Above image is a pride flag with every color band represented by a NASA image. White is Earth clouds, pink is aurora, blue is the Sun in a specific wavelength, brown is Jupiter clouds, black is the Hubble deep field, red is the top of sprites, orange is a Mars crater, yellow is the surface of Io, green is a lake with algae, blue is Neptune, and purple is the Crab Nebula in a specific wavelength.
What was taken from us this week was our right to determine for ourselves how and when we should share our relationship and queer identities with the world. The truth is, every queer person has the right to come out on their own terms and their own timeline. They also have the right to choose not to come out at all. The forced conformity of the closet cannot be answered with the forced conformity in coming out of it. This isn't about shame. This is about privacy and the fundamental right of self-determination, which are exactly the principles on which the struggle for queer liberation has always been fought. But there's another truth that's much simpler.
Hi my gremlin brain just activated and now I can’t stop thinking of the prompt, what if Asmodeus instead of Magnus’ magic, asked for the parabatai bond. Thinking that if Magnus severed the bond then Alex would breakup with Magnus and Magnus would come crying back to edom. Only Alec loves and trusts Magnus and is tired of being second fiddle to Jace so he understands that the bond has to be sacrificed to finish the owl and save Jace. Idk. I didn’t really have a whole idea, just Asmodeus trying to wreak havoc.
here we go, i had quite a bit of fun with the idea of asmodeus asking for the bond because it only makes sense that alec and jace pay the price to save jace rather than magnus who already risked himself going to edom
alec is super pragmatic and he knows everything has a cost. in my opinion it was super weird magnus paid the price and alec is only more relieved that jace is still alive than that the bond is broken. not only that, magnus saved him from what should have been a fatal wound since his arrows are adamas.
so i hope you enjoy
<3 lumine
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Magnus gets back from Edom in time to see Jace driving one of Alexander’s own arrows into Magnus’ beloved’s heart.
Magnus screams in fury as he lashes out, the strength of his magic throwing Jace back, purging him with Asmodeus’ borrowed power. He uses his own magic to trap him there, ensuring he’ll be stuck under a barrier until he’s found.
There is a price to be paid for the magic he’s using and if he doesn’t pay quickly, the price will increase.
If Magnus doesn’t break Alexander’s parabatai bond now and quickly, then his father will think he’s backing down. It’s with agony that Magnus floods Alexander’s body with his magic.
Magnus portals them both away, leaving Jace unconscious in the alley.
He gets Alexander on their bed and strips him with magic, snapping all of the arrow away but the head imbedded in his boy’s heart. Alexander’s eyes flutter weakly but he’s aware, bolstered by Magnus’ magic.
“You’re ‘kay?” His boy asks him, desperately, searchingly. “Wha’d you pay?”
“Nothing but to ask you to trust me, as you always do.”
Alexander nods instantly and asks tiredly, pained, “Jace?”
“It will hurt him, but it will save his life. Lilith will no longer have any control over him.”
Alec smiles up at him, blood burbling from the corner of his mouth as he coughs.
“I trus’ you. L’ve you.” His eyes are fluttering and Magnus kisses him, easing him with magic into unconsciousness. Magnus summons the stele his father handed him with a smirk and draws a rune over the parabatai rune and then he draws three more.
They are both demonic and divine and with his father’s power still boosting him, Magnus has no problems ripping Alexander and Jace’s bond apart. Alexander convulses and coughs up more blood and Magnus uses magic to hold him down — even unconscious his body is reacting to losing a piece of what its held for years as its own soul.
Magnus rips Jace from Alexander like one might rip the skin from a carcass or a hook from a wound. It’s dug in and tightly barbed but Magnus is merciless, because he promised Alexander that Jace would live and he will, but as with all things there will be a price.
And this is it.
His father thinks that Alexander will hate him, will loathe him for this but Magnus knows better and he knows that what Alec wants the most is Jace to be still alive and to also live. Alexander will forgive him because his boy is viciously pragmatic and he understands that things have cost better than most.
Magnus works desperately the moment the bond is broken, ignoring the pain he’s causing to call for Catarina and to desperately try and heal his by.
