#and is possibly more shippy. BUT WE WILL SEE

[sabraeal]

Sic Semper Monstrum, Chapter 9

[Read on AO3]

Written for @sepalina's birthday, who deliberated for two days only to suddenly remember, oh yes right she has a favorite fic 🤣

That Seiran chick might have a princess’s pedigree around here, but there’s nothing dainty about the way she grips the metal bar at the end of each of their cots, twisting her wrists like she’s picturing flesh and bone rather than steel.

“You two have to be the biggest boneheads I have ever seen stuffed into a drive suit.” Her fingers clench, and Obi could swear the mental dints. “A bare knuckle brawl in the dome? At a time like this? Are you two insane?”

“Ah, well…” The Big Guy may have looked tough when Obi took him to the mats, a more solid anti-kaiju wall than anything the PDPC could toss into the Pacific, but he cringes just like any other mortal would when Kiki Seiran looms over him, all her disappointment honed to a point. “It wasn’t really a brawl. Just a…regulated spar, like usual—“

“Usual?” Her arms fold the way steel does into rebar, and oh, the princess is not amused. “Obi’s more bruise than bone.”

“Aw, Princess,” he croons, trying not to wince from the effort. “If you think this is bad, you should see the other guy.”

Her spine straightens, giving her all the extra inches she needs to give that glare of hers momentum, hitting him like a body off the Golden Gate hits the bay. “I can see the other guy. You’re both in the same infirmary, because you’re the same amount of stupid.”

“Actually, I’ve been wondering about the logic on that one.” He tilts his head, trying to go for that doleful dog stare that does wonders on sweet little nurses with hearts of gold. Too bad he’s got Yuzuri, who only wrenches his head back to the side, holding him still enough to swab when the skin’s split over his cheekbone. “Is this our— yikes, careful there, Florence— get along shirt or something? Two guys take some swings and you hope sticking us in a bottle sorts it out?”

“No,” she deadpans, taking a pen light out from the pocket of her scrubs. “I’m trying to quarantine the idiocy. You better be careful, Major” —she casts a long glance princess-side— “it might be catching.”

That regal mouth twitches, somewhere in the realm of amused. “Too late for me. No one ends up in a drive suit unless they’re born with it.”

“Ha, that’s for sure.” A light sears across his line of sight, leaving constellations in its wake. “As for you two, I didn’t see the point in sending you to your corners when you’re so friendly. Saves me space, and you can treat tonight like a sleepover. Braid each other’s hair and talk about cute boys.”

“Er…” How a big man like that can go through basic and still blush as easy as a school girl, Obi will never know, but it’s funny as hell. “I don’t really have opinions on cute boys…”

“Don’t worry, Big Guy,” he grunts, snuggling his shoulders into the pillows at his back. “I’ve got enough for both of us.”

That gets him a real side-eye from GI Joe, one that only ends when he swings those golden retriever eyes onto the real authority in this room. “Is there any way I get to go back to my bunk tonight?”

“Sorry, Major.” No matter what she says, Yuzuri’s shrug doesn’t give a single hint of regret. “Gotta keep you both on observation. SOP for rangers with head injuries. Last thing we need is for you guys to hare off and play hero just because you heard the dinner bell.”

He grimaces, all perfect teeth in a perfect face. Pity this guy fell into the military before someone could get him a magazine cover. Obi would have loved to hang that pin-up over his bunk. “Ah, right. That…makes sense.”

Of course it did. They might all be kaiju-fodder in the end, but they were the expensive, top shelf shit. The kind the PDPC wanted to stretch out as long as possible, not waste on some idiot who went into the drift concussed and had his brain melt right out his ears for the effort. Obi half surprised they haven’t been shoved into an MRI just to make sure.

“Aww, but you don’t really want to leave, do you, bestie? Not when we’re gonna have so much fun.” The target of his grin shifts from bed to bedside. “What do you think, Yuzuri? Think we could borrow some ManGo For It or Red Hot Rio?”

“I dunno,” she deadpans, not even looking up from her notes. “I think he’s more of Rosy Future guy.”

“Really? Still running your mouth?” Her Highness tosses her head, more pony than princess. “Did you not get beat bad enough?”

“What, this little mosquito bite?” Obi gives his jaw a good clench and turn, displaying his medal of honor at its best angle. Hurts like a bitch, but it’s worth it to see even Princess get squeamish. “Lucky shot. I got three hits for his one.”

Her mouth does that thing it does, that twitch, the one he’s starting to figure out is a laugh. “Yeah, and that’s all he needed to make you crumple like a tin can.”

“I already said I felt bad about that,” Big Guy grumbles, all folded in on himself like a teddy bear longing for a good squeeze. “I wasn’t trying to…well…”

“It’s okay, Superman, we all know you’re living in a world of cardboard.” Obi leans over, giving one of those meaty shoulders a good pat. Probably feels like a whisper to a man that stacked. “How can I blame you, when you were only defending milady’s honor—?”

Her weight shifts, no longer balanced parade-style between their cots, but sitting back in her hips, displeasure heavily implied. That man-sized mountain straightens so much it Obi can practically feel the plate tectonics beneath his palm.

“I was not!” Big puppy eyes swing right around to the ticking time bomb at the end of their beds. “I would never do that!”

One elegant eyebrow arches, and ah, now he can see why half the PDPC pisses itself when she punches the bag right off its chain. Most of the rangers the Academy rolls out are brawlers, the kind of guys that get in between a kaiju’s punch and the Pacific coastline, but this girl— her power’s in the application of force, the art of finessing a blow to where the bones can’t bear it. Can’t get into a brawl with a fighter like that and expect an old fashioned beatdown, oh no— when princess steps on the mats, she doesn’t fight, she dismantles.

Ha, and by the way she chucks her chin, all challenge, she knows it.

Now how about that. It’s a whisper in his ear, a hum across the million and one electric impulses in his brain, dangerous and fond. Remind you of anyone you know?

Knew, maybe. Bright blue smears over stark white when he closes his eyes; suits that stood out, even among halls that housed living legends. Eye-catching, the higher ups had called it, but it caught all the wrong eyes when it came to Sonisay. They all learned, of course; even now he hears the sickening crack of bone, sees the sweep of dark hair as she steps out of her spin—

Not just that. That laugh jangles his nerves, too close to his own and yet infinitely different, inimitable. Not just her.

There’s a boy too, too small, too skinny, too…not enough. Might as well be a shadow for how closely he clings to that same dance, to those same stances. Might as well be a monster for how easily the bones crack under his heels too, no remorse, no regrets—

A boy that shouldn’t exist. A boy that no longer does. Obi closes his eyes.

You can’t look away forever. Too many voices to count on that one. Watch me, only his reply.

“Let me make something clear.” Big Guy’s grunt grounds him, dragging him right back down to his bed, to the finger waggling at him. “Kiki doesn’t need me to fight her fights for her. If she wants to kick someone’s ass, she can make her own bodies.”

Ah, great. Got back just in time to witnessing Bloodbath Barbie over there desire Big Guy carnally. Not that he notices; oh no, the Jolly Marine Giant only has eyes for him, serious as a heart attack. Makes him want to mention that these rickety little med cots can’t handle two ranger pilots going at it, let alone three, but of course Yuzuri’s gotta make it a rain out.

“All right, all right, visiting hours are over,” she sighs, and oh, by Princess’s look, this is the first time someone’s tried to shoo Kiki Seiran out of anywhere. “These boys need some rest, not an audience. Just gonna rile ‘em up.”

This guy benches almost twice Obi’s weight, a monster of a man, but the second Yuzuri aims that scold his way, he’s all puppy. “But I wouldn’t—”

“You might behave, but he won’t.” She jerks a thumb back where Obi lounges, pointed. “And if he doesn’t want to play nice, he’ll find some way to drag you along with him.”

Sounds about right, hums a nuisance that has no right to throw stones. Not at this particular glass house, at least.

“Me?” Obi a presses a hand to his chest; harder to see it tremble that way. “Why, I was only going to take a small snooze. A cat nap, really. How could I—?”

“No sleeping!” Yuzuri glares at him, incredulous. “Didn’t I just say you could have a concussion?”

“Aww, come on,” he sighs, hooking his hands behind his head. “First no fighting, now no napping? What else are we supposed to get up to in here?”

Princess hangs in the gap of their curtain coverage, and oh, she may not smile, but that’s one masterclass of a grin. “Strenuous activity.”

“Kiki—!”

“None of that either!” With an officious wave of her hands, Yuzuri succeeds in doing what PDPC has failed to do for years: tell Kiki Seiran where to go. “Now, get. These two don’t need a bad influence.”

“Aww, c’mon, Flo! That’s no reason to shoo Princess out,” Obi whines now that his entertainment has sashayed right out of his evening. “I’m an even worse influence, so—”

“You don’t need to tell me,” she sniffs. “Now give it a rest. Or else I’ll call Shirayuki down here, and she can read you the riot act.”

