Our Infinite Fates

by Laura Steven

real money sent to virtual coffee funds,

KOFI MENTION⁉️⁉️✌️

Yet part of me didn’t want to cheapen our love with a collection of pixels on an ambivalent screen.

ok fuck you wth attributing texting someone to "cheapening love," thats how i stay in contact with my boyfriends

His dark shoulder-length hair was pulled back in a low knot, accentuating the sharp lines of his square jaw.

he sounds hot as fuck u should get with him and not the guy who tries to kill you

“Erm, thanks,” she said slowly, unconvincingly. “What—erm—what is it?” Dylan’s cheeks flushed red, and he suddenly became very interested in the label at the corner of her blanket. “Well, you’re not allowed to bring flowers into hospital these days, so every time I saw one on the farm that reminded me of you, I took it home. Dried it and pressed it. And, erm, there you go.” Curious, I peered over Gracie’s shoulder at the pressed flowers. Dylan had arranged the petals—pink and blue and violet and yellow—into the shape of a violin. Except he was not a particularly gifted artist, and the shape was clumsy, the bow too small, the body too wide. And yet it was perhaps the loveliest thing I’d ever seen. “That is unbelievably tragic,” said Gracie, stuffing it under her pillow, but she had to clear her throat shortly afterwards. I didn’t miss the way she looked up at the harsh ceiling light, blinking furiously.

TBIS WAS SUCH PEAK WRITING HELLO I LOVE THIS SCENE???

France 1915

oh god its gonna try to be antiwar too isnt it this is too much for one book pookie pls stop

“What else do you love? It’s never quite made sense to me.”

me neither girl

Play-wrestles that went on a few moments too long. Hands on shoulders and hands on hands. Words of comfort turned words of affection. The pent-up emotions, the pent-up drive, the despair and the kinship and the vulnerability. It was a wild furnace in which romantic love was often forged and, as the war raged on, many were becoming more brazen about it.

god i love trench warfare

Sheets of white hair fell around her cool face, black nails curling away from her fingers like withered fossils. She was dressed in the same horizon-blue uniform, a bloodied bayonet notched in the hollow of her shoulder. At first I thought she was a mirage. There were no women on the front line, and certainly none so casual and unaffected as this figure. Was she a ghost? An angel come to save us? “This has gone on long enough,” she rasped in our direction,

i hope arden is the antagonist and is actually manipulating evelyn to fall out of love with her lesbian gf

Then I couldn’t afford to waste my time on such trivialities when I had to devote every ounce of energy to the art of survival.

that makes less sense. normally its the mother doing everything OR ppl throw themselves into work and hobbies to forget abt the stress in their life

we would recapture the festive magic of our childhood, before Dad had died on Christmas Eve, before Gracie had got sick, before we’d stopped believing in flying reindeer and boots down the chimney.

cute but it never works like that again babes

hotchpotch

hodgepodge ?

I liked living on a farm, the way it made me feel connected to something greater than myself. The circle of life, the cycles of sowing and reaping, every birth and death so purposeful.

u are one dramatic teenager

Just as I was climbing to my feet, there was a shuffling sound behind me. Then a throat-clearing that made every hair on my body stand on end. I turned around. Dylan. Leaning against the stable door in his mucky overalls, watching my every move. “This is a bit much, Evelyn. Even for you.”

HAHAHAHAHA I FUCKING KNEW IT AS SOON AS SHE SAID SHE 2AS ATTRACTED TO HIM AT FIRST GLANCE

Back in Siberia, snowstorms flurried in horizontal sheets.

author often starts chapters with callbacks to other lives. it's fine, just gets boring and repetitive after awhile

The chink in his armour was there. I just had to drive the spear in.

yes queen emotionally manipulate this person

It was a terrible deal, but it was the only one I had.

thats great u got ur deal and all but i think we're forgetting abt the guy you kidnapped and tied up

In all my lives, I’d been poor more often than I’d been wealthy.

some commentary or other that will stay surface level bc this is first and foremost a romance book

Mutter always said the atmosphere was pure chaos, but since my own world was entirely quiet I could disappear into the beads and boning, the luxurious fabrics and intricate embroidery, the glittering jewels and dramatic waistcoats, the sharp tailoring and silky bolts of crêpe de Chine.

“I don’t feel, in my heart, that I’m a boy. But neither do I feel like I am inherently a girl. My soul isn’t rooted to any of them. I’m just me. No particular body feels more ‘right’ than the other, nor more wrong. They’re just vessels.

souls dont have gender i love when its woke

He removed his hat and peered into the bottom as though about to pull out a white rabbit. “I think I prefer being a boy, but I couldn’t say why, exactly. It almost defies language, the way it’s impossible to describe the exact taste of a strawberry.”

this is such a cis response also i took a wjole class on how gender is defined by society so i wonder if this is the result of 1000 years of conditioning or not

“I think perhaps that line has already been crossed. Danced over, even. A veritable foxtrot over the boundaries of morality.”

