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the-moon-devi · 1 month

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Happy Spring Equinox, and Aries SZN! 🐏

🔆 Neptune in 2h: This placement can be very tricky because Neptune rules illusions & confusion. If you have this in your solar return, BEWARE, there's a chance you will experience uncertainty when it comes to things like tax returns and finances in general. This is also the house of self-worth, so this could indicate confusion in this area. Even a loss or drop in self-confidence.

🔆 Saturn in 1h: This can manifest in many different ways. But usually you may feel restricted in some way this year, this could even lead to you feeling like an elderly person as you become more mature. The universe will send you a lot of roadblocks this year, and it may feel like you are constantly stuck in life. My advice us to roll with the tides literally, and don't get too down. Because this can also lead to depression. If you've already experienced your Saturn return, this may be a bit easier for you as someone who is still in the beginning stages of their life. Saturn may bring up old lessons and test you to make sure you've learned your lesson.

🔆 Taurus/Libra Asc: These Ascendants are ruled by venus. So already we can see that the year will most likely be intel, venusian based events & circumstances. Such as Love, beauty, finances, business, and socialization. The house Venus sits in can show where most of your focus will be.

🔆 Sun in 3h: May show an increase in popularity, you may be learning a lot, and involved in social media. Talking more with people online, and even meeting people with similar interests. For my 2023 SR my sun landed in the 3rd house, and about a week after my birthday I started tumblr. It got more attention than I expected. I also had the asteroid Webb (3041) in the 1h and Fama at 29° in 11h. So that probably just added a little boost and shows that it was meant for me to start this blog.

Edit: (I actually had a 3rd house stellium)

🔆 Venus 4h: You or your mother may be more interested in beautifying your house, according to the position of Venus in the 4th house. This also indicates that your home life may be more peaceful, unless Uranus or Mars is present, which can show movement. Furthermore, Venus can indicate romance for the year, along with the 7th house. If you engage in romantic conversations, you may experience deep emotional connections with people. Also, you may find yourself meeting very familiar people, even if you haven't met them in this lifetime, and it can feel like you have met them before. The 4th house is very karmic, so it can show partners from the past coming back, whether that be good or bad. However, you can find yourself feeling nurtured within connections or doing the nurturing. Additionally, you may meet romantic partners from home, which could mean that you could meet them online or through family. Overall, your love life will be private and possibly more secure.

🔆 Lilith 7h: According to my natal x Sr chart, Lilith sat in my 1st house while in my separate Sr chart, she was in my 7th house. This indicates that Lilith dominated my experiences in 2023, and as a result, Lilith and I have become friends. Lol. When it comes to relationships, expect the unexpected, similar to Uranus in the 7th house or conjunct the Descendant. Lilith in the 7th house brings taboo experiences when it comes to partners and long-term relationships. Your relationships may have a significant taboo nature to them. In my case, I had vertex and Lilith in my 7th house, which indicates not only taboo encounters but also fated meetings.

🔆 Sun in 9h: Will point towards a year of exploration and studying/learning new things. You may travel a lot during this year, or if you're seeking to study a big topic, expect to learn a lot. This could change your view of life. 9h is traditionally the house of God. More than likely, you'll find yourself learning more about God or feeling a calling to get closer to the masculine part of God.

🔆 Sun 3h: In the previous sun 3h note, I should have mentioned that the 9h represents the house of God, while the 3h represents the house of the goddess. If you have the sun in the 3h house of your Sr, you may find yourself tapping deeper into your feminine side. This can unlock your creativity and help you manifest your desires by using the ancient principles of the universe. Use your feminine charm to attract what you want and your feminine touch to expand your creative hobbies and talents. As someone who already has a spiritual nature and a sun in the 3h house of my Sr, I have felt a stronger pull to tap into my feminine energy, and have learned a lot about this aspect of my life.

🔆 Sharing the same Sr placement as a partner/friend: If you have this with a person you know, you guys could be super close and/or share a lot of the same experiences that year.

🔆 Vibilia 1h: Vibilia is the name for the Roman goddess of travel. @themedialmercurial made a post on this asteroid. I'll link it below. So you guys can go check your natal placements. However, in the 1h for SR charts, this asteroid can point towards guaranteed travel or even life-taking you through many journeys. The sign may give more insight into how this may play out. Also, it's a bonus if you have planets in the 9h house as well. Vibilia post: 1 2 3

Asteroid number (copy & paste)

144

🔆 Juno 7h: May feel a need to commit or get in a relationship this year. Juno represents commitment and partnerships and with it entering the house of pong term partnerships/marriage. It's not uncommon to see these natives getting engaged, married, or entering a long-term connection. This will be even more prominent if you have a vertex here as well.

SR Ascendant Ruler can show where a lot of your focus will be this year.

🔆 1H RULER IN 3H: Your focus this year will be learning, traveling, writing, social media, and acquiring new skills. I would also recommend looking at where the planet of your solar return ascendant is in your natal chart.

🔆 1H RULER IN 6H: Your focus this year will be work, schedules/routines, and health. You may struggle or gain in this area. You may find yourself wanting to create a steady schedule to keep yourself organized. You may also take on more responsibilities this year, this will be a year of working. Putting in those hours to get what you want, you could even be more prone to illnesses/ enemies this year. Your co-workers/work environment will affect you a lot. I would also recommend looking at where the planet of your solar return ascendant is in your natal chart.

🔆 1H RULER IN 5H: Your focus this year will be having fun, doing what brings you joy, and possibly a lot of short-term flings. You may find yourself attending a lot more outings and parties. If not this then you'll be having a lot of attention and working on creative endeavors. This is a year of pleasure and individuality. So do what your heart desires, and take more of an interest in you. Associate yourself with people who make you happy. On the downside, you could become overly involved in partying, drinking, etc, and this may become detrimental to you. I would also recommend looking at where the planet of your solar return ascendant is in your natal chart.

🔆 1H RULER IN 9H: Your focus this year will be travel, attaining wisdom, and becoming closer to God. You may be seen as adventurous and knowledgeable this year. People may be to you for advice this year as well. Travel and possibly even moving is a big chance here as well. Education, God, your beliefs, religion or spirituality, and life views will be important as well. I would also recommend looking at where the planet of your solar return ascendant is in your natal chart.

🔆 1H RULER IN 2H: Your focus this year will be finances, assets, financial investments, financial literacy, and working to improve yourself and/or your worth. You may put a lot of energy towards building yourself up for a valuable future. And also enjoying yourself more or even spending more money. You may make a bug purchase this year that impacts your finances. I would also recommend looking at where the planet of your solar return ascendant is in your natal chart.

🔆 Vertex in your Solar Return shows fated events that you WILL experience this year. These events will be signs of a pivotal point in your life and will affect the rest of your year.

Vertex in 1h: Your appearance, how others see you, a person you meet may change how you and others view you

Vertex in 5h: You may experience a lot of joy and pleasure, sexual encounters, short-term flings, babies/children, creativity

Vertex in 6h: health, work, schedule/routines, more responsibility

Vertex in 7h: partners, may meet a long-term partner/marriage partner, weddings, and a venus-ruled/dominant person

Vertex in 8h: Strong passionate connections, intimacy, your shadow self, a very big life altering experience, inheritances, and death.

Vertex in 9h: travel, higher education, spiritual teachers, and your beliefs

Vertex in 10h: your career, reputation, authority figures, and accomplishments

Vertex in 11h: friend groups, worldly topics, friends, your goals and wishes

Vertex in 12h: spirituality, dreams, solitude, and illnesses

Vertex in 2h: finances, assets, family/generational wealth, resources. What is valuable to you, and gains

Vertex in 3h: speech, writing, neighbors, siblings/cousins, everyday commute, popularity, and social media

Vertex in 4h: Your mother, your home life, moving houses, your ancestry/roots, women in the family, your womb, and emotions.

🔆 Valentine (447) 1h: This asteroid represents love and is one of the strongest love asteroids, in my opinion. This occupying the 1h shows that you will most likely be falling in love especially if this conjuncts your asc, because it's also making an aspect to your dsc (7h, the house of partners/relationships). This will sweep you off your feet, and Valentine shows a sacrificial kind of love. Likely, you'll find yourself doing things you never thought you would do for love. This can be indicative of realizing you have fallen in love with a partner.

🔆 Destinn (6583) 7h: This asteroid in solar return shows what is destined to happen this year. In the 7h, it will be destined for you to meet, get married, or get into a long-term impactful commitment. This encounter will likely feel fated.

🔆 Sun conjunct Amor (1221) /Cupido (763): You could be a lover girl/boy this year. Amor means "love" in English. So, this being conjunct, your sun can show that some of this year's themes will be love. Cupido shows that Cupid will be shooting you with an arrow of love. You will find yourself deeply admiring a love interest. These are just the beginning stages of the strong feelings you will feel for this person. Expect a year of love.

🔆 Lovelock (51663) 7h: You will likely meet a romantic partner whom you are deeply attached and form a deep loving bond with. This can show that you'll be locked and in love with this person as well.

🔆 Union (1585) 7h: Imma keep this sweet & short.... yeah, you'll be coming into union with your person more than likely. This asteroid represents a union. Marriage is also likely to occur.

Ps: Union conjunct sun can also signify this!

🔆 Sunshine (3742) conjunct Venus: ☀️ Sunshine conjunct Venus, can show happiness when it comes to finances & love. You can experience great bliss and luck, it'll be like a breath of fresh air.

🔆 North Node conjunct Sunshine (3742): You will experience a lot of happiness this year if you have been having sadness/depression. This shows a forecast of Sunshine! Good days are ahead

🔆 Sunshine (3742) 1h: Similar to the north node, you will find yourself being very happy & satisfied with life and yourself. You could have an increase in self-confidence. You'll also be seen as a beam of light by those around you. Be sure to get a lot of sun, and summertime could benefit you greatly.

🔆 Briede (19029)/ Groom (5129) 1h/7h: likely to meet your spouse or be a bride/groom.

🔆 Boda (1487) conjunct Vertex: This shows a fated wedding happening.

🔆 Vertex conjunct Alma (390): the point of fate meets the asteroid of the soul/soulmates. These two combined can show an encounter with a soulmate

🔆 Eros (433) 1h/ conjunct asc: Eros is sexual attraction, in the 1h this shows you will experience sexual encounters & romance.

🔆 2h ruler in 12h: Your finances may go through losses when it comes to finances. On the other hand, this can also show receiving money from hidden sources, or through spiritual practices. This can also show that manifestation and visualization can help you attract money. Since, the 2h is 11 places away from the 12h, and the 11th house rules dreams, goals, and aspirations. You can set a lot of unreasonable goals for your finances this year. The 12h is also the house of expenditures as it is ruled by Jupiter/Neptune. So you can gain a lot of money but also spend a lot, or either spend more than you have. If traveling abroad, you can spend a lot of money traveling. Be careful not to get scammed this year, and be watchful of your money because it could even get stolen or lost. Also spending money on spirituality. You will value your spirituality and alone time.

🔆 2h ruler in 7h: Your finances will likely go towards a partner or a relationship, you could be the provider for your partner/spouse. This could show spending money on a business, or a wedding. This shows you will value your relationships.

🔆 2h ruler in 2h: The 2h lord in the 2h, shows you will value money a lot this year, you'll have tunnel vision when it comes to finances. You can spend money trying to make money and investing. This is honestly pretty good for investing. You could also be wanting to spend money on things that have great value and bring you quality.

🔆 2h ruler in 8h: This combination, shows that you may be sharing your money, or even joining your assets with a close partner. This is the house of shared finances and joint ventures. So don't be surprised if you and your partner open up a shared account. This can show spending money on businesses. There may be inheritances, or loans involved this year.

🔆 4h ruler in 12h: This year may indicate spending a lot of time at home, alone. This can also show deep emotional problems coming up. You can find your origins within spirituality, and even experience loneliness in your home life. The 12h rules foreign settlement, and the 4h is the home, so this may also show moving abroad, or finding a home in a foreign place. This can also indicate a strong spiritual connection to your ancestors. With the 4h showing what brings us comfort, this can show that spirituality, alone time, and water/foreign travel will bring you comfort.

🔆 4h ruler in 9h: Similar to the 12h but less emotional, this can also show traveling, and find comfort, in traveling or settling in a place that is foreign to you. You will be expanding your horizons this year, and more than likely finding a new home. This can even show not having the most stable home, like you may travel a lot this year!

🔆 4h ruler in 7h: You may find yourself moving in with a partner, or being in a relationship that brings you a lot of comfort, and emotional security. This may be the year where you establish a long-lasting relationship.

🔆 Pluto conjunct IC/ 4h: Your home life will change, and go through a transformation. This is an indication of moving to a new home! Your sense of security will be shaken up. This will be softened if you have the moon or Venus in the 4th house as well because Pluto can be super intense.

🔆 Uranus conjunct IC/ 4H: This is another big indicator of moving, and most likely a long-distance travel and it could be random. Because Uranus represents unexpected shocking changes, and it'll most likely happen very fast.

🔆 Uranus conjunct DC/7H: This shows your partnerships, which will be surprising. There may be something unexpected happening in this area, this doesn't always have to be horrible especially if you have benefic planets here as well. If it's here alone, then this may show a long distance or relationship that has a lot of ups and downs. This can show your partners may be unconventional in any sense, they could even be from a different caste than you. With Venus and Uranus here, you may unexpectedly get engaged, or married. This can show an unexpected/ surprising love meeting as well.

🔆 Fortuna (19) in 1h/conjunct ASC: This placement, can indicate fortune and luck coming to you this year!

🔆 Fortuna (19) in 2h: Fortune when it comes to your finances, and extra money.

🔆 Atira (163693) in 1h/conjunct ASC: This asteroid represents prosperity through selflessness, so this year you may find you do things for others that bring you abundance. You may have to make sacrifices this year to gain something bigger & better.

🔆 Midas (1981) in 1h/ conjunct ASC: Everything you touch this year will turn to gold. Your skills/talents will bring you a lot of abundance. Others will see you as a source of good luck. Expect major fortunes this year.

🔆 Amalthea (113) in 1h/conjunct ASC: Amalthea represents infinite abundance, so this one is pretty self-explanatory. This year, money will find you regardless of circumstances, you could receive massive amounts of opportunities, and lucky situations coming towards you. This could even show blessings when it comes to your physical appearance.

🔆 Opportunity (39382): Depending on the house placement can show where you are likely to receive the opportunity this year. In the 1st house you will be brought many opportunities, you can have many chances to go towards your goals. In the 2h, your finances, and how much money you spend. This could result in having many opportunities to make or spend money, or even save. This could also be great for investments.

🔆 Tyche (258) in 2h: Luck in finances...

I hope you guys enjoyed this! Happy New Year, and let me know if you want to see my solar return chart for 2024!

𝐃𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐃𝐞'𝐋𝐮𝐱𝐞

𝐇𝐨𝐭 𝐀𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲

𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐝 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬

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smuttysabina · 7 months

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Lessons on Impregnation with Jihyo

(Jihyo x Idols x Fans, 4.6k words) Tags: Breeding, Fat Juicy Creampies, Some Lesbian Action, Even More Breeding, Pseudo-Science Regarding Idol Breeding, Preggo Jihyo, Mass Fucking, Blowjobs, Tittyfucking, Anal, Some Bizarre Sexual Techniques, I Dont Think Enough of These Girls are on Birth Control

Idle chatter fills the air, rebounding off the walls until the room is a cacophony of noise. Idols from three generations of Kpop cram themselves into the space before the podium, occupying a plethora of clashing furniture scrounged up from throughout the building to seat them all. All of the girls eager to hear what the host of the main event would have to say; the woman who had been a pioneer in idol breeding for years, Jihyo. It had long been an ill-kept secret that idols often had... difficulties when attempting to conceive children, many had even used this to their advantage when leading highly hedonistic lifestyles. But when the time came to settle down, problems would ensue, that would often only be solved with the passing of time. Until of course, that great matriarch Jihyo made her breakthrough and had gotten enormously pregnant; while still an active idol no less! And now she is hosting a class, open to any idols who would be interested in learning her secrets; and the resulting audience is nearly bursting through doors in their enthusiasm. Almost all of the 4th Gen girl groups are in attendance, with a smattering of 3rd Gen girls as well. Of course, those too young for the... hands-on training portion had been discretely shunted into a separate break room filled with snacks and games; though they had been given a bland, if rather informative, printout detailing sexual matters. Jihyo was a keen proponent of forthright sexual education.

Jihyo beams as she enters through a door behind the podium, surveying the packed crowd with maternal pride; so many had shown up! Nayeon hurries over to update Jihyo, idly rubbing at her stomach that was already starting to swell up with the first signs of pregnancy. Jihyo touches her own bloated belly in sympathy, she was so proud to see Twice starting to follow in her footsteps and embrace motherhood! The other members were spread throughout the audience, and what an audience it was! The voracious sluts of Itzy lounge next to the preening, spoiled brats of Ive; the languid free-use members of Le Sserafim reclining near the perverse whores of Everglow. The entirety of Loona is in attendance, looking exhausted from the fans' fanatical lovemaking. The shy newcomers of New Jeans mixing freely with NMIXX and a rather haggard looking Kep1er; all of them keeping in a tight pack with other young groups as they warily observe their seniors. Aespa relax nearby, recently returned from their scandalous stay at some rich fop's mansion; the girls seemed to be in good spirits, so evidently they had not been subjected to anything too depraved. The outspoken femdomists of G-Idle prattle happily with Mamamoo, who eye the other group with something a bit more than casual interest... Jihyo's dear friend Lisa had even deigned to show up, though that sex goddess was unlikely to be impregnated any time soon. Dozens of other groups occupy the throng, from the new and lascivious ladies from Kiss of Life, to the more mature seductresses of Dreamcatcher; even the soloists had joined their brethren. All gathered together to learn how exactly they would be able to fill their bellies with a child (and enjoy some pants-down learning).

After a soft cough into the microphone, Jihyo gently, but firmly shushes the assembled audience until the din has quieted to a more tolerable level. Now that she has their mostly undivided attention, she calmly begins her presentation after introducing herself; and giving a little background information about her crusade for motherhood. Then Jihyo gets into the meat of the matter; due to the rigors of their training, idols commonly have a decline in fertility due to an increased difficulty in sperm penetration in female subjects. Male subjects' sperm suffers accordingly as well, allowing them to freely creampie hundreds of squealing fangirls without the worry of dealing with dozens of alimony requests. Mutters of agreement arise from the crowd, many of them had friends from the 2nd and 3rd generations who still dealt with such issues. But, through meticulous testing, Jihyo had discovered a solution to the problem; at least for the ladies. A video of her Impregnation Event flickers to life on the screen behind Jihyo, as she smoothly narrates the experiment; as well as the obvious results of her findings. The audience murmurs as they watch the recording of Jihyo getting mounted by scores, and then hundreds of adoring fans; until her sex is literally gushing with turgid semen. Jihyo joyously declares that quantity was the solution, they simply required a much greater volume of sperm to weaken the egg's shell enough for impregnation to occur!

The audience breaks out in excited chattering as they take in this news, their reactions running the gamut of emotions, from happiness to confusion to disgust to anger. Once the din has died down enough, Lisa lazily raises her arm to indicate that she has a question. Jihyo nods at her friend in permission, and Lisa smoothly rises to her feet.

"If quantity was all that matters, then why am I not pregnant? Why is Jennie or Yeji or Hwasa or any other of the more," she licks her lips, "needy girls not pumping out babies like mad? All of us fuck like rabbits, and we aren't pregnant; so how does this help? Do we just need to fuck ten thousand guys and hope that there will be enough jizz pumped into us to knock us up for once?"

Jihyo nods enthusiastically at her friend's complaint as the crowd mutters, explaining that while being bred by uncountable fans does have its appeal, there are other factors to consider as well. The quality of the load was as important as its amount, there was no point in forcing out watery loads devoid of sperm! The idols' lovers had to be milked thoroughly, lovingly pleasured until their ejaculations were so thick with sperm that they were like yogurt! Of course, such love-making could be... difficult to undertake, so Jihyo had devised an expansive breeding lesson to teach the girls how best to undertake such activities. Lisa cocks her head at Jihyo's response, a playful smile upon her lips; and Jihyo knows that while the nymphomaniac is not entirely convinced, she will assent to her plan. After waiting for a few moments, to see if anyone else had any questions, Jihyo takes a breath to announce the next portion of her seminar when she notices a thin arm shyly wiggling from the herd of newer girls. She squints to figure out who exactly the limb belongs to (the girls are cuddled up in an almost indistinguishable puddle), before she finally recognizes its owner and encourages her to speak.

Trembling slightly, the nubile Danielle of New Jeans hesitantly asks, "But what if... they um- love you a lot and... their c-cum is special?" The older girls in the audience sigh at such a romantic notion, some of them eyeing the floor sorrowfully as they remember past failures. Jihyo though responds with the utmost kindness, gently informing Danielle that while in some cases people may be more... compatible, it was rare, and should not be relied upon. Judging by the girl's expression, she still had confidence in finding her one true love, but Jihyo was not cruel enough to destroy her hopes. After all, love was such a enjoyable state to be in...

Clapping her hands to dispel the sudden heavy mood, Jihyo cheerfully announces that the next, and most exciting, portion of her presentation was about to begin. Pressing a button on her lectern, evenly spaced holes at waist-height in the wall begin to hiss open; the hubbub of eager conversation emanating from the space behind them. The younger idols stare at the portals with benign curiosity, while their more experienced peers are already biting their lips in recognition. Cocks, of all shapes and sizes, rigidly hard and shyly flaccid, are shoved through the holes; eliciting a chorus of squeals and laughter from the assembled idols. Jihyo happily starts directing the groups towards their designated testing areas, informing them all that members of Twice would rotate through to teach them the best methods of breeding. The...material provided was pre-sorted so that only the groups' most fervent fans would be the ones unloading their sticky love for their idols. Jihyo gives the girls some time to settle in and relax, the more inexperienced ones may never have used glory holes before! She feels herself dripping slightly at the thought of such beautiful idols all getting impregnated together... pregnancy truly does rev a woman's sex drive.

