#now with more red thread of fate symbolism

[youryurigoddess]

The stuff dreams are made of, or the interesting case of Anthony J. Crowley

We’ve talked a bit about Crowley’s trauma and his way of reclaiming the narrative in the past, but it’s time for some deep dive into the story he’s trying to tell. A story that meanders through the fabric of time and space, slightly changing with the human fashion trends, but slowly and surely bringing the demon closer to a certain angel like the red thread of fate.

1793

Some stories start in a garden, some even Before the Beginning, but this one starts with an Arrangement. Or, to be precise, a little bit after that.

See, most of the iterations of Crowley we saw throughout the history until then didn’t delve too deep into human cultural tropes. If anything, they were the inspirations behind more or less prominent biblical figures, maybe some nameless villains matching his demonic provenance and role assigned to him by his employers.

But in the hustle and bustle of the revolutionary Paris, Crowley emerges as a prototype of the Scarlet Pimpernel — a chivalrous Englishman who rescues aristocrats before they are sent to the guillotine. Stan Lee famously called him “the first character who could be called a superhero”.

Sir Percy Blakeney, the main character of the novel and the West End play under the same title, leads a double life. Appearing as nothing more than a wealthy fop, in reality he’s a formidable swordsman, a quick-thinking master of disguise and an escape artist. Even his own wife, Marguerite, has no idea.

Unfortunately Marguerite is being blackmailed with her brother’s life to find and expose the wanted Pimpernel. She regrets betraying her husband the moment she's forced to do it and spends the rest of the plot working to save him. She does, they make up, and return together to England.

In Aziraphale and Crowley’s case there was just a short stop for crêpes. But what seems to be an inspiration of a specific scene might as well come up later in the wider perspective of the show, so keep in mind those fragments of the musical’s libretto:

We all are caught in the middle

of one long treacherous riddle.

Can I trust you?

Should you trust me too?...

We shamble on through this hell

taking on more secrets to sell

'til there comes a day

when we sell our souls away.

We seek him here, we seek him there,

Those Frenchies seek him everywhere!

Is he in heaven? Is he in hell?

Where is that damn elusive Pimpernel!

1941

The London Blitz is when we see a full-fledged iteration of the superhero Crowley performing dashing and heroic deeds under the literal cover of darkness and air bomb smoke. In a bespoke double-breasted suit and a fedora — still free from the unfortunate modern connotations from the internet culture — he’s clearly channeling Humphrey Bogart as a private investigator Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon (1941) now.

It all starts with a woman and a simple plan gone wrong: Spade’s partner is shot dead, just like the man he was supposed to be tailing upon the request of a mysterious Miss Wonderly. And when a very soft-looking, sweet-scented man named Joel Cairo appears in his office willing to pay a hefty price for a "black figure of a bird", Spade starts not only a new job, but also his own quest for truth.

On the surface, The Maltese Falcon ends happily: the killer gets caught, and the hero winds up with the Falcon. But Spade's victory is completely hollow. The Falcon itself, originally meant as a symbol of loyalty, transforms into a symbol of a corrupting, futile, and self-destructive greed that makes people betray their own loyalties.

The treasure is just a worthless forgery and he’s fallen in love with the criminal — one of the first femmes fatales on screen. Despite his feelings for her and a kiss, Spade gives her up and submits the statuette as evidence, describing it as "the stuff that dreams are made of".

Remember the eagle lectern? The eagle was believed to be flying highest in the sky and therefore closest to heaven, symbolizing the carrying of the word of God to the four corners of the world. Aziraphale in the 1941 church scene is the closest to Heaven we’ve seen him on Earth. Just look at him: dressed in a smart, well-fitted coat with peaked lapels, symbolizing his Heavenly allegiance, and doing good this time not as a work assignment, but of his own accord. Being the closest to Heaven means the furthest and most unattainable for a demon like Crowley.

The Maltese Falcon is a metaphor for unattainability — things out of reach to desire and fight for, although never truly possess. It’s “the stuff that dreams are made of”. But Crowley secured the original — made of gold and encrusted with jewels, but hiding its real value under black enamel — eerily reminiscent of the demon himself and the unending kindness behind his inappropriately tight black clothing.

Quoting Michael Ralph — the production mastermind behind Good Omens — from the S01E04 “Saturday Morning Funtime” DVD commentary, “We wanted to tip our hat to the Maltese Falcon as being a precious object that no-one thought really exists but it does”. So we can safely assume that Crowley can and will achieve his dream in the future.

1967

Do you know what else happens in 1941 in Scotland? Ian Fleming, a British naval intelligence agent, meets with the famous occultist Aleister Crowley and asks him to lead the interrogation of newly imprisoned Rudolf Hess — a leading member of the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany appointed Deputy Führer — given the two men’s shared enthusiasm for the occult.

This meeting has a significant impact on Fleming’s work as a writer; Aleister Crowley becomes the inspiration for his first villain Le Chiffre and creates a blueprint for most of the James Bond’s franchise ever since 1953, the publication date of the novel Casino Royale.

Meanwhile our Anthony J. Crowley believes in himself not being the villain he’s usually and sometimes forcefully painted as, but a superhero in disguise. The character of James Bond in particular inspires him so much that he buys petrol to get the limited You Only Live Twice (1967) window decals for his Bentley, dons his own tactical turtleneck, and sets off to organize a heist like no other. Sean Connery style.

Like a typical superhero, Crowley’s once again both saved and betrayed by his love interest. Aziraphale leaves him with a thermos of Holy Water, a faint smile, and a hope that they’ll soon match their speeds to meet halfway at the Ritz. The cancelled heist is not an ending, but a promise of a new beginning. And the fact that UK decriminalizes homosexual acts in the very same year is more than telling in this regard.

2019

An exceptional situation calls for exceptional solutions, and what’s more important than the impending Apocalypse? Demon Crowley does his best to put the arsenal of his 20th century film inspirations to good use.

"Ask yourself, do you feel lucky?" Crowley drawls, clearly imitating (although slightly misquoting) the titular Dirty Harry (1971). He’s hoping to be menacing and making the point of being the one on the right side of the law and history.

Some situations require more than quoting action heroes is not everything though. He knows what to do:

A jeep was heading purposefully towards the gate, and it looked as though it was crowded with people who were about to shout questions and fire guns and not worry about which order they did this in.

[Crowley] brightened up. This was more what you might call his area of competence.

He took his hands out of his pockets and he raised them like Bruce Lee and then he smiled like Lee Van Cleef.

'Ah,' he said, 'here comes transport.'

When in doubt, Crowley acts. He transforms into a combination of a stoic martial arts phenomenon and a sardonic, menacing character. His smile alone — even on Aziraphale’s angelic face, as seen in one of the final cut scenes — seems to be enough to ward off evil spirits, angels, and humans alike.

But we all know that even as breathtaking performances as those can’t protect anyone from the cogs of the Heavenly machine and its plans.

2023

No wonder that Crowley’s tactical turtleneck comes back in style after mere four years of retirement with a self-introduction “Former Demon, hated by Heaven, loathed by Hell. How will our hero cope?”. Something has changed during this time; he’s more mature now, not playing pretend by hiding behind the usual veneer of sarcasm and movie quotes anymore. Finally comfortable with the fact that this is his own story and there’s no need to become anyone else than himself.

The bookshop fire and the Heavenly trial still seem to haunt the demon in a way that makes him realize what all humans know: that every hero is his own biggest enemy. His ultimate dream might effortlessly change into his greatest nightmare any moment now, and the only thing he can do about it is hover in a two-minute distance from the epicenter of his feelings. But Crowley has no time to work on it when a new mission appears, to protect his angel from Gabriel and the combined powers of Heaven and Hell. Even if this — rather ostentatiously — is the last thing he wants to think about at the moment.

Crowley tries to plan ahead, while his story slowly warps into a different genre due to Aziraphale’s interruptions. He eventually changes back into his usual Henley shirt after agreeing to swap places and guarding the bookshop while the angel is off to Edinburgh, collecting more clues. Did he finish his personal quest off-screen? Did he just give up on it in the whirlwind of matchmaking shenanigans? Remains to be seen.

In the S2 finale our master of disguise in yet another turtleneck proves that he can successfully infiltrate even the universe’s back office. We don’t know where he drives off in the end, but one thing is certain — he’s got a plan. And a world (and his dream) to save, like a superhero he is.

#a turtleneck kind of day #crowley is a superhero #and a master spy #with a plan #good omens #good omens 2 #good omens meta #go2 meta #ineffable husbands #crowley #turtleneck crowley #yuri is doing her thing

[i-did-not-mean-to]

Fëanorian Week - Caranthir

So...erm...yeah, I don't even know what to say about this one...

Words: 510

Characters: Caranthir & Celegorm, Caranthir x Haleth

Prompts: Childhood, Spouse, Betrayal, Dwarves & Humans, Marriage, Appearance

Warnings: Oh insecurity, sadness, longing, loss...