It’s hours before his and Cat’s combined work leave a deep but no longer fatal wound. And impressive task when you consider that adamas wounds rarely heal.
Alexander wakes slowly, eyes wet and wild as he looks up at Magnus and gasps out his name in shock as his body shakes.
“Jace—” he gets out hoarsly.
“Alive, but no longer your parabatai. Two lives saved for the cost of two soul shards.” Magnus says, making it sound much less intimate than the price truly was.
“Are you upset with me, sayang?” Magnus asks gently as he leans down and presses his ear to Alexander’s beating heart, gently hovering over the skin, not actually pressing down for fear of hurting the tender and raw wound.
“It’s the price that should have been paid from the beginning.” Alexander says and he sounds sad but grim. “Jace was brought back and the bond came back wrong from the beginning. It was broken like it wasn’t supposed to reform.” And Magnus lifts his head and watches as Alexander looks at him, eyes damp, “and what else could you have done, Magnus? This was always Jace and mine’s price to pay. You only ever went to Edom for me and that you came back unharmed is a gift I can’t take lightly.”
Alexander is serious, so sincere as he speaks and Magnus once again sighs with delight at how earnest and loving his boy is.
“My father hoped to break my heart. That by breaking your parabatai bond, I would have betrayed you. That you would hate me.”
Alexander scoffs and shakes his head, pain on his face but adoration still strong in his eyes.
“You saved us, Magnus. Me and Jace. I wouldn’t have made it with that much adamas in my heart without your magic and Jace would still be under Lilith.” Alec coughs and shifts with a grimace before he looks at Magnus sulkily. “I just had a piece of my soul ripped out Magnus, and my heart stabbed. I think I’d rather have cuddles than conversations right now.”
Magnus blinks and stares at his magnificent boy, who is looking at him with a pout and Magnus already knew, but he truly can’t resist Alexander.
“Jace is going to have a bitch of a time healing too.” Alexander mutters, and he sounds smug in only the way a nephilim can once they are out of true danger and are pleased with their skills.
“Oh?”
“He always said my arrow training wouldn’t ever come in handy.” Alexander rasps out with a hoarse, forced chuckle that seems a little sad, “but I got him in every tendon and to drop his weapons. So—” and here Alexander looks grimly pleased, “he was wrong.”
Magnus soothes a hand over his boy’s face and just drinks in his exhausted and pained face. Alexander is alive and that is all that matters and Magnus reminds himself of this as he leans forward and delicately kisses his beloved with a fierce possessiveness despite how gentle he is.
Because Alexander trusts him and Asmodeus was wrong and going to Edom was worth having Alexander’s soul all to himself.
—
Elsewhere at the New York Institute, Izzy sobs as she holds a screaming Jace down. Clary is crying to, unable to help her beyond activating Izzy’s strength runes.
“He’s gone Izzy. He’s gone.” Jace sobs and Izzy wails with him as she clutches the bare patch of skin that he only lets her touch. Clary watches with shaking fingers and wet eyes as they mourn.
Didn't see a post that said writing wednesday is closed, so let's give this a try (if it is closed you can definitely ignore this completely! I'm sure you have more than enough prompts that you'll fill in amazingly already)
Soulmates find each other by making a connection in dreams, but with how old Magnus is, he's a pro at lucid dreaming.
So when the connection is made when Alec reaches adulthood he uses the power he has in their shared dreams to condition him and completely make him his in every way possible. That way when they finally meet, Alec doesn't even think about not submitting to him
here we go! You're fine and I do have lovely prompts but this one was also lovely!
i hope you enjoy where i went with this
<3 lumine
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Magnus has long given up on his dreams.
For centuries he learned every single scrap of information that he could hunt down to learn dreamwalking, dream magic and dream scrying.
Magnus is the foremost master of mind magic for a reason and it’s always been because of his deep and unabated, restless lust to find his soulmate.
Now, after centuries of clinging to desperate hope, Magnus thinks that perhaps both his father and Camille were right. That he doesn’t have a soul to echo and it’s only because he knows how smug the two of them would be if they knew they were right that he still lets himself dream.
