You Don’t Want To Be Rich. You Want To Live Freely.

Not Your Hero - Chapter 4

Rude Awakenings

Reyna found herself smiling at Mauve as quiet music played from the speakers he was originally built with. Sometimes, it seemed like he truly had a mind of his own.

“You know, classical music never did fit a motorcycle. But I don’t think I was expecting electro-pop either.”

Aseria couldn’t help but laugh to her mother as they made their way through the ruins of their home.

“Well, rock sounded too cliché and I think he wanted to stand out from the other models just in case I lost him in a crowd.”

Reyna winks as the music stops. An accented, yet robotic voice cuts through the quiet humming of the engine.

“I simply enjoy something more upbeat in the morbid times we are living in, madame.”

Aseria nods at the statement.

“I can’t blame you at all for that. You think one day we will be able to listen to that music in the street as a village again rather than just the three of us here?”

Reyna sighs and kicks a particularly large rock out of their way as they approach a large, broken down house. Nothing they hadn’t seen before, just off putting since it was the ruins of family memories and childhood wonders.

“One of these days, can’t say it will be soon, though. I think there will need to be a rebirth before we can officially rebuild this city for good. There has been enough destruction here on both sides to last a lifetime. Now we need to see the opposite.”

Kicking in the front door, Aseria finds herself angry that so many good memories were buried under the rubble and ash. She couldn’t help but wonder if there was someone, or maybe many people, hiding in the house for cover from the soldiers that ravaged the streets as of late.

“You said you were going to tell me about dad, why bring me here? I don’t recall him being here very much. Though I guess that was a good thing if he was as horrible as everyone made him out to be.”

Reyna didn’t say very much to her daughter at first as she whispered something to Mauve, most likely a ‘keep watch for soldiers’ as the two women took a walk down memory lane.

“He wasn’t the one that everyone was worried about. He was the scapegoat that didn’t mind having a bounty on his head if it meant keeping you, the boys and myself safe. He would do anything for all of us.”

Aseria let out a disbelieving laugh. There was no way that her father, a man that only showed up in the evenings for a bed to sleep in and only ever sent telegrams on birthdays and holidays could have possibly cared about his wife, children or anything that had to do with their well-being.

“How interesting that he was never really around yet claimed to care for us,” She sarcastically muttered under her breath and she shifted on her feet as she continued “he died on that battlefield with nothing but guilt and anger in his heart and you know it too. He was plagued by a very human disease called greed.”

She heard a deep sigh come from her mother as she decided to sit on the floor as her mom sat across from her.

“Hey, look at me.”

She glanced up at her mom only to see tears in her eyes. She grabbed her mother’s hands, something her mother used to do when she and her brothers were upset or in pain when they were younger. Her mother was always there to comfort her, now it was her turn to return that favor.

“He may not have shown it, but he really loved you all. He still does.” She paused, almost as if she was considering what she was going to say next. After a moment of silence, she nods to herself, finally accepting the truth of the situation. “He still asks about you all the time.”

Aseria’s eyes widened at the end of the statement. A man that was originally missing in action, later passed off as killed in action, still asking about her?

“You commune with the dead?”

“You truly believe he died?”

“I would rather believe that he is dead, would make the pain a little more bearable. Especially if he hasn’t made the effort to reach out to me.”

“He can’t exactly reach out to you if you won’t let anyone communicate with you unless they physically track you down. You’re not the easiest.”

Aseria dropped her head in defeat. Her mother had a point. After throwing away any communication devices for the sake of not hearing another report of her friend’s or families bodies being found dead or wounded beyond repair.

“Guess he and I have that in common then.”

Reyna stands from her position on the floor and gives her daughter a hand on the shoulder as comfort.

“When the dust settles, he will come home. That’s a promise he made to me years ago that I have no doubt he will keep.”

“So who is he the scapegoat for?” Aseria’s voice trailed off with slight fear regarding the thought of who the mastermind could be that used her father as a pawn.

“Your grandfather, actually.”

“It would be the man I’ve never met, wouldn’t it.”

“He’s not a man you’d want to meet. He wanted to destroy all the progress that everyone has made and create it in his image like a god would.”

“It’s going to take a lot more than just wishful thinking and the will of an elder to restart the villages that were destroyed by Betrothal. The ones that weren’t fully destroyed are still struggling to rebuild themselves.”

“I think we should just burn it all to the ground. That might be the only way we can truly restart.”

Both women freeze in their tracks at the new voice. It’s familiar, in any other circumstance it would be very comforting, but now it was just as haunting as the very first time they heard it on the other side of the battlefield.

“You’re not supposed to be here, my love. But it is so great to see you again, Reyna.”

Ah yes the ultimate ship:

Some of you write so fucking good I would literally eat your pussy/suck your dick and or toes if you wanted…I will whore myself out to you, literally thank you so much for sharing your talent on this stupid little app🧍🏽‍♀️

I just finished watching JJK (and then read chapter 0). Here is my take on the characters.

Black Lives Matter got LOUDR 🔊 @ Tumblr

WHO THEY ARE:

Black Lives Matter, and black lives are threatened every day by violence inflicted on Black communities. Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, Inc. is an organization dedicated to eradicating white supremacy and building local power within Black communities.