Anger—diffuse and dull now—billowed through Caranthir’s soul like a pinkish mist.

At times, it felt as if all the other emotions which he’d once been able to feel had been displaced by that singular fire which kept his heart beating by sheer, brute force.

His fingers tightened around worn, threadbare fabric, and he scowled ferociously.

He’d tried to throw away the ghastly ragdoll countless times—it barely resembled anything at all, let alone the cat it had meant to represent upon its creation, and he hated how attached he was to the accursed thing.

For as long as he could remember, Tyelko had disliked him.

Of course, little ill-tempered, red-faced Morifinwë had not been worthy of the incandescent wrath or the formidable hatred of so tempestuous a soul—no, he’d grown up in the bitingly cold shadow of his older brother’s disdain.

Thus, the nameless lump of fabric—made of scraps from one of their father’s old mantles—had been the only gift Caranthir had ever received from Celegorm.

All the stitches were crooked, and the knobbly filling of discarded thread and whisps of clothes his brothers had outgrown had long since fallen out on account of the shoddy handiwork.

Irascible and impatient by nature, Caranthir had decided to take it apart and make it anew at least as often as he’d considered throwing it into the flames, but, ultimately, he never had.

“It’s red, like you,” his sibling had crooned upon thundering into his room in a flurry of dead leaves and mud. “It can be your friend.”

Caranthir, who had gained respect but never love over the years, would have been mortified that he still yearned for friendship so desperately; alas, shame had been burned out of his being along with hope on the battlefield.

Innumerable were his allies; he was feared and esteemed in equal measures by his own kind as well as his trade partners, but none of these brave souls had ever held any real affection for him.

Except…

Despite the betrayals he’d perpetrated and endured, and which had hardened him into something as unrecognisable as the mangled toy he clasped against his aching chest, Haleth had smiled at him as if he wasn’t unlovely and bitter.

She’d been wrong, but that didn’t diminish the sense of wonder and awe that flooded Caranthir’s petrified heart whenever his thoughts but grazed the image of her boundless, reckless joy, etched indelibly onto the last remaining soft spot of his soul.

Wordlessly, he laid down his childhood comfort, a symbol of untarnished love that could never be unmade or marred by dark deeds and terrible times, on the wet earth under which rested the brittle bones of one he had cherished more than he’d ever confessed.

“I give to thee, Haleth of the Haladin, queen amongst mortals, the jealously guarded and honestly dismal craft of Turcafinwë Tyelkormo…along with the wretched soul of one you might have saved had your fate been a different one.”

Desolate and utterly alone, he turned and limped away, blind with tears.

-> Masterlist

@feanorianweek, here is my first submission!

#og post #fëanorianweek #feanorianweek #IDNMT writes #fanfiction #writing #tolkien writing #jrrt #Caranthir #Day 4 #Childhood #Spouse #Dwarves&Humans #Betrayal #Sadness #Loss #Death of a love #Appearance

[wizardsaur]

The Tower Spell

For use when you need to catalyze the downfall of something destined to collapse. Like causing a ripple effect in a toxic job, or leaving an abusive relationship. This spell is designed to create a fast-acting domino effect that will inevitably be painful for those around it. However, I will argue that this spell is necessary - albeit difficult to cope with the aftermath.

Disclaimer: only cast this spell for yourself, and in dire circumstances. This is a final straw spell. I lost everything after this spell, but it was such a needed destruction of an old life.

Supplies

A crossroads key to represent opportunity, choice and consequence. I literally found mine at a crossroad, so if you only have a key, maybe take it to a crossroad and ask the energy of the place to charge it.

Red string to represent fate and Destiny.

The Tower Card from a tarot deck of your choice

A taglock for your situation or person

A candle in a color you feel represents speed - I used red

Herbs & other correspondences you feel appropriate. Phoenix symbolism might help in the rebuild process

And a -very- good backup plan because shit hits the fan FAST! If you are casting this spell for yourself, I'm going to warn you right now, I lost everything leaving an abusive relationship because of this spell. But I'm much happier now for it.

Thread your key on a length of red string long enough to put over your head, and tie it off

Encircle the card in the center of the loop you've made, making sure the key is INSIDE the circle.

Set your taglock atop your card, being sure to express the reasons you wish to catalyze the collapse. The Universe needs you to let out your desperation, because this spell is an act of sheer desperate measure.

Add any other spell components such as cinnamon for speed and intensity, but also for protection of yourself. Or bay leaf for manifestation. Or obsidian for the destructive power of fire. Up to you, just make sure to keep it symbolic.

Set your candle inside the circle, light it, and repeat your reasons for the spell. Express your need to the flame, and your desires to start anew.

Burn your taglock, or at least scorch it if you can. Blow out the candle like it's your birthday, finalizing your wish.

Wear the key on the string around your neck. Do not take it off until the collapse happens & you're in a safe place. It's meant to guide you through the chaos & ruin.

Buckle up, the next few days will be the hardest you could possibly imagine. But so very necessary, and more worthwhile than you'll ever realise. If things are destined to fall apart, you'll live through a war zone. Understand that you're not alone, and that you'll get through this.

IF you feel the need to cast this spell, I'm so sorry things got as desperate as they had, but you'll be able to create something beautiful and blessed in the wake of this destruction. Trust me, because I've been there & done this too. You're gonna be okay.

#witchcraft #witch #magick #magic #witchy #pagan #spell #witchblr #tw abusive relationship #tarot spell #tarot card #crossroads #extreme spells #powerful spells #paganism #intermediate spellwork #spellwork #book of shadows

[becauseimanicequeen]

RANDOM THOUGHTS: Big Dragon ep. 6 (rewatch)

(These are my random thoughts from my rewatch on the 29th-30th of March 2024)

Since my rewatches may contain spoilers, I’m putting my random thoughts after the “Read More” link.

After that ending in the previous episode, I’m expecting more tension between Yai and Mangkorn in this one.

Mangkorn’s mom is right. In most cases, going abroad for a few years is like running away from the problem.

The fact that Mangkorn’s username has 69 in it…

The disappointment on Nine’s face when Yai said he’s tired of love…

On the one hand, it’s understandable that Mangkorn is hurt by seeing that kiss. I feel for him, considering everything he’s dealing with. On the other hand, it’s not like Yai and Mangkorn were a couple. They only happened to have had sex twice. They were more fwb-ish than boyfriends. So, to be honest, there were no official strings attached even though there were feelings involved.

And here comes the backstory I vaguely remembered. The fact that Yai is wearing green and Mangkorn is wearing red even as kids… Well done.

And, just like I remembered, Yai dropped a necklace or bracelet or whatever it was. (The fact that the necklace/bracelet is red is something I could go into a whole rabbit hole about due to it being Mangkorn’s color and symbolizing the red thread of fate, etc., but that would be better suited for a separate post.)

So, Mangkorn has known this whole time that Yai was that boy from the past considering he’s holding that necklace/bracelet and thinking about Yai?

When Yai told Nine not to kiss him again because he sees Nine as a brother, I hesitated for a moment and then reminded myself that this isn’t Unknown…

I’m sorry, but salty Yai is my favorite taste. That toilet comment made me cackle.

The way Mangkorn is standing there all vulnerable… He’s finally communicating rather than beating around the bush. I’m so proud of him.

Yai is doing everything he can to push Mangkorn away, though. The way he’s stonewalling Mangkorn…

And now Yai knows Mangkorn was that boy from the past after getting that necklace/bracelet back.

Oh, fuck, when Mangkorn’s mother told Yai to think of her as another mother of his, I teared up thinking of what he just said by his own mother’s grave.

Omg, the emotions… I’m bawling. Stop doing this to me. (Please keep doing this to me!)

Side note: I’ve lost a lot of loved ones throughout my relatively short life (I’m only 34), most recently my dad 20 months ago. So every time I see a character missing their loved ones who are gone, I can’t help but get emotional.

I can’t believe neither Mangkorn nor Hong have ever thought about talking to their fathers before now. What if it could be solved that easily? All this drama had been for nothing.

I can’t believe Pong and Park had the most normal reaction to all of those who witnessed that kiss. Lmfao! They’re the comedic duo, but they were so chill there.

Another great episode. A lot more emotional than the previous ones for me, and I loved it. Hopefully, they can clear things up for real this time by actually communicating. Also, I’m still eagerly awaiting that scene where Mangkorn goes down on Yai in bed. I also have to say that I can’t wait to see the rivalry between Mangkorn and Nine that was shown in the preview for the next episode. I like shit like that.

#big dragon #big dragon the series #thai ql #thai bl #thai series #my shit #iq random thoughts

[pigerludio]

Emotions. Memories. Life. Fanfic. Undertale AU.

-Part 2-

Category: Gen, 16+ maybe?

