i like to think josephine did have some suspicion on caleb having feelings for mc but since mr. liartron3000 got his wits and charms he always got away unscathed 🙄
Been thinking thoughts about Yandere!Knight who was the third son of a second rate noble. His family rich enough so that even he would never have to work a day in his life but not rich enough to be alluring for any respectable woman looking to marry.
He didn’t have any wild endeavors of his own. His eldest brother working closely with their father and the second eldest having a myriad of hobbies and investment opportunities he filled his time dabbling with. Leaving him alone and bored at the estate.
The emptiness of it all echoed down to his very soul. The estate just as hallow as he felt inside. He had no passions or interests. Everything he did, he did with ease. Horseback riding, fencing, and hunting, it was all a breeze. None of it excited him, got his blood pumping.
So what else was there to do besides lose himself in the booze of his local tavern? There the people cheered whenever he could chug nearly a full barrel, they bought him drinks when he won a round of darts, and when they talked to him they had actually listened. That’s what he wanted more than anything. To matter to someone.
And when he finally met you he knew you were the one person he had to matter to.
You were the favored Princess of their kingdom. While your siblings stayed up in the castle, too high and mighty to visit the commoners below, you were different. You visited the villages frequently. Talked with them, helped them, and did all you could to ensure the happiness of the people.
And when the owner of his favorite bar cut him off and kicked him out, out of the goodness of their heart despite the dismissal still cutting deep, you were right there. All gentle smiles, kind eyes, and a soft hand that reached out for his.
He can’t believe his luck when you keep his rough dirty hand clasped in your soft one. He can’t believe what’s happening as you start to walk with him down the cobblestone street, feeling the eyes of everyone’s stares.
But your eyes never leave his and his certainty wouldn’t dare to leave yours. Fear crawling up his back that if he dare look away you won’t be there when he looks back. He doesn’t even want to blink but forces himself too in order to not scare you away.
It only takes a few coaxing words from you before he’s spilling his guts about why he was in the tavern and more importantly, why he got kicked out. You listen to it all without wavering for a moment. He’s never had someone care this much for him.
You stay with him for hours, ignoring your own guards warnings that it’s getting late and you need to start heading back. But their interruption seems to give you an idea.
Somehow after hearing his whole entire sob story, you gaze up at him with the utmost confidence and ask, “Have you ever thought about being a knight?”
Yandere!Knight who had honestly never thought about it or considered it despite all his related skills to the job before you had said anything. But now finds himself leaving his entire life behind, his world behind, in order to go with you back to the castle.
He started training with the other noblemen destined for knighthood the very next day. All of them skilled but none of them nearly as skilled as him.
Especially on the many days when you just so happened to walk through the training grounds. Your eyes always finding him before staying to watch for a few hours.
He had heart rumors flying around the castle that you had been staying at the castle more recently. Everyone wondering just why that is. His name coming up time and time again.
When those curious and nosy enough to come up and ask him if he held your favor, he’d only encourage them further. Giving bits and pieces of, slightly exaggerated, information on the your attention and affection for him.
The rumors only get worse when his knighting ceremony comes, almost the entire castle sitting restlessly in the white glittering church. Him and his fellow men all waiting to be knighted. When you stand up and insist you be the one to knight him.
All falls quiet around them but you stand tall, walking up to the alter and briefly taking the Lords place who’s knighted his fellow men. You tell them that since you were the one to find them it’s only right that the honor goes to you.
Yandere!Knight falls to his knees before you, pretending that it’s not because they gave out from the swell of emotion coursing through him. But you smile at him like you know it was anyway.
The rest of the world fades away, leaving only you and him as you hand him his sword. Everything is in slow motion as you lean down, your warm breath fanning his forehead before you kiss it tenderly. The softness of your lips has his mind spinning with what they’d feel like in other places too. Then you’re tapping his shoulder with an air of finality and a wave of air comes rushing into his lungs.
He’s finally done it. He’s a Knight. Now he’s your knight. With his one wish being to protect you always.