It’s during one of those hollow, aching nights where he first feels it.
The echo is more physical than audible and it envelopes Magnus, matching the timber of his magic and heartbeat in a softer, more hesitant way.
It’s as if it isn’t sure it’s welcome and Magnus knows that this is the only beginning. He’s studied soulbonds enough to know that he should relax. He’s been given the greatest gift he could have possible been given.
He has a soulmate, a match to his now undeniable soul and Magnus can’t wait any longer.
He’s been waiting for centuries after all.
It’s with that in mind that Magnus un-tethers himself and lets himself follow the echo.
It’s faint, so very faint and Magnus realizes it’s because his soulmate is young.
The dream realm is unlike he’s ever seen it before, as if something is trying to keep him from following. After nearly six hundred years of dedication however, Magnus is too talented to let himself become lost or
It becomes clear when he finds them why this is so different from any dream Magnus has traipsed through.
His soulmate is a shadowhunter and Magnus remembers the shadowed halls, so hard to traverse and not be devoured by. Raziel has been keeping his soulmate from him, trying to hide him from Magnus and no doubt prolonging his birth.
That’s the only thing Magnus can think of, the only direction he can aim all the hurt and anger he’s been carrying all of these years.
None of it’s his soulmate’s fault. His perfect soulmate who is listlessly staring into the empty distance, sitting on the ground and facing away.
His dreamscape is devoid of almost anything good and hopeful, only a few brittle familial bonds and Magnus ignores them, much more interested in the strong bond already singing with vibrations between them
“Beloved—” Magnus murmurs and his voice takes on almost a presence as his words wrap around his soulmate like an embrace. He shudders and lets himself drift into his magic.
His precious boy shudders as if he can’t believe it and then he sobs, tears running down his face as Magnus wraps untangable arms around him and holds him as tightly as he can. Magnus’ grip will be bruising enough to leave a reminder in the waking world and the thought only makes him hold tighter.
Let his soulmate never suffer the fear Magnus has, that he will be forever alone. He’s so young and just entering when his soul was strong enough to start echoing Magnus’ own and yet his mind is so bleak, so empty of warmth and good things.
Magnus knows forced strength when he sees it and he vows to himself to carry whatever burdens are necessary to change his soulmate’s dreamscape into a place of wonder, where their souls will always be connected.
—
“Alexander, darling. Let me hold you.” The voice says and Alec has never once considered saying no and as the energy of his soulmate envelops him, all he can do is sigh in contentment.
It’s so easy — night after night — to slip to sleep in the early morning sun and be immiedately claimed by his soulmate. It’s impossible to resist the hands that soothe over his muscles or the way invisible fingers grip his nape and pull him into a firm, warm lap.
Alec learns to rest like that, secure in his soulmates embrace rather than drifting in his dreams. It’s not what he was told finding a soulmate would be like, but he can’t imagine it any other way.
Sometimes, when he’s torn up from his training and the expectations layered on him, his soulmate will lay them down, Alec’s head in his soulmate’s lap as fingers gently pet through his hair.
It’s a gentle, soothing ritual that soon has Alec aching for it to be real, something he can have all the time.
From how his soulmate acts, the power he uses in the dream and the fact that Alec knows this isn’t how bonds are supposed to work, he knows that there has to be magic involved. Which means Alec is going to have to make a choice and quickly.
It’s getting harder every night to wake up alone and with only the phantom touch of his soulmate on his skin. Sometimes he’ll wake up, tacky and sticky with the evidence of his dreams but no one to soothe the chill that comes when he finds himself alone.
It’s turned into a burn that he can no longer ignore and Alec doesn’t think he can do this. His parents want him to be a leader but all Alec wants is his soulmate’s touch.
They want him to be strong and Alec doesn’t mind that but he wants to buckle and be pliant, to be good for his soulmate who is so good to him. Alec wants to ensure that he always earns the sweet, soft caresses he’s given and he can’t imagine how he could, if he himself is caught between duty to the clave and duty to his soul.