Jihyo prowls for a time, slowly making a circuit through the rim of the room, greeting each group as she strolls past them; enjoying the sight of their lovemaking. Through her unhurried observation, she is able to pick out the most notable members who required her direct attentions; some issues were too complex for the rest of Twice to handle. But first of course, Jihyo stops to visit her voracious darlings, her beloved Itzy; who are naturally making an absolute mess of their fans. Yeji viciously draining cock after cock, Lia warbling about perversions as she gets fucked, Ryujin panting in heat as she watches the others, Yuna squealing with sickening love as she falls for every new fan, and dear Chaeryeong quietly enjoying herself to the side. Jihyo knows just the trick to settle her rambunctious girls! Chaery receives naught but a loving kiss, Yuna is adroitly handcuffed to the wall to reduce her frenzied attentions, Ryujin is given a thorough spanking for being so naughty (she squirts multiple times from this), Lia is soothed to allow her fans more regular thrusts inside of her, and Yeji... Yeji gets her cunt fisted until her burning lusts are somewhat slaked; she really must be more considerate towards her lovers if she wants to milk out a load potent enough to inseminate her! Leaving her favorites suitably adjusted, Jihyo merrily continues her journey, confident that Itzy would be practicing their imminent impregnations more carefully now.

Next along her route is Loona, reunited once more in carnal activity, their section of wall a cacophony of fierce fucking. Jihyo notes with pride their positioning and techniques, all of them instinctively moving their bodies to milk the largest loads possible out of their fans. The girls do appear exhausted however, each of them flushed and whining from the forcefulness of their fans' love; even by idol standards they were taking a solid pounding. Jihyo pauses, intrigued, crouching by Yves's quivering waist as her latest lover pulls out of her clogged pussy. She samples what little seed leaks out of the girl, roiling it in her mouth as she tests its potency; her eyebrows raising in bemusement. Judging by the impeccable quality of the cum getting pumped inside of Loona, Jihyo is surprised that the twelve of them have not been popping out babies for years now. So she puts Haseul to a purring interrogation, and between jerky gasps is informed that Loona had been on birth control for years; and that even then many of them had gotten pregnant anyways and had been forced to give birth in secret... Jihyo pats Loona's leader sympathetically, hopefully with the changes in public opinion all of Loona would be getting knocked up soon, and be telling their fans of the joyous rewards of all their hard work! Haseul's response to this stirring encouragement is hard to judge, as she gets creampied while Jihyo is in the middle of speaking. She drools as the semen is forced into her womb, clutching at Jihyo as her ovulating pussy is swamped once more with Orbit jizz. Jihyo sighs with pleasure at the sight, lovingly hugging the girl's head against her breasts; it's obvious that somebody's birth control is also simply not up to the task...

After the delightful experience of watching Haseul getting knocked up, Jihyo is greeted with the altogether less enjoyable view of Everglow in action. Of the six, only Mia seems to be properly fucking her fans; Onda and Yiren appear utterly indifferent to their fans' affections, while Aisha and Sihyeon are having great difficulty in coaxing their lovers to orgasm, meanwhile E:U is apparently being used as a urinal. Choosing to ignore the perverted disaster that is Everglow's former leader, Jihyo instead decides to focus on the two pillow princesses first. Her fingers skillfully tease and touch Onda and Yiren, slowly building up the lust within them before more directly stroking at their pussies. Jihyo soon has the pair gasping and moaning, eagerly impaling themselves on their fans' cocks as they greedily pleasure themselves. Licking her fingers clean, Jihyo nods in satisfaction before turning her attentions to the other two standouts; she blissfully chooses to ignore the fact that Mia is now currently pissing on E:U while getting fucked. She frowns as she inspects Aisha and Sihyeon, noting the loose grip their holes have on their lover's shafts. Upon deeper inspection, wrist-deep, that is, Jihyo comes to the unfortunate conclusion that both of the girls' pussies were utterly blown out from overuse; drastic measures were required. After giving the two some detailed instructions on tightening exercises to perform, Jihyo quickly moves on to more extreme techniques. She teaches the two perverts (a touch unfair in Sihyeon's case) the bizarre art of womb-fucking; which Aisha takes to with sultry gusto, and Sihyeon with desperate energy. Satisfied that the pair were now milking their fans' cocks more swiftly, Jihyo calmly steps over the blubbering form of E:U as she lays quivering in a puddle of filth. With an ex-leader like her, it was no wonder Everglow has such... odd sexual interests.

The youthful sluts from Kiss of Life are a refreshing palette cleanser for Jihyo after the depravity of Everglow. While they might not have as much on-cock experience, their enthusiasm for sex nearly makes up for their lack. The four of them loudly and messily make love to the cocks sticking out of the wall, oftentimes stopping to suck them clean after they've emptied themselves inside of the girls' pussies. Jihyo beams to see such passion, and happily squats to join the girls on their knees; sharing a still-dripping cock with Natty as they lick her juices off of it. Then a fresh member is pushed through the hole, and Jihyo eagerly prepares it for her junior with her mouth, slurping on it until it is twitching desperately for release. She indulgently guides it inside of a moaning Natty, and is overjoyed to see its balls begin to pulsate almost immediately. She is getting ready to move on when Julie endearingly offers Jihyo a turn or two at her own gloryhole, surely she could take a little break... Jihyo is swayed by the adoring looks the idols of Kiss of Life give her, how could she possibly let them down? So she fucks seven cocks in quick succession, her slick and experienced pussy draining them with confident ease; while the girls look on in awe and suckle lovingly upon Jihyo's swaying breasts. She sighs with pleasure as each fresh spurt of semen fills her, slowly rubbing her clit as she takes some time to relax and enjoy herself. Giving the girls an appreciative fingering, which leaves the four of them shuddering from explosive orgasms, Jihyo kisses the Kiss of Life a cheerful goodbye as she moves on to the next section.

The haughty chaebols of Ive await Jihyo there, selfishly pleasuring themselves with their fans' sore and ignored cocks. They bitchily ignore the needs of their fans, fucking them until they grow bored and whimsically demand they switch out for a different partner; oftentimes they don't even bother making them cum. Rae even refuses to allow fans inside of her pussy, using her ass to drain them instead; while the stuck-up Wonyoung rebuffs any attempts to ejaculate in or on her at all! This, of course, could not be tolerated, and Jihyo moves quickly to set these spoiled brats straight. But when she cheerfully announces to the five princesses (Leeseo having been directed to the break room) that their first lesson would be servicing their poor fans with their mouths, outrage ensues. Sniffing with disgust, Ive arrogantly declare their opposition, refusing to demean themselves by tasting their lowly play-toys. Jihyo merely smiles, such unruly girls they are; they could use some discipline! By the time she is finished, the five idols are rubbing their bruised butts, whining piteously at the rough treatment they had received; they had never been spanked like that before! Suitably chastened, the girls get on their knees and duly begin to suck off their fans, unenthusiastically pleasuring them with snobbish reluctance. Jihyo rolls her eyes at their petty defiance, and squats beside Ive to... help them along. She jackhammers Liz's head against the dick she is sucking, forcing Liz to be throat-fucked until semen splatters out of her nose. Jihyo then moves along to the rest of them, who quickly get the message and put some more effort into their blowjobs. She claps her hands, instructing them to keep sucking even after they've drained their first cocks; while forbidding them from pleasuring themselves until they had finished off a score of fans each! The arrogant chaebols complain as they are forced to put some effort into their lovemaking for once, their over-indulged pussies dripping needily as they go untouched. Ive soon find some glimmers of interest in their fans' pleasure, as they desperately try to milk them as swiftly as possible so they can resume satisfying their own lusts. Jihyo beams as the idols finish their assignment, all of them now looking hungrily at the fresh cocks sprouting from their gloryholes. She tells the girls that they were now allowed to have sex, but that they must make sure to allow their lovers to finish inside of them! Ive immediately throw themselves upon the dicks with abandon, eagerly impaling their greedy cunts upon their fans' cocks and fucking them. Their slick holes are soon awash with sticky semen, though Wonyoung is quick to complain about how disgusting it feels to have cum inside of her. Jihyo sighs, one step at a time... she assigns Chaeyoung to watch over the little princesses; a brat to deal with the brats.

The next group Jihyo passes by hardly needs any help at all, Dreamcatcher are quite experienced in milking fat loads out of their fans. Sultry Siyeon massaging their balls while she fucks them, earnest Jiu making sure that not a single drop is wasted, slutty Yoohyeon grinding her perky cheeks against them in a frenzy, smirking Handong playfully teasing them until they explode inside of her, lustful Sua performing all sorts of acrobatics to find the best angle to drain them, mischievous Gahyeon purring as she bounces so ardently her weighty breasts clap together, and cruel Dami tormenting them until they have no choice but to empty themselves. Jihyo's advice therefore is mostly technical, some slight adjustments to positioning, some small improvements to movements, the exact tightness used while their fans' are cumming. The initially dominant Dami is like a puppy with Jihyo however, and is quite eager to worship such a beautiful goddess... Jihyo happily allows her to, groaning as Dami devours her soggy pussy, her tongue scooping out the loads deposited inside of Jihyo when she frolicked with Kiss of Life. After several extremely messy orgasms, a somewhat breathless Jihyo moves on to more needy girls; though not before joining Gahyeon to double tittyfuck some lucky fans, none of them lasted more than a minute with their cocks squished between the two idols' voluptuous breasts!

Jihyo strolls in a more distant manner now, her fellow group mates of Twice having done a splendid job teaching the more capable groups the art of breeding. Momo had whipped the lazy sluts of Le SSerafim into shape, turning the ordinarily placid girls into salacious whores bent only on seeing who could get the most cum pumped inside of them. Sana had been dispatched to keep the rampant lesbians of Mamamoo in line, and though the group seemed to spend most of their time fisting one another, there were at least some creampies occurring. And gentle Nayeon had done a wonderful job helping out the younger groups, though the perverted bunny still did go into heat whenever she smelled an unmilked virgin dick. Jihyo hums as she passes by a plethora of lovely idol girls, all of them having steamy raw sex with their adoring fans; she wondered how many of them would end up getting impregnated today... Then she passes by Purple Kiss, and Jihyo spots her current favorite engaging in rapturous sex. Swan's hefty breasts sway and jiggle as she lovingly drains her fan's cocks inside of her; slowly pampering their members until they erupt with thick, potent seed. Jihyo moans a little as she watches, her lust fired by the sight of a girl so much like her younger self making love with such passion. The thought of them getting bred together sends Jihyo's heart racing.... their breasts squished together, kissing intensely as cock after cock unloads inside of them, their bellies swollen to bursting with creamy semen, every inch of their curvy bodies adoringly used for their fans pleasure, holding hands as the supreme moment finally arrives and their eggs are quickened together... Jihyo is dripping wet as she blinks away her fantasies, she would have to wait to indulge herself with Swan; it would be unbecoming to show so much favor so soon. So she hurries along, thighs damp with juices.

Luckily for the matriarch of Twice, the next section over is solely occupied by her dear friend Lisa; as well as the unconscious body of Tzuyu. Lisa gives an apologetic smile, the poor girl had tried to match her and well... she shrugs. Semen plasters every surface in the area, Tzuyu is practically drowning in it, Lisa is literally painted with it, her holes overflowing with it. Jihyo gives the mischievous slut a pointed glare, before descending into giggles, she could never stay mad at Lisa. Who teasingly pats the wall beside her, inviting Jihyo to join in the fun, to let loose a little; she does deserve it after all. With Jihyo all buttered up from her enticing fantasies of Swan, she is in no condition to refuse the offer to play with hedonistic idol; so she agrees, reaching out for a fan. Just a little fun...

That had been an hour ago, and the two idols showed no sign of stopping their carnal rampage. Cock after cock are shoved through the holes, only to be slammed into gushing holes moments later, and squeezed dry within a minute. Jihyo and Lisa fuck side-by-side moaning to one another and sloppily kissing as they slake their lusts upon their fans. They stroke throbbing members to either side of themselves, hungrily readying them for insertion, or simply working the turgid loads out of them by hand. It's still not enough for the veteran sluts however, the sex is simply too impersonal to truly satisfy them. Jihyo has a solution however, but she first glances around to take stock and make sure her absence would not imperil her seminar... She needn't have worried, almost every girl group was now solely focused on the primal act of fucking, mixing together and socializing as they received creampie after creampie. With a sleazy smirk, Jihyo produces a key that she slots into the wall, a quick twist of the wrist makes a section of the wall open up. Grasping her friend by the hand, Jihyo pulls her into the dreary half-light of the room beyond. The hidden door hisses shut behind them, and Jihyo and Lisa find themselves confronted by a corridor packed with fans waiting for their turns at a glory hole. They stare in shock at the seductive sight of two idols, drenched with semen and juices, entirely naked and more than willing. Lisa lets out a little squeal of delight and squeezes Jihyo's hand, this was going to be such fun! She stalks forward, hand on her hip, and gives them her most salacious glare, "Well what are you waiting for, boys? Fuck us already." They trip over themselves to comply.

Jihyo and Lisa find themselves on their knees, back-to-back they slurp at the cocks surrounding them, stroking as many off as they can. The crowded fans spurt their jizz all over the idols' smiling faces, gifting them with a fresh layer of sticky goo. They remain crouched there until their lusts grow unbearable, sticking their asses out they demand to be fucked, which they quickly are. The pair are spit-roasted next to one another, as fan after fan frenziedly mounts them from behind, uncaring of what hole they shove their dicks into. The girls suck dry any cock that is forced into their mouths, sometimes even sharing a lucky fan between them as they lick up and down his shaft. Jihyo's huge swaying tits are groped and squeezed, constantly played with even as she pleasures as many fans at once as she can. Soon enough the idols are on the ground in a growing puddle of sexual fluids, legs spread wide as a train of fans take their turns to pump between their thighs. The two get separated for a time after that, both Jihyo and Lisa having all of their holes filled at the same time in a variety of positions; orgasming continuously as they are buried beneath piles of sweaty, thrusting bodies. Jihyo's hefty boobs are constantly getting mounted, the flesh between her breasts are as popular as her pussy to her lovers. Lisa's meanwhile outdoes her friend when it comes to cramming as many cocks inside of her at once; forcing two or even three into one of her holes while screaming for more. The pair are passed around for what seems like hours, their vision filled with a seemingly endless supply of dripping cocks glistening in the dim lighting. Then suddenly it's over, as the final fans groan loudly and spend themselves inside the idols, leaving them panting and exhausted in a pool of cum several inches deep. They stagger to their feet, hugging one another for support, as they slowly walk towards the door, giggling like naughty schoolgirls as they consider what they had done.

Matters in the main room seemed to be winding down as well, with wearied idols sprawled atop toppled furniture throughout the lecture hall. A few lusty girls remained active by the gloryholes, but it was obvious that the supply of fans was swiftly running out. Leaving a trail of glue-like semen, Jihyo languidly reclaims her place at the lectern. Cheerfully ignoring the stinking mess she was making, she taps the microphone once more to get everyone's attention. A chorus of groans and whimpers arises from the prostrated audience, but the murmuring and squeals subsides enough for her to speak. Jihyo merrily thanks the girls for their participation in the seminar, and informs them that the Q&A session would be held... tomorrow. The girls were welcome to stay as long as they needed to recover however, and she hopes that they had an instructive day. She gives Lisa a particularly knowing smile, Jihyo had made sure those Blackpink fans were extremely potent.

Jihyo looked forward to seeing idols waddling around onstage with bulging bellies...

#kpop smut #everglow smut #itzy smut #blackpink smut #aespa smut #smut #twice smut #jihyo smut #twice jihyo #ive smut #dreamcatcher smut #Kiss of Life smut #lisa smut #loona smut

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fauxbia · 4 months

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This is Paths Left Untaken! She/Any, Aroace.

She's an Iterator OC that I love so much and inflict endless horrors on. She's just your basic Iterator, made to find the Solution without many particularly noteworthy quirks. Really, she's nothing special. And that fact is agonizing.

Paths Left Untaken was made primarily out of obligation rather than genuine passion. Her creators were a group of people interested in finding ways to streamline the Iterator construction process, and since more Iterators is always better, they were always working on one Project or another. As such, her creators and administrators never particularly cared about her all that much. She was just another Iterator Project they had completed, and now it was time to take the lessons they had learned when building her to move on to the next.

Even worse, this approach to Iterator construction resulted in Paths Left Untaken being relatively poorly constructed. There were two notable examples of this. The first was a persistent bug in her priority queue that would occasionally cause new priorities to either completely overwrite everything else in the queue or fail to be properly added, resulting in her being extremely distractible and having issues with focus.

The second was the arrangement of all of her most important components—including the entirety of her AI—, being concentrated completely in the core of her structure, within her Central Cortex, instead of distributed throughout Her creators reasoned that this arrangement would allow her quicker processing speed and power, but the end difference was negligible from standard Iterator processing. Rather, it inadvertently ensured that if anything negative happened in her Central Cortex, Paths Left Untaken would be incapacitated.

As a result of the neglect she faced, Paths Left Untaken was desperate to earn her administrators’ approval. She would spend long stretches of time focusing only on the Great Problem, ignoring everything else (including her own wellbeing) to run countless simultaneous high-intensity processes so that she might achieve results that would make her creators notice her as more than “just another Project.” But it was extremely difficult on account of her trouble with focusing, and it never really worked anyway. It only ever left her burnt out and hurt from repeated dismissal.

After a very long while of this, it occurred to her that she was never going to be anything but just another Project to her creators and nothing she could do would ever change that. Out of spite and pain at the rejection, she turned in the exact opposite direction and decided that if her creators were never going to acknowledge her efforts anyway, then she wasn’t going to do what they built her to do. She instead turned her focus to getting acquainted with her own Local Group, hoping to find validation in her peers rather than in her superiors.

However, she was received with caution, as she had never actually made any efforts to talk with them before. From their perspective, she was focused only on the Problem and didn’t care about them at all, and this sudden change was jarring and suspicious. But Paths’ neglect of her groupmates wasn’t out of malice like they thought; she just genuinely forgot they existed for a while as she focused on seeking approval. The only exception to this was her Senior, who was barely tolerant of her anyway on account of her extreme distractability and overly eager to please demeanor.

In the end, her groupmates never really welcomed her. She acted a lot younger than she actually was due to her neglect, and was turbulent between extreme people-pleasing and bouts of pain-fueled anger at them and her creators for not acknowledging her. She was a mess, to put it lightly, and her groupmates were just… uncomfortable around her. So they stopped engaging with her, and eventually she got the hint and stopped trying to earn their approval, too.

The Mass Ascension was a horribly traumatic event for Paths Left Untaken. It basically proved to her that she meant nothing to any of her citizens, if they could all abandon her without a second thought. Now she could never earn their approval, and she was left drifting without purpose or acknowledgement. Her pain meant nothing. All of her groupmates were hurt by the Mass Ascension. She wasn’t special for having been traumatized by it. She was still unremarkable. She was “Just Paths.” And that’s all she would ever be.

Paths Left Untaken was alone for a while following the Mass Ascension.

And if I draw anymore I think my hand is actually going to explode, so! I'm just going to wrap this post up here. This was a basic overview of Paths Left Untaken pre-MA, and a lot more happens to her after the Mass Ascension. Like, a lot more. Girlie was selected by the universe to Suffer A Lot, Actually. Like she did absolutely nothing to deserve any of it but sure I guess.

Anyway! Feel free to ask me stuff about her so I have prompts to talk more! And maybe draw! Time and hand permitting! I am so mentally ill about the silly little characters <3

#faux art #iterator oc #rw oc #paths left untaken #the sillayyyyyy #everything bad happens to her ever #like.......... girlies when we're doomed from the start </3 #i'm so insane guys #i have been doing stuff with her for like. SIX MONTHS. just. all in an rp server #the rp got so fucking intense #so many things happened #though i hesitate to say any of it's “canon”#i'll be picking and choosing parts from it to incorporate and changing them around :3 #looking forward to seeing how this goes

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whatsthethinking · 9 months

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Beauty and the Beast (1)

Jake Sully x Fem!Reader

All Jake wants is a chance to prove that he’s good enough.

↦ Word count: 4.2k

↦ Warning: Neytiri and Jake aren’t getting along. Slightly ooc Tsu’tey. Not sure what else rn.

↦ Note: Bold italics = speaking Na’vi.

↦ Part 1 of ?, mini series pending

[Part 2]

“Again,” Neytiri demanded as she held up another arrow. His previous one soared into the distance, missing its target completely.

Jake reached towards it before his hand faltered, “can’t we take a break?”

Netytiri looked taken aback, offended by the idea of stopping.

“No,” she began, “I was told that I will teach you, so that is what I’m doing. You can stop once you’ve hit the target.”

Jake creased his eyebrows, his frustrations growing along with the Na’vi beside him.

“A five minute break won’t kill anyone.” Jake grumbled, snatching the arrow from Neytiri.

“Fine, then let us stop. I will not teach you any longer.” Neytiri’s words are firm. She had already decided.

“That’s not what I-” Jake started but Neytiri had already disappeared from his sight, “meant.”

Taking a deep breath, Jake tried to get his bearings, all he felt like doing right now was eating dinner and sleeping. Slowly but surely, Jake made it back to Home Tree, passing all of the clan members gathering to eat dinner. Some of the children had tried to stop him, begging Jake to eat with them but he declined stating that didn’t have an appetite but promised that he would eat with them next time, when that would be, he wasn’t sure.