There’s a time he might have laughed. Might even have let one shoulder and a wry eyebrow do the heavy lifting as he said, I’m sure the Good Doctor has better things to do with her time than worry about little old me.

But a week ago he woke up in one of these cots soaked in his own sweat, ears still ringing from a klaxon that never rang. At least, not in this dome, not that day; his stomach churning from the heady brew of trauma and military grade sedatives. He’d turned, half convinced he’d see either six bodies or and empty room, and instead—

It was her. Tiny ponytail and all, clumps of it making a bid for freedom from that poor excuse of an elastic. A borrowed one,  all stretched out from trying to contain the fallout from Yuzuri’s nuclear-level event that she calls her hair, but it’s serviceable. Enough to bridge the gap between now and whenever Doc finally decides whether she’s gonna bite the bullet and grow it out again, or just chop the whole thing off.

That’s not the sort of stuff he knows about people. Not the sort of stuff he ever gets close enough to find out. But she was sitting right there, head tipped off the back of that chair, breath trembling the little flyaways splayed over her lips, and—

“Fine,” he sighs, settling back into his pillows. “I’ll play nice.”

Yuzuri snorts. “I won’t hold my breath.”

*

It’s when Big Guy lumbers out of their cozy little curtained love cave to go take a piss— or a shit; Obi might be nosy, but even he’s got his limits— that Yuzuri swoops back to his bedside, using his vitals as an excuse to say, “What the hell were you thinking anyway?”

None of her business. There’s a gruffness to that, a texture that implying barbed wire fencing with the prickly bits facing inside. Embarrassment, the kind a boy at the cusp of manhood couldn’t bear with any grace. Not that he had done all that well with other emotions either.

Could never bear being anything but the hero. A taunt, a snipe across the mess hall’s tables. Even in his head those two would never get along.

You can just admit it. Sonisay speaks the way silk would sting, if it could, a smooth stab with no mess left behind. A sliver beneath the fingernail, only noticed when it slips deeper. It’s not as if you were thinking of anything sexual.

Sure. There’s no need for the smile-like stretch over his synapses, too smug. But not from lack of trying.

He appreciates the honesty is the best policy shtick, especially from the girl who always spoke out both sides of her mouth as easy a breathing, but Obi settles on a nice neutral, “What?” instead.

Might earn him the sort of look that begs the question of just what is rattling around between his ears, but it’s better than having to explain that when he closes his eyes he sees red. Not spread out across his pillow or tangled in his fingers, but caught up in plain little hairpins, already slipping free.

“Are you kidding me?” Her gaze darts over the the empty bed beside his, pointed. Oh, so that’s what she’s asking about. “Did you somehow miss how big that man is? He could fit two of you between his shoulders!”

“Aww, Flo, he’s harmless.” Pain shoots up his cheek when he tries to grin, settling somewhere near his temple. Damn, that’s gonna put a real crimp in his game. “Big Guy’s a gentle giant.”

She stares at him. “Half your face is a bruise.”

Obi hasn’t had the pleasure of seeing himself in the mirror lately, but by the way one half of his face feels heavy enough to make him lean like a tower in Pisa, he doubts that’s an exaggeration. “He didn’t mean it though.”

“Doesn’t really make a difference to your capillaries whether he meant it or not.” One finger of hers brushes an eyebrow— yowch— and she scowls. “They’re broken all to shit anyway. God, you’re gonna be lucky if that smile of yours isn’t permanently lopsided from this.”

Already was, but she didn’t ask for his medical history. “I’ll be roguish.”

“You’ll be in PT, that’s what you’ll be.” She pulls back with a cluck of her tongue. “Lucky as hell that he didn’t break your orbital. Ugh, or your nose. That would have been a bitch to set. And your cheekbones—”

A cough, timid for how deep it is, rustles outside the curtain. “Sorry,” Big Guy starts, all doleful hound dog eyes as Yuzuri pulls them back. “I didn’t want to, er, eavesdrop, but…”

He’s smarter than to say, but you told us not to leave. Not to someone like Yuzuri, who’s already ruby red from the collar of her scrubs to her headband, ready to crack out of her shell like a crab left too long in the pot.

“You…I…” She slides out right around him, never once turning her back. “G-go. Lay down. Or something! Ugh!”

Big Guy blinks once at her back before swinging those hound eyes back to him. “Is she—?”

“Embarrassed,” he agrees. Yuzuri’s always happy to share her opinions, up until she get caught. “Big time. She’ll recover. But until then it’ll be your fault.”

“Oh…” He winces, though Obi can hardly tell if it’s from the thought of Yuzuri’s ill-wishes, or the kick he landed on his hip, making what should be an easy walk a bit of a hobble. “I am sorry about that, you know.”

That lantern jaw juts itself toward him, or more specifically, the shiner painted up one side. “This old thing? Don’t worry about it. Got worse from a mosquito.”

If Big Guy is impressed with his bravado, he’s got a funny way of showing it, looking all hangdog like that. “I just…I didn’t really mean to…”

Fuck you up is what the big guy can’t bring himself to say. It’s probably rude to tell him, I’ve had worse.

“No hard feelings, Major.” It’s half a laugh, half a groan as he hauls himself up his pillows, every muscle aching. “I did tell you not to go easy on me.”

A grimace is what he gets in reply, and a pained, “Still…”

The you didn’t know what you were getting into hangs in the air, heavy with implication. Like maybe he’s never fought a guy above his weight class. Like he’s never stood in front of a boy a third again his age, watching his knuckles crack beneath the cloth of his binds.

More like he doesn’t know how much he can mean it, a grim mouth huffs humorlessly. He will though. Give him a few months.

“Didn’t really expect you to try to kill me, though.” For a moment, he’s not quite sure who he’s talking to. He rubs at his jaw, pain scintillating beneath his palm, and, haah, yeah, he knows what fist laid a kiss on this cheek alright. “Damn, no wonder kaiju don’t walk away from you.”

“I wasn’t try to…” It’s funny watching a mountain hunch like that, shoulders riding up again his ears making him a whole range instead a single peak. “With someone who moves like you, there’s only two sure ways to win. I went with the one that relied on power. Wasn’t going to land many hits on you but had to make the ones I did count.”

“And then did too good a job.” That’s the thing with having a body that shares more in common with a jaeger’s chassis than human flesh; the fall back option is to just do everything more and harder. Obi had met more than a few men like that in his time, but none of them so friendly. “I gotta admit though, Big Guy, you got me curious. What’s the other way?”

Big lungs heave big sighs, and oh, this one feels like it could take a few trees with it before he settles back against the headboard. “Tire you out. Quick guys typically don’t have a lot of stamina when things drag on, so—”

“All right, all right, don’t let the ladies hear that one.” Or most of the men while he’s at it, even if Obi’s personal tastes tend more toward the techs tending the tin cans than the bodies they throw in them. “Don’t want anyone to get the idea that I can’t keep up off the mat either.”

That won’t be much of a problem. It’s rare to hear advice from that corner of his mind, but Buma’s habit always was to watch first and speak too late. Not with all the training you’ve done outside—

That’s Need To Know only. Obi casts a long glance over where giant feet nearly hang off the mattress. And I don’t think the Major needs to know.

“Anyways,” he huffs, the sort of quiet career boys get when they’re shy. “Sorry.”

“Aw, c’mon, Big Guy. I asked you to bring me a fight and you did! I’m hardly gonna blame you for that.” He turns his head, grinning at him across the poor excuse for a bedside table. “Besides, now I know what it’s like.”

Those puppy eyes blink, too innocent for a guy who could break him in half by breathing. “Hm? Do you mean—?”

His eyebrows lift —well, one of them tries to— enticingly. The wince probably doesn’t do him any favors. “Kissing your girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend.”

Oh, it’s a real treat to see a lantern jaw drop so hard it nearly shatters. Too bad Princess isn’t here to enjoy it. “What?”

“You know…” His fingers weave through some hazy dips and lazy dives. “I can see what was good between you and High Highness, or whatever. The way you’d could compensate for each other in the drift. But you and me” — his hand flicks between them— “we don’t fit.”

“Oh.” It’s a pleasure to watch his mouth wrap around that noise, to see him really wrangle with the meat of what his meaning. “Yeah. I get it. I think.”

“I mean, for one thing,” Obi says, so casual. “We’re both bottoms.”

“Come again?”

“Kidding, kidding.” Kind of, Sonisay hums, and oh, he could swear he feels that forked tongue flickering where she coils in his mind. I doubt he’d complain if that blonde woman took it into her head to—

Hey. Maybe if he had a mirror, he could give himself a warning look, the kind Doc was always giving him right before he took a joke too far. But instead he had to settle for just thinking louder, like trying to shout over a crowded bar. I still gotta talk to this guy with a straight face for the next twenty-four hours.

Sounds like, that too-familiar voice hums, a real personal problem.

It’s too bad Major Do-Right over there can’t hear the speculation of the peanut gallery; then he might no be so quick to let relief bring those shoulders relax, to settle back into those pillows with a sigh that speaks of a light conscience. What did Yuzuri say? If Obi doesn’t want to behave, he’ll drag you down with him…?