Yandere!Knightgets posted as your personal knight. Which only ends up distancing him from the other knights who thinks the fair Princess should’ve stuck with the man previously in his current position. But he couldn’t find it in himself to care. Not when he had you.
You stuck by him closely, returning to your daily outings into the village but now with him to protect you. He sees then just how kind and trusting you truly are.
It didn’t take long for him to then see just how the people in the village treat you in return. The way their hands claw and tug at you. How they shamelessly beg and demand things from you because they’re always met with your agreement. Zero resistance or a flicker of hesitation every time.
Again and again like a cruel cycle that neither the people nor you saw any problem with. His stomach began to churn each time they’d paw at you as if you were the last loaf of bread in the bakery and they were all starved. Something ugly, dark, and twisted was growing inside him with the passing days by your side.
Akin to a foul rot forming inside a helpless tree. Completely defenseless as the darkness quietly grew and consumed till there was nothing left but a hallow shell ready to snap.
It finally happened, ironically, at the Butchers. The man who owned the shop was running out of hunters willing to sell to him and so it left the people there will less meats available for purchase. Being the kind Princess you are, you offer up a few palace hunters to come aid him.
His jaw was already clenched as he took in the greed of the Butcher. Less palace hunters meant less for you and maintaining your health was his sole purpose in this lifetime. To hell with the people, he would not have you in need.
But then as they turn to leave, the Butcher makes one last bold request, indeed. Asking the Princess to spare not only their hunters but their bows as well, for he does not have enough for them all.
You agree and leave but he stays rooted in his spot. Staring daggers at the Butcher who looks all too pleased with himself and the new arrangement.
His vision grows hazy and he blacks out just as he lunges at the man. Unsheathing his sword so quickly the metal rings out through the room.
When he comes back to the Butcher’s blood is mixed in with that of his meats, splashes of it everywhere. His body on the floor unmoving with no sign on life. It was the first life he’s ever taken.
Just as he’s about to open his mouth to cry, shout, or beg for help, he doesn’t know, he stops short of it all as the door opens. Your tiny gasp is all he can hear. A million thoughts flooding his head at that one simple sound.
His head nearly swings off his shoulders at the force of his head swiveling toward the sound of your voice. Your horrified expression meeting his own, though their reasoning for being there very different.
All the strength he has leaves his body in one fell swoop. His legs giving out from under him, the metal of his armor crashing against the stone floor as he falls to his knees.
Tears fill his vision and spill down his cheeks. The thought of disappointing you, letting you down, threatens to unravel him. You can stop looking at the blood painting his face as he helplessly crawls over to you.
“I’m sorry, please, help me. I’m so sorry, Princess, please,” he sobs, his arms winding around your waist as he nuzzles into your soft belly.
At the sound of his voice it’s like you snap out of your thoughts. Immediately moving in to soothe and comfort him. Your hands weaving through his hair, shushing him with the calming nature of a saint.
“It’s okay, it’s okay. You were only trying to protect me. But know this is not the way,” you say in a hushed voice that curls around his very being and helps in calming him down quickly. His body melting against yours.
After that day he tries to put it behind him. To forget about the memories of the kill that came flooding back the same night it happened. Trying with all his might to forget about the satisfaction he felt with every blow. To avenge you for how that putrid man was taking advantage of your kindness.
But as the same begins to happen again from more of the villagers, that same dark sensation arises within him once more. Wrapping around his neck and squeezing him so hard he chokes on it. The urge to lighten their burdens on you coming back full force.
When he finally gives in and his blade swings down to take another life of one who has done you wrong, he doesn’t black out this time. There’s no shock, tears, and most importantly, no getting caught.
The more lives he takes the easier it gets. All of them done in your name, in his desire to protect you. Even if he has to protect you from yourself, he’s willing to do anything.
Right and left more people in the village go missing. None of them to be seen again. Eventually fewer and fewer people come to ask you for your aid, all of them growing too scared to leave their homes.