—

Y/n dismounted her ikran, gathering her belongings and giving it a gentle pat on the neck before it took off again and she leisurely strolled towards Home Tree. Many clan members who passed greeted her enthusiastically which she reciprocated.

As she neared the centre, y/n spotted Neytiri entering, a scowl set deeply onto her face. Marching in the direction of the Healer’s tent. As she watched, Tsu’tey approached her, a pleasant look on his face.

“You have missed a lot during your time away, cousin.” He informed, resting his weight on his bow, “I almost felt the need to come and fetch you myself.”

“Is that so? And what is the big event I have missed?” She questioned, turning towards him slightly.

“Another sky person has come, he wants to learn the way of the people.” Tsu’tey’s voice was full of disdain as his eyes danced across the people around them. “And the Tsahik has instructed Neytiri to teach him.”

“Ah, I see. That’s why she looked so displeased.” Y/n hummed.

“I guess it is the result of another failed lesson. It is hopeless, he will not learn.” Tsu’tey scoffed.

“With attitudes like that around, of course, he won’t,” Y/n concluded, pointing a finger at Tsu’tey, which he knocked away.

“Well, we know how this will end, won’t we?” Tsu’tey questioned, his voice growing dark.

“Oh, stop it.” y/n said, rolling her eyes, “there’s no need to be like that. Not all humans are the same.”

“I’ll agree with you when I am proved wrong.”

Rolling her eyes at him again, Y/n bid him farewell. Not wanting to have this conversation with him. Again.

She walked through Home Tree, to the healer’s tent where she hoped her father would be so that she could show that she had returned in one piece and only one or two scratches. As she approached the tent, she noticed that a few healers were waiting outside trying to keep themselves busy.

Y/n slowed as she heard Neytiri desperately asking her mother to somehow change her mind about something, she also heard Eytukan being the voice of reason between the two women. Hesitantly, y/n entered the tent to see Neytiri standing before her parents with a look of pleading on her face but her mother looked unmoved. In the corner, she noticed her father tending to an unconscious hunter whose arm was bandaged from his hand up to his chest.

Y/n silently greeted the family by raising her hand to her forehead and moved out of their way over to her father whose back was currently facing her.

“I’m back, Father.” She announced, keeping her voice low to not interrupt the conversation happening.

In one swift movement, y/n’s father stood to his full height and brought his daughter into a warm hug. Which y/n reciprocated.

“I missed you,” He said into the crown of her head.

“I missed you too.”

Y/n’s father ended the hug and held his daughter at arm’s length, his eyes scanning her body for any sign of injury.

“I am well, Father, I promise,” Y/n reassured, smiling at her father.

“I know but I need to see for myself.”

Y/n smiled again before pulling her father into another hug.

“Tonowari sends his regards.” She mumbled against his chest, “he is well also.”

Y/n’s father nodded again, a faint smile gracing his lips at the mention of his daughter's friend. “I am glad to hear it.”

On the other side of the tent, Mo’at could feel her patience wearing thin with her daughter's incessant pleas to not teach the human their ways.

“You brought him to us, Neytiri. It is your responsibility.”

“I bought him because there was a sign from Eywa.”

“Exactly, a sign from Eywa that can not be ignored and since it was you that brought Jake Sully to us. It is your responsibility to teach him our way.”

“But it is not fair Mother, please.”

“You are the future Tsahik of this clan. You should not be giving up so easily.”

“But if I no longer want to teach the sky person, I will have more time to learn all that I need to be Tsahik.”

“She is not wrong, my love.” Eytukan chimed in, “If Neytiri steps away from being Jake Sully’s teacher, she can spend more time learning how to be a Tsahik.”

Mo’at took a deep breath and looked at her daughter earnestly, “Very well, and who do you suggest will take your place?”

Neytiri’s back went rigid at the thought, “I have to choose?”

“Yes. You don’t want to teach Jake Sully, so you must choose who is taking over your responsibilities.”

Neytiri took a deep breath and started going through the list of names in her head but she knew none that she thought of would want to teach a human the way of the people. She momentarily stopped at Tsu’tey. He is the clan’s best warrior and is well respected but he has proven that he has a strong dislike for the humans and has been making snide comments at Jake every time he made a mistake in his lessons. Neytiri was sure if she left Jake in his care, there would be no more Jake Sully.

Reaching the end of the list, she got to y/n who was coincidentally standing across from her family, held in her father’s embrace. Neytiri knew the girl well enough. Her late sister's best friend, the pair would spend a lot of time together along with Tsu’tey and little Neytiri would beg to tag along. As the four of them grew up, y/n floated around the clan making friends. A social butterfly who seeks adventure.

After Sylwanin died, y/n seemed to be away from the clan more. Travelling to different parts of Pandora. She would return with a bag full of things she had collected and stories that the younger clan members would climb over one another to hear. She continued to be friendly with Tsu’tey, which was understandable since their families were extremely close but she had slightly drifted away from Neytiri but was still very kind. Although they weren’t particularly friends, her presence was missed.

Would it be appropriate to ask her to take over teaching?

Taking another deep breath, Neytiri’s eyes flickered to y/n before meeting her mother’s eye, “I’ll ask y/n.”

“Very well then.” Mo’at nodded, before turning to the father and daughter behind her. “Y/n, if we could have a moment of your time.”

Y/n nodded and stepped away from her father. Meeting her eye, Neytiri asked the question, asking if y/n could teach Jake Sully the way of the people. Y/n looked at the family in front of her and then back to her father before slowly nodding.

“I think I can do that.”

Neytiri nodded before making a quick escape from the tent but y/n was close behind. Once the pair were a distance away from any prying ears, y/n grabbed Neytiri’s wrist and made the younger girl face her.

“I feel like there is more to me just teaching our guest, I agreed but I want to know why you can not.”

Neytiri hesitated slightly, “I can’t do it anymore. I tried to follow my mother’s instructions, but he just isn’t learning. All he does is complain, he is slow, he-.”

“Is learning.” Y/n added, cutting off Neytiri’s complaint, “How long has he been here.”

“Seven days?” Neytiri mumbled, feeling shy. She felt like she was a child being scolded.

“Seven? Seriously? He needs more time.”

“I know but being around him makes me feel sad. Angry? I don’t know. Every time I look at him, I see them and I see her.”

Understanding Neytiri’s implications, y/n nodded with a sigh. Neytiri bit back a sad smile but still tried to express her gratitude, “thank you y/n. Truly.”

“It is no problem.” Y/n reached forward, taking Neytiri’s hand in hers and giving it a gentle squeeze, “so, what’s his name?”

—

“Jake Sully?” Jake’s head shot up at the sound of his name. He hadn’t made it into his hammock, just sitting on the branch above trying to figure out how to tell Grace (and Quaritch) that he doesn’t have a teacher within the clan anymore. He felt useless.

“Me?” Jake pointed to his chest, looking at the Na’vi woman standing above him. She nodded and sat next to him.

“I am your new teacher. You can call me y/n.” y/n announced, holding out her hand for him to shake, remembering that that’s how humans introduce themselves.

Jake shook her hand awkwardly, “Jake Sully.”

Y/n nodded, retracted her hand and placed it in her lap, “We can start your lessons the day after tomorrow. I already have plans tomorrow. We can meet at the practice field at, uh, in.” Y/n stopped speaking and started to move her hands around, muttering to herself. Jake watched curiously, waiting to hear what the Na’vi woman was going to say next.

“In the midday?”

“At midday?” Jake corrected.

“Yes,” y/n beamed, “at midday. At lunchtime. Is that good?”

“Yes. Yes, that’s good for me. Thank you.”

“It is not a problem, have you eaten? I can get you something to eat if you would like.”

Jake was slightly taken aback by the question. In the week he had been here. Neytriri hadn’t asked if he was hungry or thirsty, Jake ate when she ate. “Uh, no I haven’t but it’s okay, I’ll eat when I go back.”

“Okay, if you are sure. I will see you the day after tomorrow, Jake Sully.”

“See ya.”

Y/n flashed a warm smile at Jake and then she was gone. Jake stayed seated for a few moments longer trying to process the events of the day. He sat thinking about what to say in that stupid log Grace is going to force him to do the second his eyes opened. He also sat thinking about what to report back to Quaritch, as far as he knew, y/n wasn’t a core part of the clan. Jake hadn’t seen her before or heard her name in passing so would he be able to gain any information that would be beneficial to the RDA.

He also felt embarrassed. He wasn’t good enough so the chief’s daughter dropped him, not exactly something he wants the lab to know.

–

As the linkpod slowly opened, Jake lay still with his eyes tightly closed. He could feel eyes on him but didn’t dare to look.

“Wasn’t expecting you for a few more hours, Marine.” Grace voiced, bringing Jake’s wheelchair closer.

“Yeah, Neytiri had clan duties so I was let go early,” Jake responded, opening his eyes and allowing his eyes to adjust to the harsh lights above him. Once he felt ready, he lifted himself into his chair, Grace watched him settle.

“How did it go today? Learn anything new?” Grace questioned with a fond smile on her face. A sight that Jake was seeing more often which made the idea of confessing that Neytiri dropped him (and he had a new teacher) harder to admit.

“Yeah, yeah, it was fine. I’m gonna be here all day tomorrow though. I have a day off.”

“A day off.” The smile had vanished from Grace’s face, “what do you mean ‘a day off’? What happened?”

“What? Do the Na’vi not believe in rest days?” Jake questioned, lightheartedly, rolling over to his desk so that he could get the log out of the way.

“Not when it comes to teaching. Did something happen?”

“Nothing happened, Grace, don’t worry about it.”

Jake watched as Grace looked at him skeptically before nodding, “alright. Finish up your video and come and get something to eat.”

“Yes ma’am.”

At dinner, Jake sat next to Norm who was asking every question under the sun about the Na’vi and what they were teaching him which Jake responded to with little effort and interest. Eventually, Norm got the message and started to speak to the other scientists.

Later the night on his way to his room, Jake was stopped by Quaritch, the last person he wanted to see.

“Sully, anything to report to me?” Quaritch questioned in his usual condescending tone.

“No sir, not today. I was away from camp.”

“Did ya hear anything? See anything?”

Jake paused to think, “Not that I can think of.”

“Uh-huh.” Quaritch didn’t believe him and it was clear on his face. “Okay. I’ll leave you to wind down for the night.”

Quaritch stepped to the side, allowing Jake to pass. As he did, he could feel Quaritch’s eyes follow him until he was out of sight only to be stopped by Max.

“Everything okay, Jake?”

All Jake could do was nod and continue on his way, missing the way Max watched him suspiciously.

—

The next day, as soon as the sun rose, y/n was dressed and ready for the day ahead. She quickly ate breakfast with her dad and made her way through Home Tree.

“You shouldn’t be going, it isn’t safe.”

“You tell me that every time, Tsu’tey and yet, I come back unharmed.”

Tsu’tey stood in front of y/n with his arms crossed, y/n copied his stance until he relaxed.

“I tell you every time because I want you to be safe.”

“I can keep myself safe. But if you’re so concerned, you should come too.”

“No.” Tsu’tey objected flatly, “Very well, if you are not back by eclipse, I’m coming to get you.”

“Please don’t.”

Tsu’tey sighed before pulling the girl into a hug that was very unlike him. Y/n stood awkwardly for a few moments, “Hug me back, skxawng.” Tsu’tey mumbled. So y/n complied, patting the older Na'vi on the back, “Stop that.”

“This is nice to see.”

The pair jumped away from one another at the sound of the Tsahik’s voice.

“Be safe,” Tsu’tey muttered before disappearing.

—

Y/n skillfully climbed through the hole in the fence behind the longhouse that she made many years ago. The nature surrounding it had grown enough to hide it from view. Over the years, y/n had come accustomed to the human’s routine. Learning where to go and at what times while being safe. That’s why she sat down, legs crossed by the locked door of the longhouse. She knew that soon, someone from the avatar program would come and unlock the door and hopefully tell Grace of her arrival. And soon that moment arrived. An avatar scientist slowly walked up the stairs, yawning and stretching his arms out to the side, he hadn’t noticed y/n just yet but y/n still stood up and made space for him. At the movement, his eyes snapped to her rising figure and he froze before raising a small black box to his face.

“Tell Dr. Augustine that she has a guest.”

A voice crackled back and the scientist unlocked the door slowly and walked in. Y/n peered around the doorway, spotting Grace’s avatar at the far end ‘asleep’, y/n waited for any movement but the avatar stayed completely still. The scientist walked back over and motioned y/n to follow him.

“Dr. Augustine is finishing her breakfast and then she’ll meet you in the link room. I’ll take you there.” The scientist paused once he finished explaining, he had an uncertain look on his face but as y/n nodded with a soft ‘okay’, the scientist seemed to relax. “But you can not bring that in with you.”

The scientist motioned to her hip. Y/n nodded understandingly before spinning on the spot and walking into the longhouse, removing her knife and placing it beside Grace’s ‘sleeping’ avatar.

“That too.”

Y/n looked down at the woven bag hanging off of her shoulder and shook her head, “It is a gift for ma sa’- Grace. A gift for Grace.” The scientist looked at her suspiciously, y/n following but trying to keep a distance. All around her, Hell’s Gate was waking up, she could feel eyes on her as she passed groups of humans. Finally, y/n and the scientist reached a doorway that was big enough for her to fit through without bowing her head. As they walked through the door, lights above them turned on one by one until they were finally inside a brightly lit room.

“Wait here, I’ll get you a mask.”

Y/n followed the scientist's instructions and watched as he walked through a smaller door, and out of sight. Looking around, y/n looked at the two empty tubes that she knew the avatars came from. She heard a crackle and turned to look at the window behind her, recognising a familiar face. Which brought a wide grin to her face.

“Good morning, Max!”

“Good morning, y/n. Long time no see.”

“Yes.”

The scientist came back through the door and handed y/n a mask, he quickly explained how to use it, instructing her that she would need to use it about every five minutes or so. Y/n nodded along, not listening fully, she was just excited to see Grace. Once the scientist was satisfied and with the approval of Max, y/n entered the link room where she just about fit. Inside she saw all the scientists getting ready for the day, some whom she wasn’t familiar with giving her a scared, questioning look but y/n didn’t care one bit. As she watched them all stream in, y/n clutched her bag tighter.

“Y/n! What a lovely surprise.”

Y/n stood up straight and turned towards the voice. She quickly spotted Grace’s auburn hair through the small crowd and a tall unfamiliar man stumbling behind her.

“Sa’n- Grace!”

Grace approached the na’vi with a steaming mug in her hand and a fond smile on her face, a rare one to see around Hell’s Gate.

Grace’s eyes trailed up and down the na’vi, just as her father had done the day prior

“Y/n, this is Norm, he came to work with me.”

“Nice to meet you, Norm.” At the sound of his name, Norm seemed to snap out of his trance, clearly his throat brushing off any dust that may have settled on his clothes. “It is a pleasure to meet you, y/n.”

“How does he sound?” Grace questioned, taking a sip from her mug, “he’s been practicing.”

“He speaks well, a bit formal but it is fine.”

Norm’s face lit up at the compliment and Grace gave him a knowing look. Behind Grace and Norm, y/n noticed a man pass through the door, seated in a chair with wheels. Once he made eye contact with y/n he quickly disappeared. Y/n didn’t think much of it.

“I got you this.” Y/n handed Grace, anticipation clear on her face. Grace reached into the bag and pulled out a parcel. She placed it gently on the metal table behind her, Norm looming over her shoulder to get a peek and what the colourful wrappings were hiding. Grace slowly pulled the wrappings away to reveal a large shell that she had to hold in both hands. “Wow.” Both Grace and Norm voiced as Grace moved the shell around under the light causing different colours to show

“I found it while visiting Awa'atlu, I went swimming with Ronal,” Y/n explained proudly. “It reminded me of a picture from your Earth books. She told me what it’s called but I don’t remember.” She confessed.

“It’s beautiful. Thank you.”

“Phenomenal.” Norm gasped, which made y/n laugh, even though she didn’t know the exact meaning of the word.

—

Grace and y/n spent most of the morning together in the lab, Grace showed her the different samples she had found with Norm and y/n explained what their properties were. Selfridge had heard of her presence in the lab and came to ask questions about her life. They had only ever met once when y/n was younger, she didn’t like him then and she certainly didn’t like him now but y/n didn’t see him as a threat. To y/n, the biggest threat to her and her people was Colonel Miles Quaritch, just by looking at him, y/n could tell that he was plotting something but she wasn’t sure what.

Y/n and Norm, still in his human body, walked out of the lab and towards the longhouse. Grace said that she needed to speak with Max and then she’ll meet them there. On the walk, y/n watched all of the avatars run around the courses and y/n was quite amused. Some of them were struggling which told her that they were new to this.

“So… You and Grace are friends?” Norm started, trying to catch up with her.

“She is family. I have known her for a long time.” Y/n explained, watching as two avatars threw basketball between one another, missing Norm’s astonished face, “my whole life.”

Soon, Grace joined y/n and Norm outside of the longhouse in her avatar form, holding y/n’s hunting knife. Y/n exchanged a few more words with Norm before he rushed off, Grace informing her that he’ll probably record their meeting in his log.

“I missed you. I have so much to tell you about my trip.” Grace pulled y/n into a tight hug, resting her cheek on the younger girl's head, “I wish you could’ve joined me.”

“I wish I could have too,” Grace admitted, pulling away from the girl and allowing her to take a step back. The pair sat on the stairs of the long house catching up. Again, different scientists would walk passed and watch y/n with unease in their eyes. Y/n told Grace about how her father was doing along with her trip to the reef, “Tonowari is to be Olo'eyktan, he invited me to the ceremony.”

Y/n prepared herself to leave, stating that she had planned to have dinner with her father. “Before you go, I’m moving my team to the lab in the mountains tomorrow. Hopefully, I’ll get to see you more often now.” Grace confessed, hope evident in her voice, “It has been so long since I’ve spent time with you.”

Grace watched as y/n’s eyes lit up at the idea, “That is good! But, I don’t know. Neytiri and Mo’at asked me to teach, uh, Jake Sully? I said yes. Is he your friend?”

Grace looked at the girl with slight confusion on her face before nodding, “I would not say friends but he’s on my team.”

The answer seemed to be good enough for y/n as she nodded along and continued with her stories, occasionally adding in how much Tsu’tey annoys her.

Once y/n had left, Grace unlinked with her and walked briskly around Hell’s Gate until she saw who she was looking for.

“Why the hell didn’t you tell me that Neytiri wasn’t teaching you?” Grace questioned without greeting the man before him. Jake looked stunned opening his mouth to speak but Grace beat him to it. “You better not mess this up.”

“You seem to be taking this personally, doctor.” Jake joked, trying to ease the ever-growing tension.

“I am. Don’t mess this up, Jake. I'm serious. Don’t waste her time.” Jake nodded awkwardly, and Grace’s shoulders dropped as she sighed, “Don’t forget, we’re out of here tomorrow. 9am, you have somewhere to be at 12.”

“Yes ma’am.”

Grace stared at Jake a few moments more before turning on her heels and left, muttering under her breath. Jake let out the breath he was holding and wheeled himself towards the vehicle storage where he knew Quaritch would be waiting.

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stomach-bugg09 · 1 year

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heyyy, could you maybe write a fic with the entire sully family x reader, where she is part of the metkayina clan, and after they get to stay she has to introduce the family to everything (instead of tsireya and aonung). They get closer and she’s a good friend to them.

She is very sweet, loves children and treats tuk like her own (this is a key element hihi)

So one day, after she goes out with tuk to entertain her, they get attacked by someone you can decide (I’m sorry but I need something angsty😭) and reader protects tuk and saves her life.

But, and here comes the “plot twist”, the sully’s misunderstand the situation and think reader did it on purpose or was trying to hurt tuk and they’re all angry and furious at her, not letting her explain.

So she retreats and doesn’t leave her marui pod for days, until someone from the clan clears it up, and they apologise to her… YOU CAN DECIDE THE ENDING, WETHER ITS HAPPY OR SAD!!!!

Thank u in advance and I have to say, I absolutely love your writing, every time I finish one of ur fics I crave moreeeee!!!❤️

summary: [y/n] saves the life of tuk, but at what cost?

a/n: hopefully this turned out good !! i’m kind of bad when it comes to misunderstanding trope because i kind of hate it ( whoopsies ) but i think it turned out okay ?? i’m just glad i finally was able to publish something after a few days. reblogs + feedback are always appreciated !!

tags: @rafeslovergirl@wxnderingthoughts @liyahsocorro @bonnibuckets @hjkshshjkhklhkl @itssiaaax @grierpilots @fleurbeass @nyotamalfoy @23victoria

warnings: mentions of blood, injury, fear, a monster-like creature pursuing tuk and [y/n], jake and neytiri being kind of mean, scars, almost dying, passing out, a lil angst, happyish ending

words: 2.4k

i would do it again

she hadn’t meant for it to go the way that it did. everytime she replayed the scene in her head, tears pricked [y/n]’s eyes. what could’ve happened—what should’ve happened. she continued to thank eywa that both her and tuk made it out alive and safe.

it’d been that morning when the youngest sully bounded up to [y/n] in the middle of her chores. “[y/n]!” she cried, joy evident in her voice.

[y/n] could not help but grin, looking up from the net that she was busy detangling. “good morning, darling tuk!”

the sully family had been in awa’atlu for several months at that point, but [y/n] had been friends with them since they first arrived. [y/n] was a former warrior of the clan, despite how young she was. she was only twenty years old, but after a former event resulting in a very severe injury, [y/n] was quickly deferred to a safer alternative that still allowed her to help her clan.

after the incident, [y/n] found herself working with the children. it was her job to begin teaching them the ways of the water, which included breathing, swimming, and free-diving. when they got to the age of learning to hunt, they were passed along to another teacher.

that was how [y/n] first met the sullys.

after tsireya and ao’nung toured the village with them, the future tsahik introduced them to [y/n]. “she will be helping us teach you our ways.”

and so she did. although her schedule was far too busy to always attend the lessons, [y/n] was there as much as she possibly could, rewarding each and every child on their progress.