Well, he hates to disappoint.

“Or am I?” The cot nearly cracks down the middle from how fast the Big Guy turns on it, sputtering. Obi just tosses him a wink. “Don’t worry, Big Guy. I’m not the kind of girl who likes to kiss and tell.”

*

For all that their lovely nurse devotedly frets over the potential stupors they could slip into with even the slightest bit of shut eye, or sometimes even something like getting up too fast or breathing too easy, she’s sure eager to encourage them to piss all by their lonesomes one she’s sure they can make the walk.

“What, this doesn’t get you going?” Obi asks, peeking around the door. “I hear some people really get into—”

“I hear some people really don’t get jello at dinner,” she replies, shoving him bodily through the crack. “Wanna see if you’re one of them?”

“What if the stream’s too strong and I get vertigo?” He winces, hearing all those words echo in so small a space, but it’s worth it for the noise she makes outside the door. “What if I crack my head on the floor and get a double concussion?”

“Then at least you’ll be quiet.”

There’s a slam— a door. Not this one, the particle board so paper thin Big Guy could probably sneeze it off its hinges; but the heavier infirmary door, one meant to withstand a mortar shell, maybe even nuclear blast— but Obi doesn’t bother to bite back his grin. Maybe if he’s lucky, she’s run into Suzu on the way to the commissary and give him a full run down of all the ways she could make Obi’s death look like an accident. Some real romantic talk to keep a nerd warm at night.

With shake and a wriggle— how Big Guy managed to move around in here when his elbows keep cracking into the tile, Obi’ll never know— he wraps up his business, sauntering straight out onto the infirmary floor. With no kaiju to keep the place hopping, it’s dark, the only light coming from the lamp angled over Yuzuri’s desk, and from behind their ring of curtains. A nice way to find his way back; or at least it would be if he didn’t already count two shadows there: one hitched up on the bed, shoulder big enough to overflow the outline of the pillows, and the other—

The other’s standing, tall enough to make Big Guy seem normal sized, and radiating authority the same way the sirens do danger.

Ah, fuck. It’s the Marshal. Hide, a cacophony of whispers hiss, which— he’d love to, if there was a single goddamn place to do it.

“I take it this isn’t a social call.” Big Guy doesn’t have a deep voice, not the way the circumference of his chest would suggest, but he’s pitched it low now. Still too much to be contained by a curtain, though.

The Marshal cocks his head, wry. “Would you believe me if I said, ‘yes?’”

There’s a hesitation, a huff that might be something like humor. “No.”

“Then let’s not waste time pretending.” It might be a trick of the acoustics in this room, a little reverb on that tinny echo, but Obi could swear His Majesty sounds amused. “I’ve heard you’ve quite the rapport with our new ranger.”

Oh, hell. As if this isn’t the cherry on top of his shit sundae: not only is he stuck, standing right out in the open as the top brass talks Top Secret, he’s the topic they’re having tea over.

“News travels fast.”

“Danger of living in one of these little warrens.” The Marshal shrugs. “Rats like to chatter.”

Air hisses between Big Guy’s teeth, the way it did right before he threw his haymaker. “Not a lot of people eager to be on the wrong side of the mat from him. Not after the way he and Zen went at it the last time.”

“So you…what?” It’s uncanny how even the Marshal can make his voice; no inflection, no judgment, no answers. “Thought you’d help him keep his edge?”

“He asked.” There’s a rustle, a creak, and even though he can’t see it, he knows mountains are moving to make that shrug. “Not like I’ve got much to be afraid of.”

If one half of his face didn’t feel as ginger as the oldest wicker chair on some grandma’s patio, Obi might take some offense to that. That’s what you get for being so scrawny, a gruff voice scrapes over his ear, everyone underestimates you.

That, hums another, too pleased, is kind of the point.

“Good.” There’s something final in the way the Marshal says it, less like an observation, and more like an assessment. A test passed with much anticipated flying colors. “Keep doing that.”

Obi could cut the consternation in this room with a knife. “Excuse me, sir?”

“Was I not clear?” His Majesty’s tone conveys his confidence that he was. Maybe even too much so. “I’d like you to pursue this…relationship with our new colleague. Foster this tentative trust you have managed to build.”

Ha. Obi’s heart stutter hard enough— loud enough— that even the peanut gallery keeps their opinions to themselves. He should have known something like this would happen; sure, all the paperwork calls Hachimaru a failure, one that should have never flopped its way out of dry dock, but to someone like Izana Wisteria, well—

He’s got a reputation for ruthlessness for a reason. Enough of one that it escaped containment, slipping past the PDPC’s iron curtain of silence to spread around the streets of Sitka. Buildin’ a wall to keep the monsters out, one of the wallmen had chuckled over his pint, but no matter how high we do it, that one will still be in here.

Obi might have called that unfair, once. Sure, His Majesty wasn’t exactly a friendly guy, at least not with the rank and file, though there were magazines enough that showed him being chummy with the higher ups, but, well— pedigree might have put him in a pod, but it wouldn’t have pulled him a position so high above it. No, that only went to the corps' top minds, the ones who knew what it took out there to take your lumps and drag your metal coffin home. The ones who understood what they were asking when they dumped two men out into the Pacific and asked them to stop a natural disaster or die trying.

But if that guy is gonna meddle in his business like this, well, maybe once they finish building that wall, they can dump him over it. Lets the monsters sort it out between themselves. Knowing the Marshal, he’d still find a way to come out on—

“No.”

“No?” The way the Marshal wraps his mouth around the word sends shivers up his arms.

“I can’t do that. I mean, I won’t.” Big Guy snorts, like there’s a stench in the air he can’t quite get rid of. “I’d do a lot for you, sir, I would. Take a bullet. Die for the cause. But I’m not going to…to manipulate that man back into a jaeger for you. Not like this.”

A breath catches in Obi’s throat, nearly choking him. Big Guy’s got a heart of gold, but he can’t possibly be stupid enough to— to—

“Well well.” To his utter surprise, the Marshal laughs. “Good thing that’s not what I’m asking.”

Big Guy grunts. “Isn’t it?”

“If you couldn’t manage to convince my brother into the cockpit, I doubt you’ll have much luck with a man you barely know.” For how casually it’s said, there’s a bite to it, each word honed to sting. “I only meant that he’s not responding to the typically recommended course of therapy.”

Right. Because after that one session with Doc post-drift, all his peanut gallery clamoring to have their turn now that cat had clawed its way out of the bag, he hadn’t been able to drag himself back. And with all the dinners and hallway-run ins they’ve had since, Doc didn’t seem eager to sit him back down on her couch any time soon either.

“But he seems responsive to you, Major Lowen.” Or at least responsive to getting his shit kicked in, whatever that said about him. “Rangers are typically taciturn about their issues. I thought this route might be worth encouraging, since he seems amenable. Sometimes it’s easier for military men to discuss their problems with someone who has gone through the same ones. Especially” —Obi doesn’t need to see his smirk to know it’s there— “if they’re with the same person.”

Obi might not have stuck around under his dome once the dust settled, but he knew all about guys like Lowen. The regulation haircut, the closet full of BDUs, the fondness for field rations and boiled chicken— just a thin veneer of muscle and bravado over a reflex to ‘sir, yes, sir’ his way out of any problem more complex than picking which socks to put on in the morning. He might have stuck his neck out for something that twinged the weather vane that was his moral compass, but now that someone with stars and bars has explained to him that black is white, he’ll—

“That all?” Big Guy’s too nice to spit out the “sir?” but that little hitch before it, that small hesitation— well, sky writing would have been more subtle.

“Yes.” There’s no tone to that one either, no flavor. Just the implacable bite of subzero. “Unless, of course, there’s something you’d like to discuss?”

There shouldn’t be, his tone conveys, clear enough it could be heard in the hangar. Obi could swear he hears Big Guy’s teeth grind from here.

There’s a long stretch of silence, the kind that makes his skin itch.

“Just one thing, actually. Sir.” The bed creaks, and his shadow shifts, pulling straight. “Been noticing there’s a lot of hopefuls hanging around the past few months. Thought they might be clearing out now that all this business with Tyrannis is done.”

The Marshal hums, distant. “There’s hardly any rush, Major. A few sets of extra hands is always welcome.”

“Even when they don’t come with their own ride?”

For once, His Majesty hesitates. “Even then.”

“Even” —Big Guy almost savors his next words— “if they’re Hisame Lugis?”

“Dangerous times makes strange bedfellows.” The Marshal laughs, sour. “Especially ones like Hisame Lugis. Now if you don’t mind” — the curtain pulls aside— “I think our friend might like to use his bed. Isn't that right, Major?”

Ha, a voice tingles in his ear, busted.

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

ON THE TOPIC OF BARNABY. as well as his relationship with Wally.

So. To kick this off - Riv (@funonion) and I were Speculating, and they introduced me to the johari window:

They put Barnaby in the “facade” section, and I entirely agree. To quote them;

“So he’s Wally’s guide, right? He’s the “knowledgeable” one of the two and is always the one teaching him new things. And you know, it’s one thing if you’re just teaching him how to laugh or how to tell a joke. But.

