#parallel lives

Sometimes I like to think that some people move through life in parallel without even knowing it.

There is something especially beautiful about that kind of coincidence. They are not grand events or moments that seem destined to happen; they are small details that, when viewed in hindsight, feel like an invisible thread connecting two hearts long before their paths ever crossed.

Seeing Hudson and Connor wearing the same leopard print in completely different projects, back when they didn't even know each other, creates exactly that feeling. It's such a small coincidence, almost absurd in its simplicity. And yet it's impossible not to smile when thinking about it. While one was living experiences the other knew nothing about, both were collecting memories, jobs, lessons and moments that would eventually become part of the same story.

Maybe that's why these similarities are so fascinating. Because they remind us that before becoming "them," there was simply one person and another person, each walking their own journey. And every now and then, small reflections appear between their lives: shared interests, similar experiences or unexpected coincidences that, when seen from a distance, feel strangely endearing.

It's not that these coincidences necessarily carry some deeper meaning. The magic lies in discovering them afterward. In looking back and realizing that two stories which traveled separately for years, in the end, found each other at exactly the right moment.

I think the most beautiful part of a story isn't the moment two people meet, but everything that happened before they got there. All the years they spent growing separately. All the joys, mistakes, dreams and lessons that slowly shaped them into exactly who they were when they at last found their way to each other.

Because if they had met sooner, perhaps they wouldn't have been the same people. And there is something almost poetic about thinking that life gave them the time they needed to grow, change and become the people they were meant to be when they came across their person.

So when these little coincidences from the past appear, this stupid smile just won’t leave my face. Because they feel like tiny footprints left behind along the way. Small reminders that, long before they ended up falling (in love) through a videocall, they were already writing the chapters of a story they would one day share.

I literally can't stop making these fading comics

The first one

Also this was inspired by a bit of writing that @aussie-bookworm wrote about the 1850's Mercs!

Sniper and Scout find Nick Bundy's old journal, and Sniper reads the events of the old sniper's life as the same thing happens to him. Parallel lives trope 👍

Remember the AHTP Episode when he said this:

"I would love to live in a little house in the middle of nowhere... I am going to...probably Europe, Italy somewhere, just disappear."

Armie Hammer on his podcast

Parallel Lives

Neither Urza nor Mishra would admit it, but it was their similarities, rather than their differences, that drove their obsessive rivalry.

- He owned a very special copy of the poem, annotated by his tutor Aristotle himself. He guarded the manuscript in a small, precious chest that once belonged to Darius of Persia, and slept with it - and his dagger - under his pillow every night

- When he was a young boy, one of his tutors liked to call himself 'Phoenix' (the name of young Achilles' mentor) and Alexander's father Phillip 'Peleus', while little Alex was obviously Achilles himself (he was literally obsessed with the guy, since he also believed to be his descendant from his mother's side)

- Speaking of which, Alexander visited and paid homage to said hero's tomb in the region of Troy with games and stuff, honoring his "blessed fate" since he had had "such a trusted companion [aka Patroclus] in life and a noble herald [aka Homer] in death." (some other sources say that Hephaestion was with him as they paid homage to the tombs of Patroclus and Achilles respectively. Plus the way Alex's grief after Hephaestion's death mirrors perfectly that of his fav hero would deserve its own post)

I mean “Hell is a teenage girl” in the “Across three different lives, I’m raised as a young lady and got saddled with the responsibility of carrying hundreds of lives on my back because of some ancient power I carry, making me prime central for weaponization” way.

But my hands have memory my eyes do not.

I don't remember, in detail, what my husband looked like. But I know exactly how it felt to run my hands through his short, soft hair - stroke my thumb across his cheek - the hard planes of his teeth, under my fingertips. I remember the sensation of fresh bedsheets in a bedroom with windows trapping the cold of night in glass panes, a cool defence against the blistering, rising sun. I remember the way that darkness felt, waking next to him.

I remember what it felt like, distinctly, to walk with hooves on tiled bathroom floors, slipping on porcelain on the bathtub, his skin slick with water. I remember the coarse wood of the kitchen table, before we replaced it. I remember the scent of changing seasons. Crisp. Full. Sweltering.

I remember the feel of my best friend's hair, too. Long, and thin, and fine. The callouses that grew on her hands that I didn't notice before they started itching, in a good way, when she held mine.

I remember my steed, his thick skin unmoving, his flank rising and falling beneath my palm, the dust and grime gathering in the creases and crevices of my skin. I don't remember, truly, what he looked like.

I remember what it felt like, to look at him. To have him look at me. I remember his powerful muscles rippling beneath me as we rode, the sensation of his mane, like seaweed, gathering around my hands - I remember the feel of wearing an ill-fitting hat, and a well-fitting hat, shifting with each bounce of his steps.

I remember the sound of a herd. The sensation of it. The welcome chaos, the way they would listen.

I remember love.