by madeline miller. i altered some quotes so they fit better ♡
❝ i saw then how i had changed. ❞ ❝ name one hero who was happy — you can’t. ❞ ❝ i feel like i could eat the world raw. ❞ ❝ you are half my soul, as the poets say. ❞ ❝ i have no need to forgive you. you cannot offend me. ❞ ❝ i do not fear ridicule. i never have. ❞ ❝ you have always trusted so easily; you have had so little in your life to fear or suspect. ❞ ❝ do you hear me? please, say something. ❞ ❝ your face is like quicksilver, always racing to something new. you unsettle me. ❞ ❝ you do not give things up so easily now as you once did. ❞ ❝ now i know how to make you follow me everywhere. ❞ ❝ i would know your face in dark or disguise. i would know it even in madness. ❞ ❝ there is no law that gods must be fair. ❞ ❝ i have never seen anyone fight the way you do. ❞ ❝ our dead come for their vengeance regardless of witnesses. ❞ ❝ the sorrow was so large it threatened to tear through my skin. ❞ ❝ when you die, all things soft and beautiful and bright would be buried with you. ❞ ❝ you were always better with words than i. ❞ ❝ i will never leave you. it will be this, always, for as long as you will let me. ❞ ❝ you smile, and your face is like the sun. ❞ ❝ i thought you were — something. you do not — you do not move like a human. ❞ ❝ do you want to walk up to the woods? ❞ ❝ you can’t be very wounded if you can stand for so long. ❞ ❝ there are no bargains between lion and men. i will kill you and eat you raw. ❞ ❝ we are like gods at the dawning of the world. ❞ ❝ nothing could eclipse the stain of this dirty, mortal mediocrity. ❞ ❝ i yearn for the darkness and silence of the underworld, where i can rest. ❞ ❝ those seconds, half seconds, that the line of our gaze connected, were the only moment in my day that i felt anything at all. ❞ ❝ you seem utterly unaware of your effect on the people around you. ❞ ❝ it was almost like fear, in the way it filled me, rising in my chest. it was almost like tears, in how swiftly it came. ❞ ❝ you are a weapon, a killer. do not forget it. ❞ ❝ i have heard that men who live by a waterfall cease to hear it — in such a way did i learn to live beside the rushing torrent of my doom. ❞ ❝ if you have to go, you know i will go with you. ❞ ❝ there is no one like you. ❞ ❝ we have given each other wounds, but they are not mortal. ❞ ❝ and perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone. ❞ ❝ who can be ashamed to lose to such beauty? it is enough to watch you win. ❞ ❝ do not let what you have gained this day be so easily lost. ❞ ❝ you have killed them and taken your vengeance. it is enough. ❞ ❝ no man is worth more than another, wherever he is from. ❞ ❝ strange that such a small kindness feels like grace. ❞ ❝ you can use a spear as a walking stick, but that will not change its nature. ❞ ❝ i cannot bear to see you grieving. ❞ ❝ i remember little more than scattered images from my life then. ❞ ❝ i would recognize you by touch alone, by smell; i would know you blind, by the way your breaths came and your feet struck the earth. i would know you in death, at the end of the world. ❞ ❝ i see a dozen men here ready to leap on each other’s throats. ❞ ❝ in my land a bow is marked as the weapon of cowards. ❞ ❝ you may still make a good person. ❞ ❝ you don’t bother to threaten me, yet. i should be worth threatening. ❞ ❝ the memories well up like springwater, faster than i can hold them back. ❞ ❝ i hoped that you would come. ❞ ❝ the voices of the dead were said to have the power to make the living mad. ❞ ❝ i have weathered the anger of gods before. ❞ ❝ i thought of how many nights i had lain awake in this room, loving you in silence. ❞ ❝ there is nothing in the world i want more than to know what you had not said. ❞ ❝ you will never gain fame from your fighting. does this surprise you? ❞ ❝ my mind is filled with cataclysm and apocalypse: i wish for earthquakes, eruptions, flood. only that seems large enough to hold all of my rage and grief. ❞ ❝ i will not cry in front of you. ❞ ❝ listen to me. you go too far in this. i will not be able to protect you. ❞ ❝ there is no honor in betraying your friends. ❞ ❝ i’m afraid I have been prompted by a rare stirring of guilt. ❞ ❝ i promised myself that if i ever saw you again, i would keep my thoughts behind my eyes. ❞ ❝ i did not want you to see my fear, though normally we kept nothing from each other. ❞ ❝ gods and mortals never mix happily in our stories. ❞ ❝ you will be dead soon enough. ❞ ❝ you are destroying yourself. you will not be loved for this, you will be hated, and cursed. ❞ ❝ you left yourself today. and now you are returned. ❞ ❝ you are a better person than i. ❞ ❝ whatever you do, i shall stand with you, as i always have. ❞ ❝ you have looked at me a thousand thousand times, but there is something different in this gaze, an intensity i do not know. ❞ ❝ my life is my reputation. it is all i have. ❞ ❝ may i give you some advice? if you are truly his friend, you will help him leave this soft heart behind. ❞ ❝ what are you thinking about? ❞ ❝ even the boldest of people would whisper a prayer if they brushed against me. ❞ ❝ the keen edge of my envy was like flint, a spark away from fire. ❞ ❝ do you think we fight hopeless wars? ❞ ❝ it is strange, that