Clown has given us two doors. One says that Barnaby understands Wally in a way the rest of the neighborhood doesn’t, and is willing to do his dirty work so to speak. The other says that their friendship was not a natural occurring thing and had to be enforced repeatedly within the show. HOW THAT’S BEING ENFORCED IS ANOTHER THING ENTIRELY but it is worth it to note.

What is Barnaby willing to keep? What is he willing to bury for his little buddy? I can’t say anything definitively yet, but the fact that I even have to ask is telling. The class clown archetype is usually used as a way to cover up for something else a character might be experiencing”

And my response, (I won’t directly quote because I have little things in the phrasing & elaboration to add / tweak );

Barnaby being a Comic Relief Character immediately raised so many alarms in my head. I love comic relief characters. They’re always so fucked up in one way or another, and Barnaby is almost certainly SO inauthentic. He’s wearing a comedy mask just as opaque as Wally’s own mask. In everything we’ve seen about him so far he’s either Teaching Wally, wisecracking/joking, or… pretty much nothing else. We got that moment of concern in audio 14-14, but that doesn’t reveal anything beyond genuine care for Wally.

Comedic characters have the best disguises. Their poker faces & ability to deflect is always top tier [and practiced], and just look at comedy-focused actors and entertainers - so many of them have severe issues, either with their mental health or life. From what i’ve observed both in that aspect & with fictional characters, they play it off & work hard to entertain/deflect [one in the same] right up until the end. Sometimes it’s a coping mechanism. Usually it’s both. If they laugh loud enough and make people think they’re lighthearted fools w/ nothing underneath, no one will look any deeper and thus they’re “safe”. 

& I’m a little suspicious that Barnaby’s red/orange/yellow spots aren’t naturally those colors. While yes, he could be (in-universe) designed that way to echo Ms. Beagle, there’s a strong possibility that that’s not it. What if he paints them to feel a connection to her, or it’s a physical manifestation of Barnaby covering up his insecurities/issues - what if it’s part of him striving to convince the world that he is what he paints himself as. 

The laidback funnyguy with a loving mom and not a problem in the world. 

And I mean, Barnaby claims to be a natural blue and I believe him! But the other colors? I’m doubtful

(I was going to include the Cast As Lil Kids Designs in this since Barnaby has all blue spots, but given how early in 2021 it was posted and how there seem to be little discrepancies from the ~official~ designs, I don’t want to provide it as evidence.)

& on the topic of Wally and Barnaby’s relationship being both real and not - disclaimer, this conversation happened before my Updated Thoughts On Them post, so there may be some minor rephrasing here from what I originally said - I’m sure that the relationship started out as inauthentic. Wally was assigned Barnaby as a best friend and technically vice versa, but I don’t doubt for a second that it became real to some extent. Clown wouldn’t treat their relationship outside of “canon” WH stuff the way that he does if they weren’t actually friends. They’ve said that Wally & Barnaby would be friends in every universe (which melts my heart <3 platonic soulmates my beloved <3), so then I have to agree with Riv. what WILL Barnaby do for Wally? I touched on this in the Milk Theory, but especially if Barnaby prides himself on “knowing Wally better than anything else”, what would Barn do to preserve that?

This relates to another conversation we had - Barnaby possibly having abandonment issues. It’s such a choice to have him of all characters be explicitly stated as an orphan. That and while every other Neighbor with a mentioned family have a somewhat large one (Howdy and his gajillion relatives, Julie and her three siblings, Poppy and her crowded tree [note: Eddie has a mentioned mother, but that info is tenuous and who knows if there are other Dears]), Barnaby has also explicitly stated that Ms. Beagle is his only family. That’s it. And farm life can’t be a sociable way to grow up, not with all the chores he must have had and how rural he might have grown up. Barnaby jokes that Home is the “Big Apple”, which could just be a joke - but jokes often come from a place of truth, and Home might be the most populated area Barnaby has lived in. Who’s to say!

Either way, Barnaby was orphaned one way or another, and I don’t doubt that it weighs on him. Especially if  his birth parents really did abandon him. That added to a possible life of loneliness… I wonder if he’s latched onto Wally emotionally, which would hit all the painful places if it turns out that my “Barnaby is more attached to Wally than Wally is to Barnaby” theory has merit. Abandonment issues could also strongly back the apparent walls he’s plastered over with circus tent fabric

Back to Barnaby & Wally: the fact that, at present, Barnaby and Wally seem to have the best disguises / strongest masks. That. looking at 14-14, i suspect that Barnaby is excellent at keeping his up, but as soon as Wally’s mask cracks, so does Barnaby’s. 

And then there’s the side of their dynamic that we could look at - it seems to be a very multifaceted relationship. The way that Barnaby genuinely cares yet in the 00 Halloween audio Wally was left off to the side and Barnaby was just “checking on him” while socializing (then again, this could be part of Barnaby understanding Wally & respecting his space / Wally wanting a break from that socialization). Barnaby is patient with Wally and yet he seems to sometimes treat Wally as his sidekick / let him fade into the background and yet Barnaby kept checking in on Wally during the 14 bug audios (this last one I could tie into the abandonment issues theory). 

Then there’s how Barnaby calls Wally kid & can tend to treat him like one despite both of them being in the same age group. The way that all of this could, in a way, relate to the infantilization of autistic people (no matter how well-meaning or unintentional) & internalized ableism. 

Note: Riv pointed out that Barnaby does seem to be doing the best with what he has, and that this can connect to the Johari Window’s blind spot / unknown. 

I do agree with this wholeheartedly! And I have to mention that - and making a Very educated guess here - the interactions we’ve seen take place in the very late 60s / very early 70s, so Barnaby’s behavior towards Wally is actually pretty fucking stellar given the time period. We can’t expect him to be perfect or do everything / say everything right. That would be boring I think! And one thing I deeply appreciate about the Neighbors & their dynamics is that they feel like real layered people, not cardboard cutouts being perfect caricatures of what people are “supposed” to be like.

Riv also presented this:

We likely are going to reach a point where Wally asks Barnaby something that he can’t / doesn’t want to / won’t answer. And like.. Ok. This is a slight tangent but I swear it’s related! When I first discovered WH and learned the Wally basics, I wondered two things.

Are we going to watch Wally “discover” new emotions? Because he certainly has them. Clown has said that Wally only ever feels happy, and a lot of people took that to mean that Wally can’t feel anything else. I don’t think we should take that answer at face value, because. I mean. Look at the project & creator we’re talking about. Layers, guys. Indirect direct answers. I think that Clown meant that Wally only ever feels happy in the Neighborhood because he has no reason to feel any negative emotion. Everything is as it should be. Until it isn’t - and I think that’s where he’s going to have to struggle with new emotions as he encounters them through new situations/events unfolding as the “story” starts to deteriorate. We’ve actually seen this a little bit - in Wally’s record audios (i believe the chronological second to last?), the way he says “Let Me In” so insistently. That’s definitely not a positive emotion being expressed. 

How will the topic of death be handled - because it will be handled, it’s stated in the project warnings. I was wondering this even before I read the list, because I was presented with a blank slate puppet character and so went “oh fuck, this dude doesn’t know about death, does he?” Obviously I wanted to know how that would go. I want to know how it Will go! 

How would Barnaby explain emotions that Wally doesn’t know how to convey? How would Barnaby explain death in a way that Wally would understand - given that Barnaby (& all the Neighbors sans Wally) knows what death is  - and would Barnaby be willing to explain such a thing? I have a feeling we may find out.

And in a way, I suspect that if none of them know, Wally will find out himself and have to process it without help. But then again, how can something die if it was never really alive in the first place? Unless the death warning relates to human characters… I’m currently assuming it relates to both humans and puppets. 

In conclusion: Barnaby has a carefully fabricated facade, he's doing the best with what he has but it likely won't be enough, and uh. shits fucked!

[naggingatlas]

you dont think its possible to feel like youre having a heart attack from a deltarune animation set to living fucking tombstone wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong

[johnslittlespoon]

🌈 MOTA Writers (+ Readers) Discord Server!

Do you write queer/shippy things for Masters of the Air? Or are you a reader who wants to contribute brainrot/ideas too?

Cool! You're invited to join the Writers of the Air server, wowie! Did I pull all of this out of my ass in the past 24 hours? Absolutely. Do I know what I'm doing? No, I have created one server in my life. Will we have a good ol' time? Yeah, baby!

