WHITE TULIP

“Name it,” breathes John in reply, as he covers Sherlock’s hand with his own, for what both know is the very last time, “but god, play on.”

White tulip - withoutawish

Two cut sunflowers - Vincent Van Gogh, 1887

Notes: Got this cool idea in my head abt a grown up version of asot armin 🤔 (it’s really cause i saw these pictures on pinterest tho) if u don’t know what asot is it stands for A slap on titan which is parody type series on youtube. 👍🏾👍🏾 but sorry if this isn’t quite accurate to what being goth is like i’m honestly still in my baby’s bat phase so i don’t know much 😭😭

Context: Modern Asot!Armin x Fem Goth!reader

Warnings: mention of ritual attempts but that’s it

- You first saw him in middle school on the first day of 8th grade. This new blond kid just transferred in and everyone was excited to meet him!

- Well that didn’t last long.

- While you weren’t present but apparently he started spewing crazy things and started talking to himself (or a cat, everyones stories was different) and while he did good in class teachers didn’t appreciate his out bursts.

- People were QUICKLY frightened and bothered by him. He had no friends.

- You were dipping your toes into the whole gothic subculture yourself at the time but you weren’t too interested. However it seemed this new kid was in love with the whole thing. He wore all black all the time, sometimes a bit of eyeliner. He had the whole vibe to him.

- So something about him interested you.

- However, before you got the chance to go up to him, he ended up getting expelled and put in a mental hospital for attempting to perform a ritual on a 6th grader? Yikes.

- He made the news and that’s when you learned his name. Armin…

- As the years went by you slowly forgot about him. But how could you fully? He was your craziest story to tell to friends. A funny and wacky memory to reflect on.

- Now you are in your 2nd year of college. You have decided while you aren’t fully goth(at least you thought) you liked the idea and did get into some of the music and fashion but you stuck to causal clothes most days. And you never got into the heavy makeup you see most goths wear. You learned it’s more about the music anyways which helped.

- You had a slight fascination with darker things and had to constantly tell people you aren’t depressed even if you looked the part.

- One day, while in the library looking for an Edgar Allen Poe book for your book report you accidentally bumped into a slightly taller boy.

- “Sorry! My bad-“

- You realized as you looked at his face…well, did you realize? Is this him?

- “It’s fine.” The boy quietly replied.

- Oh.

- He had blond hair…blue eyes… this could be any white boy honestly. Plus his hair was shorter? And he looked more….put together? He wore a plain brown suit get up with polished brown loafers.

- “Is something the matter?” He asked looking at you.

-“Sorry…i’m sorry you just look.. familiar?” You say squinting your eyes slightly but you realized you might be acting weird so you start to go around him after apologizing again.

- However, before you can…

- “Let me guess. You remembered the crazy, sadistic boy from your childhood and i look like him.” He says stopping you.

- You slowly nod.

- “Yeah, well, it was me.” He looked away for a second. Possibly embarrassed?

- “Armin? Well, you clean up..nice…” You say taking in his appearance once again.

- “Well, a few years of a mental hospital and therapy can do that….” He chuckled. “I see you’re looking for an Edgar allen book too?”

- “Yeah…we get to choose and author and analyze their writing style for my English 2020 class….” You say looking at the shelf.

- “Mhm…I did that last year.”

- “Can i ask what happened to you?” You say abruptly.

- “Y’know…I’d rather talk about that over some coffee.” Armin says laughing once again. “If you don’t mind?”

- This Armin was a now refined gentleman. He leads you to a small coffee shop on campus after helping you pick a book. He even holds the door open for you. From what you remember he used to spit at girls, asking them bizarre personal questions, now he’s holding open doors and pulling your chair out.

- After you two get coffee he tells you everything.

-“So after the therapy and being in a crazy house for years they finally broke me. I started talking about my feelings and whatever and how my when my parents died i lost it and my grandpa wasn’t paying attention to me and blah blah blah. And i guess it was just a phase…well not fully.”

- “How so?” You say sipping on the coffee you got.

- “Well, i may not look it, but i consider my self to be a bit…how do you say..gothic?” He smirks.

- “Yeah i never would’ve guessed. You look more dark academia like.”

- “I don’t dress in all black all the time, you know it’s more about- “

- “The music?” You interrupt.

- Armin smiles. “Yes. Exactly. How did you know? Unless…”

- You smile a bit while nodding your head. Well here’s finally someone you can be yourself around! Everyone else either thought you were weird or a poser. Most just ignored you.

- After that day you and Armin start hanging out. He shows you his room which had many gothic band posters on them like Sisters of mercy posters and Siouxsie and the banshees posters and other plain ones with just bats on them. His room was a bit dark also being mostly black and gray and brown.

- You two loves making goth like inside jokes or thrifting for new accessories or even weird things.

- Armin liked to collect really weird things like taxidermies bugs and mini skulls or halloween themed things.

- He was also a night owl but he had to be awake in the day too so he did end up having slight eyebags and a constant yawn.

- He was really serious about looking presentable though. So as a result he normally just drink a dark coffee everyday. You tried it once and immediately spit it out. “This is so BITTER!?” You say in disgust.

- “Like pure caffeine.” He says taking his cup back and smiling.

- Sometimes you’d two match outfits or at least tried to coordinate them.

- People started to think you two were dating at one point. You never thought of Armin like that but the idea didn’t hurt…

- Sometimes armin tells stories from his past. Explaining how he thought he was a “crimson king” for a while or how he’d sacrifice animals like squirrels. He seems horrified with his old self but not horrified to the point where he can’t laugh about it.

- He was your favorite gothic person now honestly🖤🖤