I am ignoring your BAIT TITLE and asking about Item 106 (or was it 107? crap. I literally have to chant shit in my head to remember them from ONE SECOND TO THE NEXT).
A work-in-progress snippet from this ask.
Item 107 is an almost Beauty and the Beast AU about skinny!Steve Rogers, a demigod who feeds off dedicated energy to his artwork, who finds his bride through a luring painting. However, it took so long for you to see this work of art that Steve's become bitter, rude, and so isolated in life. He doesn't know if you can ever truly love him now.
So, here's a wee speech reader finally hits Steve with:
“There’s something magical about returning to your ideals. You were hurt. You experienced terrible things. You saw men do terrible things, and after all that, to return to hope? Steve, you can’t be bullied into giving up on the beauty in the world. Your painting didn’t fade away. You couldn’t see the color anymore, sure, as most people who lose faith after trauma do, but it was never blank. You never actually gave up hope. It’s difficult to hang on to but impossible to kill.
“The world makes you feel selfish wanting good for yourself, but when you want good at all, you are willing more into existence, more for you, more for everyone, more to share. Period. That’s not selfish. That’s heroic.”
Yeah, I...I choked myself up. I think I should pay myself for that as therapy. I...I wrote the thing I needed to hear, and it hurt.