Character: Frink, Mirror, AI Dream, Radiant, AI Nightmare, AI Blue

Warnings: Obscene language, Inhuman morality, OC, Mental disorders, Psychological traumas, Rating for profanity, Gray morality, OOC,

Other tags: AU, In one body, Drabble, Parallel Worlds, Under the same roof, A collection of drabbles, Elements of psychology, Elements of humor / Elements of banter.

- Created by the desire to ✨ create✨

- Tags will be added as they are written.

- Predominantly bone-shake, though it's not a fact that this will always be the case.

- EML is: Acute Incident stories, (sick)everyday life of HWS, spending time with the AI inhabitants, living the dead and not quite alternatives, and just the creeping of bone-gnaw in the knowledge of their mortal existence.

An alternate timeline where Frink and Mirror had a ... during a particularly intense fight from the remnant of a collapsing world and a high concentration of Frink and Mirror's magic in one place... This little guy.

Frink hand twitches, and Radiant eyes flutter shut, watching with bated breath as his Base gently brings his hand down on his head, and instead of the expected kick or shove, he feels the cloth surface of the glove and the bones whose touch feels like thin cuts in dusty paper.

It had been a long time since Rad had twitched at such displays of sudden tactile generosity as he used to. He would have been proud of what he had accomplished when Mirror had taught him how to deal with such sensations, but learning to accept physical contact calmly like this all at once was proving to be a difficult endeavor. For both teacher and student.

Frink smile faltered, and the perennial red symbols in his eye sockets changed to a hypnotically calm blue, and the arrogant expression on the other's face softened. The guardian still reeks of menace, and subconsciously Radiant tries to force himself to calm down, to muster the courage to look into the stranger's eyes. It takes him a few seconds to do so and smile back, immediately casting a quick glance with a mute question over Frink's shoulder at the figure dressed in blue-colored clothing and a tattered cloak behind him. He gets a nod and Radiant feels a little calmer, but not as much as he would if he saw Mirror there, smiling at him.

- It won't be long before you've developed your abilities to an acceptable level. - Frink continues to smile, staring off into the distance. With a hum, the guardian removes his hand from the stranger's head and the kid lets out a barely audible sigh of relief, briefly looking down at the floor and fighting the urge to scratch himself where he can still feel the rough surface of the touch, sighing deeply a few times. - I hope you haven't abandoned your training.

The brief glance, carelessly thrown straight into Radiant's soul, made his bones and teeth clatter, but he forced his jaw tightly shut and swallowed, shaking his head in denial and clenching his fists tighter. He would have to calm down and pull himself together like Nightmere had taught him. He needed to be able to deal with what he was feeling and understand what he was feeling.

Still, he's weaned from Frink, and he realized that now more than ever.

- It's a good thing you didn't lose you mind while being with that idiot in the madhouse.

Frink waved him aside dismissively, squinting, but then breaking into the same arrogant smile that Radiant rarely saw on his face when he was pleased. There was a stabbing pain in his chest that he couldn't explain, as if someone had stuck a shoemaker's needle into his chest and threaded all the parts of his soul with a thick steel thread, pressing them tightly together.

A little anger came from the unpleasant sensation, the name of which he didn't know. Rad wasn't a fan of when one of his Base insulted the other, and by fateful coincidence, Frink was a master at it. But he also didn't like the conflicts and fights that the bases almost regularly had with each other.

And after that, Mirror still called him his friend?

- What's with the sour look? - Frink snorted, and his pupils flickered with purple and green squiggles, the meanings of which Rad often forgot, and found no point in memorizing. - We'll spend the whole week together. I can finally teach you something! Or aren't you excited?

Frink frowned, and the very thought of it seemed to hurt his ego. Rad didn't like what he was saying, but he nodded modestly, knowing full well that he had no choice in the matter and only a little annoyed at how quickly he'd agreed to this venture, when Mirror had told him that Frink's abilities were better developed by him and that this way he'd really understand what he needed in this life.

Not that any of that wasn't true, on the contrary, he seemed to enjoy throwing ink and watching his Base master the magic of its transformation, but he definitely thought Mirror was wrong about a lot of things, and strangely enough, he was wrong about Frink, even if sometimes his mouth was really prophetic.

And Rad liked fire, too - he was unconsciously drawn to it, having once seen his own ink burning with magic, after so many unsuccessful attempts to set it on fire. It seemed that he had burned two rooms that time, but Nightmare had surprisingly not scolded him, and had reassured him that those rooms had long ago spoiled his entire layout. Of course Radiant didn't believe him. But he didn't believe him NOW, and back then, scared and cornered, he was ready to believe anything, if only he could stop huddling guiltily against the wall and throwing weak magical attacks around uncontrollably.

Smiling as plausibly as possible, and as it seemed to himself - too dramatically changed in his face, Radiant covered his eyes, nodding to his thoughts, and after a moment's hesitation to answer the monster:

- I'm very glad you took the time.

Rad raised his voice, turning his head away to where his Basis had been looking earlier. Hard. Talking to Frink was hard after a while. - Just missed you.

Burying his nose deeper into his clothes, Rad breathed in the familiar smell of coffee and chocolate, smiling a little more confidently. The kid could tell that he was glad when Frink could talk to him quietly, like this.

The guardian was like an older brother to him, the same one who in silence experiences everything that is most terrible and unpleasant, and then exposes his prickles when you try to help him. Like a hedgehog snorting and curling up in a kind of prickly cocoon, sensing some kind of danger, albeit imaginary, he continues to snort and grumble stubbornly without saying anything useful. At least that's how Mirror compared him, and Rad saw no reason not to trust his experience in comparisons.

Except that Nightmare had once compared Frink to a Harpy, and smiled, saying that Dream couldn't stand the likes of them, and yet the two continued to play cat and mouse. Radiant didn't understand what cats had to do with mice, but he hoped the cat could win. He liked cats better than mice, if only because the stripes on his cheeks resembled a cat's whiskers.

Still, Radiant was curious about what lay beneath Frink's prickles, which he sometimes wanted to rip out with his own hands, despite the pain and a hundred percent step into the arms of death. Just to make sure that he really felt nothing for his named "Brother" and really, just as Frink had said, would be able to kill the indecision in him. At times like this, as he realized himself, he becomes uncontrollable and starts to break a lot, and then he forgets everything that has happened to him lately.

Time. What a useless phenomenon, Rad thought, tentatively tugging at the hem of the poncho on which his own hands had embroidered the stars. Three so far. He'd never kept time and considered it a complete pointless nonsense that made those around him feel inferior and forced himself into various ridiculous confines, like a sleep regimen or a daily routine.

Sighing heavily, the kid cast one last sad glance at the place where his nervous uncle was still waiting, stomping his foot in frustration and glancing around. Waving goodbye before taking Frink's hand, his last thought was one of regret.

He had forgotten his doll, after all, and she would surely be lonely without her friend, while he himself worried that Flatch might do anything to his dear Rose.

It had been an eventful day, though, and he couldn't think about his friend while he was with Frink.

The boy was once again plunged into the role of protector of worlds, swimming in its sources but refusing to dissolve into it, watching as his conscience, deaf to his questions, faded and life came to the fore. Not a man or a monster, no. Something more. Something that Frink so desperately protects from everyone at once, proudly sticking out his chest and striking the ground with the sharp end of his hand.

And Radiant had decided for himself at the time that he would never be the next guardian of this infinite space they call the Multiverse.

______

End :)

#undertale #undertale au #AI Dream Sans #AI Nightmare Sans #AI Blue #Acute Incident Multiverse #Acute Incident #Frink Sans #Mirror Sans #AI Dream #Fanfic #drabble

[pipsqk-art]

Glendale learns of new beginnings and different endings.

The Edge

You sit wedged between the fallen tree and the grassy hillside, your hiding place, or it was supposed to be. As you settle down in an attempt to rest, the very first rays of dawn begin to peek over the hills in the distance. If the fighting hadn't exhausted you, all of the sobbing and mourning afterwards surely did. You allow sleep to take you for what little of the night remained.

You open your eyes and find yourself floating in an astral void. No, void isn't the right word. This endless space should be intimidating but it's not, you feel a strange comfort looking at all the stars that dot the sky. "What-" the visible breath you release catches you off guard. A warmth spreads through your body with every heartbeat, despite all the signs that your environment should chill you to the bone. You raise a hand to your left brow and gently, hesitantly, trace the wound. It doesn't hurt, in fact it feels like it has closed and scarred. You pull your hand back and inspect it, confirming the lack of blood. What if... You look around frantically for her, or at least a sign of her, but nobody is there.

"What is this...?" you whisper to the air.