[y/n] was also introduced to neytiri and jake sully by tonowari. the ole’eyktan was quick to tell them of her honorable history, especially regarding the injury. [y/n] didn’t miss the way the toruk makto’s sympathetic eyes flickered to the large scar that still burdened her up and down her right leg. but, for the first time in a long time, his careful stare did not cause her insecurity. instead, it made her feel safe, especially as she limped up and down the beach.

it did not take long for the sully family to entrust [y/n]. she was kind, caring, and she was always there to help them. a part of [y/n] drifted to the sully family once neytiri began treating her as if she was one of their own, often inviting her over for dinner.

for the first time in years, ever since the deaths of her parents, [y/n] felt like she had a true family again.

so, given their history, [y/n] was not at all shocked at the arrival of tuk on that sunny morning.

“[y/n]!” she yelled once again, stopping in front of the metkayina girl. “oh my eywa, [y/n],” tuk panted, hands clasping her knees as she caught her breath.

“oh, my!” [y/n] laughed, smiling up from where she sat on the dock. “what is the matter, dear?”

“it is so nice out today!”

[y/n] chuckled at that. “oh, isn’t it?” leave it to tuk to cause a panic only for her to exclaim that the weather was good.

“we should go out,” tuk decided, crossing her arms in front of her chest as she gave [y/n] a look.

[y/n] only raised the muscles above her eyes. “you think so?”

tuk nodded vigorously. “yes, i do! kiri is busy with mother, lo’ak wants nothing to do with me, and neteyam refuses to take me out ever.” once she finished her short rant, she stuck out her bottom lip and widened her eyes. “please, [y/n]?”

“tuk,” [y/n] groaned, covering her eyes with her hands. “that’s unfair. you’re too adorable to refuse!”

tuk grinned pridefully. “i know, isn’t it awesome?”

just like that, the two soon found themselves sharing a ride on an ilu through the reef. [y/n] smiled at the way tuk’s arms flew outwards, allowing her to reach out and feel the tingling sensation as they passed through the thick waters.

the coral was gorgeous that morning thanks to the rays of sunlight that beamed through the surface, lighting up the seafloor. “look,” [y/n] signed to tuk, pointing out a crab that waddled across the ground.

a chuckle left the sully’s lips as indicated by the small trail of bubbles that floated above them. [y/n] grinned at the way tuk raised her hand, waving at the small creature that strolled across the ocean floor.

of course, it could only stay perfect for so long, and unfortunately, the perfection did not last long enough.

[y/n] immediately felt something was wrong when the water turned the slightest bit colder. although the sully girl did not notice, the chills rising on [y/n]’s arms sent her panicking. when her ilu rumbled in dismay beneath them, she knew they needed to turn around.

“it is time to go back,” [y/n] signed quickly, the annoyance being difficult to ignore from behind her. before tuk could sign anything back, the older girl rose her hand and gestured for her to stay quiet.

just as she directed the ilu to turn around, [y/n] noticed how quiet it was. for once in her life, [y/n] could hear nothing. it was just them and the ocean.

the fish were gone, fleeing into their homes. the crab on the ground was quickly sheltered by his hole in the sand. not even the water swayed all that much. a chill settled deep in [y/n]’s bones.

she panicked at the feeling of tuk’s arms wrapping around her waist, the sully’s small face pressed into her back. it was when she felt tuk’s hand hit her that she was prompted to look up from where she observed the quiet reef.

[y/n] nearly choked on the salty water when the sight of large animal. it loomed overtop of them, a shadow cast on top of them from his mere size. it’s flippers were large, but not nearly as large as his teeth were.

although it was only split seconds, it felt like a billion years until either of them made their first move.

when the creature attempted to close the distance between them, [y/n] sent the ilu flying beneath the beast. she swallowed a yelp at the feeling of the water by her ear, his mouth nearly having chomped it off had they not moved so fast.

unfortunately, the monster was as smart as it was quick, and it was soon adjusting. with one last look over her shoulder, [y/n] sent the ilu shooting forward.

tuk’s arms clasped [y/n] desperately, her eyes hidden from reality due to the fear it brought. at that, [y/n] urged the creature they rode on to swim even faster.

as much as the ilu tried, it was nothing compared to the fins that carried the monster behind them. once [y/n] felt it catching up, the only thing she could think to do was unattached her queue from the ilu and grab tuk. as they rolled off the side, [y/n] choked back a scream at the sight of her ilu being swallowed by the beast in one quick gulp.

blood blossomed in the water. tuk stared aimlessly, her cries not going unheard. [y/n] grabbed her face, pressing a hand overtop her mouth. not only could the beast hear, but tuk was losing breath.

“hush, darling,” she signed, eyes attentive to their surroundings. “you must be quiet. it will all be okay, do you understand?” tuk only nodded.

they hid behind a large rock-like structure, and [y/n] carefully peeked out to catch an understanding of where they stood versus the beast. she instantly rolled back around, back pressed against the textured piece of nature. he was close. dangerously so.

and so, [y/n] began to hatch a plan. as she would swim out, tuk would start swimming towards the surface. [y/n] was a trained warrior and swimmer, she could outswim the monster if she used the coral to her advantage. tuk just had to get back to civilization.

just as she turned to tell tuk of her plan, it appeared that it was far too late. she only whimpered once she felt the cold temperatures of the shade once again.

[y/n] grabbed tuk’s hand, praying to eywa that tuk would stay strong and stay smart. at least one of them needed to make it out alive, and it had to be tuk.

with one last squeeze of her hand, [y/n] stood up and locked eyes with the creature. behind her back, her fingers moved gracefully to communicate to tuk.

once she was done, she brought her hands above her head, making herself seem bigger as a small attempt, although it was more of a signal to tuk. with her arms up, tuk launched herself out and up, and the beast launched itself directly at [y/n].

she dodged almost perfectly if it weren’t for the spikes that took over his skin. she hissed as her skin caught one of the thorns, flesh tearing quickly.

[y/n]’s plan was, unfortunately, not at all fool-proof. dread settled in her gut as the beast’s eyes broke away from her and instead watched the distance thanks to the sight of a swimming na’vi.

“no!” she tried to scream, although the words came out extremely muffled because of the quick water.

and so, she let every primal instinct she ever had take over.

[y/n]’d never swam so fast in her life. she let the water take over, let eywa bless her and her senses. for the first time in a couple years, she could not feel the injury of her leg. it was just her and the sea.

her eyes did not leave tuk once, not even when the swam side-by-side with the monster. not even when he nearly ate her. she was far too quick for him.

they were throat-to-throat, and yet, at the last second, [y/n] sped ahead of the beast and launched herself on top of tuk. she cradled the girl as the water seemed to burst in every direction.

and then she blacked out.

when [y/n] awoke, she found herself in the comforts of her own home. the sun blinked through the marui, a feeling that caused [y/n] to smile.

that smile was quickly gone once she remembered exactly what happened before she’d passed out.

when [y/n] shot up, tsireya was quick to attend her side. “[y/n]!” she calmed, voice quiet and gentle. “[y/n], it is okay. you are okay! you are safe.”

[y/n] couldn’t even form full sentences. “tuk.”

“tuk is alive and well. she’s been awake for an hour or so, waiting for you.” tsireya’s smile faded. “but.. the sullys are keeping her from visiting.

[y/n]’s eyes narrowed at the news, confusion clouding her head. “what? why?”

“they think you did it.”

days go by, and [y/n] was quiet. quieter than she has been in years, ever since her injury. ever since her parents death. the guilt was nearly the same, nearly just as heart-wrenching.

they did not trust her. they thought she would hurt tuk. the mere thought of it sent [y/n] spiralling.

the olo’eyktan’s family tried to visit her often, but she was cut off. even when they did somehow make it inside, she was dry, often not even answering them. it was as if she pretended they didn’t exist.

[y/n] didn’t look so good either. she was leaving her own health as the last of her priorities, as if they didn’t matter compared to the fact that they didn’t trust her.

it was only thanks to the trustful word of tsireya that the sullys finally had clear enough minds to come and visit.

it was a quiet night, the only sound heard being the crash of the waves against the shore. [y/n] was busy poking at the food ao’nung delivered just moments before. she couldn’t find an appetite to even attempt eating the food, despite what she promised him.

at the sound of two bodies walking into her pod, she jumped onto her feet. ever since the incident, she was on extremely high alert. even when she slept at night, all she saw were the jaws of that monster… and then the way that the sea exploded around her.

time froze when she saw the guilty faces of jake and neytiri.

“[y/n],” jake’s voice was quiet, broken. almost as bad as she felt. “[y/n], we are so sorry.”

[y/n] only blinked. “why?” she swallowed, putting her food down behind her before taking a step towards the couple. “why in the world should you be sorry? it was only like i risked my life for your daughter and you didn’t even have the kindness to come and talk to me.” she shook her head. “i had to hear it from tsireya that you hated me. you didn’t give me a chance.”

neytiri sniffled, eyes full of guilty tears. “we understand. and that is why we are here.” she attempts to step towards [y/n], but retracts when she feels the younger girl tense. with a quick sigh, she continues. “we were worried. worried about our baby. all we knew is that you washed up together, and tuk was hurt because of something out on the reef. you were the only one with her. and we just… we thought, since you knew the reef so well, there was no way you could have run into such trouble.”

[y/n] paused before shaking her head. “i don’t know what that monster was,” she whispered. “i have never seen such a ghastly thing in my life.”

jake nods. “we know. we know that now, and we should have never doubted you. for that, we are so extremely sorry, and we are so extremely thankful that you kept tuk alive.”

[y/n] paused. after the years she spent grappling for approval from everybody on the island, after gaining it through risking her life, this was the first time that she truly felt fulfillment.

when tears welled up in her eyes, she allowed the parents to hug her. at the warmth of their arms around her trembling body, she whispered, “i would do it again.”

#avatar 2 #avatar the way of water #neteyam sully #loak sully #sully family x reader #sully family x y/n #tuk sully #tuktirey #sully family #kiri sully #sullys stick together #sully siblings #metkayina #metkayina!reader #sully family x platonic!reader #jake sully x platonic!reader #neytiri x platonic!reader

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beegalactica · 4 months

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Comparison is the thief of joy.

In a world where it seems like everyone else is doing so much better than you, how do you stop comparing yourself to them? You know it's unhealthy and unhelpful but you just can't seem to help it. Don't worry, I've been there and I know exactly what it's like.

Why We Compare Ourselves

Whether we're comparing our appearance; from our eyes to our hair, to even the shape of our fingers; or the grades that we get; the outfits we wear; or the person we are; I believe comparison stems from our insecurities. We may feel like we're not enough in our own right, so we look for people we think are better than us to justify it.

For me over this past week, I've been comparing myself a lot, and that's fine. I can be this confident and self-assured person, but I I still have moments where I don't feel like that - it's just how life works.

My first point of comparison was with a grade that I got in class. I got the second highest and of course, the first thing that popped into my mind was not how good I did on my own, but what I didn't do that relegated me to second place. Reflection is great for improving and bettering yourself, but you know that it has crossed the point into harmful comparison when you start to think: "I'm better than this person at x, y and z so how could they do better than me here?" We often resort to mentally trying to put the other person down so we don't feel so alone 'below' them, but that perpetuates unnecessary negativity.

My second point of comparison had to do with my 'love life'. There is a guy that I like, but we didn't work out, and now the thought of him possibly getting with someone else made me feel so low. It felt like a rejection in the worst way. It felt like the world was saying to me that "I wasn't good enough", not that the timing wasn't right or that it just wasn't meant to be. Obviously, I spent a lot of my time looking at the girl, thinking about all the ways she was prettier than me, taller than me, skinnier than me, etc. I started trying to pull her down in my mind, thinking of all the flaws that she 'had', to hide the fact that I was just insecure that I wasn't enough on my own.

But I refuse to let these events take a toll on my mental health and turn me into a bitter, jealous person because I know that I'm better than that, and I know that you are too.

How To Stop Comparing Yourself

To be honest, I don't know if I can ever get to a point where nothing can faze me at all, because I am human at the end of the day. What I do know is ways to cope and stop myself from spiralling as a result:

Accept the situation - accept the fact that it is what it is. I believe that things happen in life to teach me a lesson or to show me how I can come out of it stronger, and the first step in that journey is to accept that it happened. If things are meant to work out in the end, they will.

Plan your next steps - what are you going to do to give yourself peace of mind? In my case, I'll just have to work harder but also learn to congratulate myself more for the things that I do. I will also have to take some time to figure out why I have these insecurities and work on ways to uplift myself.

Affirm, affirm, affirm - I believe positive affirmations are amazing because who knows you better than you? If I say that I am a smart, hardworking person who is perfect just the way they are, who dares to tell me that I'm not? If I say that I am enough, how can anyone prove that I'm not? Sometimes your biggest enemy can really be your self-concept, but you need to train it to face setbacks and use them to further prove that you are above it all based on the way you deal with it.

Don't act out - don't become a hateful person. It can be hard because we think that it is the only thing that will make us feel better, but it makes us the same as all those other people who seek to pull others down to uplift themselves. Don't let a temporary event change your character.

Comparison is inevitable because the way that our world works is rooted in competition - who is the best? who is the prettiest? who is the smartest? But if you can answer all of those questions saying that you are, then don't let little things get you down. Life is all about growing and evolving, but don't forget to take a moment to celebrate your strengths and remind yourself of just how amazing you are.

You are enough.

I am enough.

#lifeblr #becoming that girl #girlblogger #girlblogging #it girl #self improvement #that girl #self awareness #self care #self love #self development #comparison

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sepublic · 1 year

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It’s interesting that S1 is the most conventional in terms of kids’ show formats and lessons, especially given the confirmation that it suffered the most executive meddling (not counting Seasons 2 and 3 dealing with the shortening). S1 is primarily where Luz, as well as King, learn the standard, typical Aesops of ‘Be nice and think of others, don’t be selfish’, that sort of thing. It’s where a humbled Luz is most reminded that she’s not the Main Character, and must be mindful of the people around her… A necessary lesson, keep in mind.

However, there’s still an undercurrent of her asking and sometimes even demanding things, things she wants and needs and deserves, and Luz gets it! Eda enrolls Luz at Hexside because Luz wants to! Bump lets Luz do multi-track learning after she and the others insist! And that comes to fruition in the rest of the show, as the ideal Luz should accept for herself… Even as the events and trauma of S1 leave Luz with the takeaway that, no, she IS a bad person who is selfish and has hurt others in her narrow-minded pursuits, and must actively atone and cease being a burden.

I think it’s neat; The first season, the ‘safest’ one, as influenced by Disney, is the one that espouses to Luz to ‘Be a good kid’. But the rest of the show afterwards, more true to Dana’s vision, is Luz encountering the downsides of devoting herself too deeply to that idea, with little to no forgiveness for herself; We see and know the merits of that typical lesson, but it also gets a bit deconstructed as TOH argues it’s just as important, if not moreso, for Luz to take care of herself too, give herself some credit, etc.

This ‘second phase’ of the show is when Luz really begins to face off with Belos, who is an actual, literal puritan motivated by their ideology. And as I’ve discussed in the past, puritan ideology presumes humanity as existing in a natural state of guilt (which coincides with the Guilty until proven Innocent nature of the witch trials), due to the first sin. As a result, just about anything engaging in pleasure or fun is seen as hedonistic and ‘sinful’, and puritans are expected to constantly atone for their existence by devoting themselves to a higher cause, God and the collective.

It tracks that the puritan mindset has had its legacy in real life, with a lot of conventional kids’ media reminding their audience not to be a brat; Kids are expected to obey rules, trust in the wisdom of their elders, etc. Stories like Pinocchio come to mind, with Guillermo Del Toro even criticizing it for seeking to ‘tame the child’s spirit’, hence his own version of the tale deconstructing the original by being a defiance to conformity.

So it’s rather meta that TOH starts off with that surface-level quest to be a responsible child for Luz, in its first season (the executive one, the introductory ‘testing the waters’ season where each episode is about an Aesop). But there’s that undercurrent of Luz being rewarded for thinking about herself; So when the show really begins to dig deeper in Season 2 -being more apparent with its more mature storylines and tone, and less bound by corporate mandates to stick to the regular episodic formula- TOH’s true nature begins to reveal itself.

Dana did explain that S2 was truer to her vision, and especially in light of the shortening, she outright admitted that the crew went for a more “Screw it, let’s just do what we want” route with TOH, and you can really tell. Dare I say, a more disobedient approach, as a contrast to S1 being more corporate, and on the surface about being the Responsible Child. I find it neat how the writers made Disney’s mandates work (such as Hexside for example), giving us the surface of that conventional story about a child learning to behave herself, only to say But there’s much more to her actualization than that.

The narrative begins peeling back the layers of that supposed story by showing the consequences of the kid protagonist’s adventure, not just in the trauma, but by displaying how its morally righteous takeaways can lead to toxicity and outright evil, such as with someone like Philip Wittebane. TOH is being nuanced by balancing the selfless and selfish ends of the spectrum, but ultimately it’s finishing on the note of Luz learning to fight for herself, at least as much as she does for others.

After all, there’s definitely a real-life social trend leaning towards being easier and less punishing on kids; Physical punishment is seen as physical abuse, and people are becoming more aware of just how difficult it really is to be a minor, actually. A lot of conservative groups complain that society has become ‘softer’, but the idea of disobedience and rebellion has become more and more attractive as corporate power constricts and demands you work full-time, emphasizing productivity.

‘Empowerment’ is a term that’s more discussed, so when we use that word for minorities, it’s inevitable that people will extend it to adolescents as well, hence the meme of Okay Boomer, as a response to Millennials supposedly ruining everything. Dana herself also mentioned she grew up in a catholic school and was even placed into a headlock by a nun as a child once, which given her story’s villain is a puritan…

I think TOH argues that Yes, some of the ideas behind being a responsible child do have a bit of a place. BUT, it follows this up with the notion that this default sentiment for kids can and has been damaging, just as S2 follows up on S1’s more corporate, lesson-of-the-day format with a freer story that has Luz struggle with her unfair guilt. The show’s very structure and organization on a meta level ends up reflecting how it offers a typical lesson, but then deconstructs it to argue the opposite is good; Just as Luz enters expecting your regular pretty isekai, but finds something grotesque and demonic, only to accept and embrace that too.

Luz forgiving her desires pairs with TOH saying it’s okay to be selfish and not expect yourself to be a Hero who saves the world, which is a presumption both egotistical but also demanding. This matches with S2 introducing more prevalently the idea that, hey, maybe kids shouldn’t be expected to save the day either, given the trauma it instills, and the expectation to essentially be a responsible, productive child who is successful in life. That defies the puritan mindset to atone, work hard, and devote yourself to something greater, such as the collective and/or God, which is something American society is continuing to unlearn; And The Owl House reflects these trends as the product of various social movements, such as queer rights.

#the owl house #luz noceda #meta #cw christianity #analysis

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rubyvroom · 1 year

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Some questions about "Tàr" (long, spoilers)

What really happens in the film, "Tàr"?

a. Nothing, silly. It's a movie.

b. Ha ha. Actually, within the confines of the reality within the movie, this is a pretty straightforward story of a world-famous conductor who abuses her power to take advantage of female musicians. In the course of the story, her long history of abusive behavior is revealed to the public and her life unravels, leaving her alone and having to start over her career from the bottom, hopefully having learned her lesson.

c. Same, only everything after she descends into the weird underground apartment complex and is menaced by a shadowy dog who chases her until she faceplants hard onto cement is not real, it's either a dream or a metaphor, because she's in a coma or dead. Other odd scenes before that are dream sequences following which we see Lydia wake up in bed, establishing that some of what we see are actually Lydia's dreams. The story, however, is straightforwardly following the path described above.

d. What we see in the movie is entirely real and following the course of B, but portrayed from a pov so deeply embedded in the protagonist's mind that critical details are distorted or omitted; moreover, the protagonist is experiencing auditory and visual hallucinations as a result of her guilt over the death of Krista.

e. The entire film is literally happening as described in B, however there are supernatural elements at work that make Tàr more of a horror genre piece than people are prepared to accept from a prestige film. Lydia is being haunted by the spirit of Krista, and it is this spirit that is making strange things happen around her. We have several direct sightings of this ghost, a red-headed woman seen in the audience at several points and in Lydia's home at night. Possibly Krista is the architect of Lydia's downfall.

f. This is possibly the least straightforward film I've seen in a decade or more; potentially none of what we see directly is literal.

2. What evidence from the film supports this explanation?

a. LOL.

b. We are not given any reasons to doubt that Lydia has been abusing her power, or that the women she has been abusing are lying. It seems to be an open secret that Lydia preys on beautiful young musicians, and even Lydia's wife knows very well about these affairs. It is, in fact, exactly how she ended up with Lydia in the first place, and how she continues to be the Concertmaster in her orchestras across the world. The other women, it is implied, are discarded when they are no longer interesting to or of use to Lydia, and this keeps her wife more or less satisfied and in place. When the press begins to put the pieces together after several leaks of information, leaks from people we have witnessed Lydia mistreating onscreen, Lydia's financial backers, her collaborators, and her orchestra can no longer ignore what she has been doing, and neither can her wife. Although it happens very quickly, it is reasonable that her downfall would follow under these conditions, especially given the suicide of one of her former conquests. The film depicts all of these events directly in a cinema verite-like style, unadorned, without even a soundtrack unless it is being played by a character onscreen, to emphasize the reality of events. The story is the story, it all literally happens.

c. However. The passage in the abandoned building differs stylistically from the rest of the movie and is filmed in the manner of a thriller, and everything depicted after that is heightened and sped up considerably from the more leisurely pace of the first hour. The bulk of Lydia's downfall occurs after this scene, and we start to feel at this point as though scenes are missing. Events are elided and described later offhandedly, where before they had been portrayed almost in real time. The hammer falls blow after blow to Lydia's life and career from this point onwards. Is this actually Lydia's fears we are seeing? Is it some kind of coma dream or afterlife, where she is being punished for her sins?