It’s with aching anger that Alec works himself into exhaustion every day so he can sleep deeply each night and while sometimes the evidence of dreams carries over, the evidence of his own battles does not.
Alec never feels as safe or as peaceful as he does when hands hold him still and tight and his head goes calm and blank. It’s as if with his soulmate holding him down all the worries and weight and pressures of his family fade away. It’s addicting and unfair, to be given a taste of something he desperately needs and then to have it be taken away every time he wakes.
Alec imagines that it will only be worse, when they truly meet.
Alec wants to be able to feel the warm band of fingers comfortingly circling his throat. The little tugs on his hair that keep him coherent enough not to drift and send shivers down his spine so intense that his toes curl.
How will he ever be able to pull himself away from his soulmate once he’s felt their actual touch and not just their spiritual one. How will he ever be able to force himself to be strong again when he’s finally allowed to feel safe and protected in his soulmate’s embrace and magic.
It’s an agony that follows him daily until once again his intructions and orders are ignored and he’s being verbally reprimanded in half a hall of shadowhunters for his siblings mistakes.
There is only one thing he knows about his soulmate and that’s that he’s old and he’s powerful. Alec knows that from the weight of the magic that caresses him so gently — like he’s delicate — but firmly, like it wants to make sure he feels it.
His soulmate wouldn’t treat him like this.
The echo of his soul would treasure him and gentle him and keep Alec safe in a way that no one ever has and Alec suddenly wants that. The pressure feels like it’s about to crush him and Alec retreats to his room and runes his door shut, rubbing a hand over his heart as he bites his lip.
There is only one way that Alec can get to his soulmate even faster than the magic of dreams and souls allows.
Alec is the younger one in the relationship, it’s his soulmate’s duty to protect him if the environment Alec is in becomes hostile and Alec — for all that he doesn’t want to admit it — is now in enemy territory.
His parents might tolerate Izzy sleeping with downworlders, but thats because none have ever been her soulmate. They will never tolerate Alec’s soulmate being a warlock, especially not one older than him. Perhaps, if Alec had an equal standing to his soulmate, but he doesn’t yet and he doubts he ever will from how strong the other is.
It might be salvageable if Alec could wait until he becomes the HOTI, but that could be years from now and Alec refuses to wait any longer.
He won’t survive it if he does.
So, Alec runes the floor with the array he needs and cuts his palm so that his grace-blessed blood paints over each symbol.
It’s with a pained goodbye to all the years that he suffered for what feels like nothing, that Alec severs the angelic rune that connects him to Raziel. It’s the worst pain he’s every felt and he’s screaming, he knows he is but he’s soundproofed and runed his room.
He’ll be fine and when he’s done, the only claim on his soul will be his soulmate, who will come find him.
He has to, because Alec doesn’t have the strength to do anything more.
—
Magnus feels the agony through his very soul and he portals from the meeting without a second thought. The wards shatter around him and he’ll have some very disgruntled Elders to handle, but nothing matters beyond getting to his soulmate now.
Magnus portals into a room and sees his soulmate lying on the floor, unconscious and trembling over a bloodsoaked array primed with desperation. Magnus scoops his boy up and snaps his fingers, vanishing the evidence and summoning every single thing from Alexander’s room into a dimensional ring.
Then he takes him away, like he always promised Alexander when he weaved the instructions for this ritual into Alexander’s dreams.
My face is having uncontrollable spasms. Great. It hurts really, really, really bad.
I think part of why I have trouble explaining pain to the doctor is when they ask about the pain scale I always think “Well, if someone threw me down a flight of stairs right now or punched me a few times, it would definitely hurt a lot more” so I end up saying a low number. I was reading an article that said that “10” is the most commonly reported number and that is baffling to me. When I woke up from surgery with an 8" incision in my body and I could hardly even speak, I was in the most horrific pain of my life but I said “6” because I thought “Well, if you hit me in the stomach, it would be worse.”