You turn around, look up, and see a moon that wasn't there before. A blue and silver butterfly appears. It is right in front of you and miles away all at once. Its on the moon, now flying towards you but its already there. The wings flap once, twice, three times and reveal a beautiful elven woman. She towers over you. Her glowing white hair curls just past her chin and striking blue eyes peer into your soul. Or are they black? Her facial features seem to subtly shift into a more insectoid form occasionally, eyes become compound, eyebrows grow into antennae, pedipalps form around her mouth, but only for a moment and never all at once. Her ever-shifting features lead her to look different from moment to moment, but always always ethereal, almost difficult to look at. One of her two sets of arms raise from her sides and settle underneath you, gently cupping you in her hands. She gives you a soft smile that makes your heart flutter.

"Wha-...who are you?" you ask quietly, your voice still hoarse.

"I am known by many names: the Great Dreamer, Starsong, Lady Luck, the Moon Mother, Desna. You may choose whatever you feel is appropriate." Her voice is so everywhere that you almost forget to pay attention to her answer.

"Uh, o-okay, Moon Mother?" you pause for a moment and continue after she gives you a nod. "Why am I here? What is this?" you ask, trying and failing to hide the fear in your voice.

"You are here because you have done something remarkable." She smiles at you and begins tracing symbols in the air with her second pair of hands, seemingly to cast a spell.

You cross your arms over your torso and hug yourself tightly. So getting my sister killed is remarkable? you think to yourself. You sigh and look up to see the Moon Mother's eyes meeting yours for a brief moment before she returns her attention to the spell. Your cheeks flush slightly. You're beginning to think your thoughts are not entirely private in this place, whatever this place is.

With a final flourish her spell completes and you see an illusion of sorts appear in her palm. It resembles an opaque mirror rimmed with clouds, the mirror's surface ripples like a lake. "Here," her voice calls out, "let me show you." She lowers her hand so that it meets your eye level. You catch a glimpse of your pathetic, ragged state before the image shifts.

"One of the...domains, I guess you could say, under my care is fate." As she explains everything to you, images click across the mirror like a slideshow. She mentions fate and you see hundreds, thousands of red strings held aloft by an unseen force. Crossing and weaving and intertwining.

She continues, "I can see every beginning and every end." The image focuses on a single thread and you see it snap suddenly. A shadowy figure above the thread grasps at their chest, falls to one knee, and finally collapses on the ground.

The image clicks. "Now, no one's fate is written in stone, but the threads are not so easily swayed." You see two small figures near a fallen tree on a hillside laying on the ground, unmoving. The thread underneath tenses and snaps, your stomach drops as you watch the ends unfurl and begin to fray. You clasp your hands over your mouth as you realize what she's showing you. "This was to be yours," she says the next part gently, "both of you."

You can't stop the tears from falling, you look to her desperately. "I don't understand." you whisper.

"You did something no one expected." You look back to the mirror and watch yourself step away from the tree.

"You chose to fight." You watch yourself grab a fallen branch.

"You chose to be brave." You watch your trembling form stand protectively in front of the tree, in front of the small soul inside.

"You, Glendale Surefoot, changed your fate." As the branch smacks into the beast in front of you, you see the formerly frayed thread begin to stitch itself together. A shorter thread, shimmering with divine light, ties itself into a knot around the broken end, and begins its new path. "This part here," she gestures to the knot, "is what got my attention. I knew that such a brave and strong soul needed to be protected, so I stepped in, so to speak." You see a blue and white light, the same colors as the Moon Mother's wings, radiate out from within you and the pieces begin to fall into place.

"...You saved me." you mutter quietly, unable to tear your eyes away from the scene.

"You saved yourself."

"What about-" you whip around to face her again, "What about Vonearen?" You ask, almost angry, fists clenched at your sides. Her name burns as it leaves your throat.

The Moon Mother gives you a mournful look and releases a heavy sigh, snuffing out the illusion to rest her hand against her chest. "Regretfully, by the time I was informed of your situation...she had already passed." Your heart breaks all over again, not even a goddess could save her. "I am sorry, Glendale."

Hearing your name jogs loose a memory that you'd rather not re-live. Glenn, take care of your sister. In this place where your thoughts are enhanced and on display, the command seems to echo around you. Take care of your sister. Bouncing off walls that don't exist. You clap your hands over your ears like it will help. Glenn. "Stop it." Take care of her. "Stop!" And it does, but you don't. "I get it, okay?! I can't do anything right. I couldn't do the one thing I was asked to do." Your voice cracks, the tears begin to flow as quickly as your words. You start pacing back and forth. "I couldn't protect her. Even when I tried to be brave I didn't help anyone but myself. And I didn't even do a good job at that! I got myself hurt and lost half of my vision. What good is a second chance if I won't do anything with it?!" Your throat is starting to hurt.

You can't hold yourself up any longer and fall to your knees. "I can't...I don't understand." Your voice is barely above a whisper now. "I don't want this..." I wish I'd just... the thought doesn't quite complete, but you feel the meaning gets across.

You sit there sobbing for what feels like an eternity, then you feel a warm hand on your shoulder.

"I feel your grief, and I wish I could take this pain from you. But please understand that your life has meaning. You are alive for a reason." She speaks and enunciates each word carefully, determined to make you understand.

You finally look up at the Moon Mother to see her in a different form. She was much smaller, now only a few feet taller than you and far more elven in her features. Even crouched down to comfort you she looks ethereal. The lump in your throat and ragged breaths leave you unable to speak. You sit back on your heels to look at her more purposefully and think to yourself, What is it?

She smiles softly and waves her hand in front of you. That same divine thread emerges from your chest and stretches off into the distance. "This thread is very new, it's still finding it's way. I can't quite see where it ends yet, but" she pauses and extends a hand towards you, "won't it be exciting to find out?"

Somewhere in the back of your head you are hysterical over the absurd reality of your situation and wisely decide to deal with those feelings later. For now, you take her hand and get back on your feet. You wipe away what tears remain with the heel of your palm and cross your arms over your chest again. "So what now?"

She grins warmly and returns to her full height. "That is entirely up to you. If you'd like to learn more, follow the main road north and meet my priestess, Chishandri, at the third crossroads. They can help you from there." She waves her hand again and you suddenly feel a pendant around your neck. It's a smooth piece of wood carved into the shape of a butterfly with striking celestial details on the wings. You look back up and she continues. "Or you could wake and forget this ever happened. You never have to speak to me again, if you so wish." She, to your surprise, sounds genuine. "I won't force you to do anything. So, regardless of your choice" the floor disappears beneath you, you're floating again. Your surroundings begin to fade and the Moon Mother shifts back to her true form. "it was wonderful to meet you." She vanishes before you can reply and everything goes white.

----------

You wake to the morning sun peeking through the cracks of your little hideaway. You stretch and wince at the soreness in your body caused by your odd sleeping position. Except, you're not sore. What...oh. You gasp as the evenings events come flooding back, the good and the bad. You swallow hard to push the tears down and raise your hand to the wound over your eye. Sure enough, it is still closed and scarred from brow to cheek. So that really happened...

You stand and exit the tree, trying to process everything that happened. As you do you feel the pendant swing across your chest, it's strangely comforting.

You take a moment to look at your surroundings, trying to commit it to memory. The trees that lead deeper into the forest. The town that was your home at the top of the hill, its citizens already bustling in the early hours, there's sure to be a lot of rebuilding to do. The fallen tree against the hillside, and the small mound of dirt a few yards away. Several rocks have been stacked at the top as a sort of marker. Tears prick at your eyes and you reach up to hold the pendant, a practice that will become a comforting habit for you in the coming years. You take a deep breath, and make your way north.