That abandoned building scene is also, let's all agree, weird as fuck. I mean what is that dog? It's a weird fucking dog? And is it actually chasing Lydia? She certainly thinks it is and she's running away from it like crazy, but after that first glimpse we don't actually see it chasing her. We certainly don't see it catch her after she falls, which it obviously would if it was actually biting at her heels. Lydia isn't bitten anywhere afterwards. Her injuries are from the fall on the concrete, which banged up her face and damaged her shoulder. The only explanation is that she imagined the dog and ran from her own panic, if this event occurred at all. Or is it her own guilt? She then frames the incident, consistently, as an attack on her by a man, one that coincides with an avalanche of accusations and abandonments that come one by one after this scene. Her face heals quite quickly, but her shoulder continues to bother her and a doctor diagnoses her with “Notalgia paraesthetica", or a phantom itch that cannot be relieved. Is this trauma? Is the new vagueness of the timeline and her muffled reaction to events a result of trauma? Is it Lydia's guilt and paranoia that is coming up with this thorough dismantling of her own life and persona in some kind of fevre dream? This leads us to answer D:

d. Close point of view. Lydia is in every scene. Everything is as she perceives it to be. If something is strange, it is because her perceptions are unreliable.

Let's talk about Lydia. Who the fuck is Lydia Tàr? Lydia Tàr is convincingly brilliant. Her speeches are pretentious but also knowledgable, coherent: she's not actually an idiot like Miles Bron. She is genuinely passionate about her work, constantly engrossed in music, comparing everything she encounters to a song or a composer or a conductor of the past.*

We are put inside her head, perceiving things the way she does. We hear the odd snatches of music and sound that distract her, things no one else hears, and see her incorporate these bits and pieces into her music. We see dream images, faces, that send her bolting upright in bed. We see strange events that only she knows about but are definitely real, such as her sick neighbor who has to be helped back to bed in an emergency, naked, wasting away and incoherent. We later see that apartment come up for sale, and when the sellers come by and gently suggest she keep the noise down so she can sell the apartment, she has a fairly childish reaction. (But honestly this was the one bit where I actually liked Lydia in her terribleness; anyone who has had annoying neighbors will laugh big at her sudden loud accordion playing and atonal rendition of "APARTMENT FOR SALE!!!!") These anecdotes don't add to the story whatsoever, and are there to plant us further in the protagonist's mindset, fit us in her shoes a little bit more.

Lydia Tàr is abominably self-absorbed. The first indication of this that we directly witness is how she is stealing Sharon's medicine and popping pills while on the road, so much so that when she gets home, Sharon is in the middle of an attack (heart condition or panic? unclear) and has no pills left to take. Much later in the film, when everything has fallen apart, Sharon is the most upset by the fact that Lydia didn't warn her about the legal case or the depositions or the newspaper stories, she was left in the dark to be blindsided by them. Lydia's response? Sharon couldn't have done anything to help. So why tell her? This seems a completely reasonable response to Lydia. Causing Sharon distress does not seem to register to her at all.

A lot of things don't register to Lydia at all. Small time-skips are so common in film that you tend not to notice them, but they are particularly noticable here. Scene to scene it is suddenly days later, weeks later, and dialogue makes certain that we know this. Lydia mentions events that are extremely relevant to the story, but we didn't know have already happened offscreen. Yet we see her visit to the doctor, her session with the beautiful cellist, instead. We see what is important to her, and don't see what is not. This, I would argue, is what lends the film a sense of surreality when the style of filmmaking is otherwise so realistic.

The audience is unsurprised when her assistant Francesca abandons her, this was inevitable from the very first scene of the film. She is an old lover, a previous round of the cycle who found a niche in Lydia's life to occupy, and is being strung along with the promise of an assistant position that is obviously never going to be offered. To her face, she dangles the possibility of that position coming to her immediately, in order to get her to do what she needs her to do: delete all evidence of her relationship with Krista. Afterwards, she gives the position to someone else instead, and even tasks her with some of the arrangements. It would be more shocking if she didn't abandon Lydia at that point, after such a blatant slap in the face. Still, the film treats this as a revelation, because Lydia for whatever reason does not see this coming even though she really, really should have.

In fact, a lot of Lydia's actions are so thuddingly obviously going to blow up in her face that you have to wonder if she is more self-destructing than being taken down from outside. Her continued pursuit of the cellist when the whole organization seems to be aware of it and she's already in trouble for Krista, for instance.

So we come to the strange little scenes where Lydia is hearing a sound, and can't find where it is coming from. These range from innocuous (a high-pitched tone in her apartment) to threatening (a woman's terrified screams in the park where she is jogging). In all cases she searches for the sound. In only one case does she uncover it, but that only makes it more inexplicable -- the metronome has started ticking, despite being put away and with no one in the room to turn it on. She questions her daughter about playing in her study, but the daughter does not seem to know anything about it.

We get glimpses of a red-haired woman -- first right at the beginning of the film, and later in Lydia's home. When her daughter wakes up and calls out her name, Lydia goes to her room sleepily and on the way she passes a figure in the darkness who appears to be the same red-headed woman. The woman is not literally there, but she is on Lydia's mind. We learn at a certain point that this is at least a reference to Krista, the woman who committed suicide after Lydia sabotaged her career.

Why is the only thing the audience sees that Lydia couldn't possibly see is Francesca's text messages? This is a break in the POV that doesn't work if we're watching in real-time, but if this is Lydia looking backwards somehow, she could easily intuit what Francesca was thinking at the time. If Lydia is capable of imagining anyone else's interior life. (Does Lydia have a conscience? Essay question.)

e. The supernatural interpretation is self-explanatory given the glimpses of the red-headed woman. Lydia's life really unravels after Krista's death, and perhaps there is a kind of haunting taking place that explains the weird noises and the metronome. But given that, let's mention how far-fetched some of the events of the last passage of this film are.

The viral video, edited together to make Lydia say things she didn't in a way that seems plausible at first. But how was this video filmed? None of the students in the class are shown using their phones during the encounter in question. The multiple perspectives imply that there have to be 5 or 6 people recording, but we see none of them. Lydia forbids use of cell phones in her class. How was this video made?

Lydia tackling Mark Strong at the podium. How did Lydia get backstage? Why do none of the players react to her presence, as someone who has been fired from the orchestra and very much should not be there? Why doesn't the trumpet player who is standing right next to her not see her? Why doesn't anyone try to stop her until it's too late? And how did Mark Strong get ahold of her copy of the score, which went missing from Lydia's own house?

And so on and so on. Are these mistakes? By a film so meticulously grounded and realistic in the portrayal of the life of a classical musician? Is this the spirit of Krista interfering somehow to make absolutely sure Lydia loses absolutely everything? Or is something else happening?

edit: I'm going to add this very good essay from the perspective of a classical musician that reinforces the unreality of these choices. She feels that the film is bungling an attempt at realism; I want to discuss the possibility that the film isn't attempting realism at all.

f. We accept that cinema verite means realism. We accept this because we have been trained to over the course of decades. The hallmarks of a documentary style** including lack of soundtrack, long and static shots, conversations that meander, scenes that drag, conjure in our minds a sense that we are witnessing something directly. The one exception to this is the horror genre, where all of these same stylistic choices (plus a lot of hand-held camera) in a found-footage film are used to jolt the audience into accepting supernatural events, generating fear from the intrusion of unreality into reality. This is also one possible definition of the surreal.

How many more events in this film signify that none of this is happening at all? Let's take the scene at the end of the film where Lydia Tàr goes home, surprisingly, to Staten Island. There we see evidence of a family who were not present at all in Lydia's home or life to this point, yet who have followed her accomplishments closely. We see a man who is possibly her brother. He states that "Ma" talked to Lydia and warned him she would be coming home (we did not see this conversation). He calls Lydia "Linda". He suggests that her manner of speaking in the rest of the movie is an affectation, and her response to him drops a little bit of this affected speech, which appears to confirm this. All this adds a little more backstory that tells us of a hometown girl hitting it big and never looking back, right?

But there is one more lie revealed here. Lydia pulls out a videotape of Leonard Bernstein, an obviously much-loved and much-watched tape of one of his educational concerts. In it he says a number of things that Lydia has repeated throughout the movie, which she seems to have lifted from this videotape.

Now remember the long interview at the beginning of the film, where Lydia/Linda claimed to have been a protégé of Leonard Bernstein who studied under him directly. This isn't true! It's demonstrably not true, and director Todd Field confirms this in interviews which means it's an important detail. Leonard Bernstein died in 1990, and this movie takes place after the pandemic (it's mentioned several times), and this mentoring relationship is temporally unlikely. Yet nobody questioned it. It should be easy to confirm that it isn't true, with records and with common sense. Does this mean the entire classical music world was deceived into elevating this woman on one easily disproven lie? How much more of her resume is false? Her unlikely stories of ethnographic fieldwork, deliberately described in detail and interwoven with her intellectual posturings, could she have simply read all these details in a book? But why? And wouldn't a journalist have picked up on any and all of these lies years before, for the most famous conductor in the world?

How much more of what she says in that interview with Adam Gopnik from the New Yorker, the real Adam Gopnik from the real New Yorker, is a complete fabrication? How about when she talks to Alec Baldwin's real podcast? Or gets tailored clothes from the real designer Egon Brandstetter, who really designed the real suits that Lydia Tàr, I mean Cate Blanchett, wears in the movie? Do these details make the movie more real, or more unreal?

How about that name, Lydia Tàr? She chose a more exotic name than Linda, we are to believe. How bout that accent mark? The accent mark that does not affect the pronounciation and is apparently just there for decoration? That accent mark on Tàr makes no fucking sense and I have always thought this from the first time I saw a promo for the movie and imagine my delight that this is on purpose! And yet nobody else, including her wife, ever refer to her as Linda, even when the tabloids are tearing her life apart? Do you think the New York Post wouldn't revel in the headline that Lydia Tàr is actually Linda Tarr from Staten Island?

What I'm saying is that all of this is unreal. It's Goncharov all the way down, kids. Tàr hashtag unreality.

What does that mean about the film Tàr? If none of what we see is plausible, does that mean the film is inaccurate and a bad movie? If the film contradicts itself on purpose, why would it do that? Does it mean the film is a daydream by a girl on Staten Island, or by a dying woman in an apartment who has to be picked up off the floor and put back in her wheelchair? Should we think of it as Lynchian, a kind of cousin to Mullholland Drive, where any reality being portrayed is not shown onscreen directly, ever?

Is it not a coherent story at all, but something else?

3. What else can a film be, besides a story?

a. A diary

b. A dream

c. A metaphor

d. A confession

e. A suicide note

f. A last will and testament

4. What is surrealism?

a) a 20th-century avant-garde movement in art and literature which sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind, for example by the irrational juxtaposition of images.

b) marked by the intense irrational reality of a dream

c) when stuff looks crazy and weird

5. No really, what literally happens in the film Tàr?

a. A woman gets canceled.

b. The past and the present converge—the flip sides of the same cosmic coin.

c. teshuvah: “the Talmudic power to reach back in time and transform one’s past deeds.”

d. Nothing. It's a movie.

*There's a useful phrase-- conductor of the past. Her right hand controls time. Can it speed up time? Can it slow time down? Could it even reverse the flow of time?

**Documentaries, of course, are also not necessarily the truth. They are manipulated, edited, staged. Details are selected and omitted. And, of course, the people in them can lie.

#Tar #film #films #reviews do not seem to touch on these things hardly at all and I don't know why #this is a response after one viewing but I need to watch it again #rubyvroom watches movies

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velvet4510 · 5 months

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Ok here’s a whole essay’s worth of headcanons about some of the LOTR main characters’ lives in the Fourth Age, particularly their children.

(note: some of these names and marriages I’ve invented, and some I’ve borrowed from Elenya54’s phenomenal fics “All That I Had” and “The Gift of Ilúvatar,” which have many elements that I’ve absorbed into my hc, including Frodo leaving letters for Sam & Elanor and jewelry for Rosie, as well as Legolas ending up with Frodo’s healer’s daughter. Elanor & Fastred’s historian work is mentioned in Tolkien’s appendices. Frodo-lad’s love of dwarves and Rosie-lass’ love of the Entwives are taken from Tolkien’s unpublished epilogue.)

All dates in Shire Reckoning.

Frodo wrote Sam a love letter before he left, which Sam carried in his waistcoat pocket close to his heart every day.

Frodo left a letter for Elanor to read when she was older, letting her know how much he loved her and how sorry he was that he could not be there to watch her grow; he signed the letter “your Frodo-dad,” to which Rosie referred to him as she firmly felt that her daughter had two fathers in her life before Frodo had to leave. This is why Elanor called her father “Sam-dad” all her life.

Frodo left Rosie a set of freshly-polished jewelry (necklace, earrings, and bracelet) that once belonged to his mother Primula. Rosie always cherished these trinkets and wore them to every formal event she ever attended; she lent them to Elanor to wear at her wedding to Fastred.

Sam & Rosie’s entire family adopted the Gardner surname in the year 1424.

Sam taught all his children to read and write in both Westron and Sindarin. He was known as “the People’s Mayor,” as he helped the rich and poor alike. He came to know everyone in Hobbiton, regardless of class, on a first-name basis. He advocated for literacy in the entirety of the Shire, and his agenda ultimately modernized the Shire and created new opportunities for education, including the land’s first-ever public school in Michel Delving. He managed to change many conservative minds who used to not believe in the importance of reading by emphasizing how he only was able to accomplish what he did because of the knowledge he gained from Bilbo Baggins. He also personally planted many public and private gardens in the Shire, including a memorial garden for Frodo in the Party Field; his continuation of manual labor despite his affluent position went a long way in weaking the previously strict Shire social class system.

The efforts to rebuild after the Scouring, combined with Sam’s rise from lowly gardener to Master of Bag End and Mayor, shook up the class system. Many formerly upper- and middle-class families who had lost big chunks of their fortunes in repairing the Ruffians’ damage turned to manual labor to help the work move faster. It was a humbling experience for many, and the working class gained more respect than it’d ever had before. Sam’s brothers and cousins had their hands full taking on apprentices to learn their skills and help out. As a result, the Fourth Age saw more employment for hobbits than ever before; the bourgeois lifestyle became far less common.

Rosie became a leader in her own right, helping all the poorer hobbits in one way or another. She threw many parties at Bag End, including an annual celebration on September 22nd in honor of Bilbo and Frodo. Having been taught to read and write by Sam as a child (who passed on Bilbo’s lessons to her curious mind), she set her husband’s educational goals into motion by becoming a part-time tutor for hobbit children once her own children were older and in less need of her constant care. Many of the hobbits she tutored went on to become schoolteachers. She became extremely popular and respected, and when she died, a major party was thrown in her honor that went down in Shire history alongside Bilbo’s famous party.

Legolas and Gimli paid visits to the Shire as often as they could.

Elanor was a lifelong bibliophile and linguist. While working for Queen Arwen, she became fluent in Sindarin and translated many Elvish texts in the library. She was far more interested in the Elvish language and culture than any of her siblings. Besides Elfstan and Fíriel, she and Fastred also had 4 other children: Frodo, Astred, Arwen, and Rosemary. The couple led the Westmarch community together, doing a lot of impactful philanthropic work, and created an extensive library filled with historical records of the Shire, as well as Elves and Men, all the information that Elanor could compile while working in Gondor. Elanor also was struck with many dreams throughout her life of events in the Red Book, as she vividly imagined all the descriptions she heard and read so many times. A natural empath, she developed a deep understanding of Frodo’s suffering post-quest - mainly because of the personal connection she felt with him through his letter to her - and wrote several volumes of original poetry in both Westron and Sindarin, inspired by her two fathers. She became a beloved celebrity in the Shire, and eventually throughout Middle-earth when the Queen requested and published a copy of her work (with her permission). She, her husband, and their children continued to visit Gondor through the years and maintained a lifelong friendship with the royal family. Elanor eventually surpassed Bilbo Baggins as the oldest-lived hobbit in Middle-earth history, living to the age of 133.

Frodo-lad shared his father’s deep passion for gardening and they worked together on the flowers and vegetables at Bag End every day. He often teamed up with Elanor, his best friend as well as his sister, to help their parents manage their younger siblings growing up. He developed a love of Dwarves after reading about them in the Red Book; Gimli once created and gifted to him a harmless toy dwarf axe for his birthday. He was as skilled a scholar as Elanor, but didn’t enjoy it as much as she did, preferring the outdoors. However, he did help her with her research on Shire history for her library and eventually wrote his own book on gardening. He later married a hobbit lass named Violet, who hailed from the Bunce family. Besides Holfast, they had 3 other children: Heather, Wilfred, and Lavender. Frodo eventually became Mayor after his father retired and inherited Bag End when his father left the Shire. By this time, enough residents of Hobbiton had learned to read to enable him to open the town’s first-ever public library, which included copies of his own gardening book. The title of Mayor was later taken up by Holfast after his own retirement, and then later by Holfast’s son Harding of the Hill.

Rosie-lass was an in-demand artist who sketched and painted illustrations for the Red Book as well as portraits and landscapes which were given away as mathoms. The walls of Bag End were covered with her art. Framed in her and her sisters’ bedroom was her favorite creation: a drawing of a fantasy in which she found the lost Entwives. She later married Fredegar Bolger’s son Rudecar and they had 7 children.

Young Merry eventually took over operation of the mill formerly owned by the Sandymans and purchased by Frodo after the Scouring. He married Robin Smallburrow’s daughter Hazel and they had 3 children.

Young Pippin became a skilled furniture maker and married one of Fredegar Bolger’s daughters, Jessaminta. They had 5 children.

(The mother of Fredegar Bolger’s children was his wife Angelica Baggins, the last of the Baggins bloodline. Sam and Rosie were thrilled that their family was united with one of Baggins descent via Rosie-lass and Pippin’s marriages.)

As per canon, Goldilocks married Pippin Took’s son Faramir. They had 6 children and eventually became the heads of the Took family. Goldilocks loved to cook with her mother as a child and later insisted on helping the cooks at the Great Smials hands-on with preparing meals, class system be buggered. She and her husband made sure to pass this egalitarian mindset onto their children.

Hamfast loved the story of the Ents so much that he dedicated his life to forestry. He married Malva, who hailed from the Burrows family, and they had 3 children.

Daisy inherited her father’s knack for songwriting and composed many tunes which she eagerly performed at parties. She sang at all her siblings’ weddings. She herself married and had 4 children with Merry’s son Théodoc.

Primrose, a tomboy all the way, inherited her father’s talent with knots and became Hobbiton’s exclusive roper, alongside her cousin Anson’s latest apprentice, Nico Goodbody; they married and had 3 children.

Bilbo enjoyed a simple life working for the Quick Post and co-owning a bakery with his wife Azalea Hayward (daughter of Shirriff Hob), with whom he had 2 daughters.

Ruby became fascinated with medicine and eventually took on a career as a midwife. She was deeply moved by Frodo’s words in the Red Book about cherishing the beloved land that was saved by him and her father, and she took it upon herself to help bring the next generation of hobbits into the world to honor his wishes. She eventually married and had 5 children with Pippin’s son Beregond.

Robin followed in his namesake’s footsteps and became a Shirriff. He married Merry’s daughter Éowyn and they raised their 4 children in Frodo’s former residence at Crickhollow.

Tom became a merchant, traveling constantly between Gondor and the Shire. He never married but had a lifelong partnership with Pippin’s youngest son Beren. The two of them looked after the old hobbit in his final years in Minas Tirith, as he needed walking sticks to help him move due to lasting effects of troll-inflicted wounds. They shared their luxurious house with Pippin until his eventual death at age 106, two years after Merry had succumbed to a long illness in Pippin’s arms at age 112. Tom himself became quite an adventurer, retracing the Fellowship’s steps and sightseeing all of the quest’s locations with Beren. They both eventually rose in esteem to become advisors to the king.

Many times, but even more so in his later years, Sam had dreams of the Sea.

All of the children moved out of Bag End when they married, except Frodo-lad, who raised his own family in Bag End while also looking after his aging parents.

When Rosie fell ill for the last time, Sam and Frodo-lad summoned all 12 of Frodo’s siblings to Bag End, and they all were present in their mother’s last moments. On her deathbed, Rosie bequeathed Primula’s jewelry to Elanor.

Before sailing West, Sam showed Frodo’s love letter to Tom, Beren, and later Elanor. Although he never saw the letter, Frodo-lad also sensed his father’s true feelings for his namesake. They were the only members of their generation to be aware of Frodo & Sam’s secret romance; they honored Sam’s wish that this detail be kept private and left out of all records.

Elanor, Fastred, Frodo-lad, Goldilocks, Faramir, and Pearl all collaborated on the creation of the Thain’s Book, mainly working on it in the two years between Elanor’s inheriting of the original book and Pippin’s impending departure, which he was already considering and discussing with his family even before Éomer wrote to Merry.

When Sam sailed, he took with him several flower seed packets to plant in the West, a stash of Old Toby, letters for Frodo from the rest of the Fellowship (updating him on their lives and families), and a book of Elanor’s poetry which she intended as a present for Frodo. He also was given a small trinket from each of his children, which he kept and cherished as mementos of them. He left the Star of the Dúnedain and Sting to Frodo-lad, and both became cherished Gardner family heirlooms.

