make him propose to Evangeline. He needs it, again, in order to reach his goal â only this time he's planning to go back in time. Still to find true love, though.
Black Apple #3: This one stands out a bit from the other two. Jacks brings Evangeline to Chaos' castle so she can be healed after Apollo shot her. Here the black apple might symbolize doing anything to keep Evangeline alive (he also needs her alive, so that checks out, but at this point I don't think it's just that), and possibly his reluctance to either ask Chaos for help or put Evangeline through being infected with vampire venom.
Blue Apples
Blue apples seem to represent happiness and success, because we tend to see them after something went just like Jacks wanted. This could also be connected to his eye color.
Blue Apple #1: It's the first apple we see after Tella didn't die of his kiss, and he's obviously more than happy about that.
Blue Apple #2. He got into Tella's dream, for the second time, and he had successfully tricked her into the "marriage thing" before.
Blue Apple #3. He is holding this one right after Evangeline agreed to open the Valory Arch, while the apple he held in the previous scene (only five pages earlier) was white.
The Golden Apple
The apples that there are just one of are the trickiest because there's less context to go by, but I think the golden apple represents Tella. It's the first one we see in his hand after the events of Finale, and Tella's hair color is close enough to it. She is also a princess now, which the color gold could also represent.
It's worth mentioning that it could also be tied to failure, heartbreak, or Jacks's own hair color (as it is often described as golden). He also lives in the North now, known as Lord Jacks, and he's "friends" (?) with Apollo, a prince, so it could be related to that as well.
The Silver Apple
I think the silver apple is like a "milder" version of the blue apple, in which case the apple representing happiness would definitely be intentionally the same color as his eyes: The Caraval Wiki describes his eye color as "silver-blue".
When Jacks has the silver apple, Evangeline has got married to Apollo just like he wanted, but everything isn't perfect yet. He's quite content, but it isn't quite as big satisfaction as when he has a blue apple. However, because Evangeline asked him to meet, the apple's color could also represent for example curiosity.
The Pink Apple
Because of Evangeline's hair color, the pink apple seems to intuitively represent her. Not only that, he's just spent the night holding her before he appears with the pink apple in hand, so it just makes a lot of sense to me. This is also the apple he tossed to her.
The Purple Apple
I've had the most trouble with the purple apple. It being the apple he holds after talking with Scarlett and the scene leading to Tella's discovery that his heart beats, and the only purple apple during any book and scene, I don't even know where to start.
While basic color symbolism is connected to the apple colors loosely at most, purple as a symbol for royalty, nobility, and power could make sense if he wanted to emphasize those qualities while talking to Scarlett. Purple is also associated with mystery, and with us and Tella not finding out immediately why he met with Scarlett, it could also be a storytelling element.
Bonus: Sparkling/shimmering Apples
There are some apples that deserve a special mention, and that's the ones that are described as sparkling or shimmering.
White Caraval Apple #3, "sparkling white": This is the apple that Jacks gives to Tella (in her dream), urging her to taste it.
Black Apple #3, "shimmering black": And this apple is in TBONA, when Jacks brings Evangeline to Chaos' castle to be healed.
The only similarity between them that I've found so far is that they both stand out from the other white and blue apples: the sparkling white apple is the only white apple that Jacks gives to someone else, and the shimmering black apple is the third one that stands out to me (see "Black Apples" above).
Where Do The Apples Come From
A very good and for now unanswered question is where Jacks gets the apples from. Does he pick them from a tree? What tree? What color are they, do they start off as natural apples or maybe white? What makes an apple something other than their default color? For these questions, I don't have solid theories yet, only speculation.
We're all obsessed with how intensely Fates feel when they do feel something (*cough* the end of TBONA *cough*), but I also think that it could have something to do with the apples, at least some of them. When Jacks feels something or spends a lot of time thinking of something, maybe it could somehow affect the apples' colors? Some of the apples seem to be connected to his emotions, such as the blue ones. No apples are seen changing colors and some apples seem to not have a direct connection to his emotions, though, so there is little evidence to support this.
Conclusions
To summarize everything I went over above,
There are 20 apples in total that Jacks is seen holding throughout every scene he is in, seven of them during the Caraval series and 13 during OUABH and TBONA.
What Jacks does with his apples (tossing, biting, picking up, dropping) is connected to his emotions.
The apples have different colors that I believe represent different things: white (10 of 20, focusing on what's important), black (3 of 20, doing whatever it takes), blue (3 of 20, happiness), gold (1 of 20, possibly Tella? multiple possibilities), silver (1 of 20, possibly happiness mixed with something else), pink (1 of 20, Evangeline?), and purple (1 of 20, power? nobility? mystery?).
The origin of the apples is for now unknown, as is the reason for each color (both the colors' meanings and how they take on the different colors).
With all that said, there is quite much room for interpretation, especially in terms of the apple colors. My theories aren't the only correct ones, and I do not wish to present them that way. As I stated in the beginning, I might have overlooked details or noted some down inaccurately. The purpose of this post was to share my findings and to have fun theorizing!
Let's hope that we get some actual answers for these in ACFTL and that the books treat us kindly <3 Please do not give me any spoilers, not on the topic of apples or anything else, I'm actively trying to avoid them!
If you read this far, THANK YOU SO MUCH!! I poured my heart into this research and this analysis, and I'm so happy if at least one person besides myself enjoys looking at my little findings. <3 Here, have an apple as a reward: đ
266 notes
·
View notes