----------

~~~~~~~~~~

thanks for reading about my silly cleric TvT I love her a lot and would be more than happy to answer any questions y'all have about them.

i have a companion art piece in the works so look forward to that!

okay bye :]

pings as requested: @pizzaperplexed @glitchpunkz

#pipsqk writes #ttrpg stuff #oc glenn #dwarf #cleric #oc lore #my oc

[redfieldfeer]

Is "creative soulmates" an applicable term?

I believe so, even more so when I refer to a player at my RPG table who is also someone I write fanfics with. Well, as you can see, this is another post about the magic of the tabletop RPG. Two weeks ago, I mastered yet another origination session, and this time it was for my remaining player from the old table. I must remember that it was she who convinced me to go back to GMing through a recap of everything that had happened the other time and, above all, with new ideas for her character. We changed a lot, starting with a new homebrew race that encompasses creatures with animal characteristics (our inspiration came from the fauns of RWBY) and with that, also came a new goddess... But, that's my thing as DM. Let's talk about her as a player. She always surprises me with how demanding she is with her characters, I always thought her character at the other table was amazing, but she felt inconsistent in some ways and so I helped her. We worked together on establishing new attributes, including multiclassing her previous class (she's coming with a spellcaster that I already broke in the source session) and that tied in perfectly with the new BG she wrote. Before, a deserting soldier who constantly fled from the oppressive empire that forced her to enlist, even if it meant leaving someone important behind. Now, a soldier victim of a war for no reason, who needs to fight PTSD while wanting to return home and find who she left behind... But years have passed, new domains have been established and things have happened without her knowing. The current character is much denser than the previous one, which makes her connection with the Raven Queen extremely important (after all, she has issues with destiny and, mainly, with another domain of the goddess). I tried to encompass all of this in her session, starting with a dream in which I worked on the concepts of the "thread of fate" and also the Japanese legend of the "red thread". We went through years and years of lore, covered with images that didn't say much, with symbolisms that made sense to her as a player... We talked about heavy topics, such as psychological aggression, violence (torture), trauma, grief... And all this taking place in a dream, traveling along a black and white forest road that began with fire and ended at the river. We closed the cycle of that character's life while another one began... And she woke up to the sound of the voice of an NPC that we had already seen in previous sessions. Her character, a soldier, allowed herself to be taken care of her whole life and decided, on her own, that she needed to act. Of course there are MANY things in this character's BG that I haven't even addressed, but I'm really happy to have the player back with me. And here comes what I put in the title of this text: the connection I have with her is only explained through the brevity of soulmates (Platonic, I must say). She is incredible, as is her character and, most importantly, the NPC we both fell in love with. A cutscene-only NPC, unnamed, looking at the moon through a telescope. A high elf enchanted by the stars who tries to reverse time to find those who left her behind... One day, I left my player and friend behind, but she defied fate and insisted on bringing me back. All I can say is thank you: thank you for letting me roll the dice with you again.

#about friendship #about amazing players #about storytelling #ttrpg campaign #ttrpg stuff #dnd #dnd homebrew #dungeon master #dungeons and dragons

[jjraderftw]

Your Name (Kimi no Na wa)

This is literally my favorite movie ever. I’ve seen it a countless number of times and can’t recommend it enough to anyone who hasn’t had this viewing pleasure. The animation looks absolutely stunning, the music is the type of beat I still hum to this day, and the characters are fun and memorable. The anime revolves around Mitsuha and Taki, two teenagers living in different towns and times who mysteriously swap bodies. They are tasked with preventing a comet disaster from occurring that would kill Mitsuha and her whole town. They prevail and eventually fall in love with each other, making for a really wholesome and fun watch. The anime talks about a vast array of themes including the possession of power, the idea of fate, modernity vs tradition, and sexuality and its connotations.

The idea of power is prevalent throughout the anime. Power is something that exists everywhere and is a force that a person can exert. With this in mind, the question becomes who holds power, or better said, who has the ability to control fate and exert a force of change? When the two main characters switch bodies, the power to control the lives of Mitsuha and Taki respectively shifts to the other protagonist. They are no longer in direct control of their lives, and are subjects to the power exerted by each other. Thinking of this idea on a larger scale, the entire cast is at the mercy of the power exerted by fate and destiny. Since Mitsuha lives in the past, fate has exerted power and control over her by controlling how she will die. It’s initially fated that her town will get destroyed. However, this power is subject to resistance in the form of Taki’s character. His determination to meet Mitsuha and save her town switches the position of power from fate/time to Taki. He, using Mitsuha’s body, helps devise a plan to save everyone. However, when he switches back to his own body and Mitsuha takes over the town’s evacuation effort, the position of power is given to Mitsuha, where she can now determine her own fate.

The idea of fate goes hand in hand with this idea of power. The red string of fate, a popular symbol for the control of one’s destiny, is a prominent theme in this movie. Mitsuha’s grandmother describes how strings represent time, how strings flow but can sometimes come undone, meet new ends, and reunite to form new threads. The idea is symbolic of destiny. Strings are the flow of time that represent the timelines in which certain events are meant to happen. However, certain “masters of fate” (string weavers) can cut the timelines, change them, and create a new future. Since Mitsuha is a string weaver, literally, she holds the power of fate. This is also symbolized with her red hair tie which is an alias for the literal red string of fate. She symbolically shares this power with Taki who is given the red string by Mitsuha. He wears fate on his hand and uses that power to change the course of history. When Mitsuha unravels her hair tie at the start of the movie, she undoes the current timeline. Taki, by wearing the hair tie, is making a new timeline by having the string meet a new end. At the end of the movie, when he gives Mitsuha her hair tie back, she wraps it around her head once more, solidifying the new flow of events.

Taki and Mitsuha contrast each other in not their bodies, but also in the locations, cultures, and ideas each character was raised in. Taki’s life is very modern and is rooted in a city where traditional beliefs are not the main focus of life. Conversely, Mitsuha lives in a rural town surrounded by nature where religious practices and traditions encompass a large facet of her life. Though the idea of a body swapping adventure sounds fantastical and nonsensical, the movie has many allusions to Japanese spirituality for its explanation of the phenomena. The movie alludes to the notion that many facets of life such as fate, time, and salvation are tied to spiritual practices and how believing and partaking in old traditions are the key to understanding and controlling such concepts. It is implied that someone living in a modern setting is devoid of such understandings of the world and thus incapable of changing the world nor their lives compared to a person of spiritual background. As a result, the movie suggests that we need tradition and spirituality in our lives in order to be true masters of our own lives. For example, Taki, in order to save Mitsuha and her village, had to commute from the city to the nature filled town out in the countryside. Once there, he was only able to get another chance to save Mitsuha by drinking sake made through traditional means in a shine.

Finally, the movie touches upon the idea of sexuality. Though I have talked about this topic a lot in the past few posts, I will say this anime has a similar mindset as other anime where it suggests that there shouldn’t be a gender norm. When each main character switches bodies, the people around Taki and Mitsuha notice how each of them act either more “masculine” or “feminine.” Their bodies act differently and show different sides of people that exist within them. Not all boys are super tough and unaccepting of emotion while not all girls are soft and frail. This show challenges the idea of conformity and encourages you to express yourself however you want. The fact that friends and families of each main character seem happy (for the most part) about their differences in behavior critiques how society should accept people who don’t conventionally fit into any preexisting mold of gender.

[niyana-the-ambiguous-mobian]

Holy dang. Now personal notes about my theater, no one laughed at the jokes more. And I thought the audio was odd at times, maybe they could’ve turned it up more? Anyone else had that or do I just prefer a more engaging audience and subtitles?

Anyways. Spider-verse. I rewatched the first one and recalled the glitching, I thought originally it was exposed to the collider and infected as such if the different dimensional thing wasn’t true. Called if either way. Then the whole canon event with the child in red, maybe I’m reading into it too much because maybe the canon kid wearing is just a symbol itself and not a red string of fate that threads the canon web events together. And then Miles is in dimension 42 because of the spiders origin while 42 is said to be the answer to life the universe and everything as we learned in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy! Miles is the answer to his story!!!!

I give Across the Spider-Verse a 10/10

Sp to comment on the theater thing, my theater kinda went through the same issue, I've noticed it with the last few movies that I've seen at that same theater, honestly.

But yeah, for the most part, the audio was fine, but it was only when the music would be blaring was when we couldn't hear the dialogue, like the opening bit with Gwen or when Miles was getting chased by the spider society.

(Also, as much as I liked Hobie, I could not understand a dang thing he was saying through most of the film. It's like his audio was lower than the rest, and he spoke so fast and low that I couldn't catch it in time and they were already moving on. That was annoying)

My theater is a bit of a small one compared to other the other ones, it's only has 8 auditoriums inside of it so it's really small, so Idk how to properly look for showings that have the subtitles on the screen even though they said "it's available", it's frustrating cause I would definitely see these films with subtitles in a hot minute.