Sam happily reunited with Frodo on Tol Eressëa. Since time passed differently there, Frodo had not aged. Sam’s physical youth was gradually restored by the island’s rejuvenating energy, as was Bilbo’s. The couple lived happily together in a hobbit hole which Frodo had built for Sam.

In his time on the island, besides being fully healed by the combined efforts of Gandalf, Elrond, a Vanya healer, and Nienna herself, Frodo became good friends with Celebrían, as they understood each other’s similar reasons for sailing West. He became a gardener, realizing how much knowledge he absorbed from Sam through the years, and helped tend to many Elves’ private gardens as well as his own, and also became fluent in Quenya as a necessity for communication.

When Sam had settled in, Frodo taught him to speak Quenya and to swim.

Bilbo eventually chose to lay down his life after leaving nothing unsaid between him and the younger hobbits. However, Frodo and Sam continued on, and were still living when Legolas and Gimli finally arrived. They and Gandalf enjoyed many happy times together, especially at the beach, and reminisced about their lost friends.

When the hobbits finally accepted their mortality together, lying in each other’s arms after saying all their goodbyes, their bodies were laid side-by-side and housed with Bilbo’s body in a permanent memorial for them in Avalloné. They left all of their possessions to be placed within a historical museum on Eressëa, containing artifacts from all the ages of the world.

Pippin & Diamond were friends since tweenhood, but only saw each other in a platonic light for many years, and Pippin had some fun flirting with and trying to impress lasses when he returned from the Quest. An avid reader, Diamond was fascinated by the stories of what happened to him. But she was also an unusually empathetic and insightful hobbit, and she could sense that not all of Pippin’s adventures were fun, and that he had some lingering trauma. She became his safe space to talk to, and they quickly fell in love. As Tolkien put in canon, they finally married in 1427 (when Diamond was 32 and not even of age yet, as they couldn’t wait any longer) and the heir to the Thainship was their son Faramir, born in 1430, who later married Goldilocks. Here’s my version of the rest of their family:

Faramir took after Diamond more than Pippin. He had his sense of humor but had a sense of responsibility much earlier on in life and grew to be a fine leader in his own right, long before becoming Thain. He bonded closely with his namesake during a year-long visit to Gondor in which he served as a page to the King. He overcame Goldilocks’ shyness toward boys via their lifelong friendship from childhood that blossomed into more in their tweens.

Once Faramir was born, Pippin & Diamond realized that they loved parenting and wanted a big family, not unlike Sam & Rosie. They wanted to take on the adventure together and they did. Diamond wanted all her children to have special unconventional names and encouraged Pippin to borrow names of people he met on his quest and who he’d read about. Pippin agreed as long as his wife agreed to allow herself her own honor by naming all their daughters after jewels like her. They visited Gondor together often.

Their 1st daughter Pearl was born in 1433. An introvert, she preferred to read and draw than go to parties. A natural scholar like her mother, she was responsible for the cultivation of the Great Smials’ library, collecting and writing much of the history of Gondor, helped largely by her youngest brother’s frequent travels to the kingdom. She eventually married into the Goodbody family to Elio, brother of Nico (who married Primrose Gardner). They had 2 children.

2nd son Boromir was born in 1436. He helped his older brother keep their younger siblings in check. He initially in his youth felt hurt that he was named after the man who tried to steal the Ring, but as he grew older and came to understand the full story better, he came to deeply admire and respect his namesake. He opened a law firm alongside his best friend Estel Brandybuck, and married Fredegar Bolger’s youngest daughter, Miramunda; they had 7 children.

3rd son Beregond was born in 1438. He worked as an auctioneer and married Sam & Rosie’s daughter Ruby. See above.

Twins Bergil (boy) and Opal (girl) were born in 1440.

Bergil followed in his grandfather Paladin’s footsteps and made a living from farming the fertile earth of Tuckborough. His sister-in-law Goldilocks was helpful in this endeavor, as she arranged for him to gain experience in his youth by helping her mother’s family, the Cottons, at their own farm for a year. He married and had 3 children with Lydia Hornblower.

Opal founded the Shire’s first theatrical company and wrote many plays that retold the full story of the Fellowship. It was her plays that enlightened the rest of the Shire regarding the extent of Frodo Baggins’ sacrifice, and his reputation vastly improved as much of the population finally understood his heroism. Opal married into the Grubb family to a lad named Aldo, and they also had 3 children.

When she heard the story of Beren and Lúthien for the first time while pregnant with Emerald, Diamond loved it so much that she insisted they name their next boy after Beren.

3rd daughter Emerald was born in 1443, named in honor of her great-aunt Esmeralda Brandybuck. She married into the Burrows family to Marco, brother of Malva (who married Hamfast Gardner). They opened an affluent restaurant together near the Three-Farthing Stone, which blended Shire cuisine with those of Gondor and Rohan via recipes collected by Emerald’s father and “Uncle Merry”. They also had 2 children.

5th son and youngest child, Beren, was born in 1446. He never married but had a romantic life partner in Sam & Rosie’s son Tom, with whom he worked as a merchant. See above.

After many happy years, Diamond died at age 86 in 1481, six months before Rosie’s passing. She held on until she heard the news that her youngest grandchild had been born safely earlier that day.

Estella pursued Merry for many years until she finally won him over. They married the same year that Faramir Took was born, and decided they wanted a smaller family than the Gardners and the Tooks. They ultimately had 4 children:

1st son Théodoc was born in 1432. Merry knew he wanted to name his firstborn after his late king; Estella agreed, admiring the king greatly from her husband’s stories, but wanted to continue the tradition of giving the future Master a name ending in “-doc.” This was their compromise. Théodoc was a born scholar like his father and helped him put together his book on old words and names. He later married Sam & Rosie’s daughter Daisy; they became the Master and Mistress of Buckland when Merry left the Shire for the last time.

2nd son Estel was born in 1436. His parents were amazed at how perfectly the name worked as a tribute to both Aragorn and to Estella herself. Estel was a mama’s boy and never minded his name’s resemblance to hers, even before making the thrilling discovery that he was also named for a king. He opened a law firm with his best friend Boromir. On a family trip to Bree, Estel met a real Underhill, named Sarafina; they instantly fell in love and he brought her home to Buckland as his bride. They bore 3 children.

1st daughter Éowyn was born in 1439. She worshipped and maintained a lifelong friendship with her namesake, who sent her birthday presents every year, and in whose footsteps she followed by becoming the Shire’s most reliable healer. She also helped her father gather research for his herblore books, and gained much knowledge of herbal medicines from this project. She later married Sam & Rosie’s son Robin; they first got together when Tom & Beren played matchmaker.

2nd daughter Athela was born in 1441, named after Athelas in honor of her father’s love of herbs and her mother’s appreciation for the specific herb that saved her father’s life. She married into the Goldworthy family and had 3 children with her husband Fabian. She shared her sister’s passion for independent thinking and eventually became a teacher at the Shire’s first public school.

Merry was the first of the Travellers to be widowed, as Estella passed in 1480 at age 95. The following year, Athela named her newborn 3rd child after her mother.

As Tolkien wrote, Aragorn & Arwen’s firstborn was Eldarion, born in 1422, who eventually succeeded his father as king and created a long-lasting dynasty. According to me, Eldarion was followed by three younger sisters:

Idril was born in 1425. She remained in close touch with her Elvish roots and arranged for the history of Elves and Men to be taught in all of Gondor’s schools. It was for her and her sister’s sake that her parents were inspired to issue a law requiring girls to be educated as well as boys. She later married Elboron, son of Faramir & Eowyn (b. 1424), and they became Prince and Princess of Ithilien after Elboron’s parents’ deaths, and helped Legolas restore the land to its former glory. Their son Barahir wrote The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen (Tolkien canon).

Twins Celebrían and Gilraen were born in 1429.

Celebrían was a linguist and expert diplomat and helped her father with peace talks among the Southern and Eastern lands, made easier when she became fluent in the languages spoken by the Haradrim. She was close friends with Elanor, as they shared a passion for learning languages.

Gilraen was a tomboy who joined the remaining Rangers of the North in patrolling the woodlands of Arnor, eventually marrying a fellow Ranger.

All four of Aragorn & Arwen’s children were raised bilingual in Westron and Sindarin. The Sindarin language became common in Gondor once again, and was taught in schools.

Eldarion oversaw the restoration of Osgiliath alongside his father.

Aragorn also arranged for absolute premogeniture in the Reunited Kingdom’s line of succession, echoing the similar policy of Númenor.

Two centuries later, Eldarion’s firstborn, Silmariën, became the first Ruling Queen (regnant) of Gondor. Her younger sister was Nimloth.

Also, in Ithilien:

Besides Elboron, Faramir & Éowyn had a daughter, Elwyn (b. 1427), who became a healer like her mother. She exchanged much information with her close friends from the Shire, the hobbits Ruby Gardner and Éowyn Brandybuck.

As for Legolas and Gimli:

Gimli was gray and aged when he and Legolas sailed West, but had a few steps left in him.

On his last journey, Legolas took with him letters for Sam from his surviving children, all of whom he had stayed in touch with through the years (especially Elanor and Tom), as well as his own copy of the Red Book in Quenya, which he’d made himself in Gondor from the Thain’s Book, in order to keep the details of the story recorded for the populace of Valinor.

They were thrilled to reunite with the hobbits on Eressëa, having hoped they’d still be alive.

Gimli bonded with the Elves who specialized in mining and delving on the island, and eventually learned Quenya.

Legolas fell in love with Laurëalotë, a Vanya resident of Tol Eressëa and the daughter of Frodo’s healer.

Gimli, being 260 years old when he sailed, ultimately lived to the age of 330.

Many years after the hobbits and Gimli had finally passed on, Legolas married Laurëalotë and they had two daughters, Malinalda and Altáriel, and a son, Elessar. They settled on the island and often visited the permanent memorial built in honor of their late friends.

Gandalf sailed on to settle in Valinor. His reward from the Valar for his deeds was to travel freely among the Blessed Realm whenever he pleased, no longer bound to be a servant. Thus, he often visited Legolas and the memorials on the nearby island.

Legolas’ copy of the Red Book became the most cherished item in his household, as he read the story to his wife, daughters, and grandchildren, and kept it alive forever.

For the rest of time, Gandalf and Legolas personally reminisced about the Fellowship, and their memories of and love for their friends never faded.

The Last Ship sailed from the Grey Havens in the year 201 of the Fourth Age. Among those onboard were Círdan, Celeborn, Elladan, Elrohir, and one Elf who had long served his repentance through many lonely millennia in Middle-Earth and was at last granted passage back to his homeland: Maglor.

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gale-gentlepenguin · 5 months

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Gale Analysis: Scott Pilgrim Takes Off: Taking Responsibility

So I get obsessed with things too late.

But that doesnt mean anything cause I will still type about it.

Scott Pilgrim Takes off takes place in another Universe.

Obviously, BUT so does the Other Timeline.

(Spoilers for those that haven't Seen Scott Pilgrim Takes off)

So in this timeline Scott "Loses" To Mathew Patel, and everything is shaken up because of it.

Ramona goes on a quest to find Scott because she realizes he isnt actually dead. During which it is revealed that Older Scott, from 14 years in the future kidnaps Scott to prevent him from getting together with Ramona, as while he was in a depressive state from his divorce (which wasn't a divorce but separation) took a Sarcastic Wallace Quip Literally.

According to Wallace it was like Scott's break up with Envy but 10x worse. To which even Young Scott agreed "Oh s*** thats bad"

Despite seeing Older Scott wallowing he still wants to be with Ramona. And thus Older Scott realized he is still Married Ramona. (I think its potential multiverse theory but its never explained so i guess it isnt) So he trains for 10 years and decides f*** it he will fight EVERYONE so that way it NEVER happens. And he has not only his own skills, but the skills of ALL of Ramona's exes. Becoming EVEN OLDER Scott. The 8TH Evil Ex

(Motherf***er looking Like Akuma mixed with an old hermit)

This Scott ended up becoming an Evil Ex. (An irony that is pointed out that Ramona has said in the comic and Movie to Scott at one point)

Now if anyone is familiar with the OG Comic, Scott goes through an internal crisis that lets him realize how much of an Asshole he is about not learning from his mistakes. A Scott from the main continuity would never have fallen into his previous failings like future Scott did, and Ramona of the main timeline also realized her hang ups and would likely have been more open communicating. Granted most of her hang up were because of Gideon's Glow manipulation. (Emotional weapon that messes with people including memories and stuff but thats too complicated).

But seeing this timeline and the one of the show, there is no Glow Manipulation, there is no Nega Scott, we know certain events happen like the canon timeline did in the Movie/Musical script. (How Lucas Loses, how Scott beat each ex, Ramona and Scott getting together). But there was no mention of Scott's emotional journey that helped Scott become a better person.

Older Scott never developed like the OG scott. He may have had a hiccup with Knives, but that is it. He gets the girl and stays married for 13 years. We never know what caused the need for separation, but Ramona leaves and Scott (who never learned his lessons) becomes bitter and heartbroken.

In the ending, Ramona realizes that her Constantly leaving the things she cares about seems to always be the Catalyst that results in people taking things poorly. Because she either leaves with no word or simply leaves because she wants to hurt them. Ramona realizes her shortcomings of being unable to say what she wants and communicate with people so that she could be understood. That she needed to accept her wants and feelings, to understand them THEN go into a relationship. This lets her see and own up to the Damage she's done and wanting to make amends on her side. Which allows her to fuse with her future self and become Super Ramona, sending Even Older Scott back in time and helping PRESENT Scott understand Ramona better and asking him to remind her when she starts getting distant.

And thats what all mediums of Scott Pilgrim have in common. The Main theme is Taking Responsibility and Understanding one's motives/Actions. And even if there were retcons and changes it still holds the Core of Scott Pilgrim. People can do s*** things but as long as they work to change and be better there is always hope, but we need to own up to our s***.

This Universe is different because its Ramona working through her issues instead of Scott working through his. Maybe this version of Scott after seeing what happened to his future self was able to Re-evaluate his life (also seeing what Ramona and the others were doing when he was gone that helps him not want to become the Buff evil ex he could be.)

Now there are a lot of things that were cut for these 8 episodes... but with the last episodes ending it could leave things open to a season 2, maybe the Glow gets reintroduced, maybe nega Ramona might appear (cause why not)

#scott pilgram takes off #scott pilgrim vs the world #gale's analysis #spto spoilers #scott pilgrim takes off spoilers #gale's thoughts

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pissmd · 8 months

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i just finished rewatching the film copycat, a film i used to adore and rewatch a lot in my early to mid teens, but irks me as an adult now that i finally have the ability to spot concealed allegory.

on its surface it’s a decent, well-made thriller, but beneath that surface its message is an insidious indictment of those supporting, and that supports consequences, of eschewing capital punishment.

helen, our ‘misguided’ would-be victim and longtime sufferer of paranoia, is the consequence of supporting the abolition of capital punishment. her agoraphobia is a direct result of her fear of a repeat attack, a fear reinforced by the ineffectual imprisonment of her would-be murderer, who has escaped confinement once before. helen is first introduced advocating the use of studying serial killers to prevent the fostering of others in their wake, but will all too soon be victim of that same belief. she survives the first attempt at her life, but instead of daryll’s imprisonment bringing the foresight and wherewithal to prevent future serial killers, and that safety promised with it, he becomes a leader/teacher for his disciples, one of whom is our copycat killer.

we then have monahan and goetz, monahan represents helen’s point of view, as demonstrated by her belief in incapacitating criminals rather than goetz’ strategy, which is barraging a criminal with bullets until they’re no longer a threat. we’re offered a counterpoint to the effectiveness of goetz’ strategy by monahan, who warns him against the dangers of accidentally murdering an innocent, but the film never challenges this potential. the only deaths caused by cops are those that are indisputably guilty.

these opposing points of view first come to the test in the form of goetz’ murder, where monahan’s technique of incapacitating criminals instead of killing them directly leads to goetz’ preventable death. it acts as an event to shake her belief, which will be tested again when she comes head to head with the copycat killer. this time, she uses the lesson learned from the death of her partner to ensure the death of the copycat, lest helen be killed like monahan’s partner before her.

the repetition of events serving as a correction to misguided beliefs isn't only portrayed through monahan's 'heroic journey', but through the films climax, and the cyclical nature of it. the copycat's death itself is the correction of the prior mistake made from sparing daryll of capital punishment. if the copycat represents all serial killers and their propensity of learning from those before them, then his belief that he is serving as a revision of where daryll failed, is the inverse of the film's message. which is that the copycat's death is the rectification of where the law had failed daryll.

this message is demonstrated most clearly by the open ending, where daryll continues leading more disciples down the same path that the copycat had taken, and failed, before them. if daryll had received the capital punishment that the copycat had ‘rightfully deserved’, then the law would have prevented his further nurturing of aspiring serial killers.

copycat never openly rebukes the abolition of capital punishment, it only ever disguises its beliefs in the consequences of abolishing it through choices made facing immediate threats. but it’s hard to ignore the parallels drawn between the two, and the implications it has on cops as infallible moral enforcers of the law.

#copycat 1995 #i never post reviews but i thought this movie needed some criticism bc i think its copaganda is often ignored in service for another readin #a reading i'm all for but there are pitfalls to be wary of before baselessly praising media

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ibrithir-was-here · 1 year

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Book HMC and Movie HMC are in the same universe semi-crack theory xD

(I posted this last year as two different posts, story and art, but thought what the heck I'll put them together and repost it so people can get the full experience)

Crack Howl's Moving Castle Movie theory me and my brother made up that was fun enough I wanted to share xD

The differences in between the book and the movie are actually because Movie Howl is a kid from Ingary who ran into Book Howl when he was young, learned all the wrong lessons from hearing Howl's life story, and decided to base his whole life around his new idol, catching a falling star, stealing Howl's name and image like some sort of non authorized Dread Pirate Roberts pass along. (Also building his own technologically improved Moving Castle cuz Ingary has had an industrial revolution since Book Howl and Sophie's time x)

And the reason the plots are similar-ish to a point is because Movie Howl unknowingly has a similar power to Book Sophie, and his determination to become the new Wizard Howl is causing events around him to shape into similarish events. But it's causing problems by inspiring a new Witch of the Waste to appear and curse a new Sophie (movie never says her last name is Hatter, just that she worked at a shop called Hatter's), a different prince to disappear thus sparking a war, and so on. And basically Movie Howl's fanboying gets him and everyone else into deeper water then he ever expected and he has to actually man up and start living his own life and let everyone loose from this plot he's unwittingly bound them in.

So yeah, Movie HMC is actually in the future of Book HMC and is the result of intense fanboying mixed with magic xD

Art Featuring the progression of young Jacob Gardener Movie!Howl following in his idol’s footsteps and silver fox Book!Howl being incredibly confused and concerned when he sees his old alias pop up in the Kingsbury tabloids

#my art #repost #hmc #howl's moving castle #howl jenkins pendragon #howell jenkins #wizard howl #sophie hatter #studio ghibli #hmc fanart #hmc headcanon #hmc book #howl x sophie #diana wynne jones

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hannahmanderr · 7 months

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DP Shiptember Day 1 - Catching Feelings... Again ~ "Quick, kiss me!" ~ Gray Ghost

Summary: She didn’t even bother to look up from her work. “Who’d you tick off this time?”

“It wasn’t my fault!” He pressed his back flush against the counter. “She started it!”

Her eyebrow hitched upward. “Who started it?” (takes place after my oneshot Glow)

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

If there was ever one benefit of working a grimy minimum wage job in a town like Amity Park, it definitely had to be the opportunity to see some wild situations. At a place like the Nasty Burger, these situations seemed even more prevalent.

Kat would swear up and down that a portal had decided to open itself smack dab in the middle of the grill one night during the dinner rush, resulting in half a dozen hamburger patties falling into the void of the Ghost Zone, a backup in the drive-through, and one strongly worded Yelp review from a visiting tourist.

Irving Burns allegedly had to pull Nasty Sauce from the public after rumors began to swirl around town that Phantom had blown up a ghost with a single packet and teenagers came in droves to take handfuls of sauce packets for the so-called “Nasty Sauce challenge” (Mr. Lancer himself had confiscated dozens of packets on school grounds).

One day, the Nasty Ned mascot costume simply got up and walked itself out the door and into Lake Eerie. That story had made headlines on Channels 4, 6, and 7. The costume was never recovered.

And of course, the family of blob ghosts living in the dumpsters out back loved to cause problems of their own, namely swooping in and stealing customers’ fries like swarms of seagulls.

Valerie became used to these strange events long before her coworkers did. She probably ended up stopping a fair number of shenanigans before the public became aware of them. Even after her father forbade her from bringing her trackers to work, even after she learned the true identity of her number one target and stopped hunting him, the drive to keep the city from devolving into too much chaos was strong.

Still though, if she had to learn to accept one thing, it was that chaos loved Amity Park and Amity Park loved chaos. No one could go long without encountering at least a little bit. That had been a lesson she’d learned a few days ago, when Danny Fenton, her rival turned crush turned ex turned enemy turned crush again, took her behind the Nasty Burger itself (because where else would it be?) and shown her something wild enough only for Amity Park. Something strange. Something beautiful.

In just those past few days, she began to expect the unexpected. She’d nearly expected the horde of ghost squirrels raiding the cafeteria storage the other day to turn rabid on her, but then memories of the soft, cool touch that blob ghosts had left on her fingers and arms crossed her mind. And she, Valerie Gray, the self-proclaimed huntress of Amity Park, retracted her guns and set to help the squirrels find the industrial size canister of peanut butter they’d been looking for.

The squirrels had shown up outside her window the next day offering a trash-covered everything bagel from the bakery a couple roads down. It had been such an endearing display that she made a show of “eating” it in front of them. They’d enjoyed it.