✨ How to join: 1. Be an adult (sorry buds– there are gonna be channels for nsfw writing things!) 2. Send me a message here with your Discord ID, or ask for an invite link, if you don't have public invites turned on! :-) If messages aren't working for some reason, just reply to this post and lmk, I'll try to send you one instead. <3

That's all! I don't want to post a public invite link so we can avoid possible trolls/weirdos and can keep this a friendly, comfy space. 💗

This feels so formal lmao but really it's just gonna be a fun, chill server for writing–related things. Maybe occasional events/challenges for anyone who wants to participate, but mostly just a creative hangout space for authors and readers. :-)

My sleep's all over the place, so please be patient with me if I don't see your message asap! And also bear with me if there are any issues with bots/permissions because I'm winging all of this lol but I'm open to suggestions and will fix any issues as soon as I can. ✨

P.S. The reason this is specifically a writing server for authors who write fruity ship content is bc I've seen quite a few servers already for rp, oc/x reader, etc, so I wanted to create a more niche space for mostly queer content! It's not intended to be exclusive at all, as all fic is wonderful and lovely. <3 Just thought for pride month it would be fitting to make something purposefully curated towards queer creations. 🌈

[olderthannetfic]

I hate to revive DNI discourse when it just ended on this blog but I often don’t think it’s as deep as people make it out to be and there’s a lot of, for lack of a better word, ~valid~ reasons someone may have a DNI. Like there’s absolutely contexts of “Kink Blogs DNI” disclaimers having an anti, swerf, etc undertone but sometimes I get it — for example I follow a couple of disability activists who post A LOT about incontinence, needing a caregiver, ETC who have stuff like “ABDL/DDLG/Devotee Blogs DNI.” Oftentimes that is not an indicator on their moral stance of those kinks, but rather them just being like “hey this is an activism-based journal where I post about incredibly personal things in regards to my own life, and while anyone has the right to read or reblog from me, if you’re clearly getting off to my medical needs or even if I get the vague impression you are, you WILL be blocked.”

Obviously that is an incredibly extreme and personal example, but I don’t think having a DNI boundary in your bio is ALWAYS a morality/discourse stance. On a much lighter note, I’m pretty active on Kpop Twitter, and there’s a lot of “RPF DNI” accounts there, and I think that’s more of a “I just want to post about my favorite band without shippers quote retweeting/replying to make it about their ship, and if you do so, I’ll block you. They’ve made public statements against these ships or about their real relationships and I am uncomfortable with people trying to dispute that.”

Oh yes there’s absolutely antis who hate RPF communities and all they stand for. But there’s also people who just straight up don’t want that on their account.

And like. As someone casually involved with RPF (i gossip about potential relationships with close friends and will reblog joke posts about it and will read it, but I’m not a writer for it and I’m definitely not someone who actually tries to speculate just how heavy the “fiction” part of an RPF ship might be), whether or not I choose to follow a person with such DNI depends on context. I keep my RPF ships/opinions off my main account, and even if I DO see a post that I would otherwise interpret as possibly shippy, I just won’t bring it up on said person’s posts, you know?

Damn this made me remember I have a DNI myself on one my accounts, �� I have a minors DNI on one of my sideblogs. But I know I can’t prevent minors from seeing my posts or lying about their age or reblogging to a private sideblog or doing anything else that would go unnoticed. But once I do notice you interacting, if you’re clearly underage I’ll block you, just cuz I don’t feel comfortable with minors following my smutty fanart account even if I know minors look at smutty fanart, as someone who did look at smutty fanart as a minor. . .🎶Maybe I’m the problem it’s me. 🎶

--

No.

It's a stupid phrasing and no amount of validity in the criteria will make it less stupid.

No one here thinks they're always deep and meaningful. What we all say every time this comes up is that it's bad to conflate "I will block you if..." and "It is your job to research my boundaries ahead of time".

I'm not interested in people crying about how they like using an inaccurate term and everyone is supposed to understand what they mean. In practice, many people do mean that it's other people's job to enforce their boundaries for them. Validating this garbage terminology just encourages them.

It's a stupid, shitty term and we should move away from it.

[neyafromfrance95]

hey, i hope you don't mind but i kinda need to vent a little bit 😅

as a poc it's making really sad to see that "shipping vaultghoul is racist and erases maximus and barb" is such a prominent anti argument. i don't interact with these posts or these people (because i really don't want to waste my time) but it's like they don't hear themselves. maximus is a protagonist in his own right and has so much shit going on tat has nothing to do with lucy and while barb is a minor character, she's an activate member of a corporation that seeks to end the world for profit (and we get to see her own conflicts towards this) and not just cooper's wife. they're so much more than love interests but they need "special treatment" because their s/o are white 🙄

plus what is this narrow minded type of thinking where once you start to ship a couple all the other relationships become invalid? it's fiction ffs. no one is better than anyone and there's no such thing as a 'supreme ship'

i think the worst thing that came out of fallout shipping discourse is reducing maximus to a love interest of lucy when he is much, much more than that and as you said, a protagonist in his own right! like, can we stop only talking about him in the context of romance with lucy and hype him up as he deserves?! he is so complex and refreshing, he deserves more than being a talking point in a shipping discourse.

and while i mainly ship lucy x cooper, i'm fine with lucy x max and the majority of vaultghoul shippers are too. not to mention that max is like my ideal type of a dude, lol. i crushed on this man so hard while watching the show. so, those of us who ship vaultghoul do not dislike max or think he is boring (there is a difference between finding a character boring and finding his relationship with the other character a bit bland).

tbh, i hope max gets even more development and important storyline points in s2 so that maybe ppl will stop acting like he is just lucy's boyfriend.

and i think it's also weird to dismiss the possibility of max x dane when the representation this relationship could offer is very important. and as an enby myself it would be so validating for me to see the enby character paired up with the main dude (that again, i have a massive crush on).

also, i love barb and her relationship with cooper. she is a cool villain and her & cooper were a hot classy couple. tbh, it's just that ppl rarely get too shippy when it comes to the exes, especially when one is a very minor character. but i'm excited for whatever we get with her in the future.

in the end of the day, i hope the discourse (whether it is about cooper vs max for lucy, the age gap or the human x ghoul thing) won't get too heavy in this fandom bc it will ruin it and make our experiences here full of frustration instead of fun.

i'm personally all for multishipping lucy, the ghoul and maximus with everyone in this series.

[porcupine-girl]

I had the weirdest possible Check Please dream.

Ngozi was going to do another volume, and we were all excited because Shippy and Taylor were finally going to get together.

Who tf are Shippy and Taylor you might ask?

Shippy, I immediately realized upon waking up, is Tater, but in this dream world somehow he got a different nickname and I don’t even know how. Idk if my brain was just like “he’s part of this popular ship and I’m lazy” or “Tater and Taylor would sound too cutesy and I really want this girl to be named Taylor for some reason” or what.

Taylor was not Vanessa with a different name. She had spiky lavender hair that looked a bit like this animal crossing hairdo:

But longer, like if it were lying flat it’d be about chin length, and of course in Ngozi’s drawing style.

I didn’t find out much more bc I woke up due to my husband getting up to get ready for work, but somehow when I got back to sleep, for once my brain deigned to continue my dream from before. It is apparently very invested in Shippy/Taylor (although after I woke up and realized Shippy was Tater my brain went back and forth between the two names).

So in the continuation, I learned that Taylor was already dating another member of the Falconers (I’m not sure I ever got his name), but he was very controlling and emotionally abusive and everyone on the team was hoping she’d leave him and kind of shunning the boyfriend socially due to his behavior.

Tater ran into her in like… a mall food court sort of location? And somehow their conversation led to him confessing his feelings but saying that it was fine if she didn’t want to be with him, just begging her to leave the controlling guy and saying he’d help her however he could just as her friend. She was clearly not quite ready to leave yet, but then her boyfriend called and when she said oh I’m at the mall and I ran into Tater so we were just hanging out he got really pissed that she was hanging out with another guy (in a totally public location, and being honest about it) without him and demanded she come home right away. And when she hung up you could see that having that conversation right after the conversation with Tater was kind of making her realize that she really did need to get out of it.

Tater saw that too and jumped on it, like “If you don’t want me to help I’ll call Jack and Bitty (which my brain then corrected to Zimmboni and Little B, it was like my brain was like helloooo this is Tater unlike you Ngozi would write him correctly) right now and they will come help you get your stuff, you can stay in their guest room, they would love to help.” And she was kind of mortified by this, like oh god does the entire team know??? And he was like, well. Yeah. Kinda. Everyone’s rooting for you to leave him, that’s why nobody talks to him or hangs out with him outside practice, we all know how awful he is. And she was like oh god, great, everyone knows how stupid I am for staying with a guy like him, but Tater was like no no no everyone knows how hard it is to leave that kind of thing but we all know you’re strong enough to do it as soon as you decide you’re ready.

And that was about as far as I got in the Shippy/Taylor saga before I woke up for good. I can only assume Jack and Bitty did come get her and let her stay with them, and eventually once she was over the nasty breakup she got together with Tater.

What’s really funny was that when I went to start writing this post I couldn’t remember her name, only that it started with a T and was like 6-ish letters long. I started the post calling her Tricia and was like no that’s not right, so I googled girl names that start with T and was just hoping that if I read enough lists of names something would click and maybe I’d recognize it if I saw it. Then I opened the first list and the very first name was Taylor and I was like OH RIGHT MY BRAIN NAMED HER AFTER TAYLOR FUCKING SWIFT HOW DID I FORGET THAT??

