#promptish

the five people you meet in heaven, joe liebgott edition. make with this what you will.

this is rough bc truly The Five People You Meet in Heaven was one of my most loathed books I had to read in High School. Which is weird bc objectively I like everything in it and the concept is cool but oof I absolutely hated that book And The Things They Carried (again, should have liked it and Heartily didn't). Also The Great Gatsby, but I grew into really loving that book in my old age lol

BUT this is a good thought experiment, and I'm going to put it in a rivers context bc it's the context I know best. I am of the onion that Lieb d o e s go first (I love that I can Finally acknowledge that Web lives in this verse phew) so Web would Not be one of the Five. The way I'm imagining it is sort of like the book, where some connections are more abstract than others, because it's just true to how life is.

How I see it:

Lieb passes after a long, eventful life. It's peaceful, and it doesn't hurt.

His first level would be his first love, who was a woman named Carmen that he met his first year working for the cab company. She was a year older, was more well-off, and even if they didn't last long and ended badly they learned a lot of those very precious early secrets of life together, including navigating a dynamic that they couldn't necessarily be open about with their families.

The second level I see being someone like Tipper, who saw Lieb at one of the moments where the best of himself was coming through even in a horrible circumstance. Being given friendship, comfort, love in a terrible moment has a profound and lasting effect, and I think being reminded of that is key.

Vonn's wife would be his third. If you've read rivers, Vonn is the old man who runs the barber shop that Lieb comes to work at. My mind palace for him is very detailed, but suffice it to say Vonn's wife died maybe 10 years before Lieb came to the shop, and she had had a lot of concern over how Vonn would manage quality of life, company, and business without her, and she reminds Lieb of the effect he had on ensuring the old man had a place to be, had caring people around him, and felt loved.

In the fourth layer he meets the Young Man from Landsberg who he had interpreted for. Obviously that moment shifted the course of Lieb's life, and throughout the whole rest of it he had thought of that man often, never really knowing what happened to him. He finds that he lived a long, imperfect life filled with the same pain and beauty of every life, and that the fact that he was able to face it at all in spite of the horror he endured was a gift.

The fifth is the Most abstract, and I see it as one of Web's students who Lieb never met. The student was young, questioning, and one day accidentally caught sight of Lieb in Web's office on campus, the easy way that Lieb kissed the top of his head before ruffling his hair. It made the idea of loving the same gender less like an impossibility, made the thought of living authentically and happily, surrounded by others like you, seem somehow attainable.

"You mind if I offer my opinion... as an outsider Mister Chandler."

They paused until Chas nodded.

"This multiple lives thing. It scares you, just not in the way everyone around you thinks, and possibly not in the way you think.

You know working with your Warlock friend is dangerous. You could, at any time, quit, live out your life without danger. Constantine would understand, he wouldn't be happy, but he'd get it.

But if you did that, lived out your what.. 30 or so life times, it would be so long... so long. Seeing parents and Grandparents pass is always sad, but we understand, they're older than us.

Losing siblings, family, friends, is a little more upsetting, but we know people die middle aged, or young.

But if you live a safe life, Mister Chandler, you will live a very long time. A father out living his daughter. A grandfather outliving his grandchildren.

You'll outlive great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren. Again and Again and Again.

- jyushi calling ichi a "good boy" by accident one day

- karamatsu secretly wearing choro's clothes when he's out because he misses him

- karamatsu actually being a small skinny boy with thick thighs

- jyushi giving ichi back rides

- ichi and choro talking about how cute their bfs are

- ichi trying on jyushi's sweater

- choro wearing the shirt with Kara's face on it

- jyushi waking up with mussy hair

- ichi (by default) waking up with neat hair

- meaning he purposefully messes it up

- suuji cuddles that usually end with jyushi on the floor

- chorokara cuddles that end with karamatsu falling asleep and choro melting

- drunk ichi equals loud exclamations of how cute jyushi is

- drunk jyushi equals cuddles

- karamatsu is feeling sad, choro fixes it with a bright boy smile

Ask Here

1) A Sweet Kiss

Every light was out as she came through the door, and the house was unusually quiet.

She set her keys down on the side table and hung up her coat.

“Jamie?” She called into the dark.

“In here!” His voice echoed from somewhere within the house.

She squinted as her eyes adjusted to the dark, attempting to follow the direction his voice came from.

A faint light glowed beneath the door and into the hallway, indicating his location.

The room was illuminated by dozens of candles, the table set with their best china, and rose petals littered the floor. Jamie stood in the center of the room, holding the most beautiful bouquet of flowers she’d ever seen.

“Jamie…” She was at a loss for words and the sight of it took her breath away.

He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her softly. “Happy anniversary, Sassenach.”

30) Sharing a bath/swim

The summer sun was hot and unrelenting, warming anything its light touched. But while some things benefited from the heat, Jamie and Claire certainly did not. Though they were inside and in the shade, the air was still thick and heavy around them.