I searched and searched for the post this graphic was from, and the OP deactivated, but I kept the graphic, because my BFF does the same thing, uses her imagination to come up with the worst pain she can imagine and pegs her “10″ there, and so is like, well, I’m conscious, so this must be a 5, and then the doctors don’t take her seriously. (And she then does things like driving herself to the hospital while in the process of giving birth. Probably should have called an ambulance for that one!)
So I found this and sent it to her. Because this is what they want to know: how badly is this pain affecting you? Not on a scale of “nothing” to “how I’d imagine it’d feel if bears were eating my still-living guts while I was on fire”.
I hate reposting stuff, but I’ll never find that post again and OP is deactivated, so, here’s a repost. I can delete this later, i just wanted to get it to you and I can’t embed images in a chat or an ask.
It’s also really important to get this kind of scale to people who have chronic pain, because chronic pain drastically lowers your perception of how “bad” any kind of pain actually is, and yet something like this pain scale is extremely user friendly.
For example, if someone asked me how much pain I’m in at any given time, I’d say hardly any, and yet I’m apparently at a chronic 2.5, and it only goes up from there depending on the day.
See also the Mental Health Pain Scale by Graceful Patient:
Mental Health Pain Scale transcription:
MILD
1 - Everything is a-okay! There is absolutely nothing wrong. You’re probably cuddling a fluffy kitten right now. Enjoy!
2 - You’re a bit frustrated or disappointed, but you’re easily distracted and cheered up with a little effort.
3 - Things are bothering you, but you’re coping. You might be overtired or hungry. The emotional equivalent of a headache.
MODERATE
4 - Today is a bad day (or a few bad days). You still have the skills to get through it, but be gentle with yourself. Use self-care strategies.
5 - Your mental health is starting to impact on your everyday life. Easy things are becoming difficult. You should talk to your doctor.
6 - You can’t do things the way you usually do them due to your mental health. Impulsive and compulsive thoughts may be hard to cope with.
SEVERE
7 - You’re avoiding things that make you more distressed, but that will make it worse. You should definitely seek help. This is serious.
8 - You can’t hide your struggles any more. You may have issues sleeping, eating, having fun, socialising, and work/study. Your mental health is affecting almost all parts of your life.
9 - You’re at a critical point. You aren’t functioning any more. You need urgent help. You may be a risk to yourself or others if left untreated.
10 - The worst mental and emotional distress possible. You can no longer care for yourself. You can’t imagine things getting any worse. Contact a crisis line immediately.
People in the BDSM and kink communities are the only people who are normal about sex, actually, and we should all learn from them.
I think everyone should familiarise themselves with the theory for such key concepts as consent, rejecting a sexual practice for yourself without judging it morally for others, sub drop and how it can happen even in the most vanilla sexual encounters, and aftercare and how it’s often needed in even the most vanilla sexual encounters (but often treated as a joke and something to ridicule).
Sub drop is basically getting the endrophin high from sex and then crashing hard from it. You just had an amazing, intense experience, so why do you want to cry??? Why do you feel weird and empty and alone? Even if you don’t get the outright crash, when the horniness fades, it catches up to you just how vulnerable you’ve been, and it’s natural and common to feel a little lost and alone after that. Contrary to what the term implies, you don’t need to be the submissive party to experience this. Note how much vanilla sex culture ridicules this (”crying after sex” jokes, etc.).
Aftercare is the antidote to sub drop, it’s the post-sex affirmation that things are good and you are safe and appreciated. Common forms include cuddling, ice cream, taking a warm shower together, wrapping yourself in your fuzziest softest bathrobe available and general relaxation together. Comfort and reassurance. Note how much vanilla sex culture condemns people as “needy” for wanting this kind of treatment, or for being upset that their partner just walks out on them after sex. (The people being condemned as “needy” are usually women, but I don’t even want to think about how much men certainly need this comfort too but feel like they can’t ask for it without being seen as un-masculine.)
This is what I mean when I say BDSMers and kinksters are the only ones who have this shit figured out. None of these things are actually exclusive to BDSM and kinky sex, vanilla sex for everyone would be SO MUCH BETTER if these things were part of universal sex ed.
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