And the audience? It was pretty empty in there, and everyone was scattered around, so I did hear a few laughs, and definitely everyone groaned out when the cliffhanger happened. So maybe it was just the audience you were with that day. I had one guy in front of me playing a candy crush like game while the trailers were playing, which was entertaining.

But yeah, that whole reveal of the 42 spider and how it wasn’t even from Miles' home dimension was quite a whiplash effect. I've seen some people say that they saw the twist coming, I honestly didn't, and I was freaking shook as hell when they revealed this. It was so good.

#smatsv spoilers #smatsv #asks answered #anonymous

[unnursvanablog]

As one kdramas ends (king the land) new kdramas begin! which in this case is My Dearest, which is apparently only 10 episodes and a part 1 to the story for some odd reason according to mydramalist.

Now, I could understand this part 1 and part 2 for dramas longer than 20 episodes (like Alchemy of Soul was) but why not just make a 20 episode epic sageuk like they used to do back in the day.

But anyhow, My Dearest captured my attention pretty much from the start with the almost quiet start to the character introduction and the whole setup, some gorgeous scenery, some folk singing and with the alluring darkness of the Qing invasion.

Depicting the small, simple country life of the people in Gil Chae's small village and the sort of mundane, simple problems that she has to deal with was a good, impactful start because you sort of get this sense that the invasion is coming by the end of episode two and change all of that. It's very good storytelling in my opinion. The buildup was nice.

The leads are really good, the do have a nice chemestry (but it's not sizzling at the moment) and I do find the sort of brass, over-confidance of Gil Chae who seems to have been coddled by her family and by the communtiy that she grew up with. It will be interesting to see her growth as a character as she is thrust into the real world (if the drama does not sideline her for the sake of the male leads storyline).

Jang Hyun is a fun character but I get the feeling that both Namkoong Min and the writers are almost holding the character back right now, making him almost aloof to us and the other characters on purpose. I think it will be a lot of fun unraveling this character as the story progresses.

Despite the first episode starting with darkness and sort of what is to come message here was a lot of light and airyness to the first two episodes without it feeling like a total fluff - like some more youthful romantic focused sageuks tend to feel. This felt romantic and light but still in a sort of growup way to me. Not quite Bossam, but still. It didn't feel YA romance, if that makes sense depsite some sweeping moments that were written there to be swoonworthy (who does not enjoy a good falling of a swing and magically being captured in the air sort of moment).

(but my god… do I want and need it to be like Bossam in like mood and just overall sageuk goodness)

I adores the moment where she was running after the red thread all the way to Jang Hyun because of the symbolism of the read thread tying their fates together.

I am intriqued and hopeful that the more serious part of the story will be interesting. There was just the right amount of palace politics and other things sprinkled into the first two episodes without it being overbearing to the story or feeling info-dumpy. But I do suspect that aspect of the story, the presence of that storyline will only grow and grow with each episode and I just hope the drama will be able to tell both the romance and the other aspects of the story well and make it so it does not feel like two different stories in one.

That sort of thing was the downfall of dramas like Joseon attorney and just made both of those stories very uninterested and sort of meatless.

Because if that moment on the beach at the start is what is to come you need to bring your a-game. Give me drama, give me action and tragedy and some sweeping romance. Like I want to be sobbing by the end of this. I just wonder if splitting the drama into two parts for no real reason is going to kill the momentum, but we shall see. But I for one am eagerly awaiting for this drama to eat my heart and spit it out again.

I was also going to say that those folk singing / pansori scenes reminded me of Rebel: Thief Who Stole the People and then I looked it up and it's written by the same person… so it's going to be great and break my damn heart and the women characters will probably not be totally sidelined and have an impact on the story and omg I can't wait.

#my dearest #first impressions

[flyingisabetterwordforfalling]

until we meet again - color symbolism (episode 1, 2 and 3) long post ! I'm probably years late to this but I love the red thread of fate that is shown in this series through so many tiny details, especially through colors. By now people seem to know that Win and Team have their respective colors, which are red (for Team) and blue (for Win) - it's even more shown in their own series, Between Us.

(episode 1 of Between Us) Though, speaking about the characters having their own colors, I think the same goes for Pharm and Dean because I think Pharm's color is yellow while Dean's is green based on it seemingly being In's and Korn's colors as well.

(sorry for using this scene and picture as an example)

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

(here we've got Pharm with his yellow backpack; episode 1)

(Pharm in his room, wearing a yellow shirt, with yellow in the background and also with yellow-ish glowing string-lights; episode 2)

(Pharm once again in his room, this time with yellow triangles on his blanket and him smiling brightly because Dean and him just exchanged phone numbers; episode 3)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - finding what I think is Dean's color was a bit harder but I think that's mostly because whenever Dean's color appears Pharm's own is already a part of it or at least part of the scene as well...

(here's the faculty's banner which has more green than other colors and yet there's a hint of yellow incorporated into the flower design, this also happens to be where Pharm sees Dean for the first time; episode 1)

(this, I think, happens to kind of mirror In's and Korn's first meeting, in which Korn is reading a book with a yellow and green cover; episode 3)

(however, it happens again, shorty afterwards, when there is this scene with two of the couples, there's Win surrounded by blue, the water, the blue and white swim teams' robes etc. and there's Team with his red goggles but there's also Manow's green bag right next to Pharm's yellow one while Dean notices Pharm, seemingly for the first time; episode 1)

(let's just ignore In's attempt at making his boyfriend an omelette... because look at the colors, there's yellow and greens everywhere even the pots are both green and yellow; episode 2)

(I could write so much about these two scenes... Dean dreamt about In and Korn having breakfast together and the first thing he wanted after waking up was an omelette with rice, he seemed even slightly disappointed that the one he got wasn't burnt as well... and even here there's yellow, the egg and green, the garnish on the side and on top of the other food and just a few minutes later, I assume, there's Pharm sitting down in the same spot where Dean was just sitting... he's got his own color with him, aka his yellow backpack, and he's also got omelette with rice (also once again yellow and green) but the difference here is that he's literally surrounded by the green of the plants, indicating that Dean was around just minutes prior; episode 2)

(this scene takes place right after Pharm sees Dean sleeping in the library, there's once again Pharm's yellow backback but there's also a chair in the background with a green backrest; episode 3)

(this iconic scene shows greens and yellows on the packaging of the products on the shelf, indicating that Pharm is already thinking about and/or in the presence of Dean and of course, just moments later Dean comes to help Pharm and they face each other, finally having their first real chance to talk, which of course doesn't happen quite yet; episode 2)

(here's also the first message Pharm, accidentally, sends Dean, which happens to be a sticker with mostly yellow and green as its main colors; episode 3) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

though, I believe In's and Korn's main connecting color to be light green aka a mixture of yellow and green, I think there's also a second color that shows their connection.

(In's star-shaped luk chup which he made for Korn; episode 2)

(I think there's a color that connects In and Korn but more so Pharm and Dean even when they're apart and when they are still unsure about why they feel connected. I think it's tones of greenish blue, aquamarin and turquoise (or like Shawol me would say pearl aqua green).

(it's even shown in In's and Korn's first meeeting, behind In on the wall, alongsite yet more greens and yellows shown on posters on the wall; episode 3)

(Pharm's anonymous sticky note addressed to Dean; episode 2)

(Pharm's star-shaped luk chup which he made in this shape for Dean only; episode 3)

(Pharm using his highlighter while he gets a text from Team, who sends him pictures of Dean - and Win, but we're not talking about Team sneakily taking pictures of both their crushes right now; episode 3)

(Pharm getting startled by the sudden loud noise and Dean noticing, with the poster behind Pharm; episode 3)

In a nutshell: These colors seemingly being connected to these characters is really interesting in my eyes because neither yellow and green nor blue and red are each other's respective complementary colors. I think this shows perfectly that not just Win and Team but even more so Pharm and Dean literally chose each other as soulmates, the main couple of the series even despite the odds having been against them in their first life. Maybe I'm just interpreting way too much into this but I really, really like the symbolism and usage of colors, especially in this series.

#until we meet again #uwma #uwma pharm #uwma dean #deanpharm #uwma color symbolism #teamwin

[blossom-hwa]

inspired by too many red thread of fate fics on ao3. sue me. inspiration post here (flowers changed from amaranthus to camellias), the title is the same as the k-drama but they’re completely unrelated

wc: 946 ~ sungyoon x gender neutral!reader ~ soulmate!au (red thread of fate), hanahaki!au ~ triggers: blood ~ golden child masterlist

for @thepixelelf​ (our war will never be over) 

~ Love hurts.

[ when the camellia blooms ] “Don’t.”

The word sounds more like a rasp than your voice. You’re half certain that’s the reason why Sungyoon stops speaking and not the command itself. 

It feels a little like a scene out of a sitcom. Or a drama, maybe. That would probably match the mood a little more. For some reason, though, the sight of Sungyoon staring so wide-eyed with his mouth half open makes you feel a hysterical little giggle rising in your throat. 

Of course, with the giggle comes the tickle of petals, too. 

Jangjun shifts from where he sits next to your pristine white bed, eyes narrowing out of the corner of your vision. You can feel the weight of his gaze even though it isn’t directed at you, but at the boy you stopped short with a single word. Fury. Anger. Misguided, very misguided considering your actions and the fact that Sungyoon knows nothing, knew nothing, was always supposed to know nothing until you got yourself landed in the hospital with flowers and blood choking your throat. 