[krisnixfeels]

FAQs for Krisnix Week 2024

When is Krisnix Week 2024?

Krisnix Week is October 13 (Sunday)-October 19 (Saturday) 2024. A list of prompts for the week can be found here.

What type of fanworks am I allowed to create for Krisnix Week?

You can create any type of fanwork that you wish. This includes but is not limited to: fan art, fanfiction, fan comics/doujinshi, fanmixes, fanvids, animatics, podfic, and more.

How should I share my work for Krisnix Week?

You can post your fanwork for Krisnix week on any platform(s) you wish. However, we recommend cross-posting or posting links to your creations on multiple platforms to ensure that as many fans see your work as possible.

If you are posting on tumblr, twitter, or instagram, we recommend that you use #KrisnixWeek2024 so that other fans are easily able to find it.

We have also created a collection on AO3 to host the works for the week.

Can I still participate even if English isn’t my first language and/or I don’t use the English localized names?

Of course. We want to celebrate and appreciate these characters in all their forms, whether they are being called Ryūichi Naruhodō and  Garyū Kirihito, Phoenix Wright and Kristoph Gavin, Chéngbùtáng Lóngyī (Naruhodo/Phoenix in the Chinese version), or  Krístofer Galvão (Kirihito/Kristoph in the unofficial Brazilian Portuguese localization). And in whatever language(s) you wish to share your appreciation for them. 

 Good art needs no translation, and I’m sure the shippers who speak your first language will be glad to have more fic in their native tongue. (Also  even English-only speakers  (like me) will sometimes brave google translate to enjoy a new work for their favorite ship).

What are the daily prompts? Do I have to use them? The optional daily prompts can be found here. There are three listed for each day. You can choose one, combine two or more--or ignore them entirely. You can also start with one of the prompts and then disregard it if inspiration takes you in a different direction.

For instance, the themes for the first day of the challenge are

Trust vs Betrayal; Partners (in Crime); & Supernatural, Horror & Fantasy.

Here are some, equally valid ideas of how you could incorporate these:

Krisix as werewolf hunting partners who betrayed each other at a critical moment. (combo of all 3 themes)

Phoenix is haunted by Kristoph's ghost after his death. (supernatural theme)

High School/College/University AU where Kristoph and Phoenix are dysfunctional lab partners. (loose interpretation of "partners" theme)

Do I have to participate in every day of Krisnix Week?

Absolutely not.  You can pick and choose which days you want to create for, depending on your schedule, creative inspiration, and level of interest.  Additionally, you can feel free to merge and combine multiple themes into one single creation!

Can I write something gen and/or incorporate other ships into my Krisnix Week creation?

Yes, we welcome gen works that explore Kristoph and Phoenix's unique dynamic as well as shippy and/or smutty works. Additionally, you are free to incorporate other ships (ex: klapollo, trupearl, etc) or to create a poly ship with Kristoph, Phoenix and a third-party. (ex: Kristoph/Phoenix/Ema).

However, we want to emphasize that Kristoph and Phoenix should really be of equal (if not greater) focus to any other pairings that you wish to incorporate in the fic. For example: A fic alludes to past/future/unrequited narumitsu but that ultimately focuses on Kristoph/Phoenix would probably qualify as appropriate for the event. Whereas a single allusion to past krisnix in a work that otherwise focuses on narumitsu would not count as a "krisnix work." (We encourage you to draw/write whatever you want--but maybe reconsider including a Krisnix Week tag).

Am I allowed to create NSFW content for Krisnix Week and if so, how can I share it?

Krisnix week is definitely open to all permutations/interpretations of the ship and their dynamic -in and outside of the bedroom.

However, we ask that you use appropriate content warnings/spoiler tags if your creation features graphic violence, explicit sexual content, or anything else you’d like to warn for.

[heelgripper]

Look, I'm not normally one to make theories, but as someone basically frothing at the mouth over the Osha/Qimir possibilities, let's take a look at some choice interview quotes, shall we?

It's tinfoil hat time.

Here’s a VERY INTERESTING quote from the show runner, Leslye (thank you to @tremendouskoalachild for the transcript!):

“I was always really hit by Obi-Wan's line in A New Hope when he says Vader was seduced by the dark side. That made me feel weird, because I was a kid, and I didn't really understand what that word meant, and then later when I did I was like, what's he talking about? So with the way that someone has turned to the dark side or someone joins the Sith to me it's all about seduction, it's all about appealing to the part of that person or the thing that person wants the most. With Anakin it was to save his wife, it was to stop the suffering of the person he loved more than anything in the world, more than his own self. That's why it's so tragic. He put her over so much stuff that he couldn't see the forest for the trees. And with Mae it was revenge. Manny was definitely feeding into, well, if you want revenge then come with me and you can do that. So OSHA is going to be a different tactic, like, what does Osha want? And what would her present moral code crumble under if she was offered? And I think for Osha it's something more emotional, and I think if you've been watching the show close enough, I think you'll know where that's headed.”

Then we get this from an interview with Manny:

“How does one get seduced by the dark side?” he asks. “I was very intrigued by that, when [Headland] mentioned that, it's such an interesting concept. Because with seduction, you have empathy and vulnerability. And that was really appealing to me because we never really see that in the Sith or in the dark side. It was a lot to explore.”

Now, personally, I think that Osha wants camaraderie. She sounds so EXCITED when Sol tells her that there are hundreds of kids just like her at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. See her face light up! And then later, after she's left the order, she gets a tattoo to commemorate some of her mechanic friends! She quickly forms a connection with Jecki, and still has a close connection with Yord and Sol after all these years. She craves connection. I think Qimir will offer her that connection.

Will it be shippy? Well, there are DEFINITELY some moments so far, like Qimir's far too interested perusal of her face all close up in the apothecary shop. Then the way he tenderly lays the blanket over her at the end of episode 5. Why all the emphasis on the word 'seduction' in the interviews???

Even if the show does not Go There, I think it's safe to say that there will be some tension in their scenes together. Amandla and Manny's chemistry is OFF THE CHARTS. I'm so excited for Tuesday.

[materassassino]

Ooh, prompts. ^⁠_⁠^ C, SangCheng or NieLan, please!

Ok so, it's more preslash than an actual shippy thing, and it's more the lead-in to respite than actual respite, but... I think it works. Post-canon, anyway.

Minific prompts!

---

C - A moment’s respite

“Working yourself to the bone, as usual.”

Jiang Cheng’s head snaps up from his work, his eye twitching. He glares at the doorway. Nie Huaisang merely waves his fan, slow, almost mocking. The silence lengthens, and Jiang Cheng then realises how much the shadows have also lengthened: the sun is low, the lamps should be lit soon. How long has he been bent over his desk, squinting at accounts and inventories and other banalities of daily sect rule?

Loath as he is to admit weakness in front of Nie Huaisang, he has to rub his eyes. They ache now, freed from their work, and he scowls at the chuckle that elicits from across the room.

“What are you even doing here?” he asks, waspish as always. Nie Huaisang snaps his fan shut and bizarrely takes that as some sort of invitation. He flounces across the room and arrays himself decadently on the cushion opposite as if he belongs there, smiling some enigmatic smile that grates on Jiang Cheng’s nerves.

“Can a sect leader not visit a friend?” he asks innocently.

There’s nothing innocent about this man, Jiang Cheng knows now, and that knowledge is cacophonous at the front of his mind. He watches Nie Huaisang like a bird in the nest watches a snake, waiting.

Nie Huaisang stares right back, frowns at what he apparently sees, and sighs. “Jin Ling sent me. He knew you wouldn’t listen to him and he couldn’t think of anyone else who could convince you to cease working yourself to death. He asked me with a politeness I’d never have expected from his before, it was a delight to see. Having friends has done him good.”

Jiang Cheng’s jaw tightens, the fist that bears Zidian clenching on the desk. He doesn’t know where to start with that. He couldn’t think of anyone else? Jiang Cheng can think of someone else, but that is precisely a someone he does not want to see, or even acknowledge. He will have to, at some point. But not now, because the thought makes him sick.

Nie Huaisang continues to study him, and his face softens from something distant to concern. Jiang Cheng abhors it, because he doesn’t know whether it is genuine or some bitter act Nie Huaisang plasters on, like everything else was.

“You will drive yourself to qi deviation if you continue like this,” he says, and he sounds imminently practical. Jiang Cheng scoffs.

“What would you care?” he asks, sneering.

He is shocked when, instead of some snivelling platitudes, Nie Huaisang’s face hardens into a disapproving scowl.

“Because you are my friend,” he says. He pauses, tapping his fan on the table. “You are free to distrust me. I fooled you all for a very long time. But if my actions were not sincere would I have travelled all the way from Qinghe to Yunmeng, at the request of a child? What possible ulterior motive would I have?” He leans forward, staring right into Jiang Cheng’s eyes with a gaze that is piercing to the core, sharp and observant. “You are a smart man, Jiang Cheng, but sometimes you can be blisteringly stupid.”