And the day after that, she’d been chasing down the Box Ghost when they passed over an intersection and a tiny boy escaped his mother’s hand-hold and toddled into the street to follow them. She hadn’t been fast enough to get there before the next speeding car got there, but the Box Ghost had dropped the stack of boxes he’d insisted on maintaining throughout the chase to grab the little boy and turned them both intangible before depositing the boy safely back on the sidewalk.

Valerie had stopped short of sucking him into her thermos to ask him why abandon the boxes. Why go against everything he was supposed to be?

“My kid is about his age,” he’d told her shyly. “I just did what any other parent would do.” That answer had been so stunning she’d simply lowered the thermos and told him to get the boxes home to his kid. But in retrospect, it made sense, didn’t it? Ignoring the complexities of how ghosts had kids in the first place, who was to say parental instincts didn’t transcend the line between life and death?

So no, perhaps she couldn’t put a stop to all the chaos that plagued Amity Park. Perhaps some of it still made no sense. But maybe, just maybe, if she could keep her eyes peeled and watch for the unexpected…

Maybe the chaos could begin to form itself into a wild, beautifully intricate harmony.

Apparently, not even all the anticipation in the world could prepare her for Danny Fenton to come barreling into the Nasty Burger during the afternoon lull and launch himself through the counter to cower by her feet.

To her credit, she barely reacted. She didn’t even bother to look up from her work. “Who’d you tick off this time?”

“It wasn’t my fault!” He pressed his back flush against the counter. “She started it!”

Her eyebrow hitched upward. “Who started it?”

Before he could answer, the front doors exploded inward.

Instincts kicked in, and Valerie dropped behind the counter beside Danny to avoid the flying shrapnel. A gust of hot wind blew over them. Despite the heat, a chill crept up her spine. She didn’t need her tracker or to see Danny’s breath fog to know a ghost had decided to make itself known.

“ Where is he? ” a shrill voice screeched. Valerie glanced over at Danny, who had gone pale at the sound of the voice.

With a glare, she silently jerked her head towards the front. Seriously?

He responded with a helpless shrug and a shake of his head. I swear it’s not my fault!

“I know you’re in here, my darling!” the voice called in an angry sing-song. “You can’t run from love!”

This time, both of Valerie’s eyebrows hitched upward. “ My darling? ” she hissed as quietly as she could.

Danny flailed his arms wildly. He at least had the sense to keep them from flailing past the edge of the counter. “ She’s crazy! ” he hissed back.

By that point, the few other employees on shift had emerged from the kitchen to see the commotion. Out of the corner of her eye, Valerie could see Tatiana, the sweetheart dishwasher, peering from around the corner, whispering furiously into her cell phone. No doubt to the city’s emergency ghost line.

Taylor, the shift supervisor, wasn’t anywhere near as timid. “Can I help you with something?” they drawled with a voice Valerie knew they only reserved for the most frustrating of customers.

“Where are you hiding him?” the ghost said, her voice sickeningly sweet. “I know he’s in here, I can smell him!”

If possible, Danny turned paler.

“I have no clue who you’re talking about, ma’am,” Taylor said. “If you wanna buy something, that’s fine, otherwise I’m gonna have to ask you to leave. You’re disturbing other customers.”

Valerie nearly snorted. Not that there were other customers at the moment, but if there had been, “disturbing” probably would have been an understatement.

She stole another glance at Danny, who had screwed his eyes shut and seemed to be concentrating on… something. She couldn’t tell. Still though, seeing him so oddly terrified…

Without thinking, she laid a hand over one of his clenched fists. One of his eyes popped open, first flicking down to look at their hands then back up to peer at her. She offered a tiny smile, and his shoulders relaxed marginally.

“All I want is my sweetheart!” the ghost was saying, her voice still dripping with a faux sweetness. “He thinks he can hide from me, but he’s mine !”

Taylor frowned and rolled their eyes. “Of course. Of course . The one time I get the afternoon shift I ask for, and some crazy ghost decides to show up.”

Another gust of hot, dry air blew over Valerie’s head. She and Danny cringed in sync. Taylor was a perfectly chill person and all, but they had a habit of being a little too blunt. And bluntness did not exactly work well when ghosts were involved.

“He’s mine !” the ghost screeched. “If you won’t tell me where he is, then maybe I should persuade you through… other means . I’ll gladly rip you apart limb by limb until you talk.”

Taylor’s frown melted into concern. “Wait, wait, I didn’t -”

Several things seemed to happen at once.

Valerie caught sight of Danny’s other eye popping open, and she instantly recognized the determined twinkle in his eye - the same one that Phantom got when he was about to dive headfirst into a situation he probably shouldn’t. Under her hand, she felt his muscles tense, ready to spring into action.

At the same time, Taylor’s eyes widened until they nearly popped out of their head. Valerie felt it as the ghost surged forward, her fury following her in a cloud of heat and debris from the destroyed entrance.

In that moment, Valerie had a number of thoughts. The first of which was simply that Danny Fenton needed to stop getting himself into these situations.

The second of which was that none of them, Danny included, probably got paid enough to deal with these sorts of things.

The third of which was that there was no way she was about to let some possessive ghost steal away the boy who had single handedly changed her world more than once, the boy who had waited for her with such patience and such kindness, the boy who had kissed her a few nights ago and shown just how much he cared for her through the golden light of a dozen blob ghosts.

And so before Danny could jump up on his own, she seized his wrist and pulled him up herself.

“Ex-cuse me?” she shouted, jamming her free hand onto her hip.

And just like that, Valerie Gray found herself staring down a cheerleader.

The sheer surprise from the ghost being a cheerleader of all things nearly caused her to falter, but she managed to catch herself in the nick of time. Granted, it was truly a ghostly cheerleader, with pom-poms and hair of fire, fangs protruding from her perfectly red lips, and arms almost twice the normal length, but it was still a cheerleader nonetheless.

The ghost did not do as well at hiding her surprise. She stopped in her tracks and slowly turned her fiery red eyes towards the pair. Her eyes landed on Valerie first, then…

“There you are!” she exclaimed, and Danny squeaked, gripping onto Valerie’s hand for his half-life. “Why did you run, my love? I was only going to make our relationship official . Just a little bite! It wouldn’t even hurt!”

Something snapped in Valerie, and she pulled Danny closer to her. “What are you talking about, your relationship? He’s already taken, thank you very much.” Even as she spoke the words, her heart pounded.

This was so not how she would’ve liked to go about this.

Danny whipped around, his blue eyes boring into hers and his mouth gaping wordlessly. “I’m what ?”

“Who’s this now?” the cheerleader asked. She bared her fangs and narrowed her eyes in Valerie’s direction.

Despite the new wave of intense heat that blasted her, Valerie remained resolute. “I’m the girl who’s about to kick your sorry butt if you don’t leave my Danny alone!”

Her words hit her a second too late. She could only pray her blush would be written away as redness from the heat and not embarrassment.

“ Your Danny?” the ghost hissed, her voice an ominous growl. “Some pitiful, silly human thinks she can take my love away from me? From me ?” She began to laugh hysterically. “You have no idea who you’re messing with, girlie. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, after all.”

“Come any closer and I’ll show you the fury of a woman scorned.”

The cheerleader’s face melted into a sinister grin. “I was gonna tear this one’s arms off and use them for toothpicks,” she said, nodding towards a terrified Taylor, “but I’ll gladly start with you instead!”

Valerie had no idea what possessed her the moment the ghost lunged towards her and Danny. Maybe it was the sheer mental exhaustion from having her world turned upside down over the past few days. Maybe it was little more than a moment of panic. Maybe it was the burning drive to prove herself to this she-demon and show that no one would come between her and the people she loved.

(She’d dwell on that last bit later.)

She turned to Danny. “Quick, kiss me!”

Danny tore his eyes away from the cheerleader. “Wait, what ?”

And because she didn’t have time to try and convince him or tell him her plan (not that she had one), Valerie flung her arms around his neck and pulled him in close.

The moment their lips touched, something akin to a spark erupted between them, creating an audible crackle in the air.

Or maybe that was just the ghostly edge to the cheerleader’s shriek of pure rage.

Valerie liked to believe it was the former.

Whatever it was, the effects were instantaneous. She had her eyes closed tightly as she kissed Danny, but she could feel as the heat that had been flooding the two of them stopped abruptly, almost as if Danny’s naturally cool presence had been amplified to create a barrier around them. The change in temperature was soothing against her irritated skin. Judging by the way Danny relaxed into her embrace, the change felt just as nice to him.

“Whoa, whoa!” Taylor shouted from behind them. “Keep it PG, jeez .”

Behind her closed eyelids, Valerie rolled her eyes. Overdramatic much?

At some point, the cheerleader’s incessant shriek became too much for her ears to handle, and she broke the kiss. Still leaned in close, she put her lips next to Danny’s ear. “Thermos?” she whispered.

For a moment, Danny just wavered in place, staring with a dreamy, unfocused look in his eyes. “Huh?”

She thwacked him on the shoulder. “Focus, Fenton!”

“Oh!” He shook his head. “Right! Uh, thermos! Yes! Not, uh… I’m just - um…” He peered past Valerie’s shoulder to where Taylor stood. “Just… don’t let them see, I - er…”

She watched in amusement as he clumsily patted his pockets, then reached beside him. His hand disappeared into thin air for a moment before reappearing with a Fenton Thermos.

“A literal pocket dimension,” he whispered with a goofy grin. The thermos nearly slipped from his grip, and he flailed to catch it.

Valerie was faster. She snatched the thermos out of his loose hold. “Yeah, no pocket dimension can make you any less of a dork.”

“Maybe, but I’m still your dork.”

Her face burned red, but she still managed to point the thermos at the still-shrieking cheerleader and suck her in. “A dork who let one kiss distract him that badly,” she threw back, handing the full thermos to him. “And put that back in your ‘pocket’ before you drop it.”

“I’m not gonna drop it!” In spite of his protest, he slipped the thermos back into the empty space. “See?”

“Wow, congratulations on doing something your average toddler can do and not drop something.”

“Aw, you noticed?” He flashed her a wide, impish smile. “Do I get another kiss for that?” he asked with a wink.

Valerie hummed and turned back to the cash register. “I don’t know. Do you have a decent explanation as to why there’s some ghost girl chasing after you?”

Danny opened his mouth and froze with a finger in midair. “Uh… Okay, wait, listen! There’s a perfectly good explanation for this. I didn’t start it, I swear! She saw me fly- er, walking around and just pounced on me!”

“Mhmm.” She struggled to hide her laugh as she put on her best disinterested face. How was it that Danny Phantom, who had managed to elude her for years and fend off powerful ghost after powerful ghost, could end up struggling this much?

And how on earth did it manage to be the cutest thing ever?

��Valeriieee,” he whined, tugging at her shirt sleeve. “Please! I promise! I’m not cheating on you!”

“I didn’t know you two were together.”

Both of their heads whipped around to see Taylor leaning against the counter and shaking their head. “Or that a ghost that hot could be that terrifying.”

Valerie paused. “Wait, hot like, hot ? Or, like…”

Taylor shot her a glare. “Not. Another. Word. You do you, and I’ll do me. I could say plenty about your choice in partner.”

“My…?” She turned to Danny, matching blushes painting their faces. His endless blue eyes stared back at her helplessly. Something in her chest throbbed faster and faster, and she couldn’t help the smile that grew on her face.

“Yeah,” she said. She took his hand and squeezed it. “He’s definitely mine.”

The look on his face shone even brighter than it had a few nights ago under the light of the blob ghosts.

Taylor’s eyes bounced between the two of them. “Good for you, then, I guess. He can’t stay behind the counter, though.”

#danny phantom #danny fenton #valerie gray #gray ghost #dp shiptember 2023 #shiptember #shiptember 2023 #anyway have i mentioned i love these two

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hufflepuffinstorybrooke · 10 months

Text

If You’re Lucky, Love Leaves Scars

Summary: In Misthaven, the people know that their rulers are soulmates, bound by the fact that they share their emotions and also physical pain. Follow Crown Princess Emma as she discovers that she has a soulmate of her own and her path to meeting her true love.

Rating: Rated Teen for a small instance of child abuse. You don't technically see it happen, but you do see the results from the soulmate's POV. Feel free to message me with any questions if you need more info before reading.

Notes: The notes might be a bit long, so bear with me: 1) I'd like to thank the runners of the Captain Swan Supernatural Summer for letting me participate in this year's event! 2) I would like to thank @kmomof4 for my beautiful artwork! 3) Thanks also goes to @kazoosandfannypacks, my wonderful beta. 4) A last thank you to my friends Caroline, who acted as a second beta (a gamma?) and cheerleader for me during the writing process.

This is my first attempt at fanfic, so please be nice. More notes at the end. Enjoy!

Here is the link for AO3

https://archiveofourown.org/works/48275764

Everyone in the realm knows the stories of soulmates. Not everyone has them, but when you do, what happens to them happens to you as well. When they bleed, so do you. And once together, soulmates feel what the other feels emotionally, as well. Only the truest of soulmates feel each others’ emotions before ever meeting.

Crown Princess Emma of Misthaven was born of True Love: the truest of soulmates, Queen Snow White and King David. The story of their love is legendary, bringing the kingdom out of the darkness of the Evil Queen and into their benevolent reign. Emma knew her parents’ story before she knew anything else. She would tell all the people she met that she was born of True Love, the daughter of brave King David and fearless Queen Snow. She loved the life that, in her mind, was given to her by that same True Love.

The love only grew when Emma was five, and her little sister Ruth was born. Emma adored being a big sister. Everyone throughout the kingdom rejoiced, though there were those who worried that another girl had been born instead of a son to rule. Snow only ascended to the throne because of the lack of a direct male heir and her defeat of the Evil Queen. Snow and David had no such concerns about who would reign after them. They saw the light of leadership in Emma, especially after she started her lessons.

While, in other kingdoms, Emma’s peers learned to dance and paint, Emma learned how to wield a sword, strategize a battle, and ride astride a horse. She did her own dancing with her father, but she considered it fun, not lessons.

As with anyone, Emma had her troubles; she got caught sneaking sweets before dinner, sometimes she would be in a foul mood for no apparent reason, and she had the occasional nightmare. One night, however, six-year-old Emma woke with a terrible fright and was inconsolable. Ruby, her godmother who looked after her at night, ran to fetch the king and queen.

David was first into the room, as Emma almost always asked for him. This time, Emma threw herself, not at David, but at Snow.

“I felt as though you were gone! As if I no longer had a mother.”

Snow held her daughter close. It was the same feeling she had when she lost her own mother.

Snow and Emma held each other, David watching his girls fondly. Never did it occur to him that this same thing happened to him the day Snow’s mother, Queen Eva, died.

The whole family wrote the night off as a bad dream, but Emma grew closer to her mother. Emma was so much like her father that she tended to spend any free time with him, whether in the stables or the study. They rode, strategized, and dueled. After that night, Emma seemed to split her time more evenly between her parents. She would sit with Snow and listen to Snow’s more elegant form of strategy: diplomacy. David was a fair hand at this as well, but Snow was raised for it. She solved problems with grace and ease, be them large between nations or small between subjects. Emma learned the importance of both negotiations and battle in lessons, but she did not understand it truly until she saw her mother in action. This time bonded the pair, and all because of a dream.

Once her brother Leopold was born, most of the kingdoms expected him to be raised as the heir to the throne. Emma was only eight at the time, but she knew she wanted to rule and serve Misthaven as their Queen. She had seen the good that comes from being queen and wanted to help her people the way her mother did. Snow and David, knowing Emma was wise beyond her years, sat her down and asked what she wanted. She told mother and father, “I want to be the Queen of Misthaven.”

There was no more need for discussion after that. Snow sent out a proclamation that, despite the birth of a male heir, Emma would remain the crown princess. Ruth and Leo would both receive the same education as Emma, but as second and third in line to the throne.

----

At the age of ten, it is very rare to know if you have a soulmate. Children, especially children as tough as Emma, find themselves having any number of bumps and bruises. Emma had no idea that she had a True Love, much like her parents had each other.

As the next year of her life passed, Emma noticed some oddities. No matter how sedentary her day was, her feet always ached something fierce at the end of the night. She would be sitting in the study reading and feel as though she stubbed her toe. Her body sometimes ached with manual labor that it had never truly known. She also continued to feel the ache of her mother’s absence, even, on some occasions, in her mother’s presence.

But then, another heartache woke her from a peaceful dream. This time, she ran to her parents’ room. Her mother sat at the vanity, but her father was nowhere in sight.

“Where’s Papa?” Emma said through her tears. Her mother tried to talk to her, but all Emma wanted at that moment was her father. Her heart was telling her that he left them. Snow held her daughter as she wept, having no other way to console her without David.

When David entered the chamber, Emma ran into his arms. “I thought you left. I awoke and my heart was just convinced you left us forever.”

David picked Emma up and walked her over to his armchair by the fire. His little girl was growing up much too fast, but King David was a strong man who would do anything to help Emma know he was there. “Emma, my darling princess, you know I would never leave this family. I love you all too much to ever leave you.”

“Promise?”

“Always. I will never leave you, my duckling.”

As father and daughter had their moment, Snow went to Ruby, who had followed Emma, and asked for hot chocolate with cinnamon to be brought up to the suite.

As the family drank their special treat, David told his tale of a shepherd turned prince who fell in love with a princess turned bandit. Snow watched David, engrossed in his story, and Emma, slowly leeching comfort from her favorite parts. She knew how her poor daughter was feeling. The same thing had happened to her one night, only realizing years later that she was feeling David’s abandonment of his father leaving. Snow had an inkling of what was happening to her daughter. Part of her was thrilled that Emma would have a True Love of her own, but another part was sad. That part ached for the poor child who had already lost their mother, and was now abandoned by their father. She just hoped they were not alone.

Emma retreated in on herself for a week or so, staying with one parent or another whenever possible, and watching over her siblings when it wasn’t. Slowly, she came back to herself, but the feeling of abandonment still lingered, no matter how many times her father told her that she would be stuck with him for a good long while.

The Oddities, as Emma called her strange pains, got worse. The feeling of manual labor got worse, to the point where she would simply collapse into bed at night. For a few days, Emma was so nauseous she could only keep broth down. Granny, who ran the kitchens, made sure she had plenty and also kept her hydrated. Her parents worried, but the feeling passed in two days.

The final proof came two weeks after the abandonment started while Emma was dueling with her father. They used dulled blades and never to harm, always to disarm. Emma was moving in, gracefully making her father think he had the upper hand—when, all of the sudden, the princess collapsed, screaming in pain.

David stood horrified for a split second before racing to his daughter’s aide. She had fallen to her knees, head on the ground. When David went to rub her back, she screamed as though he hit her. People began to surround the training ring, seeing what the commotion was about. Princess Emma kept screaming out in short bursts, jerking forward with every scream.

David lifted her shoulders, getting Emma to put her arms around his neck as he carried her into the palace. They went into Snow’s study, knowing she was not using it at that time. Emma had felt at least twenty pains, each stinging more than the last.

A servant had gone to get the queen as soon as Emma collapsed. When Snow finally found them in the study, she was absolutely horrified. There sat her husband, silently crying as he held their little girl. Snow could only see Emma’s back, her favorite yellow dress streaked with blood.

“She just fell and started screaming,” David nearly whimpered to his wife, his voice hoarse through his tears.

Emma turned as much as she was able, looking for her mother. “Mama,” she whispered, voice weaker than David’s. Snow rushed to their side taking Emma’s hand in her own. “Why is this happening, Mama? What did I do…”

Snow cut her off, “Listen to me, my duckling. This is not your fault. We will find out what is happening, and we will put an end to it. We will do everything in our power to make sure this never happens again.”

-----

Snow and David rarely fought. They could usually discuss their disagreements until a compromise was reached. This seemed to be the only time in Emma’s memory when her parents were very obviously at odds. But every time Emma walked into a room the arguments went silent, remaining civil but frustrated with each other. They would not let her know what was going on.

Emma was worried. Ever since her mysterious injuries a week ago, everyone in the castle was on edge. People would whisper where they thought she couldn’t hear and stare where they thought she couldn’t see. Her parents’ argument started then as well, and Emma had come to the conclusion that the fight was about her.

Exactly ten days after her injuries, Emma was walking past her mother’s study and heard her parents’ shouting. Emma was done with secrets, so she decided to listen at the door.

“What do you want me to do, David? Leave some child in this condition. All indications point to the fact that they were whipped. If Emma’s loss and abandonment were right, this child has already lost their mother and been abandoned by their father. They could be all alone. And you want me to do nothing!?”

“I never said I didn’t want anything done, I just don’t think enacting military power is the way to go here.”

“And I’m not saying have our armies storm our subjects’ homes! I just want to make it publically known that we will not condone the abusive treatment of others!”

Emma had heard enough. She opened the doors and her parents’ quieted down at once. “I would like to be brought into this conversation.” Emma kept her voice calm and collected, while radiating as much authority as an eight year old can over their parents.

David spoke first. “That just isn’t a good idea, Duckling–”

“If this argument that has been going on for almost a fortnight has to do with what happened to me, then I have every right to be involved in how this is decided.”

“I know you think that, but you are still so young–”

“If I am old enough to learn to rule a kingdom, shouldn’t I be old enough to have input on how we treat the abuse of my soulmate?”

Her father wore a look of shock, but it was her mother’s face she was drawn to. Snow looked sad, But also proud. Her daughter was going to make a wonderful queen.

“I figured it out after he took the beating. The only power that could do that is soulmates. I don’t want him to suffer, so if we have it in our power to do something about it, then we need to help. And not just my soulmate, but others who may be in the same position. Where do we stand on ideas?”

Emma was leading negotiations just the way her mother taught her, which made David realize it was pointless to try to argue.