Damn love. Damn flowers. Damn camellia petals you keep flushing down toilets and hiding in napkins. Damn symbol of everything you lost when you snipped the red thread with those silver sharp scissors, a love that you could never forget but that you will never attain. 

Against your will, you look down at your pinky where the thread hangs limp, slightly frayed at the end where your silver scissors snipped it. It takes every effort not to glance at Sungyoon’s finger, where you know you’ll find a second unraveled string to match.

“Don’t,” you repeat, and it comes out a little clearer this time after you cough several soft, white flowers onto the sheets. “Don’t tell me I should try, Sungyoon. I’ve heard that from too many people.” You look at him, tearing his gaze away from the red-tinged pure white blooms. When he meets your eyes, a little bit of sick satisfaction swells in your chest to see shame in them.

Out of the corner of your eye, Jangjun clears the petals away without a word. You’ll never not be grateful for him, the best friend you needed when the universe decided your secret had to be spilled to the world, the unrequited love in your heart blossoming into camellias that tickle your throat.

Not the best friend from birth whose thread you cut out of love, leaving your heart to show its blood in the red string dangling from your finger. 

The sick satisfaction turns truly sick at the thought though, leaving behind none of the guilty happiness at the thought of Sungyoon understanding your pain barely, just barely. He was your best friend. Still is - one of them, at least. None of this can erase the years you spent together because none of it is his fault. He didn’t know. He wasn’t supposed to know. 

All he did was fall in love, just like you did.

“But - why?” Sungyoon finally asks, voice barely above a whisper. You look him in the eyes and they’re watering, reddened with tears, and again your heart twinges and your throat tickles at the reminder that he does love you, does care for you and always has, just not in the way that the universe intended him to and now you’re paying the consequences for thwarting fate -

A round of coughs convulses your body, a shower of blood-spotted petals and flowers falling from your lips as Jangjun pats your back sharply once, twice, three times. When you finally look up, wiping blood and spit from the corners of your lips, the tears have begun to roll down Sungyoon’s face. 

“He loves someone,” you say, and it isn’t a lie. Not like every excuse you’ve thrown his way recently to get out of seeing him, to avoid the gentle tickle of deadly flowers growing in your throat. It’s clear that it’s the truth by how easy it is to say - it’s always been hard to lie to Sungyoon, after all. “I won’t interfere with that.”

Sungyoon doesn’t say it, not really. But you can see the question form on his tongue anyway, never really moving past his lips but staying there, loud and clear even in the silence of the stale air. 

Why?

“Because I love him.” It’s so easy to confess your love when Sungyoon doesn’t know the him in your words means him, the boy sitting in front of you and returning your gaze. “And I would do anything for him to be happy.”

Next to you, Jangjun takes your hand and squeezes it once. 

“Even if it hurts you?”

A sudden jolt shudders through your body and you convulse once more, coughing and coughing even though nothing but bloody spittle falls from your lips. Jangjun pounds your back harshly as you double over and cough, cough, cough - but nothing’s coming out and as both boys start to call your name you think that this really is the end, you’re going to die now without having given Sungyoon the answer he needs -

Something finally falls from your lips, white and blurred by the tears of pain watering in your eyes. You choke out another round of coughs, the taste of blood on your tongue, before wiping the tears away enough to see it.

Trembling fingers pick up the spotless white camellia, completely devoid of any scarlet tinge. Even under the sharp fluorescent lights of the hospital room, it looks beautiful. 

You smile. It must look gruesome, the corners of your lips still lightly stained red. 

“Love hurts,” you say. 

A drop of blood falls on the clean white petals. 

If you enjoyed, please don’t forget to reblog and leave a comment to tell me what you thought! Thank you for reading and have a lovely day <3

(1 reblog = 1 prayer for me bc there’s no way there won’t be retaliation for this)

#ficscafe #golden child #golcha #gncd #sungyoon #choi sungyoon #golden child y #golden child sungyoon #golcha sungyoon #golden child scenarios #golden child imagines #golden child oneshots #golcha scenarios #golden child sungyoon scenarios #golden child y scenarios #golden child x reader #golcha x reader #sungyoon x reader #golcha sungyoon x reader #golden child sungyoon x reader #angst #tw blood #hanahaki!au #soulmate!au #when the camellia blooms #blossom-hwa

[vendettamuses]

The Peculiar Hues of Destiny

⚔️ For @seeasunset​ ‘s Vasco! ⚔️

She’d been told as a young pup of the miracle of romance. What finding one’s soulmate could bring into their life. Everyone had at least one other in this world, and they were both robbed of something. A sense, a sensation, an experience- or they shared something unique between them and only them. Something they didn’t know they were missing until the moment they met. That missing piece which represented a bond predetermined by the hands of fate, woven into the tapestry of destiny. As far as Cecilia had known, she wasn’t aware she was missing anything. She could smell and taste and feel like any other. She didn’t carry a song in her heart to be shared. She had no red thread or marks or symbols on her skin connecting her to her other half.

But she was patient. She was an Oracle after all, and the Selkie Princess knew better than most not to rush the hands of fate. There was no accelerating time. The only choice one had was to wait. And she was certainly more patient than most. She’d meet her other half in due time. Though she couldn’t help but feel a bit… anxious about it, she supposed. Especially here and now, when she could swear that through the greyscale that was her vision, she could see tinges of color appearing. She rubbed at her eyes, looking about to see if it would clear. But it lingered. These strange hues adding such a beautiful tint to everything around her remained regardless of her efforts.

This was strange…

She swam about, seeing it grow more or less vibrant as she moved with seemingly no pattern or thought. She tried to chase the colors in various directions but she could never quite seem to bring them to their peak.

What was going on?

#// sorry this took me a while! #closed starter : now i escape to a world here with you #mutual : all of my best friends #seeasunset #( ocm : cecilia seldona / the selkie princess ) #( v : soulmates / a loving touch of color )

[s-b-party]

Corvus: Fischl and the Raven

****This thread was written after having done Fischl's domain in the golden apple archipelago 2.0 event (I will use GAA for short from here on out), so genshin spoilers / golden apple archipelago spoilers / fischl domain spoilers ahead!

So first let's start off w/ introducing Fischl & her constellation, Corvus, which means "raven", pretty straight forward, yea? We know Fischl as one of the members of the adventurers' guild & as the Prinzessin der Verurteilung, ruler of the Immernachtreich

So how exactly are ravens relevant to Fischl aside from being her constellation? In terms of symbolism, ravens are often seen as ill omens but, w/o negative connotations, they can also be seen as symbols of PROPHECY and INSIGHT, two very important concepts related to Fischl

Fischl often speaks about "fate", which should be an automatic flag to look out for since it is one of the important concepts in the overall game. Prophecies are usually messages sent by another source or power regarding events that will happen in the future

If you need examples of her talking about fate, here are the Chinese voice-overs for Fischl, you'll find a bunch of lines regarding fate, but basically one of my points is that fate is an important theme for her & prophecies are very relevant to fate 

https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Fischl/Voice-Overs/Chinese

Now for insight, I found out that Oz attests to Fischl's good intuition during Unreconciled Stars, which shows that she may sound crazy w/ her theories at times, but she actually has a point/makes sense, therefore Fischl's insight on a situation is not something to be ignored

Despite not knowing the exact cause of everyone’s troubles during the event, she was able to deduce that something inside the victims’ dreams was luring the dreamers in, forcing them to stay (it was revealed to be the will of Leonard, an adventurer from about 2,600 years prior to the story who had a strong desire to reach the summit of Pilos Peak, that caused the weird state of sleep)

I like to think that Fischl's insight/intuition seems to be a nod to how ravens irl are generally very intelligent creatures

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_raven#Intelligence

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/53295/10-fascinating-facts-about-ravens

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Common_Raven/overview

So clearly we can see that Fischl is well represented by the raven, I think that we can go even further to tie the connections/symbolism to Fischl's lore including her part in this most recent GAA event (version 2.8)

I want to point out that eyes & vision will be important in this portion of my analysis. There are two categories that I will distinguish: more literal and less literal meaning

First, the literal meaning that I refer to is the eye in a physical sense. An example would be Fischl's ability to see through Oz (whatever he sees, she can see), which we can find in her first character story explaining it as the reason why she is an important member of the adventurers' guild

In terms of Fischl’s connections to fate and prophecy, usually when one is given a vision, they would say that they see something in the future. Although you process the vision through your brain, you usually rely on the things that your eyes have seen irl to help interpret what you see

Her actual constellation also relates to eyes; when you look at the actual order of how her cons unlock, her C1 (first con) is located exactly at the eye of the raven and what is the name of it? GAZE of the Deep & if this name sounds familiar, that's bc it is mentioned again in GAA event; it is the same name given to the new mechanisms in Fischl's domain. How exactly do they work? It changes the way you SEE things so that the environment around you changes

We also see eyes as one of Fischl's defining features (well, lack of one eye) and the main thing that separates her from the other Fischl (Amy has a green eye while the other Fischl has a red eye)

The less literal meaning that I refer to is what eyes can mean symbolically in the lore or what concepts they bring up in the game. They can represent clairvoyance and omniscience, which tie in nicely w/ the concepts of prophecy and fate. Often times you may hear that eyes can act as windows to the soul. This is essentially what we go through inside Fischl's domain, a journey of her self-reflection & eventual self-acceptance