“How convenient that the air conditioning goes out on the hottest day of the year.” Claire rolled her eyes as she attempted to fan herself with her hand.

They had every fan they could find in the house running, but it made no difference against the humidity.

“Ifrinn! They should be here by now!” Jamie grumbled as he looked out the window for about the hundredth time.

Claire groaned in frustration as she turned on the tap to splash some cold water in her face.

Upon hearing the running water, Jamie’s eyes lighted with an idea.

As soon as she stepped away from the sink he took her hand in his and pulled her outside.

“Jamie it’s too hot for this, at least inside we have shade.”

His eyes narrowed and lips curved into a smile. “Did ye forget we have a pool?”

Her eyes widened as realization dawned. It wasn’t a minute later that she was stripped of her clothes and in the water.

Another minute and Jamie was in the water with her.

A soft moan escaped her lips as she dipped her head in the water. “Why didn’t you think of this sooner.” She glared at him as her head emerged.

The water parted at his waist as he made his way towards her. “How did ye forget?” He mumbled as their mouths joined.

She practically melted under his touch; they had hardly been within a few feet of each other for nearly 24 hours in an attempt to stay cool. But now that barrier was gone as the water made the heat bearable.

His hands slowly slid down her back before coming to rest on her ‘round arse.’

She could feel him hard and ready against her stomach, which only heightened her own desire.

“We were supposed to grow old together” could be a great sentence for a SQ impossible AU. I decided to pick it.

(I know we had this conversation some time ago but I didn’t have the opportunity to write this until now. Thanks for letting me write me own view of this idea and I hope if you get to read it you enjoy it 😉)

PS: I had several other ideas for this one with Emma screaming it as she realizes what she has done as she crosses the portal back on s7. With Regina being the one thinking it at S7 as well, with Emma dreaming it back at the “lost” year on New York and with them meeting each other after years and years and recognizing each other because that’s the kind of people they are. At the end, however, I chose this small scene. It’s been far too long since I killed one of them apparently xD

The hurt on her voice made it crackle under the weight of the truth within her words, eyes filled up with tears Regina stared at, feeling her own welling up on her throat, drowning any sentence she might have wanted to say. The blonde’s eyes glowed with lifeforce beginning to ebb away; droplets of magic pooling around her wrists from where the magic fell, dripping and washing everything with the ozone scent that surrounded the cot Regina had casted with just enough magic for the two of them to be alone.

Outside, the world was crumbling.

“We were supposed to be together.” Emma repeated and there was a small sob at the end, eyes green as they locked with Regina’s, body as tight, as taut, as a bowstring. Her words brought with them flashes of scenes Regina growled at trying hard not to fall as the possibilities colored the very same air that they had around them with a myriad of dreams filled with the same magic that now, tired, crackled twice on the tips of her fingers, falling dots that almost felt like tired stars illuminating them both from beneath.

“But we are late.”

The last sentence wasn’t said but Regina could feel it on her own tongue; its reality inevitable as she looked at the ring she had despised for so long; the one Emma still had on her. Crackled and blackened.

It hurt in a way she hadn’t let herself feel, fire on her heart and just enough uneasiness on her stomach for her to feel nauseous as she tried to speak.  

“I never knew you wanted that.” She blabbered, choking as Emma laughed mirthlessly, eyes closing as she tried in vain to keep them open.

A glance at the docks, a caress at the brunette’s former home, a smile back at the Enchanted Forest, unwavering trust back at Camelot, a mix of pain and grief touching her heart back when the blonde had been the Dark One.

“I wanted it.”

They were alone at the end, as they had been once and Regina squeezed the blonde’s hands with hers, a trail of tears already running down her cheeks; thinking back on the days she had stared at the blonde, wishing, wanting, dreaming.

“I fell in love with you.”

The whisper came almost inaudible and Regina rested her forehead against Emma’s as she closed her hands tightly on the other woman’s fabric. An impossible tale, she thought, one that suddenly felt wrong; like spiders crawling up her back, cuts starting to run out of blood to bleed on the other woman’s body.

“I love you.”

A kiss and a whisper and Emma was gone; the shadow of a magical imprint on her temple, far too grey hairs on her once upon a time golden mane.

I’m not putting the original.

After he set himself beside her on the bench he began to speak, in a soft voice. He spoke as if to the open air, and the stars. She was only there to overhear his conversation with the world. He spoke of memories and long ago times. 

But, She didn’t hear what he was saying. She was just so lost in his tones and that slow, excruciating drawl. She did try to focus on his words, but the harder she tried the more she could only hear the music his voice made. The loss at his words that she felt almost made her lost to her own body.

She wanted to reach out across the distance, cross the distance with a spark. She wanted to map the planes of his face with her fingers. Lean closer and speak into him as he spoke to her.