Jiang Cheng’s first instinct is the righteous flare of anger. It makes him pound his fist on the table and half-rise from his seat, expletives crowding in his throat, the crackle of Zidian along his fingers. Nie Huaisang has not even flinched. On the contrary, he looks thoroughly unimpressed. This, Jiang Cheng suddenly realises, is the actual Nie Huaisang. He is being offered the unvarnished truth, no grovelling playact, no feigned ignorance. This is the cunning, no-nonsense Nie Huaisang, the thing he was formed into by loss and betrayal. This is… an offering. It is the same vulnerability Nie Huaisang is asking him to show himself

The air is very still.

Then Nie Huaisang smacks his fan into the palm of his other hand and gets to his feet.

“Come, we shall eat, and drink, and perhaps even enjoy some music if you feel space in your heart for it. Otherwise, we shall simply talk.”

“Music?” Jiang Cheng asks, unconvinced. Still, he’s gotten to his feet, adjusting his robes and brushing off invisible dust. He feels almost… compelled to follow, when he knows perfectly well he should throw Nie Huaisang out and get back to work. But if he looks down at the ledger, he can feel all inclination to continue seep from him, leaving him hollow.

“There is a very accomplished travelling guqin player currently here in Yunmeng. I have heard her skill rivals that of the Lans – no cultivation involved, obviously, just pure musical skill, but I want to hear her for myself.”

Jiang Cheng snorts, something inelegant but somehow sincere. He almost surprises himself.

“There’s your ulterior motive,” he says, trying for accusatory. It comes out, to his own bewilderment, as a joke. Nie Huaisang’s fan snaps open, and he hides a smile behind it. The smile, Jiang Cheng thinks, might actually meet his eyes, and not be a trick of the dying light.

“One can accomplish more than one task at once, Jiang-zongzhu,” he says airily, and leads the way out of Jiang Cheng’s study.

[tenebrous-academic]

About the previous anon. I agree that we did get something but felt like we didn't get anything (?) to indicate their relationship status. I'm not wording this correctly. I mean we know they've been together for a while, *possibly* spending the night at eo's, but at the same time buck haven't talked about tommy apparently? (Idk if it's just bobby or the 118).

It feels like they're still in the testing things out/dating area and not boyfriends just yet, which is fine really.

But I'm hoping the hospital scene is gonna be a step for them getting closer, tommy being there for buck to relay on and get the support and comfort from him. It's gonna be a waste not to use this scene to advance their relationship.

I really hope next episode provides some solid information as to their canon status too! But buckle up because I’m about to overanalyze the fuck out of the scenes we did get:

Based off of this episode, I think it’s safe to say they’ve been seeing each other for at least a few months. During the award ceremony it was mentioned the cruise ship disaster happened “last March.” I didn’t see anything showing what month it current is, but based off the wording we can at least assume enough time has passed for it to be considered last year and not “this March.” That gives the relationship at least 3-5 months depending on how long it took Buck to work up to courage to call Tommy for the first tour of the harbour.

Buck and Tommy have also been together long enough for Tommy to feel comfortable enough to talk about how he was treated by Captain Gerrard and, likely, how he behaved around Chim and Hen back then. I wish we could have actually seen that, as well as the scenes between Tommy, Chim, and Hen hashing things out to make sure there’s no bad blood, but all we have are these new interactions showing all of them as friends now and the past firmly behind them.

But!!! What we did get this episode!

Buck softly signing when he sees Tommy getting his award and beaming like a proud partner.

Buck and Tommy being in sync as they walk around the station together.

Buck giving his bitchiest glare to Gerrard and putting his body between his man and that piece of filth (Chim is iconic for that new nickname).

We also get Buck shown as Tommy’s family/loved one during the ceremony. A clear pattern is established with Hen getting her medal and Karen and the kids clapping, Chimney getting his medal and Maddie clapping, and then Tommy getting his medal and the camera panning over to Buck as he breathes deeply and glows in pride for Tommy. (I also acknowledge that Eddie is shown after Buck gets his medal, but the show has established that Eddie and Chris are family to Buck so I don’t think there’s anything to shippy about it).

He hasn’t talked to Bobby about it, and we don’t know if he’s been talking to anyone else, but we do know that it’s not a secret. That hospital kiss was his announcement and maybe he’s happy with that being the extent of it. I think Buck is the kind of person to keep his happiness to his chest a little bit longer to make sure that it’s his and not everyone else’s. Which I know goes against his past relationships and how he’s always talked about them - but Tommy feels different, so the way Buck would treat their relationship would be different too. It’s something he was to protect and nurture and he doesn’t feel the need to ask his family about it because he already knows the answers.

So, yeah, definitely not as much as I would have liked, but the pieces of their relationship ship we did get were pretty indicative of something solid and meaningful being built between them. I’m crossing every finger the finale gives us more though. We’re being given scraps and I think we’re all going a little feral over the lack of anything truly substantial.

[originemesis]

"creation took 7 days; now watch me fuck it all up in one night"

canon divergent adam / abel // haz.b.in h.o.tel

21 + / mid-low activity / private

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about // playlist // active headcanon // current verses // rules [beneath]

Caard-Esque:

Blog is 21+ for content concerns and mun is 25+ (an old) and will not interact with minors on this blog. minors should technically not follow me here either ~ so, don'tttttt...do that? thanks! if i catch you, you're yeeted to the shadow realm.

Do not follow this blog if you are sensitive to the sensitive topics related to this particular genre. I tag with "content word cw" for the extra wild stuff, but that's about it. adam literally has the highest swear/slur count in the show and he's only in 3 episodes, so be aware of that.

I tend to be private/selective as i get fairly overwhelmed with too much activity. i really get into plots though, and i'll spam the dash with some silly original dick chauvinism from time to time when ive fed my inner gremlins past midnight. That said, I do get easily overwhelmed when I'm following too many people and multi muse blogs in particular can exacerbate this feeling, so if I do not follow back - I might just not be in a good place to atm or I just don't see possible interactions btw our characters. It's nothing personal! ^^

This is a mutuals only interaction blog for my sanity (anons being fine). if i can see plots happening between us, i'll likely follow. but i get overwhelmed easily so please don't take it personally if i don't follow back or follow back right away.

I am not exclusive, but I prioritize my plotted threads and may have some mains/activity based off that as far as my main verse goes. But I will never be fully exclusive and i enjoy exploring different character dynamics. Also multiship is fine, but I am not exclusively here to ship or write suggestive content. My muses have always and will always require plotting and scene chemistry for me to consider writing ship material. In the case I do reblog shippy prompts still feel free to send in ofc! I'll see if I can make it work or not.

If I don't get a follow back within a week or two, if blogs i follow go inactive for up to 6-7 weeks, or if there's just no attempt on either of our ends to connect for an indefinite amount of time - i'll occasionally go through my list and soft block to clean things up. if we ever want to give it a go in the future, the option is there for us to re-follow and resume! i have in the past been made to feel like I'm walking on egg shells in rpcs regarding these matters and id rather avoid it here...im just here to chill, write and leave weird surprises in dms.

I don't like the feeling of being 'collected' so...if you are interacting with multiple of my muses, I ask you have a different dynamic for mine than them. This is just an act of courtesy I also extend to my rp partners. I interact more with folks that have a special relationship with my muse, so it's needed to deep dive into more interesting topics for me. I also do not usually interact w/ other of the same muse cuz I feel like I 'absorb' how others play him and I want to keep my version separated from that. I might give it a shot some times though depending on how it's presented.

I know that Adam is a bad guy. He's insufferable and can push buttons- but I am not him and I dislike constantly feeling like I'm being barraged for his actions, especially since I consider him to be a heavily layered character that should not be shoe horned into a standard 'ok irredeemable and never allowed nice things' box. So- if you honestly hate this character please don't interact. I am here for exploring taboo topics and ways that a flawed character can make others think he's justified, betray them, make people feel COMPLICATED things... I also love torturing my muse and taking the piss out of him, so I don't need people moving in and tying to constantly put him down/ruin his current plots by being god modey or not at least asking me how we should proceed in a power dynamic, or relationships cuz you don't ship what I ship, or find my interactions with other characters 'toxic' and 'not allowed'...let me explore and enjoy what I like on my blog within reason and do talk with me on dms if you don't like how things are going with our muses and you wanna explore other routes. I love to plot and I am very reasonable.

This post/my rules and conditions are subject to change based on what I get up to on here.

[buttercuparry]

Honestly Arya does have that Persephone parallel doesn't she? And you have Demeter, Lady Stoneheart, searching for her daughter combing through the Riverlands. I have heard that the og myth was about the bond between mothers and daughters and the mothers' rage and grief at losing daughters to violence ( often of the sexual kind). No matter what the retelling of it is: be it of the romantic kind with Hades/Persephone being the subject or more in line with tradition- one thing is for sure that Demeter's rage brought on destruction that would have wiped off mankind.