We know that Fischl does gain some omniscience when she is able to see what Oz sees wherever he may be, but there are also parts of her lore where the story her character is based on may have been written by an omniscient being or at least someone who seems to know a lot more than expected. We get hints that imply that the fictional story that Fischl bases her character & life on may be closer to reality than one would think.

Fischl is a character who is supposed to be from another world like the traveler, Amy makes it known that she is aware about the traveler being from another world while being in character as Fischl

Her favorite dish is named after a location which still exists in Mondstadt, the Midsummer Courtyard (located near Starsnatch Cliff) domain

The author of “Flowers for Princess Fischl,” Mr. Nine, makes an interesting comment about the Midsummer Courtyard being a concept that was never well-explored in the end; if you look at the description of the same domain, it explains that it has been lost to history after the fall of an ancient civilization, which would explain why not much about it is known and why he says it's not a well-explored concept

The previous examples may seem like mere coincidences, but we should also consider another story written by Mr. Nine called “Legend of the Shattered Halberd”

In the first volume, there is a story that talks about the Ominous Swords, which came from a meteorite that fell from the sky and a swordsmith named Feng cast these swords which were believed to be cursed bc of the meteorite. As a result, people’s intellect were negatively affected. Does this sound familiar? It is a story that resembles the plot of the Unreconciled Stars event!

In the sixth volume, we get a section talking about the God King creating the Prinzessin der Verurteilung as the final Divine Halberd and somewhere along the description, there is a reference to the first Divine Halberd called Irmin. Some may argue that just because Irmin’s name strongly resembles Irminsul, it doesn’t mean that there’s an actual connection. For me, I feel that it is too close to just be a coincidence. On top of that, the description of what it/he(?) did resembles the Irminsul tree in the game reaching out to many locations throughout the seven nations of Teyvat

At the moment, these instances show me that the author knows a lot and draws references to things that not many people would know about. I suppose someone could say that Mr. Nine clearly did his homework or something like that, but even if Mr. Nine is not actually omniscient or is simply truly just making up stories that coincidentally resemble events that actually happened, I still think he’s an important figure to note!

(*I may have also wanted to entertain the idea of a possible omniscient person for a little bit, just mostly speculation here and not that much hard evidence of it on my side, so no need to consider the last few points about Mr. Nine as serious thoughts ehe)

After playing the most recent updates, I can't help but wonder if there are any truly omniscient characters. Aside from the Traveler, how many others are aware of all the changes to Irminsul and the history of Teyvat? Does the mysterious voice that appears at the end of Inversion of Genesis know about all the changes that have developed? Did the other Descenders experience something similar to the Traveler? I'm very excited to see more developments on this!

#genshin impact #genshin spoilers #genshin lore #genshin fischl #genshin constellations #golden apple archipelago

[ceramicdove]

hii dove *explodes into confetti* idk if youre going through smth rn but i just wanna say i rlly like hanging out w u and like its fun ta talk to u...

also like i will probably talk abt the birds later but i think its pretty neat how the symbolism is inverted per say, using violence to make a point is very very interesting. like the cutesy subjects, the cute heart frame contrasted against the violence of pulling out guts and ofc the contrast of colours is very :)!! but rn i think my interpretation is something about peace and death? i dont actually think the birds are a dove and crow now that i think abt it.. beauty in death? LOL

Hello again, Lab! [CLEANING UP THE PILE OF CONFETTI YOU LEFT BEHIND] We are all always going through something, as am I. I try to remain hopeful most of the time, though. Thank you for the sweet words : -] Greatly appreciated hearing that. The same goes to you! It's always a joy seeing you in my inbox.

Regarding your comment of "i dont actually think the birds are a dove and crow now that i think abt it": from my personal vessel of Bird Knowledge, the white one seems to me like a white canary (visual comparison for you)

Which would make more sense also because the work itself is titled "The Sorrows of Young Werther" after Goethe's text, which does feature a canary.

I haven't read the text yet so I can't speak on that, but from my very minimal level of knowledge, I do believe it's an important symbol in the book and in the relationship of the main characters. The only other explicitly stated bird species I could find was a hawk, which actually ends up killing the aforementioned canary.

The usage of "quiet as a dove" and "the monster that killed my little songbird" here struck me (<- GUY WHO IS VERY NORMAL ABOUT BIRDS IN ART), so I'll probably be dwelling on that for a while. I have my own thoughts and theories on this, but I am interested in actually reading this novel and understanding the exact symbolism behind these scenes before voicing anything.

Back to our initial subject, the black one is a bit more challenging to me because I am quite incompetent when it comes to identifying black birds LOL. You'd think identifying it would be very easy, but I tried looking around and certain features just don't fully align with the piece, so I have my guesses, but they're inconclusive. A shame!

I like your wording on "pulling out guts" because it really does emphasize the violent aspect in comparison to the softness; I interpreted it as both bodily matter and also something akin to the red thread of fate.

#🕊️📬

[whaleofatjme1920]

[Haley, Creepypasta/MH, She/They, 19, Romantic]

My name is Hal and I am giving you this letter, a bag of many tiny bells (collected for who knows how long), an amethyst crystal I used often as a child to chase away bad dreams, and a kind of rose tea (though I am not one for tea I liked both the symbolism and that it would round out to 3 offerings excluding my letter) as offerings in hopes that you will help me find my match.

I would describe myself as a very sarcastic person who loves to make jokes, dress in a frilly poofy way (often wearing heels to make myself at least 6'1), and someone who likes to do fun fantasy escapism type activities (going to renfaire, playing DnD and RPG video games,etc.). Peoples impressions of me range from cute and quiet to a straight up golden retriever. I am a pretty sedentary homebody most of the time though I can be more outgoing and confident when I am with people I know and usually are some brand of nerd (theater, Gamer, etc.) I also draw, make clothes/costumes, and love to create stories and characters, only some of which I actually use, a sad amount just sits in a box after it's made. I have my issues, mainly with procrastinating, forgetfulness, and the need to be able to be fully independent when push comes to shove because unexpected things happen but I have always been the romantic daydreaming type and over time I have matured and am tired of new historical events making me more and more tired, I just want to find my person to do all of the things good, bad, easy, and hard with. I just want to make a home with them and be in their world. - Haley

P.s my love language is acts of service and words of affirmation, I didn't know where to cram that in so here we are. I blame my ADD.

[Disclaimer: The Red String of Fate event is a special event I'm running from August 12th, to whenever I feel it necessary to end - right now, I'm giving it to the first week of September! Check out rules HERE]

There's just a hint of a smile on Yue Lao's face as he hears the bells you've given him ring in the passing breeze. It's something soft and sweet, like a little lullaby that rings through the night. The amethyst crystal has found it's way to one of his many bookshelves, acting as a lovely addition to his home. The faint scent of rose tea rests strongly on his porch as he sips it, a quiet hum leaving his lips from how good it is. Bao rests near the teapot, purring quietly at the warmth and the sweet scent.

It admittedly isn't that hard for him to find a match for you. The thought comes almost instantly as he reads over the things that make you happiest, the things that you enjoy creating, and a name pops into his head as loud as a whistle: Alex Kralie. Now, that's not a name anyone would ever expect, really, but achieving ultimate balance, the god is of the belief the two of you would work fantastically. He's admittedly of the belief that you and Alex have a wonderful creative streak that would only grow in each other's presence, and his practical nature would mesh well with your more fantastical essence. Opposites, but similar.

Bao returns to him with a spool of thread in her mouth, the color of fresh summer roses and smelling just as sweet as them. She purrs softly at the names he whispers to her before he ties the string to your pinky, and then moves around to Alex's. The thread glows brightly, reflecting in his moonlight covered eyes with a shine that makes him laugh happily. What a brilliant glow, and a strong match that this will be. Looks like Alex is still in college, working on some silly student film. Perhaps silly is the wrong word, but it makes the god smile all the same. He watches with a dreamy, far off look as you watch the string materialize on your finger while sitting in your dorm.

You're up from your dorm almost instantly, following the string like it's the only thing you've ever cared about. There's a small bout of wonder in your eyes as it leads you across campus to one of the building on the far end side. You recognize it as the college of arts. It leads you up the stairs to the second floor, where a bulletin board lays covered with ads, flyers and whatnot. There's one near the bottom right, kind of obscured by the many other papers but you read it clearly: Marble Hornets, auditions Friday - Sunday! Held on the third floor, room 315.

You glance down at your string with a deep gut feeling telling you that's the exact same place your soulmate lies. You rush up the stairs, hardly noticing as Brian and Tim pass by you until Brian gets your attention.

"Evenin' to you too," the blond haired man chuckles as he watches you practically sprint up the stairs.

"Oh, hey, Brian, Tim," you shoot over your shoulder.

He snickers and continues walking down the stairs slowly with his friend who shoots you a small wave in response. "Going for Alex's audition?"

You hold up your left pinky and smile. "Looks like I am."

The two men share a look and wish you a good luck, watching as you disappear upwards. You feel like you can't breathe as your heart beats faster and faster, anxious to meet who you know is your soulmate. You can feel a tug from his end too, and rounding the corner into the room. Alex is there, sitting in front of a camera seeming to just clean up and looking over notes when he feels his hand tug.

He looks over his shoulder, and you swear it's the first time you've ever seen him smile.

#red string of fate the event #alex kralie x reader #marble hornets x reader