you would speak against betrayal. ❞ ❝ if every soldier killed only those who’d personally offended him, we’d have no wars at all. ❞ ❝ no one has ever tried to take something from me. ❞ ❝ stay behind me. ❞ ❝ will you help me put the rest of my armor on? ❞ ❝ your face is blank and barren, like another language, impenetrable. ❞ ❝ i am here because i believe that we will win. i am staying until the end. ❞ ❝ your presence is like a stone in my shoe, impossible to ignore. ❞ ❝ he is not worthy of you. he never has been. ❞ ❝ will you tell me who hurt you? ❞ ❝ it is like a nightmare; i expect, each moment, to wake to relief. but there is no waking. ❞ ❝ i do not need to prove myself to you. to any of you. ❞ ❝ you have always thought too much of yourself. ❞ ❝ some men gain glory after they die, while others fade. ❞ ❝ even here, behind the darkness of my eyelids, i cannot name the thing i hope for. ❞ ❝ our joy is so bright we can see nothing else but the other. ❞ ❝ you have a tender heart. an admirable quality, surely. ❞ ❝ you are spring, golden and bright. envious death would drink your blood, and grow young again. ❞ ❝ i will not be the raven on your shoulder all the time, predicting gloom. ❞ ❝ you look different in sleep, beautiful but cold as moonlight. ❞ ❝ when there is greed, there is hope. ❞ ❝ i could have told you more, of the dreams that leave me bleary and bloodshot, the almost-screams that scrape my throat as i swallow them down. ❞ ❝ you are angry, and not without reason. ❞ ❝ you feel mislead; you were promised victory. ❞ ❝ you know, it’s funny; i keep thinking i’ve seen you before. ❞
on the opposite, do you know any captivity and/or pet whump not set in the bbu. don't have anything against it just looking for something else
Oh do I
@comfy-whumpee has your pet whump with Alistair and Ellis, and holy shit is it excellent. They also have some really great captivity whump with the Ty and Jim series!
@wildfaewhump has captivity arcs for their Iesin and Talvos - and Iesin, being fae, is often treated in a way that I think can cross over into a pet-whump-adjacent place, plus their Pathverse involves lots of amazing captivity.
@for-the-love-of-angst's Taron goes through some seriously rough captivity whump at the hands of a creepy motherfucker I love
@whump-tr0pes's OCs often go through serious captivity whump, including 'plaything' whump that runs alongside pet whump with a lot of similarities.
@redwingedwhump has excellent captivity whump
@pretty-face-breaker has some of the best captivity/captor bonding/what the fuck whump I've ever read
@endless-whump has a super fun fae-whump story that involves captivity!
@robins-whump PLEASE read Tristan and Finn if you haven't already. I'm begging you.
@shameless-whumper's Quin lives rent-free inside my head all the time forever
@card-games-and-pain’s entire Leon and Lee story is the absolute fucking pinnacle
@evermetnotforgotten’s Lev goes through Some Serious shit in an excellent captivity story
@sableflynn has some lovely lady whump with captivity
@whumpingwithaquestionableauthor has some really good captivity whump!
@yet-another-heathen has an unusual take on captivity whump that I enjoy just rereading and rereading and finding new details each time
Just a few recs, gosh there's so much to find around here!
John Doe headcanons
• the first time he feels an eyelash get into Arthur’s eyes, he PANICS and Arthur finds it very amusing
• Arthur can frequently be seen with only one sleeve rolled up because John doesn’t like the feeling of fabric on his arm
• the king in yellow doesn’t have a gender because eldritch beings are beyond that, but John feels a strong connection to being a man/masculinity because of his connection to Arthur’s mind
• John would like to go to the library and just read poetry books to Arthur
• sometimes when Arthur is too tired to cook for himself, John forces him to get up and uses HIS hand to cook for Arthur. It usually doesn’t go well, but he’s well intentioned and Arthur’s got low standards
• sometimes Arthur holds Johns hand, just to acknowledge he’s listening to him, and John always gets distracted by it. He will never admit that he actually really enjoys the subtle affection
• Arthur tries to teach John piano. There’s a lot of fighting because it is hard to instruct someone how to play when you can’t see
• when they finally go and see a film, John talks about it like an excited child for HOURS afterwards
PLEASE tell me your headcanons for him or Arthur LMAO I’ve got such bad brain rot
“They met again after years” prompts:
You’re married?
You’re even more beautiful than I’ve remembered.
You’ve waited for me this whole time?
Look at you! You’re so big now.
“You turned out alright.” “Not thanks to you.”
Do you like what you see?
You look just like her.
I have the letters you wrote me.
Do you remember how tangled we got in our feelings?
I still wear the smile you gave me.
I was gonna marry you…
Where have you been all this time?
Why didn’t you call? Even once?
You have a daughter?
You got married?
I missed you.
My oh my, how does time fly.
“I’m stronger now.” “I see.”
Do you like what you’ve become?
I was gonna ask you to marry me.
You left without a word of explanation.
“I’m not a child anymore.” “I can see that.”