I missed the casual bulk of myself in France, the way I could protect myself and my sisters, even if it had led me to the trenches. There was a certain ease to a male body, an innate safety I never took for granted.

this feels vaguwly misogynistic in a way i cant articulate

Mania and Melancholia fast became our morbid pet names for each other.

sorry i just think thats stupid💀

I had to win Arden round.

the inconsistent writing style is killing me

Now I understood why he’d never invited me inside. The space was so stuffed full of his love for the natural world and the written word that I would’ve known instantly it was Arden.

dawg bsfr you would not have known

“I suppose the colonizers have been looting and pillaging to fill their museums for centuries. Why stop now?” I laughed bitterly. “I guess they’re just gambling that nobody’s still alive to sue them.”

i think its funny how i can tell what the author's politics are solely from this book

I stared at him in disbelief. “You’re actually going to cuff me to the bed?” Elbows on his knees, he sank his head into his hands, his silence a terrible confirmation. “That seems wildly unnecessary.” “I have to sleep sometime,” he said into his palms. “And when I do, it’ll be too easy for you to flee. Or knock me out and tie me up like you did Ceri.” “Why do you even have those?” “Same reason you carry a knife. Just in case.” I sat next to him on the bed, mind and pulse both racing. The tension between our two bodies was palpable, an electric crackle. I held out my wrist, and he closed the first cuff around it.

i cant put my finger on why but i absolutely hated this entire exchange

“We probably shouldn’t talk about Constantinople,” he said, every syllable measured carefully.

idc what anyone says this is DEFINITELY a reference to the song

I tried to root myself back there, tried to access the memories my mind held in a locked vault, but I couldn’t grasp them in full, couldn’t peel them back, like the skin of a ripe fruit, to expose the core.

why are we pulling up with awkward run on sentences to make a convoluted metaphor

Sure enough, despite the doctor’s sincere assurances I would not recover, my fever broke.

so they can only be killed by each other and they only do it right before they turn 18 (otherwise ig that white woman demon comes after them to try and kill them? reincarnation through the ages hunt lmao)

We were about to die because of some fatal curse that had dogged us for a thousand years, and yet he still had the capacity to be irritated by comma placement. Only Arden.

bro thats his love in words on paper i'd be pissed if someone altered the meaning too its not like you can do anything abt ur inevitable death anyway so why worry

He picked up his sky-blue coffee flask from the cup holder and took a swig. “So, in summary, we’re fucked. Gracie is fucked. And you’re just going to let that happen.” This insinuation that the whole situation was my fault made me finally crack.

Hey, I watch the criminal minds episode, just like this literally an hour ago

He considered this for a moment, as though it were a mathematical equation to balance. “If a hero is someone who will give up love to save the world, then a villain is the reverse. Someone who will give up the world to save love.”

I can tell this author really wants to make this story enemies to lovers. Also, can we please stop romanticizing villainy like this? Because most of the time, it does not actually work like that.

“It doesn’t make sense.” His grip tightened on the steering wheel, and I tried not to think about how beautiful his hands were in this life: broad palms, short nails, sun-golden skin stretched over the peaks of his knuckles. Those twines and ribbons tied around his wrists. My gaze hitched on a piece of narrow red, though I couldn’t say for certain why. Only that it yanked a cord somewhere deep in my chest. “Love rarely does.” I smiled ruefully. “And you’d have done the same for me.”

This book is so cringy.

A smile spread across my face—always the optimist, even when it was downright absurd to be so.

Okay, I actually like this character trait of hers.

And yet where would I go, knowing the tether would lead him right to me anyway?

this tether has always seemed metaphorical up until the last couple chapters, like the author JUST NOW decided it would be cool to have as a relvant plot point

A wry smile; an attempt to soften the blow.

no need for semicolon tbh a comma works just fine

For the first time, I was reborn near enough to a previous life that I could return to visit my old loved ones.

youd think after 500 years they wouldve learned ig not

Perhaps he was my true homeland; our existence a language only we could speak.

highlighting for cringe purposes

wending

do you mean winding??

And that woman in the trenches, with her pale sheets of hair and her gnarled black fingernails.

watch that be herself or some shit

“Branwen, hi, it’s Dr. Chiang. Listen, I couldn’t stop thinking about what you asked of me. Playing it over in my head again and again, unsure whether I’d done the right thing. You seemed in such a dark place, and, truthfully, I’d never forgive myself if something bad did happen. So I explained the situation to my wife, and she’s willing to perform the procedure pro bono. Can you be in Newport this Friday afternoon? Give me a call back when you can.”

the way this would never happen irl is pissing me off

“Have you ever…” I started, but trailed off, throat dry. He quirked an eyebrow at me, as though he knew exactly what I was trying to glean from him. “Ever what?” “Made love.” The words sounded simultaneously crass and childish, and my cheeks pinkened. “To anyone, in any life.” “For coin, yes,” he said flatly. “You?” I shook my head, feeling like an almighty fool. Of course Arden was no virgin. Still, the thought of him being so intimate with another person … It should not have felt like a betrayal, but it did.

oml i actually hate you stfu you sound ignorant despite all this woke shit youve been spouting

Quills and inkwells, soft parchment and warm jumpers, vials of sugar water and twangy folk music, carefully pressed flower petals between tissue paper.

see he's different than other guys bc he's in touch with his soul

Just to remind me who was in control. Who was winning.

wdym winning bro yall die every 18 yrs there is no one winning

A tear slid down my cheek unbidden. I couldn’t remember it forming, couldn’t remember the point at which my body had decided to cry.

youve been talking for 30 seconds be so fr now im just annoyed

That night in the trenches, when I told you I would lay my body over yours, war after war after war, life after life after life.

idk why but this repetition bothers me

Timbuktu,

aristocats mention "goin all the way to timbuktu!"

I longed for her embrace with a thirst I could never slake.

dawg these metaphors sound like the stupid ones that ypu look up as an example of a metaphor but would never actually use in real writing bc its just too well known

The cruelest fate the gods and stars had ever written: the person I loved most in the world was the person who would ultimately destroy me.

i gotta be honest i dont understand the point of these chapters. they serve almost no purpose other than telling us that theyve loved each other for several centuries and occasionally spouting off some liberal talking point that then gets glossed over in terms of the actual book. theyre entirely too repetitive, we haven't learned ANYTHING new in them so far