But it’s not enough for even if he can stop them he can’t seem to stop you. Following you around to each home in the village and watching as you ask if there’s anything you can do. Leaving him to massage your poor feet every night that ache from all the walking.
He knows he must do something to stop you once and for all. For your sake.
Like always, rumors spread around the kingdom like wildfire. With a little help from him word of there being a violent murderer in the kingdom fills the castle in a day. In your parents worry for your safety and to ensure the protection of the kingdom’s favorite Princess, they order you to remain in your room until the killer is caught.
You fight it as much as you can but ultimately you are powerless against the decrees of the King. So day in and day out from now onward you are confined to your room with only him to watch over you and guard your door.
Ensuring no one can get in and that you cannot ever get out. You’ll stay right here forever where he can keep you all to himself, leaving all your kindness just for him.
“ Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date; (...) ”
– Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? by William Shakespeare
#don’t make this weird Christine #a summary of the phantom of the opera in five words #”yes I live in the basement; don’t make this weird Christine” #”yes I wear a mask don’t make this weird Christine” #”yes I have a full-scale model of you in a bridal gown; don’t make this weird Christine” #”yes I killed a dude; don’t make this weird Christine” #”yes there’s a Persian police officer asking suspicious questions; don’t make this weird Christine” #”yes I do identify with a character who seduces ingenues in a mask; don’t make this weird Christine” #”yes I’ve now kidnapped you twice; don’t make this weird Christine” #”yes I’ve captured your fiancee and the Persian police officer and am threatening to blow up the opera house if you don’t agree to marry me #DON’T MAKE THIS WEIRD CHRISTINE” (tags via notbecauseofvictories)
top tier character-building device in pokemon games is when a seemingly antagonistic character has a golbat on their team and then later has it evolved into a crobat, which requires significant friendship, thus signalling that the character was always a kind person inside (plumeria), is growing past their issues and learning to be kinder (silver), may hold a spark of kindness that undermines their cold and calculating image (cyrus), etc etc
Meanwhile, Ghetsis—who is an antagonist who pretends to be an advocate for Pokemon rights—faces off against you with an under-leveled Hydreigon, which in the canon lore of the series only happens when someone forces evolution early, and that Hydreigon uses a full-power Frustration in B2W2, suggesting that it absolutely loathes Ghetsis.
In pokemon games, there’s a hidden stat called friendship, which maxes out at 255 points; there are two (major) moves that are affected by this:
Return, which gets stronger the higher a pokemon’s friendship stat is, capping at 102 base power with 255 friendship (for context, hyper beam has a base power of 150)
And frustration, which does the opposite, getting stronger the lower a pokemon’s friendship stat is, capping out at 102 base power when the pokemon is at 0 friendship
The EXTRA fucked up thing is, almost NO pokemon has a base friendship of 0. The only pokemon that do are legendary pokemon and buneary. So Ghetsis actively lowered his Hydreigon’s friendship, and the only way to do that in-game is to let your pokemon faint often without using healing items on them
the invitation to friendship with your body is always there, always your right to access. this is an internal dynamic that can’t be taken from us irretrievably.
as with any friendship, this relationship between “self” and body (if we grant the distinction between them, and we certainly don’t have to) is many faceted, bc each contains multitudes. the body brings so much to the relationship–life! and touch, taste, smell, sight, movement, speech, song, rest, breath, pleasure, instincts, communication of needs, the gifts of age, the release of death, more than can be named. more than a friend, even, the body is our partner and our companion. the self can bring to the relationship awareness.
the self is an outgrowth of the body, a gestalt effect of the body’s mechanisms that’s beyond our understanding, but not beyond our experience. the self and the body which instantiates it are natural friends and allies. the combined wisdom of the self and the body is our life-giving guide, a way into wholeness, both collectively and individually.
the body is a friend in the way that any other living creature might be a friend. it’s an improbable miracle, vulnerable, committed to survival, adapting in some wonderful and some misguided ways, worthy of compassion and respect.
germansingergirl
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
prguitarman
2087
gummygunk
yousharknotpass