WHAT WE DID:

✊🏿 📣 On January 3, 2021, Black Lives Matter PAC and the Working Families Party took over the Tumblr dash with an ask for users to volunteer to make calls and mobilize voters in Georgia:

✊🏿 📣 On October 26, 2020, with just one week until the election, we wrapped up our #make2020count campaign with Tumblr’s very FIRST video Dashboard Takeover; donated to Black Lives Matter. Check out the moving video below:

Check out @blacklivesmatter's Tumblr blog

Satosugu vol 0 happy ending sketches ♡

I’m a menace that is confusingly hot

explain your gender in 10 words or less without using boring words like “male”, “female”, “nonbinary”, “masculine”, “feminine” or “androgynous”.

go!

NO BECAUSE THIS BROKE ME EVEN MORE..SO HERE

TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET IN 2024

Chapter 9

Masking

Ordóñez had considered himself a haunted man. He settled for the ghosts of love that he would find in the graveyards he dug. He could never consider himself a merciful man after the things he went through. At one point in time, he was the most gentle man in the world. From a young age he was pushed around by the people that could push. A doormat to anyone that would take the first step.

After the war started, Ordóñez changed for the worst. Isolation had become his closest ally as he caught himself clinging onto the sword he brandished as the lifeline rather than the very human company he craved so much. Now, Ordóñez saw people dying on a daily basis and couldn’t find it in him to care very much. If anything, he caused more pain than he had truly seen.

It only felt fair for him to cause so much pain, especially after everything he had been through. He would never admit it to himself, but he did everything he did out of fear. Ordóñez often questioned if Ximena was the same, but he highly doubted that was a possibility.

Rather than ask her any questions, he simply observed her instead. He watched the way her green eyes cut across the room like the glass shards they resemble. Observed the way she moved so swiftly in battle without a question of her agility. Kept a close eye on the way she would fidget with her blades during meetings with other leaders when she was nervous.

Ordóñez watched everything from a distance. He refused to let her know by the looks on his face just how much it hurt to see her destroy herself every day. So instead, he kept every little thing he could say hidden. Hidden behind the eyes of the mask with a disgustingly tainted smile.

“Ordóñez; would you mind bringing my boys back to me?”

Ximena’s voice was a mix between the sweetest sugar and the scariest monster he could conjure in his mind, but he found himself drawn to her like a moth drawn to a flame.

“Of course, madame.”

“You won’t disappoint me this time, will you?”

“Not purposely.”

“What do you know of the location of my Griffin and Axel?”

“I haven’t changed anything from my last run in with them, I wasn’t aware you still had their locations considering-”

His words were stopped as a card embedded into the wall next to his head, only having sliced his cheek slightly. He knew this was meant to be a warning shot. Ximena doesn’t miss unless she is making a point.

“I wouldn’t finish that sentence if I was you. I know what I did, I reflected on my mistake. Now that I’ve faced that truth, I need to get them both back before it is too late. Who knows what they can do with that jewel if they learned the power behind it.”

Ordóñez felt his breath hitch in his throat. He never felt threatened by Ximena, only threatened by the lengths she would go through to prove a point or make herself look like she was better than she actually was. He would never say it out loud, but maybe that is one of the things that draws him to her so quickly.

“Yes ma’am, I’ll watch my wording next time.”

He nods, dropping his head slightly. The library that they resided in was silent with tension, enough to the point he decided to leave before he got too overwhelmed with the taunting pages of the books sitting still while his heart hammered in his chest as if it was being put to work.

“That’s better. Now, when you do get them, I want you to call me with this device,”

she began, holding a small chip-like device in her hand, something she must have created in the days that she locked herself in her library to ‘clear her head’

“It will slide here and sit inside your mask easily.”

Taking his mask, she placed it right where she pointed and then looked to meet his obsidian eyes. Part of Ordóñez wanted to believe that he could lean forward and press his lips to hers. He knew that if he tried he would be something close to beheaded.

“You aren’t paying attention.”

Ximena makes a point of his unfocused expression. He shakes the thoughts from his head and forces a smile as gently as he could.

“I’m only paying attention to you, madame.”

“Then you should tell me what I just said again.”

“The chip goe-”

Within an instant, she pushes her lips onto his, dropping the mask she was holding onto his lap. He was frozen in shock, but finally getting what he craved all these years seemed to make the moment all the sweeter to him. The strongest woman in the world, finally his, even if only for a moment. Finally close enough for him to hold, to kiss, to savor as he wanted to.

Lost in the moment, he allowed himself to put his arms around her waist gently. She laces her hands in his hair, all too soon, he realizes that she clipped the back of his mask on and slid it over his face.

“Now, please go get my boys.”

Ordóñez tried to calm himself down as he stared at her, bewildered gaze not once leaving her.

“Right. I’ll do that.”

It came to his realization that he wasn’t much more than a pawn in her game. But he didn’t mind being a pawn if that meant that he could stay by her side the way he currently was. Wrapped around her calloused fingers, there he sat. Masked in appearance but his devotion unmasked completely.