When I think of Riverlands, I imagine a land associated with a bountiful of harvest and Catelyn Tully has been the daughter of its leige lord. Now the war has reduced it to a husk and Catelyn believes her own family is lost to her as well. Death-resurrection-journey to the "underworld" are so in line with the weaving of the myth in the story. Demeter rises vengeful, cold and cruel, killing mercilessly and searching for the three headed cerberus who has kidnapped her daughter from right under the nose of BwB. Arya's journey ultimately ends with the Hound and again we find the recall of greek myth of Styx/Charon when she crosses the Narrow Sea with the offering of the iron coin for the ferry. Finally she reaches the HoBaW and there to cement her right to stay she fearlessly kisses the skull and bites on the worm ( pomegranate seeds?). I also find the structure of the HoBaW interesting. You have the Temple structure sitting on the very top of the carved stone and visible but there are winding levels that descend down into the heart of the stone/earth...it kind of reminds me of Dante's description of hell- circular levels descending into the earth ( as far as I remember?).

Further you have a reflection of it in the far North ( again death-resurrection which we know is going to feature in Jon's storyline). For us Jonrya shippers, we sometimes can reflect on it as death and the maiden thing going on, but if we don't go the shippy way and see it as familial, we again have Jon wondering about Arya facing violence in her marriage bed. The theme of stealing the bride carries on both with Jon sending Mance to rescue "Arya" and after Jeyne Poole escapes, we have Ramsay asking for his bride back whom he thinks the bastard at the Wall has stolen from him ( going the shippy way, we have Jon repeating the phrase "I want my bride back over and over again" too). It's so interesting that both the characters who have gone the death/resurrection way or is going to go the death/resurrection way is looking for Arya. One terrorizing the Riverlands and the other making alliances to send armies to knock at Ramsay's door, while Arya herself is at a liminal space between life and death. I don't think Grrm has created the order of the silent sisters just for the fun of it- they are known to be the Stranger's wives and you have this imagery of women marrying death throughout. But in any case Grrm is known for his subversive tropes and if Arya has the Persephone thing going on, then instead of barreness of the HoBaW and the silent sisters there is a possibility of a full life whatever that may mean for Arya.

[t0ast-ghost]

S3 EP16 (The Mark Of Gideon) hmmm this sounds like something from supernatural…

I’m sorry I’ll never mention supernatural again:

- Sending Kirk down by himself? His boyfriends will be worried :((

- “I shall be interested in your description, Captain” “You won’t have long to wait.” This was said with so much lust

- Kirk calling to anyone and everyone. “Bones. Bones answer me.” D:

- Spock has immediate concern for his boyfriend

- Spock sees McCoy is on the bridge and immediately wants to escape to the planet. He’s not dealing with McCoy’s worry on top of his own

- “We must acknowledge once and for all that the purpose of diplomacy is to prolong a crisis.” Spock is so so angry he can’t go looking for his boyfriend

- “You mean you’re going to scan space for him.” My god he wants that man so bad. Scanning the entirety of space when he goes missing is not normal behaviour.

- Spock is very bitter towards bureaucrats and diplomats this episode and I agree

- Hey Kirk. Just this once buddy, don’t kiss her. Can you do that?

- On the video call McCoy looks seconds from snapping and Spock is right there with him

- I love when everyone was on Spock’s side like ‘yeah they fucking suck, I’m sorry bbygirl’

- Quilt ass vest

- Scotty is not going to take them besmirching his transporters

- Spock needs to go listen to Break Stuff

- Kirk’s ass It’s sad how sad Kirk is.

- pretty privilege

- “I envy you and your sense of loyalty. I want to ease your feeling of dread, your fear that all your crew no longer exists.”

- twenty four minutes and fifty seconds in. He’s kissing her.

- THE GREEN PEOPLE ARE JUST WATCHIJGBTHEM KISSWGAT

- ID BE SO FREAKED THE FUCK OUT NAH. No. Legitimate fear is to look out a window and see someone watching. this is a no.

- Time for me to ask what is happening

- Aaand they’re using Kirk in their little fucked up little experiments

- Spock is angy

- I like how there is legitimate character development. Spock and McCoy aren’t fighting, McCoy knows Spock is doing everything he can, short of just running in there. And Spock is getting visibly pissed off which McCoy I think would be proud of if their boyfriend wasn’t missing

- Kirk not afraid to fight some bitches

- “That’s the best possible decision you could make, Spock. I’m with you.” Kiss each other Character development yay!

- Spock is using ‘logic’ to break the rules and save Jim.

- Spock is protective of McCoy, McCoy is protective of Spock

- After Spock leaves Scotty walks up to McCoy with this look like he’s about to ask him if he’s dating Spock

- “I will not be long.” Is the equivalent of ‘I’ll be right back’ number one rule is never say it

- Trippy ass shippy

- If you’ve lived so long why are you dressed like that? Can’t contract a sickness AND can’t contract a sense of fashion

- This is awful

- Spock should’ve brought McCoy with him

- Spock THREW that man

- Spock is like, ‘don’t get in the way, I will bitch slap you.’ (Edit: three Spock comments in a row)

- PRETTY BOY PRIVILEGE (what’s got you smiling like that) if he smiled at me like that I wouldn’t survive

- “As crowded as my planet is, I wish for it to hold one more person.” *smiles* “Kirk to transporter control one to beam down to the planet Gideon.” ‘nah, bitch’

Development: I’ve found out how to cross things out I’ll use it for evil

Masterpost

Episode written by George F. Slavin & Stanley Adams

[lemotmo]

I had a thought! I hope I can explain it properly.

So the deleted scene. How T says all that about taking things VERY slow. And Buck setting the pace and T trying to just keep up.

First I thought so he’s slow-walking the relationship part and maybe turbo-ing the sexual part. But what if it’s the opposite? What if he’s actually been slow-walking the sexual part and turbo-ing the relationship bit? And Tommy’s not into it (the whole relationshippy part) but he’s like idk, hoping they’ll eventually get to “the end” (aka actual sex). Ya know?

Like the bring him as his date to the Madney wedding, the bachelor party thing, the romantic candlelit dinner after the day he’s had with Bobby in the hospital and all that. You know, the nice dinner and wine and talking about emotional stuff. Pretty relation-shippy stuff.

But maybe that’s all they’ve been doin? And uh, T’s getting frustrated and that’s why the whole “god, I hope so” bit? 🙈🙈

Also we didn’t see the end of their dinner, what if they break up that night and it’s so inconsequential that we don’t even find out they broke up that night until ses. 8 in some throwaway comment like with Natalia. Lolol. Helping Eddie with Chris was more important to him.

And then we can all just move on. 🙈🙈

(I doubt it, but I’mma hope until proven wrong. Lol.)

Yep, it's a solid thought.

Like I said before. At this point they have only shown us that Tommy is in it for the physical aspect of the relationship. So this scenario might well be possible.

I swear, if they reveal in episode 1 that BT has broken up over hiatus? I will be very happy, but also very angry. All that speculating? All those theories? All for nothing? xD

[dragontamerno3]

DS9 S2 E5 - Cardassians

I am going to gush about Garak and Bashir for most of this post, and just about every episode those two are together, but first I want to actually talk about the serious stuff.

I hadn't considered the possibility of Cardassians being left behind on Bajor but I def didn't consider the possibility that they left kids behind. It hurt to see the poor little girl later on when Bashir and Garak go down to the surface. As much as I want to softer Trek show at times, I really appreciate how much this show is touching on the dirty and tragic outcomes of war and how even if one side is truly the "evil" side that doesn't mean that all the people from that side are.

Keiko is badass and I don't understand why people dislike her. The relationship she has with Miles feels so real and the way she confronted him in this episode was well done. She pointed out how racist he was being, to a child no less, and that changed his tone real quick. Enough that Miles was offering the kid a way back in he ever wanted it.

What I don't agree with is Sisko's decision to let him go back to Cardassia rather than stay with his Bajorian parents. The kid clearly wanted nothing to do with it. The idea of him being forced to go to a home he never knew and wanted nothing to do with? Not the way to go imo.

But on to the shippy squees that I did squee.

Again, how is it possible for people to look at Bashir and Garak interacting together and not scream "GAAAYYYYY!!!"?!?!?

The fact that Bashir knows that Garak talks in code at all means that they're spending more time together than what we see, but the scene where he walks in on a comms to interrupt Siskos call with Dukat? And he just trusts Garak's weird shady cryptic talk? There is no heterosexual reason for that level of subtext.

Garak was super close to Bashir the entire time, almost always in some kind of contact with him, especially in the scene on Bajor. Where I def headcanon them adopting the little Cardassian girl.

Speaking of Bajor, though, the fact that Garak can walk into Bashirs quarters and then Bashir just rolls with it? Enough that he's willing to risk his own job to ask Sisko for a shuttle without any reason besides Garak needs it? This man is wrapped around Garaks finger and it's so wonderfully gay. I love it.

And then the look on Garaks face when Bashir confronts Dukat at the end in the makeshift trial was just a look of pride that his boyfriend had done good with the spy stuff. Inject that shit right into my veins.

7/10, would be an 8 but I really disagree with Sisko's decision