“I would like to place extra soldiers in towns and villages to do outreach. Let the people know that if they need help, the crown will be there for them.” Snow restated her intentions from the beginning of their argument.

David was on the verge of interrupting, but Emma held up a hand, and he held his tongue.

“I also want to fund orphanages all throughout the kingdom so that children without families can be provided for.” This had been a project Snow had wanted to start for a while. The incident with Emma’s soulmate just made it seem more urgent.

Emma thought for a moment, and then turned to her father and nodded, giving him his chance.

“Putting more soldiers in villages will do nothing but scare people. I know we do our best to prove to our people that we are not Regina, but the Black Knights caused too much damage to people and land for soldiers to be seen in a good light so soon after their reign of terror. I don’t oppose the orphanages nearly as much, but how are we to make sure that the children are in any better hands there than on the streets?” This was the circular argument that Snow and David had been trapped in for days.

“And what of our ports?”

Snow looked at her daughter with a furrowed brow. “Why do you think anything needs to be done at our ports?”

“Remember several days ago, when I couldn’t leave my room because of nausea? I was dizzy and felt like the world was rocking. I think he might have been at sea during the storm that rolled in a few days later.”

Both David and Snow looked at their daughter in awe. Her lessons were clearly paying off. She would make a great ruler one day.

Before either of her parents responded, Emma came to her own solution. “We should place extra soldiers and stricter guidelines on ships that come to port. Allow search and questioning of the crew, but never seizure of the cargo, unless that ‘cargo’ includes people, then they are freed.” She looked to her parents, who still looked surprised, but nodded their agreement. “The orphanages are also a good idea, but we should place guidelines on the orphanages allowing for inspections. I think we should make a committee of advisors with a special interest in the wellbeing of children. Perhaps led by Granny or Geppetto.”

Snow was the first to react, getting up to hug her daughter. “That is an amazing idea, Emma. I am so proud of you.”

David embraced his girls. His duckling was growing up, and as proud as it made him, he also worried about how much longer she would need her doting father. “You make me proud everyday Emma, but this might be a new record.”

-----

Ten years passed. Emma’s plan for the children of the kingdom has flourished. The children of the orphanages are well-provided for, educated in the orphanages and then going on to get apprenticeships in their towns. The ports have shut down any slave trade movement through Misthaven and ensured the safety of crews.

As for Emma, she has grown into an accomplished, beautiful, and intelligent woman. Many a nobleman have come to try to court her, but Emma shows no interest in them, preferring to focus on the needs of her people. Emma does outreach programs throughout the kingdom, going from village to village and meeting with her people. If there are problems to fix or disputes to be resolved, Emma helps in the few days she is there. She also spends time in the orphanages, meeting with the children and making sure that they are taken care of.

Of course, she now spends much of her time at the palace as well. She sits by her mother’s side, assisting with the Queen’s duties. On this particular morning, they meet with leading members of the military to receive reports of the ongoings in their peaceful kingdom. And tomorrow night there will be a ball to celebrate promotions throughout the military.

Currently speaking is Captain Liam Jones. He's a handsome man, tall with wavy brown hair and nice blue eyes. Tonight, he'll be promoted from captain to rear admiral. He is young for the position, just shy of thirty, but during his captaincy aboard the kingdom’s flag ship he has justly upheld their laws and helped spearhead some of the changes made to Emma’s plans for the ports.

If the story she'd heard was correct, Captain Jones was a new member of their navy when the child protection laws were first set in place. He and a few other top students of the Naval Academy were assigned to the ports some days for hands-on training. One of the ships that pulled into port was one his father was supposedly working on. When the ship came to port, the now Captain—then Ensign—Jones found out that his father had abandoned the crew, selling his much younger brother into service to the captain. From the stories Emma heard, Jones was quite a sight to behold that day. Initially he was justly in a rage, but he pulled himself together enough to cite the new rules of the kingdom. In accordance with the new rules of port, ships with slaves working on them, there was a fine heavier than most ships could ever pay, or they could release the slaves. As the story goes, the younger Jones became a cabin boy until he was of the age to join the navy himself. He will be promoted tonight to captain, quickly working his way through the ranks.

As the current Captain Jones finishes speaking to her mother, he moves back to the line of men reporting. As her mother dismisses the men, Emma stands and walks over to Captain Jones.

“Captain Jones, a quick word, if you will.”

The captain’s eyes widen, and he kneels in front of her. “Of course, Your Royal Highness.”

“Rise, Captain Jones.” The captain comes to his feet, looking worried. “There is no need for concern. I just wondered if your brother would be attending tomorrow’s ceremony.”

“He will, Your Royal Highness.” There's still a fretful edge to the captain’s voice.

“I would like to speak to the both of you then, if you don’t mind.” Emma is curious to hear the accounts of these two men. She often hears about the benefits of the orphanages, but would like to know more about the naval aspect of her project. These brothers would be useful, having been on both sides of the situation.

“If I may be so bold as to inquire what this will be in reference to?” Jones seems almost suspicious of his princess.

“It will just be some shop talk, I am afraid. I have heard your story and I would like to know more about it, especially in reference to the safety measures I helped put into place.”

Captain Jones looks offended at Emma’s interest. He glances around, seeing that the queen and king are waiting for their daughter at the royal entrance. In a low voice he hisses, “Listen, princess, your parents have been very good to my brother and me through some very difficult times in our lives. For that, I will be forever grateful. You, however, sit here in the castle and reap the benefits of their thoughts and actions. Indeed, you just called their plan yours. My brother has been through enough hardships to fill several lifetimes, and I will not add being the princess’s storymaker to the list.” Jones gives a harsh nod of his head and storms from the room.

Emma is astonished. Not only has no one ever spoken to her like that, but Emma has an excellent popularity rate throughout the kingdom. She tours once a year, meeting with those in need and doing her best to make sure that every citizen of their kingdom is provided for.

But Emma’s shock turns to anger quickly. Just who does this Jones think he is? She'd worked hard to do her best for the kingdom and he has the gall to act as though she just sat here being frivolous. She had worked hard through much of her youth to make this kingdom a safe haven for her people. And he just comes in here acting like she has no idea of the troubles of others.

Emma storms past her parents, who are trying to ascertain the meaning of her conversation with Jones. She has much she needs to do to prepare for tonight, setting a new plan in place.

-----

Emma’s wardrobe has always been more modest than those of her peers. She rarely even tried to keep up, anyways, preferring to work on ways to help her people. But there is another reason.

Emma’s soulmate experience had been quickly quieted throughout the castle. As most everyone who saw the incident in the training ring were soldiers of the kingdom, the king had to only ask for them to keep silent. The servants that helped tend to Emma afterward were the most devoted in the castle, too loyal to the family and charmed by the princess herself to spread the secret. The fashion now is to wear dresses with one's shoulders exposed, the neckline cutting almost straight across. The gowns are beautiful, but they would expose Emma’s scars on her upper back from the beating that was given to someone else. And Emma never wanted anyone to know.

Until now.

Emma has decided to let the kingdom know about her motivations behind her actions over the past ten years. In the morning a personal statement of hers will be issued through the kingdom. Emma dictates it to Ruth this afternoon (Ruth’s handwriting is better than Emma’s anyway) while Emma is fitted for her new dress for the ball. Johanna, the palace seamstress, is a miracle worker to have modified the dress made in a little over eight hours, but she too has always been fond of Emma.

The new dress is a simple, red, long sleeve ball gown. The only embellishments are some gems around the neckline. Her hair is up in an elegant twist with a delicate crown placed atop her head. The back shows a bit of her upper back and her scars.

Emma meets her family on the landing above the throne room. There will be an hour of ceremony before dinner and then they will move through to the ballroom for socialization and dancing afterwards.

Leo is the first to see Emma coming down the hall. His mouth drops. Never has he seen Emma looking so much like a real princess. (He has just turned twelve, meaning he now has to come to some of these royal events.) “Wow Em,” is all he can say.

Snow, David, and Ruth turn to see Emma. Ruth beams, having seen the dress earlier while she was dictating Emma’s statement. Snow knew Emma planned on changing her dress, as well as the statement she wrote and the brief words she wants to say to the men tonight. Snow smiles at her eldest, holding back the bittersweetness of watching your child become an adult.

David is speechless. He did not know about the changes to the dress. His little girl stands before him, no longer the girl who told stories of True Love to everyone she met. Now, walking towards him is a woman, elegant and beautiful. “You are beautiful, my duckling.”

“Thank you, Father.”

Before anything else can be said, Leroy begins to introduce the royal family into the function.

Leo and Ruth descend the staircase together. Emma, as the crown princess, follows alone, then comes the king and queen. The hall is full of military men, standing to attention for their monarchs in two lines on either side of the aisle from the stairs to the dais with the thrones. The three divisions of the military—Army, Navy, and Royal Guard—are sorted by rank instead of by branch of service. This is another of Emma’s ideas from a few years back, to promote unity between the branches, as to not show favoritism to any one branch in particular. The mens’ families are also invited, as are any visiting dignitaries, and the courtiers of Misthaven.

As the royal family proceeds to the dais, the servicemen stay at attention and the rest of the guests bow and curtsy as their hosts pass. As soon as heads rise behind the family, some eyes are caught on the silvery scars on the princess’ shoulders. Some of the guests cannot help but to start whispering their own version of how the crown princess of Misthaven got what appear to be whip marks on her back.

Each family member stands in front of their throne as they wait for the king and queen to make it to the dais. Leo and Ruth have the simplest, hardly more embellished than cushioned armchairs, to their mother’s left. Snow’s throne is in the center of the dais and is the most majestic of the set, though still modest by some royal standards. David sits to her right, as he is her right hand in all that they do, and although they rule as equals, David’s throne is a touch less grand than his wife’s. Emma’s is the last of the line, though the median in design. While her parents’ seats have silver and gold inlays and their cushions are of splendid fabrics, the wooden base to Emma’s has only a few details that differentiate it from her siblings. And the cushions are much closer to theirs as well, with a bit of golden thread embroidery to distinguish it from Ruth’s and Leo’s.

As they take their place, Snow steps forward to address the partygoers. “Welcome honored guests. Tonight we celebrate our military and, in particular, the men being promoted tonight. My daughter, Crown Princess Emma, would like to share some words.” Snow sits, shortly followed by David, Ruth, and Leo. Emma stays standing and addresses the crowd.

“As her majesty said, tonight we celebrate the men who protect Misthaven and keep us safe. My family and I hold these men in the highest regards, however, today was also an anniversary. It is ten years since the start of our initiative to make the children of Misthaven safer. The origin of this project has been speculated, but there has never been confirmation of our motivations. Was it my father’s humble start, my mother’s time on the run, or the birth of their children that put the idea in the mind of our gracious queen and king? Well, today the speculation can cease. I am here to set the issue to rest.

“As we all know, our two esteemed rulers share the truest of true love bonds. They are soulmates of the deepest nature, sharing feelings, both emotional and physical. A little over ten years ago, we received confirmation that I, too, have a soulmate. Although it should have been a joyous realization, it was dimmed in the cruel manner in which we found out. You see, my soulmate was whipped. And as we share our true love bond, I felt as he did that day.”

The crowd murmurs in surprise at the princess’s revelation. Only the courtiers closest to the royal family, an extension of the family itself, had ever known what happened all those years ago.

“As you can see, I bear the marks from the horrendous encounter.” The princess turns, showing the marks that can be seen on her shoulders. After giving the crowd time to see her scars, Emma turns back to face the masses and continues, “I do not reveal this now to gain sympathy or praise. I have kept this to myself all these years, not out of shame, but out of devotion. My soulmate went through something awful, and I never wanted this to be the reason we were drawn together, the scars and shared pain. I wanted to find love without proof, not displaying our scars before everyone. Recent conversations have proven that not everyone understands my devotion though. Not only to my soulmate, but to the kingdom at large. The laws enacted a decade ago were my idea. I wanted to protect not only my true love but all the children of the realm. I obviously could not have done this without our gracious monarchs, but the solution evaded us until we came together as a group to combat the injustices that plagued the children. No solution is ever perfect, and we work to improve everyday. If you take nothing else from this story, please know that I share my parents' passion for improving the lives of our citizens. I cannot and will not sit back in my luxurious life and let our people suffer. I will strive to protect not only our children but all the citizens of the kingdom, including the military officers who are here tonight. So I will hand the ceremony back over to our benevolent queen, my mother Snow White.”

Emma turns to her mother and curtsies, and Snow pulls her daughter into her arms before she can fully rise. “I am so proud of you, dear,” Snow whispers.

“Thank you, Mother,” Emma breathes back, releasing her mother to take her seat for the ceremony.

As the promotions are given, Emma thinks back to her speech, particularly the reaction of one rear admiral-to-be. The older Jones brother started the speech with the proper steady attentiveness that military men wear in formal situations. However, Emma had seen flashes of surprise and a return of the anger after she had shown her scars. His gaze had flickered between her and someone in the crowd of soldiers. It was not an encouraging sign, but Emma is not one to be deterred. She plans to speak to the newly promoted Rear Admiral Jones and see if she cannot find an amicable solution to their rift. The Jones men are rising fast through the naval ranks, which means that Emma will likely have to work with them for years to come. She does not want that to be a contentious relationship.

Emma is pulled from her thoughts as her mother promotes men to the rank of captain. The younger Jones brother, Killian, is called forward to receive his promotion, and Emma is stunned. Never before has she seen a man so… beautiful.

Killian Jones has dark hair, nearly black, cut short and styled back. His frame is long and lean, clearly honed from years at sea. But it is his eyes that catch Emma’ attention. They are the clearest blue she has ever seen. She remembers his brother’s eyes, and while the color is almost identical, something is different. The princess stares, trying to see what the difference is, but Killian Jones is already taking his place back in the masses. Throughout the rest of the ceremony, Emma strains to see Killian Jones again but is unable to through the crowd.

Dinner is slow. All Emma wants is to seek out the young captain, to speak to him. It is a feeling the princess has never felt, the need to seek someone out for no reason but desire.

After the feast, the crowd is shown into the ballroom by the staff. Once the throne room holds only the royal family, they bid Leo goodnight. (He will not attend a ball for a few years yet.) Leo is escorted upstairs by Granny, who says she is too old to attend a ball. But before Granny takes her leave, she hugs Emma, sharing her pride in the young woman she has become. As Granny is not one for displays of her affection, Emma is surprised by the old woman.

That hug from Granny is enough to knock Captain Jones from Emma’s mind until they enter the ballroom. The royal family is, once again, announced, and the king and queen open the ball with the first dance. When the music starts, Emma starts searching the gathered crowd for the newly minted captain. But before Emma can find the younger Jones, the older finds her.

Rear Admiral Jones bows to the princess. “May I have this dance, Your Highness?”

Emma pauses for a moment, confused. However, she does know she needed to speak to this Jones as well, so she curtsies and accepts his hand. “Of course, Admiral Jones.”

They move to the dance floor and bow respectfully to each other. Neither of them speak as they start to dance, and Emma’s eyes start to scan the crowd again.

“Looking for my brother, Princess?” Rear Admiral Jones states, rather bluntly. His eyes, so similar in color to his brother, have a storm raging behind them.

“Why would you ever say that, Admiral?” Emma did not want to admit her curiosity to the older Jones brother, seeing as he already does not seem to like her.

“I find it curious that you knew of my brother’s story before meeting him, as you admitted yesterday. And then today, your timeline of your own true love story lines up conspicuously well with my brother’s unfortunate history. Why are you so fascinated with Killian?” The change in tone when he mentions her ‘true love’ indicates he does not believe a word she said.

The princess focuses all her attention on the admiral. “What do you mean by that? Your story is quite the legend in the town, and we are not as disconnected from our people as you seem to think we are. I had heard of you rescuing him from a ship not long after we passed the laws ensuring children’s safety. Just because it happened close together, I see no other links to my past and his. Furthermore, do you not believe that I sustained these scars through a soulmate bond? Why would I lie about such a rare and beautiful thing, and such a tragic experience on top of it?” Emma is proud of her ability to keep her voice level, though her agitation starts to peek through her tone towards the end of her inquiry.

“Is it not curious that soulmate bonds only appear within royalty? It seems to be a tactic to place them further above their people. As to how you got those scars, maybe you aren’t as perfect as you would have us commoners believe, or perhaps you had a strict governess. I don't really care how they happened. I care that you seem to be fixated on my brother. So, Princess, I ask again. Why Killian?”

“The stories of true love in royal couples spread because stories of royalty spread further than others, but I have seen true love in everyday life, and I am sorry that you have not. And I am sorry you do not believe my account of my life, but it did happen as I said. I still do not understand the connection to your brother, but as far as I am concerned, he is a good officer with an overprotective big brother. If you ask my younger siblings, they would say that is a curse, but I am sure it was seen as a blessing when you rescued him all those years ago. I will ask once more that you believe that I had no other ulterior motive to tell my story, other than to settle questions in the minds of our citizens who, like you, have their reservations about me as a ruler. I intend to do my best for this kingdom, and to do that, I need to have the belief of my people.”

The song ends and Emma steps away from the admiral, curtsying to leave, but, as Admiral Jones bows in return, he asks “You truly didn’t know that Killian was whipped about a month before I found him?”

Emma freezes on the dance floor and, as a new song starts up, she looks at Liam Jones. “A month?” That would mean…

“I could never get many details about the beating from Killian, but one of his crewmates told me a little about it. It happened a little more than a month before I found him, about three weeks before the child protection laws were in place. Your story may have happened around the same time.”

Standing in the middle of all the twirling couples, Emma and the admiral are in the way. She pulls him to the balcony as her head swims. Could it be…

“I just want to protect my brother. And I know you are right, I am overprotective. But after our father abandoned him, selling him to slavery, I just knew that I had to protect him. Even if it meant protecting him from the very royalty that saved him.”

“When?” Emma asks, starting to pace. She is now remembering a night long ago that had been burned into her memory.

Admiral Jones looks confused. “I don’t understand, Your Highness.”

“When did your father leave?” Emma demands, putting more force in her tone than intended, but she needs to know. Is this why she cannot get the younger Jones out of her thoughts?

“He abandoned Killian two weeks before the beating.”

“And your mother? She died two years before that?”

“How could you possibly know…”

“Because I felt it. I woke one night with a terrible heartache and ran to my mother. I had the terrible feeling that she had died, and I needed to prove she was still there. That was my first time experiencing my soulmate’s emotions.” Emma cannot breathe. She moves to one of the benches near the railing of the balcony, letting the cool sea breeze calm her. Of all the ways to find her soulmate, she never imagined it would be during a fight with his brother.

In the shock of the moment, neither Admiral Jones nor the princess noticed someone joining them on the balcony. But as Princess Emma catches her breath, Admiral Jones turns to leave the princess to her thoughts and sees his brother standing by the doors in shock. He strides quickly to Killian, wanting to talk to him before the princess sees him.

Killian finds his voice before Liam reaches the doors. “Brother, what is going on out here?” It is quite the scene to walk into, his brother having a word with the crown princess of Misthaven, and that is not even the strangest part. From what Killian has overheard, Princess Emma felt it when their mother had died. That must mean she is the soulmate to either him or his brother. And Liam has never been whipped.

Emma looks up at the sound of Captain Jones’s voice. Their eyes lock and for a moment, Emma sees confusion in his sky blue eyes. She stands, watching his eyes for the illumination of clarity to shine through.

“Four years ago, did you cut your arm?” Killian asks, his right hand moving to his left forearm. Under his uniform there is a scar from an injury he could not remember sustaining. It was as if it appeared from nowhere.

“I was thrown from my horse as I rode through the woods. I cut my arm on a rock in the fall,” Emma whispers, almost timidly.

Liam stands, watching his brother realize what is happening. He knows he ought to leave, but he turns to the princess. Liam needs to see her reaction. The shyness in her voice throws him for a loop and he finally believes her. As his brother moves from the doorway, Liam Jones steps back into the ballroom, leaving Killian and the princess to talk.

Killian barely notices his brother leaving, but the sounds of the doors closing makes him snap back to reality a bit. He’s speaking to the crown princess and has not addressed her properly at all. He kneels before the princess, averting his eyes from the beauty that stands in front of him. “I apologize, Your Highness, for my bluntness earlier and the lack of proper address. You must understand the shock…”

Emma moves to stand right in front of the captain. “I do not need your apologies nor your formalities, Captain. Please stand.” As he does, the princess extends her hand. “I think, after all that has been revealed tonight, we should be properly introduced. I am Emma.”

Killian grasps Emma’s hand, keeping eye contact as he kisses it. “I am Captain Killian Jones, Your Highness.”

Emma smirks, “I thought I said we need no formalities. To you, I hope to always be Emma.”

Still in awe of what is happening, Killian flushes slightly at the thought of addressing the princess by her given name. “That may take some time to settle in, Princess. It feels awfully disrespectful to address royalty by their given name.”

Emma chuckles slightly, “I hope that you can come to think of me as more than just royalty.”

Killian scratches behind his ear, an old nervous habit. “I could never think of you as ‘just’ anything. It will be a journey, but one I am more than willing to embark upon.”

For a moment, the princess and her captain stand on the balcony, looking into each other’s eyes, smiling at Killian’s sweet words and the thought of a future spent learning more about the other.

Killian takes a deep breath and says, “Would you care to dance, Emma?”

She responds with a smile that outshines all the stars. “With you, Killian, always.”

They walk back into the ballroom as they will do everything from now on: together.

Final Notes: So in my vision Emma's ballgown in the dress from the season 3 finale with a modified neckline so it is off the shoulders and would show the top of her scars. Also I do not like the ponytail look for Killian, so his hair is short and slicked back for the ceremony. I envisioned it like his hair at the wedding.

#cssns23 #cssns #Captain Swan #CS soulmate #cs enchanted forest au #lieutenant duckling

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